Thanks for coming over, please take a seat and make yourself at home!
This site is very much a work in progress and will be updated regularly.
My music, this website, Myspace, Facebook are a way of reaching out, a conduit through which I can connect to a world I often feel alienated from.
However, I have come to realise that there is no difference between being alienated at home or when out with others. It's just geography!
It is kind of ironic that one of the things we often share is our mutual alienation...so getting to know each other is a good place to start!
My name is Franka De Mille, pleased to meet you.
There is a family photo of me when I was about 4 years old, holding a guitar, I look so happy in it and it reminds me how young I was when I first wanted to make music.
Childhood hopes and dreams never run a smooth course. Growing pains and family life often bring us back down to earth with a bump and some of us just get buried by them.
I escaped the scars of my adolescence through music, it became my crutch, a portal through which I could salvage hope and all the artists I listened to felt like kindred spirits and made me feel less alone.
The autonomy of adulthood promised salvation but did not deliver as I went from one nightmare situation to another, pushing my dream of making music even further away.
I then went through the motions with other creative professions only to be hindered by a series of illnesses, one of which led to a life-saving operation.
As I recovered I knew that rebuilding my life was not going to be easy but as I remembered that picture of me as a 4 year old, holding that guitar, I felt like I had nothing to lose. So I bought a keyboard and sat down and poured my heart and soul into the creation of the songs on this album.
Everyone has a story to tell. . .mine is how I bridged the roads.
I wrote this song for my sister. Life somehow divided us.
The illness of my father reaquainted us.
My visits were sad but my departures were worse
made unbearable by the size of my sister's tears.
She cries the largest tears known to mankind.
Tears so big that they almost drown her face.
That separation is only physical
within us we remain linked
not only by our shared history
but by a shared hope that our
future frees us from our past.
So with every departure or arrival
there will be waves of emotion
crashing down on the platforms
of Gare du Nord.
Listen
Grief is something we experience and perhaps come to terms with but rarely recover from. We console ourselves with the memories of those we have lost and take solace in any small way that we can find.
I mourned my Father for the last two years of his life. I feared his death as he disintegrated in front of my eyes. I did everything in my power to preserve him and felt so hopeless as the inevitable arrived.
I was struggling to process my grief until, after 2 days without sleep,
I experienced something I had only ever heard about in shamanistic practices: the 'passing over' of my father's spirit...the release of the man I called Daddy
This song is based on my experience
Dragged into a world of intrigue that was not of my own making, I faced a situation where I was under incredible pressure from the adults around me.
Being an adolescent is like Dusk, it rests between day and night in the same way as those tender years rest between being a child and being an adult, but we are not yet in possession of the faculties to deal with mental and emotional abuse .
It's a pivotal time in life, a period that can shape your future for better or worse. In an ideal world we would be protected, encouraged and nurtured but as we all know the world is far from ideal and it can often be a nightmare.
Once, when I was deep within that nightmare, I heard a song, a song that whispered...'So long'
CHRISTIAN FONTANA
Acoustic guitar
(Fallen, Bridge the Roads, Birds & Come On)
Slide guitar (Come On)
Piano/keyboard (Gare du Nord/Birds)
Bass, Bongos & Bodhrin (Come On & Birds)
DOROTA GRALEWSKA
Cello (All tracks)
Keyboard (Solo) & Piano (Oh My)
STEVE MORRISON
Acoustic blues guitar
(Youll Never Know & Gare Du Nord unplugged)
MANNIE MAZZEO
Drums (Birds, Come On)
DEBORAH GRUMAN
Violin (So Long, Gare du Nord &
Gare Du Nord unplugged)
CHRIS STONE
Violin (Fallen, Solo, Bridge the Roads, Oh My)
PAUL TKACHENKO
Accordion (Gare du Nord),
Mandolin & Oud (So Long & Birds)
RAGNHILD LOKEN
Piano (Bridge the Roads)
Flute (Birds)
CYRIEL DIELS
Double bass (Fallen) & Bass (Bridge the Roads)
With any creative endeavour there is an exciting period when the genesis of an idea promises so much, but it is only when you try to fully manifest that vision that the hard work begins.
We rarely do these things alone and I am grateful to have had such talented people working with me to help realise this dream. So, from the bottom of my heart, I say a huge thank you to all the musicians who have played on this album!
To Christian for his fantastic musicianship, endurance and fine intuition. I feel fortunate to have found you and I'm certain that it was divine providence that led me to knock on your door! To Steve, not only for his marvellous playing but also for his patience and warm dedication to this project.
To Dorota for her exquisite sensitivity and impeccable talent. To Chris for his amazing dexterity and awesome performances. To Deborah for her delicate virtuosity. To Ragnhild for her delightful attitude and tender playing. To Paul for being so unbelievably gifted. To Cyriel and Mannie for giving such effortless and precise performances in such a short space of time.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DO NOT HAVE ANY AMAZON ACCOUNT. COPIES SOLD THERE MIGHT BE UNGENUINE ITEMS. PLEASE ORDER COPIES FROM US TO BE SURE. THANK YOU!
"Bridge the Roads is a truly heartfelt album, rich with songs of apology, promises and confessions. The making of this album was in itself an act of redemption"
Reviews
Track list:
1. Come On 3:56
2. Fallen (Live) 3:51
3. Solo 2:46
4. Gare du Nord 6:09
5. Birds 5:54
6. You'll never know 3:24
7. So Long 5:37
8. Oh My 3:39
9. Bridge The Roads (Live) 3:32
10. Gare du Nord - unplugged 4:21
OUT NOW!!!
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Beautifully packaged
Highest Quality Mastering
10 tracks, 3 never before previewed
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If you would like a signed copy of the Cd please leave a message through the website Thank you! I will be happy to sign copies for friends and family
too! ;-)
You can also download the album from Cd Baby.
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What does the cover of Bridge The Roads mean to you?
All tracks written by Franka De Mille
All tracks mastered by Steve Morrison
Final output by Andy Thompson
Cover illustration Ben Lowdon _ Hazard & Chance.
Birds, Come on & Gare du Nord
produced by Christian Fontana & Franka De Mille.
All other tracks produced by Franka De Mille
Copyright & Publishing: Franka De Mille. All Rights Reserved. 2009
All written content on this website is under copyright.
Permission must be granted by the owner prior to duplication
