Snow on the road

This has been an epic month, making plans and lots of thoughts, and getting the tour on the road for Man Up. We've had a very snowy start and had a few cancellations, but the van times have already been incredible!
I feel very glad I am on tour with such a wonderful pair of lads... Roll on February and some exciting news!! :D

What Would Charles Do?

Somebody must remember that wonderfully cheesy American series called Little House On the Prairie? Its about a 'perfect' working class family who haven't got a penny to rub together, but have ALL of the love in the world.

The father of this family is called Charles Ingalls. If he's not using a blunt axe so as not to win the log cutting race (and therefore embarrass the old respected elder) or, spending his last nickel on some fine fabric so his wife and mother of their children can make a dress for herself to look nice when she wins the pie making competition, or generally cutting off his right arm off to save a dying badger so his little girl will sleep at night... He's not doing enough.
It horribly stereotypes men and women, but it is within the context and time of when it was supposed to be set, and I suppose the 'Love conquers all' moral wins my heart every time.

Anyway, my sister and I used to watch it every Sunday together and grew up playing games where we pretended to rescue each other from burning linen baskets and falling trees in our little garden... We were our own heroes.

So this year, (after a very trying one in 2012) we decided that this would be the 'What would Charles do' year. We got tee shirts and made posters for each other at Christmas. (No right arms were cut off in the process) and now when ever I wear my tee, I feel pretty invincible.

So...here I am in my 'What would Charles do' t-shirt, I hope it inspires you to put your own hero on a t-shirt and share the love. (Let's keep it positive...no evil will win.)

Have an excellent day all. :D

http://youtu.be/OgtrUn2tyCI

A musical taste of JUST BY CHANCE

Just By Chance are a fabulous acoustic duo from Liverpool who I met at a gig when I was singing with Riot City. I ended up sitting having an accidental beer with Andy from the band one evening, as we appeared to share some mutual friends. So (as you do) we started talking about music.

After much chat about the lack of pianists in Liverpool, exactly how many films Leonardo DiCaprio had acted in, and general appreciation for each other's work, Andy asked me to arrange one of Just By Chance's songs for piano.

I was absolutely thrilled when I heard the song for the first time and very excited about arranging it on my piano.
'Ghosts' is a beautiful, dynamic track from their new album Upbound, and I am absolutely made up to have arranged a piano version and featured on their album.

Check out the links below to hear the song, and make sure you have a listen to their other stuff too; then you can go and see them live.. They're brilliant.
I would describe them as: excellently dry humoured, deliciously talented, beautiful vocal harmonies and genuinely lovely people who sometimes give out free cake. Go. And. See. Them. Now!

Ghosts
http://m.soundcloud.com/justbychanceband/just-by-chance-ghosts-1

Just By Chance
http://www.justbychance.net/?m=1

Love of my life

Pianos...

They are the one thing in the world (other than tea) that is a purely selfish pleasure of mine.
Ever since I learnt to play when I was 7, I have loved them, I still love them now. Playing them genuinely makes me feel comforted in the saddest moments and intensify the best. I would recommend anyone who is thinking of learning to do it. They are also the reason I believe I am good at bouldering, and opening jars. Hands of Zeus. :) I have a Kawai upright mahogany piano - I miss it so much when I work away, which is all the time (as always) that is the only down side to a piano I'd say. It's not mobile like a saxophone or violin or guitar etc. But what a pleasure when you can spend time with them and play.

Here's a piece of piano music that I love for its simplicity and utter satisfaction when playing it.
French musician Yann Tiersen, Comptine D'un Autre Ete (featured on the Amelie soundtrack)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7BRpmbfPk0

This one above is one of the many old but wonderful pianos in the Roy Hart Centre (France)

                              And this one above is the same as the one which belongs to me.


Piano love.

Nic Teabag Smith

There's a few reasons for this name..
(It's everything you're thinking) ..

Mainly though, my addiction is caffeine, as weak as that is. I love tea. Love it.
And I'm a bit angry that I know I could have still made my bus and made a cup of tea in time. But I didn't, so Im shaking. Profusely!

Day 2 of Green Day Mornings...
Prosthetic Head ... From Nimrod! :)

http://youtu.be/eMn6mTRHpAI

Need.tea

Green Day Morning

It's the 7:55am bus into rehearsals for 'Man Up' with Zest Theatre. It's been a while since I caught a regular bus to get anywhere... It throws me back to being 17 and at College listening to Green Day. What a band they were that got me through some tough days. The conversations are just the same...just different people. My god, I could actually feel as if I'm 17...
I'm going to listen to one Green Day track every day on these bus journeys for the entire run of these rehearsals before I get the van in honour of how good they were at getting me through.
I'll leave you with one of my favourite tracks, track 1 on Dookie. Burnout.

http://youtu.be/2LoGyNRk_wg

:)

Also, you can check out the show I'm doing with Zest here, the company is awesome. This is my 4th year running I've worked for them, and the second time I've taken this show out. It's Hilarious. :D

http://www.zesttheatre.com/productions.html

Have an ace day :) Thanks for reading.

Fine Line Project - Newquay 2013!

Fine Line is a video art collaboration written and produced by myself and UK artist Katie Ness that we finished last year. We're really super excited to announce that it has been accepted into an art festival this summer in the marvellous town centre of Newquay, Cornwall. It will be shown on loop for two days on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April 2013.

The venue Fine Line will be exhibited at is called Travelogue Kernow situated in the Youth Centre on Chester Street in the centre of Newquay. The two days will include our video collaboration, print making and loads of other things to experience and get involved with.
Katie will hopefully be performing an original arabic dance piece too, so it's definitely going to be a fun couple of days not to be missed!

And who knows... Maybe we'll catch some good surf and fancy shell, not to mention a good authentic cornish pasty too!! :)

You can check out Fine Line here to read about our piece, and we hope to see you all there in April!

http://youtu.be/aHik8i3F8cc

You can watch some of Katie's dancing here on her website to get you all started; a enthralling performance is guaranteed!

www.sunflowerteeth.com

Thank you for reading! :)

A Collaboration - Clouds and Light

This Clouds and Light project is something that has been created by wonderful French artist Didier Monge. I was very lucky to meet him during my first experience with Panthéâtre the Roy Hart Voice centre in southern France in 2006.

As we worked together we realised each others absolute love of music, and I think I remember a very excitable moment during one of the workshops where I jumped at his feet and said something along the lines of 'I have to work with you!'

So we kept in touch, and then last year he told me he was planning on writing an album of original music featuring and working with a select number of artists he'd met over some time. He asked me to write some lyrics/words, and he said he wanted to write some music for them as a collaboration. I could not have chosen a more perfect performance and piece of music to accompany the words I gave him. I feel very privileged to have worked with such an intuitive and lovely artist.

Check out his page up coming work here

www.lalathings.bandpage.com

And here is the link for our song named
Passionately Gently Wondering :)

http://m.soundcloud.com/lalathings/passionately-gently-wondering

Thank you for reading :)

Something personal...

I love dinosaurs. I have a collection of them that I've had since being a little girl. Brachiosaurus is my favourite :D
*Share the Dino Love*

Hello!

So, I caved, I have a blog. Hello and thank you to whoever has a look at it. :)

As of today I hope to document the projects I've done so far and anything I do from now on. I'm so excited to think that I'll be able to look through these notes myself and see the way I've been thinking and how it's changed as I make my way through new ideas and thoughts. I'd like to say now that if you're reading this, and you're creative, I think you should get a blog.

I'm so excited and happy that my website is finished, and all thanks to the wonderful man that is Andrew Smith. I literally pointed at an imaginary structure/design, and some how, he managed to make me exactly what I wanted!
Have a look at it here:

www.nicolahardman.com

**If you want a website designing, get in touch with him and ask for a quote!!**

>andrewsmithweb@gmail.com

So for now, I'd like to say that I'm very excited, in general and very happy to be starting 2013 with new ideas and a great site :) Thank you for reading!