500 copies of my album arrived at home today. That was a surprise, to see the delivery guy turn up at my door with 5 stacks of boxes! I was like, who’s that for? “It’s for you.” “Oh?!”

It was a surprise because I haven’t paid for them! Mediahut, you read my mind but not my emails.

So anyway, it will be officially out on 25 June. You heard of Graze boxes? They’re like organic titbits you can snack on. Like olives and goji berries and flapjacks and rice crackers. Posted in a nice slim box. I get mine every Tuesday. I want to put a coupon in every one of my albums, they are so good. You can get a free Graze box from this link.

I’m currently reading Party of One: A Loner’s Manifesto. I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting passage about smokers:

“… is sociable, likes parties, has many friends, needs to have people to talk to… He craves excitement, takes chances, acts on the spur of the moment and is generally an impulsive individual… He prefers to keep moving and doing things, tends to be aggressive and loses his temper quickly; his feelings are not kept under tight control and he is not always a reliable person.”

That kinda sounds like me. However now I’m not as aggressive and hot-tempered as before. I wish I were. Would have solved a lot of problems on the spot. And one has to be fairly reliable to get anywhere in life. Not necessarily punctual, but reliable.

So I’ll be in the studio this weekend with MaW and uploading my new video for Claustrophobia on Monday. NEXT!

Oh yes, I have to finish my German homework…

Yes my album is finally coming out. On 25 June. Time to unleash it in all it’s neon splendour! I’m planning to do it at Mother Bar at Old St, London. I am looking for a magician and a comedian. Know anyone?

I also hope to get some advance copies in time to peddle to unsuspecting punters/movers/shakers at the Great Escape later this week.

You can hear quite a lot of it on my Soundcloud.

I really wished I had pumped it out earlier this year. But so many things were in the way. Life. Adult life in London to be exact. I have now swept away excuses and resolve to get it out and then work on new stuff. Yay yay!

But of course I have to have a distraction in the midst of planning/promoting all this. I’m taking an intensive German class starting next week. And doing a four-day jazz workshop at the Premises as a birthday present to myself in mid-June. Really looking forward to those!

Strength to strength. Sometimes the world gives you a kick up the backside. And it’s wonderful when it comes in the form of positivity, energy and happiness as opposed to crisis. Yes, that sounds new-age zen. But spring (despite being pretty cold so far) always inspires progress. Listening to Asteroids Galaxy Tour also inspires progress.

So I have finally finished my album artwork after sitting on it for months, with the paint on the original cover artwork (very skilfully designed and crafted by Mr Ben Chisnall – please commission him for artwork, he’s wonderfully talented) well and truly dried hanging on my wall. It will be sent for production soon and I’ll be armed with a few copies when I head to the Great Escape festival in May. As they say luck only works when you are prepared. I have had plenty of opportunities in the past but I was never really prepared for them. So hopefully this is the first step to bigger and better things!

You can hear a new track from the album, Fine On Your Own. When I wrote it, I was inspired by the mother of someone who was very close to me. She was going through a divorce and is a very resilient lady. Well, now this is very personal to me. Sometimes the things you write really come back to bite you in the ass. Anyway, let me know what you think of it on Twitter or the Soundcloud commenty thingy!

Asteroids Galaxy Tour - OK my comparisons may be a bit off but she's blonde and very gorgeous

Mette was absolutely incredible – she looks and sounds stunning. Her voice was spot on. It has a very endearing, child-like quality which belies a lot of strength, mystery and power (I have to add that I can see some similarities between her vocal style and mine!) She just seems so relaxed and nonchalant onstage – truly sensational in her glittery gold tight jeans and sparkly gold jacket top which she took off after the third song. I was taking a lot of notes. She was energetic and relaxed. And non-intimidating. And utterly beautiful. Supremely entertaining eye-magnet.

Mette Lindberg

The music was really rich too – of course the pop-pier tracks were the bait, in earworm top form, but you can tell you’re in the presence of really talented musicians, catchy hooks sandwiched between mind-expanding musical interludes (ok this sounds all cliche – sorry). At the ‘lower’ points of the set it did start to sound a teensy bit like a funktion band, but they had enough on their repertoire to keep interest-levels steady, tied together with Mette’s unique vocals. She manages to be the star without overshadowing the band or giving off diva vibes. Their huge Asteroids Galaxy Tour sound comprised a horn section with drums, one guitar, one keyboardist and one bassist, Lars – who together with Mette form the core of the band. They also did a great job relating with the audience, with Mette holding up a camera and saying “I’m going to post you all on Youtube!” The men of Scala gladly raised their hands and roared on cue.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour finished their set with Push the Envelope, which is one of the strongest, ‘driving’, motivational (?!) pop song ever produced, before coming back for a quick encore.

We love gold outfits

So glad I got to meet Mette just after midnight. She was very friendly and even lovelier. My new-found friends (Joe, William and Amy) and I got to grill her on life on the road, her band, the creative process. It was evident that she’s in the driving seat and not merely a frontwoman for the band. I gave her two of my singles, Is That Your Underwear On The Floor and Claustrophobia. I really hope to open/support them one day soon. She examined the Claustrophobia cover, said “Ooh… nice artwork”, pulled a little shape with her arms and went “arggh! Claustrophobia!” Haha, she is so sweet and crazy – the way a creative visionary who knows what she’s doing should be.

I have to thank my friend Shermeen for introducing me to this perfect band that very afternoon. I love spontaneity.

Upon my return, I was kindly invited to play at the Singapore Chinese Restaurant at Holland Park, while people eat a buffet spread comprising chicken rice, sambal goreng, carrot cake (the Chinese type, not English type), prata, among others. I had been so ill I could barely stand up but I braved the elements to fulfil my commitments! Really glad I did , I realised the quality of performance improved because I had less energy. Hahaha.

Being ill, I find, always brings an opportunity to be reflective. I mulled over honesty and repentance. I also read that to genuinely repent you have to swear never to do X again (pretty obvious) but (!) also to conceal it.  Never bring it up again. I suppose that makes a lot of sense. To revisit them orally is equivalent to scratching off the scab. Even worse when you recount them with pride! When X is highly undesirable and something you would realistically never do again. We don’t need to confess to people who are unprepared for the truth, for it will merely colour their perspective of us, when it is the very part of our past we need to let go. Why willingly paint ourselves as a risky proposition? How can you escape and redeem yourself if you choose to recreate scenarios best left to daytime TV, anytime you have a permissive audience? An entertaining but self-destructive pursuit. People are not obliged not to judge you.

Forgiveness starts from within. Forgiveness takes conscious choice. From forgiveness, repentance takes root and genuine repentance takes commitment.  It’s bloody hard.

Like investments, people should come with a warning: Past performance is not a guarantee of future results!

We filmed it in a tardis-like barge in Barking in front of Joss’ brand new green screen.

The beginning sequence...

Being spun on a board manually! It was hard to keep my balance.

Fanning the flames... check out the cool backward smoke scene near the end of the video!

Thank you to Joss, Rob, Alec and Ursula for their help on this video. It’s a featured video on RadarTV’s website this week!

Mark de Clive-Lowe at Mau Mau

With the man himself!

Me jiggying with my main woman Afua to Mark de Clive-Lowe's DJ set

Then at some point I watched Amadou and Mariam, a blind couple from Mali perform. Their gig looked like this:

Erm, yes. It was pitch black.

They played to a darkened auditorium, which was infused with smells and had interestingly placed speakers. It sounds amazing in principle, but because we were all sitting down – to prevent accidents I guess – it was simply interesting and not amazing. There was some chair dancing involved and bumping into people.

Another noteworthy band I saw was Smashing Pumpkins. They were great actually, but spent half of their set playing lullabies! Maybe to stop the audience was going crazy. My mate and I bore the full brunt of the mosh pit when they played ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings‘ for their encore.

Smashing Pumpkins in Brixton

I also saw my ex-tutor Luke Hannam’s band Gramme at XOYO – so cool to see the guru in action!

Gramme

Back in Oct I played 4 gigs in London in 5 weeks – hope to upload some videos if they turn out ok!

Afua and I rockin' the Good Ship for Halloween

Is That Your Underwear On The Floor?

Have you been naughty this Halloween weekend? Sharliza Jelita – Is That Your Underwear On The Floor? -  2nd single out on all good online music stores. Funny, scary, suspenseful story about the discovery of physical evidence the morning after a clandestine union the night before, encapsulated in a shiny, kooky pop song.
Buy on iTunes | Amazon | Listen on Spotify!

Check out the PG-ly saucy video too.

Sneak peek behind the scenes…

All dressed up for Is That Your Underwear? video shoot

A right couple!

Sharliza Jelita with video director Nick Light

Check out my cute, lust-fuelled adventure with walking, flying underwear and masks! I like the ending very much.

Sharliza Jelita – Is That Your Underwear On The Floor?  - my 2nd single out Oct 31 on all good online music stores. Would love it if you can spread the word! http://bit.ly/underwearfloor

I’m going to have a Halloween-themed single launch party on Saturday October 29 at The Good Ship, Kilburn in London. RSVP NOW. The Good Suns are also launching their single there and have very kindly asked me to play (in all senses of the word)!

Well, I'll leave it to your imagination...

Before all that malarkey, I got to see a lot of bands and made a lot of friends. Hamburg people (what do you call them? Hamburg-ers?) are so friendly and fun-loving.

Dude with magnetic forehead!

I did get to sing, twice – not on the streets but a huge bar turned karaoke place hosted by the crazy Frances (the girl with the trilby hat). This is 90s hit ‘What’s Up’ with lots of jumping, shouting and a sliver of profanity. I laugh everytime I see this short 1.26 min clip. HEY-EY-EY-HEY-EY, HEY-EY-YEA… I said hey… WHAT’S GOING ON?!?!

A selection of musicians I saw amongst the brightly-lit chaos of Reeperbahn… imagine Camden and Soho but 10 times grimier and greasier!

Sound of Rum rocked da haus!

Ferry, Sound of Rum's drummer with fag in hand, was EXCELLENT

Friendly Fires - very fiery, very cool.

The ultra talented one-man band Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran was superb, creating layers of noises/music with his guitar and beatboxing through his Loopstation. His talent was evident when he played my graduation ceremony from Access to Music a couple of years ago, and I recall Soweto Kinch doing some improv rapping along to his set too!

Anyway, here’s something random… I’m Absolute Radio’s twitter follower of the week today, yippee! Because their studio is decorated like my clothes! Thanks Geoff and co!

Absolute Radio's TFOTW