“Tell My Darling” and the next chapter

When I set out on this journey to release 52 songs in 52 weeks, I knew it was going to be hard work and a learning curve, but I also expected that it would be quite rewarding experience. It turns out the hard work part has turned into something I just do and enjoy and along the way I have learned so much. Just to be able to churn out a meaningful song over and over again has forced me to look and observe the world around me in a completely different way. I had to dig deep within me, visit old wounds that I had either forgotten about, or buried deep somewhere in that pile of stuff at the back corner of the attic in my brain.

Now I thought Launching a new album would be scary, as many of my songs are personal as much as an observation of the world around me. I thought I’d be worried the day before it comes out, but it turns out by the time it gets to that point I am just dying to hear what people think of it.

Today my third album “Tell My Darling” is out and available from my website, iTunes, Amazon and all the usual online shops. at the same time I am working on the fourth album. As crazy as it seems, this is a great feeling 🙂 But I realised my biggest fears and self doubts about the songs show up actually in the recording process. I listen to the song, I know deep inside of me the song is ready, but I keep on putting off sending it to the mastering (this is the last point in my process, after the song is sent to mastering I move on to the next song). I listen to it over and over again, tempted to add layers, or tweak the effects, but I know if I go too far, I just end up polishing all the emotion out of the song.

Very early on in this journey I realised I had no desire to sound like so many other “produced to perfection” artists out there. That is not what I am about. That is not the kind of music that touches me, so why would I try to recreate it? I want you to hear the fingers touching my guitar strings, I want you to feel like you are in the room with me, I want you to hear the hesitation in my voice, I want to paint you a picture, tell you a story. This is what “Northern Boy” and “Read Between The Lines” were all about and that is what “Tell My Darling” very much is about. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it, and don’t forget Friday there will be the first instalment of the next set of songs up on my blog 🙂

Thank you for sharing this journey with me this far and if you’d like to get a copy of my new album, you can do so HERE

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get two of his free songs go HERE and click Download