OAK TREE MUSIC REEL #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fr8HCUIF_k&feature=related

Here ia a look into the world of Oak Tree Music studios.  It is all personality, sweat, laughs and tears.  On this reel mostly laughs.  The webcam as previously stated is distorted, but you can hear a lovely sounding demo recording in the background of this reel of 'Skater on Ice' featuring Dan Smart.  He is awesome and I am pleased to be working with him as he is an excellent drummer amoung other things.

Enjoy the reel with joy people.  Smile away.....

B.A.L.A.N.C.E. full jam of tune on webcam 16 08 2011

Pkease note this video has distorted sound.  Still need to get my own camera or Ipad with better quality.  You can also always view video uploads at Utube channel.  Oak Tree Hannah.  Hope you have hope and fun watching the posts!  They are sure to get better quality as we go a go go.  Ready to share with you the process in this open workbook format online.

Hipsters Scensters Gangsters Mobsters split teaser 16 08 2011

SNOW ON FERN

Thoughts & recolections from the snow fall week

What a weekend and a week it has been.  I have started Saturday and Saturday nights in to focus on music and the like.  Pete (previous Thought Creature drummer) has been coming around to jam and we have a fairly good set worked up, which we will perform tomorrow night at the Mighty Mighty.

This weekend just been we also had Nick Clarke stay over and jam out on the shakers, he will join us for the show also!  Wooo he loved it.  I will be playing the keys, shakers and singing.  Pete plays the electronic drum kit, xylophone and shakers.  The new genre definition is electronic dream pop.

We were delighted on Sunday as the snow fell!  We decided to record ourselves performing!  IT was ace.  Here we are performing Dear Blizzard with the snow happening.  We took this footage about one hour into initial Wellington snow fall.  Very exciting!  Snow truly is like pure joy.  http://youtu.be/GzaMdOJz1Pg

We were listening by chance to a track by a band called Sons of Kora on Sunday the 15th of August the day the snow fell.  I stumbled across it in my Itunes as I typed in another track it came up also.  The track was the words of Psalm 147, which speaks of snow.  Nick said, 'It is going to snow today.'  At my place at the time it was really sunny, so we giggled.  Low and behold later on at just before 5pm it started.  We felt real peace!  Amazing!  I have been astounded and filled with joy by snow time all week!  I think there really is a God looking after us.... there to be called upon. 

He Heals the Brokenhearted

147:1 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, [1] and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the humble; [2]
he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules [3] to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules. [4]
Praise the Lord!

On Tuesday 16 08 2011 when Pete and I jammed we got snowed in.  No driving for us anywhere from Wadestown.  We just chilled out.  I have begun to edit some of the footage we took that afternoon.  I will finish and upload this after the gig later in the week.  Watch this space......

A time of great intrigue is upon us.....with riots in the UK we watch with batted breath.  I have just been granted my visa for the UK, as the riots begun it was given the okay!  What do you know?  What do you reckon?  Music music music for the UK.  Oak Tree Music!

A friend called Alex said to me on the street when I was placing gig posters on Friday night in regards to the UK.  It will all unfold.  I have no doubt that it will.  Let it be good.....  I will be working hard to get there.  If you can help in any way with work before hand or for work when I get to the UK and contacts also for when I arrive I will be really stoked.  Email me at sophisticatedladyproductions@gmail.com to make contact.

Okay snow dreams and peace everybody……

Mighty Mighty Thursday 18 August 2011

PRESS FOLLOWS

Thursday night brings the edge to the city at Mighty Mighty with Wellington based musicians Hannah Simpson (a.k.a Cherry’s Gemstones) feat Pete Copeland (Drums Thought Creature) and Porcelain Toy solo (Elizabeth De La Ray).

Hannah Simpson of Cherry’s Gemstones coming out from under the radar after a couple of years invested into youth musicians as Director of the Wellington School of Rock is now ready to perform her new Electronic Dream Pop numbers with Pete Copeland on drums.  The sound is fresh and exciting to say the least.  Taking audience from honed upbeat ambient mood tracks to joyful high energy inspirational dance tunes.

Porcelaintoy is an innovative two-piece band based in Wellington, New Zealand. Combining elements of indie, downbeat, and glitch led by singer/composer Elizabeth de la Rey coupled with electronica producer Emile de la Rey the group has received recent acclaim in the Sunday star times for their debut album ‘Contrite Elegant Rebel’.

"The vision, sweep and sheer pleasure of Contrite Elegant Rebel make it a candidate for Kiwi album of the year." - 5 stars ★★★★★
- Sunday Star Times (22/05/11)

Elizabeth de la Rey of Porcelain Toy will perform a smoky solo set.  Be prepared for a soul enhancing experience full of heart.

Website Porcelain Toy:  http://www.porcelaintoy.com

Blogspot Hannah Simpson:  http://oaktreemusic.blogspot.com

Musical Acts:  Hannah Simpson Feat Pete Copland with Porcelain Toy

Venue:  Mighty Mighty (104 Cuba Street, Wellington)

Day & Date:  Thursday 18^th August

Time:  10pm start with doors open at 9:30pm

Cost:  Five dollars

Beryl Rosetta - Grandma on Dads side.

She was in recent Christchurch earthquakes.

Shaken yet still a beautiful lady.

Deceased Grandad Jack Simpson on Dads side.

He flew Lancaster Bombers in World War Two.

Here he is in uniform with plane behind him.

Uncle Margaret, Uncle Les, Mum and Dad, Grandma and Grandad.

On the day my parents wed.

Mum on honey moon I think. 

Holding perhaps a camera in Dads favortite old sun hat.

Golden moment Helen Simpson.

Dad Robert Simpson at around seventeen.

Here I am not merely a jumping jack flash silhouette on the beach in Pekapeka, Aotearoa!

A car through a wired fence, in the pretty hood thinking of vehicles as they dissolve in dreams.  Where does the metal go to.....  When will they utilise products that recycle themselves?  I think of all of those cars piling up at 4am as I awake and my feet feel cold as cold can be and the trees in the skylight are immersed in nights darkness not quite fully as they are lit by the white shimmer of the moon.  I dream I dream I dream.  I now have an oak necklace given to me by Cat Duval.  She is brilliant.  The piece she gave to me represents a seed.  Here it grows into what I know not.  I must write, share, feel, be..... It is a good thing.

This winter I hope all begins to unravel to reveal a secret beauty that I missed in autumn.  It was there.  Perfectly it was there.  Even when it wasn't.  I knew it always was.  Sheer stocking beauty hole rip not in tights, keep mind unladered and unsaddened.  Optimistic even when drear...... my dear.... I want to hold your hand and to laugh again and again with you at your side splitting jokes as the winter sets in.  Even though we may not.  I am happy to dream.

I cried, then I laughed and all went bright as the leaves rustled in the shimmer of new moon face brighter than ever during the eclipse, which we did not see from our side of the world.  I began to feel many things and all came to the surface with work, play, time....... It felt right, wrong, real and then I decided not to analyse any more, to let it all be.  I said another silent prayer and then I set my head down to dream dream dream. 

Dream with me tiny little oaks, like children that survive, thrive even when the metal cars pile up.  They find themselves released from their cages.  Little bright parrots do fly away and lark.  It feels good does it not in the late day summer sun as the trees rustle rustle rustle.  I am fond of the summer, but mostly in Wellington for a good part of the year it is cold and in between the hot season with rain lashings and gentle wind breath swinging to sun sparks in autumn and drear dear rain that comes and goes like hot flushes that render themselves cold in spring.  Yet we are all like chicks, fluffy, unruly and excited by the wind.  We find all of the cobwebs blown out revealing our creative selves.  We go for gold and the gold shines like the coal they shone up to burn.  Resource to create warmth, to create your electricity....... Longevity...... lies in the true beauty.  Please keep showing this to me I pray...

A very good day for Bella

I want to write something brilliant except I feel I have left it too late.  I am tired and it may not convey well.  However this is all about letting a flow go and being open.  I have decided to just let it go, to share with the world.  It feels safe still as no one is really reading this blog yet.  I kind of always think that when you perform on stage you should never say sorry for mistakes, rather own them and let them become something beautiful and maybe it is the same with the written word.  Sometimes mistakes are the curve, that bring a new breath of changing beauty.

Today has been a big long day of beauty.  I worked with children at a child care centre from 8:15pm till 5:15pm, which was really beautiful.  The best part was driving them around in the pink cars singing broooommmm outside when it was spitting. 

 After work I did a spot of shopping including three cans for a fund raiser for the Freestore (Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand).  This is a place that gives everything away for free!

I went down town with my cans and musical gear and played a short set for the people at the fund raiser.  I was nervous, my keys kept shorting out because my power plug is a bit wreaked.  Initially some teens from the rock school bunged it.  I was running the Wellington School of Rock much before all this new new current influx of life in these posts begun.  It was based at Zeal.  This was where the fund raiser took place (Youth Venue, 103 Ghuznee Street Wellington, New Zealand).

On the way to the fund raiser I cried in the car.  I like to do this occasionally as well as to eat ridiculous and impossible food when driving, just for a thrill.  I let out some emotion about my Mother Helen Simpson, whom passed away 23 January 2010.  She was amazingly beautiful, a real bella.  She would have been at the show and she would have loved the concept of the Freestore.  She used to give away a lot of time, love and things like food and goods to those who needed them.  I wished she could also attend the event, but I think maybe she was there in a way.  I feel inspired to play music, to be all I am meant to be and to let the love I know, be shown.  Some times in deep sorrow there is great joy.  In lost there is found.  

At the Freestore fund raiser we also watched a movie called Bella:

	MOVIEmeter SEE RANK Down 345 this week View rank on IMDbPro » Bella (2006)   91 min  -  Drama | Romance   -  22 November 2007 (New Zealand)     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X   Users: 7.2/10 (6,953 votes) 162 reviews | Critics: 88 reviews Metascore: 47/100 (based on 18 reviews from Metacritic.com) Sooner or later every one of us will face an irreversible moment that will change our lives forever. If it hasn't happened to you yet...it will. BELLA is a true love story about how one day in New York City changed three people forever. Director: Alejandro Gomez Monteverde Writers: Alejandro Gomez Monteverde , Patrick Million, and 1 more credit » Stars: Eduardo Verástegui, Tammy Blanchard and Manny Perez ................................................ The movie was good.  It made me cry and laugh.  It was about a woman who is fired from her job at a Mexican restaurant for being late just too many times.  The chef who is the owners brother decides to walk out of the restaurant for the day and show the woman some understanding.  She is pregnant and the movie is hinged around her feelings about this and his caring reaction to her.  It also brings in his jubilant family who show love towards her.  In one scene they plant trees and in another they eat green apples on a bus.  This reminds me of how each piece of fruit contains a seed and in a seed is life.  Also in her tummy was life, she was a baby incubator.  The movie also touched on the theme of parental loss, adoption and abortion.  My Mother was adopted and I could relate to some of the themes explored by the key characters.  It was worth a watch and I recommend it. I also recommend planting daffodils with your young ones.  I planted daffodils with my one of my nephews not so long ago and they are starting to sprout.  Every time I look at them I think of his lovely little hands potting them.  He also likes to build train tracks.  These days the designs are getting quite sophisticated and I think he might have an engineers mind, like my Father Bob Simpson whom is an engineer.

Marsha Kupriyenko organised the Freestore fund raiser.  She is really really awesome.  You can find her on Facebook.  She has a lot of up play with different pulses.  For her it seems every moment in life is one decisive heartbeat.  She is a treasure.  She danced for Winter Sports Meets Imperialism and Pop Culture theme piece at S.A.M.P.L.E.  She represented the character of childlike innocence.  Stunning!

Okay this is enough as I could continue, but sleep would never come and one must catch winks of R.E.M blinks to continue on a productive and successful existence in real time day time fun time expression life discovery activity brilliance of thought and outpouring movement and time.  Word bliss out.

Talking To You

I have begun this blog and left it hanging.....

Here I am talking to you in the wee hours.  Driving home tonight I thought of you blog.  Whilst viewing the trees swim past and tar seal road smattered with rain with grass growing up the walls of the surrounding up slopping zoom home route.  I was at a friends flat where they had a fun friendly night showing new potential flat mates around with two extra guests, myself and Camilo the delightful French man in rainbow coloured clothing.  He kept giving every one chocolate, farm bake cookies and apples.  It was nice.

I thought of you too.  I feel awake again.  Life is like this brilliant mass of shaking branches and each one drops a thousand leaves across the cityscape and countryside. 

Did you look at me across the back alley of Eva Street at the S.A.M.P.L.E show?  Who can know.  I dreamt of making M.U.S.I.C with you once.  A strange thing.  Then saw you on the same night behind me at a show.  I told you so.  Funny that I wouldn't normally talk to you, nor you to I.  Isn't it weird how with some people there is a sense of mystery, yet destiny, or maybe just a pure sense of never knowing and keeping it that way until fate would have it otherwise.

You too, yes you also.  I think you are brilliant.  You’re sheer fantastic.  The stroke of you in every brush.  I can write lines to make one blush, but not reveal who it is, because some things are private and this is merely a sounding board for words into fruition of what I know not.  You are like the broom that sweeps up every leave autumn dropped.  Some thing beautiful lies in you.  Like an old oak cut down you can see every year, every line that summer and time created in its growth. 

I could detail more, but I will leave it here on this.

The S.A.M.P.L.E was really sweet.  Interesting cats came to view what was an appealing and very entertaining night created by Alana Yee.  Dancers in tow with performance art fire.  Musicians trying new and awesome things.  High light Daniel Nagels with his drums attached to visual triggers going off off off when he played,  All I can say is 'Yeeeaaaahhh I want to dance with somebody, I want to feel the heat with somebody, with somebody who loves me'  Whitney Houston trigger quote used in his work was total brilliance.

My piece was themed Winter Sports Meets Imperialism and Pop Culture.   It included dancers, visuals and musicians.  It went down without a hitch.  I was pretty pleased with the performance and the whole event.  Thank you to all who came and enjoyed themselves, Alana and The Russian Frost Farmers Gallery on Eva Street.

S.A.M.P.L.E (Some Artists Making Performance Laboratory Experiments)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002096090529&ref=ts#!/home.php?sk=group_142582875812442&ap=1

I am also now part of a colletive called S.A.M.P.L.E.  It is the brain child of dancer, choreographer and curator Alana Yee and involves Dancers, Musicians, Film Makers and Visual Artists coming together to share and explore perfomance works together in a koint platform.

The first S.A.M.P.L.E event is on the 21st of May at the Russian Frost Farmers Gallery on Eva Street in Wellington. 

I hope to see you there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XKYhQSSzP0&feature=player_profilepage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlltPBP2qF8

Databoy and I made some fantastic music last week.  Alas web cam made it all distorted.  I can say that it is electro pop goodness for simplistic genre explanation.  We are looking at potentially touring in August.  Will keep you posted once we start to firm up ideas and details.

Today I went to a wee cave near where I live with friends Mark, Cat and Miles.  It was Marks fantabulous idea.  He missioned in a very fast fashion calling us all Manta rays.  We enjoyed the bush and tree surroundings and talked many a story and recited lyrics to one another.  In the cave we sung 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and other favourites that felt right with this setting. 

It was an old quarry dug into the rock partially where they looked for gold perhaps, a smugglers route cut short as it only went in about ten metres to a wall stop, damp and exciting.  We lit our torch and felt joyful.  On the way back we went to the fish and chip shop for fish.  Mark fed as chocolate by hand and we pretended to be Manta rays.  It is funny to behave like children and have adventures in the trees of larkdom.  One should endeavour to always remain young at heart.  Youth is not in skin, but in essence of beat.

Capture 20110501 5

Welcome to Oak Tree Music.  A place to set yourself alight into the glowing hew of trees at twilight or trees clapping at dawn, seeing all that is new on the horizon they rejoice.
.........................................
Allow love and to be loved
The quilt of existence
Wilt grow like an old oak tree
Out of ashen soil, debris past
With roots going ever deeper and deeper
Be my guide, I trust...
..............................................................