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It has been nothing short of hectic this year. I said I wasn't going to release any more solo stuff, but I say a lot of things I totally mean at the time!

Most who follow along know by now, I am the front-woman of Bad Scullianz, a hard rock and heavy metal band based in Londrina PR, Brazil. This is my main project, my baby that I love dearly, but it is slow going. Sometimes I get frustrated at having to wait for others to do their bits, organize schedules, etc, and I end up doing something, anything, because

I need the distraction. I need to make music. If I could possibly quit and forget about it all together, I would do so in a heart beat! Sadly, it just doesn't work like that.

I have hundreds of songs, perhaps thousands, but I'm not going to get through them all and neither would I like to, because let's be honest... anything I wrote at an early age with the words "baby" and "boy" are not on my priority list of ways to completely embarrass myself before I die! So, no! Let's skim over those awkward years and move forward.

Recently, I released three songs under my solo name, Liz James, and those are what I'm going to talk about here:

Give me Time is about nine years old and I tried working with a couple of producers, musicians, collabs, even the band to get this one done, but nobody liked it, and it just sounded wrong to me! So, I took it upon myself to put a demo together. I played the keyboard, guitar, and did the other instruments, just for practice. It ended up sounding pretty much how I imagined it was supposed to all those bloody years ago, but the plugin drums just weren't cutting it. I'm not a drummer, (I'm not really an instrumentalist but will possibly talk about that in a different post sometime,) and I didn't want to bother Neto (Bad Scullianz drummer) with doing it either. I hired a freelancer online to do that for me, forgive me, I don't have the name to hand and it's been a while. When he sent it back, I was so happy with it, I just gave it a quick EQ and mix down, and released it into the wild! I experimented with production on that one, with the aim of making it sound vintage, like it could have been recorded live in some dive bar somewhere back in time. Anyway, that's the story of the song. Not going to go into the lyrics as they are pretty self-explantory.

Holding On - This was actually a very new song. I wrote it, recorded it, and released it in the space of twenty-four hours. There was very little production on it at all. Just voice and keys with some minimal synths and strings. I didn't want to make a big fuss over it, so I didn't. Having said that, a lovely violinist based in São Paulo, Guilherme Roditis, took an interest and is currently in the process of working out a strings version which we plan to jointly release some time in the next few months.

Again, very much a ballad style song, perhaps some would class as christian music which makes me smile! I seem to get a lot of my stuff classified in the christian and gospel genres though that is not exactly what I do, nor my intention. it's just a simple song about feeling vulnerable and wallowing in self-pity, then realizing that is exactly what you are doing, so finding the strength within yourself to come out the other end. Recognizing that low moments are necessary, self-doubt and loathing are part of being human, but ultimately, your worth is what you decide it is. Holding on to that notion that you will get through it, just keep going!

So yeah, girl power or whatever... manifesting maybe? Witchy shizzle... all good.

Bad Company - Another new one and fully inspired by the trip-hop era, aka, Portishead, aka, Beth Gibbons. I am a huge fan though I struggle to make music like this myself. I 'd love to make more songs like this, but I admit, I don't have the skillset. This was a fluke. I worked with some beatmaking sofware, 808 kits, bass samples, and a midi editor to get this beat. I don't usually work like that, but sometimes, it just works for what I want to do.

It's a bit tongue in cheek about attracting certain people into your life that are, let's say, emotionally draining. There's always some drama, or something to complain about. We all do it. we all have moments, but some of us are sponges who soak it up, and take it on as our own misery. Some people just cannot be happy for you without a critique. Yay!!

So that is it! I think I am updated.

What's next??

We have the fundraising album coming out with Minds Behind the Music and the Bornfree Foundation next month. Bad Scullianz contributed a track, Mother Earth, to that and we had amazing fun doing it.

Titles Bad Scullianz are working on right now are:

Pandora, Fake News, Fear Porn, Belly of the Beast, and Boudica.

Possibly going to work out a stripped down version of Sunset to release this year also.

It's slow going organizing four people with many different jobs, commitments, and in different cities, but we will get there. Bad Scullianz will have at least one more release this year, but let's get it right rather than rush it (like I do with my solo stuff!)

Listen to the latest single, Bad Company below or add it to your rotation on your streaming service of choice!