Back to the Newsletter
Since the recent release of the new ep / mini album from Mermaid Kiss entitled ‘Salt on Skin’, our own Kate Emerson has been very busy. Here she talks about promo, reviews, photo shoots, myspace… and her plans for the future.
 |
“Her powerful and innocent voice mixes a bit of sweetness with the 'salt,' and her trio of songs emerges as the collection’s finest and most promising…” Michael Popke (Sea of Tranquility)
Full Review
Salt on Skin EP
Mermaid Kiss
Buy it here |
Mermaid Kiss Part 2
Kate Emerson, PSU IT Voice and Data Ltd.
|
"Hi… well, here I am again! You may have read the November ‘Meet the Team’ entry when I’d only been in Mermaid Kiss for a short while.
For those of you that missed that – I have been working with Jamie Field and Andrew Garman and we’ve been recording music in ‘The Goat Shed’ (Andy’s Music Studio that was formerly… you guessed it! A Goat Shed )
Mermaid Kiss is hard to describe… the music doesn’t really sound like anything else out there and that’s how we like it ;) The best thing to do is have a listen and you can do this by visiting www.mermaidkiss.co.uk and going on to the ‘salt on skin’ page.
Where do I start?
I’ll give you a bit of background on the ep first of all…: Mermaid Kiss started out as Jamie Field and Evelyn Downing… they have been writing together for many years and met Andy when they were asked to write and record a track for a short film… Andy let them use his studio and the three of them continued working together.
They released their debut album in 2003 and continued writing after that, but Evelyn’s departure to University meant that timescales and distance became a problem… This is when they recruited Kate Belcher... she worked with the band for 9 months between October 2004 and August 2005 before leaving for personal reasons… So they began searching for another vocalist.
After a google search for ‘female vocalists wanted’ I found Jamie’s advert… we started emailing each other – all the time!... I sent my 19 track demo (of original material) to him and I had my audition on 30th Sept ’05. At the audition they wanted me to sing something I’d never heard before… so they played ‘I go to sleep’ to me once (live)… I said ‘let’s record it’ – so we did. They liked that one take so much that it ended up as the end track on the ep…
The EP
Jamie & Andy decided to release this for two main reasons:
- Firstly to get some of the music out there that they’d been working on in the long period since ‘The Mermaid Kiss Album’,
- ..and secondly to show the history of this time period… i.e. a bit of their work with Eveyln since then… the transition to Kate B and then their work with me.
The original idea was to put Eveyln’s tracks on with some with my vocals… primarily to introduce me as the new Mermaid Kiss singer… but due to creative differences (which I won’t go in to detail about) – the situation changed slightly… In short, I decided to no longer be the main singer and we have agreed that I will do ‘guest vocals’… So, at the moment ‘Mermaid Kiss’ is a music project between Jamie, Andy & Nigel Hooten with guest vocals from Evelyn, Kate B and me… The ep reflects this. However, things change all the time…
Photoshoots
Photo shoots are great fun and I love posing… So when Chris Walkden (who loves taking pics) and I get together – it’s photo mayhem!
The shoot we did for the ‘Salt on Skin’ cover was no exception!
I spent a long time getting a load of goodies together (necklaces off ebay, salts, make-up, glitters… you name it!) and so we made use of them.
Chris caught me a few times when I was preparing for pics… He sneakily got a few photos through the bathroom door!
I was covering my neck and chest in all kind of things (I had to smother myself in lip gloss to get the salts to stick!)
After a while the salts started to burn me a bit (owch!)
Reviews
We’ve had some reviews popping up on the net – all very encouraging and the sites they’re on are very reputable - my favourite one is this:
The reason it's my favourite (I’ll admit it) is because it praises me and my voice… ;) But at the end of the day I know that every reviewer will have a different opinion… For every person who loves you someone is always there to ‘slate’ you… so I won’t get too upset about any criticism or let my ego inflate…
Here are some other reviews to check out:
We’re still waiting for Classic Rock Society Magazine to do their review… in the mean time they have agreed to sell copies for us.
We’ve had some radio play - which is quite exciting! We had some of the ep tracks played on ‘Forest Radio’ and more recently in the US on ‘progressive soundscapes’…. I’ve also become good friends with Neil at Star 107.5FM and he has a promo copy… he’s going to see what he can do for me (fingers crossed).
Where to buy the EP
The ep is on sale on quiet a few sites: there’s the obvious www.mermaidkiss.co.uk shop page where you can pay via paypal or post Jamie a cheque but also www.sonicbond.com , www.cdbaby.com & www.themusicindex.com among others… Thanks to my friend Kev (the Manager) at ‘Martian Records’, Cheltenham – if you are local you can pop along there and buy a copy for just £4.99… I’ve also managed to get ‘Badlands’(also in Cheltenham) to sell copies for me.
Promo
Promo, Promo and… more Promo! – is what you have to do after a release… I’m strange though… I quite like promo…
So - what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been putting up posters to advertise the ep in various places around Cheltenham: JJ’s, Front Clothing, the music library, the general library, Vinyl Vault, Badlands, Martian Records, the notice board at work and anywhere else I thought it might be seen…
I also appeared on page 4 of The Echo on 22nd March and have just had a two page feature in their Saturday ‘Weekend’ magazine which came out last weekend.
myspace
My own space… is great! You have probably heard of ‘myspace’?… well I have my own page now:
Jamie and I have also set one up for Mermaid Kiss:
Anyway - I love it! I finally know lots of people with similar music tastes to me and have made some lovely friends on there. You can find interesting people, add them to your ‘friends’ list and chat to them… and of course, you can listen to each other’s tracks… It’s a great way to discover new music… and to contact the artists you already admire.
For example: I’ve already had a few emails directly from Danny Vaughn – who is one of my favourite vocalists… I plan to set up my own myspacemusic page as soon as I get some of my own songs together and recorded…
Plans for the Future
I’m not entirely sure what the future holds at this stage… but I know it will definitely involve more music. Andy & Jamie are currently working on a new project – a concept album… As for me - I want more creative involvement in whatever I do from now on… that’s very important to me.
So… I plan to do my own project at some point… something that comes from ‘me’. It will be quite rock orientated – the kind of melodic rock that I love. I am going to work on becoming more proficient at playing some instruments – for my song-writing…
The thing is, I have full songs in my head and although I can sing them / write down the lyrics – I can not yet ‘play’ them to people… I have spent a long time looking for a kind of ‘song-writing soul-mate’ but it hasn’t happened… I can’t seem to find a guitarist / pianist who is focused / has similar influences and is willing to work on my ideas with me…
So I’m going to stop looking for this in someone else and work on it myself… This way I won’t have to rely so much on anyone else as an initial vehicle for getting my ideas ‘out’… I hope this makes sense…
I aim to get my own website set up, keep writing and creating – my own ideas, and next year I’m going to do a degree in ‘Popular Music’… I hope to surround myself with people who will inspire me and vice versa. That’s my plan and I’ll keep living and learning on this musical journey…
All the best to all of you… and if you have a dream or a passion – keep going for it."
Kate x
PS:- Since writing this newsletter – a few things have happened… The main one is that last Friday (19th May) I was out in Cheltenham and got talking to someone I recognised… It turns out that I got up and sang with him about 7 or 8 years ago at an acoustic night in a pub (at that time called O’Hagens). He remembered me and liked my vocals… so hopefully we are going to get together soon and try co-writing. The truth is – I love his music and we seem to have similar music tastes… so I’m very excited about this! His name is Jordan and he goes by the name of Cyan… to hear some of his songs visit: www.myspace.com/cyanuk
