Album Release

Rivkah Hope's debut album full of Pop Folk tunes is now available for purchase at www.rivkahhope.com/album. Submit your details today to have the album delivered to your doorstep!

Get a preview of the album at www.soundcloud.com/rivkahhope. 

After months of working on this album I am most pleased to say that it is finally ready for your ears to hear! Creating music has been a dream of mine for many years and finally I can say that the dream is now a reality.

The tracks that feature on my debut album entitled Time Is Forever were written over two years and recorded within 6 months. The recording process started in February 2013 in Jo Ellis' comfy studio in a land far far away called Ladismith.

Although it was my first time recording my solo work, Jo eased me into the whole process with great insight and an amplified spirit. I spent 7 days at the studio. The dormitory where I slept was literally a room right next to the studio. So for 7 days I breathed music. We worked from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. The days were filled with creating magical sounds, the coffee was abundant and my mind was free from the corruption of the city. If I could do this for a lifetime, I most certainly would.

The first couple of days were really fun as we experimented various musical routes. I did not have an established identity as a solo artist so we could explore various sounds within reason of course.

As we approached the end of the week, I started to stress as we had left the most important song for last. Never Never Land is a love song that I wrote during my third year of studying. It meant so much to me so I wanted to make sure that the recording was a perfect representation of the emotions that I felt at the time - love, hope, freedom, longing.

When I listen to the song now I am exceedingly grateful for Jo and his musical insight. On the day of recording this song I was extremely emotional. Jo could sense my anxiety. The original song was written on a charming piano tune which has the ability to transport me right back to the emotion which I experienced when I was romantically involved. Jo could sense that I was far too attached to the song. He casually whipped out his guitar so as to distract me from the piano tune. We tried recording the song with the guitar as a lead instrument instead of the piano. Once we made this slight change, the whole mood of the day changed and we were able to complete the track in the time frame that we budgeted.

It took me 4 months before a started recording again. On 29 June 2013 I started recording a completely different sound with Charlie Hamilton in his studios in Cape Town. Charlie is probably the most enthusiastic grown man I have ever met in my life. Even his speaking voice tone is pumped with positivity. Charlie's style of producing is to go totally wild and then stabilize the sounds by throwing out the bad and keeping the good. He has years of experience in the music industry and continues to humble himself by keeping a discipline of studying music religiously.

It took us a month to work on 2 songs but it was worth it. This form of recording was completely different to the way in which I had recorded before. As Charlie is a vocal coach as well, he believes in creating powerful vocal performances in the recording process. We explored so many different main vocals and backing vocals. We really went all out in the vocal candy shop.

The version of the song Time Is Forever with its initial main vocals was very weak. Charlie worked hard at getting the production to sound as powerful as possible but it was just missing something. We couldn't put our finger on it. We then re-recorded the main vocals. It was missing that "umph". I changed the whole melody of the song to a slightly higher vocal range. It worked perfectly!

On 2 August 2013 I headed back to the Karoo to record two tracks with Jo. These songs were
completely unplanned. I had written these songs in a couple of minutes during the week. Love Be Pouring In turned out to be completely different to anything I had done before. To my surprise, it turned out to sound like an old Irish folk tune.

A lot of time and careful thought went in to the whole recording process. I am proud to say that these productions landed me #1 on the Reverb Nation pop charts for 8 consecutive weeks.

Thanks to Jo Ellis and Charlie Hamilton for making my dream come true! I am forever grateful for your patience, guidance and for sharing your insight with me throughout. Thanks to those who have been a support from beginning 'til the end ~ it means the world to me.

May the album take you on a memorable journey. 

All my love

Rivkah Hope