POP, RINSE, REPEAT
We just got a review on the music blog Pop Rinse Repeat. Check it out!
http://www.poprinserepeat.com/2012/01/meet-blue-heart-hour.html?m=1
Meet Blue Heart Hour
I think the first thing you notice about Blue Heart Hour (aka Jessie F) is her voice. It’s lush, it’s vivid and it’s expressive. In a vast sea of Electro-Pop artists ranging from Little Boots, Pixie Lott, La Roux and Ellie Goulding, Blue Heart Hour has what it takes to stand up beside them and give them a run for their money. For me, she’s a local girl residing in Nashville after bouncing across the globe and that makes me even more enamored with her because of how expansive her sound can be.
Her command over the elements that make up her sound are precise and decisive and she knows exactly what needs to be done to make her equipment hum and whir in the best possible. Her lyrics are catchy and poppy and the songs are perfectly matched with all the content. Her layering of tracks is impressive and you never get bored while listening to them. You can hear the global influence in her tracks with a bit of down and dirty Drum & Bass from the European clubs mixed with more progressive house beats from New York or LA. She currently has 3 tracks available on her Facebook and her ReverbNation page. I need more from her because my whistle has been whetted.
If you are a fan of solid electropop and super strong female leads then you are going to definitely fall in love with Blue Heart Hour. Support the Indie Artists because they are going to give you 150% of their all.
The End
We got a new show coming up Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at The End
With Nite Nite, The Vicious Guns, and touring artist Roniit. All electro-pop, all night long!
Show starts at 9 pm, $7
FEATURE IN THE DBL STANDARD MAGAZINE
Check out this article about us in The DBL Standard Magazine!
http://www.thedblstandard.com/articles/masterpiece-nashville/91/
L’heure du Coeur Bleu
The paint splatters of Jessie Friedman’s childhood have painted an abstract yet emotionally charged masterpiece. This product of the eighties and nineties has been layered, stripped and re-layered by decades of music predating her birth. Her expressions fluidly flow from her as if she is not even in control of the music being extracted from her brain. She seems complex and intense as well as free and content. If you had an hour you would experience the blue aura that surrounds this cathartic heart.
You have lived in many different countries. Tell me which ones, why and which was your favorite.
I’ve lived in France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, and Luxembourg. My favorites are France and Switzerland. France because I love the culture, the beauty, the attitude, and Switzerland because it’s truly peaceful and safe, and there’s tons of chocolate, no joke. As for why I’ve lived in all those places, it’s because of my mother. She was a painter and fell in love with Europe as a teenager. She made it so she could live in alignment with her love of art.
What was the best thing about growing up in New York?
The rich culture. I went to school with people from all over the world (notably from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East), and from every religion.
I was also obsessed with the Beat Poets, and the Punk movement, and it was great to feel connected to where it all started. I mean, I lived in the Chelsea hotel where Sid killed Nancy.
Do you speak any other languages?
I speak French fluently. I used to know Spanish when I was eight, but didn’t keep it up.
Why did you choose to move to Nashville and when?
I moved to Nashville after graduating college. I came here to pursue songwriting, and love. Both have worked out pretty well.
How did you get started in music and what instruments do you play?
Nobody in my family played music, so the thought didn’t occur to me until I was a teenager. The school I went to had really boring music class, where they made us learn how to read musical notation, but without playing an instrument, it was really meaningless. Anyway, one day we got a really good assignment, where we had to listen to Mozart symphonies and write about them.
That night as I fell asleep, I made up variations of the symphony in my mind, improvising, and taking it to new places. I was like, holy crap, I can’t believe I’m making this up, and I can hear all the instruments in my head! So the idea of picking up music kinda came to me then, but we were moving around too much to take lessons.
This whole Mozart experience was unusual, ‘cause I really didn’t like classical music that much. I was more into Nirvana and Hole, and stuff like that. I went through a period of being a really depressed teenager, and music was the only thing I connected to. I begged my mom to buy me an electric guitar, and we lugged that thing and an amp all over the place. It was really ridiculous.
The funny thing is, I just connected with a whole side of my family that I never knew, and they’re all musicians.
Where did your band name, Blue Heart Hour, come from?
Me and two friends were trying to come up with a band name for one of them, and we each wrote random words in three columns on a piece of paper, and we took turns saying a word out loud to form different combinations. At one point we said ‘blue, heart, hour’, and that really struck me. The other notable name that night was ‘captain fire face’.
In the end, my friend didn’t get a band name from that experience, but I did.
What is your goal as an artist?
To get out of the way of the music, and let it speak through me. I want to write things that are cathartic, that help people, ‘cause music has saved my life. Sometimes that means writing an angry, hurt song, sometimes that means writing a hopeful song. I just want to be real.
If you could live anywhere that you have not, where would that be?
I’ve been obsessed with Japan since I was 10 years old. I would love to live in a small traditional Japanese village for a bit. I know I wouldn’t want to stay there forever, though. Eventually, I’d want to live somewhere near the ocean, where there are pine trees, and close to all my friends and family. I’m not sure if this place exists yet.
How would your close friends describe you?
They think I’m awesome. I don’t know what’s wrong with them.
How would you describe your music?
In short, electro-pop. I love hard-hitting, distorted drums like NiN, I love 80′s synth sounds on Depeche Mode records, I love dance songs from Madonna and I love meaningful lyrics. My sound is a combination of all those things. Or as my friend Bobby Holland says, Blue Heart Hour sounds like a pissed-off Imogen Heap.
If there was a movie about your life, what actress would play you?
I really love Natalie Portman. She’s got a face that just speaks volumes without saying a word.
As the euro trance envelopes the dark side of the 80′s and I can see the ‘x’ bars of old packed with solidarity dancers lost within themselves and the music. BHH is draped in all black offering a mental escape with airy vocals, edgy depth of electro-beats and rhythms, as it dodges and burns with honest lyrics. This is as timeless as The Cure, innovative as Venus Hum.
LIPSTICK LOUNGE- Sept 30th
New show announced for Sept 30th at the Lipstick Lounge, East Nashville.
We’ll be opening for Thelma and the Sleaze and The Worsties!
SUCCESS!
We have lift off! Thanks for everyone who backed my kickstarter project!
I am so excited to finish this EP, and deliver all the goodies promised.
KICKSTARTER FINAL DAY
hey, so the dream of a first EP is almost a reality. We got until Friday evening to meet the final fundraising goal.
Visit this link to help with the final effort!
FEATURE IN NOOMIZO
This is an article that appeared on the online blog Noomizo.
Once upon a time, there was a young American woman possessed with fear … so she flew as far away as her imagination and trust fund would take her. On a lonely Greek island, she met a man who caught her fancy, so they decided to rendezvous in Paris, where he captured her heart. When she realized that she would bear the fruit of their romance in the city of love, she stole away to an obscure town in the heart of France to nurture and protect her princess from all the evil lurking outside her domestic fortress.
As the damsel grew, the walls that kept evil outside, suppressed emotions inside, and young Jessie Friedman escaped to her books, pouring out her heart onto page after page, day after day. During the first ten years of her life, this daughter of an eccentric painter moved to Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Los Angeles, Miami, and back to France. Each entry into another school placed her at the mercy of grade school tyrants, and she disappeared deeper and deeper into her poetry and writing. All those years, her father was somewhere out there in the world and didn’t even know she existed.
The French artist, Odilon Redon once stated, “While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality… true art lies in a reality that is felt.” For Jessie, her feelings were processed through her art and her art was shaped by her journey.
Her teenage years took her to New York, where she lived mostly in hotels, among them the infamous Chelsea Hotel, and at the age of 15, her artistic expression expanded to music. She first fell in love with Mozart, then was infatuated with Nirvana, and picked up the guitar at age 16. The social smothering of Mademoiselle Friedman by her anxious mother increased her loneliness, and now the words in her life were joined by notes and filled her life with beauty and ecstasy that she had never known before.
The French artist, Henri Matisse believed, “In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed.” The more Jessie’s mom controlled and suppressed her, the deeper music was burned into her soul, and the higher her spirit soared in the air of art, until one day she packed up her belongings and left for Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
After her mother died, Jessie searched for her long lost father, and sent him a letter to let him know that he had another daughter in the world … then waited the longest two months of her life. Finally, a skeptical brother called, and after DNA testing and some time, her father walked off a plane in Nashville and into his daughter’s arms.
During the past two years, Jessie has increased her live performances, calling herself, “Blue Heart Hour”, and began recording her first solo EP. She describes herself as, “An American-French electro-pop artist, with music that’s at times dark and raucous, at times angelic and vulnerable, and always teetering on a ragged edge between Nine Inch Nails and La Roux.” When describing her music, she explains, “A lot of my songs are about releasing oneself from the shackles of the past, especially ‘Let me Out’ ”. “I’m all about great lyrics and a great story. I’m taking something that can stand on its own with a guitar, and arranging it in new ways with all different kinds of sounds, weaving it into a sonic landscape. In the end, it’s still rock music, but with a twist.” She also loves to sing vintage French songs, like those of Edith Piaf, and plans to incorporate these in her future repertoire.
Another amazing French artist, Pierre Auguste Renoir, learned a valuable life lesson that Jessie believes is true and daily chooses to live:
“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
This is the picture of Jessie’s life and the story of her songs. An hour after listening and learning the scarytail of this multitalented artist, I received this text from her that summed up everything that’s important to know about Blue Heart Hour:
“Art helps us see the larger story of who we are and what we are doing. It’s a window into the human heart. And for that reason, it’s not a luxury, but a necessity. Without a heart, there’s no will and no reason to live. Art and music saved my life. It showed me the way to my heart when all other roads were burned. I couldn’t connect with people, but I could hear a song, I could read a book, I could see a picture that reminded me of who I was and why I was here. All I want to do is follow that road and forever dwell in that place.”
REASON TUTORIAL
Here is a little video about the process of making drum sounds for my EP, using Reason 5 on the Mac.
For those who want to play with some samples, here is a download link to the Reason file and Wave files:
Download Samples
KICKSTARTER!
Hey Friends,
I am really excited to announce the upcoming release of my first EP!
All the songs are done, and we are almost finished with the final
touches.
There is just one more thing that needs to happen before I can release
it: It’s time to raise the money to finish the process. To do this, I
have created a Kickstarter page.
Kickstarter is a website where creators, (designers, filmakers, visual
artists, musicians, etc) can raise funds for a specific project with
the help of their communities, friends, families, and networks. Each
person who donates gets something in return, along with the good
feeling that they’re helping to create something together.
Every little bit helps, so after you check out the site, watch the 3
min video and take a look at the different offerings for each
donation. Here is the link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jessiefriedman/blue-heart-hour-makes-an-ep
Please forward this email to friends and spread the word! Every little
bit helps.
-Jessie F
PS>>The Kickstarter page also has links so you can “like” it, and “tweet” it.
I’m counting on you!
Sharone Digitale Release
Hey,
I’m so excited to be playing with my girl Sharone Digitale. Her CD release party is gona be awesome!
Check out the FB event here