TAXI.com

Hello everyone,

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Jim and I just joined Taxi a couple of weeks ago - on behalf of my daughter Danielle. She's an aspiring 17 year old singer/songwriter who, in my obviously biased opinion, has been really blossoming lately. She has always had a nice voice, and after suffering American Idol rejection this summer, I told her she should develop her own songs rather than sing everyone else's. We bought her a Mac with Garageband, and by the end of the summer she was starting to crank things out.

I love Taxi because I'm clueless about this industry, and like any parent I would like to be able to help her along the way. The forums here seem to be top-notch, and the generosity and just plain helpfulness of folks here is truly impressive.

So allow me to point you to one of her recent works, titled "In Your Eyes."

You'll see it listed on her music page here: http://www.taxi.com/lilnepstad

I realize there are a few minor timing issues, but I'm wondering how much more "polished" a song like this would need to be to satisfy screeners? I know there probably isn't such a thing as a typical Taxi screener, but I'm just curious if she is even in the right league with a recording like this.

And pardon my cluelessness, but would you classify something like this as "Adult Contemporary?"

Any feedback - even if negative - would be very much appreciated.

Oh - and here are the lyrics:

In Your Eyes

I can’t say I know you well
And from what I can tell
You’re a mystery
And that’s just fine with me

There’s just something about your eyes
When you look back into mine
I’m paralyzed
And that’s just fine
I’ll never look away
From now on, I’ll stay

<chorus>
In your eyes
I’m alright
There’s nowhere else I’d rather be
Let’s float away upon the sea

In your eyes

Oh, can we stay like this forever?
I never want to look away
Even if I had the strength to
I couldn’t
No, I wouldn’t

<chorus x2>

In your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes, in your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes

Thanks!!!

Jim

Hi Jim,

I wish you would have gotten more responses to your questions because your story about helping your daughter with her music is really sweet.

Adult Contemporary is a good description, and I wonder if Danielle could compete for the Singer Songwriter opportunities.

I believe you'll have problems getting far with the production quality of these productions. The MIDI backing tracks for her songs are not convincing and her microphone is not a good choice for her voice. Other problems pop up in songs like Yesternight where the low frequencies in the bass are overpowering for the mix. Her performances are really very nice. I love the quality of her voice. Even so, every now and then a note might be a little off pitch or a phrase might be sung a little weak. A skillful recordist would touch up these places with pitch correction software or multiple takes comped together. These things are very important for three reasons: 1) Artists who are plugging their songwriting skills are using great talent to back them up, 2) Since she's a wonderful singer you'll want her recordings to be good enough to be used for opportunities that come up for her, and 3) she's worth it.

I'm an instrumentalist not a lyricist so I can't comment on her writing ability, although I was very much engaged by the several songs I listened to. My observation is that you are into this project only part way and that's a little bit heartbreaking for me to observe. I'm a dad too and I'd be overjoyed if one of my girls had this amount of marketable ability with contemporary music.

I hope these quick comments are helpful. You can contact me directly any time you like with more opinions about your lovely and amazing child's work. Otherwise, I hope more forum members take the time to give her a listen like I did. Be proud, Jim!

All The Best,
Allen

I listened to "In You Eyes", your daughter definitely has a great voice! The production quality is not really here, as the instruments are all mediocre at best. If your only goal was to showcase her singing quality, then this could be good enough. But the support of the instruments isn't really here for a complete song. The vocals also sound a bit box reverb-y when they are sung loud, almost always a sign of an amateur recording.

You definitely have potential here with that great voice to work with though!

Hope this helps,
-Jeff

I think one of the reasons there were so few replies to this post is that it took 3 days to appear after I posted it - perhaps due to it being my first post. I assume the moderators don't always take that long? I guess I'll find out when I post this one.

In any case, thanks for the replies. I really appreciate the feedback. I figured it wasn't going to be universally glowing, since she's only been working on this stuff part time for a few months, with a very, very minimal "studio." I'm still trying to sort Taxi (and the industry in general) out in my head, and this is very helpful. I'm not thinking we're going to dive right in and send out material - at least not right away. We both have a lot to learn, and I just figured this was a good place to start. So far, I think was right!

To anyone else who might see this thread - don't worry about being "nice." I want to help Danielle get better, not smother her!

Best wishes to you all!

Jim

Hi
Danielle has a pretty voice. The song has a very Nora Jones type sound--- it sounds very familiar but so many songs do. As others said, the production is not demo-ready.

My suggestion is take advantage of a forum like this to get feedback on the songwriting as well as network with people regarding production. That second part can be both learning better production at home and/or finding people to make better productions.

When Danielle has 3 solid songs (consider some pro reviews through taxi or other service), you need to get a demo CD produced. It's important not to rush-- make sure all the pieces are right before investing too much-- music, lyrics, style, market, etc. When that demo is ready you can start shopping her.

Good luck!
I hope to see you and Danielle around here more!

Casey

Spend some money on her dad....she's well worth it

Regards,
Dick

Hi,

Several years back there was a parent to a talented teen that was here on the forum. It was really fun and inspiring to see the progress they made here through Taxi and the forums. I remember their first challenge in the "home studio" learning curve is that they couldn't get any volume out of the mic. Oh jeez... there were a million technical suggestions as everyone gave their 2 cents worth on what might be happening. Turns out they had a mic where the cord attached somewhere in the middle and they were singing into the wrong end. I must point out that they were brave enough to post that and we all had a bit of a good time giving some good natured tweaking. Anyway, they made a *lot* of progress and it was fun to see.

So, ditto on what everyone else was saying. Instrumentation is *way* below the quality of Danielle. But that's not too difficult to fix. I agree that getting a "custom critique", asking the reviewer to ignore the instrumentation quality (that you know it needs to be replaced wholesale) and focus on the viability of the song and vocal itself. Like Casey said, once you get a few really good songs, then you can cut some demos or maybe work out an arrangement with another Taxi/forum member to do the instrumentation in exchange for Danielle doing vocal on one of their tracks. Kind of an exchange of services... good way to do it, save a bit of cash and meet some new people and musicians.

So... you're starting in an industry that initially won't make much sense from a business perspective but it will start to make sense... you'll see where she might fit in and you'll see opportunities (like film/tv placements) that you might not have considered. Most want the "Platinum album" but never consider they'd be bouncing off the walls thrilled if their music was used in an MTV reality show.


Good luck,

Dave

simonparker wrote:Hi Jim,
1) Age and genre of the artist. Does it go hand in hand? Does being 17 and being "Norah Jones like" make sense? Would it be better to do Britney type music at that age?

I'd disagree with age being a factor for determining genre. Fiona Apple put out one hell of a mature album at the age of 19. It may be another year before Danielle is ready to put anything out anyway.
Putting out "Britney type music" would be dumbing it down. I'd say let Danielle be herself and get some good writers to help her flesh out her songs and muscians to carry out the production. But first thing's first, with getting the songs together. And voice lessons wouldn't hurt either, not that she doesn't already have a great voice. She does. But I'm against pitch correction software, unless she does want to be another Britney. Working with collabtors is key, I think. Most successful songs usually have three or four writers listed. Personally, I love outside input and bouncing around ideas.

Just an opinion. I could be way wrong. Best of luck!

Gregg

To simonparker and others who have generously weighed in:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Your feedback is tremendously valuable, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for sharing your vastly superior outlooks and experiences with such an utter newbie as myself.

Just so you know - I know enough from snooping around the web that this is not an easy business to break into. And I'm not an obnoxious (at least I hope not!) parent seeking a shortcut to stardom for my kid. More than anything, I'm trying to make the best use of the last year and a half she has prior to college to help her figure out her path in life. She's passionate about music, so all of a sudden I am, too! My older daughter was much easier to provide career advise for. I'm completely out of my league in this arena, which is why your feedback is so valuable.

I'm actually grateful for the American Idol rejection. I had talked to her at length about how unrealistic that is, but I guess you gotta let them follow through if they want. The best thing that happened from that experience was our conversation about her doing her own thing. It gave her the opportunity to take matters into her own hands, and even though the products aren't quite up to snuff yet, she has the drive to take it up another notch or three. Quite frankly, I really don't care if she doesn't submit anything during her first year of membership. I'm more convinced than ever that simple exposure to Taxi and its resources (most especially all of you) makes the membership fee a bargain many times over. We harbor no illusions of instant stardom. At present, I'm just interested in helping her figure out if a music career is really the right fit. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. If nothing else, she's having fun with her crude little studio. Speaking of which, a few of you have mentioned her mic. I hate to admit it, but she's singing through the built-in mic on her Mac! Any recommendations on nice mic?

As far as her Nora Jones-type genre - well, I guess that's just Danielle. I have a lot of respect for artists, and instinctively I steer clear of trying to influence that. But maybe that's a reflection of how little we've considered much of what simonparker advises. You've given us food for thought, and ultimately it's her decision, but personally I hope we can avoid a Britney phase to her career!

Again, thank you all so much for your helpful and constructive criticism. I'm very, very pleased with my first interactions with this wonderful community.

Jim