A Rock Star For the Evening!

Thursday, June 22nd, 2023 was the day that I performed karaoke in front of my largest crowd yet (estimated to be about 300 people) at the Lions Club Bandshell, in Lameroux Park, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. For those new to the blog I am a singer/songwriter called James Hardiment, who has been performing karaoke regularly in town now for months, to practice for my upcoming original live performances this summer 2023. The event was hosted by both the Lions Club, and Rockstar Party, which is a live entertainment company based in the city owned by Rodney Rivette, who amongst other things is also a musician as well, and a darned good one at that! It was part of the larger “Arts in the Park’ festival taking place over the coming months.

The team behind the scenes was large enough, the ones I knew from the bar karaoke scene were; Christopher Chalette, and Brittany Robinson. Not to mention the various stage hands, and also the camera man filming the event onto the projector behind us as we sang. Really cool set-up, Rodney knows how to put on a great show as usual! Brittany sang an Abba song too which was great, Chris got up too, and Rodney. I sang 2 songs, “Pop Musik” by M, followed by, “I’m in a Hurry”, by Alabama. It was a whole different experience for myself, I hadn’t performed on a big stage since my high school days, it was probably my biggest gathering to date. I was surprised at how composed I kept myself, not going to lie though, my leg did start to shake a little bit.

When the show began it was a little too bright with the sun, but by the time I performed it had set significantly which helped to see the lyrics on the screen in front of me. The audience seemed to be pleased, there was much applause, which I am grateful for, it always nice to see people happy. I really want to help support the arts in the community, and get as many people involved as I can. It’s fun to let loose and sing sometimes, takes away the pain, or sorrow that a person might feel, deep in their heart…not talking about anyone in particular, just in general of course! Rockstar Party offers a wide variety of genres to perform, and Rodney makes that extra effort to use really cool tricks to make you sound as great as possible, no auto-tune though sorry!

My friend and fellow performer Jonny Yumang took some pictures of me on stage as I sang, which I have since cleaned up in my editor program to show the people who missed the show. Check the website regularly for upcoming live shows this summer, I will be posting them soon! It will be at the top in the menu section, all goes well. There are plenty of great musicians, film screenings, etc which are coming to the park this summer, so be sure to check the Arts in the Park schedule:

https://www.cornwall.ca/en/play-here/arts-in-the-park.aspx

Don’t forget Rockstar Party will return with more Karaoke in the park soon with the Rib Fest Idol competition. Check their official page for more updates:

https://cornwallribfest.com/ribfestidol/

You can find all of us around town performing karaoke in the meantime, Rockstar Party hosts at Rendezvous Restaurant at 1213 Pitt St. Cornwall, Ontario, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 8pm-12pm or later on the weekends. Be sure to join their group on Facebook for event updates too, they also do sound for many different live acts as well.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2244363646

So if you are looking for some things to do in Cornwall this summer 2023, it looks like the events are starting to kick off, which is always my favourite time of the year. Things are open again, let’s get out there and have an amazing warm season together as a community. I’m loving the music scene here in town, I knew very little about it in all honesty, I seem to recall helping to sell merchandise for a local band called Graham Greer (I believe they are going to be at Arts in the Park this year also!) with an old high school friend called Josh back in the day as they performed one night in Ottawa, and some of my friends have had various projects, but now I’m at the bars I’m meeting more and more cool musicians. You can also check out the “Cornwall Ontario Area Musicians”, page if you are looking to meet or collaborate with fellow artists:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/187277234633703

Until I write again…

James

Retro Fun with a Green Screen!

Continuing the ‘Rescue Me’ album, set for release later this summer, I, singer/songwriter James Hardiment, teamed up with live performance artist Jonny Yumang, and filmmaker Jake Adamson to work on a new music video. This time, I would again continue with my upbeat, retro, Spanish Italo Disco, dance music style, which was popular in mainland Europe in the 1980s, especially at nightclubs. That style has been the primary inspiration of the project. The 3 of us filmed our parts on a green screen, which I had set up in my garage at home. I am based in a small town outside of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, called Long Sault (Pronounced Soo) for those reading from the various parts of the globe.

I love the fast synthesizer riffs which were typical of the genre, and the catchy melodies. I would sing the choruses in Spanish, and the verses in English. I love to blend languages in my songs, something many Italo artist would do as well back in the day. Artists such as David Lyme (Jordi Cubino) would sing his verses in English, chorus in Italian. The style originated in Italy, and despite being a Spanish artist, my guess was that he wanted to pay tribute to the country where it all came from. Not sure on that just my theory of course! He was also an opera singer to begin with, who discovered the style by accident, which might have been the reason as well.

The song is called ‘Señorita Por Favor’ and is all about falling in love with a dangerous woman, sort of a tongue in cheek, cartoonish melody. It has a bubblegum pop feel to it during the English verses. My dream girl rides a motorcycle, drives a powerboat on the river, and has a cute little pug that comes with her on her badass adventures. I find the Spanish language so romantic, and fun to sing in! The chorus basically asks a lady if she wants to join my gang of love, a very upbeat, and positive message. If everyone loved each other, things would be a lot better than constantly fighting, but that’s probably too much to ask.

I wanted to make a track that could make you get up and dance to, and I think I succeeded with that part at least. Dance music is one of my favourites, amongst other styles, including rock, pop, RnB, South African synth funk, and boogie. My album explores many different musical genres, but the constant theme throughout is that Spanish Italo Disco sound that I love.

Jonny Yumang is a Cornwall local legend when it comes to singers in town, especially, lately for the present karaoke sets across the city. He can be found often at Glengarry Pub, Rendezvous Restaurant, and Daffodil to name some of the venues in the town that offer karaoke nights. We often perform songs together at Rendezvous especially, sort of my home base. I’m there Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays typically, but Jonny has to work some of those nights. You might as well follow his Facebook page to know, or ask me since we are friends. Rendezvous is at 1213 Pitt St. Cornwall, Ontario. Jonny used to be an Elvis impersonator as well, and has an old costume lying around in an old cupboard somewhere. Lately he has been working another job, outside of music, like many of us have to pay the bills!

Pictured: Jonny Yumang on the keyboards! Fun times for sure.

As I mentioned earlier, I had the guys position on the green screen separately, as it wasn’t big enough for all of us to be in the same shot. There was a bit of room, but it was a bit of a squeeze for Jake with the drum pads on stands to hit to the beat of the track. I shot all the video with my iPhone SE built in camera, then edited the clips together using a powerful video editor app called Cyberlink PowerDirector. I love the cheesy, retro transitions I could throw together, similar to what you would have seen on a TV show in the ‘80s, which is what I was going for. I also ran the final edit through a VHS filter app, it creates a tape look to the footage, complete with distortion, and that analog fuzz you would have seen.

I’ve released the song to YouTube so far, thanks for everyone and their support, liking, commenting, and sharing. Every little helps an artist trying to get his, her, of their name out there. Check it out below!

That’s all for todays blog post I think, I’m excited for the stuff coming together this summer, it’s gonna be a record heatwave, hopefully I can sell some records as well! Feel free to explore my website too, there’s lots to read about, and I try to keep things local too, not always though.

Follow Jonny Yumang on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RockinKing/

James