Announcing... The Lovers by Wall of Tom

As I lay in wait of the final finish line, I see the album so clearly now. It really is the perfect explanation, to what the hell we have been up to, for the last two years.

Two Years.

It will be, in full, 10 songs. It shoulda been twelve, but we are giving two of them away since they are covers, so that will be a fun little extra for everyone.

The full album 'The Lovers' from beginning to end is such an emotional journey, like life, like love... The songs have taken on a life of their own, as they tend to do. I have listened to them too much now, I need to let them all go. They have filled my soul in a way that only music can do... and I have never been prouder.

I would like to say that there is a little something for everyone on this album... since there are so many facets to love. Each song is from a different place, so.. there is a beauty in the diversity. I just love... love.

A special thank you to Paul Frost, of the rockin' UK trio The Zico Chain, who has been a true wizard behind the mixing desk. Taking all the months of layers upon layers... guitars, violin, drums, vocals, piano, and bass.. creating such an individual sound. He has captured Wall of Tom with a capital T. We are forever grateful for his fancy ears.

This album has truly been made by a bunch of cool friends, who I am truly blessed to be surrounded by and able to create beautiful music with. It has been a labor of love, every step of the way. When I think back on this musical journey that we have been on creating this album, it has been immensely rewarding. Wall of Tom truly has evolved.

I can't believe it took us this long to make. Seriously. I am not a patient person. But becoming a parent has changed me a bit, so now I am reaping the benefits of releasing something to remember.

Coming May 29th... to an iTunes near you..

Wall of Tom makes a new music video

Wall of Tom, or maybe I should say Tony and I, since we are doing this whole duo thingy... and well, I married him too. We have been planning this video for about two months now... The song 'Cherish Every Moment' was our first pick, for a single off the new album. It just felt right to do our first video for that song, since this song was written for our son. The song is so close to our hearts, we just had to do the video right.



We found the location on a lark, a few months ago when taking our little boy to Griffith Parks 'Travel Town' one afternoon. The antique train museum, with a kiddy train to boot, was indeed a fun little adventure together. When we walked into one of the antique boxcars, Tony and I took one look at each other and we both knew that the location had been found. The lighting was insane... it was more than you could ask for to shoot any sort of film, or video.



After working out the shot list, and re-working the shot list, and yet another trip to Travel Town, we discovered even more wonderful area's to shoot in, and the video's concept was born. Chris Knitter of Overlooked Productions, our talented DP, flew out from KC and we shot the whole thing with one camera, in two days.



This video was a family affair, just like the entire album has been. Tony and I had thought that maybe we would not have our son in the video, use a different child for the shots, but since the song was written for him we said screw it, and he had a ball with us the entire time... well, almost the entire time. Now that I look back at the footage I am overjoyed with our decision. I think having him included has given such a beautiful, personal touch, that we will indeed cherish this video, for the rest of our lives.




Of course we had a little help from our wonderful friends, to pull off the video properly. My hair and makeup stylist was Brooklyn Stephen, she is a great friend and I have been using her for years for all our photo shoots. Back when Wall of Tom was doing 'The Hollywood Speakeasy' at Hush Lounge in Hollywood, Brooklyn would give me a few different 20's or 30's looks per show, which is why I knew she would do a great job with my vintage look for this shoot.



As for the 'look', my wonderful friend and fashion stylist, Carrie Diaz of Swift Vintage helped pull both our looks together. I met with Carrie a few times, showing her my ideas, what clothes we had in our closets, looked at what she had in hers, and together we pulled together 2 different looks for all three of us, one vintage, one current. I LOVED the old time hats that Carrie brought for me to choose from, I felt like such a fancy lady!! Oh! And a special thanks to Rachael Rine for letting me borrow those awesome black pants, my ass loved them and now I need to get a pair of my own because I don't wanna give them back!




The shoot went so great, and everyone at Travel Town was super helpful, I cannot believe how smooth it all was and how fast we got all the shots. Now it is down to the editing process, with Chris Knitter and Tony doing their thing behind the big desk. It is almost done now and I am so pleased I cant stand it, I cannot wait to release this baby out to the world! So stay tuned, we plan on releasing it very soon!! Yippee!!!



As always, don't forget to check out my books website, give it a 'like' on Facebook... If you are not a fan of Wall of Tom on Facebook, please take a listen, and see what the hell I am talking about. Oh, and if you prefer to Twitter, I do that too.


http://thisrockinmyheart.com
http://www.facebook.com/thisrockinmyheart
http://www.facebook.com/walloftom
https://twitter.com/#!/TommieVaughn1

Back to my roots

Thanks to April at John Frieda for my fantastic new 'Do'!!!

The spring in March

Well here I am. Back to normality again. I have done all I can do, at this moment, to finish my book. It's out there, hopefully with all the errors corrected, finally. I have set it free. It's now available for pre-order through Amazon, so there is no stopping this train. I know everyone wont like it, I have not written Hemingway people, this book is a fun, fictional, romp in R&R. I only hope to inspire a journey, a really LOUD journey, in a few of you.

So, with that in mind, after I have delivered every ounce of my soul to the press people, I can now relax at home and change my focus to the beautification of my yard, the final mixing of an album, and lots and lots of outdoor fun with my family.

I love this time of year, with all the longer days and blue skies. Makes me once again love living in southern California. Everything is in bloom, so that we are fooled into thinking that summer is around the corner... But hopefully we have a few more months of chilly nights because I really didn't get to enjoy much 'accessories/weather' clothes this year. I do love my coats and scarves.

So today, I am enjoying spring, and as the baby takes his afternoon nap, I am out poolside for the first time in well... lets say it's been too long.


It's not that I'm never outside, I'm out here every day, really... but like this, doing nothing but writing...It's been a while! My outdoor time has been consisting of playing basketball with my son, who has decided to become a pro basketball player, or the planting of new spring flowers, and pruning back the weeds. I feel like it is a spiritual thing that happens to all of us, every passing of the season.

We plant the seeds, and get rid of what's hanging around that we don't want. I enjoy gardening, the dirt, all the different wild flowers in their splendor, and sure, the sun feels good on my skin. Damn, I'm white.

I've decided that I need a bird house, because there are some beautiful yellow finches playing in my garden hose, or maybe a bird bath... am I past the century that it was un-cool to have a birdbath in their backyard? Something Gothic? Yes? Now I must begin to comb my favorite flea market next Sunday.


Whoop, there is the baby monitor. My time here is done. That was real fun... see you tomorrow, suntan.. Now it's time for my little dude to take over the park!!! Happy Spring to you all!

Take a peek...

Here it is!! The official book trailer...



Buy the book now on Amazon (Pre-order)

(This video is for promotional use only)



Novel By: Tommie Vaughn "This Rock In My Heart"

http://www.thisrockinmyheart.com

CREDITS:
DIRECTED BY: TOMMIE VAUGHN
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS KNITTER (http://overlooked-productions.com)
VIDEO EDITING: TONY GRIMES
WARDROBE: CARRIE DIAZ (http://www.iloveswift.com)
MUSIC BY: WALL OF TOM (http://walloftom.com)

...with special thanks to: Rachel Spensatelli, Rachael Rine, Alikat Rose, Donnie Baker @ ES Audio Services in Burbank, Claire Dunlop, Mark Canter, Ze-Auto Parts, Kiss or Kill, Bang Sugar Bang, Lonn Friend, Sandy King Carpenter and The City of Los Angeles

The Filming of a book trailer

Its really nice to be behind the camera for once. This whole process of shooting a book video trailer... I didn't even know people did that. You know, it's a book, not a movie, but I guess that is the way they are doing things in the literary world now. So with a book like mine, my publisher thought it was the perfect way to create a fun buzz about the book.

I jumped into action and created what I thought would be the perfect 'trailer' to help readers get a feel for what this book is gonna be about. First I called my old pal Chris Knitter of Overlooked Productions who shot both of our music videos, and got him on board with the project. Then at home I wrote out a overview of the book and recorded the narration with my trusty husband, and sound engineer Tony Grimes. Tony then edited one of our new songs down to about a minute and did his magic of putting the narration over the song. We then sent the file over to Knitters. Part one done.

Part two was to find the right 'Frankie' to be in the video. We didn't really want to give her a face, but a very good idea of what the character looks like in the book. We chose the beautiful and super sweet Rachel Spensatelli.



After we had our Frankie, we went about creating a shot list. I got an incredible recording studio to shoot at, Thank you to Donny Baker at ES Audio Services in Glendale. If we had a studio we needed a drummer goddess to play the 'Jillian' roll... I didn't have to look too far since the character was inspired by my awesome real life bombsell bestie Rachael Rine.



I lucked out again and discovered that my old landlord at The Hollywood El Cerrito was still there and we were able to shoot at the beautiful building that inspired the book. A special thank you to Claire for being so accomodating to our shoot, just walking the halls again was magical, and I got some great ideas for book two while sitting in the lush courtyard.



My son was there for the entire shoot, and I just had to add this photo of him and 'Frankie' while we were shooting at El Cerrito. He just likes to be part of any music being played, so he thought he would tune Rachel's guitar a bit while she sang him a song.



After that, the day was a blur of location changes. Hollywood Blvd, Runyon Canyon, the Sunset Strip and ending at the Kibitz Room on Fairfax. (A thank you to Mark Canter for letting us shoot at the famous Kibitz!) The city of Hollywood was good to us, and if you can believe it, we were on schedule all day. I attibute this to my son, the PA, who kept us on track, or at least me on track, knowing that timing was of the essence and I did not want to deal with a major melt down during the shoot. He did surprisingly well, and once again I am reminded at how lucky I am to have such a wonderful supportive family in my hubby and son, who together we make an unstoppable team. I must also thank Carrie Diaz, who was our fashion stylist on the shoot, she gave 'Frankie' the exact look I wanted and she kept me company and in giggles all day long.

Now comes the editing. We must condense one hour of shooting into one minute. Awesome. We actually have so much good stuff, we might do two or three teasers too! As we put Knitter on a plane back to KC today he will get to step three. This is gonna be good.

A new review hot off the press...

Another review is in, this time from the beautiful and talented Sandy King Carpenter:

"Tommie Vaughn has written chick lit for rocker moms, not soccer moms! I swear every girl/woman who ever came to Hollywood with stars in her eyes will wish she were walking in Frankie Spenser's shoes. I had a ball reading it!"

~Sandy King Carpenter, Writer, Film Producer, President of Storm King Productions, Inc.

Thank You Sandy!! I am so happy right now I cannot wipe the smile from my face!!!