Late night practicing (sounds ominous) and reading (Harry Potter; though I would never admit to it. Oops) has left me waking up at 8.00am feeling like ass. I butter some bread, burn Anthony Green onto a CD, and drive to Denis' for 9.00am. We have now worked out a system between us where we always meet up half an hour later than the proposed time. An unspoken understanding.
I arrive to just Denis and call Theo and find out he isn't showing up today because he has 'stuff to do'. Hmmm. Mario wasn't coming either (already knew) so just guitarists. Despite the lack of people we got alot done and had fun 'improv-ing' and watching MTV Dance, getting guitars done for both Song 1 and Mr A.M. Next recording session, is on Friday at 8.30am (9.00am) again, where Theo will do keyboard for Song 1 and Mr A.M, and Mario bass for Mr A.M. Which means I can chill on the bed and watch mini DV tapes on a screen smaller than my palm. Then we intend to start Song 2 in someway or form.
Fueling myself with Coco Pops and pitta bread, I made it to Denis' by 9am, half an hour later than the decided time. Theo arrived minutes later and Mario an hour or so because he couldn't get out of bed. Slacker. We did song 4 today, Mario, Denis and myself laying our shit down like we were born for this purpose and this purpose only. We were done within 2 hours. Theo left to meet his girlfriend since there were no keyboard parts in the song and vocals are later. Mario, unable to come tomorrow, then recorded his bass for Song 1, whilst I rifled through DV tapes and labelled them. They were mostly footage of Austria and filled with jamming sessions, beautiful landscapes and 'your mum' jokes. I recorded my distortion parts and we decided to call it a day. The guys had their graduation practice at 4.30pm; kids. I went running around 7ish.
We all met up at Denis' house at 8.30am, with our gear all organised from the night before (Theo slightly annoyed since we showed up half an hour late). We had decided on doing Song 3. Mario first laid down his bass and then I followed with guitar. Drums were already down (the joys of not having a drummer). Mario then left for Nicosia to help his dad out with something and Theo, Denis and I continued until 2pm completeing all Denis' parts.
We then reconviened at 6.30pm (minus Mario) and recorded Theo's keyboards. Done by 7.30pm we were well impressed with our speed in recording the tracks that we ended up fixing drums for Song 4 and decided to go out for a 'Victory Drink' at the Meeting Pub, where we discussed our DVD/documentry, music video ideas and Dizzee Rascal.
A very productive day to say the least! Tomorrow we begin at 8.30am once again, to do Song 4. Then when it's done, we will decide what song to start next!
Club Red May 28th 2009 The gig never happened. Well, it did, but without us... I wasn't there but apparently as we were setting up and soundchecking, the sound guy said that he remembered us and that we couldn't play unless we paid for the monitor we 'broke' (we didn't) and that we had to pay a deposit incase anything else broke this time around. We have no money, so we couldn't.
It's beyond me why they didn't remember us when they booked us, instead of making us go through all the motions. Oh well.
To clear up btw, we never broke a monitor on the 25th like 4 years ago, our vocalist trod on it during our set, and it fell off the stage, as did he. They picked it up and the following bands used it after us and it was fine.
That's about it in a nutshell. EXTREMELY sorry for anyone who came to see us and we weren't there x Without - I are awesome though, so hopefully it went well and you had a good time!
I go home in a couple weeks and then it begins! The new album! I CANNOT wait! We will hopefully have a 3 track demo for labels at somepoint and so on.
There is not much to say, just thought I'd acknowledge the gig and apologise. We are all fine, healthy and happy and on edge to start something!
Michael x (i have uploaded the video below for yous peoples) http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2373419819437149534
Alot has gone down... ok basically, firstly, I want to apologise for this not being updated. Also, I have not got round to the rest of the Austria trip blog, and I can't see it happening anytime soon, since I now cannot remember half of it. All you need to know, is it went very well! Great reception! Had a BLAST with Blynd! And a good ole time. There is video footage but it has yet to come out. The suspense its RIDICULOUS, I know.
NEWS I have noticed we have a follower! HA I will check them/you out after this blog is written but that is quite awesome.
We have a gig this Thursday with a cool band called Without - I. Look them up. We are playing at Club Red in Nicosia, this Thursday, 28th May. Sadly, I am unable to perform and it's such a bummer. I'm sure it'll go down splendid though, well hopefully. Club Red was our first gig, and though it was great fun, let's hope this one is nothing like that one :)
We have a YouTube account now! Waheeey! So expect more videos coming your way.
After this gig, we will be taking a break from shows and concentrating on laying down the new album. It should be done by summer... I'm gonna say end of towards the fall/autumn because you never know... There is a little promotional trailer, the first of maybe 2 or 3 up in order to celebrate this endeavour! It features music (incomplete - to an extent) which should be on the new record (aren't you lucky) and footage of Austria and us generally frolicking about!
It's kinda cool, WATCH IT at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZt9YcO2Ask
Sorry about quality..
I head back to Cyprus soon where we will begin working on the album and concept artwork. Once it is done we plan on making a demo with a couple tracks on to give to labels, wish us luck!
This is pretty much it now before we go into hibernation. I will update much more often when I'm back with the band! Hope everything is perfect at home and in your lives.
And so it begins, I arrived at the airport at a 1am.
Denis arrived shortly after and we discussed Boards of Canada.
The others soon appeared and after tagging our luggage we were good to go.Theo did some filming and we made our way to the check in.There was much confusion concerning our instruments and after much hassle we managed to get our guitars in hand luggage.They checked our passports and military exit permits and we all received our boarding passes; all except Theo.No one noticed his cries but after a good ten minutes he received his barding pass… only to realise we all had two whereas he had one.It was pretty funny watching Theo panic.
We all felt pretty haggard since not 4 hours ago we had a hectic line up practice.When we went through the baggage-check Theo realised he had forgotten his exit permit at the check-in desk.In mass hysteria he ran back only to find it in his wallet.
The plane ride, to me was one of the best I have ever had.There was no TV and the plane was only half full which meant there was tonnes of spaces to spread out.We mostly slept on the plane.
In Frankfurt airport we split with Blynd to go wander about and agreed to meet after an hour or two at the gate.The shops were not brilliant and mostly touristy and German.We discovered that a bottle of Vittel water that cost 0.95 Euros in the Cypriot airport was conveniently priced at 3.00 Euros in Frankfurt airport.We sat at this café thing for a good hour and Denis and Theo wandered off upstairs to find floor space, where they set up the laptop, took out the guitar and practiced to the drums.I myself was too tired to do anything so sat with Mario gazing into space and talking about stuff.I then stuck a sticker on the table grabbed our stuff and we made our way to the gate.Through the baggage check Theo and Denis were whisked by security to another check place where their instruments were swabbed.
The plane to Linz was tiny and our equipment had to be seat-belted to empty chairs.I sat with Mario with Theo and Denis behind us.The stewardess was extremely chirpy and literally made our day.Mario dribbled beer and then sucked it up before it hit his tee.There was snow outside the plane window and I was now hyper.
We ordered beer and I began this blog.We took pictures and videos. We landed and were whisked to our rooms in a minibus thing with ‘Posthof’ scrawled across the side of it.
As soon as we arrived we went into town.We made our way to the nearest bus stop with no idea if it was the correct stop.We asked a boy there (pretty much the only person we met on the entire trip who spoke English) which way to the town centre.He pointed the way and recommended the bus.Us being unsure and unwilling to risk a bus ride to the middle of nowhere, decided on walking.The boy laughed; a crazy, mirthless laugh whilst shaking his head furiously.He admitted that walking would be a hard and difficult feat and that we would be fools to try it.We simply dismissed him claiming that people always say places are so far away to walk when they are in fact not and they are too lazy; like in Nicosia.
We were wrong, sort of.The city was not that far but then again it wasn’t that close.It probably took us a half hour to an hour to reach our destination; the sun hot against our cheeks.On the journey we stumbled upon a mini bakery shop tucked in between two strict looking buildings.We were hungry and the smell of the warm dough hit us like a fist.The woman inside spoke no English whatsoever, but was in fact the happiest person in the world, which pretty much completely made up for her not being able to understand us.Her eyes wide she was buzzing and chirpy, Denis claiming she resembled an elf.Using our fingers we pointed at what we wanted and told her how many.Theo’s German is horrific despite his studying the language for 4 years (?) and was completely hopeless during the whole trip in establishing any sort of communication between people.
We also discovered another little nifty shop, which had hundreds of wooden and folk instruments.The woman looked like Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter and demonstrated a couple of the instruments for us; one being an accordion type piano which Denis was completely besotted with.She asked if we were a band.We said yes and invited her to the gig.She didn’t show up.
The next few hours were spent wandering about aimlessly in search of a piercing shop, all to no avail.It was late afternoon when we caught the bus back to the Posthof, paying 0.80 Euros only to find out that they don’t check for tickets, so we stopped paying for bus rides altogether.
After a good 3 hours sleep I was awoken to Mario stroking the side of my face… creep, I know.Down the hall in the ‘chill out’ area there was a party going down.A band called ‘3 Feet Smaller’ were playing that evening in the posthof and their minions and groupies had flocked this room eating and drinking heartily.We asked to join them alongside Blynd, in hope of gaining a free beverage.They told us no, go away.Swearing in Greek we continuously bugged them and when the going got tough Mario offered up all our merch in hope of getting a pint.That evening we went into town and ate, and then walked all the way back again, stickering all the way home, Theo sulking because he did not get his pretzel and beer like he imagined he would.We made it back in time for one beer in the restaurant (Theo had a wheat beer and a soup) and then we watched 3 Feet Smaller.It was like Sum 41, except in German and similar to watching a TV show, with the vocalist talking as much as he was singing.They even had a ‘hip hop remix’ reminiscent of Sum 41’s Fat Lip, just cheesier.During the show we met an awesome chick from the support band ‘Random Fall’ and we traded 4 of our tees for 4 of theirs.We also spread the word about our gig to the kids at this show.
It is midday. Exactly. We arrived at Denis' an hour ago. Theo is playing piano so we can work out how long the gap is before the drums come in.
Mario and Theo went to a rave last night, whilst Denis and I stayed home. We had arranged to have practice at 7.00 am the following day (i.e. today).
My phone rang and woke me up at 11.00 am and I left for band practice. In the elevator, 4 hours late, Mario told me of how last night was cool; they left at 5.00 in the morning and Mario's friend puked all over his car. Theo on the other hand said that despiteonly getting 4/5 hours sleep, he felt great and wide awake.
Denis' room is a mess. We are now working on Song 2 and then we need to make Song 4 and the intro. THEN we are finito. Lineup practice tomorrow and we are off. We are going to take a break for lunch. I will continue the blog when I get back...
* * *
[even though no one is going to read it, it's nice to live in ignorance... Theo is teaching me how to talk English at the moment, and I keep pressing the mouse accidentally, destroying the progress I have made in the blog, but why even bother, I could write ass 4 million times and no one would care, because nobody reads this, it only matters to me, even the band couldn't give a shit, because they're too busy doing insignificant stuff, like making music... but hey, I'm here with my crowd of none, itching my balls while my guitar rusts.] this is Theo's doing.
* * *
Okay, finishing the blog now because I forgot about it. After lunch I arrived back before the others. Denis showed me a variation in our current chord progression which pretty much rocked the hell out of what we played before. Then taught Mario it who arrived shortly after I did. We had agreed to meet up again at 3, it was now 3.30 and Theo was nowhere to be seen, with his mobile switched off. We then fixed the intro track, completely butchering Theo's original.
Now: Intro, Cairo, Song 1, 2, 2 and a half, 3, and New Song were complete.
All that was left now was Song 4. We had put it off for ages, and now that Austria is literally 2 days away we had to face it. Basically we ended up cutting it into two. The beginning now an Interlude where we simply have a jamming session on stage. Sounds pretty neat with xylophones and tambourines and loops and everything! And then basically the rest of the song is Song 4 and its ALL heavy.
Theo decided to turn up at 7.00 pm. We were all pretty knackered and I left soon after, and the others did too after me. Again, a lot done today. Tomoroow is the last time!
