To the Moon and Back (Savage Garden cover)

Kiss Quick (Matt Nathanson cover)

[cover] the eraserhead's "with a smile"

I spent the most amazing day at DLSU's #ArtofCosplay yesterday all dolled up in an outfit to pay tribute to NANA's Serizawa Reira. No pictures just yet -- cosplaying is just like performing on stage so I wasn't able to pull out my iPod to do a bunch of selcas. My group was assigned an official photographer though, so as soon as those go up on the event's official webpage I'll share them up here (oh geez, I hope I looked good).

But I'll reserve another post for that day. Today, I'm back in the workshop with something new to share with you guys. This is my second take of this song while airplanes arc in the sky above my house and little kids play hide-and-seek as best as they can outside in broad daylight.

February tends to be the awkward month in the whole bunch -- it goes by quick and yet manages to pack so much of a punch that you wonder where the time went. In places that have more seasons than the country I live in, it's still wintertime, though spring is just a little over a month away.

I can imagine that the wait for warmth can be a bit nerve-wracking and maybe that's why over the last couple of days, myself and some of my friends have felt the need to reestablish ties with each other all over again;  clasp virtual or physical hands in each other's to say: Hey, not going anywhere. Will just be right here, okay?

I wanted to share this particular take -- awkward pauses and all -- so that we can pretend that you just came over to my place to hang out with me while I rest my aching feet from yesterday's event, my fingers curled over Rufio's keys.

I've no one to spend Valentine's Day with -- not in the traditional sense, but that's okay. Today isn't just a day for couples the way love isn't just for people who are in love.

So good morning, good afternoon, good evening to wherever you are. It's a pleasure for me to share my second song of the year with all of you.

--N.

With A Smile (Eraserheads cover)

[original demo] SALISI

First posted on <a href="http://sheisnoelle.tumblr.com/post/13838882711">Tumblr</a> on 7 December 2011--

"i should be turning in for the night. i have work in a couple of hours. except that… i have all these emotions running through me right now.

there are days when i am very bad with words. these days are usually when they matter the most; when i really, really want to say something and have people get what it is i’m trying to express.

days that i’m afraid i’ll say them wrong and then no one except me will understand what it is i wanted to put down. because it means to much to get it right. to reach out and say: hey. you mean the world to me.

i had a conversation with one of my longest and oldest friends earlier yesterday aftenoon. she and i have known each other since we were kids hammering out songs on two different pianos in an auditorium that is there still, but not quite the same. our conversation went like this:

Her: one song can change you
not everyone gets to go to narnia
you know
some of us get to listen to a song
or a band
or read something
and get transformed
while being in the same place
it may take months?
but it’s pretty much
the equivalent of any change you can find in a story book
i don’t know if i’m making sense
but

Me: no you are
and i am a mess at work
haha my makeup
(don’t say sorry)

Her: i just know that things can change you
when people can’t reach you

Me: (i put this on so that the damn thing could be ruined)

Her: ahahah, make-up
there is nothing wrong or weird with wanting to tell them
that their song made things happen for you
there is nothing wrong with having to sing it
there is nothing wrong with being touched


months ago, a health scare in the family got me thinking: it’s been over a decade, noelle grace. maybe you’ve got it all wrong. maybe you… maybe you’re pushing for something too hard. something that’s not meant to happen. maybe you should just stop and give up. set aside that keyboard. put away the words you match to the white and black keys.

and then. well. hey. the universe throws a curveball in the guise of five amazing boys. and then something somehow clicks into place. and you realize: you can’t. not yet.

how can you when you see them push and push and go out there, focused on their dreams. how can you say that you find them that amazing and not try.

again. and again. and again. until you get to where you need to be."


=====


Music: Noelle Pico
Lyrics: Noelle Pico, Mags Forto

just like a wake-up call two seconds too soon
when i am startled out of sleeping and washed over in blue
and my heart’s chasing this unnamed, fleeting feeling
that’s gone off there with the evening
as the sun peeks all over you

and like a half-remembered dream i keep on thinking
that i’ve messed up all the details that brought together truth
and this ‘we’ of ours, a word left untranslated
i wish i’d seen it, i would have seized it
freeze-framed it so i wouldn’t have had to fall

it was all sleight of hand, accidental trick,
this crime of opportunity,
my pockets emptied of affections
i cannot really afford to really feel
and what is worse is i can’t blame you,
i can’t get mad or even shame you
for an unintended something
that neither of us would have known

and i wonder do you see a half-made memory of me
your eyes, that smile, your voice — calling out my name
and i — i wonder how it’s fair at all to want to say goodbye

we’ll chalk it up to déjà vu
this love from me
to the ghost of you
and me and everything
that we could have
ever tried to be

let’s not define ourselves
by what we’re not,
maybe one day
we’ll time it right
but for now let’s breathe
and let go
at the count of three

SALISI (Original Demo)

I originally wrote this song for guitar back in 2006, even though I'm not exactly well-versed in that particular instrument. But as the years have gone by, I found that the more that I thought about how C&N would sound best... or, I suppose you could say, how it could sound "truest" to the way it is in my heart, I started to think that maybe... since it's a song that speaks for me, it would be better if I could play it on the instrument that I know and can express myself through best.

This version was recorded at home, still clearly in it's draft stages, but I'm rather proud of how it's come out.

=====

Coffee & Nonsense
Music & Lyrics: Noelle Pico


how are we doing tonight?
won’t you tell me how it’s been?
your eyes have a story again
so why don’t you begin;

let’s sit back and get comfy,
times like these are far-between and few;
yes i want to hear all about it (oh, all about it)
over a cup of coffee for two;

and the road is filled outside (outside)
the night is soothing, oh, soothing to my mind
guess i’ve got a lot to contemplate now,
but maybe it’s better if we don’t make sense inside;

it’s okay to wish for things… right?
to brood a little over dreams that are worthwhile;
i shield my eyes and think quiet (quiet),
i want to speak up, but i can’t begin to look in your eyes;

and the road is filled outside (outside)
tonight is soothing, oh, soothing to my mind
yes, i’ve got a lot to contemplate now
and maybe it’s better if we don’t make sense inside;

i never did like drinking coffee,
it always puts me straight to sleep,
i guess i always believed
that you’d be here to drink it up for me;

and the road is filled outside
the night is soothing, oh, soothing to my mind
you're something i contemplate on
but maybe it’s better, if things don’t make sense inside

Coffee & Nonsense (Piano ver.)

Going back to old songs tucked away and trying a new take on things.


I wrote this piece in collaboration with my brother about six years ago. Rendered originally for guitar, this was one of those songs written in the deep of night, by two kids who filled two mugs with hot chocolate in spite of the humidity that can cling to this city even when summer has come and gone.

My brother is studying Law now. It's his passion where music is mine. So when I'd begun to play around with transitioning "Testament" from strings to piano keys about a little over a month ago, I'd asked his permission if I could take this and make it what was ours into something both familiar and yet somehow still new.

I had hoped to post this sooner. A number of my friends have been struggling with loss, others with the painful task of recovering themselves. It's difficult, navigating the mazes of grief. The things we love, after all, are sometimes also the things that render us raw.

I suppose it's like holding light between your fingers -- it illuminates, true. But it can also burn.



Testament
Music by Noelle and Nathan Pico
Lyrics by Noelle Pico

It comes down to this
When the unexpected
Is your only friend

It comes down to this
When the makeshift fences
Have all but weathered away

In the dark of the light
The shadows wait for
The dying of the sun tonight
It's not the impressions
We leave behind
Nor the footprints that litter
The sands of time

We are here then we are gone
That's the way thing are
The way things are, my friend
What's left behind
We all forget eventually
But not easily

Hesitation on your behalf
Like uncertain skies come half-past June
The piercing feeling of genuine smiles
That you know won't see tomorrow

I'm running fast but
I don't think that
I'm getting anywhere just yet

And as we kneel to carve in stone
By two years' time the chipped will soften
Even a little, everything does

In the dark of the light
The shadows wait for
The dying of the sun tonight
It's not the impressions
We leave behind
Nor the footprints that litter
The sands of time

We are here then we are gone
That's the way thing are
The way things are, my friend
What's left behind
We all forget eventually
But not easily

It comes down to this
It comes down to this

Testament (Original Demo)

For more information, please visit http://sheisnoelle.bandcamp.com.

Hunger/SALISI Digital Release on Bandcamp.com

Hunger (Official Release)

Haven't checked in here in  long, long time. This is old work.

Upstairs in the Workshop, Volume 1

Shape I Found You In (Girlyman cover)

For more information, please visit sheisnoelle.bandcamp.com.

SALISI (Official Release)

Hello and welcome, my name is Noey. I'm a Filipina who writes music and stories. In my free time, I write fiction, play and design tabletopgames. 

Connect with me on Twitter @thenoeychu - don't be shy, I love meeting new people.

sheisnoelle

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