Lili will be on Air America tonight at 7pm (PST). Visit Airamerica.com to find your local station.
Listen to David Was' segment "Lili Haydn: Jimi Hendrix of the Violin" HERE.
Hi my dears,
i hope all's well in your world! hope you're reveling in the triumph of the spirit that is Obama's nomination, even if he isn't the candidate of your choice you have to admit this is big!
Little update...just finished working with Hans Zimmer and Omar from The Mars Volta on the soundtrack to a new movie by Guierrmo Arriaga (Babel, 21 Grams) called THE BURNING PLAIN.
Was honored to perform for the Human Rights Watch benefit CRIES FROM THE HEART with Billy Baldwin, Anne Archer, Sandra Oh, and more. please check out www.hrw.org
About to perform with Miriam Shor (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Swingtown) at What A Pair, a benefit for the John Wayne Breast Cancer research center at the Orpheum theater on Sunday June 8.
And also about to be featured on NPR's Day to Day. (Will post a link when it airs.)
A lot of people have been asking me about the meaning of my songs, and where they came from, so i took a minute to write a little about the songs on PLACE BETWEEN PLACES which i hope you will get if you haven't, and please spread the word if you dig. i'd love to share these thoughts with you.
lots of love,
peace,
Lili
Cant Give Everything-
i was working with a producer named Danny Saber a few years ago, who, knowing that i had played with and opened for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, surprised me with a John Bonham loop on one of my songs that we were working on together. nothing ever happened with that song, but one night at 3am, i heard a little symphony in my head with the Bonham drums (which were later played live by the great Brian McCleod), and i went down to my studio and started layering violin after violin and imported this amazing groove into the session, and so the "Lilharmonic" orchestra was born on what was to be this new record.
i tried every which way to turn this piece into a song, and had almost given up on it, but my wonderful co-producer Thom Russo said he thought there was something there. the next week, i had a fortuitous re-connection with my old friend and soon to be co-writer/mentor Marvin Etzione and i asked him to "please help me save this song." we ended up batting around a few ideas, and "Can't Give Everything" blossomed into a string laden, Bonham inspired Pink Floyd overture, mournful yet optimistic epic that just had to open the record.
Memory One-
this song is for my mom, who was my first memory, but also always memory one on my automatic dial. when she passed away, i could never replace memory one.
i recorded this song once before, on an EP of the same name, and while it was cool, it didn't communicate the emotion from which it was written. this was the hardest song on the cd to record, as i was chasing a pregnant cloud and running from a cliche. it was the blending of a few approaches, the guidance of my mentor Marvin, and the vision of my producer Thom Russo that finally birthed this song in this form, which i really feel does resonate with the intensity of the longing that propelled me to the piano in the first place.
Place Between Places-
this song started as a hypnotic piano pattern written on my gramma's baby grand that overlooks the trees of laurel canyon. it's neither happy nor sad, just born from the meditative zone that exists in one of those rare moments of understanding and equanimity. one chord led me to the next and a violin melody played itself; and i became obsessed with the rhythmic pattern of the piano part 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2, over and over...i started chewing with that rhythm, breathing, blinking, and i marched in that rhythm down to the studio to record it. i invited my dear friend, the amazing pianist/organist/singer/songwriter Christoph Bull to come play the part i'd just written but could not play myself, and i breathed him the groove.
i thought this song would be another child for just my enjoyment, when, to my surprise, a whimsical jam with the great bassist of the band Maetar, Itai Disraeli (on whom i had a massive crush) turned into that wicked bass line, which not only added the edge that transformed the song into a mosaic simultaneously delicate and driving, major and minor, classical and funky, but Itai absolutely won my heart, made me make the "funky face," and sent me into fits of delight...we've been together ever since!
I Give Up-
this song is a prayer. i had just finished a 3 month whirlwind European tour with Herbie Hancock, whose excellence and willingness to take risks and create something new every night on stage turned me upside down...made me realize the only way to stay vital and inspired is to push past boundaries of genre and what you think you know. i returned home to a just finished EP i made with my friend and collaborator, guitarist/producer Corky James, which was the most concise, pop presentation of my music i had ever given birth to...and i suddenly felt no connection to it at all...or to any "genre" or identity.
my relationship was in its final chapter, i had no family, no idea what was next, no record deal, and no identity. the combination of a lifetime of unhinged introspection, prayer, and half a tab of ecstacy (for the first time in my drug free life), allowed me to feel how tightly wound i'd been, and so much compassion for the people around me and myself. i just kept asking to be refined and carried to the next place i'm meant to be. like a hymn from another time, i began walking round the house singing "soften these edges, lighten up this load, please make this heart big enough to hold...Your love." this song was given to me, and it allows me to surrender to the Source of all life. one of my teachers used to say, "it is the empty vessel that can be filled with the light of G-d."
Saddest Sunset
my mom used to say "Love is always there; it's just we who aren't." my favorite line in this song, which i had been saying to myself for a couple years before it ever became a song, is "it can change in an instant."
i wrote this song and brought it to Corky James, who in the context of his trying to give me a mainstream appeal, encouraged me to add a "pop chorus," which we recorded for the EP we were making together. a year later, when i finally embarked on the liberating process of officially making this record, i brought the song to my friend, the brilliant songwriter Marvin Etzione to help me hone, and he said to me "not every song needs a pop chorus," and he encouraged me to take it back to its original simplicity. we jammed around the simple chords and i wrote the little instrumental line; slightly asian, (later i was informed that it was also slightly Lennon), and we recorded the whole song live in the last 20 minutes of an hour session with amazing cellist Martin Tillman (my band mate in a side project called Triptych), in which we also recorded the cello on "Children of Babylon", and the wicked distorted cello intro on "Cant Give Everything".
Strawberry Street-
the dawn after the dark. Marvin saved this song. it was on the EP in another form and the record company liked it, but it didn't have 'Lili' in it, and i just couldn't put something on this record (with all the other completely naked material) that wasn't essential. Marvin got me to make room for myself in this song, and worked with me on the lyrics until it started to make me smile and i remembered that i'm actually a really happy person. it's the only unequivocally happy song on the record. enjoy.
Children of Babylon-
my mom, the great comedienne/author/songwriter/sage Lotus Weinstock, used to say "compassion is the sweetest of the passions." she was president of the board of the Sheenway School and Culture Center in South Central LA when she wasn't on stage at the Comedy Store and the Improv, or soulfully and meticulously mothering me. she loved everyone as she loved herself, or better. she also used to say "love your neighbor as you love yourself, but if you don't like yourself, your neighbor's in trouble!" she performed for every cause; she was the benefit queen...she even dated a homeless person. she used to say she "only slept her way to the bottom". she imparted to me her deep sense of the interconnectedness of all life, and when she left her body, i tried to take on her mantle.
a poli-sci major at Brown, my secret hobby is listening to NPR, BBC, Bill Moyers, and Bill Maher, and my favorite movie growing up was Mr Smith Goes to Washington. i perform at every benefit to which i'm asked, from Amnesty International, to US Campaign for Burma, to Children Uniting Nations, etc., but when baby Bush won a second term, and the quagmire in Iraq continued to worsen, i stopped listening and my heart broke... "if only the sound of violins could stop the violence..."
i think we are all "children of babylon," with our legacy of beauty and barbarism; we can sometimes scarcely hear each other; we have worshiped at the tower of misunderstanding, egoism, and anger, and this song is a prayer for peace. the philosopher Norman Cousins said "the individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. we have it within our means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter."
Satellites-
i don't know anyone who doesn't feel alone, at least some of the time. the image of us as satellites, randomly hurling through space, sometimes colliding with each other seemed to speak to that pain and shame of separateness. and as the world gets more intense, we who are fortunate enough not to have to worry about military juntas and where to sleep at night, and where to get a glass of clean water, sometimes also have a hard time understanding how to make sense of a universe in which there is so much disparity. so much beauty and these infinite pockets of joy and hidden treasures, and at the same time so much hardship and pain. sometimes it's hard enough just trying to get along with each other. on my path, i have found that every love and every loss ultimately opens my heart to the same divine revelation. "Every honey drop and everyone i've lost brings me back to You." and "Separation is only a reverie..."
the reverie
a pipe dream, born out of the revelation (and the ostenato pattern in the solo) of "Satellites."
last year i found myself on stage with Doors drummer, John Densmore and friends for a cross cultural jam, and one of the highlights of this inspired evening was a nepalese Bansuri (indian bamboo flute) player by the name of Manose. we jammed like we'd been dancing on the silk road together forever, and even though he was only in town for 2 nights and i hadn't even officially started the record yet, i was so delighted by his extraordinary sound that i knew i had to get him on something. so i called the mad scientist of a guitar wizard with whom i had been collaborating, the great Woody Aplanalp, and said, "come over and let's write something for Manose!" we did, and Manose came over as we were finishing the song; this is an abridged arrangement of the dream that was written and recorded that day.
Unfolding Grace
one night, about a year and a half after i lost my mom, for whom i kept a candle burning for 2 years (till i found out that most candles have lead in them and i was inhaling lead all that time, going right to the brain), i had a mindless affair, and i saw the shadow of our lusty forms cast upon the wall from the light of that sacred flame, and i felt empty and ashamed, separate from the safety of my purest love. that night i dreamed that my mom said to me "no matter how far you stray from the light, you're always in it." i realized that everything we do, sacred or profane, awakened or unthinking is all the unfolding of Grace.
after having recorded this song about 4 different times in an effort to capture the feeling from which this song came (one recording of it was included on a compilation record 2 years ago with U2, Sting, and Peter Gabriel to benefit the imprisoned Burmese Democratic Leader Ang San Suu Kyi...you can be imprisoned for 15 years for owning it), i finally feel like i got it right. this amazing group of musicians (including the exquisite Ben Hong, assistant principle cellist of the LA Philharmonic who coached me on playing my own music) and the excellent guidance of Thom Russo and Marvin Etzione really brought it to life.
The Last Serenade
when my mom was in her final hours, and her spirit was hovering in the place between places, i got my violin out, and channeled this melody...these are intervals given to me to bring in spirit. years later, the bridge melody came to me, as if to say her spirit had ascended. and this is why the final utterance of the main theme is played by the cello (the great Sara Sant'Ambrogio of the Eroica Trio); it is no longer mine. this gift must be given away.
Powers of 5
another hypno-ostenato piano pattern that wrote itself on Gramma's piano amidst the trees of Laurel Canyon.
Maggot Brain
i first saw P-Funk in 1995, and watching Micheal Hampton play the solo on Maggot Brain blew my mind. i thought, "that's what i wanna do!" and i finally got to play the song with the funk mob at the House of Blues a few years ago and it made me cry, it was such a powerful experience for me. in fact i cried every time i played or heard it, and i kept playing it with P-Funk on the road and ended up creating an arrangement of it with Double G, the mastermind of the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra. we performed it at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl before we recorded it at Capitol Records studio, where Frank Sinatra and the Beatles recorded. the recording was funded by the great activist and entertainment guru Norman Lear, who upon hearing it at Disney Hall offered to help me, no strings attached (and no pun intended). when i got to make "Place Between Places" i just knew Maggot Brain had to be on. it's been covered by Jeff Beck, Santana, Mike Watt, Buckethead, to name a few guitar heroes, but i feel it in my way, and i'm so glad i finally get to share it on this record.
Anthem-
when i first heard Leonard Cohen's Anthem, i was so moved that i cried for about 6 hours. i was playing with Perla Batallia, one of Leonard's beautiful sirens, and i could barely contain myself. i started to play it when i began to do solo shows and my friend and collaborator Corky James and i took a few liberties with the chords and melody, and it eventually turned into this gigantic, deeply optimistic hommage to both Leonard Cohen, who i think is the greatest poet/lyricist of our time, and to us as humans, who ultimately continue to love, no matter what.
This is Lili Haydn’s week. On Monday, the singer-violinist appeared on "The Tonight Show." The release of her new album, "Place Between Places" (Nettwerk), was celebrated last night at a party at the Roxy here, and she’ll perform the national anthem tonight at Dodger Stadium. If that wasn’t enough, later this month she’ll join Roger Waters’s band as he re-creates Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon" at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Read more...
View photos from Lili's performance of The Star Spangled Banner at Dodger Stadium Here.
If you were listening to Morning Becomes Eclectic this morning you may have heard Nic Harcourt play "I Give Up" from Lili's forthcoming record "Place Between Places!
just in Israel over the holidays...at the 'wailing wall' and in the tunnel excavating the continuation of the wall. the air is heavy with agendas and prayers and longing. my mom used to say "the promised land should be declared a state of mind. that way, everyone can live there...free of the need to be free." peace, lili Click HERE to see pictures.
ILLUMINATING LILI - An Interview with Singer, & Violinist Lili Haydn
Written by Kindah Mardam Bey
Lili Haydn is as sweet and sophisticated as her music. Classical in roots, an eclectic at heart, Lili Haydn is a talented singer and violinist that has worked with the likes of Herbie Hancock (Grammy award winner for Best Album 2008), Josh Groban, Tom Petty, and will be at Coachella Festival this year to perform with headliner Roger Waters (Pink Floyd). She has also been the voice and violin for the last two films composer Han’s Zimmer has done soundtracks for, and will do the same in the final instalment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean. Known as "The Jimi Hendrix of the violin," Haydn is just about to release her third album Place Between Places on April 1st. She will be having a CD release party that will be hosted by Bill Maher (Politically Incorrect) and will coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. Aside from that impressive roster of whirlwind events, Haydn is also a humanitarian and an advocate for change.
Read More...
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