hey kids, you know what time it is!!!
Hi guys,
As usual I've found myself siting up at 3.30 in the morning and decided to have a bit of a write on lj to keep myself amused, this may be a little scattered, lots to cover, little sanity to keep it in order, and a cut to hide it all cos it's long and there be pics!
1.Bands
Ok, starting in the obvious place.
Had Jeremiah practice today, as usual it went well - sounding good, remembering most of the songs and things. Oz tried out my Telecaster for a while, it's got a nice fat tone rather than the trebbly one you usually get from tele's and suits our sound very nicely blending into the bass and drum sound. it's now Oz's.
The only real downer with Jeremiah is that we don't seem to be able to do anything with it, and I'm sure the other two are just as frustrated in that respect as I am, Oz in particular, (since Chaz has alot to put up with with work and all) although lately he's had other things on his mind which I'll get to later.
With a little luck we'll be abe to get back to recording soon, and do some writing of new tunes since alot of our jams lately have had a very progressive sound, kinda heavy riffy rock with simple vocals thats really effective (think Tool and QOTSA) so I'd like to see us get some solid sounds in that style added o the repertiore
TSJ's back in the swing of things after some streamlining, I'm not the happiest about it, but we needed to shed some weight, so in the last year we've had some serious re-shuffling with our new bassist ross and guitarist Paul but now we've had to get rid of our drummer who'd been missing practices left and right and who really didn't seem to be putting in the effort to learn songs. The rest of us got fed up and decided to get rid of him, so now I'm stuck behind the drums, trying to be a singer as well, which is pretty difficult (try singing full blast next time you find yourself doing aerobics and you'll get some idea) co-ordinating the need to breathe with getting the words out is pretty tricky, but I'm getting there. Our first gig with the new lineup was longer than anything we'd played before by a good 5/6 songs and we still had material left when we ran out of time.
I'm looking for another drummer but Paul and Ross seem pretty happy with things as is especially since it means we're only splitting money 3 ways!
We've got a bunch of gigs coming up, including a booking for Hogmanay which should net a pretty penny. life is good in this respect. I'm working on some promotional stuff to send out to venues to advertise us including a bunch of pics we took the other day....
Have a laugh at some of the worst...
2.Guitars
As I mentioned, Oz has appropriated my Telecaster, but it's probably just as well since I hardly ever use it, I've got too many of the damn things I think so I'm going to sell off a few more.. probably my SG and maybe the Les Paul or strat, since I don't really play either of them that much these days.
Speaking of guiars, I got the Spiky V fixed, and the insurance company covered most of it, I just got left with the travel expenses, which wasn't too bad.
now I just need an excuse to whip it out in public!
3.Glamis
Me, Oz, Kat and Gave went to Glamis castle the other weekend for the countryside fair, indulged in some shopping, watched some fantastic horse stunt shows, and some cute stuff (terrier racing) but also took the chance to get some more archery practice in and since I got a fair bit of cash for my birthday I've decided to get myself a bow and join an archery club, not sure on type, so I'm just scoping out the alternatives at the mo, but I'm sure something wil catch my eye soon enough.
BTW.. the Devils horsemen kick ass
4.Studio
Less fun stuff now, my work as a volunteer at the studio is becomming more and more of a hastle, something which Oz and I had an hour or so long discussion about earlier.
It kinda boils down to me feeling unappreciated, not in that I think I'm being abused, more in that I've offered my time, knowledge and skills and they're basically being overlooked.
I know I'm not the greatest musician in the world, but my IT knowledge and skills with instrument repair amongst others have kept that place working for years, and now it seems like my opinions count for nothing unless somethings broken down.
In other news my recording desks broken down, but it's in the shop getting fixed now, and hopefuly should be back within the next week or so, so I can get on with some work, earn some cash and get my own demo's done.
5.Design
Something odd here, I've been oncidering going into buisness with my dad, he mentioned he might be able to get his hands on some large cnc sticker cutting presses, so we're thinking about doing car and window decals as a sideline. Nothing too elaborate, but it might be a nice earner, as well as providing an outlet for my artistic talents.
I've also been thinking about putting out an advert as a poster designer for local bands, again nothing fancy, but some of the things I've done recently have garnered some very positive feedback from people saying they thought they were very professional and eyecatching.
Things to think about fo the future
Here's an example
6.Driving
Oh boy
Been taking driving lessons for the last coupe of months, it's going reasonably well, but I really need to get up to speed on my theory so I can get tests done.
thats about it for this section, it's added mostly for the sake of completeness
7.Duke
it's been nine months now (give or take) since Duke died, and funnily enough I find I'm missing him more as Summer winds down, just kinda noticeing he isn't here that bit more often
8.Moving
I've also been helping Oz and Kat get their new place together, painting and building furniture mostly, the place is really starting to come together, and once the carpets are fitted upstairs they might actually be able to get the bed put together and get moving in!
Not entirely sure whats goin to happen when Oz moves out of here.. Tony and I are planning on getting a place but wether we move out of here right off is yet to be decided, and will probably depend on money and time available to us
There's been alot of other stuff on my mind, lots of random crap, thinking about life, jobs, relationships, kids and general future stuff, but I'm not sure now's the time to go into it. Suffice to say I'm wondering exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing with my life.
But then... if I knew that, it'd take all the fun out of it - wouldn't it?
:-þ
EDIT: I re-read that last bit and realised how pathetic and depressed it sounds, but it's not like that, I'm just at a point in my life (the grand old age of 27) where I think I should stop, take stock, look at what I've accomplished and figure out where I go from here.
Maybe it means I'm growing up?
anyhow, I've waffled long enough.
We now return you to your regular viewing....
As usual I've found myself siting up at 3.30 in the morning and decided to have a bit of a write on lj to keep myself amused, this may be a little scattered, lots to cover, little sanity to keep it in order, and a cut to hide it all cos it's long and there be pics!
1.Bands
Ok, starting in the obvious place.
Had Jeremiah practice today, as usual it went well - sounding good, remembering most of the songs and things. Oz tried out my Telecaster for a while, it's got a nice fat tone rather than the trebbly one you usually get from tele's and suits our sound very nicely blending into the bass and drum sound. it's now Oz's.
The only real downer with Jeremiah is that we don't seem to be able to do anything with it, and I'm sure the other two are just as frustrated in that respect as I am, Oz in particular, (since Chaz has alot to put up with with work and all) although lately he's had other things on his mind which I'll get to later.
With a little luck we'll be abe to get back to recording soon, and do some writing of new tunes since alot of our jams lately have had a very progressive sound, kinda heavy riffy rock with simple vocals thats really effective (think Tool and QOTSA) so I'd like to see us get some solid sounds in that style added o the repertiore
TSJ's back in the swing of things after some streamlining, I'm not the happiest about it, but we needed to shed some weight, so in the last year we've had some serious re-shuffling with our new bassist ross and guitarist Paul but now we've had to get rid of our drummer who'd been missing practices left and right and who really didn't seem to be putting in the effort to learn songs. The rest of us got fed up and decided to get rid of him, so now I'm stuck behind the drums, trying to be a singer as well, which is pretty difficult (try singing full blast next time you find yourself doing aerobics and you'll get some idea) co-ordinating the need to breathe with getting the words out is pretty tricky, but I'm getting there. Our first gig with the new lineup was longer than anything we'd played before by a good 5/6 songs and we still had material left when we ran out of time.
I'm looking for another drummer but Paul and Ross seem pretty happy with things as is especially since it means we're only splitting money 3 ways!
We've got a bunch of gigs coming up, including a booking for Hogmanay which should net a pretty penny. life is good in this respect. I'm working on some promotional stuff to send out to venues to advertise us including a bunch of pics we took the other day....
Have a laugh at some of the worst...
2.Guitars
As I mentioned, Oz has appropriated my Telecaster, but it's probably just as well since I hardly ever use it, I've got too many of the damn things I think so I'm going to sell off a few more.. probably my SG and maybe the Les Paul or strat, since I don't really play either of them that much these days.
Speaking of guiars, I got the Spiky V fixed, and the insurance company covered most of it, I just got left with the travel expenses, which wasn't too bad.
now I just need an excuse to whip it out in public!
3.Glamis
Me, Oz, Kat and Gave went to Glamis castle the other weekend for the countryside fair, indulged in some shopping, watched some fantastic horse stunt shows, and some cute stuff (terrier racing) but also took the chance to get some more archery practice in and since I got a fair bit of cash for my birthday I've decided to get myself a bow and join an archery club, not sure on type, so I'm just scoping out the alternatives at the mo, but I'm sure something wil catch my eye soon enough.
BTW.. the Devils horsemen kick ass
4.Studio
Less fun stuff now, my work as a volunteer at the studio is becomming more and more of a hastle, something which Oz and I had an hour or so long discussion about earlier.
It kinda boils down to me feeling unappreciated, not in that I think I'm being abused, more in that I've offered my time, knowledge and skills and they're basically being overlooked.
I know I'm not the greatest musician in the world, but my IT knowledge and skills with instrument repair amongst others have kept that place working for years, and now it seems like my opinions count for nothing unless somethings broken down.
In other news my recording desks broken down, but it's in the shop getting fixed now, and hopefuly should be back within the next week or so, so I can get on with some work, earn some cash and get my own demo's done.
5.Design
Something odd here, I've been oncidering going into buisness with my dad, he mentioned he might be able to get his hands on some large cnc sticker cutting presses, so we're thinking about doing car and window decals as a sideline. Nothing too elaborate, but it might be a nice earner, as well as providing an outlet for my artistic talents.
I've also been thinking about putting out an advert as a poster designer for local bands, again nothing fancy, but some of the things I've done recently have garnered some very positive feedback from people saying they thought they were very professional and eyecatching.
Things to think about fo the future
Here's an example
6.Driving
Oh boy
Been taking driving lessons for the last coupe of months, it's going reasonably well, but I really need to get up to speed on my theory so I can get tests done.
thats about it for this section, it's added mostly for the sake of completeness
7.Duke
it's been nine months now (give or take) since Duke died, and funnily enough I find I'm missing him more as Summer winds down, just kinda noticeing he isn't here that bit more often
8.Moving
I've also been helping Oz and Kat get their new place together, painting and building furniture mostly, the place is really starting to come together, and once the carpets are fitted upstairs they might actually be able to get the bed put together and get moving in!
Not entirely sure whats goin to happen when Oz moves out of here.. Tony and I are planning on getting a place but wether we move out of here right off is yet to be decided, and will probably depend on money and time available to us
There's been alot of other stuff on my mind, lots of random crap, thinking about life, jobs, relationships, kids and general future stuff, but I'm not sure now's the time to go into it. Suffice to say I'm wondering exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing with my life.
But then... if I knew that, it'd take all the fun out of it - wouldn't it?
:-þ
EDIT: I re-read that last bit and realised how pathetic and depressed it sounds, but it's not like that, I'm just at a point in my life (the grand old age of 27) where I think I should stop, take stock, look at what I've accomplished and figure out where I go from here.
Maybe it means I'm growing up?
anyhow, I've waffled long enough.
We now return you to your regular viewing....