Hello everyone,
I hope you are having a smashingly romantic week. I’ve recorded a little treat for you guys. Please share it with those you love. Heck, share it with those you don’t love.
Just share it 
. Be my valentine. <3
Hello world!
Valentines day is fast approaching and in honour of it, I thought I’d perform a song for you.
A sort of electronic disclaimer of my romantic criteria.
I mean, there are obviously much deeper qualities upon which mate selection is based. Spiritual and emotional connection, for instance. Those are better suited, though, to a cheesy slow song which you will hear PLENTY of on the airwaves February 14th.
I am here to offer you a more honest and poignant portrayal into the mind of yours truly.
I’ll have a download link for the song up shortly. In the meantime….
It was my last day in L.A. and I was about to go to bed before I realized that a song I’d often dismissed as over-covered in the jazz world was actually quite beautiful. I decided to put my own spin on it and this is what I did. I hope you enjoy and make some babies to it!
Hello world!
Alysha Brillinger here…here being Hollywood, California!
That’s right. I left my igloo in Canada because I was invited to come to award winning director/producer Martin Gigi’s film premiere, as well as sing at the after party at the historical House Of Blues on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood.
The Doors, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix all spent regular time at The Bars in West Hollywood ( where I happen to be staying ) and I got to play at one of its prime venues last night!
The film I saw is called “Beneath The Darkness” starring Dennis Quaid. Very entertaining film with an amazing soundtrack. Greg Allman and Edgar Winter are part of it. Last night I was able to watch and perform with musicians who were on it and it was amazing!
I am having such a blessed time here. Meeting some fantastic people and soaking up the beautiful sun. Oh, also, oranges taste 100% better in California. Fun fact.
Below are some photos of my adventures so far, with correlating captions. Read them. I think I’m funny.
Lots of love,
Alysha
Myself with the wonderful and talented Martin Guigui.
Creepy Elvis Doll in a Shadow Box at The House of Blues...Looks like something a kid would make...just that perfect balance of extra effort + a skewed artistic perspective. I love it!
Hello fellow earth-walkers!
It is THAT TIME of year. You know…the time of year that many children covet as pure magic, that many adults become manically stressed over and the overall population seems to unite at the mall for.
Though Christmas means different things to different people, and I’m sure there are families for whom Christmas maintains the sentiment of its given name and December 24th is more spiritually celebratory, for the most part, including mine, Christmas is a day of material exchange and/or family get-to-getherness.
Fear not, you are not about embark on a literary journey down bah-hum-bug avenue.
I do observe Christmas from a slightly more rational perspective now that I am in my 20′s, but I still wouldn’t exchange my childhood memories for anything else.
Coming from parents of two different major religions, Christianity and Islam, my sisters and I were actually raised pretty secularly, with a completely open mind about all religions and being mixed, there is always an inherent lack of prejudice anyway. It’s all about mixing .
My favourite thing about Christmas is the Christmas Tree. I love the soft lighting and the indoctrination of the night as a sacred time of day. It’s beautiful!
There will never be a perfect Christmas. Christmas is different to each family. I realize that the true meaning is in love and charity, and that is beautiful. This year, my family are doing “Secret Santa”. Each person only has to buy one gift! I think it makes it special because we can put more thought into that one gift and we appreciate the one we receive that much more. My friend Reid and I were at the Eaton Centre yesterday and he amusingly observed that a lot of people looked like they were about to cry. When you give an already consumerist society a deadline for millions of purchases, you get…a bunch of people who are on the brink of a breakdown, or what my friends Em and Al at Urban Ex so cleverly refer to as “Giftmas”.
There is so much more I could have done this Christmas to relay its true meaning, and I could say that next year I will volunteer and next year I will tell this person I love them etc, but I think the thing that we confuse is that December 24th is just a day. It’s a day.
We live 365 of them in a year and that’s 365 opportunities to be open with the people we love and open to people we should love.
Merry Christmas everyone, whatever that means to you, just know that I hope you have a wonderful time with your friends/family. I am so grateful for this past year, and I am really looking forward to the next.
Lots of love,
Alysha
Hey everyone,
It is such a pleasure to be able to say I am the recipient of The 2011 KW Leading Edge Arts Award and I was asked to talk a little bit about it on an episode of Rogers Daytime.
Check out the interview below and I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of love. Love for yourself as well as others (because we all pick up on each others emotions, never forget that) and an overall genuine sense of hope, too. xo
Love Alysha
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Hey everyone!
Thanks for visiting alyshabrillinger.com and/or me, since these days my computer seems to be an extra appendage, anyway.
Some pretty great things are going on in terms of music. When not on tour and/or travelling, I am currently performing every Thursday night at Toronto’s PREMIERE Jazz venue where Michael Buble played every Wednesday for six months and where Prince and Colin James have frequented throughout the years. “Alysha Brillinger and The Brilltones” is the new Thursday night band and it is an INCREDIBLE night. I have the fortune of being joined by Tyler Yarema on upright piano, Alison Young on the Saxophone, Sly Juhas on drums, Tom Juhas on electric guitar and Mike Carson on the upright bass. Check out the fancy picture that internationally renowned fashion photographer Carlyle Ruth took of me:
Alysha Brillinger and The Brilltones
In other news, literally, an awesome article was written up about me in “SPOKE”, Conestoga College’s weekly newspaper. Ahhh the analog method of sharing information. I really love having something in print, because if well preserved, aliens are going to be reading about me in 100 years. Vanda Dobritoiu is the journalist who did the interview and to my amusement, she kept in this classic quote:
“As a huge success in the local music scene, Brillinger is thinking ahead in the future. When asked where she wants to be in five years, she jokingly replied ‘in John Mayer’s arms’.”
Well, while my aspirations are slightly more involved, there is something to be said about the retained innocence of one of my 14 year old fantasies. Dreams are where it all begins and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Lots of love,
Alysha
Hey world!
I am very excited to announce that The Alysha Brillinger Band is going on tour this September with alternative-soul artist Kristen Bussandri!
Shows JUST ANNOUNCED:
September 14th- Montreal
September 15th- Toronto
September 16th- Kitchener
Tickets are limited and can be found at www.dukits.com
Were I a child
with dreams running wild
I would jump on their backs
and ride fiercely away
but now I’ve got scars
from falling too hard
and my only dream
is to dream again…
-A.B
Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald are just a few names that immediately bring up memories of crisp recordings of the quality variety from another time and place.
Having admired this authenticity so much, I still remember the first time I heard Amy Winehouse sing.
I was at a festival in Toronto called ” Canadian Music Week “. Half of the festival took place in the seminars at the Royal York hotel ( a beautiful hundred + year old hotel in downtown Toronto ) and half of it took place at shows in the nightclubs.
While at the seminars, handing out demos and trying to get anyone to pay attention to me, I ran into another unsigned artist. She told me about this girl named “Amy Winehouse” who could “actually sing”. Skeptically, I feigned interest…having been so jaded lately by hyped artists whose music was overproduced and I didn’t find possessed any long-term appeal.
The enthusiastic fellow-solicitor showed me a picture of Ms. Winehouse and it sparked a little interest.
“hmm” I thought…”She’s kind of, dare I say, ethnic looking…like me!”
I hate using the word ‘ethnic’. It’s so subjective, but for the purpose of describing it in relation to most of the artists in the spotlight at the time…you were either black or white. Once in a while, Latin, but that was the only kind of ‘brown’ you’d see…
Having recognized some physically ambiguous kinship with her, I decided she was one of those ‘rumoured’ artists that I would further investigate.
It was only a week or so later that I was in the car with my good friends headed to a gig, when they put “Frank” in their cd player.
My world changed.
I mean…
yes, in the way where you discover an artists whose music you love and connect with and follow, but more than that, in the way that you realize someone with true authenticity and talent is being TALKED about and is gaining popularity.
“WOW!” I thought…”this kind of music is sooo rare these days…I mean…not in underground Toronto nightclubs; a lot of my friends are jazz musicians, but in magazine articles? On tv? This is amazing.”
My faith in the music industry was suddenly bolstered. I learned her songs verbatum, just from listening to them so much and kept her in my mental peripheral every time I performed. She was…inspiring.
Her voice was as rich and developed as Lady Day and the others.
It carried so much emotion and the lightness of her sarcasm.
Her songwriting. SHE WROTE…amazing songs. They were clever, dry, honest and so personal. I really felt like I knew her.
I remember when she started publicly having difficulty with drugs/performing.
It made me pretty sad, considering that it can happen to anyone, and it happened to her…my mom followed Winehouse news religiously.
I was in L.A back and forth many times over the past year and my mom would always sympathetically mention Amy’s sensitivities anytime I was dealing with emotional weights.
My mom was so genuinely saddened by Amy’s state. Not entertained or fueled by it.
Despite her troubles, Amy Winehouse was always the first name on my tongue when people asked me what artists I really liked, and still inspired me to be authentic and real.
I got the phone call from my mom this morning about Amy Winehouse. I couldn’t really believe it when I heard it. We had faith that somehow, with her brilliant range of perspective on things, she would catch a glimpse of sobriety and follow it back to good health.
I had to google the awful words…”Amy Winehouse…dead?”
My heart sank when article after article appeared affirming the news.
I know everyone will talk about it and express how tragic it is.
I do believe it is unfortunate that we have lost her as an artist, but a couple friends of mine reminded me of how much she gave in her 27 years. So much beautiful music and THANK GOD we were able to record that VOICE.
All I want to say is that I am sorry people have to deal with depression/drugs and furthermore public scrutiny. I know there are people in all of our communities just like Amy who battle certain addictions. Her battle was just publicized.
I will always always always love her voice and music. I hope her soul, recycled, finds a more peaceful new existence and that we just cherish her legacy.
Lots of love,
Alysha
