Girl from Mars

September 7, 2009 at 4:03 am · Filed under music, photos and tagged: al mar, almar nooitmeer, artist, from, girl, girl from mars, jayanti, mars, mitchell thompson, music, singer, sings, song

Yeah!! I feel so much better! Reboot!

So now it’s time to tell you about the birth of my new song, Girl from Mars.

I wrote this song with Almar Nooitmeer (amazing keyman, composer and producer), who goes by the producer name Al Mar. He made me a beat, basically consisting of a short loop which was the base of the hook. He played it for me and I immediately knew it was my song. The title (he’d given it the working title “I’m this girl from mars” which I later changed to “Girl From Mars”) was spot on, I’ve been called an alien, different and even E.T. (no, I get it.. no big deal… we’re both little and wow, when I wear a hoodie the resemblance knocks you right in the face.. kaplow!!) lots of times. I don’t think I’m that weird, but yeah, maybe I am…

I made the hook right then and there and wrote the rest of the song at home, after Almar made the instrumental for the verses. I sat on my bed, with the beat on repeat and closed my eyes. I need to become one with the song, really feel it move and weave through me. And then the melodies come out. And then the melodies take shape into words.

I knew it was going to be a very autobiographical song, despite, or maybe because of the quirky alien theme. Don’t we all feel different? We’re all the same, we are all part of this one universal body, but we all have our own little worlds. So I wrote about this thing I truly believe in: giving unconditionally. There is no end to giving. You can never give yourself away completely. It can only multiply.

We met up after I’d written the verses and Mitchell Thompson came in to help polish the vocal melodies. Mitchell sings in a close harmony group, and added that extra smoothness and coherence to the song. We worked on the verses and perfected the flows, feeling our way through the song, letting it tell us what needed to go up, what needed to go down. Almar played the chords on one piano, Mitchell played the vocal melodies on another, I played my vocal chords. It was magical. They’re both incredibly talented, really sweet guys and I thoroughly enjoyed creating this song with them. Thank you so much!!! Wooo!! *body roll*

After that, my friend Greg Malone came up with a backing vocal melody for the hook (we decided not to use his husky vocals and replace them by mine, though his were quite charming… ;op
-thanks Hoggy!!-), which Mitchell layered into three separate voices to stack on top of the other for each new chorus, as Greg had suggested. Almar wrote a bridge and we were ready to record!

Recording was actually very special and emotional, as we heard about Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and then later that he had died (hurts to even write the words) while I was in the recording booth. Everyone knew I’m a major MJ fan (I always jokingly said he’s my real dad cause my mom has been a fan since the J5 days) so they really left it up to me to decide whether I wanted to finish recording.
I felt I needed to finish it, so I did and tried to channel my feelings into the mic. It had been my greatest wish for Michael to hear this song, so I would like to dedicate it to him and his memory and send him my humble gratitude for the great impact and influence he has had and still has on me as a person and an artist.

Thank you, Michael!!!

lyrics

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