has been the phrase coming out of my mouth the last week.

I’ll start with the Listening Party that was such a great success and so much fun that I’m still reeling from it. That’s me standing on the bar to welcome everyone:) So many people came to support and really enjoyed my CD. I had a raffle to win a CD and Hayley Mcguire is the winner, so congrats Hayley!:)

Here is what some listeners had to say:

“I love “Validity”-the feel and melody is super catchy and fun! It’s hard to pick one favorite!” -Valerie

“The album was put together beautifully and had a really light upbeat feel”-Jo

“This is first time, I’ve heard your music and I am immediately impressed by your voice.” John

“‘My Friend’ and “Wait For Me” were two of my favorites. The lyrics and melody complemented your voice well. Great Music!!!”- Pete

“I love all the songs but especially “Super Girl”. The arrangement and vocals are so good-cool vibe, would love to hear it on the radio!!!!”- Troy

It was so nice to be able to talk to everyone while my CD was playing and really see the enjoyment on their faces. I think I have my youngest fan yet, Tovah, who is 2 years old and was bouncing out of her mom’s arms:)

Of course we were also celebrating my birthday which was the next day (last Tuesday May 8th). So on my actual birthday I had a lovely day sitting in the sun, writing in my notebook, listening to the sounds of a beautiful spring San Francisco day. I could hear someone playing a trumpet in the distance and it was the perfect soundtrack to the way I was feeling.

I went out to dinner with some close friends followed by dancing in a gay bar. That’s us being silly after dinner. It was so much fun! We realized that we have to go to gay bars more often because a.)they play cheesy top 40 music that I LOVE to dance to, and b.) noone bothers us except to comment on our outfit:) It was all I ever wanted…two love filled, music listening, celebrating, gay- bar dancing days.

So thank you universe…..I so appreciate it!

Lots of love,

Dana

My CD release party is coming up!!!! This Saturday May 19th is just 5 days away. I am so excited! so please RSVP to dana@dancarmel.com to find out where the event is happening!

woohoo!!!

Today is the day people! I can’t believe it’s finally here and it’s the most beautious day in San Francisco too… it’s unbelievable! I love having a birthday in May because there is always a chance of having it be nice weather. This year is no exception. Tomorrow for my actual birthday I’ll be able to have a beach birthday!:)

I would love to see you at the listening party today at Fly Bar (762 Divisadero) from 6-7pm. I’m going to play my CD “Validity” in its entirety and I am so excited (and nervous) to share it. I have worked so hard and so long and excited for the birth of my CD:)

I will hopefully see you there!

Love,

Dana

p.s. Tickets are going fast for my CD release party on May 19th! To find out the whole scoop check out myannouncement about the upcoming events!:)

Hey guys,

I just wanted to to tell you about an exciting idea I came up with in La. Basically this idea has been rumbling around in my head for a long time and I never really took it that seriously. Then while I was in La I decided that NOW is the time to do it! No second-guessing, no dilly-dallying, just plain putting it into action. I sat with the idea for a while to see how it felt. And the more I sat with it, the more I realized I HAD to do it. Like, “I don’t even have a choice”, HAD to do it! I am beyond excited and thrilled and nervous and can’t wait to get it started. I can’t tell you too much about it right now but I can say it’s going to be a BIG challenge. It’s going to take time and dedication and I’m READY! I hope you guys think it’s as exciting as I do! I will let you know more about it in a cupla weeks. Until then, I have so much to do for my parties!!!:) Happy Almost Birthday to me!!

I hope you’re having a great week!:)

Love,

Dana

p.s. Tickets are selling for my CD release party on May 19th! To find out the whole scoop check out my announcement about the upcoming events!:)

Woo-eee!

what a week! I am still reeling from all the information and all the new people that I met in La. I was there to visit friends and to attend the “I Create Music” ASCAP music expo where I went last year and will attend many more.

The ASCAP expo is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s an event for music creators: whether it’s songwriters, producers, publishers, lawyers, people in the business. There were some amazing panels…My favorite was probably Bruno Mars and the Smeezingtons (his co-writing team). They were so funny and oh so charming!

There were a lot of amazingly talented musicians and songwriters and it was so inspiring to be around. Actually my REAL favorite was the songwriters “circle” that closed the event. 4 extraordinary songwriters performed songs that they wrote, most of them for other artists. They were Johnny Lang, Lindy Robbins, Hilary Lindsey and Priscilla Renae.

When you hear songs on the radio, you forget (or at least I do) about the people who actually wrote them. It was such a treat to hear the creators sing their songs. Priscilla Renae’s voice knocked me on the floor. She wrote “California King Bed” for Rihanna, and she sang it 1000 times better than her.( She also has a song on Madonna’s record.)

What I took away from the Expo is that if you’re a creative person, then you should be creating. Doesn’t matter if it’s for you, or your mom, or if you’re writing songs for Avril Lavigne. You create. That’s what you do.

There was something that all the panelists had in common too. And that was that they believed in themselves and they never gave up. Ryan Tedder (of One Republic) said “I don’t believe in Plan Bs”. He also told one of my favorite stories which is that Adele sang “Rumour has it” (the song he wrote for her) in ONE take! That means she sang the whole thing through one time, and that’s the take they used. It is pretty effing amazing….Especially when you hear the song. I’ll leave it for you here.

In summary, I learned a lot, met new friends, saw old ones, and I’m already looking forward to the expo next year:)

Hope you had a great week too,

Dana

02 Rumour Has It

Hey guys,

Instead of a blog this week I made a little video just to say hi! Hope you are having a great Tuesday:)

All my lala love,
Dana

A few months ago a friend told me about a contest for a company called Brad’s Raw Chips to write a jingle. I was really excited about it, and I wrote the song in about 10 minutes. I really love writing songs for things like this. It’s fun and exercises a different creative muscle.

So last week, I actually got an email saying that I am a finalist in the competition! Hooray!:) Apparently there were a lot of entries so the judging won’t take place for a while but it’s still a nice surprise.

I think the jingle I wrote is pretty funny and REALLY catchy. It gets stuck in my head all the time. I sang it for my co-workers and now we enter in different words to entertain ourselves. “It’s boring, we’re snoring, it’s Fly Bar Wednesday night”. (It’ll make sense once you listen to it:) I totally see little chips and snacks singing this song:)

So, I thought I’d let you listen to my Brad’s Raw healthy snack jingle. I actually have 3 versions…..I’ll put 2 versions up so you can hear the long and short ones.

I’d love to hear what you think:) Enjoy!

Lots of  love,

Dana

Brad’s 30sec jingle

Brads Raw min.version

p.s. Tickets are going fast for my CD release party on May 19th! To find out the whole scoop check out my announcement about the upcoming events!:)

(that’s me making my announcement)

Hear ye hear ye- I have an announcement to make! I have been finalizing the dates for my parties (yes plural) and I was going to wait until next week to talk about it but I can’t wait any longer. I’m just way too excited and I want you to put the dates in your calendar already!:) So without further ado…..

I am going to have a listening/birthday party on Monday May 7th at Fly Bar (762 Divisadero) from           6-7pm. What is a listening party you might ask? Well, it’s a party where we listen to the CD. I’m not going to play live, I am just going to blast it on the speakers so people can hear what I’ve been working on, and the album that I am so proud of.

(My Birthday is May 8th so it’s going to be a party to celebrate the birth of my CD AND the birth of me;) I’m so excited to get your feedback and I’m going to have fun ways to win copies. If you can’t come to that, don’t fret because….

On Saturday May 19th I’m having a “soft release” at a house concert. It’s from 7-10 (location revealed upon confirmation)and I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be a really intimate setting, and I’m going to do a “story-tellers” type of set. It’ll be free beer and wine and the cost is $15 (plus you get really awesome gifts:) . The seating is very limited so if you know that you are interested, RSVP to dana@danacarmel.com with subject RSVP and I will tell you how to proceed from there.

I have something else in the works that I can’t tell you about quite yet but as soon as it’s confirmed, you’ll read about it here first. If you want to know FIRST FIRST, get on my list because that’s where I share all the exclusive info. I’m so excited to see you at one or both of these events. Stay tuned for all that’s to come.

Thank you so much for all of your support. It really means the world to me.

all my lovin’,

Dana

OK, so I got my CD. I am so excited about it! It’s been ready for so long and I’ve been listening to it a lot and now I want to hear what everyone else thinks:)

The hard part is really knowing what to do next. I have people who come into the bar where I work and they ask “So when’s the album dropping?” and my answer is “I’m working on it”. Which is true. I have so much information coming at me from a million different directions. My music mentor Cari Cole thinks I should make 2 video firsts, then release each single, and THEN release my album. My patience and bank account don’t seem up for that.

I’m trying to find the balance between what people in the industry think and what I feel is right. When I released my EP “The Difference”, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I thought telling people about it would be enough to get them to the show and although my good friends came, no one else did. I had no idea about proper marketing and PR. So this time I’m taking all that into consideration.

I am trying to be patient and to do what is best for this album even though patience is not my strongest virtue. I just wanted to share how much actually goes into releasing a record. There’s a lot behind the scenes that even I don’t know about yet…. but that I’m learning. So I’ll share with you as I go. Glad you’re here:-)

-Lots of record releasing love,

D

I’m probably committing some kind of blog sin by writing about the same thing twice but I don’t care…I’m doing it anyway. Yes that’s right folks, it’s gaga time (g)again! (I told you I love putting two words together:)

I wrote about her a while back in this post but I just saw her interview with Oprah and was inspired to write again. I’ll try not to repeat myself too much.

The thing I got the most out of the interview was actually how smart she is. I can’t believe she is only 25 years old! She is so sure of herself and seems to know herself so well and it’s a quality I can’t help but admire. When she was talking about her creative process (which is the part that I was really interested in) she was saying that she holes up for a few months and goes through what sounds like some pretty “rough” times. Until she gets to the other side and gets the hit she’s been looking for.

I can only imagine what those times are. What does she do? Drink whiskey? Smoke weed? Do other drugs? But that’s not the point. The point is that she knows what her creative process is…That she knows she has to lock herself in her room and wait until it comes. And that she does it. She goes through it so that she gets to the other side.

So of course, it got me thinking….what is my creative process? Maybe I should have more of a concrete one….Maybe I should hole myself up in a cabin for a couple of months until I emerge with a new record. Sometimes, I do really feel like doing that. Maybe not months, but days for sure.

The other thing that struck me about that, is that she is waiting to write a hit. I mean, I don’t have 20 million people waiting to hear my new stuff so if I wrote a hit or not, no one but me would know (and I’ve written a few:-)….But one of the things she said that inspired me most was that she’s trying to hit a nerve. She was like “what’s the point if it doesn’t?” She doesn’t want to be writing mediocre  pop songs that don’t illicit a strong reaction. It was very inspiring to me.

Say what you will about Lady Gaga, but her commitment to her craft and her desire to get the world talking is admirable, and it’s working. Not to mention her smarts and her love of helping others. She is starting a foundation called the Born This Way Foundation to help youth feel safe and celebrate their individuality. It’s  a really important and influential step against bullying and feeling more comfortable in your shoes. In the Oprah special last night there were 3 youths interviewed about how Gaga has helped them and it’s really touching and awesome to hear that they now feel better about who they are because of her. It’s something none of her haters can take away from her.

So, that’s my spiel. I find it inspiring even though she may not be my favorite artist. I appreciate what she’s doing and it’s nice to see a “celebrity’ using their fame for good. What do you think?

Gaga for now,

D

(me and my bro is NYC a couple summers ago)

wow, what a weekend! My brother was in town and so I took a few days off from work so we could hang. It’s what I like to call a staycation. We had so much fun, eating and drinking our way through San Francisco that now I need an actual VACAY-tion;)

My most favorite part was going out Friday night. We went to a club in SF called Monarch and it was such a great party. You probably don’t know this about me but I LOVE me some house music. The summer before my senior year of college I interned with OM records (out here in SF) and probably had the best summer of my life. In fact, the founder of OM is also one of the owners of Monarch. So needless to say, the place is pretty cool.

The party was awesome. People were nice, and they were so into the music, and the music was great. The DJ’s(Claude Von Stroke and Eats Everything) are part of a label called Dirtybird, and they played some Dirty Beats. The thing I loved the most was just remembering how much fun I have listening to good house music (there is obviously a big distinction between good and bad house…Technically I’m not sure what it is but I know when I love something. It usually has some melody to it and some Dirty Bass).

Anyway, it made me feel like I was myself. To dance, to sweat, to be there for the music. I felt free. It reminded me that I need to take myself out dancing more often. It’s hard to remember because it’s so easy to get comfortable in life-doing the same things, eating the same food, hanging out with the same people. But the effort is totally worth it! If I went out dancing like that more often (and I’m not talking every weekend but at least once a month), I’m sure my energy level and excitement would be much greater.

So that’s my two cents. Remember what it is you love to do, that makes you feel free, that brings you back to yourself and make the effort to do it. I am so glad I did! And now back to my recovering….

lots of house music listening love,
Dana

p.s.The thing I love about good house music is that it takes you somewhere. When the DJ is good, he takes you to a place where you reach the apex and then he drops it on you and it feels so good. Kinda like reaching a different kind of apex I suppose….;)

Here’s a good example of that in one of my old time faves….
I actually don’t have the song so I’m linking it to the youtube video. Not my favorite way of listening but it works. Listen to how the bass comes in around 1:40 minute mark. It takes a while to get there but when it does it’s awesome! That’s what I love about it….. Turn up the speakers and dance!

Junior Jack E-Samba