Dear Diary, June 25 '08...Leichhardt, Australia

Wow, what a great weekend. I stood in a studio with about 30 other independent artists and sang my lungs out! What more could you want from a weekend? It was all part of the 'Downunder Project'. How did that start? I got a call from a guy called Mahmood Khan - out of the blue really. He's an established artist in the US and India and wanted to do a collaboration with some Aussie artists. Since then, Red Cross, Everland Studios, Emirates Airlines, Sydney Film School and MGM jumped on board. We recorded 'We Could Be Paradise' - about 30 of us - most of us PopTarts! Tania Murray and I worked with Mahmood on the lyrics and the song will be sold - along with an amazing film clip - with all proceeds going to Red Cross.         

Indie artists often talk - and sing - about the problems of the world. This was our chance to put our money where are mouths are. And it was all about the mouths on Sunday! Standing in that studio surrounded by all those beautiful voices creating a powerful wall of sound - wow! Keep an eye out on iTunes for the song...and on the tele for the flimclip.

It's days like this that make it all worthwhile. Check out the pics from the recording day - as well as a few from the day before on set of the video clip.

xMandy

Dear Diary, June 8 '08...Leichhardt, Australia

Hello again,

It's been a busy time and it's nice to be feeling so creative! There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want, but it's great to feel so excited about so much. This weekend I filmed a music video for 'Head Over Heels' from my album Chanteuse. TI was two very long, very tiring but very fulfilling days. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're the kind of person that likes being lots of different characters - with the help of fabulous costumes, makeup and sets...and you like hamming it up in front of a camera...and let's face it, you like being the centre of attention...well you'd probably love it too! The concept is that we all are made up of different characters - I just got to bring them to life on celluloid - there was the sweet everyday persona, the military hard-arsed toughie, the 50s domesticated housewife, the innocent, the ingenue showgirl, the chanteuse and of course the one that loves to dress in lyrca and wield a riding crop! Krystyna and the gang from Clockwork Films did a fabulous job on set and I'm sure the results will show that too (final edit is a couple of weeks away yet but check out the shots below).

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I think making it is a buzz and it's a type of wonderful magic. It's seems to have been all about TV for me lately - the 'We Could Be Paradise' filmclip is coming up soon, I've finished filming PopTarts TV and I've been doing some interviews for Jacaranda Films who makes music shows for Aurora TV. I've been having the time of my life and want to do more!

xMandy

Dear Diary, May 10 '07...Leichhardt, Australia

.Hello, and thanks for visiting me. I recently released my second album ('Chanteuse') and it's really got me thinking. How did this all start? I'm pretty sure that when I started out, I just wanted to be a popstar.  I released my debut - an album of pop tunes - and while it had its successes, somewhere along the way I discovered the excitement of just being creative and expressive for its own sake. Who would've thought! That 'popstar' ambition seems a million miles away. Now, don't think that doesn't mean I don't want to be successful, or that staying in my room and singing into a tape recorder will be enough to make me happy...But what it does mean is that I'm going to make music that I love, that makes me feel good, even if it's not 'cool', 'radio-friendly', 'targetted' to the right 'market' etc. I'm going to perform the way I want to and make music that moves me. So now I'm going to throw myself off that creative cliff, with nothing but my muse to keep me afloat and hope that you may be there with open arms and mind to make my landing a little bit softer. And if you're not, I know that I still did the right thing because I've had a ball making this album and I think it's the most 'me ' of anything I've ever done. I hope you'll give it a listen.

Dear Diary....October 13 '05... Japan...England...Wales...Jersey & Sark, Channel Islands... France ... Germany...Luxembourg...The Netherlands...Belgium...Spain...Australia

Just returned from an amazing 2-month tour of...well the world really. Singer-songwriter Simon Morel and I joined forces and self-booked and promoted a 20-gig tour around Europe throughout August and September to promote our respective albums. We stripped back to acoustic mode for ease of travelling and put ourselves before new and often non- English-speaking audiences at the best singer-songwriter venues, nightclubs, CD stores and hamburger joints Japan and Europe has to offer. Of course, we also popped in at Germany's PopKomm music convention. Oh, did I mention we had an absolute ball? Some of the highlights here:

First stop: my beloved Japan! Lots of mix ups finding the address of our accommodation but a ridiculously kind stranger came to our rescue and not only drove us around Narita for over an hour but then took us sight-seeing the next day (not to mention driving us to the airport at the end of our trip). Well-received gigs at Tokyo's Ruby Room and Maple Leaf Bar and the usual bustle, colour, excitement, fabulous food and novelties that this, one of my favourite countries, is famous for. And we almost got arrested for buying the wrong train ticket but a stumbling thank-God-it-came-back-to-me Japanese explanation to the efficient transport official who escorted us from the train, averted any unnecessary jail time.

Next: London and regional England including a couple of world-favourite gigs in Stratford and Hitchin. Met up with a great couple in Hitchin that had bought my CD at CDBaby and decided to come and say g'day in person - these kind of experiences really make a gig fabulous! A couple of days in Wales' lovely capital with a gig at the Cardiff's Hard Rock Cafe (look below for me enjoying some of the 'perks' -fajitas). Then onto Jersey in the Channel Islands - some great gigs at a beachside nightclub as well as the famous Blue Note Bar. We also did a special live performance on BBC Radio and met up with Matthew (pictured on the left with a mate) who had chosen a holiday in Jersey so he could catch our gig. While we were there, we caught the beautiful sights of Jersey as well as day trip to the tiny idyllic island of Sark...

Our first UK gig- Stratford in London.	Simon Morel in minstrel mode on St Albert's Bridge, Battersea ,London	Fajitas at Cardiff's Rockin' Hard Rock	Matthew and friend at Jersey's Watersplash
Watersplash - imagine Coogee Bay Hotel but the Channel Islands	The Watersplash at Sunset - yes there are surfers here.	The Blue Note - Jersey	Elizabeth Castle - Jersey

 Then: Across the ferry from Jersey to France - a full day's drive, landing very luckily in a gorgeous French village - Clermont En Argonne - for the night, before heading over the German border and all the way to Munich. Now this is a city that knows how to eat, drink and be merry - never thought you'd see me drinking beer? - well when in Rome, ah Munich...Another great Hard Rock gig, a little shopping expedition (Germany wins the prize for best clothes shopping destination of our trip) and sightseeing in this grand Bavarian city. Onto a short but sweet gig stop in Cologne and a few days off where we took in Trier, the oldest - (and sorry guys, the unfriendliest)  town in Germany. Then we decided to check out Luxembourg because, well because I closed my eyes and we went to where my finger landed on a map of Europe, and what a great discovery that was! The capital city in this country of the same name makes up for lack of size with spectacular natural landscape and architecture worthy of a fairytale. And though it is steeped in history, the cool crowd have definitely made their mark here with plenty of fabulous restaurants and bars - my favourite is built into the 'casemates' - tunnels built by the Spanish in the 1600s into the rock that this city is built on.

L to R: Munich from the rooftops; Trier, Germany; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Casemates Bar, Luxembourg.

Time to go back to work, so we headed back towards Germany with a quick stop and a night out (I ate one of the biggest German wursts I have ever seen in my life here) in Hamburg. Arrived in Berlin and prepared for three solid days of back to back meetings with publishers, record companies and other artists from all over Europe and beyond. Of course the nightlife was great during this time with half the world's music industry in attendance. One of the highlights for us was actually an intimate showcase for our very own Ben Lee. Our own Berlin gig was a ripper too! The East Berliners are about to pull down one of the biggest remaining monuments of their time behind the Wall, with the imminent destruction of the Palace of the German Democratic Republic. The building has already been gutted and we were lucky enough to be among the last visitors to the Palace, when we visited a huge modern art exhibition within its walls. The theme of the exhibition, was morbid but appropriately symbolic - Death!

A long drive from Berlin took us across the border into The Netherlands and a few days off enjoying this picturesque country, in particular the exuberance of Amsterdam! A delicious lunch in Belgium on the way to our destination of Sarrecave (via Chateouroux where I indulged in one of my favourite dishes - Fondue - the cheese and the chocolate variety). Ever fallen in love with Mountains - I did with the Pyrenees? Sarrecave is a tiny French village near the foot of these majestic mountains and we stayed at a friend's house with a backyard looking out on this view. We did a fabulous loungeroom concert here attended by just about everyone in the village - an unusual but refreshing experience!

Now what to say about Spain - a country I have always wanted to, but have never before visited. I found the natural landscape, especially just over the Pyrenees, astounding - arid but beautiful with strange craggy rock formations and flat plains that in some ways reminded me of Australia's red centre and The Kimberley. I really loved this country from the start. We had met, through that fabulous invention called the internet, a local band called the So-Called Amblers who helped us organise a gig in Madrid. Their music is great and the people themselves were fantastic and really made our stay in Madrid the absolute highlight of the entire trip. They took us to some cool bars and restaurants, local dingy tapas bars and a house party which typically went till early hours and featured lots of Spanish firewater and flamenco guitars. We thought the people of Munich knew how to party, but I think the Spanish win this competition! We finished our 2 month trip with a couple of days in the gorgeous city of Barcelona where we flew out to London, Tokyo and then home. Luckily we live in one of the best countries on the planet - otherwise it would have been impossible to put an end to our fantastic adventure!

x Mandy

Dear Diary....May 9 '04....Sydney

Well the album's out now and about time too! I know that there are 100s if not 1000s of albums released every day but I gotta say it really feels satisfying and like a huge achievement! As I was working on the artwork in the middle of many nights I wrote the liner notes for the CD - this sums it up the best I can: 

They say it takes your whole life to write your first album and if that's the case, strap yourself in and come on my journey with me to hear stories that have been distilled from memories of a childhood in Clovelly (before it was cool!) through to glorious school days and university life. Then to a corporate world that was left behind when I jumped off a precipice into a musical wonderland..then on to Japan from the nightclubs to the rice terraces, mountains and cherry blossoms to the love hotels - a very different oriental world where I realised basically we're all the same and love is all...through to falling into love that was supposed to last forever and learning that the scarred part is the strongest part... I'm a child of the 80s & 90s and the music is unashamedly under the influence of the pop of my teenage years. Often my tongue is firmly planted inside my cheek and hey it doesn't pretend to be more than just pop - but it's my pop and I hope you enjoy it. 

If you wanna check it out, listen to some samples here.