‘WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN’
DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN ORIGINAL SONG

This, was a real labour of love, with countless hours not only writing the song but crafting the video.
With so much footage to go through it took endless hours picking the right moments for certain lines in the song, as well as trying to keep some essence of story along the way.
I am always proud of the songs I write but this one definitely feels different somehow, so I really hope you enjoy both the song and video even if you’ve not played the game.

MAFIA: THE OLD COUNTRY ORIGINAL SONG
‘STILL RUNS THE RIVER’

When I saw the trailer for Mafia: The Old Country at the game awards I was blown away by how beautiful it looked. The more trailers and teasers that came out – the more I fell in love – but what really sparked me, was wanting to hear the kind of ‘italian, mafia’ style of music that I had come to associate with this kind of story – mostly influenced by movies like The Godfather.
So here is my attempt at creating a song that hopefully captured that feel whilst working with the incredible feel and visuals of this new game.

‘IN OUR NAME’
ASSASSIN’S CREED INSPIRED SONG

Ezio Auditore – The Everlasting Era
Released on Valentine’s Day as a love letter to our youth!

I really hope you enjoy the song and the video, it was incredibly nostalgic for me to work on this as I absolutely loved playing as Ezio when I was younger.

SILENT NIGHT, HELLFIRE NIGHT – MUSIC VIDEO

The full music video for my first solo release! Silent Night, Hellfire Night is a dark take on the traditional christmas carol, with new lyrics based around the biblical rapture.

The song was fully orchestrated and mixed by me, and the video was styled, shot and edited myself as well!! I was so incredibly proud of this and now have plans to do more dark christmas carols for a mini album!!!

CARRY ME – NERGARD – MUSIC VIDEO

Here is the full music video for Nergard’s second single ‘Carry Me’, from the album ‘Eternal White’.

This entire video was directed, filmed and edited by me! It was such a huge challenge especially filming this in the confines of my studio/bedroom. A huge thanks to my partner as well for starring as ‘The Soldier’ and operating the ‘snow’ effects!!!

STEFANI PERFORMING ‘LIVE IN KALVÅA’ WITH NERGARD

A playlist of 5 released videos from the ‘Live in Kalvåa’ concert that I performed with Nergard. A absolutely incredible concert that took place in the mountains of Norway. Fun fact – I also made all the coats that myself and the band are wearing!!!

SANTA CLAUS IS BACK IN TOWN – CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

After a serious back injury put me out of commission for a couple of weeks I didn’t think I’d get to do this! I had actually intended to cover this song last year, but as usual, life got in the way as my dog was very ill and I was also recording vocals for my first album with Nergard (which if you haven’t checked out already you definitely should!!!) If you like your christmas songs jazzy, rocking and a bit sexy – then this is for you!

SHIROYAMA – SABATON – CASUAL COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

An improptu cover that I had wanted to do for at least a year, but never got around to it, so today was the day! Honestly, I have never had to try SO hard not to jump around whilst singing – I am glad my microphone is as good as it is because the floor was definitely bouncing at times! I had great fun with this one, and as you’ll see in the instrumental, I continue to take myself very seriously in all musical matters!!!!

SINS OF THE FATHER – METAL GEAR SOLID V/ DONNA BURKE CASUAL COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

This one has been a long time coming and as I mention in the video I could have done any of the many amazing songs from the MGS franchise. The game was sadly not what it could have been and this song was wildly misplaced in game so I decided to give it the attention it deserves.

If you’re a fan of the games I hope you enjoyed the couple of reference thrown in – and apologies to anyone else!!!

MIDNIGHT SKY – MILEY CYRUS/ INGLORIOUS – COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

So doing this cover feels like a huge milestone – if you’ve seen my recent “Life Update” video you’ll know I’ve had an awful lot (mostly bad) happen since the last one. There were also challenges as this is first one filmed in my new working space which was hard to get my head around at first!

Honestly, I feel really proud of this video, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It felt like some demons were released through performing this and I also tried to change the way I edit my vocals (a LOT less reverb this time!!!) which I think paid off! It also indulged all of my 80’s, Miami Vice, GTA Vice City pleasures so that definitely made me happy!!!

TEARS OF THE DRAGON – BRUCE DICKINSON – COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

As I explain in the video, I often end up doing songs because they feel ‘right’ for me at that time, and this one is probably the biggest example of that.
I had just gone through some serious stuff mere days before and this was all my soul wanted to sing.
This was a simple set up (and please excuse the lighting in this), I did a quick warm up, sang one chorus to check the mic levels, sang this recording and was done.

If I was recording this for a single, I’d have easily redone parts to get them ‘perfect’. But this wasn’t about perfection. I needed to tell a story, I needed to feel this as I sang; and so, with that, I am very happy with this video. It was raw, and that’s how it needed to be.

THE POET AND THE PENDULUM – NIGHTWISH – COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

This was recorded all in 1, LIVE take, the lights and smoke machine were also controlled by me, during the performance via remotes and switches.

To me this felt like a tribute to all the singers of Nightwish, as I tried to have a little Tarja, a little Annette, a little Floor, and a little Marko.

This is most definitely the hardest song I have ever undertaken, it is vocally so difficult, especially to do all vocal parts in one take!
I hope you enjoy this, although this was incredibly difficult I absolutely loved planning, rehearsing and performing this song. I am a huge Nightwish fan so it felt incredible to try and sing this all.

LOVE? – STRAPPING YOUNG LAD – INAPPROPRIATE PIANO COVERS

Inappropriate Piano Covers

So here is the first in a new, and slightly bonkers series called ‘inappropriate piano covers’! – something that honestly started off as a joke idea many years ago.
If you’re from the UK you’ll know of the ‘John Lewis Christmas Advert’ trend, which started taking old songs, and performers doing, ‘breathy’ piano covers for it’s sometimes sweet, and sometimes sad Holiday adverts. Although rather iconic, it’s also become a bit of a thing to mock each year – as people wonder what song will get the ‘treatment’ next.
A few years ago, I joked that there are quite a few songs – especially in the metal genre – that would be hilarious in these adverts, because either their original tone, or lyrics just would seem so out of place in a soft piano cover sung ever so sweetly as tiny animated animals dance around in christmas cheer.
And so, after years of telling myself I would do this one day…. one day finally came and here we are.
But it’s not all sweetness and light! Whilst my sweet, cardigan loving, flowers-in-her-hair alter ego floats through this cover in a way that my first grade piano teacher would be proud of; the heavy metal loving dark horse finally breaks out.

ABANDONED – KAMELOT – CASUAL COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

It was a tough decision of what Kamelot song to sing, there are so many I love, both old and new, but as I haven’t sung much over the Christmas period I felt this was the best one to ease back into it all.

I did have to bring this track up 2 semitones – I can, on occasion, sing this in it’s original key – however those days are few and far between as there as several times this song goes low, and sadly no matter how much I wish I could, I will never have the clarity of Roy Kahn’s lower register.
That being said I wanted to keep it as close as possible to the original so this was as close as I could get….for now!

This is the first use of my new Aston mic which is amazing to use but I am still getting to grips with how to mix my voice with the final track – it’s quite incredible just how much more clarity this microphone picks up in my voice!

THE POWER OF LOVE – FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD – COVER

Live – 1 take – vocal cover

I had wanted to do a few covers coming up to Christmas, but recording work meant I was left with very little time, and so in a way this could nearly be considered one of my Casual Covers, just with a little more ‘glam’!

This is an unusual song as it’s often played at Christmas despite not actually being Number 1 at Christmas time in 1984 when it was first released in November, but the music video featured the traditional story of the Nativity.

I remember coming across the song randomly when I was a teenager (it was suddenly receiving alot of airplay on the radio), and I would lay on my bedroom floor, staring at the ceiling in low light, listening to it on repeat.

In the chaos of this year, running out of much needed time, when I didn’t know what to do, this song returned to me, and it felt very right to record it.
For me, it was actually quite difficult to not get too caught up in the emotions when singing, but I hope I found a good balance and showed how much this song means to me.