naomiland

born to be wild

it's settled then.

i'm going to glastonbury on my birthday, this saturday, directly following my set at hyde park calling.

at approximately 6pm (ish) i will jump on the back of a motorbike and ride off into the mud. it's more fuel efficient and faster than a car, and what an entrance, right? especially if it's raining for the entire 2 hour journey and i show up looking like a drowned rat. but who cares, really. i bought my waterproof suit and leopard print wellies and i'm ready for the rain. (wellies are tall rubber boots, for my friends back home.)

i made soup for some sick friends today. sick in the health sense. not the mental sense. although, actually...
they all said it was delicious. of course, they might have been lying. it was really spicy and lemony and full of stuff to make them better so we can have fun this weekend. they're throwing a little party for me, and i (selfishly) want everyone to be healthy for that. i wonder what's more likely to survive - a cake brought to glastonbury by friends tomorrow morning and exposed to the rain and mud and general chaos, or a cake strapped to my back as i ride on the back of a motorcycle. i don't know. man....this is gonna be FUN. best birthday ever? i don't know. but i have the feeling it's going to be a good one.

blogging is a really strange thing. it's almost like a journal, but you know all sorts of people will read it. i could just write a journal but this is much more fun. and you don't have to worry about people finding it and reading it when you've already posted it online. i always think i should keep it more about business and less about personal. which i guess i mostly do. kind of.

anyway - i nearly freaked out when i saw this.
i mean, really. is it not just a bit insane?

ok - madonna - my #1 go-to for karaoke. many embarrassing moments spent singing madonna songs (sometimes sober, even!) into a crappy mic in front of friends and family.

the beastie boys showed me that jews can be super cool. and can rap. whoa. who knew? (before you freak out and call me an antisemite, remember - i'm jewish!)

red hot chili peppers. don't even know where to begin with that one. at least not publicly.

i have really vivid memories involving music from almost all of these bands....so it's really really strange to look at the page of photos and see mine at the bottom. next to spinal tap. (that one is strange for multiple reasons.)

i'm trying out my in-ear monitors this weekend at hyde park. figured it would be a good idea to test them out before playing to an audience of 90,000 live and potentially hundreds of millions more on tv and online. and if you think that is not a strange number to type out, think again.

i would venture a guess that i'm probably the only artist on the bill who's been playing club dates for audiences of 50 -100. at least anytime in the relatively close past. and i would also venture a guess that once i get out there and play that first note everything else will disappear and it will just be me and my guitar playing a show for individual people, as i always do. (best case scenario. worst case scenario involves jumping off the stage and using my guitar as a battering ram as i fight my way out from a sea of people.)

honestly, i'm not worried. talk to me in 2 weeks and we'll see how that stands. but really - it's not surgery. no one's life is dependent upon my performance. i'm a musician, and i'll play a song for people, and hopefully they will get something from it. business as usual.....

xoxo
me

   

wake up! it's morning!

it's a new day. every morning we start over again. the sun rises, the cycle begins again...we can change the way we thought yesterday, the way we reacted yesterday, the choices we make on a daily basis. we can start over anytime we like. i love this thought. keeps me going sometimes. because no one makes the right decisions/says and does the right things all the time. and i receive new information every day.

this morning i read about electricity. didn't think about unplugging appliances when they are not in use. i just assumed it was ok to leave them plugged in as long as they weren't on. silly me. so i've spent the morning unplugging those not-in-use appliances, chargers, etc. it will now take me approximately 2 extra seconds to turn something on. i think i can handle that.

this newfound excitement and quest to learn everything i can learn about conserving resources is brought on by the fact that LIVE EARTH is less than 20 days away! and i'm playing at the london concert. ya. seriously. i will soon write a detailed account of how and why and wtf and all that - it is a crazy story. i mean, seriously crazy. and the craziest part is that it is 100% truth. when i think back on the past year and the events which have led to  the present, it totally and completely blows my mind. because i could not have made things line up so perfectly - no one could have - it's mystifying. more on that later....but back to my initial thought about live earth, which is my hope for everyone: once something is brought to our attention, we cannot carry on in the same way...well, we can, but i personally find it really hard to use plastic cups, take taxis everywhere, leave the tv on, now that conservation is a part of my consciousness. and i believe this will happen to millions of other people as well. sometimes all it takes is to have something pointed out to us by another person. and we are no longer ignorant.

i spent a long time worrying about the future of the world. it's still scary if you think too much about it. but here's the thing. live earth is not just a concert. it's a giant fire under our feet and a wake up call and a launch point. it's a time for 2 billion people to come together and feel the power we have as a group - to feel the strength of millions and millions on every continent embracing each other and committing to change. obviously we the climate is changing and it has happened throughout the history of the planet, but it is changing faster than ever and largely due to our actions. and these actions can and must be changed now! i believe that 7.7.07 will mark a giant shift in consciousness on this planet. people will open their eyes. it's not about the concert - i mean, obviously it is to some extent - but the concert is just a means to an end. bring people together. open our eyes and ears and hearts.

go here and educate yourselves:
www.stopclimatechaos.org

get involved:
icount

every little bit counts.

i am working on some ideas for festival season. experienced my first festival the other day and i was in shock at the amount of waste created by these events. one thing we can do is reuse our plastic cups. it's so easy. i watched people drink one beverage and then toss the cup away and go to the bar for another drink in another plastic cup. it made my heart sink. so, in the spirit of all of us making a difference and every positive action being part of the solution, if even one person reads my little blog and decides to reuse his/her plastic cups at a concert this summer...well, that's a start.

i've also been taking the bus and tube as much as possible. in fact, i'm going to take the tube to live earth. obviously i can't take public transport all the time, but i won't have my piano with me at live earth, so why not. my amazing tour manager sam has already given the thumbs up as well.

oh - and by the way - sam took me to see muse last night at wembley stadium. i can now officially report to all of you that wembley stadium is, indeed, really f*cking huge. i haven't spent much time at stadiums. don't like sports and wasn't really into giant concerts and festivals. until lately. i don't know why, but i LOVE huge festivals and stadium shows now. it's quite odd. i have also rediscovered dancing all night in clubs to really loud, and often times cheesy, music. i don't know what's happened, but it seems like all i want to do is go to a packed club full of sweaty people dancing. even a month ago this would have looked like a perfect nightmare to me. it's quite odd. oh well. everything is constantly changing and i love it.

oh - and by the way - inevitably live earth will have outspoken critics in the media. first of all, the concerts will be "green" meaning that every effort will be made to limit the waste - recycling, reduced packaging, locally grown food (that's a big one and something we should all look into even for the health benefits!!). but that won't be the biggest issue. i believe one main focus of the naysayers will be jet fuel wasted in flying artists around the world. in fact, i officially give a big thumbs down to muse frontman matt bellamy and the who's roger daltry for their criticism of the concert. obviously everyone "knows about climate change" and what the hell is your point?!? knowing about it and doing something are very very different. peoples' awareness and actions will change after july 7th. and the issue of jet fuel - to me, this seems so obvious. many of these artists will be touring anyway. but even more than that, i liken it to invasive surgery or chemotherapy. yes, we are adding to the problem for a day. however, the massive impact of these artists and their ability to draw the attention of billions of people which will lead to tangible changes in hundreds of millions of peoples' daily lives - this more than makes up for the initial downside. 

this is only the beginning...

   

hmm....

i don't know what this means, but found it interesting nonetheless. looked at my "latest headlines" link this morning and here's the list:

bulgaria to press bush on shield
sarkozy party 'set for landslide'
oympic firms 'abusing workers'
hi-tech bomb found in kabul
explosion rocks central nairobi
gaza gunmen fire on PM's home
powell urges guantanamo closure
US viewers watch soprano's finale
libya talks aim to release medics
chinese floods leave dozes dead
airline carbon plan gets UN nod
cairo camus veil ban struck down
many die in bangladesh landslides

one of these things is not like the others......

all that is wrong

and from the same democracy which brought you fixed presidential elections, we proudly present:

the united states legal system! truth and justice for all! well, jail time for poor people and minorities and freedom for the rich! can't argue with that, right? no really - you can't. because they'll win. because that's what they do.

legal loopholes for rich sluts

eh eh eh

ugghhh.

prior to last week i had never heard a song by rihanna.  i know it's hard to believe, but i couldn't have picked her out of a lineup.

and now, thanks to one conversation at a venue in london, i'm addicted to 'umbrella.'  it's ear-crack. how does that happen?!  i knew my addiction was out of control when i added it to my favorite videos on youtube. now i can watch it whenever i want, with very little effort. thanks, youtube.

and she looks so amazing in that video. if i covered myself in silver paint it would just look scary. damn her and her incredibly perfect tropical island genetics. that girl is blessed. i went to barbados as a child but apparently none of those genes rubbed off on me.

oh well.

clarification!

was getting some concerned messages from people who read the entry below....felt i needed to clarify a few things so here is something i wrote on my message board a moment ago. try as i might, being misunderstood seems to be in my cards, so a bit of extra commentary is sometimes necessary:

you guys are so sweet to worry about me and how i might feel in regards to the comments and the growth of my career.

actually, i wasn't feeling disheartened at all in that blog - merely commenting on the inevitable. there are people who never bought another nirvana album after bleach. there are phish fans who complained about the album my producer made ('hoist') - and the album went on to sell more than any other phish album and brought their music to a whole new group of people.

i stand 100% behind this album. i love it. i also love the acoustic versions, of course, and we will make acoustic versions available every time we release studio recordings. luckily the songs really do work both ways, and i will always think of myself first as a live performance artist - not a studio artist. live shows are my most favorite way to get my music to people, and there is something magical about the energy of a live performance. so you can expect many more live and acoustic recordings from me.

i don't want anyone to think for a minute that i have any reservations about the path i have taken. it is wonderful and getting better every day!!

xo
terra
:)

strange process

every day i am amazed by the things i see and hear. that's nothing new, of course, but lately i see and hear more things about myself than i have in the past. some things make me happy and some things make me go "what?!?"

people seem to like the concept of "stay true to yourself" and seem to think that "staying true to myself" means continuing to make homemade videos from my tiny apartment in hollywood, doing the same thing over and over again with little or no deviation.

it's so interesting. i've seen it before with other artists and always wondered if it would happen to me....never fails, i guess. everyone is entitled to his/her own preferences. including me.

it's also interesting that about 50% of the people who write about me compare me to other artists who became popular on the internet. i guess that's to be expected at this early stage...but to me the internet is just another venue - another club - like any other club i've played while touring over the last four years. it's me, in front of you, playing my music. i guess people are suspicious of "internet fame" since there have been a few examples of people who used it for press by inflating numbers of views, and had detailed marketing plans when they set out to "get famous" online. that's the difference here - well, that and the fact that i actually have good songs - i never set out to prove anything by posting my songs online. i simply didn't want to tour on my own again and thought i would most likely reach the same number of people by posting videos on youtube and myspace. i thought they would be seen by 1000-2000 people, max. the rest was a complete surprise. like much of my career, i did not plan anything - just tried something that seemed interesting and might get my music out to more people. and obviously i hoped a lot of people would like it and maybe forward the videos to their friends. as far as i'm concerned, comparing me to some of these other artists is like saying i sound like mika because we're both signed to island records, or  saying that amy winehouse sounds like emily haines because they both played shepherd's bush empire. i could go on but i'm sure you get the point. it's ridiculous. soon the world will become more comfortable with online music. discovering new artists on youtube and myspace will be nothing out of the ordinary - just like walking into a club and hearing an artist you've never heard before.

i don't mind comparisons - i understand that people need reference points. they need to categorize things they haven't seen before. i only wish some of the references were a bit more educated.

oh - before i forget - here's a link for pre-ordering the "say it's possible" limited edition 7" vinyl. 500 copies will go to stores in the Uk but you can order from anywhere:

PREORDER 7" SINGLE HERE!

i will post a banner on here very soon. it links to the preorder site and i would love for people to post on their myspace pages and websites....i know most people don't even have record players, so hopefully you will download the single when it's released on june 11th! (fingers crossed - i would really love for it to climb the charts without any real marketing! would be amazing) but this 7" single could be a cool collectible....it's a limited run of 500 and the image on the cover will be the last of its kind. after seeing it, i realize that the image doesn't really fit with my music as well as i would like it to! it's a fairly common thing to go through in the early stages, when people are still figuring things out...and i still like it - it's just not quite the right fit.

so there's the story.

more later.
xo
terra