Editor’s note: Venue Plus continues “In Case You Didn’t Know,” a weekly feature with fun tidbits about New Mexicans and their projects.
Sheila Eden has a passion for music.
She creates across musical genres – including folk, EDM, rock, ambient, pop and even country.
Her focus is mainly on creating music to license for film, television, promos and commercials.
Before the pandemic, Eden had no music software or equipment – for recording her own vocals.
With months at home, she’s invested the time and money into putting a recording studio in her house to be able to self-record.
“It’s been the most positive aspect of this whole pandemic,” she says. “You know that trailer you just listened to on Amazon? It may have been recorded at home. Home recording is becoming more and more popular. This also allows me to be super-perfectionistic about my vocals, and act while I sing.”
Eden recently released the single “Darker 48” on Aug. 8. Her ambient collection of music “The Whispering Shore” will be released on Aug. 21, and “Someone New” will be released Sept. 10. A full-length album will be released in October.
Eden says there are five things many people don’t know about her experience in music:
1 “I have a list of about 60 things that I do to pitch my music for film, television and commercials, and there is never enough time. I use a private music platform called DISCO, which music supervisors prefer. I have probably 40 songs no one has ever heard — except my mom and a few other special folks — and my co-creators, of course.”
2 “I work with about 10 different collaborators total, and maybe 2 or 3 in a given week, on average. This allows me to complete the amount of music I need to in order to pitch. In the sync licensing world, it’s expected that you cross musical genres and have many, many songs. It is a numbers game. Not every song will be gold, but if you make 15 songs, maybe one will be.”
3 “I recently wrote a song for a Hallmark movie, and it took me nine hours of vocals and five different versions of a public domain Christmas tune to get it just how they wanted it. But it was worth it, and it’s top runner to be in an upcoming film.”
4 “I’ve worked with many well-established collaborators whose music is on MTV, HBO, CW and many more channels. Right now, I’m writing custom tracks (and even a duet) for a major feature film Western that was shot in Las Cruces. I make lots of music that I never know if it’ll get picked up and used, but I must make it like it will be front and center. The sound quality and effort must be the same.”
5 “I studied opera and am a coloratura soprano, the highest soprano. In layman’s terms, I could test the old myth of maybe breaking glass with my voice! But most of my collaborators want to use my lower range.”
