I know - I know - a lot of time has passed since my last entry, but I have been a busy girl!
Let's see : where shall I start?
In  October and November I did a small "Fnac" tour. Fnacs are a chain of cd shops and they offer their customers "mini concerts". The recordcompany guy said it would be a good thing to do ; all Belgian artists are glad to do it. Well, in all my years as an artist I never had to - my music was abroad anyway so there was no use for it. But since my cd came out only in Belgium I figured he might be right. Fnac pays us artists in cd vouchers. Although I dreaded the thought of performing for a shopping crowd it actually turned out to be great fun - however I wouldn't do it again ; the cd sales don't go up because of those gigs - most of the people that come to see are fans already. The good thing is : it puts things in perspective. "What the fuck am I doing here?!" is a thought that entered my mind several times and it actually made me laugh. At those moments all I could do was look at the people that stood or sat around and surrender to the flow. These small gigs were very intimate and I did have a great time!

Next thing: I was asked to make a couple of songs for a new Belgian movie. They wanted "Immortal" sung by that opera singer I spoke of in the previous entry.
The other song is brand new. "Lovers in the City" is a bit of a bossa nova kind of song. We recorded a live percussionist and a good friend of mine plays acoustic guitar on it (she's great & you'll hear more of her). She also did some of the backing vocals with me.
Making this track was a prime example of teamwork : Danny is soooo inspiring. He leaves the musicmaking and songmelodies to me and is involved with everything else. He is totally familiar with the whole technical side of things so the songs sound fantastic!
Yes ladies : my man is dreamy!!

Another thing : one day I went into the studio, wanting to vent some anger and frustration and started what now turns out to be a killer dance track!  It's called "To the Limit" and it's pumping!! Kris - better known as Insider is doing a remix of it as we speak. He was involved big time with "Sugar is Sweeter" (that CJ Bolland track) and he still owed me one :)
My recordcompany guy was not too impressed with my song, but another guy is mailing it to the US as soon as the remix is done. Danny MP3'd it to him and he replied straight away ; "what an excellent track!!"
Also, both Danny and I had a ball making the song. It's heavy, it's loud, it's old skool techno with a New Beat flavor, I'm screaming my lungs out on it and it's fantastic!!

More and more I'm starting to think of a great concept for my next full cd : maybe a double. One with a smoothe, jazzy vibe and one with all heavy dancy stuff. It would be a reflection of my two sides : yin & yang, light & dark...know what I mean? Different grooves for different moods.
I'm only just starting to accept those two sides in me and more and more I'm happy with that!
Lately I feel so lucky because I found a way to express ALL of my emotions in music... . It's like a whole new world opened up for me and inspiration is allover! I feel renewed energy and it's goooooood!

In the meantime our recordcompany guy faces a new responsibility and there is no room for the Darling Nikkie cd anymore. So should I say that I signed with the wrong label? YES! But the guy who actually picked up my cd in the first place did so because he loved it and his intentions were good. His budget was just too damn small and he didn't know how to handle DN. Same old story. Nowadays you have to invest if you want to make money, but in a country where easy money is made from the same trance shit we've been hearing for the last 5 years many minds are closed to good music. That's why Belgium is too small... . The radio keeps feeding people what they are familiar with ; a simple 4/4 beat with a musical melody you've heard at least 30 times before and bad singing on top of that. Usually mimed by a model in a skimpy outfit for tv.
Where are the days that Belgium was the great leader in dance music, using innovative sounds, rocking clubs all over the world... ? Maybe I'm just getting old lol!
Anyway - the recordcompany guy is a friend with dilemma's ; there have been changes in the company and he has to adjust to them if he wants to keep his job. Which means for now he has to focus on commercial stuff only... .
What's really good about it is that it should set me free again to explore new territories! He couldn't do that and I did not make music for Belgium in the first place. So it's actually a win/win situation for me!

Oh yeah, for the Belgian fans ; on January 9th I'm going to be the guest in "Quizinix" on Studio Brussels! Just wanted to let you know. It happens to be my favorite radio show here and they contacted me last week - joooohooooo!!!

Danny and I went to London and Birmingham for a week and had a ball! I love that city...always have.
We went shopping and visited some friends. We stayed at a beautiful Victorian hotel with a big fluffy 4poster bed...hmmmm!

Let's see...what else?
Xmas is here and it's a white one! I can't remember when we last had a white xmas...but it's beautiful!
It's snowing big fluffy flakes and I love it! After I finish writing this entry I'm gonna get cozy, roll up in a ball and read a book (gotta finish my Lord of the Rings cos I want to see the movie after!).

All that is left for me to do now is to wish all of you a fantastic and merry Xmas and a happy New Year. May all your sweet dreams come true. Peace in all our hearts and  Angels on our bodies lol!

As you may have noticed there are no pictures this time but Danny is preparing a Xmas gift for you!
Enjoy!

Biggie Kissie,
Nikkie