Before I wrote songs I wrote poems. Here's another one from the vaults.
Shark Bait
Sharks close their eyes
the moment before they strike.
They sense the electrical signal
of the heart, they know where to bite,
they can find it blind. The heart
will betray you every time.
It's been a year I've chosen
to be alone. My life is full
of work and talk and the occasional fling
where no one falls for anyone—it's best
to become heartless. No one holds me
back; I don't get that attached.
I say heartless but this is a lie. It beats
red and bloody underneath it all, I am ripe
for slaughter. It keeps getting harder
to hide the signal: the heart wants
to be discovered. Or devoured,
if that's what it takes.
The sharks' own hearts must crackle with charge
as they glide silently through the leaden water—
do they sense each other's presence
as they sense prey?
Do their hearts call out to each other
in the darkness beneath the waves?
I want someone to draw my passion
like a magnet, a target, I long for it.
So the heart sends out its signal: I'm a beacon.
Nothing will protect me from the danger.
I'm just waiting to feel
the teeth sink in.
Ellia Bisker, 2004
~news about NYC ukulele-powered indie rock band Sweet Soubrette~
Friday, October 12, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Sweet Soubrette - 'What's My Desire?' | The 405
New review of the "What's My Desire?" video by the 405:
"Sweet Soubrette have crafted a compelling bitter-sweet pop song of the highest order."
Read more:
Sweet Soubrette - 'What's My Desire?' | The 405
"Sweet Soubrette have crafted a compelling bitter-sweet pop song of the highest order."
Read more:
Sweet Soubrette - 'What's My Desire?' | The 405
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Fan mail
A super sweet email from my cousin came in this week:
I want you to know that we regularly listen to your latest CD and EP albums in the car, and Claudia [my cousin's wife] has downloaded her favorite songs to her ipod. Max [their ten-year-old] regularly requests (and knows every word to) “Is it a secret…” (sorry I have never really studied the song titles and so know them only by lyrics; “Wild Wild Wild?”). I have a recording of him singing it in the car I must send you. My personal favorites are “Gold Digger” and “We Don’t Talk About It” (lyrics again, sorry; I really must look up your album covers or itunes lists and learn the titles!)
I want you to know that we regularly listen to your latest CD and EP albums in the car, and Claudia [my cousin's wife] has downloaded her favorite songs to her ipod. Max [their ten-year-old] regularly requests (and knows every word to) “Is it a secret…” (sorry I have never really studied the song titles and so know them only by lyrics; “Wild Wild Wild?”). I have a recording of him singing it in the car I must send you. My personal favorites are “Gold Digger” and “We Don’t Talk About It” (lyrics again, sorry; I really must look up your album covers or itunes lists and learn the titles!)
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
WKZE 98.1FM in-studio interview, 8/15/12
While touring with Sweet Soubrette to perform at the Hudson.Water.Music festival in Hudson, NY, we stopped at the WKZE 98.1 FM radio station for an in-studio interview. Listen to it here:
Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette, WKZE in-studio interview, 8/15/12
Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette, WKZE in-studio interview, 8/15/12
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Nick Loss-Eaton: NYC INDIE ROCKERS SWEET SOUBRETTE TOURING BEHIND A...
Nick Loss-Eaton: NYC INDIE ROCKERS SWEET SOUBRETTE TOURING BEHIND A...: Sweet Soubrette, a "sensational" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and "enchanting" (Metro NY) ukulele-powered indie rock band based in NYC, will be ...
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Art et paysage, paysages de l'art: PROGRAMME MUSICAL
Art et paysage, paysages de l'art: PROGRAMME MUSICAL: Si vous aviez prévu le dimanche 20 mai de rester chez vous devant la télé, d'aller à la plage ou à Ibiza, c'est le moment de changer vos pla...
Thursday, May 10, 2012
In My Little Apartment
(a song written in French for Sweet Soubrette's France 2012 tour, translated into English)
Come to my house, my house tonight
Drink a little whiskey
To be a little closer to you
That's what I want
You can sit on the sofa
The sofa is not large
The furniture is miniature
Here at my house
CHORUS:
In my little apartment
Everything is so close to everything
Proximity, intimacy
It's just, it's just like us
I don't have many guests
Welcome to you
Living room, kitchen, bedroom
You see them all at once
BRIDGE:
Sometimes I wish for more space
But what could be better
Than to be here face to face
If I ever moved I would bring
This beautiful doll-sized room
Come to my house, my house tonight
Drink a little whiskey
To be a little closer to you
That's what I want
(a song written in French for Sweet Soubrette's France 2012 tour, translated into English)
Come to my house, my house tonight
Drink a little whiskey
To be a little closer to you
That's what I want
You can sit on the sofa
The sofa is not large
The furniture is miniature
Here at my house
CHORUS:
In my little apartment
Everything is so close to everything
Proximity, intimacy
It's just, it's just like us
I don't have many guests
Welcome to you
Living room, kitchen, bedroom
You see them all at once
BRIDGE:
Sometimes I wish for more space
But what could be better
Than to be here face to face
If I ever moved I would bring
This beautiful doll-sized room
Come to my house, my house tonight
Drink a little whiskey
To be a little closer to you
That's what I want
Friday, March 9, 2012
Fan mail from Hawaii
This completely made my day today. Thank you, Mike from Hawaii!
Aloha Ellia, I just want to give you your props! Your style hits my musical crave hard! I like the pure unadulterated way you deliver. I liked early Jewel works as it had that was clean w/o the over-produced quality to it....You have that quality plus an avantegarde meets art deco thing going for it ;) love it, love it, luv it!! If you ever get to do some gigs in the Islands LMK I'll be your body guard, tour guide, flunky ukulele carrier, groupie lol. A big Mahalo for doing what you do, best regards and all aloha, Mike
Aloha Ellia, I just want to give you your props! Your style hits my musical crave hard! I like the pure unadulterated way you deliver. I liked early Jewel works as it had that was clean w/o the over-produced quality to it....You have that quality plus an avantegarde meets art deco thing going for it ;) love it, love it, luv it!! If you ever get to do some gigs in the Islands LMK I'll be your body guard, tour guide, flunky ukulele carrier, groupie lol. A big Mahalo for doing what you do, best regards and all aloha, Mike
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Anais
Don and I finished mixing Anais on Sunday night and it sounds amazing. I've sent it to the band, my family, and my best friend from college, who reported he's had it on repeat all day (as has my mom). Seems auspicious.
This coming Sunday we'll finish Be My Man. Exciting stuff. Sneak previews coming soon...
This coming Sunday we'll finish Be My Man. Exciting stuff. Sneak previews coming soon...
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
January Recording Report: Part 5
Monday night was the last round of tracking on the new recordings, just me on vocals and uke, hanging out with Don in the basement laboratory that is the studio, working until after midnight.
When I arrived at the studio, Don had just realized he needed a firewire cable. Did I want to go for a ride to Guitar Center? I did. Guitar Center is in the Atlantic Terminal mall complex, redolent of Auntie Anne's pretzels (what did malls smell like before there were mall pretzels?) and reminiscent of that scene from Wayne's World...you know the one. Don found the right cable, we did a quick circuit of the microphone display, wailed on the bongos for a minute, and then it was back to the studio.
I love recording vocals. It's so much fun. Almost like working on an athletic skill, learning what it feels like in your body when the right thing happens and then doing it on purpose and better, making adjustments, pushing yourself in specific directions. Like getting your swing just right.
I've had a bunch of voice lessons since the last time I recorded, and even though it's been a while, I could feel the benefit -- better control and better power, breathing from my gut, not having to push as hard. Knowing how to warm up helped a lot too, even though it makes me incredibly self-conscious to be making such stupid noises. But a voice is an instrument too. Better to remember that.
For Anais I focused on getting a smoky/velvety vocal sound. For Be My Man I tried to channel Sharon Jones. We got some really nice takes, and I can't wait to hear how it's all going to come together. From here on out it's all mixing.
When I arrived at the studio, Don had just realized he needed a firewire cable. Did I want to go for a ride to Guitar Center? I did. Guitar Center is in the Atlantic Terminal mall complex, redolent of Auntie Anne's pretzels (what did malls smell like before there were mall pretzels?) and reminiscent of that scene from Wayne's World...you know the one. Don found the right cable, we did a quick circuit of the microphone display, wailed on the bongos for a minute, and then it was back to the studio.
I love recording vocals. It's so much fun. Almost like working on an athletic skill, learning what it feels like in your body when the right thing happens and then doing it on purpose and better, making adjustments, pushing yourself in specific directions. Like getting your swing just right.
I've had a bunch of voice lessons since the last time I recorded, and even though it's been a while, I could feel the benefit -- better control and better power, breathing from my gut, not having to push as hard. Knowing how to warm up helped a lot too, even though it makes me incredibly self-conscious to be making such stupid noises. But a voice is an instrument too. Better to remember that.
For Anais I focused on getting a smoky/velvety vocal sound. For Be My Man I tried to channel Sharon Jones. We got some really nice takes, and I can't wait to hear how it's all going to come together. From here on out it's all mixing.
 |
| This is where I got to stand. |
 |
| My fancy vocal mic. So pretty. |
 |
| Don wailing on the bongos. |
Monday, January 30, 2012
January Recording Report, Part 4
We didn't record last night. Instead I went over to Don's place and we mixed for 4 hours. Mixing is a surprisingly visual process -- each mic and each take shows up on the screen as a separate track with its own waveform, and you can tell by looking at the shapes where the timing is off, where someone is playing ahead of the beat or behind. (How many tracks on Be My Man? A HUNDRED TRACKS. OK, just for a few minutes while we were splitting up different sections into separate tracks and then combining them again. But still!)
Sitting in the copilot's seat watching the producer mix for 4 hours sounds very boring, but it isn't, it's hypnotic. Don drags errant horn hits into alignment with the bass drum and replays the section and suddenly it's not muddy anymore. And aside from cleanup detail and comping (which take sounds better where?) there are also decisions about how to make things sound, should the horns be funereal or bright, should the bass and snare break through the surface of the mix or sit within it, should the vocals sound gritty or polished? We listened to a couple of Adele tunes to hear how her vocals are treated. Plate reverb, says Don, and a nice mic with good compression. We'll do that too.
That's where the magic happens, putting on EQ and compression and reverb, routing the raw tracks through different treatments and enhancements, blending in the room mics, technical decisions. There are so many options, infinite options, that it's almost overwhelming.
Sitting in the copilot's seat watching the producer mix for 4 hours sounds very boring, but it isn't, it's hypnotic. Don drags errant horn hits into alignment with the bass drum and replays the section and suddenly it's not muddy anymore. And aside from cleanup detail and comping (which take sounds better where?) there are also decisions about how to make things sound, should the horns be funereal or bright, should the bass and snare break through the surface of the mix or sit within it, should the vocals sound gritty or polished? We listened to a couple of Adele tunes to hear how her vocals are treated. Plate reverb, says Don, and a nice mic with good compression. We'll do that too.
That's where the magic happens, putting on EQ and compression and reverb, routing the raw tracks through different treatments and enhancements, blending in the room mics, technical decisions. There are so many options, infinite options, that it's almost overwhelming.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
January Recording Report: Part 3
The horns recording session went really well, with Erin on sax, Cecil on trombone, and John on trumpet. The different sounds horn players make when they’re warming up are great: John buzzing his lips together, Cecil moving the trombone slide in and out, Erin testing her octave key, all of it resonating in the space.
The studio gets very cold on account of being in the basement of a 19-century factory building made of stone and brick, and while the heaters work well they’re also really noisy, so while we’re tracking we have to shut them off, and if the horns get too cold they start to go flat. Playing them helps keeps them warm, so we had to keep up a steady pace.
Don set up the three horn players in a row, each with a different style of microphone, plus a big condenser to capture the blended sound. Cecil mock-complained that his mic was the plainest looking, until Don told him it was the same kind of mic Phil Collins uses to record his vocals. Zing!
Early in the intro of “Be My Man,” you can hear either Heather or me saying, “oops,” which was funny every take. Also funny: every time Don referred to the headphones as “cans,” which was all the time. Cecil had to work to find a way to wear his where he didn’t hit them with his slide.
I’m still new to working with horns, and don’t really speak horn yet, so there was a certain amount of English to English translation going on. “Let’s leave off the tag at the end of the first chorus” seemed self-evident to me when I said it, but it took a little explaining to clarify that I meant hold the note instead of playing a melody, not stop entirely. Luckily there seemed to be the critical mass of people to make good communication possible, and the couple of critical directions I had to give made sense to everyone.
So interesting, the different kinds of muscularity that are required of the musicians, so much of it invisible in breath and mouth, Cecil asking Erin how she’s tonguing a particular note, the three of them coordinating the moments when they breathe to make the sound cleaner. In the end we got multiple great-sounding takes on both songs, and the new parts for Anais sounded just right.
Next up: me on uke and vocals! My strumming nail looks like it might want to break, so I’m hoping it holds out for a couple more days…
The studio gets very cold on account of being in the basement of a 19-century factory building made of stone and brick, and while the heaters work well they’re also really noisy, so while we’re tracking we have to shut them off, and if the horns get too cold they start to go flat. Playing them helps keeps them warm, so we had to keep up a steady pace.
Don set up the three horn players in a row, each with a different style of microphone, plus a big condenser to capture the blended sound. Cecil mock-complained that his mic was the plainest looking, until Don told him it was the same kind of mic Phil Collins uses to record his vocals. Zing!
Early in the intro of “Be My Man,” you can hear either Heather or me saying, “oops,” which was funny every take. Also funny: every time Don referred to the headphones as “cans,” which was all the time. Cecil had to work to find a way to wear his where he didn’t hit them with his slide.
I’m still new to working with horns, and don’t really speak horn yet, so there was a certain amount of English to English translation going on. “Let’s leave off the tag at the end of the first chorus” seemed self-evident to me when I said it, but it took a little explaining to clarify that I meant hold the note instead of playing a melody, not stop entirely. Luckily there seemed to be the critical mass of people to make good communication possible, and the couple of critical directions I had to give made sense to everyone.
So interesting, the different kinds of muscularity that are required of the musicians, so much of it invisible in breath and mouth, Cecil asking Erin how she’s tonguing a particular note, the three of them coordinating the moments when they breathe to make the sound cleaner. In the end we got multiple great-sounding takes on both songs, and the new parts for Anais sounded just right.
Next up: me on uke and vocals! My strumming nail looks like it might want to break, so I’m hoping it holds out for a couple more days…
 |
| Cecil and John on trombone and trumpet |
 |
| Erin on sax |
 |
| Erin's horn arrangement for Anais |
Thursday, January 26, 2012
January Recording Report, Part 2 1/2
We had a quickie rehearsal on Tuesday to run the new horn parts for "Anais" in context and make adjustments, which went well. The consensus/collaboration process gets increasingly smooth, which is interesting. Heather and Bob and Dobson and Cecil all had good ideas and spoke up, and Erin, who writes our horn arrangements as well as playing sax, was good-natured about making changes on the fly, and all of my better-trained-than-I musicians were making geeky theory jokes I didn't understand, and by the end of our scant hour it sounded right and everyone was pleased. So we'll go into the studio with the horns on Friday night. To be continued!
Friday, January 20, 2012
January Recording Report, Part 2
We had another great recording session with Don last night, this time with Heather and Stacy doing violin, keys, and backing vox.
We started around 6 with Heather in the main room on violin and Stacy at the upright piano in the room where Don sets up his gear pirate radio station style (it's a shared space), which let us record the piano and violin together to save time. There's a plexiglass-covered doorway between the two rooms so there are sight lines for hand signals and such, and the mics let us all talk to each other. I went back and forth to play musical director/work out final parts/hold a light so Heather could see her music. I had a couple good ideas for doubling the violin in a few places that she was excited about (the doubled part is one she originally told me she thought was cheesy, but I think she's finally warmed up to it now). The ladies hit each song in just a few takes. Heather went home and the rest of us ordered takeout. Then it was time for the backing vocals, which Stacy nailed even at 9 months pregnant, having just eaten a lot of tacos. She really is a pro.
We had talked about using organ instead of piano on Be My Man to bring out the soul sound, so at about midnight (totally cracked out after a full day followed by 6 hours of recording work), we moved into the room upstairs where there's a little Hammond organ. It looks like something you might find in a churchgoing grandparent's basement, and it runs on a motor that forces air through valves to make the sound. It doesn't get much more analog. We eventually figured out how to turn it on and messed around with the stops and switches and Don miked it up and Stacy did her thing.
I listened to what we had afterwards, the rhythm section tracks from the other night plus Heather and Stacy's new parts, and these songs are starting to sound awesome. Next up: the horns!
We started around 6 with Heather in the main room on violin and Stacy at the upright piano in the room where Don sets up his gear pirate radio station style (it's a shared space), which let us record the piano and violin together to save time. There's a plexiglass-covered doorway between the two rooms so there are sight lines for hand signals and such, and the mics let us all talk to each other. I went back and forth to play musical director/work out final parts/hold a light so Heather could see her music. I had a couple good ideas for doubling the violin in a few places that she was excited about (the doubled part is one she originally told me she thought was cheesy, but I think she's finally warmed up to it now). The ladies hit each song in just a few takes. Heather went home and the rest of us ordered takeout. Then it was time for the backing vocals, which Stacy nailed even at 9 months pregnant, having just eaten a lot of tacos. She really is a pro.
We had talked about using organ instead of piano on Be My Man to bring out the soul sound, so at about midnight (totally cracked out after a full day followed by 6 hours of recording work), we moved into the room upstairs where there's a little Hammond organ. It looks like something you might find in a churchgoing grandparent's basement, and it runs on a motor that forces air through valves to make the sound. It doesn't get much more analog. We eventually figured out how to turn it on and messed around with the stops and switches and Don miked it up and Stacy did her thing.
I listened to what we had afterwards, the rhythm section tracks from the other night plus Heather and Stacy's new parts, and these songs are starting to sound awesome. Next up: the horns!
 |
| Tuning the violin to the piano |
 |
| Heather adjusting her parts |
 |
| Stacy at the Hammond |
Thursday, January 19, 2012
January Recording Report, Part 1
We are in the midst of recording two new songs: "Be My Man" and "Anais," working with producer Don Godwin. Exciting! We're laying down the tracks in multiple sessions, first the rhythm section, then violin and keys and backing vox (Stacy is imminently about to have a baby, so best to get her done asap!), then horns, then uke and my vocals last.
Recording session #1 was last night and it went well! Bob and Mike hit it off with Don and the vibe was good. About 3 hours of setup of drums and mics, then 2 hours of playing, an hour per song. The building is this huge 19th-century can factory that includes a bunch of interesting arty businesses. The studio is in the cavernous basement. We ordered in delicious but terrible Thai food and I had a stomachache the whole time. We got some good takes. :)
Recording session #1 was last night and it went well! Bob and Mike hit it off with Don and the vibe was good. About 3 hours of setup of drums and mics, then 2 hours of playing, an hour per song. The building is this huge 19th-century can factory that includes a bunch of interesting arty businesses. The studio is in the cavernous basement. We ordered in delicious but terrible Thai food and I had a stomachache the whole time. We got some good takes. :)
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| Don setting up his console |
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| Mike on the drums |
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| Bob lounging |
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