FRESH NELLY MUSIK - SANDRINE SIMS - FRESH NELLY MUSIK

FRESH VIDEO	*GIGS COMING UP*	*PAST PERFORMANCES*
*TUNES/MP3's 4U!*	*THE STUDIO*	FRESH PHOTOS
*PRESS*	*ABOUT ME (bio)*	*FILM PRODUCTIONS*

News and Updates
WHAT'S UP WHAT'S DOWN WHAT'S IN WHAT'S OUT

New Musik
THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT BABY! HOT OFF THE PRESS!

Film Scores/Music Videos
ALWAYS PRODUCING!

Jam Sessions
A.K.A. THE BLOG OF EMBARRASSMENTS FOR ALL!

S.Sims-18-02-2012
Legion Dinner & Dance
A fun night was had by all, and the miriad of performers that showed was amazing! Styles varied from rock to folk, blues to jazz, and instruments from piano & guitar to accordian & sax! Thankyou all for the wonderful night! Check out the video!

S.Sims-03-02-2012
More Studio Toys!
Apart from a quick song or two at the Fly-In Volunteer Party back in November, not much has been going on outside of the studio in "Fresh Nelly" world....but inside the studio things have been growing nicely!
2 new synths, one home-made, a potluck high-power amp, a visualization projector, and a DJ controller (presently under construction) are all new since December! Look here for more...

S.Sims-18-09-2011
Played At Terry Fox Run!
I must curb my enthusiasm for fear I might make a fool out of myself, but I must say this performance along with "The Jessica's" went flawlessly! The rain stopped, the crowds gathered after the run and got into the groove, and the stage atmosphere was relaxed and amazing at the same time!
We alternated sets which gave a really great mix of music from my blues, to their folk, to my pop & dance, to their blue-grass styles. We all played together as well, 6 women on stage, which is a first for me. Compliments were hot & heavy and everyone left with a smile!
Photo's and Video will be coming soon. Thank you everyone, the weather gods, and especially The Jessica's & Jonelle for putting it all together!

S.Sims-17-08-2011
Played At "Jam In The Park"
What an evening! I started out playing during supper hour, then was joined by Peter & Jamie, then Doby, for another hour, then Dale & daughter and some others put on a fab performance of popular music. Once is got dark, my lights lit the stage and performers continued with us notorious 3 finishing up the show with a few of my tunes!
This is the first big Island Jam on Texada, and there will be more I'm certain! Thanks to Georgia and crew for keeping up with the orders to stop tummies grumbling, and thanks to everyone who came despite the strong winds early on!
There's quite a few photos, so that's going on a different page ;)

S.Sims-4-08-2011
Played The Rockhounds Dinner-
Van Anda Legion
Spirits were high, and the annual meeting of rock hounds from all over BC was brought to a crescendo with a BBQ dinner at the Legion and me performing. Unfortunately the noise and acoustics were far less than ideal, so was a real test of endurance for the evening. There was appreciative applause from the less noisy parts of the audience, even though I had an equipment malfunction during the more accompanied songs (Island Blues Dance Vers., In Ur Eyes etc) and realized that I'd forgotten to plug in the laptop (duh!) so it was trying to go into standby continuously once the batteries ran down!
"Texada" received the loudest applause, even though most of the crowd is off island.

S.Sims-17-07-2011
Performed for Sandcastle Weekend
Originally the performance was to be the 16th of July just before the laser show, which would've merged nicely, but we were basically rained out. Miraculously it stopped just in time for the lasers (see video below) So my performance was re-scheduled for the next day at the other park.
It stopped raining and everyone came up from the sand castle competition on the beach to music, munchies, and a variety of vendors. The performance went well until I decided to crank things up as people were enjoying the beats, which in turn blew 2 speakers apart! Literally! I found later the rubber was partially rotted on them so have

S.Sims -26-01-2012
The new song "Longing" is finally on a CD, and will be linked from here when I get to it!
It's an emotional song for me to perform, and looks to the future (perhaps) where I am sailing solo in the big ocean, and miss Gena soooo much. It has full accompaniment so I'll only perform it with "the rig" set up.

S.Sims -19-10-2011
There was a power cut and we were all sitting around with candles and cooking coffee on the Coleman, when, by coincidence, both Jamie & I wrote new songs. Mine is about a childhood friend and based on a real experience called "Single Serving Friend". I performed it at the "Fly-in Volunteers Appreciation event last night on guitar, and it was received very well! I will post it on the site one of these days. Look in the Press section for that story, who knows maybe I was singing it when that photo was snapped.

S.Sims -10-09-2011
A new song, more electro-pop sounding, has been getting "air" time in the studio over the past weeks. It's called "Be True", and it's designed to knock their socks off! It won't be performed this month, but perhaps in October sometime.
( Hopefully at night, with the light show! )

S.Sims -22-06-2011
After tinkling a C#,Bb,Eb,& Ab progression as fill in the studio, I've finally got some lyrics to go with it. The song is called "Call Me" and is based on a last and on-going "love of my life" experience, with a comedic tone (excuse the pun) but for some reason it's fairly difficult to play so it won't be showing up in any live performances for a while!

S.Sims -26-05-2011
After an apparent dry spell, the reflective song "Lazy Day" is now in the pink songbook. I kept imagining Roger Hodgeson X of Supertramp doing it, does it show? It was part of an outdoor sound test for the neighborhood. Lazy Day Video

S.Sims -22-03-2011
Just finished writing "Power Outage" which is actually funnier than "Exercise Bike" a song I may never do live haha! (Add: I did! OMG!)

G.Hollingshead -04-02-11
"That should be on CBC radio right now!"
The song "Texada" was recorded a day after it was written, here it is in all it's beautiful imperfection. Texada

J.Nuotio -30-12-2010
"Sure, you can do my tune!" Thanks Jamie!!
The song "Go with what you got" now adorns the soundtrack of The Big Sailboat Project Vol II performed by myself on piano with, okay old habits die hard, some pre-sequenced accompaniment.
"I went with what I had! "

S.Sims -30-11-2010
Lately I have been on a creativity / writing binge! Waking up in the night to write "Sleep", venting anger with "Hey, hey!" and fantasizing about a certain lumberjack with "Firewood" or a day in the past with "If I Could Go Back". It's all good!

S.Sims-12-01-2011
Any music that has been on the mixer board of late has completely been arrangements for the second volume, the last 5 episodes, of "The Big Sailboat Project" DVD series currently being carried by TheSailingChannel.TV, slated to air on PBS at an unknown-as-of yet date. Because each episode has music for 90% or more, and really it's pretty good stuff, I've decided to make compilations of each and will post them here.

*Unlike previous releases around the 'net and on dogmazic.fr, these aren't free to be used in your videos etc. but if you ask real nice, I can modify a section out to match your video, which is better anyway.

CG/Animation Videos
ALWAYS DESIGNING!

S.Sims-22-07-2011
Those guys have been putting some pretty weird animation ideas across the table, and I find myself making them reality. "Gnash" the dog, a metallic chromey looking creature, vicious to the soul, but cute as well, has begun his first moves. Also on the drawing board is "Ash", a robotic dragon that spits fire, "Mash" a rhino fellow, and several others, all hell bent on destroying cell phones, text pads, and other technologies that inhibit humans from actually "socializing" in person. Will it ever become a movie? Music video? Who knows, but it's fun to tweak this guys on a rainy day.

S.Sims-17-06-2011
Youtube is the perfect portal for showing off new animations & techniques. The first episode of "XET" the X-Extra-terrestrial was posted there quite a while ago, but every once in a while I get the urge to post a tutorial on something I've discovered that may help others.

At this time I'm on a rather limited bandwidth on this little island, but once things speed up here, more will be posted.

S.Sims-27-03-2012
At long last the studio's outdoor deck is underway, materials have been purchased, and a rusty (soon to be tremcladed) handrail for the scarey stairs is laying in the driveway. Now if it'd just stop raining for a couple of days!!
After the deck is on, everyone is welcome to come and jam!!

S.Sims-28-01-2012
Last night I jammed with the greats, Chak, Trance Control, Fevertech, Armin Van Buuren, and even a DJ off of the x-XM81!
OK maybe they weren't all actually here, their music was. I tried an experiment to perform my music into and along with theirs as a continuous 5 hours of strumming, playing, drumming, dancing, singing, mixing, and, well, exercise!
The most fun a person could ever have alone I swear! Well Gena did join in after a couple of hours. My ears rang for 2 days after lol!

S.McCune-05-11-2011
"When are we all gunna jam in your new studio?!?" Well, soon!
I've got to get out of work mode & performance mode, and back into "let's try this" mode. It's like shifting gears when you're zooming along with exhilaration, but not knowing what the next gear will be! 5th? 1st? Reverse? Haha OMG!
Have a small acoustical bug as well, but Shirley on the old gitter sounded pretty good from mission control! Yay!

S.Sims-16-08-2011
It was one of those sessions when you wish there was a recording device running! Wow did things ever click! What was the formula? Well, an early start for one, no bugs bugging us, and we were all in an exceptionally good mood with a bit of seriousness preceding the "big night".
I'm making a note of that recipe...here!

S.Sims-18-05-2011
Big Jam! Jamie's two sons, both musicians, were both visiting, along with Peter, John, Jamie, and myself (did I forget someone?) and we did 4 of *my* songs! It was awsome and sounded great! If only it had been recorded!
"Island Blues" turned into a 10 minute trip with me on the piano and mic, Jamie on harp, Peter on guitar, Mick on brushes, John Hollo on the electric, and Jason on bass. Yaaa!

S.Sims-18-01-2011
I played "Firewood" for the guys, and they quickly cued in on guitar. Wow! We're playing one of my songs! I also played it to my parents when we visited them 1200 miles from here, and my mom commented "I've never heard you sing like that before!" But then I've never had a $3 toy piano on my mom's kitchen table before!

S.Sims-12-01-2011
A friend, fellow musician, and neighbor, Jamie Nuotio (Edward Campfire fame) told me I should have at least 5 songs that I can perform live using minimal backup. So I've been getting back to the grass roots of my music experience and playing guitar and piano again.
No synths, sequencers, auto-accompaniment, FX, or pre-record's, just me and the instrument. Quite a change, but with all this practice, I can confidently perform in front of others, and have fun jamming with the guys in weekly jam sessions. In past days jamming with a band terrified me, but now it's just great fun! And that's what it's all about.

ordered replacements.
Hopefully they arrive in time for the August 17th "Jam In The Park"

S.Sims-12-06-2011
Outdoor Performance-Gillies Bay
Finally! 3 sets of 13 songs each, and lots of happy people. It's like a dream come true for me!
I played the same 13 songs in each set, but being at a market, people were coming and going constantly.
New song "Tick-Tock" was a hit! See video below.

S.Sims-18-03-2011
Powell River Compilation CD
My new song "Texada" has been recorded and entered to be added to a compilation CD of Powell River artists. But now in hindsight, entering a song about an island that is *not* Powell River or about Powell River was probably a bad idea! Ooops!
Oh well, at least I got to go into a recording studio! Cool.

S.Sims-15-03-2011
The blues experiment
For the past few months I have been steadily taking notes and learning the art of the blues, from one of the best blues musicians I've ever seen.
We jam together weekly, and I've learned so much!
The time is almost nigh to begin the scientific blues experiment. Merging blues with electronica and house/dance with a dash of world music!
This of course must be performed live as well. A tall order, but the need for eclecticism is strong!

More News....

On The Platter
Ideas, possibilities, dreams

S.Sims-03-02-2012
No way! ....Way! ! Fresh DJ'ing??
Finally I have found a solution to keeping continuous music playing during a performance! It's called DJ'ing. Haha!
Well ok that's nothing new, but to perform songs live in a mix is.
As the tempo picks up, lights start flashing, and dancing follows, it's nice to keep up the beatz with some beat-matched canned music, mine or others. I've been practicing on software & am making a custom DJ hardware controller that allows on the fly switches from automated music/mp3's etc, to a song performed live, then back again, plus this unit will take care of a lot of wiring to boot! Stay tuned or visit freshdj.htm

F.N.M. Indie Label
IT'S DEFINITELY COMING!

S.Sims-17-06-2011
Now we are located in one of the most musically diverse areas of Canada, we often have the opportunity to schmooze with many talented and well-learned artists. Many we have met have never had exposure beyond the Sunshine Coast, where I have the contacts and know-how to get the ball rolling on the web and beyond.

Starting an indie label seems a logical next step! I already know it's a lot of work having worked with Solarise Records on a first name basis, but I think I could handle it.

Trying to drag people into my tiny studio is another issue all together, so my partner Gena and I have started (just yesterday!) building a new, large studio in back of the house. With easy access (mine is presently 2 sets of ladders), it'll be much better to carry equipment in, and roomier too!

If you have some suggestions, reality checks, comments, or are interested (and preferably in the Texada area) Contact Us

...starting over
Webmaster Sandrine Sims, Video Gena Hollingshead
Thanks to Jamie Nuotio & Peter Locke for all the wonderful new inspirations


Texada music video by S.Sims	Instruments of My Destruction animated music video by S.Sims

I Love to Kick S.Sims/Fevertech Sirens Mix	The Light Show!


A Videoclip of The Terry Fox Run performance	A Videoclip of Feb 18 Legion Dinner & Dance performances

Here's some snippits' from the Sand Castle Weekend July 17	Rockhounds Legion BBQ Aug.4

TICK-TOCK: Sunshine, a nice breeze, and a good setup. What more is there??	LAZY DAYS: Could you guys hear me? How far? A mile? Cool!

IF I COULD GO BACK: My first ever public performance, heartbeat=150 bpm!	*TEXADA: Proudly singing Texada, it is* our island home now!**

*Tick-Tock* Written by Sandrine Sims, 2011 interpreted by Sandrine Sims (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012	*What U Got* Written by Jamie Nuotio, interpreted by Sandrine Sims (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012		*Texada* The studio version, written by Sandrine Sims About our lovely island. (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012	*Gitter-Harmon* Just goofin' around with a harp, guitar, and piano in the studio. (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012
*Island Blues-Dance Version* Written by Sandrine Sims, 2011 (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012	*Island Bluesier* Written by Sandrine Sims, 2011 (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012		*Firewood Blues* Written by Sandrine Sims, 2011 (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012	*In Your Eyes - Dance Version* Written by Sandrine Sims, 2007 (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012
*Longing...* Preliminary ( already been changed again! ) Written by Sandrine Sims, 2012 (c) Fresh Nelly Musik 2012
		PAST ALBUMS - FLASHBACK! My Trance/Dance/Techno past

The Small Studio in January 2011

The Small Stage Setup, me singin', lotsa happy faces! ( Loud! Blew out 2 speakers! )
*Loud, like a saloon, but there was a party atmosphere which made the evening go more smoothly!*

*Aug 17:The very first "Jam In The Park" featuring myself & Jamie, Peter Locke, Doby, Dale, Chelsea, and many others! Photos*


*September 18th 2011: Performimg with The Jessica's to liven up the Terry Fox Run!*

Fresh DJ Controller
No way! ....Way! ! Fresh DJ'ing?? Maybe! Finally I have found a solution to keeping continuous music playing during a performance! It's called DJ'ing. Haha! Well ok that's nothing new, but to perform songs live in a mix with others is. As the tempo picks up, lights start flashing, and dancing follows, it's nice to keep up the beatz with some beat-matched canned music, mine or others. I've been practicing on software & am making a custom DJ hardware controller that allows on the fly switches from automated music/mp3's etc, to a song performed live, then back again, plus this unit will take care of a lot of wiring to boot! It almost made it into the plastic bin, but not quite! The giant Casio case suddenly became useful again. Now it's just half a chunk of the original, but on top of a piece of plywood it makes a sturdy box for my latest innovation, a custom DJ/Midi/vinyl controller.	As can be seen in the picture above, I've already started making boards that will fit over the switches.
All the boards have been hand drawn instead of photo-etching as they are easy enough to do given their huge size. Lining up all those rubber pads was a bit tricky, but all seem to be correct so far. I've decided to add some more MIDI USB interfaces and allow it to control my favorite DAW software FL Studio with one of them! Here I thought there was plenty of space, but as can be seen in the picture, not the case. (excuse the pun) For more info and updates, visit freshdj.htm

A Nice Big Amp for free! Just needed some fixin'
A year ago, Gena & I and some friends were checking out the local scrap yard here on the island and I found a beat-up old 70's Heathkit Stereo. (Sorry no pic, it was ugly and huge!) One day I hooked it up and all it did was hum into my 300 watt speakers. But it was a VERY loud hum. This means lots of power! The thing weighed 60-70 lbs too, not kidding. So I tore it all apart, threw away the tuner and input switches and all that, and found the main power supply capacitors were blown, so replaced those. After a test to make sure everthing was good, I built a nice small case, well 18" long, just big enough to house the transformer, heat sinks and amps. I had to add a fan of course as air must flow through it right?
	No tone or bass control, just volume for each channel, and raw clean power comes out.. Wow is it loud!! It wasn't finished until some dollar store sparkley things were added to hide the poor workmanship of the new cabinet and handle. (Right) It still weighs 45 lbs, but the handle makes it easy to carry. It may drive a sub in the future, not sure.

*Shrinking a big ugly toy-ish* Casio Keyboard into a cool MIDI synth!**
Ok, this is going to take some explaining! Back last summer I bought this Casio Keyboard, mostly for the stand, and discovered it didn't sense velocity on the keys. Junk! So it sat outside for a few months, then became a Midi controller for a vocoder for a while. One day I noticed the Midi going into it does have velocity, they just cheaped out on the keyboard itself. So suddenly it became useful again. As I hardly wanted to haul yet another keyboard around to shows etc. I decided to beef it up a bit and stuff it into a piece of plywood! Now that's better! (Below) Looking from the back it just looks like a piece of glossy plywood. It sounds kinda retro, but hey, that's all in style again right? Actually, those 8 bit sounds seem to add something to my dance music. I'm feeding it back into the mixer on channel 9&10, right next to the Kawai. That way mixer FX can be added. Sweet! Oh and I made the Midi-Out a Midi-thru, so it can also be used for daisy chaining to the light show. You're gunna laugh at what I ended up doing with that big Casio case...(next article)	*Casio already torn apart* *Routed out 1" plywood Gena had left over*

The New Studio! August 2011 Finally the day day to move into the new studio has arrived! It seemed a long time coming, but it's only been a couple of months since we put up the first frame. Of course I've been waiting for this all my life! Quite a change from the "fold-out" studio on the boat, ..and the 3rd floor studio was so small you had to twist your neck to get behind the keyboards. Now I can wave my arms in the air, wow!

The acoustics are still in need of work, but the shape gives the room more of a ambient reverb than a hard slap-back, which is almost preferred. There won't be any more furniture other than a few chairs going in here, which won't do much for reduction. There will be a throw rug though, which, if the sound is bouncing the way I think it is, should cut it back some. I painted the floor with some glossy grey urethane we acquired free at a garage sale, but the color doesn't do much for the light show and tends to reflect both light and sound quite a bit. Hence the throw rug. It's big and spacious enough to jam with several people, so if you're in the mood...! The rig is somewhat dwarfed by the size of the room, and isn't used this way in performances, but it's really comfortable to reach for all the controls	"Mission Control...." I've been able to hook up the the big Peavey monitors my neighbor Jamie gave me, along with my old $5 JVC's, so it really rocks in here if I want it to! Now it's time to get back to writing tunes and laying out some tracks for that new album!