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AISHA THE REMIXES 1. Contemporary Girl (Original Mix) AISHA 1. Incipit Overview: I decided to do a remix album because it gave me the chance to put together some of my favorite versions of each song in the early stages of the album's release. Aisha The Remixes 1. Contemporary Girl (Original Mix) The Album Track By Track Contemporary Girl Contemporary Girl has several mixes, which gave me a chance to record in some of my favorite genres. The techno remix is very upbeat, the rap remix and garage versions have more rigid beats. Love Lost The remixes for Love Lost have a more Latin sound to them. I love percussive sounds and that is the sound prominently featured on them. Love Found Love Found is the remix of Love Lost. Get the pun on the titles? Love Lost, Love Found. The remix is the happy ending. Heart Versus Mind I listen to a lot of jazz, therefore I was inspired to record Heart Versus Mind in a jazz type format. I did a techno reggae fusion remix for the track, which pleasantly blended two of my favorite styles (techno and reggae). Amazing Grace Amazing Grace was a lot of fun to record. I did a traditional version and a remix version. The remix is one of my favorites that I've done. I love techno. I think it comes from growing up in Miami. It's just a sound that makes me cheerful and I do a lot of techno remixes. After I'd recorded the original version, I kept singing a techno type version of it, therefore I decided to record one as well that would serve as the remix. It was a fun recording session and it flowed really well. It was really inspiring. I went all Southern Baptist on the song. I love the way it turned out and it is one of my favorite recording sessions. It offers a contemporary techno update on a wonderful classic. The Lord is my Shepherd I really like how this remix turned out. It a different take on the song, without it being overly modern. AISHA 1. Incipit Overview: I love music and I wanted to use different themes throughout the album that would be an accurately representation of that. I wouldn't say I have a style, because the album covers so many genres that it would be difficult to classify. The rock guitar is a sound that's prevalent through out the album. Heavy bass lines are also a reoccurring theme in most of the songs because it's one of my favorite sounds. It's definitely the kind of album I wanted to make. Sometimes, you have the ideas, but in the course of putting it together, it doesn't necessarily come out the way you envisioned. Thank God, this record has turned out even better than I envisioned it. Some of the songs are from my experiences, but By God's grace I wrote and sang some songs from someone else's perspective and I feel it still kept its relevance without it becoming fictional. The sounds and lyrics are different from the songs that are out now. It's not me deliberately trying to be different; it's my perception on record. The Album Track By Track 1. Incipit The intro to the album. 2. Contemporary Girl The first song I produced. However, it's not the first song I wrote. I wrote Contemporary Girl a few years ago, but the lyrics are still very relevant. It stemmed from a song I wrote when I was 15 years old that I intended to use for my debut single. The song was just the accumulation of years of being told by the mainstream media that women should be domineering and unfeeling. Those roles are prominently figured into television shows, films and written into songs. However, it flew in the face of everything I was taught growing up. I'm also a very warm hearted person and I don't believe women should dominate men, even though that's the message that's commonly endorsed in the mainstream. I have to be assertive and authoritative with the company (Sonustar), but I don't want that in a relationship as well. I prefer for the man to take the initiative. The lyrics are very profound. You have to really listen to the words. Lines like "he shakes in the dust like you're San Andreas, you bring out his faults..." San Andreas is a fault that causes earthquakes, which causes buildings to shake. I don't know how many people caught that. "You try to get rid of him like the flu." You know how when you get the flu and you say, "I've got to get rid of this cold." "How are you gonna rule the world with P.M.S" is my favorite line. So you have to pay attention to the lyrics for the little jokes and puns. That's basically the gist of the song - that it's okay to be normal and not go around with a chip on your shoulder. I was stunned at how it turned out. It had this great, non-genre sound to it. I really didn't know what to call it, but it became one of my favorites. 3. Bachelor Of Hearts Well, I bashed women on the first single, so I figured I bash men on this one. Just kidding. It's an up-tempo track with r&b, rock, reggae and Latin sounds. The reggae sound is from my Jamaican background and the Latin sound is from me being raised in Miami, which is predominantly Hispanic. Mr. Right, is an up tempo track with a sing a long type chorus. 'Mr. Right' is autobiographical. It's about my search for the right man and what I'm looking for in a guy. I also talk about what girls should not do in their search for the right guy. 5. You Talk Like A White Girl I wrote this song in 2002. It's something that has been said about me over the years because I don't speak with much slang and use big words according to some people. For example, my mom will make a new friend, they'll call the house for the first time and later she'll tell me they said things like "Who's that white girl that answered the phone?" I don't speak like a valley girl, but I don't really use slang either. So basically, I speak English! I mean, with a half-Irish grandmother who was a teacher, a mom who taught disabled people and an aunt who taught in the British school system for years, what did you expect - for me to speak like Scooby Doo? Scooby and I are the same color, but the similarities end there. 6. You Wouldn't Date A Black Girl I wrote this song in 2002. It has an accompanying article that I wrote for the Sound Off page on September 9th, 2002. It's a touchy subject, but it needed to be said. This song is gonna rub some people the wrong way, but it is something that needs to be talked about. As I said in the song, I'm not against interracial dating. If it weren't for inter-racial dating I wouldn't be here, as my grandparents were an interracial couple and there are other interracial relationships in my family and those of my friends as well, but they are genuine. Those are based on love. They didn't pick their partner based on their color. I'd go out with and marry a person of any color. Race is not a prerequisite with me. However, there are some black people who do care about color and you can tell this in that they never date or marry anyone black. One after another, the person they date and different people they marry are never black. Other black people notice these things and it is offensive. When you constantly date different people and none of them are black, it sends your race an insulting message that we aren't good enough when you are the one with issues. And what message does that send people of other races about you? That you think no one in your race is good enough to date. They must wonder, why does so and so never have a black girlfriend. They don't want to be perceived as racist and ask, but I'm sure they wonder. You're black and you date different people and none of them are ever black. What is that about. As a black person, you expect racism sometimes from prejudice people of other races, but you don't expect it from your own. Some of these men are giving black women complexes due to this discriminatory behavior. I wrote this song for them. To help put it in perspective for them, as it's not their fault someone else is a racist, even if they are black too. Go figure! There are black people who discriminate against other black people. They don't want to be black, have very few if any black friends and never date anyone black. I knew a few mixed black people who didn't even want to associate with other black people for fear of being labeled black by association, when no one even thought of them as white in the first place. The song addresses all these issues. 7. The N Word I wrote this song about people who use the N word (ni*ger) behind black people's backs. I think it's a very cowardly and characterless thing to do. It's like some racists feel tough when they use the word. Like they have a sense of power, when it's a clear sign of being hateful and simple. It is the height of ignorance, which, ironically is what the word means. It's kind of ironic to see a person use a slur that describes their behavior. However, the word is a slur and should not be used. It shows the world your character, well, lack thereof, that you'd use a word that for years, especially during slavery, symbolized the inhumanity some displayed towards black people. A race of people who were taken from Africa and shipped to different countries to work for free. Countries where they were beaten, abused, tortured and sometimes killed. Therefore, I don't understand how any civilized human being that doesn't have the IQ of a rock and wasn't raised in a cave could use the slur knowing the evil and hatred that birthed it. 8. Metronome I've never used metronomes. I probably should (laughs). It's not out of arrogance. I go by natural rhythm. The idea for the song came from me pondering whether or not I should use a metronome, but then I thought, I go by natural rhythm and have written so many songs without using one so far. Metronome manufacturers will not find that statement very amusing (laughs). It's a futuristic techno song. I love techno, so I really enjoyed the song. I wanted to write a whimsical techno song that avoided too much structure. Some lines have natural, airy, upper octave vocals, while other segments I vocoded. Is that a word? (laughs). What I meant was, I used a vocoder application to give it a robotic sound. 9. Interlude This is interlude is the intro for Everything's Gonna Be Ok. 10. Everything Is Gonna Be Ok A very optimistic mid-tempo song. It's a song about the things people go through and not to worry or give up. It's the only mid-tempo track on the album. Most of the songs I write are either ballads or up tempo songs, but I decided to make something that's a bit mellow, but with a decent tempo at the same time. 11. Love Lost The song is about coping with losing love. It is also about forgiveness. I included two Bible verses in it as well. One of the main points of the song is in the line, "Love doesn't fail, people fail." When things go wrong people are sometimes left wondering, but these things often happen due to people being unfaithful or abandoning the person they are with. 12. Love Of My Life This song is about God and it means a lot to me. It's a rock ballad. Recording this song was quite an experience. I sang my little heart out. I recorded it late one Saturday and it was just one of those recording sessions that are very memorable. Prior to that, I hadn't figured out any of the melodies at all. I only had the lyrics I'd written when I started recording it. I sang from the heart, until I felt the song was right. Then I had to edit all of that singing down (laughs). The lyrics show how I feel. Even the line that states, "The tears in my eyes that I could not cry." For the last few years, I haven't really been able to cry. I'm not cold hearted or callous, I just don't cry anymore. Something sad might happen and my eyes will well up a bit with tears, but I can't cry. The tears just won't flow. I'll think I'm gonna cry, then like clockwork the emotion stops and the tears don't flow. 13. Interlude Prelude to Why Did This Happen To Me 14. Why Did This Happen Probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite, song on the album. Some of my best work, in my opinion. Emotionally it was bit difficult to record. I was writing a topic for the sound-off page a few years ago and the song was inspired by it. The song is about AIDS. While I do not have the disease, the song is me writing and singing from someone else's perspective as a way of reaching out to people going through those struggles. Looking at the album, I touched on so many topics, but this was one that needed to be on there more than many of the other tracks. 15. Heart Versus Mind It’s a song about God telling you in your heart that someone you want to marry is not right for you, but you having difficulty letting them go. A lot of people are in love with people they shouldn’t be because they will only hurt them, and in spite of knowing this, they still don’t want to let the person go. The prayer at night is “But God,” when their mind and sometimes heart as well, is telling them the person’s not right for them. When you are of the faith, you especially have to watching for this, as you will end up mismated and miserable if you persist and marry the person. I listen to a lot of jazz, therefore I was inspired to record it in a jazz format. I did a techno reggae fusion remix for Heart Versus Mind (The remix version is available on "Aisha The Remixes" and on the "Heart Versus Mind" CD single). This is one of my favorite remixes. I wanted to see if I could blend two of my favorite styles (techno and reggae) successfully and it worked. I try to incorporate reggae into my music often, due to my Jamaican background. 16. Keep The Faith A song about life and the questions people ask sometimes when they face adversity. It's also an optimistic song. It encourages people to keep trying and to keep faith in God. 17. Amazing Grace Amazing Grace was a lot of fun to record. I did a traditional version and a remix version (The remix version is available on "Aisha The Remixes" and on the "Amazing Grace" CD single). The remix is one of my favorites that I've done. I love techno. I think it comes from growing up in Miami. It's just a sound that makes me cheerful and I do a lot of techno remixes. After I'd recorded the original version, I kept singing a techno type version of it, therefore I decided to record one as well that would serve as the remix. It was a fun recording session and it flowed really well. It was really inspiring. I went all Southern Baptist on the song. I love the way it turned out and it is one of my favorite recording sessions. It offers a contemporary techno update on a wonderful classic. 18. The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23) The Lord Is My Shepherd is such a great traditional hymn. I did another remix of this hymn as well. I love both versions. The traditional version is very inspiring and the techno remix is very uplifting. 19. Disciples Dirge (Symphony No. 1) The first symphony I'd ever written. The lyrics for it are rooted in the Bible. It's about Jesus' crucifixion from the perspective of the Disciples, then from the perspective of a modern day believer recalling past events. It really gave me a chance to work with different sounds. It's has 5 movements with opera vocals that I perform. This song enabled me to use the fully range and texture of my voice. It also made me very thankful for the voice God has given me and is a reminder to me of the blessing he gave me. To be able to sing opera is very rewarding. 20. Violins An instrumental song of violin parts. 21. Finis Reprises the intro concluding the album. |
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