christabelle.com

As most of you know, for those of you who visit my personal site, I am in the band Hungry Lucy. Yes, we’re still around! The band, as it were, consists of myself and my husband, War-N. When we do work together, we work very well together. But, as is the problem with a lot of musicians, we don’t always get to work when we want to. Or, the even more dreaded problem, we’re not inspired to work! But, lately, we have been so inspired to work on music. This all came about by stopping our bi-weekly podcast, Tea with Hungry Lucy, for a spell just to see what came about. Well, something clicked and we’ve been very productive just in the last couple of weeks! This was also due to a computer switch and, in turn, a music software switch as well. We now have our music on a Mac (about bloody time!!) and it’s so much more intuitive. War-N is loving it! So, the lapse in “tea” and a new system has really helped draw out the music. It’s lovely getting to work side by side with War-N again and make the music that we so love!

This has all made me think a lot about dedication to the Muse. I was watching an interview with the great Tori Amos this morning and she said a key statement roughly saying that if you were constantly waiting for the Muse to show up, maybe they didn’t want to perform when you needed them. You have to have the dedication and devotion to THEM. Sometimes one needs to summon the Muse rather than waiting for the Muse to summon them. For more inspiration from the Great Red Goddess, click here and here for the interviews I watched. I’m glad I took the time to sit and listen to her chat about this and that. I always find inspiration in her whether it’s an album or watching one of her live shows.

Another thing that has been bothering me lately is the amount of years that we’ve had between releases. This is the longest amount of time that HL hasn’t put something out to the world. Do people really forget an artist if they don’t put something out for a few years? What is the right amount of time between releases? Do the fans really care about quantity? Quality? These are the thoughts that have stopped us dead in our tracks at times. We’d think “Are we too late? Should we give up?” and the answer always came back “No!”. I was guilty of using a bit of reverse-psychology on War-N time or two. But, it made him realize he didn’t want to stop making music. We just needed some time to gather our thoughts, take some time for our own inner selves and time to re-group.

In taking this time, we discovered that “tea” wasn’t what it was originally intended to be. It became the “War-N and Christa” show and the music fell by the wayside. Tea with Hungry Lucy was becoming a huge chore and felt so forced and empty. The love for the fans is always there. But, when a podcast about music turns to gardening and cooking for topics of the day, it’s time to stop, take a breather and come back with some more, um, what’s the word… MUSIC!! We also discovered that we have no more mystery left in the world of Hungry Lucy. Everyone knows everything about us now and therefore it feels like they have no more drive to want to know more. Ya know? So, we’ll be a bit more absent for a while in order to do what we need to do as musicians.

These thoughts have made me see that without the perspiration of hard work, nothing will get done. It’s ok to think that “if it’s not fun anymore, it’s not worth doing.” But, where will that get you? I can speak about this from personal experience. If you give up because you’re waiting for something, or someone, else to make it happen, it just won’t happen! Without your own devotion to whatever it is, it will sit silent in the corner collecting dust. I, personally, have a lot of projects on my list that I want to do. I am doing half of them and trying to figure out how to go about the other half. I am stubborn, willful and moody. Therefore, I’m best when working on my own. But, there is one exception to this rule and that is with music. Without War-N, Hungry Lucy would not be the great thing that it often can be. I think he is my Muse and I am his. Since neither of us were sending out our summoning waves, neither of us felt inspired. But, now we’ve woken the sleeping Muses and they are singing once again. It’s soft at the moment. But, I feel them starting to find their voices more rapidly now. They are strong, different and amazing. Now, we just need the dedication to make it all happen! We have a plan, we have the music and, best of all, we have each other.

So, if you don’t hear from us for a while, think of it as a good thing. When we do come back, and we will, we’ll have so many new, interesting stories to tell. Plus, we’ll have new music!

Until next time, summon the Muse within you and see what happens!

Much Love,

Christa Belle