Hey everybody,

The new year has been good to me! Here's a rundown of what's been going on:

- I've been working super hard at my job saving up money for album #2 and for tour #2. So far its working - by mid spring (March/April) I should have a nice chunk of change set aside....enough to definitely get on the road again!

- Finally met my long distance guitar jam buddy Chad in real life and we got to play some tunes that he wrote (guitar) and I sing/do my lyrics over. It's mega fun and I finally get to feel like I am acting my age, and have a little bit of FUN at the same time, while still accomplishing something.

- Met w/another guitarist named Adrian (Republic of Letters) to discuss pulling together songs for my own album. I.e. my "ideal dream sound." I've got all these other songs in various styles that I will (still) be getting out of my system for album #2, but I think for Album #3, Adrian might be a big help in making it all sound cohesive cuz he gets that whole kinda intergalactic ethereal rock thing that I enjoy doing so much, and he gets it without trying too hard, which to me is super important.

- I've been meeting really randomly awesome people! I met the Stage Manager for Alicia Keys a few weeks ago (Yo Stryker!) and then before that, I met this guy who lets Michael Jackson's MOM park her giant motorhome in his motorhome lot. He sells motorhomes. And he knows this guy A&R guy named Step Johnson....he wants Step Johnson to hear me play live....I guess he forwarded my album to him but live is really the way to go. 

- People have been giving me money lately...I got 200 bucks randomly after doing some songs on a piano after I sang some karaoke, and there were these lost cat signs all around my city, and wouldn't you know - I FOUND the missing cat. It was a $15,000.00 cat and the lady have me a $500.00 reward!

- Exercise has sort of filled the void of playing less music while I'm working. Been doing "Hip Hop Abs." which has kicked my arse. Normally I get bored with exercise DVDs but the Hip Hop Abs is pretty decent. I've lost some inches and gained some muscle and a side benefit is that its really improved my singing/lung capacity. Yay.

That's all I have.
Vanja James,
Singing out!

 Hi all, 

Hope you like my new website look - it got  bit of a facelift, complete with some photos from past and present in the headers of me and my favorite people I've had the pleasure of playing music with. 

So - what did "Vanja James Music" accomplish in 2009?
1. I completed my first full length album.
2. I did my first tour - which was a month long tour covering 15 US states, and playing 27 show dates. 
3. My album got some awesome writeups locally in the San Diego Entertainer, and the San Diego News, and also on websites like Bullfrog Music, Wildy's World, Citybeat, LunaKafe, etc.
4. The album got play on internet radio in Italy, Australia, and here in the US in Tennessee, Connecticut, Portland, and other cities.
5. I got to audition LIVE in front of Randy Jackson from American Idol. 
6. I got in touch with some great people from Nashville who assure me that I don't need to pay anybody any money to "get my foot in the door" and if I do it right by spending some time there playing open mic nights and establishing a name for myself there, I will be able to get my record into the right hands.
8. I made friends with the talented Aja Alycean and her family, and (I think!) helped mentor her/the fam in putting her best foot forward as one of San Diego's best country acts. 
9. Although short lived, I got to jam/play along with one of my fav. local bands, The Gift/Curse - and I learned that given the opportunity, I would LOVE to play keys and do some backup singing in a side type rock project. 
10. I sang on Laserwolf & Thunderbolts album. Singing in a different way is fun. 
11. I did a show w/The Penny Lanes (a beatles cover band) and figured out playing covers (especially beatles!) can be fun, but also challenging. 
12. We got to play at the Las Vegas Rock N' Roll Marathon, for thousands of people running in the very-COLD early morning. This was the first time traveling with my band, and it was one of the best times I've had all year. Even though Adam couldn't play with us, Garrison played drums and it was a great time. 
13. Got to play my first LIVE performance on TV  - on fox 6's San Diego Living. 
14. We got to play multiple shows on HOUSE OF BLUES' main stage - which is so much fun. Thank you Black Cherry Group for supporting us. 

Many Special Thank Yous to:
Ishmael Velasquez for letting us use your van and heading to vegas - its been a blast
Jason Kwak for playing all the HOB shows and being so much fun to play with
Garrison Bailey for jumping in last minute to play the marathon - we loved it!
Steven Welker for being on board as my last minute guitarist
The Harbison Canyon crew for letting me put a tip jar out and buying my CDs
Leyva, Ryan and the Black Cherry Group for your continued support
Scott @ Seosmartsites.com for helping me learn so much about web stuff
Jen & Tracy for helping make the LA audition happen, and for helping me out. 
Billy for keeping up the encouragement - its always appreciated
Robert Ivy for having a good spirit even for our LA Jaunts. It helps!
Randy Mayes for helping me have the best show on tour all year
Peewee Moore for visiting us and showing San Diego what you got!
Lety McKenzie for doing your best to book the best shows for us you can
Haley and Nam Chi for helping the beatles thing to come together. I learned a lot from you guys. 
Lance/Quinn/Blue/all my Couchsurfing friends/Chemy/Brian/Jen/Melissa/G.R. Storey/The Shefstads/Kevin from Cornerstone/Tommy/Shane/D.S. Yancey/Marshall/Mick/anybody I forgot for helping tour be great.

Howdy Y'all,

Some new songs have been trickling out for album #2.
I kind of get divided between lists of songs that I stylistically categorize in different categories and feel like I should sort of "divide and conquer" stylistically by keeping things more genre specific.

But another part of me feels like that's trying too hard.....so maybe I'll go zhen-style and try to be more organic than last time. Organic as in, the process.

I kind of miss playing live as much but I have been working overtime trying to save funds for Album 2.. I was pretty good setting up a budget for myself for all kinds of expenses - it's crazy how "realistic" you start to get with your goals when you know exactly how many dollars you need (give or take a few) to get from point A to point B. The reality is that life as an indie musician can (at times) can be 90% administrative, and only 10% music. It's really acing those administrative skills (typing, letter writing, specially catered musical resumes) that will win you a keen ticket to success. If you can hustle on the phone and on the computer, there's really no limit to what you can do (without having to pay somebody else).

But I confess, I did start paying somebody on a super duper part time basis and its helped me earn a little extra press coverage and some cooler shows - like playing the Rock N' Roll Marathon in Las Vegas, which I am super excited about. How much more Rock N' Roll can you get?

Plus I've been helping out my hard working musician friends here and there when I can with shows n stuff. I am a firm believer in the idea of "What goes around comes around."

That's all for now - see you guys soon.

August 19:
Audition for Randy Jackson

August 28:
Hear from songwriter named David Campbell, who likes my stuff and is down to write new songs starting in the beginning of next year. He's had a lot of success in Europe - very impressive resume:
http://www.myspace.com/dcjrsongs

August 31:
Hear back from www.transitionmusic.com - they want to sign "On Your Own" with a publishing deal to hopefully get it in some movies.

September 2:
Get an offer to be on San Diego Living.
On Live TV (Channel 6!) for the first time, with Nam Chi & Jason (heck yea!)

September 3:
Get a note from The Music Director of San Diego Entertainer Magazine offering for me to be on a compilation called San Diego Local Music Alliance, vol.1. They said, "For qualities sake, we are only offering these spots to about 20 bands per playlist. We recognise you as one of this cities stronger bands, hence the invite."

I dunno whats next..........I play House of Blues thus Saturday, and .there's a songwriter competition on Tuesday at Humphreys.
I'm gonna go compete but the question is - which song to sing. Yeahhh.

Due to an ad I posted searching for songwriters on Craigslist, I pulled a big fish!
He's from far away, just moved to the states, but has had a LOT of success on major labels in other countries (like, the albums stay #1 in the charts for a few consecutive weeks.)

I pretty much spit out my drink aDue to that ad I posted searching for songwriters on Craigslist, I pulled a big fish!
He's from far away, just moved to the states, but has had a LOT of success on major labels in other countries (like, the albums stay #1 in the charts for a few consecutive weeks.)

I pretty much spit out my drink a little when I saw the "#1" in my email.
Cuz I was thinking, "Man, it would be really nice if I can find some #1 hit songwriters to work with."

But I did not specify to the universe what country they should be from, and...I don't really think it matters. Hallelujah.

I'm pretty excited about the whole Beatles cover band thing. I think it will give me some swell vocal and playing chops. For all of you who freak out about playing covers, I say, SHHH don't knock it. It's hands down, the best way to build vocal endurance/stage presence. I liken it to being an athlete. Olympians practice all the time. If I wanna win a gold medal, shouldn't I go the extra mile?

I hope you all like my shorter blogs! Concise is the new black.  little when I saw the "#1" in my email.
Cuz I was thinking, "Man, it would be really nice if I can find some #1 hit songwriters to work with."

But I did not specify to the universe what country they should be from, and...I don't really think it matters. Hallelujah.

I'm pretty excited about the whole Beatles cover band thing. I think it will give me some swell vocal and playing chops. For all of you who freak out about playing covers, I say, SHHH don't knock it. It's hands down, the best way to build vocal endurance/stage presence. I liken it to being an athlete. Olympians practice all the time. If I wanna win a gold medal, shouldn't I go the extra mile?

I hope you all like my shorter blogs! Concise is the new black.

Special thank you to Mary Leary for writing this:
www.sdentertainer.com/2009/05/21/vanja-james-goes-off-on-her-own/#more-303

I've been written about in blog land. They say nice things. Whoo hoo.

inspirewomen.blogspot.com/2009/04/vanja-james-is-female-musician-on-tour.html
themusement.blogspot.com/2009/04/san-diego-musician-vanja-james-on-tour.html

You can read all about my tour happenings via my facebook page, where I post a blog daily.
Feel free to befriend me there.

We have free tickets to the show at House of Blues on April 22 (which is a Wednesday) at 8pm. If you would like tickets, you just need to email me with your mailing address and with how many you want, and I will send via US mail to you.

Vanja@vanjajames.com

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Next, you can do your part to help keep me on the front page of the website for the San Diego Reader. If enough people download the song "Beautiful Mess" from my band page, then I remain the "top downloaded song of the day." Which keeps me front and center on their website, which is seen by thousands of San Diegans every day.
My brother actually *works* for the San Diego Reader too. And he LOVES seeing my face at work every day. (That was sarcastic...I am his little sister, and enjoy giving him a hard time, hah.) Download the song here from this link:

www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/vanja-james/

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Album Available on Itunes - please write a review for it.

My Debut Album is finally available for purchase on itunes. If you would like to write a review for it that would be amazing. Just search for "Vanja James Music" in the itunes store.
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TOUR!

Finally I am doing my debut tour at the end of April!
If you have friends in Long Beach, San Francisco, the East Bay, Portland, Seattle, Olympia, Caldwell Idaho,
Reno NV, Tempe or Phoenix AZ, Salt Lake City, or Denver, please tell them I'm coming to their neck of the woods in late April and May. My last show before I leave will be April 26th at the Ruby Room in Hillcrest. Send me off, it should be a fun time.

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A new guitarist, awesome bassist, and backup singer!

Jason Kwak is now playing 2nd guitar with me - we actually know each other from volunteering at church together. Ismael Velasquez, the guy who played most of the bass on my album, is also playing bass with me at most of my shows. Gayle Skidmore (I'm super excited about this) will be doing a little backup singing for me at my show at the Ruby Room on 4/26. One of the drummers who also played on my album, Adam Barker, also joined us at the House of Blues show last time, and it was great - I was happy like a little kid at Christmas.
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Album Review

Next, we have another great album review all the way from Norway!
Click the link or read below:

www.lunakafe.com/moon154/usca154e.php

Vanja James makes fiery, independent music on her self-titled debut. Opener "On Your Own" sees her singing at the top of her amazing voice to a choppy beat. "August" is bluesy and a little like early Dar Williams, and all the better for it. "Deal With the Devil" comes along, a song with a jazzy highlighting her cool vocal. She's really a vocal powerhouse, but can rein it in when she needs to. "The Bayou" is energetic yet sunny and has an amusing lyric. It's a bit old-fashioned country and that works well. James has crafted an impeccable debut.
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Lastly, t-shirt designs are coming soon!
I comissioned the lead singer of my FAVORITE BAND (a band called Eisley) to do the artwork, and she did an amazing job. They should be available in a couple of weeks.

photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs024.snc1/2649_92044871054_533941054_2830436_3365254_n.jpg

First things first - thanks to Ed McKeon of wesufm.org in Connecticut for having me on their station - I got to do a live video interview via Skype (aint technology grand?) and played August and Beautiful Mess live. Fun times!
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Now for the reviews:

I did a phone interview with Bart Mendoza a while back and for the life of me couldn't find the interview. But I googled myself (go figure!) and found he said some super cool things - read below:

www.sdnews.com/printer_friendly/1895015
Vanja James to showcase her ‘organic’ music style
by BART MENDOZA
02.04.09 - 05:46 pm
There is no shortage of local performers who fall into the category of singer-songwriter, but there are precious few who work to subvert the genre.

With much of the singer-songwriter boom coming in the wake of Jewel’s mid-90s success, it’s easy to see why so many artists rely on the simple guitar and vocals mix to get their message across. And yet, it’s artists who push musical boundaries that keep this music interesting.

While it’s the road less traveled, for musicians like Vanja James, who performs at Dream Street today, Feb. 5, the quest to make their music a unique statement through arrangements and instrumentation sets them apart in an overcrowded field.

James came to music through a church group, taking part in their worship services when she was 16.

“They had a really good modern worship team with good guitars in the program and that sort of piqued my interest,” James said.

Already in college, she quickly added classical guitar as part of her studies.

Currently preparing her debut album “Vanja James Music” for release, she is also taking part in as many musical projects as she can. In addition to her own music, she is also singing with an another pair of bands — the Gift/Curse and Laserwolf and the Thunderbolt.

“I’ve known them all for a really long time,” she said. “So it doesn’t feel like anything bigger than hanging out with my friends, but it is a lot of fun. So I’ll keep doing this sort of thing as long as they let me.”

Her album has been over a year in the making, but James was determined to make a quality product, no matter how long it took. The 15 songs on the disc include contributions from over two dozen guest musicians.

“It’s my recording debut,” James said. “It’s covering the span of what I can do stylewise. It took time, but getting it to sound good was more important than how long it took to do.”

For James, it was important to use real instruments instead of using computer shortcuts.

“You could describe my music as ‘organic,’” James said. “As in, real instruments played by real people.”

The length of time spent recording could also be attributed to working on off hours.

“I was working with my own money so I was paying as I went along,” she said. “The studio I was using was pretty busy, so I was at their mercy.”

Additionally her choice of violinist went on tour in the midst of the project.

“Sometimes people got scheduled over me, which can be a little frustrating,” she said. “But I did the budget plan, so I was willing to be patient and I probably saved a little money that way.”

James is prolific to a fault, composing anytime, anywhere.

“I carry a digital recorder in my car to capture any particularly good ideas,” James said.

While a crucial part of her creative process, this practice can sometimes cause other motorists amusement.

“I was doing a vocal warm up while I was on my way to a show downtown,” she said. “My mouth was open really wide when I looked over at the car next to me. They were laughing really hard,” she said.

With a debut album imminent and touring planned for the year ahead, the future appears promising for James. But she is determined to make it on her own terms.

“Music is sort of a universal language that you can use to connect with people,” said James. “I get pretty sad when I don’t sing or play music with people. It’s a happy thing for me.”

She considers music to be her mission in life.

“I’m blessed with it,” said James. “My life always seems to come back to that, so it seems like it’s something I was meant to do.”

For more information, visit www.myspace.com/vanjajames.

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www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/the_great_demo_review_2009/7818/
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Next we have the not so great review. It's never quite fair when somebody who doesn't even like your style of music reviews it (see the Citybeat review below, hahahahah)....honestly playing this last show was the tiredest I've been in a long time, but...constructive criticism notes taken:

melodygeek.com/2009/03/10/3409-the-bill-cardinal-show-w-ryan-blue-and-vanja-james-at-oconnells/

Vanja has a great voice - no arguing that - she would emote to the max, booming her beautiful voice to the people sitting on the tables near the stage.I did like her song called “August”, which had a guitar sound that reminded me of those early Billy Bragg records. - Greg, Melodygeek.com

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Lastly I leave you with a new little diddy I wrote on my piano yesterday.
It's a little more cute and theatrical than I tend to do, but all in good fun.

From Citybeat's Music Issue. Thanks guys for having a sense of humor. :-)

Do you miss the Lilith Fair? Vanja James would be playing the opening slot on the side stage if it were still 1998. The only distinguishing characteristics are the lyrics, which sound like excerpts from Sarah McLachlan’s 11th-grade diary. MS/vanjajames.

—Todd Kroviak

P.S. This is a new track I worked on with Cady Truckee - he played guitar, and I sang and played the electronic beats. Fancy that! Click below to listen: