SONGWRITER GUY: I watched all your youtube videos and I really like your voice… I think you have the perfect voice for these songs.
ME: Oh!! Thank you!!
SONGWRITER GUY: I see you like Michael Jackson…
ME: *dreamy sigh* ..Yes…… Michael Jackson is my heart.
SONGWRITER GUY: *awkward pause* ……. OH.. umm…. haha.. ok..?

SMH Here I am in my first professional exchange and I let my dang fangirl out the box. I gotta learn to keep that in check… clearly “yes” would have sufficed.. but noooooo… “Michael Jackson is my heart” was my dreamy reply. *face palm*

But dammit!! I can’t help it. LOOK AT HEEM!

BLOGGING MERITA: My First Tattoo

Today I got my first tattoo… and I got it in honor of Michael Jackson on his 54th birthday.
I decided on a Michael tattoo a few years ago, but decided to wait to see if it’s something I wanted still in a year. I waited and I’m glad I did.. because… originally I was going to get the HIStory logo… but  3 or 4 months ago I decided on this… the word LOVE… in Michael’s own handwriting. LOVE what he felt towards us… LOVE what we feel towards him… LOVE the part of Michael that will live on forever.
In keeping with the theme of LOVE.. I  chose to get it on my left wrist over the vein that leads right to my heart… The vein of LOVE.
I’m so happy with my tattoo choice, and I just wanted to share it with all of you :)

Peace, LOVE & Oatmeal
Merita

Happy Birthday Michael.

So for those of you who don’t already know, I’m working on an EP (Violet Sky) and I’m in the first stages of it. The song writing process. I’m excited to say that as of last night, I’m only half a song away from being done with the writing bit! After I write the other half of this last song, I’ll be done. This is a big deal for me as I tend to start writing things (usually books) and abandon them, either from lack of focus or confidence.  But this time I’m almost done. Next up is getting the remaining 8 demos (I’ve already recorded 2) recorded and ready to hand off to my brother (who’s acting as producer for Violet Sky). 

I’m pretty happy with the songs I’ve come up with and I hope you will enjoy them when I finally get to share them. I look forward to honest feedback so I can learn and grow as a potential artist. Thank you to all of you who have been re-blogging and re-tweeting my covers and things.. I really appreciate you.

Anyway, I just thought I’d let you guys know!! Project is coming along nicely and it won’t be long before I’m getting the studio versions done!

Shout-out to the few that call themselves #TeamAppleHead, I love you special :)

Peace, Luv & Oatmeal
Merita

Follow me on twitter » @MeritaApplehead

This tumblr is largely to support my own musical interest, inspirations and pursuits, but as you can also tell, I support an artist called Austin Brown 100%.  He’s a nice guy with an amazing talent and I hope to see him do big things.

One of my favorite things to do lately, is to have guys listen to Austin. Though Austin has all the girls wrapped around his finger, I’m always curious as to if he’s a man’s artist or destined to be trapped as a pretty thing for girls to swoon over. While he’d have some success as the new swoon guy, real success comes with being able to reach the women as well as the men listeners. Is Austin just for the ladies or can a man have Austin on his iPod without having to defend his masculinity?

My test subject is usually my brother Greg, I remember back when “Target Practice” was released, I fell for it instantly. I loved all the horns and even learned to play it on the drums. But I’m a girl, I suspect that I can be fooled just like the others by his charming smile. So I needed to test it against a guy. So first chance I got, I played “Target Practice” for my brother Greg. He hated it. He waved Austin off saying, “I’m just not impressed with him.”

Now it’s been months since I’ve had a chance to sit with my brother and force new music upon him, but our brother Jason got married this past Saturday. His wedding was in Selma, AL which meant something like a two hour car ride with my brother Greg to get there. On the way to Selma I played some some demos of mine intended to go on my EP Violet Sky… but on the way back… I played every single Music Monday release from Austin Brown. 

Male Test Subject: Greg responded well to the new Austin Brown music! He made me skip “Target Practice” but most of everything else he loved. It was so awesome when “Stargazer” started up and he made the connection of hearing it earlier that day… “HEY THAT’S YOUR RINGTONE!!!” He said as he continued to enjoy the song. When “What Did I Lose To Love You” played, he said that the song showed how well Austin could sing. The compliments just kept coming, some songs he called fun others he just really enjoyed the groove of. He particularly liked “Groove 92,” that one he requested me to start over three times. Overall my brother seemed surprisingly pleased with Austin’s music, only two songs were referred to “eh that was alright” and the rest he really seemed to dig. He in fact said that he’d indeed purchase the album (Highway 85) when it came out. This from a guy who I have a hard time impressing with new artist I’m interested in… I’m not even allowed to play a certain Norwegian rapper in his presence. *cough*

So, based on my brother, and a few other male family members who I’ve had listen to Austin Brown’s music, Austin is indeed an artist a guy can proudly put on his iPod.  Maybe Austin already knew that, maybe he doesn’t give a flying fart, but I think it’s good to know.  And now you know.

Austin on TWITTER
Become a BackPackKid at AustinBrown.com

BLOGGING MERITA: Inspiration

YOU are a sumtotal of your life’s experiences and memories… and I think that exact definition applies to who you develop into as an artist. You are not only your life’s memories and experiences, but as you go through life listening to music, watching performances.. you take part of that with you. You learn from them, you’re inspired by their careers/talents/life stories… you collect things from them whether you realize it or not. And if I had to pinpoint who my biggest inspirations were, the four artist/groups that come to mind are Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Hanson and MIKA.

Michael is your total learning experience: Love, imagination, hard work, quality and persistence. I’ve learned to be about something bigger than myself and I think that’s the only way to be truly successful.

Backstreet Boys are a group I fell in love with when i was teenager. I used to listen to their albums while I did the dishes, I sang along, learning every ooh, ahh and adlib. It wasn’t til I was singing along with the Backstreet Boys as a teenager that i even realized that I could sing… or perhaps it’s mimicking their voices daily that taught me HOW to sing in the first place.

Hanson, often discounted because they once upon a time, between the ages of 10 & 16 wrote a song called MMMBop. I don’t get that, I’m inspired by MMMBop, what other group of children do you know that not only can write a hit record, but one that becomes a staple in pop culture? Not even Jackson 5 were writing MMMBops back in the day.

MIKA is just an amazing singer/songwriter. I’ve learned to have fun w/ my voice from him… to venture fun little places I may never have considered before. It’s still a learning process.. but I thought it was worth mentioning.

So, for starters, for those of you who don’t know, I’m in the process of putting together an EP. I don’t have any kind of record deal or anything, this is just an independent project I decided to take on. The EP is to be called “Violet Sky” and I’m aiming for it to have seven songs. There’s no release date just yet because I’m still very much so in the writing process and I don’t want to force the music, I want to just let it happen. But as soon as I get to the recording process, I’ll start having more concrete details as to when you can expect it to be released and I’ll probably release a free single before the entire EP to give you guys a taste of what’s to come.

As for the writing process, it’s been a bit of a challenge. I have the tendency to abandon stories or songs I’m working on, so it’s really taking some trying to focus. So far I’ve got about 4 songs done and 8 that need endings. I’m really excited to share with you guys, and I hope it’s all received well.

Anyway. That’s what’s up with VIOLET SKY… be sure you follow me on twitter @MeritaAppleHead for more updates.
And if you want to check out my vocals, you can do so by clicking HERE.

Oh and there’s a partial song I already uploaded to my youtube a while back called “Come on Let’s Go” that I’ll probably finish up for VIOLET SKY.. if you want to here that.. CLICK HERE!

I appreciate those of you who are keeping up with my pursuit of music and I thank you for your kind words and support. Especially those of you who call yourselves TEAM APPLEHEAD… friggin’ dope.
 
Peace, Luv & Oatmeal
Merita

When I was growing up, Nick@Nite used to air a show called TAXI… and on the show was a character called “Latka Gravas”.. this was my first exposure to Andy Kaufman. I liked Andy as a kid… I liked him as a teen and I still like him today. Funny thing is… I’ve never even understood WHY I like him. He didn’t fit into the boxes the other comedians fit in. He was quite off beat, but yet appealed to me.

I’m not an obsessed fan, I don’t know his birthday, I haven’t seen every bit of footage there is, I just tend to like what i HAVE seen. But today, I was watching a video of Andy on Letterman… and… I think I just realized why I’ve always liked Andy! It’s because his humor is a very extreme version of my own. Or maybe it’s more proper to say, I’m a watered down version of Andy. LoL. I remember a decade ago when I graduated high school, one of my teachers commented on my humor.. that lots of people didn’t get it and I might have a harder time making new friends because of it. I didn’t quite get it then, but I so get it now. Turns out there’s a lot of people who get my humor… but when along comes the person who doesn’t get me or my humor… it’s all kinds of awkward.

Maybe more people get people like me because of Andy though. Or maybe it’s because I’m not nearly as extreme as he was. LoL. Either way. Twas a fun realization, thought I’d share :)

One of the things I adore most about a song, is well arranged harmonies. Harmonies are why my favorite artist, aside from the King Shit Michael Jackson, are groups. The dream is to be standing in the middle of one of my favorite groups and have them sing some dreamy harmony. It’d be real life surround sound featuring, Backstreet Boys or Hanson. And it’d be heaven.

That being said, I’m also currently trying to teach myself to sing harmony, via layering myself on GarageBand. How’s that going? STRUGGLY.

The way I learned to sing was by duplicating the vocals of the Backstreet Boys. And while that lends me the ability to do a pretty decent impression of them, it seems to hinder my attempts at harmonizing. The first layer is a breeze, that I can handle. But come the next layer, and any layer following, I find that I’m just singing in the exact same tone. That’s definitely not what I’m going for. I’m hoping with more practice I’ll be able to match the right tones and pitches instead of just duplicating the original. But as for now, you can imagine. It’s hella frustrating.

(Listen to my most successful harmonizing venture HERE)

Anyway, I just thought I’d share that little nugget with you all. For those of you actually following me to keep up with my singing/song writing and occasional raps. And for those of you who haven’t checked out my singing, please be sure you do so! I appreciate any and all feed back. And if you find something you like, please re-blog it, share it on facebook and twitter! The more feedback the better!

Peace, Luv & Oatmeal
Merita

Follow me on TWITTER
Click MERITA MUSIC to hear me sing!

I’m trying to be more focused and create more music.. songs that I actually finish. And what’s sucking is not having a lot of tools at my disposal to get things done properly. But you know, I’ve found the silver lining on that dark cloud… Not having anything but my MacBook, my guitar and an out of tune piano to work with is forcing me to come up with clever ways to create interesting sounds. I guess it forces me to be semi-old school in my creating process, forcing me to really use my imagination. So cheers to imagination and here’s wishing me luck in my venture for interesting sounds to layer into a hopeful masterpiece.

Peace, Luv & Oatmeal
Merita