Acoustic Love Letters

Today is an exciting day for me.

Life has had a really funny way of telling me that I'm not ready for Music.  I was supposed to have an EP release in 2011, 12, and 13.  Here it is 2014 and I'm putting out an acoustic project, one much different than the project that I set out to release in the first place.  Like I said, life is funny that way.  It doesn't always go as planned, but it always goes as intended.

For years, people have told me, just put something out.  But with the budgets I've had, the setbacks I've experienced, and the points of pure human resistance, I never got around to putting anything out.  There have been countless times when I've been close to finished with a project, only for something drastic to happen to have me start over completely from scratch.  This most recent time forced me in a different direction.  Those of you who have kind of followed my path up until now probably know that I've been working on a project called, "Audiobook".  I am now working on Audiobook version 3.0 because of the amount of times I've had to start fresh.  Audiobook 3.0, however, experienced a minor scare late in December forcing me to think outside of the box.  I decided I would compile all of the loose songs that had no placement in any project and realized they were all love songs, hence "Acoustic Love Letters".  This project is special to me for a number of reasons.

1. One, it is an acoustic, live album, which I've always wanted to do but did not think I would be doing this soon in my music "career".
2. Two, this project is self recorded from my home "studio", the first project I have ever "engineered".
3. Three, this project is coming to me at a really great time in my life, one where these love letters ring very true to how I currently feel about love and life, so it feels very genuine (to me).
4. Lastly, this project has taught me that if you truly believe in your path and your purpose, you find ways to make it work.  It has taught me that sometimes to prove you are blindly faithful you must go against the resistance, even if it is out of your control and find ways to navigate against the grain.  This project has taught me that the person that I can always rely on is myself and the only person that can let me down is me, so if I don't get where I need to go, well, who is to blame?  This project has strengthened me as an artist, and more importantly a person.

I am so excited to share this project with you all, MY VERY FIRST release of original music, after YEARS of being a writer, composer, and artist.

Please Enjoy, Acoustic Love Letters

Human Condition

I've been drawing this picture of myself since I was just a little girl
It started out with squiggly lines over an oval to symbolize my curls
And then I started to add in things that I hadn't yet seen in the mirror
A couple of curves, voluptuous lips and lashes just to make it more clear
That it wasn't my characteristics that made me beautiful, it was all of the expectations I was expected to meet
My womanhood

Once I had completed my desired features I tried to blend the tan and brown crayons to match my complexion
Not yet knowing that perfection
Could not be depicted from something I could find inside of a box, of manufactured thoughts
For no one is truly able to define the colors inside of me

So then I added in accessories, like vanity and impurity,
Trying to associate myself with the things society was teaching me to be
Ha, this self portrait is starting to not look like me.
Yet no matter how many times I crumple up the paper and start fresh, I can't seem to get past the idea that all that I've been drawing is proof that I've been processed

It started out with squiggly lines over an oval to symbolize my curls
Who knew my artistry would get out of control?

Intricacy grows as I paint in what appears to be a moat
Separating my heart from my being, trying to disassociate myself from what it means to be intelligent and free
I wish I was naïve
Because ignorance is bliss and because I know that a part of the reason that I'm feeling like this is a result of this reflection of this manufactured image
Too afraid to say wait, I may have made a mistake, can I erase the places where I once wrote group think, fear, conform
I don't know who I am anymore, I'm torn
So I'm peeling back paint
Trying to relate to the girl that's beneath all of this self hate
I hope that you can see me for me, I'm probably not what you think
But I'm trying to be, the artist that's in control of this representation of me
And eventually, you'll appreciate my transparency
Please be patient with me
Cause I've been drawing this picture of myself since I was just a little girl
Without knowing the squiggly lines would represent more than just my curls

painting by Jessica Oropesa

Geminelle (2013)