How do you know when a recording project is finished?

When you listen to the final mix and a perma-smile creeps over your face from the feeling of "nailed-it."

It took one whole year from conception, to editing, to recording, to mixing and now mastering the 4 songs that have been like companions to me. I am so excited to say that what I am hearing in the final mixes is like a 3-D version of what ran through my mind when I heard them running through my head early in December of 2016.

Recently Little Kids Rock received a donation in honour of all of the Indiegogo Contributors that helped us reach our $8000 goal!

They responded with the loveliest note of thanks:

Dear Sharon, 

Thank you so much for your generous $378.45 donation to Little Kids Rock on 10/10/2017 in honor of Indiegogo Campaign Supporters of Sharon Paquette 4-Song EP. Your donation will help us enrich the lives of disadvantaged children across the nation by bringing free instruments and music education into their schools! Every time our students pick up these instruments to play, Indiegogo Campaign Supporters of Sharon will be honored. 

Little Kids Rock has given the gift of music to more than 650,000 children and is currently serving more than 320,000 students in some of the most under-served public school districts in the U.S. With this gift, some more kids will get their chance to rock out! 

You are helping transform the lives of low-income children by restoring and revitalizing music education in their public schools! 

We are very grateful to count you as a big friend to our little rock stars! We hope you enjoy this video that shows what you are helping us make possible (click on the image or link below to view the video on YouTube). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPQ4Xc2TCGs 

Thank you for helping us put music back where it belongs…in our schools! 

Your Fans, 
The Little Kids Rock Teachers, Students, Board & Staff 

Little Kids Rock 
www.littlekidsrock.org 
(973)746-8248 

Little Kids Rock is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Tax ID #94-3396568). Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

The new EP, now being called "No Rules" in honour of Stevie Nicks and the inspiration she spurred me on with (read that story in a previous blog post) are in the hands of the mastering engineer and will be ready to be printed on to CD as of December 11th! 

Thank you again for joining me on this journey of creating new music. I would not be so close to seeing this vision come to life without all of your support through donations, pre-orders and in spirit! 

I am so proud of what we created and I could not have done it without the support of my campaign backers and the hard working dedication of the team of instrumentalists and engineers that worked long hard hours to meticulously cover every detail in each song. 

Pre-Order the EP here if you haven't had a chance to and receive my gratefulness for your generous support of a DIY musician. 

Warmest regards, 

Sharon

Support + Validation + Community + Excitement + Fun + Fulfillment + Knowledge that Success is Possible + Connection with Others + A Fulfilling Walk in My Own Shoes + Confirmation that Fans Support the Arts + Purpose + Sharing + Encouragement + Leadership 

These are some of the feelings that I wrote down as intentions for this crowdfunding campaign. 

With 16 days left to fund my first professionally recorded EP in 10 years I am in awe with gratefulness for the support that I have received thus far and so glad I decided to open myself up to this experience. As you may imagine it has not been an emotionally easy task. It’s been a journey of ups-and-downs that have taught me about the power of community and connection. 

I have a big vision for my work as an artist that involves the belief: We all have a built-in system for processing emotion, we don’t use it because we’re afraid of making ugly noises. The voice is a place where we hold emotion—we get “choked up” when we are very upset—it is also a place for releasing stuck emotion and has the power to help us grow and move on. 

The songs I created for this EP were born out of moments exactly like the one I described above and I believe that if I convey those emotions in the most precise way possible through the art of songwriting that true connection can be made. My goal is to encourage connection to others through sharing my work and connections for others with themselves by the hearing of the work. 

This campaign has surprised me by teaching me the value of asking and receiving. 33 people have helped us reach almost half of our goal!! Those 33 people are now a part of this big vision, the creation of these songs, and this movement to encourage others to connect with emotion. When I began this campaign, I had the naïve idea that it was just about me and my songs and I was inviting people to help. Now, at the halfway point of this campaign, I am beginning to understand that every person who has contributed in whichever way they deemed possible (through contributing financially or through sharing with their friends) is a part of the lifeblood of these songs. I look forward to sharing every success and milestone that this project will achieve along the way with all our contributors and I also look forward to continuing to build a community based on these connections that I have made here with you. 

Know that you have all added to my life and to this project in an impactful way through your kind words of support and cheerleading. 

Please join us in these final 16 days to take these songs to the finish line by clicking here igg.me/at/sharonpaquette. There is much to be done as they go through the mixing and mastering process and they are prepared for broadcast quality, we look to create videos for them, and even submit one or two to the GRAMMY board next Spring (more on this to come in another update.) 

Be a part of this project too! 

Gratefully, 

Sharon

Hello everyone! 

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated you and there’s been a lot going on around here! 

With the confidence of your support behind me, on August 13, I flew to Nashville and recorded the 4 songs!  The musicians and studio were paid, and although I won’t receive your funds until the end of the campaign, we have chosen to move forward on the momentum we’re building together with you! 

The next step is for Engineer and Co-Producer Kenny Varga to get his hands dirty along with Shane Adams to mix the parts we recorded into 4 cohesive songs that reflect what I created in my “scratch tracks.” Over the next two weeks we will have many conversations about the minutia of the colour of the sounds and arrangements of parts until we have crafted our final product. I am so honoured to have such talent working alongside me on this project. 

At 30% we have a long way to go to reach our goal in the next 23 days! When the recording process is completed we will need to print the CD’s and distribute them and of course we’re also raising money for Little Kids Rock to help ensure that the next generation receives music education! 

Please share this link igg.me/at/sharonpaquette on your social media one more time and remind possible supporters who may have been too busy to visit the campaign the first time around. We need your help to get the word out, it will take a crowd to get this funded! I know we can do this!

Thank you so much for all your love. 

Gratefully, 

Sharon

Come on into the studio with me...​ 

The EP is sounding incredible already! As of now we're getting an India Arie meets U2 vibe. That makes my heart happy.

Here are some snippets of Day 1 & 2. It's so amazing to hear real live players on music that I created using my keyboard and Logic Pro to lay down ideas for parts. I'm so honored to be working with these musical geniuses. 

Meet the band: Thank you for your hard work Tim Denbo, William Ellis, Corey Congilio, Kenny Varga and Shane Adams 

Pre-Order the NEW EP here if you haven't had a chance to yet! (igg.me/at/sharonpaquette) OR support this project by sharing this post!! 

I am forever grateful for all of your support.

Enjoy! https://youtu.be/CaYiKLOl0wo

Sharon 

I’ve arrived in Nashville to record the EP!!! 

It was an emotional and eventful day. I headed to the airport feeling the support and love of this wonderful growing team of backers. 

While I waited for my flight to board I received the news of what took place in Charlottesville. I sat with the confusion of sadness, concern and the previously present joy all existing like a game of poker players in my heart taking turns playing their cards. 

It’s all so intense and unbelievable. How can so much light and love exist in the presence of so much dark. I once again felt the conviction that artists are being called to the table now more than ever to help process, express, and soothe this intensity of emotion leading to violence. 

I’ve decided that I will donate at least 5% of the contributions to this campaign. After much thought, I’ve chosen “Little Kids Rock,” a U.S. national nonprofit that is dedicated to building a world where kids can live rich, purposeful lives by ensuring that all public school children have the opportunity to unlock their inner music makers. www.littlekidsrock.org

I know who this group is from my previous job as a managing editor at MMR Magazine and School Band and Orchestra. They are providing music education to students who otherwise would have no opportunity, no joy of performing music, and possibly no access to expressing emotions in a healthy manner. I believe humans need to learn these skills as soon as possible in life. 

I’d love to hear your comments. 

Pass on the link (igg.me/at/sharonpaquette), Pre-Order the EP and let your people know that you are supporting an artist to make her dreams a reality as well as children who deserve the opportunity to learn music regardless of social status. 

With love, 

Sharon

            “To love someone is to listen to the song in their heart and sing it back to them when they have forgotten it.” 

                                                       Arne Gorborg 

This is what Stevie Nicks did for me early in 2015. 

My husband has been on tour with Fleetwood Mac for about three years now as their Lighting Director.  We had arranged a visit with each other in my older brother’s hometown where our little ones could play and the adults could come together for a long overdue family visit. My loving man--fully aware and always supportive of my passion for songwriting, songwriters, lyrics, lyricists and all things mystical and wild--had arranged a private meet-and-greet for me with the divine Ms. Stevie Nicks. 

I entered the inviting, silk-draped lair that is her dressing room to find her surrounded by loving friends and her adorable little dogs. We spoke as the gold dust beauty prepared to head out on stage for a performance with Fleetwood Mac in the 21, 000 seat home to the Montreal Canadiens, the Bell Center. 

She greeted me casually and warmly and made it very comfortable for me to get “real” with her immediately. I asked her about her songwriting process, her dogs and her why. What was the reason she continued to create? I told her about my experiences as a singer-songwriter and a music teacher and my hiatus from it all as a Stay-At-Home Mom. I explained how each profession had brought me artistic satisfaction in different ways but that I was never quite sure of my why. Why, do we as artists, spend so much of our time and resources pursuing this nagging voice inside? 

We spoke of our many artistic pursuits. Stevie’s face lit up as she told me about her dogs, her eyes became bright with enthusiasm telling me a story about the artist who created her hand-crafted boots for the stage.  We discussed a beautiful doll she acquired that holds her jewelry and the little shop she had purchased it from. We talked about the long hiatus she had taken in her pursuit of health and recovery and the emotional emptiness she experienced when the creativity was gone. She told me about her love of writing prose and her conscious decision against formal piano training after having the freedom to do things her own way. She admonished, “Sharon, if you have rules, you have rules. No rules.”  And she told me about her why. 

She gazed at me with ageless wisdom and explained that the world, especially now, needs artists.  Artists reflect back to the world what they are already feeling, we soothe, we inspire and we give people hope. The world needs this more than ever right now. 

When Stevie began to speak--my paraphrased version of her words--about her why, there was a palpable energetic shift in the room and I felt it. Her words went deep but her meaning went much deeper than I would understand until some time later. As we wrapped up our time together I headed for the hallway to watch the show and Stevie called after me to say, “Do you know Carly Rae Jepson who wrote ‘Call Me Maybe'? You are going to write the next ‘Call Me Maybe’.” “Yes,” I said. 

Later in the evening during the fabulous reunion concert with all five original members of the band, Stevie paused and dedicated the song “Landslide” to me and reminded one more time to create without rules in front of a sold-out house of adoring fans. I stood up and listened to the Queen of Rock sing THAT incredible song to me and bawled like a baby for the entire duration.  It was an exquisite moment that I will never take for granted and it began a tidal wave of writing that I could not hold back if I tried. 

The four songs that I am preparing to record, came from the depths of my soul and were inspired by this incredible experience that is difficult to sum up in words but if you asked the friends and family of mine who were in attendance that night, they would tell you I was glowing. 

Please watch the video of the "Landslide" dedication and the performance here.  Listen until the end because she reiterates her advice again when she’s finished singing! 

Thank you so much for all of your contributions and support for artists like me who are bringing reflection, hope, inspiration and helping to soothe the world with their willingness to be transparent and share what’s in their hearts. 

Please share this link and this story with your friends and family and ask them to share it too! It will take a crowd to make these recordings happen and bring these songs to the world. We cannot do it without you!! 

igg.me/at/sharonpaquette 

With love, 

Sharon