By Zoe Mace
After the release of “Songs for My Sister” in June 2005 I decided to take time to firstly come to terms with losing Jodie and to concentrate on my entry into Cokethorpe Senior school which I had been awarded a 2-year academic scholarship to. I really like school, especially Maths and I realize how important a good education is, as I may want to do something entirely different when I am older. I continued with my weekly singing lessons with my singing teacher, Sophie Jugé, learning new songs for charity concerts and really getting into my theory, but I didn’t have any plans to record another album. It was only after my mum Linda was constantly asked when I would be releasing a new album by people who had either bought my last CD’s or come to see me sing that we sat down as a family and discussed the possibility. By this time I had learned a lot of new material which would be great for a new album so my parents said they would fund another album if I would like to record again.
I thought carefully about my decision for over 2 weeks, as I knew if my parents were going to fund this album I would need to be 100% dedicated. Sophie and I decided on what songs I should sing and my agent, Steve Tannett from Espresso Songs put a professional team together for me and plans were put in place to start recording during my school Summer Holidays.
My producer, Andy Whitmore has a studio at his house in London, which is just over an hour drive from Oxford were I live, so we made sure that I had a couple of days rest in between each recording day, so I could still have fun with my friends and enjoy the little bit of nice weather we had over the holidays. Andy is such a nice man, so patient and understanding he never put me under any pressure and worked really well with Sophie who was always there at all my recordings. Also on my team was talented arranger John Pickup. I gave John some of the hardest songs to arrange, especially “The Doll Song”, but he always surprised us with beautiful arrangements, which I think make the album really special.
Sophie arranged all the vocals and we had lots of fun putting all the backing harmonies together. The first track I recorded was dedicated to my little sister Jodie, “Tears in Heaven”. As this track is not classical it was the hardest song for me to sing, but I really wanted to include a song for Jodie as she was and always will be my inspiration to sing.
Ben Heaney, my music teacher at school who discovered my voice when I was 9 years old, wrote a beautiful new aria for me about a butterflies encounter with a spider called “Una Farfalla Deve Volare.” I was so pleased that I was able to record this song!
“Time to Say Goodbye,” is one of my favorite songs of all time, but I wanted to sing this as a duet so I had to find someone who was willing to sing it with me. I wrote to Geoff Sewell asking if he would consider singing the male part and he replied straight away and said yes!! I was so shocked that someone as famous and professional as Geoff would think I was worth singing with! When Geoff came to the studio he was really friendly as soon as he arrived, he is a really nice guy who treated me like an equal, not a little girl. We had so much fun recording this song and I think we sound brilliant and can’t wait for an opportunity to sing this live together one day!
The week before I was due back at school to start year 8 at my school in Oxford, I recorded my last track. It was a great feeling to have completed my third album, but of course, there was so much work to still be done.
The album took another 3 weeks to mix all the tracks and produce a CD ready to press, but before that happened my mum and dad had to make the decision if the CD was good enough to release. We all sat down and listened to the album, this was the first time for everyone. It was an amazing moment for me that I won’t ever forget. John’s arrangements were just wonderful and made my voice sound amazing. So mum and dad gave Steve the go-ahead to start planning to release the album as soon as possible.
Steve and my mum Linda organized the album release, as I had to concentrate on school, but always told me what was going on. I did have great fun on the photo shoot for the album cover, which Mark Bassett did for me yet again! It didn’t take too long to chose the right picture for the front cover but took weeks to come up with a name for the album! It was when the album was ready to be promoted that I started to have mixed emotions. This was my first commercial album, but I was unhappy that there was no charity connection, especially as that is why I had started singing – to help others. I spoke to my parents about my concerns and they agreed I should support a charity if that is what I wanted to do.
It was really hard to single out a charity, but I wanted to keep a connection with Downs Syndrome and my sister so I decided to support the charity “Downside Up”. I found out about this charity from my friend Rosa Monckton, who is a patron of “Downside Up”. “Downside Up” provides vital support to children with Downs Syndrome in Russia who from birth are sent to orphanages. Over half of these children die before they reach their first birthday through neglect. I couldn’t bare to think about these children not getting any love or care and had to help them! If I had lived in Russia Jodie may have ended up in one of these dreadful places and that was too horrid to think about! It was easy to decide how to help, I donated “Tears in Heaven” as a download to the public with all the proceeds going directly to Downside Up. “Tears in Heaven” was the perfect choice as I recorded Eric Clapton’s classic as a dedication to Jodie and I know she would approve!
The download was released on iTunes and other digital sites on the 12th November and is already selling really well. Of course, I would really like my album, “Once Upon A Time” to be a success, but more importantly that Tears in Heaven helps the Downs children of Russia live a decent dignified life which they deserve! If you want to help me visit my website for details.
Learn more about Zoe at zoemace.co.uk
Zoe was featured in our Winter 2007 Issue.