Website Launch!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Can you believe it? The website is finally here. Isn't it pretty!? Many thanks to the fabulous JP Franco for putting many a hard day's night into this little beauty.

Now, you might be wondering, but where are all the snazzy tunes? Take heart my friends. They are a-coming. No one wants this whole process to finally be completed than me.

I've learned through this whole process that these things take a lot more time than anticipated. The website was supposed to be launched in August and the album's release date keeps getting pushed further and furrrrther back. It can be a tad frustrating but I've been assured that this is normal. I want to be able to present to you all something I can be proud of and something that you all will enjoy and want share with your friends.

Here's to sooner than later! :)

Thanks for ya'll's patience, be assured, we're working very hard.

Sitting at @Art Six Coffee enjoying a fall inspired latte and listening to the rain hit the window. What a lovely afternoon.

Awesome friends! I know you all know people- Who can give me the names of some people in the music biz who could write up some press for me?? :) in North Texas and elsewhere??

Check.Check.Testing

Da band

I've been very excited about how things are coming along for this e.p. very. But to be honest, sometimes I start to feel myself get fearful and start worrying about things that needn't be worried about. As those around me keep reminding, just take one step at a time.

I'm very pleased that the first few steps have been as painless as they have been.

photo-shoot (check)

web designer(check)

producer(check)

record e.p.(in-process.)

My next step? The band.

When I first started out on this journey of Nichole Porrata Music, I hadn't really considered a band. I think for one because I had just assumed I would be doing this on my own. I have since I started writing. The recording process was what really revealed to me how much the songs that I had written and currently write, call for a band and how much color and vibrance additional instruments add to these songs. So! This has been my prayer, Lord, bring me the right people.

As I have mentioned before, I am very blessed to be surrounded by a plethora of musicians and many friends involved in the music scene here in North Texas so I am confident that whoever the Lord has in mind will come out of the woodwork. But I still have to cling on to Phil 1:6, the promise that started all of this, that He will finish the work He began and for me this means, He'll bring the right people.

The fear of getting gigs

I remember, after the first couple of days in studio that I started to get really excited about the future and suddenly words like, promo packages, press releases, venues and management began to swarm throughout my collective thought processes. I got so excited after reading up online for a good few hours that I couldn't get to sleep till well past 3am that night. However, what I couldn't shake was my fear of getting gigs. As I wouldn't be operating under management for the first few months, or possibly years of my career, the sole responsibility of getting shows to play would be mainly up to me. That's enough to make anyone freak out a little bit.

This is where surrounding yourself with a support group of musicians that are doing all of this well is so important.

In the various discussions that I have had with local musicians and those who have experience in the biz all of them have said the same thing, " It is not what you do, but who you know." Trenton said something really encouraging the other day when he said that I would have no problem getting gigs because I was so friendly and personable and that networking would come easy. I was a tad skeptical, surely getting shows couldn't be as easy as that? Well! Not completely, but almost.

Again- back to the surrounding yourself with people that are succeeding in their perspective arenas. Very key. I have pretty much piggy-backed off the connections that Seryn(the band I have been recording with and who I consider to be great pals now,) have made. For instance, I went to a show they did the other day at a high-end designer store and by the end of the night had three business cards in my pocket and two future gig possibilities. All because I was there, I was friendly, and I wasn't afraid to plug my music. I also think that being in Texas is a plus, people here are a lot more friendly and networking seems to not be so painstaking.

It's funny though, I know for some that your journey will have to be filled with a lot of intention. You might not live in a thriving music community(which you should consider moving to,) or have musician friends who are successfully maneuvering through the smarmy water, that is the music biz. Honestly, I had been trying to make this work for awhile and it never stuck. But now, the Lord has simply placed all these amazing people in my life and things are easier, though not easy, and i didn't have to go looking for any of it. When it's His timing, it's His timing...and I certainly think it's that time.

The pioneering voyage

It's been a crazy past couple of weeks. A part of me still wants to pinch myself save for the reality of my (good) exhaustion that reminds me that I am, still, in fact awake.

Recording this e.p. and hearing everything that has been in my head for the past couple of years come alive on these tracks has been wonderful. Trenton, my producer, has been more than flexible as we have had a mirage of different musicians regular their establishment. What was originally intended to be a week-long project has quickly turned into three. The end product, I am confident, will be well worth the wait.

To be honest, when Trenton and I began to dialogue about the logistics of the record, specially, when it came to instrumentation, I was a tad scared. He'd ask me to tell him some of my thoughts and all I respond back with were, " Um, I think this song is a lot more country sounding." I was terrified that once we got my vocal and piano tracks laid down and we started out recording additional instrumentation I would be artistically constipated and not have anything to say. To be fair guys, this is where having an extra set of well-trained ears comes in handy. When I was sitting there going, uh...banjo? Trenton was able to say, hey! I think having a guitar solo here would be sweet! Then we're able to play off of each others inspiration and it was suddenly not that hard at all. God is good.