Continuing the ‘Rescue Me’ album, set for release later this summer, I, singer/songwriter James Hardiment, teamed up with live performance artist Jonny Yumang, and filmmaker Jake Adamson to work on a new music video. This time, I would again continue with my upbeat, retro, Spanish Italo Disco, dance music style, which was popular in mainland Europe in the 1980s, especially at nightclubs. That style has been the primary inspiration of the project. The 3 of us filmed our parts on a green screen, which I had set up in my garage at home. I am based in a small town outside of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, called Long Sault (Pronounced Soo) for those reading from the various parts of the globe.
I love the fast synthesizer riffs which were typical of the genre, and the catchy melodies. I would sing the choruses in Spanish, and the verses in English. I love to blend languages in my songs, something many Italo artist would do as well back in the day. Artists such as David Lyme (Jordi Cubino) would sing his verses in English, chorus in Italian. The style originated in Italy, and despite being a Spanish artist, my guess was that he wanted to pay tribute to the country where it all came from. Not sure on that just my theory of course! He was also an opera singer to begin with, who discovered the style by accident, which might have been the reason as well.
The song is called ‘Señorita Por Favor’ and is all about falling in love with a dangerous woman, sort of a tongue in cheek, cartoonish melody. It has a bubblegum pop feel to it during the English verses. My dream girl rides a motorcycle, drives a powerboat on the river, and has a cute little pug that comes with her on her badass adventures. I find the Spanish language so romantic, and fun to sing in! The chorus basically asks a lady if she wants to join my gang of love, a very upbeat, and positive message. If everyone loved each other, things would be a lot better than constantly fighting, but that’s probably too much to ask.
I wanted to make a track that could make you get up and dance to, and I think I succeeded with that part at least. Dance music is one of my favourites, amongst other styles, including rock, pop, RnB, South African synth funk, and boogie. My album explores many different musical genres, but the constant theme throughout is that Spanish Italo Disco sound that I love.
Jonny Yumang is a Cornwall local legend when it comes to singers in town, especially, lately for the present karaoke sets across the city. He can be found often at Glengarry Pub, Rendezvous Restaurant, and Daffodil to name some of the venues in the town that offer karaoke nights. We often perform songs together at Rendezvous especially, sort of my home base. I’m there Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays typically, but Jonny has to work some of those nights. You might as well follow his Facebook page to know, or ask me since we are friends. Rendezvous is at 1213 Pitt St. Cornwall, Ontario. Jonny used to be an Elvis impersonator as well, and has an old costume lying around in an old cupboard somewhere. Lately he has been working another job, outside of music, like many of us have to pay the bills!
Pictured: Jonny Yumang on the keyboards! Fun times for sure.
As I mentioned earlier, I had the guys position on the green screen separately, as it wasn’t big enough for all of us to be in the same shot. There was a bit of room, but it was a bit of a squeeze for Jake with the drum pads on stands to hit to the beat of the track. I shot all the video with my iPhone SE built in camera, then edited the clips together using a powerful video editor app called Cyberlink PowerDirector. I love the cheesy, retro transitions I could throw together, similar to what you would have seen on a TV show in the ‘80s, which is what I was going for. I also ran the final edit through a VHS filter app, it creates a tape look to the footage, complete with distortion, and that analog fuzz you would have seen.
I’ve released the song to YouTube so far, thanks for everyone and their support, liking, commenting, and sharing. Every little helps an artist trying to get his, her, of their name out there. Check it out below!
That’s all for todays blog post I think, I’m excited for the stuff coming together this summer, it’s gonna be a record heatwave, hopefully I can sell some records as well! Feel free to explore my website too, there’s lots to read about, and I try to keep things local too, not always though.
Follow Jonny Yumang on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RockinKing/
James