BAMela

Over the Christmas Holiday of 2009, I was fortunate to be on the phone with the amazing bassist/songwriter-Freekbass. Freekbass not only heads up a very well touted and respected band of his own, but he's been on sessions with some of the greatest names in Funk, and he is one third of a new trio called Headtronics, which also features DJ Logic and Steve Molitz of the band Particle.

We spoke for about 5 hours (okay maybe not 5, but it might as well have been 5) and realized quickly that we HAD TO DO SOMETHING TOGETHER.

Freekbass had just finished up a great album called Junkyard Waltz with one Tobe Donohue, aka Tobotius. Tobe, in addition to being engineer and producer at Bootsy Collins's Bootzilla Productions ( Tobe is, bar none, one of the greatest producers out there today, in my humble opinion), is a drummer, and one of the most profound scratch and cut style turntablists on the 1's and 2's today, having been the master of Cut Crew- The Animal Crackers. Basically if it's about beat, funk, beat, ass shakin, hip sliding beat, Tobe is the master of it's domain. Freekbass asked Tobe, "hey wanna meet this crazy chick I just talked to for like 5 hours on the phone?"

February 2010, they arrived at my crib here in Somerville, MA where we would begin the amazing power trio known as BAMela. We're already bout 7 songs done, and we're gonna be releasing our debut, very very very very soon.

Wanna stay in touch with us funkmeisters?

www.myspace.com/bamela
www.twitter.com/Bamelamusic

92 Eternal-AC Slater, Amy D., Juiceboxxx

Collaboration, is one of the most incredible elements of music. When you bring energies together, often the end result is powerful in ways you could never imagine. AC Slater, is one of the most profound DJ's, producers and remixers out today, and Drop The Lime recommended me for a special joint he was working on.

Special, is a humble description of "The Feeling" a collab between AC, incredible rapper Juiceboxxx and myself. AC has named this project 92 Eternal.

It's dropping May 18th on Party Like Us Records! Stay tuned! Will post more when that baby drops!

Annex Featuring Amy Douglas

Ann Hairston, is a musician that I'm honored to call a friend. We've been making music together on and off for the better part of a decade of decadence. Ann, is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, having cut her teeth backing some of the greatest artists in the biz, from Macy Gray to Luscious Jackson. I've always loved working with her.

Her Annex project is yet another opportunity for us to get together and make quite a holler. We just released this gorgeous piece of Soulful House Music for KULT Records, and it's called Miracle Mile.

This is already getting INCREDIBLE feedback, and we're already hard at work at our next slice of sexy funky slippery deep house.

Go to Beatport for your copy, and you can also check it out on my Myspace Page which is www.myspace.com/amybdouglas

Seems I got myself into some Trouble and Bass

I've been a longtime admirer and fan for quite some time of Drop The Lime, Heavy Bass Champion and Top Dawg of the Trouble and Bass Crew. Having met him bout a year or so ago, and having jammed out on some grooves with him, I had always hoped our musical energies would find fusion.

So, when he asked me to drop a feature vocal on new Trouble and Bass signee's Supra 1 for a song called "I Still Believe" well....you know Amy D. was warming up the mic extra heavy that day!!

The song drops officially on Trouble and Bass Recordings on May 25th, but til then, you can check a preview here!

Stay tuned for the official release! I believe in LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!

Can You Feel The Zuzz Tonight???

Koko Dozo, Post Disco Duo for which I sing, released it's first EP for Red Star Records on March 26th, called Feel The Zuzz! It's available on all great places to buy yer tunes, like Itunes, Amazon, Emusic, and the likes.

Red Star is owned and run by Marty Thau, music impresario and former manager of The New York Dolls and Suicide. M.I.A's new Born Free song is modeled from Suicide's Ghost Rider, and Mr. Thau was on the decks that day!

It's already gotten a slew of great press, most notably from Bruce Tantum of Time Out NY, Peter Davis of Papermag.com, Connie Phillips at Blogcritcs and Jeff Meltz from the most fantabulous blog The Culture Of Me, all of which can be read bout here.

Remixes for tunes off this EP are OFF THE CHAIN! From House of Stank, Naked Highway and Morsy of the Nanachill Crew

Check em out here!

Koko Dozo Mixes

I Got Into Music So That Jimmy Page Would Call Me And Ask Me To Sing For Him

Okay, well....that's only partially true. But it is true. I've been waiting for that phone call since I was 10 years old. Still waiting. Still dreaming.

To say that I've spent my life and continue to spend my life devoted to music however, is an absolute truth. I've been singing for about as long as I've been speaking, and that's a long time. Once I got on the path at about 6 or 7, it was full steam ahead. Since then, I've been very fortunate to make some of my greatest dreams come true. Ironically, I feel like I'm just getting started!

There isn't a time of day where I'm not working on a piece of music, singing, playing keys, writing music, doing arrangements, listening to music or thinking about music. Even when I'm doing other tasks, but there is always a song in my head, or on my mind. Before I found the other love of my life, my husband Dave, when there moments of great darkness in my life, music was my light. It was my best friend, and still is. It's like air or food to me. Music is everything.

As a vocalist now singing for so many other amazing artists and heading my own projects as well, I wouldn't be where I am today, if not for dreaming, and for a lot of hard work, but most importantly, due to influences who even today, continue to inspire me. Chaka Khan, Sarah Vaughan, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Elton John, David Bowie, Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder in kind, Parliament Funkadelic, Marc Bolan of T Rex, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix, just to name a few. You'll hear me refer to my heroes time and time again here, while also talking about artists that have recently begun to really ring my bell, like M.I.A and Dam Funk.

I am also a creature of strange contradictions, it would seem. I love getting up on stage and rocking out for huge crowds, but I prefer the company of few. I love fashion and style, but I am pathetically lazy where it's concerned. I am fascinated by what's coming, yet ultimately I gravitate to what's been. Onstage, I'm loud brash, and flashy, but offstage, I just want to bake everyone cookies.

What's most important however, is that I am a woman of deep passions. I love bulldogs. I love sequins. I love cooking. I love my intensely wacky crew of uber-talented friends, some of whom you'll meet here! I love vintage cinema, in particular the films of Marlene Dietrich as directed by Josef Von Sternberg. My favorite movie of all time, is Taxi Driver. My favorite decade, is the 1970's. It's a grave and utter disappointment to me, that I didn't get to experience that decade, it's highs and lows firsthand, it's deepest low that I was nowhere near of age to be able to pursue Jimmy Page with utter ferocity when he was truly in his moment. I love fearlessness in life and in art.

And of course, above all things I love LED ZEPPELIN.

So, in the immortal words of WAR, another band I'm quite fond of "take a little trip, take a little trip, take a little trip with me..." Mr. Page, if you're reading this, could you please call me? I think I have exactly what you need for that new solo album you're doing. Should anyone reading this know how I can get a hold of him, or he of me, please holler LOUDLY. If you know Jimmy Page, TELL HIM TO CONTACT ME.

To all of you, dear readers, I say welcome aboard!