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Thursday vibes, these ladies are getting it.

via lo-vereigns:

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@leilahegazy who placed 2nd at the #apollo last night is here sending #soulful chills down our spines #elevatedbk #livemusic #brooklyn

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You should be here :) there's still time to join us at @egllerybk yes! #elevatedbk #brooklyn #eddiehill #acoustic

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#egallerybk @akilbstrange

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Tonight we held our meeting overlooking the practice courts at #barclayscenter awesome view 👍 #elevatedbk no.2 is going to be awesome tomorrow! #brooklyn #brooklynnets

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#elevatedbk round 2 goes down tomorrow night! Come join us at @egallerybk located at 459 Vanderbilt #brooklyn from 6-10PM! It's gonna be epic 😁

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French-Senegalese singer-songwriter @AnaisAida has already made waves on the music scene with a quintet of covers and her original song "Love Can Burn" to which she made an accompanying cinematic gem of a music video (above). Come out this Friday July 12th to see this NYU Clive Davis Alum performing live at Elevated: A Showcase of Today's Emerging Talent, presented by The Soul Ascension & E Gallery.

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With a sound reminiscent of the notable production team "The Neptunes", Florida native Devin Tracy has already been featured on SoulBounce and will grace the stage at The Soul Ascension's very first emerging artists showcase: Elevated this Friday at E Gallery BK. Check out this track by him and get ready to see him live! 

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Lydia Paek is both a talented singer and a skilled dancer. In addition to being part of the Hip-Hop dance group, Quest Crew (winners of season three of America's Best Dance Crew), she shares her musical talents via videos that have already garnered six figure view counts. She lends her smooth, sweet voice to a cover of "I Can't Make You Love Me" in the video below made famous by Bonnie Raitt and more recently Adele. Take a listen.

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At the intersection of Jazz, Soul & the music of Haiti is Melanie JB Charles. This singer/songwriter and multi - instrumentalist is Brooklyn born and world traveled. Her debut single from her sophomore project "Drifting (Tomo)" has a story that is as international as her experiences. Take a look at the premiere of her music video for "Drifting (Tomo)" which was shot during her recent trip to Haiti, recorded in New York and inspired in Japan.

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With the stateside success of Kimbra, Australia and New Zealand have been put the map as a source of soulful music. Hailing from Sydney, Aussie songstress Milan is poised to make her own mark. She shares her message of encouragement on her uplifting song "Relax."

Her social media sites report that we can expect a new EP from her later this year. Check out the links below to hear more from Milan until then.

http://www.milanring.com/

https://www.facebook.com/milanringmusic

https://twitter.com/MilanRing

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This singer/songwriter, based in Staten Island, NY, has been pouring her heart into music since her days at the Fame school (F.H LaGuardia H.S.). Watch her acoustic performance of "Monday" an original from her debut album Looking Glass.

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Hailing from Richmond, VA, the three member Gospel group RESOUND evoke goosebumps with their heavenly arrangement of the contemporary gospel classic, Total Praise (originally by Richard Smallwood). They share their gifts for Gospel recording artist, Byron Cage who they have sung background for in addition to a list of other current artists in the genre. Check out the video below.

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Featuring sweet falsetto runs and a reflective yet impassioned electric guitar accompaniment, Daniel Woods captivates with his down-tempo original "Chasing My Light." It's hard to pin down exactly who he sounds like but as you listen it's easy to become enveloped by the sonic world he creates. Take a listen for yourself. Visit the link below for more from Daniel Woods

http://dannydeewoods.tumblr.com/

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Musician/Musical Director, Gizmo sets the mood with a smooth groove to which Nick Hakim lends his sweet, soulful voice on "Lift Me Up" a song that sounds like it could be a lost track from a D'Angelo album. Having already made a name for himself as a Bassist, playing for notable act from Meshell Ndegeocello to Chris Brown, this Berklee College of Music bred musical wonder presents this his latest release from his debut album, "Red Balloon."

Check the links below for more on Gizmo and Nick Hakim.

http://gizmosound.com/home/

http://nickhakim.com/

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Diamonds Covers - Emerging Artists "Shine Bright"

Rihanna's hit song "Diamonds" has achieved critical acclaim and has left a mark on our generation, inspiring emerging artists to produce their own renditions of the song. Check out some of their covers below.

Kim Viera

  Deontae Dominic

    NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music

    Alexa Goddard

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A Soul Ascension Look: Bridget Perez

When we met up with 23-year old Bridget Perez just before her January showcase at NYC’s Nightingale Lounge, we were still in a calming, tranquil mood from listening to her new digital EP, Into The Sky. To say it was just research into her music is an understatement; listening to Into The Sky put us in the mood to dream of love, find love, curse love, find love again, only to ultimately get married to the idea of love. Perez is as calm as her music, never wavering when talking about her music, her influences and her beginnings in singing. As for talking about love? Her conversation about it flows as easily as her EP…

Soul Ascension met up with singer, songwriter and producer Bridget Perez to discuss her new EP, Into The Sky, getting vocal lessons from the late Minnie Riperton and acknowledging the hopeless Disney fairy tale lover within herself…

“I could always BS and hide the fact that I wasn’t a vocal major and I wouldn’t be judged.”

Soul Ascension: How did you get started?

Bridget Perez: How I started singing is very funny. I always wanted to sing, but I’m a punk. This is during the Dawson’s Creek, Smallville, around those times when everything was so dramatic. One of my friends, Lindsey, who I used to catch the train with liked this boy so much, and I was like ‘you know what? I’m going to write you a song so you can forget about him.’ I wrote the first verse, and it was like a letter, and I sang it for her on the train. She was like, ‘oh my God, I love it. I can’t wait until you finish it.’ I made the second verse specifically about what had recently happened and gave it to her the next day and sang it on the train, and she was like ‘I can’t sing this; you have to sing the song.’

Lindsey was a vocal major, I was an instrumental major who played piano at the time at LaGuardia High School. We had a class together called New Music Singers, and the students would have to present a song and only nine songs would make it that year to the big show out of at least 30 students. For previews, students would just go into the auditorium with a lot of other classes during lunch, and for the show, there was a preview, so out of those nine songs that made it, four would be in the preview. We had auditions, and I wanted my teacher to hear the song just to critique me because I didn’t really want to be in the show. I sang it for my teacher, and he’s like ‘You’re in the show.’ The next day, I had to sing it in front of the class, and I was selected to be in the show and in the showcase.

I could always BS and hide the fact that I wasn’t a vocal major and I wouldn’t be judged, but I was thinking to myself, ‘If I can get picked out of all these people, some of the best in New York, you might as well see if I can into another school with this, and if I don’t get it, I can always go be a lawyer or something.’ I don’t like school enough to do that, so I’m happy that I sing!

SA: After high school, your journey continued in Boston, then led you to Los Angeles to meet up with producer Joel Adams, who is also the co-producer of Into the Sky. How did that journey progress for you?

BP: It’s funny because Joel went to the same school as me, and we were really close, so I was trying to work with people in New York. We both were trying to be bi-coastal. The person I played piano for, he is in the music business, and has an ASCAP award for Song of the Year. I met him when he was on the cover of Billboard, so I mentioned to him that I needed some help because I was trying to move to LA, so I needed some contacts there. He hooked me up with someone, who I emailed my music to. She liked it, and had me in the room with this producer when I came to LA, and he was good, but we just didn’t mesh. She advised me that the music was good, but that I needed some drum. I’m a piano player, so I didn’t hear drums in the same way I heard sounds. Joel came into the picture and was like, ‘We can do this.’ So we did, and the song “Make Me Shout” on Into The Sky came out really good, but Joel thought it could be better, so we got horns on it and all this other kind of stuff.

SA: “Make Me Shout” is definitely a good song. Listening to it and the EP, there are some really good sounds. How did you come up with the sound for Into The Sky?

BP: Life is weird, you know? I have a lot of songs, and through all of the piles, there are certain ones that are kind of placed together that are similar for certain things that I could mesh together; I’m very scatterbrained.

When I went to Atlanta in 2009, I got two tattoos; one that says “Nobody Understands Love.”  I choose “Nobody Understands Love” because at the time, I didn’t understand love and I still don’t. It just is, and when things just are, they are the most difficult things to understand.

“I love the track “Your Voice” because I feel like that song was forced out of me.”

How Into The Sky Came About: I had a song named “Into The Sky” which ended up to be what the project is called, which is kind of funny. I wrote it in a day, just thinking about the perfect Disney-type relationship, because I love Disney; it doesn’t get any better than Disney. I want that type of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, happily ever after type of love story. I wrote that when I was 19 years old. The song ended up forming the concept of the EP. It’s more like a story.

SA: We love how your tracks have a story, each track has its own, and how it all falls together. Are the songs created out of personal experience?

BP: Some, some, some. I have friends that tell me things that crack me up, and I’m just like, ‘Here you go, here is a song.’ Some are definitely of experience to me. I won’t say which ones!

SA: With the production of Into The Sky, it was co-produced by you and Joel Adams.

BP: Yes, I did all of the production and he co-produced half of it. For “Make Me Shout,” I knew what I wanted, and Joel was a drummer and he does hip-hop, so he did all of the drums and made the sections crazy.

SA: If you had to choose your favorites tracks from your EP, which ones would it be?

BP: “Into The Sky” started it all, so I have to say that’s a personal favorite. Honestly, I love all of them for different reasons, but I like the melody for “Open.” When I was done with it, I was very proud of myself. I love the track “Your Voice” because I feel like that song was forced out of me. I love “So Much” as well.

“What you see of me is why I love Minnie Riperton.”

SA: You get comparisons musically to Aaliyah, Sade and others. We also can hear Jhene Aiko and an Amerie-type feel to your sound. Who would you say are some of your biggest musical influences, past or present?

BP: To me, it doesn’t get any better than Minnie Riperton. She is ill. It was my last year in college, and I don’t remember why, but I just downloaded all her albums and I listened to her first album Come To My Garden. A lot of people don’t know about Minnie Riperton. What you see of me is why I love Minnie. She has this song, “Come To My Garden,” from her first album. It’s so musical. I swear I’ve gotten vocal lessons from her! Her music is so whimsical, so flowy…

SA: And that’s what we get from your music as well; it’s very whimisical, it’s easy to follow and it flows from one track to the next. Most albums you hear are very all over the place with no real concept or flow.

BP: That’s because people don’t take time, you know? I actually went back to school and got to develop the sound I wanted, and it’s take a while for people to actually find out who they are.

Some of the people I was listening to when I was writing Into The Sky were Minnie, Jill Scott, Dwele, Stevie Wonder.

“I’ve heard people tell me that they get lost in my music.”

SA: What would you say is the ultimate goal for your musical career?

BP: I definitely want to be performing and working in the studio. I want to write for people, with people. Writing is definitely one of my passions. I am now starting to produce for other people, which is new.

SA: Describe your music in one word.

BP: Tranquil. I wanted to put the listener in kind of a calming, tranquil mood. I’ve heard people tell me that they get lost in my music. I’ve gotten in a trance listening to my own music. I want people to listen to it and escape.

SA: We would definitely call your music tranquil, as well as mellow and transparent, as you value honesty in your music. The listener can definitely connect to one or two songs, if not, the whole EP.

Who would you say you make music for?

BP: Anybody who listens. There’s no specific person, you know? Anybody who has felt a way about anybody.

SA: Is love the main subject you like to focus your music on?

BP: Yes. I’m a lover; I’ve been denying it all my life. I’ll try to hide from my feelings all the time, but when I write music, it’s because I have to. The songs that people end up f***ing with heavy are the ones that I had to write because I didn’t have a choice.

SA: When would you anticipate your next project to be released?

BP: I’m working on Into The Sky: Epilogue, just about four or five songs. The next full project will be called Close Your Eyes.

  Find out more about the talented Bridget Perez:

bperezington.tumblr.com

twitter.com/bperezington

facebook.com/bperezington

soundcloud.com/bperezington

bridgetperez.com