Les Brünettes Go Abbey Road!

We're four passionate singers who met studying jazz vocals at the music academy in Mannheim. In 2011 we launched our female a capella band in a scene widely dominated by men.

After our tribute to our musical heroines A Women Thing we've decided to take on men! Surely the Beatles were a boys' thing, especially in their early years - but hell yeah, this is precisely what intrigues us. How do those songs sound sung by strong female voices?
How can you translate the ever more complex arrangements of the Beatles into a capella?
How do we as young women of today look at Beatlemania, at the lyrics, at the life, the stories around the most famous pop band of all times?
Our recording session at the Abbey Road Studios is an important part of our mission to merge the authentic spirit with a contemporary artistic vision.

Our goal is to give our very best, to make the best album possible at Abbey Road Studios With the newly arranged songs by the Beatles and our own compositions, inspired by the life and work of the Fab Four.

We want to get as close as possible to the authentic, creative, openminded, sometimes ludicrous, sometimes romantic, sometimes rebellious spirit of the Beatles.

We want to add a contemporary angle to their work first through our a capella sound and second through our female perspective.

Our target group are all those for whom music means something. Many of them associate something very personal with the Beatles: memories, feelings, maybe even the soundtrack of their youth. We also address those who like strong female voices. And those who want to support women in the music business to make their vision come true.

A capella has been and will always be a niche in the pop business. On top of that a purely female a capella band is still a rarity.

To support this project means to help:

• rediscover the work of the most famous pop band of all time in a contemporary way, to have it examined from a female perspective.
• remove the dust from it, to have it sound new, to question it, to spin it out, to foil it...
• enable a modern, contemporary, playful humorous and creative dialogue with one of the most important bands of all time
• support 100 % mouth made music without gadgets
• support a young female band

All the money we will hopefully raise here will be directly used for the production of our album!
To break it down for you a little here are some oft the big cost pools:

− Studio Rental
By far the biggest lump. The famous Abbey Road Studios have their price. The original studio where the Beatles recorded alone costs more than € 3.000 – per day! Not only do we pay for the big name, but there is state of the art Equipment at play (microphones, mixing desks , effects, computers, software etc.). Plus the technician from Abbey Road Studios in charge of all the technical stuff. More costs like the filming fee come on top (€ 1.000 per day). Otherwise we would't be able to document anything and we wouldn't be allowed to use any photos taken there.

− Sound Engineer
A key figure for us is our sound engineer Thomas Mark, who we'd like to bring along. He's known our voices and knows exactly what it takes to mix them to create a warm, harmonious sound. He, too, has to get paid, of course.

− Mixing / Mastering
However recording is not all there is to a CD production. Now it's time for mastering.
That way the you tease the best out of the recordings. The Mixing and Mastering usually takes more time than the actual recording and is a very sophisticated job for our audio engineer.

- CD Pressing and Distribution
At the end of this process there is the CD with an attractive booklet, which is supposed to meet the standard given by the Beatles. Professional design, pressing and distribution is costly.

- GEMA Licences
Anyone to publish a CD has to give a percentage to the GEMA, a state-authorized collecting society and performance rights organization.

- Travel expenses
Last but not least: London is notoriously expensive. Travel expenses for six people (the four of us, plus audio engineer and camera man) will be at least € 2.000, even on a low-low budget level.

The CD will be published in April 2017!