Hi, my name is Kerri Zak.
My new album Heartfelt is made up of my covers of songs that I truly love and which have meant a lot to me during some of the worst and best times of my life.
The order is extremely deliberate. It takes you on a journey from the painful early years of my love life through the present. At long last I have finally found the happy ending I thought only existed in my dreams.
Singing has brought me joy my whole life, I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. When I was five years old, we saw the Broadway show Annie and the soundtrack immediately embedded itself in my head. It resonated through my soul to the point where I found myself singing it for months on end. This was only the beginning of my passion for singing and my love of music.
I am very glad to say that Long Island, New York has been my home for most of my life. I love it here. I’m thankful I grew up here and was given the opportunity to be exposed to so many different types of music. From all the concerts at Jones Beach to Broadway Musicals, there was never a shortage of music to feed the constant soundtrack that continually plays in my head to this day.
Throughout the years, I’ve always been lucky enough to find myself with a microphone in hand. Often it was at karaoke with close friends. Sometimes singing the songs that brought me joy, sometimes belting out those heartbreaking songs that eased my pain and all of which guided me through this everyday thing we call life.
Back when my husband was my boyfriend/fiancée, he continually encouraged me to go to a recording studio. As we planned our wedding, I decided to take his advice and record a song for him as a gift.
It was played as our second song to dance to as husband and wife. I changed the words slightly to “All Of Me” to better suit our love story. It took me and a friend of mine, a producer with an extremely well equipped recording studio, a little longer than anticipated for me to truly capture the message of love I was trying to capture.
This is not necessarily the best thing to do with only two weeks left before the wedding. (Ladies, do not try this at home!) Needless to say, it was a tall order to fill but we did it and it was fantastic! I gave that song every last ounce of energy I had and it was worth every bit of it.
So to record “All Of Me”, we went through about 37 takes, 25 recordings and 11 hours, but we got 3 tracks of the caliper for which I was striving. One main vocal track one with two background tracks. All recorded individually with only the background music as my guide. Played simultaneously, they sound almost identical…
So 6 years to the very day we met, my Husband and I spoke our own vows and solidified the commitment which was long ago made in our hearts, At the wedding, when the DJ read the note I wrote to him and then played the song I made as a gift, he was thrilled!!!
He was also speechless, a rather unusual event…! : – )
I wanted so badly for the song to be perfect, that we had to carry over mixing it to another day. The night it was finished, I fell asleep with that song running through my head along with dreams of sharing my renditions of those songs with people who would enjoy them. When we returned from our honeymoon, I decided to pursue that dream and record more songs to publish for others to hear and enjoy.
So here we are today. 7 songs that lead you from tragic heartbreak and almost giving up on love, to finding joy and everlasting love just as I had begun to think it didn’t exist…
I hope you enjoy the music!
Sincere regards,
Kerri
I am not the same soul I once was.
A lot has changed. A lot had to change. So you should expect out of me what I embodied in the past. For that part of me no longer exists.
Sometimes
the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the past to the best things that will never happen to us.
Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
