Hi friends, welcome to October! This week I took on the challenge of "Lost" by the wonderful (and one-time employer) KT Tunstall.

I became a fan of KT's back in 2010, right after this record came out. I knew her big singles, but never ventured further, then my former tour-mate Charlotte Hatherley was playing guitar for her, so I went to see her at Terminal 5 in NYC. I was honestly so impressed within 2 songs that I immediately became a fan. Flash forward to 2016 and I had the privilege to do merch and help with the backline for KT on tour, and she is such a kind and welcoming person, which made me even more of a fan. I still appreciate her late night cake making on the bus.

This song, however, is just one of those magical things. It hit me in my soul when I heard it on record, with the memory of seeing it live still fresh in my mind. I'd show it to uninterested friends, and would sing along loud as hell in my car. It just has this atmosphere that you can't deny, and thus became the start of my challenge to recreate it.

I had to approach this one a lot more precisely than any other song I've done. The production doesn't give too much away, so I sought out some youtube videos of the live version, and actually found one from the night I went to see Charlotte, aimed right down on her and KT, and another that showed KT and the drums and bass. What you have here is my little blend of the live and recorded versions, with a little extra stuff in there that I felt would enhance my version. I hit up Nick to help me with the Synths, because he's way more adept at that stuff than I am, and he nailed the pads and synth bass in a way that I may never have. Did I mention how much I love doing this with friends? 'Cause it's a whole bunch.

This was the first time I had to really get creative with tracking the drums. My arms would lock up and get so tired by the end of the bridge that I was falling apart (something I'm hoping to improve one day) so I experimented with doing the cymbals separately in parts and I really loved how it came out. I also ended up having to rely on my keyboard for a lot of this song, which is definitely not my forte, as mentioned above. I'm not even close to the capability of Charlotte, KT, or my pal Rachel Eckroth who was on the tour that I did, but I got my way through it thanks to patience, cursing at myself, and some good plugins. There are about a dozen different tracks of synths/piano/strings etc. and I think they came out pretty cool. From there, doing the backbone of acoustic guitar and bass, and a little textured electric guitar was a breeze.

Vocals became my next adversary. I'm actually fairly comfortable singing a bunch of KT's songs, because she tends to sing in a nice spot of my vocal range, but holy hell, her falsetto is way smoother and sweeter than mine. She's like maple syrup, and I'm like a carrot. This song took patience, and even still, the lines where I had to sing only in my head voice were sounded a little meh, so I added some lower harmonies to make it feel a little more full and powerful, and relegated a couple background pieces to digital voices. That being said, I genuinely like how this vocal came out, even in its imperfections. As I mentioned back in week 1, I don't tune my voice, nor do I want to, so getting to a place I'm comfortable with is always something I have to acknowledge and appreciate.

Finally, the mixing of this song had to be very surgical. Pieces fade in and out, and there are plenty of layers and then no layers from one section to the next, so I automated more than I ever have. When I sent it to Kevin to check out, I was so relieved that he thought it sounded good because I couldn't imagine having to dive deeper into that madness, where I was likely going to make some sort of critical error, due to my inexperience. What came out is something I truly enjoy but I definitely drove my household crazy in the process.

As always, a new month means a new charity, and this time I've decided to raise funds for the National Independent Venue Association (www.nivassoc.org). This year has presented us with a litany of unexpected issues to deal with, but none more pressing than keeping our artistic communities, and musical havens alive. Our industry was the first to shut down, and will be the last to reopen, and we still don't know what that timeline truly is. I want to know that the moment we can safely do shows again, that the places who have housed us will still be there, and the NIVA is doing what they can, through their Save Our Stages campaign, to preserve our musical homes. Please look into what they're doing, and call on your representatives to help support the arts.

Well that was a really long ramble, but hey that's fun right? Thank you all so much for support. We again topped our previous month's total by getting to $100 for the Brennan Center, and I am so excited to see what we can do now. See you next week!