Nostalgia‚Ä¶.

Auriol Hays

The article was orginally published at: Nostalgia‚Ä¶.

People like asking me if my life has changed since my music has taken off. The honest answer is yes and no. No, because until I make a lot more money I am still cooking for the family and yes because I get to do what I love. It has been long journeys since my days in Woodstock when I would steal my husband‚Äôs beats and write songs to them. One of the earliest songs I wrote was called, ‚ÄúAll I want for Christmas is a little bit of weed‚Äù

There have been many highlights and lowlights along the way. So let‚Äôs start off with the bad ones. My performance on LIVE was atrocious. Mind you that was only the second time the band played together! I closed my eyes and just sang. I didn‚Äôt give a hoot about stage performance. I just wanted to sing and get the hell out of there. Honestly I thought I was dying with every note I sang. Another low light was a particularly bad performance in Cape Town. I forgot notes to songs I sung many times. ¬†The truth is that I was neither nervous nor scared. I just really didn‚Äôt care enough about the gig or the people I was performing with. Not that that should ever be a reason for performing terribly…

And yes the photo shoots and interviews are fun but honestly my all time favorite¬† highlight, so far, was singing at Chris Ghelakis‚Äô wedding. Everyone should get married like that…..lots of musicians, hot Greek male dancers, plate throwing and DR Victor, Just Ginger, Cindy Alter and many other musicians singing up a storm! Anyway, Chris asked me to sing ‚ÄúI ONLY WANT YOU‚Äù and as I did so I looked at his Maria and noticed that she was crying. And that is why I love being a musician. I get to be part of those small, intimate moments…

So the album will be out in the first week of November and there are certain songs that I can‚Äôt wait to sing to an audience. Although Andre claims he has never been in love before he writes as though he always is. I can‚Äôt wait to belt out Shapeshifter and Nostalgia. The words to the chorus of Nostalgia happens to be astounding. Andre is rather brilliant when he puts his mind to it!

I‚Äôll watch the oceans dry till the sun burns up

And the last star dies

Till the earth stands still I‚Äôll see it through

I‚Äôll bear it all just to be with you

Depending on the popularity of the new single TURN UP THE VOLUME…another video could be in the works. This time I am not dancing and insisting that they put some Capoeira dancers in the video. ¬†Also this time the entire band has to do something….except dance because if you think my moves are bad…wait till you see Andre and Brendan! Sorry boys but you know it‚Äôs true…

I am also grateful to have the kind of band I do. Andre was booted out of the band Survivor style at tribal council in Muldersdrift when I first started out. Seriously, he did deserve it back then! It took time for trust to be earned on both sides. See, it‚Äôs easy to like someone just because they are good at what they do or because you can get something out of them. Fake ass people do it all the time but that is not the way I roll….lol! And that is another thing I am grateful for. I know that when I step on stage anywhere that my band has my back. They are so good at what they do and that means that I can relax and just have fun.

All I want to do is sing and share my music….and pop out another baby. Surely that is not asking too much, is it?