My incredibly talented new friend Tori Holub sings The Carpenters' Bacharach/David Medley - I wanted to add the dimension of a 'Richard' harmony part to her beautiful 'Karen' vocals! I am so honored to be allowed to join her!
By request, here is the background on how Tori & I began our collaborations!
I’ve been a musician all of my life. Being an instrumental music teacher, I had a background in playing most band/orchestral instruments. I had joined a now-defunct music collaboration website in 2015 called ‘Bandhub’, allowing me to meet and record music with musicians from around the world. Many of those collaborations resulted in life-long friendships. One of the music projects I had hosted was ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, combining the great talents of trumpeter Gary Badger, from Sydney Australia, Ynping Mak, violinist also from Sydney Australia, bassist Clayton Whisenant from Los Angeles, and Yoann Palacio, a drummer from Quebec, Canada. The original singer for the project was a lovely young lady from the Netherlands, Gea van Veen, who we suddenly lost in 2019. She was one of my favorite backing vocalists for several projects I had recorded over the years, but she never really tried any lead parts until the Carpenters project. Since that time, I had always been on the lookout for a singer who could faithfully capture the ‘Karen ‘ sound.
One night in February 2024, I was reading some comments while listening to some Carpenters covers, and notice someone had mention Tori’s name. My natural curiosity led me to search for her. I came across Tori’s shorts on one of her social media sites, and her full-length Burt Bacharach arrangement on KZfaq. I just could NOT stop listening. She did such a beautiful job of the vocal lead and harmonies, and I was beyond impressed. I have a pretty decent ear, so I thought to myself that it would be fun to add a ‘Richard’ part to her ‘Karen’. Knowing that the Carpenters had achieved their signature harmony sound by not only recording the four part harmonies, but also singing each of those parts three times over to thicken the voice sounds into that silky sound we’ve all come to know and love. I proceeded to add the lowest ‘Richard’ part to her glorious Bacharach medley recording, tripling the tracks, and combined it all together including an accompanying video to Tori’s existing one. I wouldn’t put it online unless I contacted Tori for her approval. I sent her a message and to my amazement, she absolutely loved what I did, and the connection was born. I had posted it on Facebook, as she also did, and it began to gain some traction instantly. I then realized that Tori had several one minute recordings she made of several Carpenters songs, but none that were full length. Since I already had recorded the backing tracks for ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, and had all of the elements saved, I offered to her the opportunity to be the feature in a new recording. This would become her first full-length, full production Carpenters song. I played piano, clarinet, tambourine, and added the male vocal backing tracks while she remotely provided the lead, lead doubles, and all of the other harmony tracks. I then remixed the entire production, reworked the existing videos, and incorporated Tori’s new videos into it. The finished production was posted on KZfaq on March 2nd, 2024, which coincided with Karen Carpenter’s birth date.
Since that time, we had accrued several million views and comments between all of the platforms to which it was shared. I am so proud to say I had any part in helping Tori achieve her dreams as a singer. I truly hope she receives all of the accolades of which she is so deserving!
- Jim Wilkas