I would like to thank all of the DJ's who have played my songs, your support is very encouraging and I really appreciate it.
1
Welcome
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 and myspace 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.
2
Prologue
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.
3
Gare Du Nord
I wrote this song for my sister. Life somehow divided us.
The illness of my father reacquainted 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.
Our separation is only physical
we remain forever bound
not only by our shared history
but by a shared hope that our
future will free us from our past.
With every departure and every arrival
there will always be waves of emotions
crashing down on the platforms
of Gare du Nord.
Listen
4
Birds
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
5
So Long
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)
6
Musicians
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.
SEPTEMBER 2010 RELEASE
ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!!!
"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"
Beautifully packaged
Highest Quality Mastering
10 tracks, 3 never before previewed
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Postage is free Worldwide via Paypal
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7
The Album
...."Kate Bush, Tom Waits, Johan Sebastian Bach....I hear these many influences infused throughout her work. The music is a wonderful tapestry of intricate string orchestrations, vocals and piano. It is expansive and inspiring. It moves with the ebb and flows like nature. Oceans, winds moving back and forth sometimes still...The interwoven vocals are mesmerizing."
Zak Flak
Thursday, April 15, 2010
"Franka has so much passion and intensity it's hard to ignore. This is a woman who is destined to make her mark in the world of female singer-songwriters. Her debut album is relevant to all ages. The lullaby-like music wraps itself around her voice like a soft blanket. Her lyrics break your heart and inspire healing at the same time. For Franka to put so much of herself into her music is risky, but in this case, there could be no other way to capture the beauty and strength in her voice. "
Amyjo Underkofler
Monday, February 22, 2010
'How refreshing, a contemporary vocalist who is not only a singer, but a musician and an artist too. In an era when the industry pushes an endless string of scantily clad products, who don't compose, don't create...and don't sing for the most part...
...Her music is full of emotion and commitment, in the context of fine and delicate craftmanship...So Long... A captivating arrangement which builds up as it moves on...and an overall spiritual feeling makes this song reality of success and a promise of very good things to come! A certain air of Lennon is present in Oh My, a spacious treatment for a sweet composition. The emotional impact is delivered in full in this touching selection...Birds is also beautiful...Some echoes of Ricky Lee Jones are present here along with a certain Celtic feeling."
Wanda Future
Sunday, October 25, 2009
CKUW - Winnipeg, Canada
"Shopworn Angel" - Marni Portman
Different Class Radio - London, UK
"You And The Night And The Music" - Adrian Arratoon
Freies Radio B138 - Kirchdorf an der Krems, Austria
"Unerhört" - Alexander Sackel and Martin Obert
Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA-LP - USA
"If Only You Could See What You Hear" - Kristen Westhoven
WFIT - Melbourne, Florida, USA
"The Stray Cat Lounge" - DJ Joni-O
WRIR Richmond Independent Radio - Virginia, USA
"The British Breakfast" - Gene Pembleton
Polskie Radio Bialystok - Bialystok, Poland
"Chilloutowa Strefa Dobrej Muzyki" - Mika Malzahn
"Rokowirówka" - Marcin Kozowski
"Internetowa Strefa Dobrej Muzyki" - Wojciech Kujaowicz
Polskie Radio Pomorza i Kujaw - Bydgoszcz, Poland
"Noc na pięcioliniach" - Adam Drozdzik
Pro-Radio - Stryków, Poland
"Pro-Gressiver" - Andrzej Kusy
Rock . Megastacja .Net - Kódz, Poland
"Dark Night" - Alkor XIII
Polskie Radio Gdansk - Gdask, Poland
"Magia Muzyki" - Krystyna Rejnowicz
Polskie Radio Kielce - Kielce, Poland
Leszek lusarski
Polskie Radio Lublin -Lublin, Poland
"Muzyka w peni księyca" - Tomasz Chachaj
Radio Aktywne - Warsaw, Poland
"Karuzela z Madonnami" - Aleksandra Kapis
"Uszami wyobrani" - Tadeusz Staniszewski
Radio Centrum - Lublin, Poland
"Hellofolks!" - Marcin Puszka
RadioFips - Germany
SMASH - "Junior' a.k.a.Steffen Schenk
Radio Alfa - Kraków, Poland
"MLWZ" ("May Leksykon Wielkich Zespoów") - Artur Chachlowski
8
Airplay
I have been fortunate enough to be aired on some brilliant radio shows.
So Long','Gare du Nord' and 'Come on' have been entered onto radio charts where they has been well received! I would also to thank the people who proposed my song and all those who voted and are still voting!!!
THE CHARTS (last update: 2010-05-24) - PLEASE VOTE FOR:
"GARE DU NORD" - NOW A CHARTBREAKERS!! (since :2010-04-05)
TOP 100 WEBRADIOCHARTS -No.10 as a newcomer
-Please click on: "+5" next to my name.
Top 100 der WebRadioCharts (since :2010-04-05)
No. 9 - as a newcomer! Reached places: 9, 11, 12, 22, 24, 28, 17, 25
"Come On" - Lista Przebojów Radia Egida (since 2010-04-09)
No. 2 - as a newcomer reached places 2, 4, 2, 3, 1, 1
- tick the box,
- go to the bottom of the page - click on the word: "GOSUJĘ"
(no need to enter your name and e-mail address - enter a pseudonym)
"So Long" - The Friend Vote Indie Top 100 Chart
(since 2010-03-08) Reached places: 94, 76, 40, 37, 43, 63, 55, 50, 52, 44
-Add yourself as a friend,
-click on vote and send the message; "Franka De Mille - So Long"
-you can also vote on: Facebook,Twitter,Bebo, Reverbnation.
FORMER CHARTS
"So Long" - Top 30 RRM Student FM
2010-03-07 - No. 1 - as a newcomer"So Long" -
"So Long" - Lista Przebojów Radia SAR
No. 1 - as a new comer
2010-01-29 - 2010-06-25: 1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 8, 14, 2, 6, 9, 6, 10, 13, 16, 20, 5, 8, 11, 16, 22, 27.
One of the songs that stayed on for the longest time!
Click
these pages have a bit about the album
the making of
the personal nature
each song is a chunk of me
would never need to fake an emotion for the sake of a song.
every one has a story to tell, mine is how I bridged the roads
It's cold in here
People are so wounded
They can hardly speak
So they cry like beasts
Lost in the mist
In a nervous shiver I look around
I breathe aloud as you fade out
Everytime I see you, you melt my heart
As a dark mystery unravels inside
Fallen
I hear that song again, they're calling me
This is what I need to trust
After all, we do our best
To cling on to the light, with our own despair
Gare du Nord
I know you've found no meaning
reality is not worth a bean
and you'd rather lock your heart away
but come out before your lose your say
Come On
My love lay in an empty space
In a wasteland out of grace
Why could I never really see
Your condescending eyes all over me
You'll never know
All tracks written by Franka De Mille - All tracks mastered by Steve Morrison
Final Tweaks by Andy Thompson - Cover design Ben Lowdon _ Hazard & Chance
( All tracks and recordings copyright Franka De Mille
9
Contact
Keep in touch with me for further updates on new pictures, videos, release dates and tour news!
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
