Calling for Backup!

(Pictured: Jonny Yumang singing some backups while I snap a quick photo in my garage. I chose the garage for the extra natural reverb.)

If you are new to the blog, my name is James Hardiment, and I am a singer/songwriter that is about to release a new album called “Rescue Me” in the coming months. I will also be doing a live tour with backing tracks around the local area, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada and the surrounding places. I was heavily inspired by ‘80s and ‘90s dance music from Europe, North America, and South Africa. I was also inspired by old Doo Wop tracks from the 1950s, think to songs like Rama Lama Ding Dong by the Esdels, from that era where people cruised in cars as big as boats around to the drive-in diner, rollerblading waitresses would serve them milkshakes. Think “Grease” type of time period, with John Travolta, and Olivia Newton John. The greasers, nerds, jocks, cheerleaders to name a few of the groups of those days. For some of my covers I require a different voice than my own for the back-up vocals. So I’ve been calling up my friends from the karaoke scene in town to help me out. My friend and performer Jonny Yumang came up to my house in Long Sault and we worked on a song together.

My Rescue Me tour will consist of me playing between 30-40 tracks (mostly originals) with some covers too, my various inspirations in my own music mainly. Most of which are not well know in this market, with a few exceptions, so I’m hoping it will make for a nice change. I see plenty of country, rap, and rock acts in the area, but not too many doing dance music from the 1980s from Europe, and South Africa. I’ve mentioned before my genres include Italo Disco, which came after ‘70s Disco, and before ‘90s house music. I also enjoy South African Bubblegum, Funk, and Synth Boogie styles, all from the 1980’s and ‘90s as well. If you are curious you can always go onto YouTube and take a browse, thats how I discovered it all back in high school.

I’m actually looking for a backup singer live right now, I think I may have found a candidate but if anyone else is interested please feel free to get in touch. I typically perform on weekends, since I work during the week at present. Looking for female at present, but also male eventually as well. If you scroll to the bottom of the home page, you can find all my socials there.

My first event as I’ve mentioned before is July 15th 2023 at the White Knucklerz place at 527 Pitt St. Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. It’s going to be from 12-3pm. Looking forward to it as they are raising money for a sick child called Ewan who has Cystic Fibrosis, trying to buy him his dream toy! I’m so honoured to be able to perform, I hope he enjoys the upbeat sound. I will also be at the Martintown Grist Mill, selling some merchandise (fingers crossed) as well as singing my songs on a stage out front on July 23rd at 10am-3pm (probably not the whole time obviously, there will be a break) check back on my website in the coming weeks for more details.

Remember to like, follow, and share the blog posts with others if you can. I really appreciate everyone, and their support to me as an artist in this awesome community that we have here. Lots of creativity, and love for music, art, and entertainment. Let’s keep it going for the summer ahead!

James

Sabadell Sound

Last year, 2022, I composed a song, part of a larger collection to go onto my upcoming album. The album shall be called ‘Rescue Me’, after the song I released in the Easter of the same year. For those new to the blog, I am a singer/songwriter called James Hardiment, who is based near Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. This track I worked on I decided to call ‘Sounds of Sabadell’.

Sabadell is a town in Spain, where a certain sound was created in dance music, back in the 1980s. Fast synthesizer riffs, lots of melody, and harmony. It was a Spanish branch of the Italo Disco style, which began in Italy, and branched out across mainland Europe. It replaced ‘70s disco, and featured synthesizers, drum machines, with the occasional sax, or guitar. The vocals were usually sung in English, sometimes mixed with other languages too. Artists such as David Lyme (real name Jordi Cubino) pioneered the sound, which dominated the dance music in Spain back then. He tended to sing the verses in English, and then throw in some Italian words for the choruses. Check out songs such as ‘Bambina’, and ‘Bye Bye Mi Amor’ are examples of this. Great songs by the way, and you can find some a pretty cool, lip synced TV performances from back then. There’s an awesome one, on a Japanese television program, that features a whole team of backup dancers, dressed in fun costumes. Jordi is dancing on the stage in an awesome black tuxedo, paired with a white dress shirt and bow tie. I love how classy dance music was back then sometimes, romantic too. Today it’s all rude and crude party songs, or so it seems anyways!

The sound, as I mentioned, has been a big influence on me. I find myself listening to Spanish Italo Disco the most, I love to dance to it. Other artists I should note include, Daydream, Squash Gang, Marce, and some next generation artists which I enjoy, as Italo has made a comeback, include Vincent International, and Stylove. The English is typically sung with a thick accent, which I find adds to the charm, and makes it more European in flavour.

I’ve written a few songs in the style, which have been so much fun, ‘Mistletoe Lady’ a Christmas track, ‘Rescue Me’, and ‘Sounds of Sabadell’. There are a few more in the works too, I look forward to releasing them all soon enough, I want to get the album out by the end of the year, hopefully anyways. ‘Sounds of Sabadell’ is all about dancing in the monsoon rain, wishing I was with the girl of my dreams, dancing together all night in Spain to the sounds of Sabadell.

I shot the music video on a smart phone, my filmmaker friend Jake Adamson helped me record it. Jake is also based in Cornwall. We teamed up with actor, and model Marianne Laver in the video, which features her, and I, strolling along the Rideau Canal together in Ottawa. It was a very fun shoot, so grateful for all the help from my friends. I added a VHS filter to the footage to make it appear like an old music video from the 1980s. Then I had my friend Duncan Fyffe, record a sax solo as well. Very retro, which is what I was going for, and romantic!

The song was mixed and mastered by audio engineer, Josh Hart, who is Ottawa based. If you need a song mixed, or recorded check out his website, to get in touch:

https://www.joshhartrecordings.com

I had such a blast with the project, I just released it to YouTube this evening. Hope everyone enjoys the tune, I’m so happy with how it turned out in the end!

Thanks for reading, that’s all for now!

James

South African Sound Safari

Ever since I heard the Paul Simon album “Graceland”, released in August 1986, I have been obsessed with that South African guitar, and choir singing, famous from the country. Simon teamed up with musicians from the African nation to blend his folky sound with their traditional melodies, and a type of street music know as “mbaqanga”. It was a truly breathtaking album, one in which I honestly enjoy every track, from the super hit “You Can Call Me Al”, to more soothing songs, such as “Diamonds On the Souls of Her Shoes”. Simons voice is very distinctive to the ear, soft, and higher in octave. He is a musical genius, and a masterful lyricist of his time.

Flashforward to 2011/12 and I would discover another songwriting legend, Johnny Clegg, who grew up in South Africa. He would form 2 mixed race bands, Juluka, and Savuka between the 1970s and ‘80s. The mix of races was significant at that point, because during that time period, as the country was divided by race by a system put in place, by the then white government, known as apartheid. A song that really inspired me, was a song called “Great Heart”, it’s a very uplifting tune set in nature. It was featured in the South African film, “Jock of the Bushveld”, based on the novel of the same name. A literary classic in the country from the early 1900s. The story of a Hunter, and his dog called Jock, and their adventures together across the savanna.

2021 rolls around, I knew I wanted to do something with that kind of sound. I could play the chords used on my synthesizer keyboard, to create something that had that South African flavour. However I couldn’t play guitar in an African style. I asked around Cornwall, and Ottawa, if any of my friends could play like that. Unfortunately they would all say no, however that did not deter me. I decided to search Facebook, for South African guitarist groups.

A video would appear on this one page I stumbled onto, where a guitar instructor from Cape Town, South Africa, played some tunes. His finger work was incredible, so fast, and nimble, it was a breathtaking performance. I decided to shoot him a message, to see what would happen. Doesn’t hurt to ask right?

The guitarists name was Shawn Timba, he was thrilled at the opportunity, to collaborate with me on original music. We would send each other sound files over the internet, then I would prepare a rough mix, which I released onto SoundCloud. We also shot a video, he took clips of himself playing his guitar, with Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, behind him. Truly spectacular, caked in clouds, and mist. I had some shots of myself wandering nature, mixed with some vacation shots of Kakabeka Falls, near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. My friend, filmmaker Jake Adamson, shot the video for me in Cornwall, Ontario. (I am a singer/songwriter based near there.)

Shawn Timba has a YouTube channel where he reacts to different genres of music, if you’d like to check it out! Link below:

https://www.facebook.com/ShawnTimbaOfficial?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://shawntimbaofficial.com/

I will be posting the music video onto YouTube soon, in the meantime you can listen to the rough mix on SoundCloud here:

https://on.soundcloud.com/33qa6XhmrsXhwmeLA

That’s all for now folks, sorry I’ve been a bit behind on the articles. Just finished work, so it’s a good time to catch up!

James

Pictured: The single cover art for the song, which I created blending 2 photos together.

Putting on a Live Show

(My name is James Hardiment, I am a British born singer/songwriter based near Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.)

Lately, I’ve been busy putting all my old song lyrics to paper again. I want them all in one place, so I can transfer them to the site, for fans of the music to be able to sing along to. It can be a pretty tiresome process on the wrist, especially when you aren’t used to writing anymore! I usually sit at the bar or cafe to work on it, whether it be Rendevous Restaraunt in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, or Carrots N Dates (a vegan cafe) also in Cornwall downtown, close to the Square Shopping Centre.

Once I successfully transfer the lyrics to the website, I can then proceed to create “Karaoke style” videos, using instrumentals of my originals, to play at my live shows, in case I forget the odd lyrics as a reference. Being a singer/songwriter that mostly works inside the studio, be it at home or professional, I often don’t remember all the lyrics to the songs that I’ve written. This is especially true of my least favourite tracks, I still like them, but I don’t find myself replaying them as much on my iPhone.

I’m gonna try to use PowerDirector for this task, it’s a powerful mobile video editor, developed by a company called Cyberlink. I first picked up a copy of the program for my editing PC back in 2014-15 at my local Staples in Cornwall. It’s a great program, and not nearly as expensive as some of the more known brands. The mobile app works very well, the occasional glitch but it’s very rare. Rendering in HD takes a few seconds sometimes! I remember back in the day (2011) it would take my computer, built for editing, like 24 hours to render something. Times have sure changed…

I purchased a cool looking, green coloured, performance microphone for a music video last Easter. I wanted to do something reminiscent of those old 1980’s lip sync TV performances on a green screen. I drew inspiration from an old German TV show called Eurotops Musikladen, which I found myself watching music videos of on YouTube, as I delved deeper into my ‘80s obsession. I was only thinking at the time of using it as a prop, but now the idea of doing a live show, is looking more and more promising.

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing live shows for various charities in the Cornwall area. I had originally wanted to take my first pop album, “Wine”, and tour the bars around Ottawa back in 2017, when it was completed, however my crazy life would not allow it! All these years later perhaps it’s time to finally take this show on the road…or at least the Seaway Valley area, where I reside now. This community means a lot to me, I love to help my entrepreneurial friends with their various business ideas. I also love to talk and network with the people of this town to brainstorm thoughts to make the place better, or at least try. I’m not a politician, but I love business, specifically marketing and sales. I have skills in music, and videography, which can greatly benefit a company. One thing I find gets the best result is to consistently post onto social media. It’s no guarantee, but if you don’t you certainly won’t grow at all.

Anywho, I’ll keep you guys posted if you follow me on Facebook and Instagram when I have a live show! Links are at the bottom of the website (the home page anyways). If you want to get regular updates on the blog I suggest to follow them too and like. I want to encourage people to share the blog articles too, to grow our audience. It’s a great little way to support someone who creates content, and thankfully it doesn’t cost money (most things seem to these days, just look at the price of everything right now!).

Until tomorrow folks…

James

Pictured: James Hardiment warms up for a song, he can usually be found singing Kareoke at Rendevous Restaraunt, 1213 Pitt St. in Cornwall on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9pm.

A Portable Pocket Studio

My name, for those of you who don’t know, is James Hardiment. I am a singer/songwriter, as well as a filmmaker and actor turned vlogger/blogger. What can I say? I try to keep busy!

I’ve been making music, videos, and writing, since high school in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. My first original song was called “The Nitrogen Cycle”, I created the piece by plugging in my old Casio Keyboard into my old laptop back in 2008. I still remember the machine struggling to keep up with what I wanted to do, and it was a super rough recording compared to what I make now. The vocals were actually recorded with a half decent CAD microphone that my friend, Josh Hart, was using for his own project at the time. The song was for a science class project and that’s pretty much what I spent most of those school years doing, I even have an old album lying around that features 10 of the songs I created back then for various classes.

To create the music videos, I used to use an old Sony Camcorder that used DV tape. The tapes looked like mini VHS tapes that you would have to upload all the footage onto the editing computer using something called a FireWire. (So old school I know, I feel a bit ancient right now!) I originally edited videos with a program called Windows Movie Maker, but would soon upgrade to a more advanced program, Sony Vegas. I found I could do a lot more by upgrading to a more versatile editing suite. Eventually, my friend at the time, Brandon Rainey, would team up with me on certain projects and his camera used SD cards. The switch over from digital tape to SD was such a breakthrough in technology, I’m so glad we don’t use tape anymore it took forever in comparison!

After high school came university, I attended the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Brandon and I would team up to form “Vince Emerson Media”, it was basically my middle name and his with media at the end of it. It began with a couple of comedy skit videos, with various actors we had befriended in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, basically a fancy acting school! They were interesting people to work with, and we had a lot of fun, when people actually showed up to shoots.

After first year came to a close, Brandon and I would split on a 1080p HD Sony Nex VG-10 camera, he also built a custom editing computer PC. We would spend the summer after freshman year, creating a feature film called “Windigo” with a huge team in the Cornwall area. It would eventually get over 1 million views on YouTube! A small portion was also shot in Windsor, once the summer came to a close.

After that, we would work on various projects until he would depart the projects in 2013 to pursue other interests. I decided to focus on my music projects again, since that was what I really wanted to do. 2015 rolls around, and I began to team up with my old high school friend, Josh Hart, to work on original music again. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, I worked on a pop album “Wine” with him that I completed in 2017. It was around that time I started to move away from using computers and laptops to create my music and start using my iPhone SE, which came with a program installed called GarageBand.

I was familiar with GarageBand, it was basically Apple’s base music editing program. I had used it in high school before, but I was more of a PC guy at home for the longest time. Upgrading my phone and discovering that I could now build all my music on my iPhone was a huge breakthrough for me. What truly knocked me off my feet was how smoothly the program would run on such a tiny machine. If someone had told me back in 2008 that I’d be building 30 track pop songs on a phone in 2017, I’d have probably laughed them out of the room, but here we are!

Eventually, I would invest in some more equipment, and today, I am able to plug in my keyboards, as well as my professional Shure SM7B studio microphone, used to record pro vocals. You really don’t need a huge studio anymore to create professional sounding music.

Flash forward to 2021, and I teamed up with Chef Derek Mason, in Cornwall, to create a cooking show YouTube channel called “Melted Mayhem”. I would shoot the videos on my phone, with a rode wireless GO lapel microphone hooked into the device for optimal sound. I downloaded a program called Cyberlink Power Director on my phone, and can edit the episodes with that. I’m so blown away by the jump in technology in my lifetime. My smart phone is my portable pocket studio and it still hurts my head thinking about it!

I am constantly creating now at a faster rate than ever before. I love the internet and I love smart phones for that reason.

Can’t wait to make more, until next time!

James

Pictured: James Hardiment creates music in the Garage Band program on his iPad Mini 4. He purchased that to use with his iPhone SE, as it has a bigger screen for playing instruments, but now just mainly uses the phone for convenience!