November 14th 2011 at 12.46pm

Well hello world!

It's been awhile hasn't it? That's kind of the deal with this 'artiste' thing for me though... one minute I want to share everything and the next I'm hibernating like a bear for the winter. Good news is that I think I must still be living on Australian seasonality because just in time for winter here in the States, I appear to be waking up!

It's been a crazy few months with lots and lots of writing going on. Some of you may be pleased to hear that a little birdie keeps chirping in my ear telling me that next year is full album release time and despite my best efforts to choke the thing, it doesn't seem to be shutting up! So that's it I guess. I must comply.

I recently had my Bittersweet EP included on www.pandora.com which was such an interesting experience. For those of you outside of the States, Pandora Radio is an online music streaming program that creates a playlist for you when you drop the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or genres using its Music Genome Program. It takes into consideration literally hundreds of musical details on each track - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics etc to match similar music with your favorites. So, by going in and selecting 'Belinda Oakley Radio' I was shocked to hear a bunch of stuff that I'd never heard before! Artists like Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Sara Bareilles were a pleasant paring and then suddenly we had Ron Sexsmith! I wont even begin to mention the amount of Miley Cyrus that seems to be playing... Regardless, the real compliments were the songs that forced me to put down whatever I was doing and race up to the computer to see who on earth this was and then wonder how on earth anyone could pair me with something so beautiful.

Welcome the Pandora Project!!! I've been needing an excuse to get more active more regularly on sites like youtube and this is it. My challenge? To choose a different song to cover each week that I've never heard before but that the Music Genome Program matches me with. This is incredibly daunting seeing as I don't generally 'do' covers and I don't generally 'do' videos so I'd love to hear what you think. If you have any suggestions for covers please let me know and for those with Pandora, add me as a station!

Here's the first video in the series for you... I hope you like it.

Much love,

Belinda x