'RED DRESS' available on March 16th

‘Red Dress’ is coming out on March 16th!

Pre-save it here.

The “One-Line Song” - the story of my upcoming single ‘Red Dress’

I am indeed a procrastinator, but sometimes it hits me that life is too short - or who knows how much time we have left. Then suddenly, I flip the switch and make things happen.

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Phase 1 – The spark

In 2021, while researching poems for the Colors concept album I’ve been working on, I found a translation of a Rilke poem. A little girl in Red Dress walking down the street and feeling free. When she grows up, she remembers how she felt wearing it. I wanted to feel like that little girl again, without overthinking, just being in the moment. I saved the poem and put the idea on my to-do list.

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Phase 2 – One line

4 years later, the song was still on my list. In April, 2025, I recorded one line with the piano. A voice memo.

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Phase 3 – The musicians appear

I went to hear a jazz trio at Close Up in New York. It made me think about the song again and suddenly the musicians I wanted to record it with appeared clearly in my mind.

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Phase 4 – The deadline

Then came the usual: procrastination, ADHD, overthinking.

I had a flight to Budapest on Friday, but wanted to record the song before leaving. So I thought: what if I book the studio so I have a deadline to finish the song?

If Thursday worked for all the musicians I had in mind, I’d do it.

It was a long shot but everyone was available so I booked the studio.

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Phase 5 – No escape

I asked my dear friend and partner in musical crimes, Josh Deutsch, to help me with the horn arrangement.

On Monday he asked me to send the song. I had cornered myself, no way out...so I finished it that night and Josh wrote a beautiful arrangement over the next 2 days.

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Phase 6 – The session

No rehearsal. We went straight into EastSide Sound Studio and built the song together live. Every musician added their ideas as we shaped the song into Red Dress.

Josh Deutsch - trumpet, Greg LaPine /tenor sax/, Juancho Herrera /electric guitar/, Carlos Henderson /electric bass/, Yayo Serka /drums-percussion/ with the great sound engineer, Marc Urselli.

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Phase 7 – The name

We visited our dear friend David Darlington to mix and master the song. Juancho joined me as co-producer, and when I told David the whole story, he laughed and said,

“Then we should just call it the one-line song.”

So be it.

“Red Dress” comes out March 16.

Dedicated to our dear friend, Carol Levin.

Thanks to Makoto for the pictures!

#newsong #colors #red #poetry