Rewinding and Finding Records

I moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, at the end of 2015, I wanted to be closer to my friend, and audio engineer, Josh Hart. The pair of us had been working on creating music together, so it just made sense. I wanted to record a full album, which I would do later in the years that followed. I am a singer/songwriter by the way, originally born in the UK, called James Hardiment, who has lived in Canada since 2007.

During my stay in the nations capital city, I would explore on my weekends off. On the weekdays, I would work in various jobs, retail, car rental, warehouse, whilst I worked on the songwriting. Music is always what I’ve been most passionate about in my life, my ultimate escape from the craziness of living in the modern world. We carry in our pocket a device which tracks our every move, and rumours and gossip spread like wildfire in a split second. You can spread information, to somebody 1000s of miles away, by sending them a simple message on your smart device, so long as you have an internet connection.

I’ve always had a love for the old technology, some of it I grew up using as a child. I’m rather fond of the cassette decks of the ‘70s and ‘80s, especially the ones with wood panelling sides. I also love the way an old record spins on an old player. It’s satisfying to watch, the sound is so warm, if you have the right speakers, and player.

I would hit up all the used records stores across the city, digging out the old “45s singles, mostly from the ‘80s, my favourite decade. In my collection that I built, of LP albums, includes some rather great movie soundtracks, which I have since framed on the wall. I found it a cheaper method than buying official posters. I own Lethal Weapon, Jewel of the Nile, and some other great films too. I was able to pick up a pack of 3 frames, from Michaels, a craft store chain here in Canada.

Most of the records weren’t too expensive, even picked up a few cassettes too, as those have made a comeback too. I think I paid between $5-10 back then, it’s been a long time so that might not be accurate information. A lot less costly than buying brand new, which I do as well. My favourite dance music from the ‘80s Italo Disco I can buy from my favourite Spanish record label Blanco y Negro off their official website. I’ve collected many different rarities that way, but it’s a little more costly, plus you have to factor in the shipping from Europe. Collecting isn’t cheap, but what is these days? Even groceries are insane right now, rent is too high, I don’t even want to get into it, just focus on the positive.

I picked up some great old casette decks and players from Value Village, a Canadian thrift store chain. I even got my hands on some old Sony casette Walkmans too. There is also a great chain called Sunrise records, which pretty much opened up in the malls around Ottawa, replacing HMV. They even sell DVDs and CDs too!

Anyways I had a lot of fun collecting music, despite the hectic life I was leading, good times.

James

Pictured: An old Technics cassette deck, and a CD player, that I picked up from Value Village.

South African Sound Safari

Ever since I heard the Paul Simon album “Graceland”, released in August 1986, I have been obsessed with that South African guitar, and choir singing, famous from the country. Simon teamed up with musicians from the African nation to blend his folky sound with their traditional melodies, and a type of street music know as “mbaqanga”. It was a truly breathtaking album, one in which I honestly enjoy every track, from the super hit “You Can Call Me Al”, to more soothing songs, such as “Diamonds On the Souls of Her Shoes”. Simons voice is very distinctive to the ear, soft, and higher in octave. He is a musical genius, and a masterful lyricist of his time.

Flashforward to 2011/12 and I would discover another songwriting legend, Johnny Clegg, who grew up in South Africa. He would form 2 mixed race bands, Juluka, and Savuka between the 1970s and ‘80s. The mix of races was significant at that point, because during that time period, as the country was divided by race by a system put in place, by the then white government, known as apartheid. A song that really inspired me, was a song called “Great Heart”, it’s a very uplifting tune set in nature. It was featured in the South African film, “Jock of the Bushveld”, based on the novel of the same name. A literary classic in the country from the early 1900s. The story of a Hunter, and his dog called Jock, and their adventures together across the savanna.

2021 rolls around, I knew I wanted to do something with that kind of sound. I could play the chords used on my synthesizer keyboard, to create something that had that South African flavour. However I couldn’t play guitar in an African style. I asked around Cornwall, and Ottawa, if any of my friends could play like that. Unfortunately they would all say no, however that did not deter me. I decided to search Facebook, for South African guitarist groups.

A video would appear on this one page I stumbled onto, where a guitar instructor from Cape Town, South Africa, played some tunes. His finger work was incredible, so fast, and nimble, it was a breathtaking performance. I decided to shoot him a message, to see what would happen. Doesn’t hurt to ask right?

The guitarists name was Shawn Timba, he was thrilled at the opportunity, to collaborate with me on original music. We would send each other sound files over the internet, then I would prepare a rough mix, which I released onto SoundCloud. We also shot a video, he took clips of himself playing his guitar, with Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, behind him. Truly spectacular, caked in clouds, and mist. I had some shots of myself wandering nature, mixed with some vacation shots of Kakabeka Falls, near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. My friend, filmmaker Jake Adamson, shot the video for me in Cornwall, Ontario. (I am a singer/songwriter based near there.)

Shawn Timba has a YouTube channel where he reacts to different genres of music, if you’d like to check it out! Link below:

https://www.facebook.com/ShawnTimbaOfficial?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://shawntimbaofficial.com/

I will be posting the music video onto YouTube soon, in the meantime you can listen to the rough mix on SoundCloud here:

https://on.soundcloud.com/33qa6XhmrsXhwmeLA

That’s all for now folks, sorry I’ve been a bit behind on the articles. Just finished work, so it’s a good time to catch up!

James

Pictured: The single cover art for the song, which I created blending 2 photos together.

You’re the Inspiration

If you’ve been following the blog, I’ve mentioned some of my inspirations for the music that I create. (My name is James Hardiment by the way, I’m a singer/songwriter based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.) So how did I get into 1980s dance music from mainland Europe, known as Italo Disco, you might have wondered? Well it actually began around 2006-7 whilst I was living in the United Kingdom. I picked up a 5 CD compilation of greatest hits of the 1980s, that was being advertised on television at the time.

The CD featured a wide range of different genres, that charted in the UK in that period. One of the discs, featured a song called “Tarzan Boy”, by a dance project called Baltimora. I didn’t realize until years later, that it was actually part of the Italo Disco genre. The song was catchy with its “ohh ohh ohhs”, the words were a little difficult to understand with the thick accent, but a great tune none the less! All about jungle life, and falling in love I think.

Flash forward to 2008-9, I’m on YouTube, listening to my favourite 80s songs, and I discover, in the related videos tab, a 12” dance remix of a song I like, by an Austrailian band, Icehouse, called “Electric Blue”. (12” refers to the type of vinyl record used. Those are the big ones that you typically see, as they could hold more music than a 7” single. Those 7” are what you would see inside an old jukebox.) I noticed some music I’ve never heard of before in the tab, it didn’t take long before I’m deep down an internet rabbit hole, watching all kinds of dance music from the ‘80s. The elbow pads, crazy colours, the abstract, artsy music videos, along with the TV performances where the models or singers would dance and lip sync to the studio recordings of the tracks.  Italo disco was produced throughout the ‘80s, and would eventually evolve into house music in the ‘90s. It consisted of synthesizers and drum machines, with the occasional sax or guitar. Countries such as Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and more, produced many great songs. I love artists such as David Lyme, Daydream, Squash Gang, Miko Mission, Albert One, to name just a handful of my favourites.

The melody and harmony on the vocals is one of my favourite parts of the genre. It’s a very happy, upbeat kind of a sound that I crave all the time. I’m an ‘80s addict, to be perfectly honest. People used to scoff at me in high school, I told them it would come back though, and I was right. Stranger Things, the Netflix original series, brought back that retro sound, and look, along with a whole new genre, called Synthwave, emerging slowly influencing new pop music as well.

One of my favourite artists from that Synthwave genre, is called Roxi Drive. She sounds very much like Pat Benetar, I find, especially in her song “Hot Night”. You should check that out if you enjoy that old school ‘80s style of music, with a modern twist. I’ve got a pretty large playlist built on Apple Music, that features a lot of Synthwave tracks, that I’ve dug up over the pandemic. Some of it literally sounds like was made in that decade, others artists are a bit more modern, especially their vocal parts. That crisp and clean modern poppy sound makes it clear that it’s not from that age. I love that people are bringing back the synthesizer sounds again.

I have a love for ‘80s South African sounds too, I discovered a legendary singer/songwriter called Johnny Clegg. I fell in love with his sound, his story was inspiring too, teaming up with his best friend Zulu guitarist Sipho Mchunu, and forming the first mixed race band Juluka (Zulu for Sweat) in South Africa. This was during a time when the white apartheid government didn’t allow it. I even found one of his albums on cassette at a Value Village thrift store in Ottawa once. He formed another band in 1986 called Savuka (Zulu for Awakening) which had even more international success, especially in France, where Johnny was known as “Le Zoulou Blanc”(The White Zulu). This was due to the fact he could sing in their language, and dance in their traditional, tribal style. Other artists I enjoy from that time, include pop singers like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Brenda Fassie, Pat Shange, Sydney, and many more. These artists, especially Clegg, are a big inspiration for my song, “Savanna”, which features South African guitarist Shawn Timba on the track. I was reminded heavily of, “Great Heart”, a song by Clegg.

Of course, plenty of mainstream songs have influenced me too, from all the decades. I always really enjoyed bubblegum dance music from the ‘90s, especially Danish acts such as Cartoons, and Aqua. The latter had their smash hit at the end of the decade, with the song “Barbie Girl”.

Anyways I will continue to write music as I’ve always done, as well as dig through the digital record crates of the internet.

That’s all for now…

James

Pictured: James Hardiment posing with his retro sunglasses in front of the canvas from his “Wine” song music video.

The Art of Music

Looking back through my songs, I’m very proud of the cover art for the various singles, and albums I’ve released. It’s been a pleasure working with the highly skilled people, I have had the honour of collaborating with over the years. Talented photographer/artist Nikonas Davis, and other visual artists such as Raven Lapensee, and Jeremy Cybanski. I also made some of the covers myself too, using my own photographs, and a photoshop style editor on my iPhone. You can add titles, filters, etc. It’s not as precise as a computer program, but there is still a lot you can do, to get professional results, as you will see.

The first single I made cover art for, was for a song called “Wine”, which I recorded back in 2016. It would also be the album artwork also, as I was impressed by it so much. It features myself, singer/songwriter James Hardiment, who is Cornwall, Ontario, Canada based presently, standing in front of a canvas, covered in multi coloured paint. The backdrop behind me is also splattered in the stuff, a very vibrant, and abstract piece. I still have the shirt hanging in my closet, the canvas too, which I hung up on my wall for the longest time.

The photograph was shot by Ottawa based (at the time anyways) Nikonas Davis, who would help me with many of my projects in the city. I was living and working in Ottawa at the time, and that’s where we filmed and recorded everything from 2016-2018.

Pictured: The “Wine” single, and also album cover artwork. Nik taught me a lot about building artwork using my phone using an app photo editor. It allowed him to add titles, as well as colour correct the image.

The next single I would work on was for a track called “Graffiti”, this time I would have the help of Nik again, but also an artist I worked with in Cornwall years ago, called Raven. She would hand draw a picture of me in the outfit I wore for the music video we had shot (presently unavailable on YouTube right now due to me accidentally deleting it. There is still a copy on my old editing computer which I may be able to salvage at some point.) Nik would use his skills with the photo editing app, which I would download myself to help me market my brand, to grow my social media presence at that time. I would create fun pictures by blending 2 or 3 images together. The final result was pretty cool!

Pictured: The combined efforts of Raven and Nik really paid off in the final single cover for “Graffiti”. I love it so much. The attention to detail is truly wonderful.

The next single was for a song called “Collide”, this track was my turn to make the artwork. I took a screenshot from the official music video and added some titles in the same photo editing app that Nik had used previously. I was rather impressed with the results, I love how the colours pop, in the mostly black and white picture.

Pictured: The “Collide” cover art, which had I created this time around. The two different colours represent two people, from very different worlds, colliding together in a passionate embrace, or something like that anyways…

My final single release, before the whole album came out, was for a song called “Innocence”. It was a track about growing up in the 1990s in a village called Smithy Bridge, in the United Kingdom. Close to the town I was born, called Rochdale (pronounced “Rotch-dale”). For those people that don’t know small towns in England, it’s very close to the city of Manchester, you may be familiar with their world famous football (soccer for North Americans) clubs Manchester United, and rivals Manchester City. I chose to take a picture of an old cassette deck, that I had purchased very cheaply, at a local Value Village. I combined that with an image of my face in the photo editing app to create the final piece.

Pictured: The cover art for the single “Innocence”. This would be the last single before releasing the final album in 2017.

In 2018, I decided to work on a brand new project called “Corrupted”, all about 1920s prohibition (alcohol was made illegal in North America), gangsters, dangerous women, and crooked cops. For this project I would use a screen shot from the music video for the cover art. I would then use this bizarre computer glitch filter, which would distort the image, as though it was a corrupted computer file. Kind of a double meaning to it, which I thought was pretty cool at the time anyways!

Pictured: The “Corrupted” single cover art. A screen shot from the music video, which was shot at a cool mansion off Bank St. and Albion area.

The final artwork that’s been made for my music, was for an unreleased album called “Rescue Me”, which is going to be a very Italo Disco inspired collection of songs. I talk about that style of music in previous blog entries, basically a type of dance music from the 1980s that originated in Italy but was popular in mainland Europe. For the cover art I hired talented artist/animator Jeremy Cybanski, who is Ottawa based. I was introduced through my sisters friend. I wanted something that incorporated the cubism art style. This was very popular on the Italo Disco tracks vinyl cover artwork coming out of Spain back then, so I wanted to emulate that, with this new original piece.

Pictured: Jeremy did a great job in capturing that 1980s feeling with this piece. I was very blown away by his talents as a digital artist.

So that’s it, so far, on this visual artwork journey I’ve been on, with some amazing artists in this community. I hope to create more art in the next few years, and hopefully more albums too!

That’s all for tonight.

James

Easter Special Song

It was April 2022 when I, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada based singer/songwriter, James Hardiment, teamed up with Derek Mason, known to his fans as “Chef Mayhem” to work on an Easter Extravaganza episode of his cooking show on YouTube. I wanted to something extra special for the fans of the program, which we had started up a year prior on his Melted Mayhem channel.

We had already completed a Christmas Extravaganza episode in December of 2021, which featured my lip synced performance of an original festive song called “Mistletoe Lady”. I shot everything on my iPhone SE on a greenscreen backdrop I had picked up from Amazon, along with a set of video lights. The kit was from a company called Canadian Studio, and can be packed away easily, if you are on the go. It’s definitely not the most heavy duty kit (I paid under $200 for the lights included) but it does the job, for now anyways. Basically, we had him do the recipe portion of the show first, followed by an interview, then the song at the end. We figured that way people who wanted to watch the recipe only could tune out at the end. One of my biggest pet peeves, is content creators that try to stall and delay, or force something on you for ad revenue gain. If the video is a certain length they can make money off it, so they try to avoid getting to the point.

The song I decided would go on the Easter special was an Italo Disco inspired track, Italo Disco is basically an ‘80s style of dance music from Europe that incorporated synthesizer and drum machine sounds, as well as guitar and sax occasionally. I called it “Rescue Me” and I teamed up with Ottawa based singer/songwriter Sarah Rae. She would sing backups in the chorus, and would also sing the bridge in French for me.

My inspiration for the tracks sound and arrangement came from the Italo Disco being created in Spain back in the 1980s, the music produced out there became known as the “Sabadell Sound”. Dance projects such as “Daydream”, “Squash Gang”, and “David Lyme” are examples of bands and musicians from that period that fit that style. Fast, catchy synthesizer chords dominate the sound primarily, it’s probably my favourite type of Italo, I find it the most interesting and best to dance to.

I recorded my instrumental the usual way, using my iPhone with the GarageBand music studio app that comes with it. I plugged in my Audio Technica microphone for the vocal parts. Then I sent the song to Sarah in Ottawa, and she recorded her parts for me, and sent them online. I love the internet for so many reasons, sure we don’t have privacy anymore, but we can collaborate instantly from around the world!

For the video, I shot my parts at my house near Cornwall on a greenscreen. My friend Jake Adamson and I journied up to Ottawa to film Sarah at her home. I had met Sarah through a cool musician app called BandMix. It’s basically like a dating site, but instead of finding a partner you find a band member or musician to collaborate with. I bought her a cool white retro dress from Zara, and a red beret I picked up from Amazon. I wanted it to look as retro as possible. I was dressed in white chinos, and a stripy red, and white shirt, with a captains hat on. I picked up the Captains hat years ago in Quebec City. The song is very nautical themed so I felt like it fit. Part of the chorus talks about drowning in the ocean and needing to be saved.

For the cover art I had my artist friend based in Ottawa, Jeremy Cybanski, who I had met through one of my sisters friends, design the cover art. I wanted to go with something that blended the cubism art style. A lot of the dance projects from back in the day used that style for e their cover artwork. It was cool to see it all come together!

The song was mixed as usual by the talented Josh Hart over at Josh Hart Recordings up in Ottawa. If you’d like to watch the final video you can check it out below, the first video is just the song, the second is the full Easter Episode. I just posted the song alone tonight!

Pictured: Sarah Rae, James Hardiment, and her cute doggie pose for a picture at her house, where we filmed her part!

A Return to Childhood

It was the summer of 2021 when I, James Hardiment, a singer/songwriter based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, decided that I wanted to turn an old song I’d been working on, for a sequel to a movie I never ended up making, into something new. I saw an opportunity arise when I reconnected with my childhood best friend (all the way back to the 4th Grade) rapper and fellow musician, Sean Austin!

Sean and I grew up together in Auburn, Maine, USA from the year 2001 until 2004. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived in 3 different countries in my life, the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. My family moved for various reasons, job opportunities, more open space than in Europe, etc. The houses in North America are more spacious, cars are bigger, nature is on steroids, absolutely breathtaking sometimes.

I’d been chatting with Sean, on and off, for the past few years, since I reconnected with him in 2019 over FaceTime. Despite not speaking for a long while, we reconnected instantly, which is one thing I’ve found that tends to happen with old, and dear friends from the past. He was working various jobs over that time period, mostly to get by, while he planned his comeback into the music world. I had always wanted to collaborate with my friend, and now that we lived in an age where you can send audio files over the internet, almost instantly, I figured this might be within the realms of possibility. I had a plan!

Sean used to be known by his rapper stage name, “Young Frost” back in the day. He would regularly freestyle in his home state, as well as record tracks, which he uploaded himself onto the internet to his music page. Rap was never really something I was super into, but I always enjoy blending different styles together. I was always more into dance music, rock, and pop, especially from the 1980s. Sean was big into that ‘90s and ‘00s hip hop style. Time to fuse it all together!

I came up with a track called “Maine” that incorporated that ‘80s sound I love, with a chorus I had penned years ago for a sequel to my original feature film, “Windigo”, which was completed in 2011. The follow up movie was going to be set in Ontario and Maine also, but I never ended up making the project happen. A lot of ideas tend to get shelved for safer ones that can be pulled off easier with a tight budget.

I let Sean write the verses, he decided to make them all about us all growing up together, and the final days of myself, him, and our other tight circle of friends hanging out for one last sleepover. It wasn’t soon after I moved away that our gang would split up. One kid moved to Delaware, I moved to England, and Sean moved to a different town in Maine.

I built the instrumentals using my iPhone SE, as I usually do using the GarageBand recording studio app. I plugged in my pro microphone, an Audio Technica, and we would send the project back and forth. Sean was able to use his iPad and record his vocals for me that way.

The final track was about 3.30 mins long and is available to listen to in the link below:

https://on.soundcloud.com/UmYVi1eHsVQg1FJT6

It was surreal, after not speaking to a friend for so long, to finally collaborate with him on a song. A project has so much more meaning when it’s created with an old, die hard, amigo, who will always have your back. Not to say I don’t enjoy working with the people I’ve got to work with over the years, but this team up was rather special and significant to me as a musician.

Well until tomorrow folks…

James

Pictured: The single cover for the SoundCloud only release. I may get it remastered before releasing to streaming platforms.

Putting on a Live Show

(My name is James Hardiment, I am a British born singer/songwriter based near Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.)

Lately, I’ve been busy putting all my old song lyrics to paper again. I want them all in one place, so I can transfer them to the site, for fans of the music to be able to sing along to. It can be a pretty tiresome process on the wrist, especially when you aren’t used to writing anymore! I usually sit at the bar or cafe to work on it, whether it be Rendevous Restaraunt in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, or Carrots N Dates (a vegan cafe) also in Cornwall downtown, close to the Square Shopping Centre.

Once I successfully transfer the lyrics to the website, I can then proceed to create “Karaoke style” videos, using instrumentals of my originals, to play at my live shows, in case I forget the odd lyrics as a reference. Being a singer/songwriter that mostly works inside the studio, be it at home or professional, I often don’t remember all the lyrics to the songs that I’ve written. This is especially true of my least favourite tracks, I still like them, but I don’t find myself replaying them as much on my iPhone.

I’m gonna try to use PowerDirector for this task, it’s a powerful mobile video editor, developed by a company called Cyberlink. I first picked up a copy of the program for my editing PC back in 2014-15 at my local Staples in Cornwall. It’s a great program, and not nearly as expensive as some of the more known brands. The mobile app works very well, the occasional glitch but it’s very rare. Rendering in HD takes a few seconds sometimes! I remember back in the day (2011) it would take my computer, built for editing, like 24 hours to render something. Times have sure changed…

I purchased a cool looking, green coloured, performance microphone for a music video last Easter. I wanted to do something reminiscent of those old 1980’s lip sync TV performances on a green screen. I drew inspiration from an old German TV show called Eurotops Musikladen, which I found myself watching music videos of on YouTube, as I delved deeper into my ‘80s obsession. I was only thinking at the time of using it as a prop, but now the idea of doing a live show, is looking more and more promising.

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing live shows for various charities in the Cornwall area. I had originally wanted to take my first pop album, “Wine”, and tour the bars around Ottawa back in 2017, when it was completed, however my crazy life would not allow it! All these years later perhaps it’s time to finally take this show on the road…or at least the Seaway Valley area, where I reside now. This community means a lot to me, I love to help my entrepreneurial friends with their various business ideas. I also love to talk and network with the people of this town to brainstorm thoughts to make the place better, or at least try. I’m not a politician, but I love business, specifically marketing and sales. I have skills in music, and videography, which can greatly benefit a company. One thing I find gets the best result is to consistently post onto social media. It’s no guarantee, but if you don’t you certainly won’t grow at all.

Anywho, I’ll keep you guys posted if you follow me on Facebook and Instagram when I have a live show! Links are at the bottom of the website (the home page anyways). If you want to get regular updates on the blog I suggest to follow them too and like. I want to encourage people to share the blog articles too, to grow our audience. It’s a great little way to support someone who creates content, and thankfully it doesn’t cost money (most things seem to these days, just look at the price of everything right now!).

Until tomorrow folks…

James

Pictured: James Hardiment warms up for a song, he can usually be found singing Kareoke at Rendevous Restaraunt, 1213 Pitt St. in Cornwall on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9pm.

A Portable Pocket Studio

My name, for those of you who don’t know, is James Hardiment. I am a singer/songwriter, as well as a filmmaker and actor turned vlogger/blogger. What can I say? I try to keep busy!

I’ve been making music, videos, and writing, since high school in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. My first original song was called “The Nitrogen Cycle”, I created the piece by plugging in my old Casio Keyboard into my old laptop back in 2008. I still remember the machine struggling to keep up with what I wanted to do, and it was a super rough recording compared to what I make now. The vocals were actually recorded with a half decent CAD microphone that my friend, Josh Hart, was using for his own project at the time. The song was for a science class project and that’s pretty much what I spent most of those school years doing, I even have an old album lying around that features 10 of the songs I created back then for various classes.

To create the music videos, I used to use an old Sony Camcorder that used DV tape. The tapes looked like mini VHS tapes that you would have to upload all the footage onto the editing computer using something called a FireWire. (So old school I know, I feel a bit ancient right now!) I originally edited videos with a program called Windows Movie Maker, but would soon upgrade to a more advanced program, Sony Vegas. I found I could do a lot more by upgrading to a more versatile editing suite. Eventually, my friend at the time, Brandon Rainey, would team up with me on certain projects and his camera used SD cards. The switch over from digital tape to SD was such a breakthrough in technology, I’m so glad we don’t use tape anymore it took forever in comparison!

After high school came university, I attended the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Brandon and I would team up to form “Vince Emerson Media”, it was basically my middle name and his with media at the end of it. It began with a couple of comedy skit videos, with various actors we had befriended in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, basically a fancy acting school! They were interesting people to work with, and we had a lot of fun, when people actually showed up to shoots.

After first year came to a close, Brandon and I would split on a 1080p HD Sony Nex VG-10 camera, he also built a custom editing computer PC. We would spend the summer after freshman year, creating a feature film called “Windigo” with a huge team in the Cornwall area. It would eventually get over 1 million views on YouTube! A small portion was also shot in Windsor, once the summer came to a close.

After that, we would work on various projects until he would depart the projects in 2013 to pursue other interests. I decided to focus on my music projects again, since that was what I really wanted to do. 2015 rolls around, and I began to team up with my old high school friend, Josh Hart, to work on original music again. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, I worked on a pop album “Wine” with him that I completed in 2017. It was around that time I started to move away from using computers and laptops to create my music and start using my iPhone SE, which came with a program installed called GarageBand.

I was familiar with GarageBand, it was basically Apple’s base music editing program. I had used it in high school before, but I was more of a PC guy at home for the longest time. Upgrading my phone and discovering that I could now build all my music on my iPhone was a huge breakthrough for me. What truly knocked me off my feet was how smoothly the program would run on such a tiny machine. If someone had told me back in 2008 that I’d be building 30 track pop songs on a phone in 2017, I’d have probably laughed them out of the room, but here we are!

Eventually, I would invest in some more equipment, and today, I am able to plug in my keyboards, as well as my professional Shure SM7B studio microphone, used to record pro vocals. You really don’t need a huge studio anymore to create professional sounding music.

Flash forward to 2021, and I teamed up with Chef Derek Mason, in Cornwall, to create a cooking show YouTube channel called “Melted Mayhem”. I would shoot the videos on my phone, with a rode wireless GO lapel microphone hooked into the device for optimal sound. I downloaded a program called Cyberlink Power Director on my phone, and can edit the episodes with that. I’m so blown away by the jump in technology in my lifetime. My smart phone is my portable pocket studio and it still hurts my head thinking about it!

I am constantly creating now at a faster rate than ever before. I love the internet and I love smart phones for that reason.

Can’t wait to make more, until next time!

James

Pictured: James Hardiment creates music in the Garage Band program on his iPad Mini 4. He purchased that to use with his iPhone SE, as it has a bigger screen for playing instruments, but now just mainly uses the phone for convenience!

Crooked Cops, Gangsters, and Prohibtion

After completing my first pop album, “Wine” in 2017, under my real name James Hardiment, I was back to writing another song for 2018. This time instead of whining about girls who don’t love me (what pop singer doesn’t?) I decided to do something with a bit of a historical theme to it, and still whine about a girl at the same time! I’ve had a passionate interest for history since a young age, one of my favourite classes in high school.

During my brief couple of years at University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, I developed an interest in local history of the area. In particular, the rum running time period of the 1920s, where gangsters would smuggle illegal liquor and booze across the Canada/US border during prohibition.

Prohibition was a time period where the sale and consumption of alcohol was made illegal in North America. However due to a legal loophole, hard beverages were still able to be brewed and distilled in Canada for export. This technicality created a whole hotbed of smuggling and a rise in organized crime and it’s power. Gangsters would control the operations and have the hooch made in Canada in Windsor to Detroit, Michigan, USA, the city which borders Windsor on the river. After crossing the border it would be transported across the nation to quench it’s unending thirst.

I wrote the song “Corrupted” set in that world. I wanted to capture the feelings of the time period. The vice, greed, and lust for power that summed up the era so perfectly. It’s all about a girl that leads a good man to do bad things, or at least things perceived to be bad during that decade of forbidden drinks and speakeasy’s.

The song is very synth pop, with some jazzy and rock type elements to it. I go high and rough for the vocals, a very rock n’ roll style. On the track I also had special guests, classically trained Lindsey Gillis, who was based in Ottawa at the time, singing backup female vocals. Another great musician I got to work with was Duncan Fyffe, also Ottawa based, on the saxophone.

Duncan operates a home audio repair business. He has an extensive collection of guitars, saxophones, and other instruments. He also has some great microphones for recording his parts, as well as Lindsey’s too. He even had a vintage 1920s saxophone for his solo, which added some authenticity to the fusion of different genres. I recorded all of my instrumentals on my iPhone and plugged in my own microphone for my own vocals at my home in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the time.

Filming the music video was even cooler than creating the song itself. We had access to an amazing mansion off Bank St. in Ottawa due to one of my friends at the time, photographer, and filmmaker Nikonas Davis having a relative that took care of the place for a family she worked for. There was a nice vintage bar that looked like it was from right out of those days. I added little details to make it feel more authentic, such as vintage beer bottles, wooden crates, costumes, and not forgetting the teapot and cups used to disguise the alcohol from the law, that wasn’t looking the other way!

The video featured many talented Ottawa based actors and was so much fun to film, as always. The singers on stage in the bar was actually footage I purchased later from a British group I found on YouTube called “Down For The Count Orchestra”. I can’t thank them enough for helping me compete the video in 2020. Life got a little crazy in between and delayed it’s completion.

Josh Hart would return as my audio engineer to mix the track and I released the video in 2020. It was an amazing feeling after taking nearly a year off from my music. At that point I was living just outside of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, about an hour away from Ottawa.

Be sure to check out the music video on my YouTube channel when you get a chance! You can also access it through the “Corrupted” tab on the website you are on now.

Duncan has a website for his audio repair if you have an old hi-fi or record/cassette player that needs a tune up or fix.

https://duncansaudio.ca

Josh Hart’s website if you need to get a song mixed or recorded in Ottawa:

https://www.joshhartrecordings.com

Have a great night folks! I’m gonna go get some legal drinks now at my favourite bar in town, Rendezvous Restaurant, 1213 Pitt St. Cornwall, ON, Canada.

James

My 2020 music video Corrupted, set in 1920s prohibition, Windsor, ON, Canada. Filmed in Ottawa.

Pictured: Duncan Fyffe plays his saxophone solo in his home studio on his 1920s vintage saxophone.

Pictured: (Left) James Hardiment being made to look pretty for the music video by the talented makeup artist and actor Taylor Efford (Right).

Making a Pop Album!

In 2016 I (James Hardiment) decided that I wanted to make a pop album with the help from my good friend and audio engineer, Josh Hart, who is based in Ottawa. I had teamed up him the year prior on a song that I was unable to release, but the experience had been invaluable to me as a musician trying to make it in the business.

The first song we teamed up on was the title track of the album called “Wine”. The first 4 tracks were inspired by 1980s and 2010s pop and rock sounds. The final 4 tracks had more of a ‘90s rockabilly, bubblegum techno sound. Similar to Danish acts from that time such as “Cartoons” and “Aqua”. I blended ‘50s inspired guitar riffs with ‘80s synth riffs to create something new!

I chose 8 tracks for the album because I felt as though that way there would be no filler at all. One thing I have found purchasing CDs and cassettes back in the day, growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, was the amount of filler songs. There was only 1 or 2 decent tracks! Not every album of course, but I noticed that a lot. I also just really liked the number 8, maybe it’s my lucky number?

Making the songs in the studio was a fun process. I would build the instrumental during the first session, using Josh’s MIDI controller keyboard, hooked up to editing computer. We played around with different sounds and loops, sfx to create the desired sounds. The second session was the vocal recording. I had a lot of fun picking out different filters and remixing my voice with Josh.

I filmed 4 music videos for “Wine” and the title track was one of the most fun, and messy, to film! I had paint, powder, and glitter sprayed all over me. It was really hard to keep a straight face. The crew had a blast, turning my plain white shirt and the canvas behind me, into a multicoloured rainbow of abstract art. We had a few props too that would come in and out of frame, such as my micro Korg keyboard and a telephone.

I released the full album to the streaming services in 2017. The title track had over 44,000 views on YouTube!

I am so proud to have finished this project and looking back I am still so impressed with how it turned out. I love making music and I always will, it’s my creative outlet. I can escape the craziness of everyday life and have a great time!

Well until next time…

James

My first music video and song of the album “Wine”. Got so messy filming this one!

Pictured: The album cover, featuring me covered in paint from the “Wine” music video.

Pictured: James Hardiment being interviewed in Ottawa for a Carleton University news show.

Pictured: (Left) Josh Hart looking dope circa 2016. (Right) James Hardiment singing some vocals with a performance mic..

Remembering a New Chapter of Life

It was 2015 when I went up to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to work on original music with my old high school friend, turned audio engineer Josh Hart. He had gone to college for mixing songs and had a sleek set up with his fancy Mac computer, MIDI controller keyboard (basically an electronic piano hooked into the music workstation program) awesome studio speakers, and a really nice Audio Techica microphone for recording vocals. If I remember rightly, the original home studio set up I went to was a house he was renting off Woodroffe Ave. in Nepean.

Josh wanted to make a name for himself in the music business and the company he formed was known as Josh Hart Studios, but would later become known as Josh Hart Recordings. I basically noticed he was posting pictures of his set up on Facebook, I was living and working in Cornwall at the time. I got back in touch and got a quote from my old pal.

The first song we worked on together was a sort of cover of an old Spanish ‘80s dance song, however I had changed some of the words around and altered the structure of the track from the original version. The song was called “I Want An Illusion” by an Italo Disco dance trio know as “Squash Gang”. My version was going to be known simply as “Illusion”.

Italo Disco, for those that don’t know, was a type of dance music that originated in Europe in the 1980s. It was what came after ‘70s disco and before ‘90s house music. The instruments were primarily drum machines and synthesizers, sometimes saxophone and guitar, with plenty of harmony and melody, and usually sung in English by people who didn’t know the language very well and sometimes had very thick accents.

By the end of that year I had shot a music video to go with it, in Cornwall, however I was having trouble contacting the original artists to ask their permission to release my version of their song. It’s a bit more complex than a straightforward cover considering I altered it considerably. Unable to successfully contact them I would eventually shelve the project and began to work on originals again. Josh and I would team up throughout 2016-17 to work on an 8 track album called “Wine” which I would then release but I’ll save that story for another blog entry!

https://www.joshhartrecordings.com

Looking back at some of the photographs of the music video shoot brought back some memories. Seeing the old Cornwall bridge in the background of some of the shots. We even filmed a portion of the interior shots in a dance studio downtown Cornwall above a music store, not sure if it’s even still there anymore. It’s just a constant reminder that nothing in this life is permanent so appreciate what you have while it’s here folks!

I’m glad to be back in Cornwall again and I can’t wait to create more music and videos in this great little, tight knit community. I’m hoping to rent out a nice studio apartment at some point if anyone knows a place that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and isn’t an insane amount of money per month.

That’s all for now…

James

Pictured: James Hardiment lip syncing to the song for the music video. Behind him is the old Cornwall bridge before it was torn down shortly afterwards.

Pictured: “Cornwall bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…”🎶

Pictured: James Hardiment poses romantically with a rose in his hand at an old dance studio which was used for a portion of the music video shoot.