June 28th, 2009 – Featured Artist – Lindsay George

Lindsay George, ’10, is a commercial music and composition major at Belmont University.  She just released her debut album, “Living Inside-Out”, to outstanding reviews.  TOWERMIX recently spoke to Lindsay about her performance on WPLN 90.3 and her future aspirations.

Nashville, TN
United States
Genre:  Jazz / Pop / Nu-Jazz
Album(s):  Living Inside-Out
Website:  www.myspace.com/lindsaygeorgemusic

MATTHEW:  Earlier this month you performed on Nashville’s WPLN 90.3 Live in Studio C. How did you get invited to perform on the program?

LINDSAY:  I actually approached WPLN about performing on the air. I have always been a fan of Live in Studio C- they always have fantastic local musicians on their program. I really wanted to play the gig, so earlier this year I went to Will Griffin, the producer/host of the show, and asked to be booked. He listened to my CD, and he booked me for the June 9 spot.

MATTHEW:  How is performing live on radio different from a concert performance?

LINDSAY:  Well, first of all, I love performing live because I can see the audience, and I try to make a really personal connection with everyone. I love being able to talk to the audience and feed off of their energy. Performing for a radio audience was interesting because I knew there was a listening audience, but I couldn’t see them or see how they responded to my tunes. I could only see the four or five people in the control room, so I almost had to close my eyes and pretend I had a live audience!

MATTHEW:  You have recently released your debut album, Living Inside-Out. How did this album come to be?

LINDSAY:  Well, this is kind of a long story…

About two years ago, I started performing jazz gigs around town, and I wanted to record some sort of demo or EP to help get more gigs. (Most of the places I wanted to play asked to hear a demo).

So, I went to a family friend, Michael Moryc, who is a jazz radio promoter and producer. I asked for his advice on how to go about recording an EP, and I asked him to come out and see me live. He then introduced me to his long-time friend, Denny Jiosa- a fantastic jazz guitarists, writer, and producer.

I went to meet Denny in the fall of 2007, and we really hit it off- we had the same ideas and taste in music, and we started to think about putting this EP together. He has a studio in his house, and he agreed to produce the project with Michael on one condition: I had to try co-writing one of the songs with him. I was pretty intimidated about writing jazz-at that point I had only ever written pop and country tunes. But, we put our heads together, and the first song we wrote was “Blame,” which actually ended up on the record.

It was really after writing “Blame” that we were a good team, and we enjoyed working together. So,we decided to keep writing and put an entire album together, rather than just an EP. We spent early 2008 writing, and recorded in the fall of 2008, and released “Living Inside-Out” in January 2009.

So, it was a really long process, but I learned a lot along the way, and I’m really proud of the CD. I’m especially glad that I co-wrote five of the ten songs on the record.

MATTHEW:  What are your musical aspirations as you enter your Senior Year at Belmont University?

LINDSAY:  I’ve got a lot of ideas for this coming year–

I’ve already started writing tunes for a second project, which I hope to start recording in the fall/winter of this year. The first CD has been getting some good radio play on straight-ahead jazz, smooth jazz and adult standards radio stations. I’m hoping to keep the radio momentum going with this second project.

Also, I’m playing some festivals this summer and fall: The Watertown Jazz Festival on July 11 in Watertown, TN; the On the Waterfront Festival in Rockford, IL on Sept. 4; and the Music City Jazz, Blues, and Heritage Festival on Sept. 6. (Everyone should come out to the riverfront on Sept. 6- it’s going to be a great festival). So, I’m just hoping to book more gigs and festivals through this year and get some bigger festivals next summer!