"Beautiful You" Countdown: The Story

Four months ago,

friends of mine, Jessi and Cristi,
(who happen to own my favorite photography business ever
Hiya Papaya)

ran an inner beauty campaign.
I loved it.
I asked if they'd ever considered a song for the campaign.
They told me to write one.
I did.
The End.
~

Not really.
There's SO much more to the story...

That just kicked it off.
~

I was actually in a very vulnerable place in my life, scared and nervous to try again...
or keep trying...
or whatever.
BUT,
I wanted to do this.
And I wanted to do this to the full extent-no excuses, no reserves.

I wanted to write a song that I believed in.
I wanted to write about a truth that is too often overlooked,
underplayed,
underdeveloped.
I wanted to build a song that reminded men of the beautiful women of their life
and why they feel they are beautiful.
I wanted a song that made women think of the inner strength they see and encourage and uplift in each other.
I was determined to create a song that inspired women
of all ages, in all situations, in all the world
to fully embrace who they are and what makes them uniquely beautiful.
Because I KNOW that there is something beautiful inside each of us.
There is.
I promise.

Well, knowing that in order to capture what others feel, I needed to know their feelings.
So, I turned to
asking my followers from all over the world what they felt made a woman truly beautiful.
Surprisingly enough, most of the comments were left
by MEN...and YOUNG MEN...
It made me so proud of them. :)

So, I took ALL of the comments and made a list (because I'm a cronic list-maker),
lauched myself into intense prayer and meditation
and spent lots and lots of time alternating between
the out-of-tune piano and the noisy old computer
crafting lyrics/music to capture the feelings of each and every one of those comments.

Here's an excerpt:

I see beautiful love
And a beautiful strength
A beautiful hope through a beautiful pain
I see beautiful tears on a beautiful face
Where a beautiful courage makes a beautiful....strength
(copyright 2012 Audrey Bandley Music)

I now had music and a lyric (a pretty good one, if I might say so myself)....
just one tiny problem: GUITARS/DRUMS.
How was I to put to work the instruments in my head!?! I've never worked with a band before!!! And me writing guitars with drums? What in the WORLD was I thinking!!!
(yes. I thought in EXCLAMATION points. A lot.)
Uh......so out of my comfort zone of soft, reverent, inspirational music.

Maybe I should call Hilary Weeks, who was my BFF-for-a-day...once...many, many months ago.

I didn't.

I decided I was going to do this the right way, the brave way:

I swallowed my pride (and turned beet, BEET red) as I pitched my idea to
amazingly talented, super-powered musician Tyler Castleton;
sweating bullets and shaking uncontrollably.
Immediately, he was caught on the project.
Enthusiastically.
Full support.
I about died from hyperventilation.

So....
We hired a band.
We hired a studio.
We hired a second vocalist,
Jen Marco,
(who happened to take this song to a whole new level!)
I created a "choir" with my own voice.
And now...


Well, you'll just have to see what you think for yourself...
(song/video release: Saturday, April 21st, 2012)