Debut Solo Album: A LEAP IN THE DARK!
What's going on?
As an actress I've been blessed to spend my career traveling the world performing in Broadway shows and, my favorite part, meeting incredible people. From New York City to Tokyo, Australia to Puerto Rico, and all across America, I am always moved and inspired by the warmth, humor, passion, life, beauty, spirit, and dreams of the people I'm so lucky to meet all over the world. Audiences around the world have given me so much. This album has been a 2 year long passion project to give audiences a gift back. To answer the questions and give the advice I'm often asked for, make gorgeous recordings of my most well known roles that people tell me they wish they'd seen, and more. It's not about me. This album was written, and created, for you.
The Album
The Album, called A LEAP IN THE DARK, was written like a musical, where scenes lead into songs and there is a story that runs through the entire album. It's told through the story of my life, but, it's so much more than that. The album shares my ups and downs, my moments of triumph and failure, my dreams and moments of doubt and despair, the miraculous surprises and devastating pitfalls, and the lessons that I learned along the way.
When creating this album I knew we had to do something totally different than what's been done before. I couldn't imagine leaving my favorite part of singing 8 times a week out of the album....You! So, to capture that experience, I decided to:
1) Make the album as a LIVE recording.
2) To perform it, in it's entirety, as a show for a live audience at New York City's legendary Feinstein's/54 Below over two nights. And...
3) To have the audio professionally recorded LIVE as I did it. No retakes. No do overs. All or nothing. Live.
The album includes not only all of the songs but, also, all of the scenes. My dream is for you to be able to close your eyes and really feel like you're there with me, watching the entire show live. & then, once you know it, you can just jump around and listen to your favorite tracks! The show was funny & uplifting, inspiring and moving, totally raw, and made to take the audience on an epic journey. My dream is that this album will do the same thing for you!
What did I learn while creating this show?
Everything.
I learned that how we respond to dark times is what shapes who we really are. Whether we are paralyzed by our fear or despair or fight to leap forward even if we don't know exactly which way forward is. And, I learned that my struggles were meant for me, and maybe even designed for me, to help me grow into the person I always knew I could be.
I hope that my album will help you feel like your dreams, no matter how far out of reach they may seem, are always just a single leap of faith away. But you do have to leap. Again and again. That even your struggles have a bigger purpose for you too. I hope that it ignites a fire in you and reminds you of who you are and what you really want to create for your life!
Where exactly is the money going?
We are lucky to have the interest of a Grammy award winning record label to put the album out!
But to make this album a reality, I will need your help.
Because we recorded it live, it's actually significantly less for us to make this album than it would have been had I done it in a studio. Rather than $30,000, we can make this album at INCREDIBLE quality for $18,000.
This number takes into account predictable expenses like "Extra hours in the studio mixing & mastering" & the fees that come along with them. The support that you give will help cover the cost of editing, mixing, and mastering the professionally recorded live tracks (each instrument had it's own microphone and was recorded separately so that they could be mixed together later as if we'd done it in a studio) so that it can sound as beautiful as you all deserve for it to. It will also pay our musicians, for the physical printing of the albums, the graphic designers who work on the artwork & cd booklet, the creation & printing of thousands of physical copies of all of the above, for shipping and packaging, for the legal rights to all the songs, AND THAT’S NOT ALL. Every single cent you pledge will go directly toward the making of this album & honoring the pledges made here on kickstarter.
The recordings from/of "High School Musical", "The Secret of Being", "I Have Nothing", "The Wizard & I", the Sara Bareilles and Sara McLachlan songs, and "On My Way" in the VIDEO above are all the ACTUAL live recordings from the show. So, as you can hear, the sound quality of it is already incredible...and that's before a Grammy Award winning record label dives in and starts doing their own professional mixing of each song! It's going to be really special.
Thank you for your support. It means so much to me. I hope that you know it, & that you support yourself and your dreams too.
Take risks.
Believe that your dreams are really prophecies of your inevitable success.
Leap into the unknown.
I believe in you.
Thank you. I can't wait for you to hear it.
xo Arielle
