I realised when I posted my last column on Bronies UK that I missed out last weeks post, So Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all got wasted and had lots of fun, and I also hope that you can't remember all those naughty things you did that night. Joking aside, I have quite a lot of plans for this year, mostly centered around my band: Reincarnated Love.
I get the feeling the skeptics reading this are laughing, and have probably made a mental comment about me saying "joking aside," but I don't really care about what those skeptics think. No one can tell me with any certainty what will become of the band, It's not likely that we'll make it, but you never know. And unless the band does get anywhere, I still aim to have a steady income from elsewhere.
I also get the feeling there are others who have read my previous posts thinking something along the lines of "I thought he wanted to join the army," which is true, I do want to join the army, but I want to join as a musician. I position which will be pretty hard for me to score, especially since I can fill only one of about forty-five slots. Other things that will get in my way include the entrance exam, audition and the simple fact I am ungraded in my instruments.
I am actually confident in my audition, I'm working on the two pieces that I have to perform. I am grateful that I can chose the two pieces of music, as long as they contrast. The word contrast is what worries me the most, to me it could mean many things while referring to music. So I'm just going to have to hope that they accept the contrast I have chosen, and also hope they don't ask for the names of the pieces. Anyway, I try not to think about those things, the more I do, the less confident I feel, and a lack of confidence will obliterate my chances of success.
Anyway I seem to have sidetracked a little, so as for the band, we intend to get a four track EP recorded so we can stick it on ReverbNation and hopefully start gigging. We currently have a friend of ours working on our publicity for when we do get everything ready, but until then we can only practice what we have and write more.
The four tracks for the EP have all been written, one of which is even loaded with a solo from each member of the band, but since we no longer have a rhythm guitarist, Nathan will have to record the second guitar as well as his own, and hopefully we can train up a fourth member soon enough.
We will face a few difficulties when it comes to gigging, the first of which being we are a member down. But more than anything our current biggest problem is that we don't fully know what kit we will need, we do know that we can currently only play somewhere that already has a PA system, our amps are loud enough even if they don't get mic'ed up, but we only have 3 amps big enough to use: a 100 watt Trace Elliot Commando bass amp (solid state), a 100 watt guitar amp which we can't find any information on (also solid state), and an 80 watt Marshall Valvestate (which as the name suggests is both valve and solid state). The Marshall may be smaller than the others, but it is still very loud and will be perfectly usable in conjunction with the others.
The next problem will be transport, neither me, Nath or Phil can drive, and so we'll have to pack the majority of the kit in Nath's dad's van, once that is filled with the amps, and the drum kit, and the guitars, there probably won't be enough room for all of us. so my guess is that some of us will have to go in Phil's fiancée's car.
The next problem would be the sound tech, we don't have one of our own, and so we'll need to use whoever is at the venue, that is of course if there even is someone at the venue. So yeah, if you haven't guessed, being in a band is a lot more than most idiots expect it to be, and so we as a band have a lot of things to sort out.
This year is going to be fun...
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Sunday, 24 August 2014
HEAVY SMEGGING METAL!!!!! (and various other genres)
I'm just going to be frank and simply say that this week hasn't been particularly good. In fact it's welcomed my old friend depression back into my life with open arms, and even decided it was time for me to feel ill. I do however have at least one good thing to say about this week, so instead of returning this blog to it'd old ways of documenting my depression, I'm going to focus on the cool bit.
This week came with four gifts, first and foremost being my brothers entire CD collection which includes quite a lot of CD's I was also given the CD cabinet to stick everything in. Included in the CD collection are some albums I've been wanting for quite some time such as The Wall, Moving Pictures and Dance of Death. Unfortunately I haven't found Master of Reality or Killer yet, but I've only briefly scanned. I have however found a signed copy of Dirty Diamonds by Alice Cooper, so I'm not complaining.
The next gift I received was a customised 100 watt Marshall amplifier. It's had the mesh kicked in, but it's had the capacitors replaced meaning it works at an obscenely high volume without having that annoying "Signature Marshall Hum" which I'm not a big fan of. There are however two problems with the amp, firstly it doesn't do quiet, so It very loud and quickly deafens you when you stand in such a small room (like my own), and secondly it doesn't work without the pedal board.
Coincidentally the pedal board was the third gift, annoyingly it isn't Velcro'd down so the pedals move a little, it has also been customised to smeg so that nothing is as labelled. It does however include a distortion pedal, a wah-wah, a delay pedal, a tremolo pedal, a flanger, a volume, and another random pedal which is used to turn on the flanger and tremolo. It's a lot of fun to use, but it's experimental and it doesn't provide the sounds I want which is a shame. There is also a compressor on there which is permanently active to stop the amp from exploding, and also a foot switch for controlling the amp (which has been customised to smeg like the pedal board) .
The final gift, is my favourite, it's an ESP LTD MH-201, it's such a nice guitar featuring most of what I like about guitars. It features 24 frets and a floating tremolo bridge, which is perfect for some of the songs I've been wanting to use, since my other guitar has 22 frets and a Bigsby bridge, and unfortunately you can't dive-bomb with a Bigsby. That guitar is a lot of fun to play with, and it has been set up so perfectly, but there are a few minor imperfections in it's finish and feel.
Thanks to my gifts I don't think my neighbours like me much anymore, but screw them, I'm a musician they aren't meant to like me. Anyway I'm not sure how long the guitar, amp and pedal board will be in my possession since I'm only supposed to be looking after them. I'm actually surprised I was able to convince my brother to let me look after the ESP let alone everything else, which he sort of just dumped on me, I was however, expecting the CD's, and there are a lot of good ones in that selection.
This week came with four gifts, first and foremost being my brothers entire CD collection which includes quite a lot of CD's I was also given the CD cabinet to stick everything in. Included in the CD collection are some albums I've been wanting for quite some time such as The Wall, Moving Pictures and Dance of Death. Unfortunately I haven't found Master of Reality or Killer yet, but I've only briefly scanned. I have however found a signed copy of Dirty Diamonds by Alice Cooper, so I'm not complaining.
The next gift I received was a customised 100 watt Marshall amplifier. It's had the mesh kicked in, but it's had the capacitors replaced meaning it works at an obscenely high volume without having that annoying "Signature Marshall Hum" which I'm not a big fan of. There are however two problems with the amp, firstly it doesn't do quiet, so It very loud and quickly deafens you when you stand in such a small room (like my own), and secondly it doesn't work without the pedal board.
Coincidentally the pedal board was the third gift, annoyingly it isn't Velcro'd down so the pedals move a little, it has also been customised to smeg so that nothing is as labelled. It does however include a distortion pedal, a wah-wah, a delay pedal, a tremolo pedal, a flanger, a volume, and another random pedal which is used to turn on the flanger and tremolo. It's a lot of fun to use, but it's experimental and it doesn't provide the sounds I want which is a shame. There is also a compressor on there which is permanently active to stop the amp from exploding, and also a foot switch for controlling the amp (which has been customised to smeg like the pedal board) .
The final gift, is my favourite, it's an ESP LTD MH-201, it's such a nice guitar featuring most of what I like about guitars. It features 24 frets and a floating tremolo bridge, which is perfect for some of the songs I've been wanting to use, since my other guitar has 22 frets and a Bigsby bridge, and unfortunately you can't dive-bomb with a Bigsby. That guitar is a lot of fun to play with, and it has been set up so perfectly, but there are a few minor imperfections in it's finish and feel.
Thanks to my gifts I don't think my neighbours like me much anymore, but screw them, I'm a musician they aren't meant to like me. Anyway I'm not sure how long the guitar, amp and pedal board will be in my possession since I'm only supposed to be looking after them. I'm actually surprised I was able to convince my brother to let me look after the ESP let alone everything else, which he sort of just dumped on me, I was however, expecting the CD's, and there are a lot of good ones in that selection.
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Yay! I'm Keeping Myself Occupied!
This week has been another week that has thrown me off my usual routine, I have been spending time with friends at awkward hours, I have finally formed a band, and I'm learning Spanish.
First off My friends have dragged me into a strange concept for a YouTube channel called TheMentalLibrary which is basically the insane group of idiots that used to hang around the school library. It isn't actually the complete set of idiots unfortunately, one idiot doesn't leave the house or socialise. The other idiot is camera shy so we haven't fully included her, although she is mentioned as being part of the group in the introductory video (which I will start editing shortly after writing this).
That YouTube channel is basically going to consist of Ash telling me to humiliate myself, and Ash telling Nathan (A.K.A Stunt-Man) to hurt himself. Ash will simply be involved in the skits that are semi-scripted. It's definitely a good job I have no dignity when a camera is rolling.
Last night I also formed a band, and within thirty seconds we were jamming along to Weird Al's parody of American Idiot. So far it seems like this band will be a pop-punk band (sigh) but I can live with that and soon I'll convert it to something that suits my preferences a little more. Although I don't mind pop-punk I'm more of a Horror-Punk kind of guy, I also like progressive rock/metal and psychobilly. My ideal form of band would be a progressive psychobilly band, with a musical style reminiscent of black metal, but I highly doubt that will happen.
The other point I made in my opening sentence was that I'm learning Spanish. I used to learn Spanish in school when I still lived in Birmingham, but since I moved to Stoke-on-Trent I stopped learning Spanish and started German instead (sigh). Recently my dad told me about a website that teaches you one of five languages for free, and I couldn't remember what it was called until a post on 9gag lead me straight to it. That website was called Duolingo!
I have so far done six lessons on it, I'm doing two lessons a day, and I will do that everyday (well that's the plan anyway). I've encountered a lot of words I already knew, but I've also been learning some new words. I'd also like to say that it is teaching me Spanish better than my old teacher did.
My last post was full of talk about stories. I have been working on the My Little Pony Fan Fiction piece, and I wrote three chapters in one morning. Which if it had followed my original idea would mean that the story would be complete, however, while I was lost in the story I changed it slightly taking the mid section of it down a completely different road. I had no plans to do such a thing, but I did, and it's coming along nicely.
First off My friends have dragged me into a strange concept for a YouTube channel called TheMentalLibrary which is basically the insane group of idiots that used to hang around the school library. It isn't actually the complete set of idiots unfortunately, one idiot doesn't leave the house or socialise. The other idiot is camera shy so we haven't fully included her, although she is mentioned as being part of the group in the introductory video (which I will start editing shortly after writing this).
That YouTube channel is basically going to consist of Ash telling me to humiliate myself, and Ash telling Nathan (A.K.A Stunt-Man) to hurt himself. Ash will simply be involved in the skits that are semi-scripted. It's definitely a good job I have no dignity when a camera is rolling.
Last night I also formed a band, and within thirty seconds we were jamming along to Weird Al's parody of American Idiot. So far it seems like this band will be a pop-punk band (sigh) but I can live with that and soon I'll convert it to something that suits my preferences a little more. Although I don't mind pop-punk I'm more of a Horror-Punk kind of guy, I also like progressive rock/metal and psychobilly. My ideal form of band would be a progressive psychobilly band, with a musical style reminiscent of black metal, but I highly doubt that will happen.
The other point I made in my opening sentence was that I'm learning Spanish. I used to learn Spanish in school when I still lived in Birmingham, but since I moved to Stoke-on-Trent I stopped learning Spanish and started German instead (sigh). Recently my dad told me about a website that teaches you one of five languages for free, and I couldn't remember what it was called until a post on 9gag lead me straight to it. That website was called Duolingo!
I have so far done six lessons on it, I'm doing two lessons a day, and I will do that everyday (well that's the plan anyway). I've encountered a lot of words I already knew, but I've also been learning some new words. I'd also like to say that it is teaching me Spanish better than my old teacher did.
My last post was full of talk about stories. I have been working on the My Little Pony Fan Fiction piece, and I wrote three chapters in one morning. Which if it had followed my original idea would mean that the story would be complete, however, while I was lost in the story I changed it slightly taking the mid section of it down a completely different road. I had no plans to do such a thing, but I did, and it's coming along nicely.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Busy, Busy, Busy!
As some of you may know, I am in my final year of school, of which there are only three more weeks. This means I'm soon to be released into the wild so to speak. Anyway this week itself held some interesting events, unlike the previous week, in which, nothing happened, and that is why there was no post last week.
So the first thing that happened was my computer had a Trojan virus and the entire computer needed to be purged, which meant I lost my pirated version of Guitar Pro 6. Thankfully the version I actually purchased this time arrived yesterday, but nobody told me until this morning. My family really is helpful. I'd also like to say that my pirated version was much better, because when it was still pirated I could open the files I download directly from my download bar, which for some reason I can't now.
Next was the jolly roger, since my computer took seven and a half hours to purge I went downstairs, booted up my brothers computer, and then I installed Inkscape, taught myself how to use it and designed a jolly roger to put on a t-shirt, when it was done, me and my dad transferred it onto his computer so it could be turned into the right file type, and cut it out on vinyl first (as a test). It worked surprisingly well first time, so my dad stuck that jolly roger onto the wheelie bin. We were satisfied with the results, so now my dad thinks it would be a good idea to print out a load more of these logos to stick on t-shirts and sell them on eBay. I feel quite special, this shirt received quite a few compliments when I wore it to school on Friday.
Next there was Wednesday, which was pretty mundane other than one thing, a girl at school asked me to join her for singing practice, so I did, and the next thing I knew two hours had passed. During that time I did ask her out, but I didn't get a reply, unfortunately...
Thursday was the most important day of the week, that was the day of my Sixth Form Concert! and the few hours before it were torture, I had teachers rammed up my arse because my taste in music is too inappropriate for school, and because someone in the audience might have had a miscarriage, or accidentally killed their girlfriends, raped her then committed suicide. I was actually told I couldn't sing one of them in case someone had had a miscarriage, I don't know why, none of the songs had anything to do with miscarriages.
Anyway despite all these setbacks I had a blast performing, and for some stupid reason I put my hardest song first, which meant I screwed up more because I was still nervous at that point. I was especially glad to have been taking part in the concerts finale, that received many compliments from the attendees, we performed Thin Lizzy's Dancing in the Moonlight, I played the bass for it, and I looked good doing so.
The final interesting thing was Saturday which started off as a "totally-not-a-date" but ended up with actually being one. It was simple really, I was to meet that girl who I joined for singing practice, outside a school near her house, and then she'd show me back to her house, and we'd all have a sing and dance. That is exactly what happened, but before we had the song and dance, I went out to walk her half-brother's dad's dog Pluto around the country park in my town, which is typical because i'd just walked through two towns to get to her house in the first place. During this dog walk I realised that I've finally overcame my cynophobia, HALLELUJAH! I actually stroked three strange dogs yesterday without even thinking about it.
After the walk was over, we had our song and dance, and after that we stopped and I got the yes I had asked for on Wednesday. the next few minutes went uphill hill, I even got offered lunch by her mother (who has amazing carpets by the way, so soft and fluffy). I then went look at her ponies (not a euphemism, I mean My Little Pony toys) of which she gave me two, I think they are G2 Ponies, I'm not too sure though, one is an earthpony variant of Rainbow Dash, and the other is another earthpony, neither of us know the name to, but we just know she is part of the Apple family, so she is now to be known as Apple Picnic, based on her cutie mark which appears to be a red apple on a green picnic blanket, (she has a red coat and a green mane/tail).
Unfortunately she had an unfortunate realisation; she has never had a boyfriend before and therefore didn't know how protective her friends would be over her, especially the one I had my first "totally-not-a-date" with the other week. So now she fears for my balls which she strongly believes are going to get kicked in, I really hope they don't. either way we won't find out about it until Tuesday since it's a bank holiday tomorrow, so wish my balls luck.
So the first thing that happened was my computer had a Trojan virus and the entire computer needed to be purged, which meant I lost my pirated version of Guitar Pro 6. Thankfully the version I actually purchased this time arrived yesterday, but nobody told me until this morning. My family really is helpful. I'd also like to say that my pirated version was much better, because when it was still pirated I could open the files I download directly from my download bar, which for some reason I can't now.
Next was the jolly roger, since my computer took seven and a half hours to purge I went downstairs, booted up my brothers computer, and then I installed Inkscape, taught myself how to use it and designed a jolly roger to put on a t-shirt, when it was done, me and my dad transferred it onto his computer so it could be turned into the right file type, and cut it out on vinyl first (as a test). It worked surprisingly well first time, so my dad stuck that jolly roger onto the wheelie bin. We were satisfied with the results, so now my dad thinks it would be a good idea to print out a load more of these logos to stick on t-shirts and sell them on eBay. I feel quite special, this shirt received quite a few compliments when I wore it to school on Friday.
Next there was Wednesday, which was pretty mundane other than one thing, a girl at school asked me to join her for singing practice, so I did, and the next thing I knew two hours had passed. During that time I did ask her out, but I didn't get a reply, unfortunately...
Thursday was the most important day of the week, that was the day of my Sixth Form Concert! and the few hours before it were torture, I had teachers rammed up my arse because my taste in music is too inappropriate for school, and because someone in the audience might have had a miscarriage, or accidentally killed their girlfriends, raped her then committed suicide. I was actually told I couldn't sing one of them in case someone had had a miscarriage, I don't know why, none of the songs had anything to do with miscarriages.
Anyway despite all these setbacks I had a blast performing, and for some stupid reason I put my hardest song first, which meant I screwed up more because I was still nervous at that point. I was especially glad to have been taking part in the concerts finale, that received many compliments from the attendees, we performed Thin Lizzy's Dancing in the Moonlight, I played the bass for it, and I looked good doing so.
The final interesting thing was Saturday which started off as a "totally-not-a-date" but ended up with actually being one. It was simple really, I was to meet that girl who I joined for singing practice, outside a school near her house, and then she'd show me back to her house, and we'd all have a sing and dance. That is exactly what happened, but before we had the song and dance, I went out to walk her half-brother's dad's dog Pluto around the country park in my town, which is typical because i'd just walked through two towns to get to her house in the first place. During this dog walk I realised that I've finally overcame my cynophobia, HALLELUJAH! I actually stroked three strange dogs yesterday without even thinking about it.
After the walk was over, we had our song and dance, and after that we stopped and I got the yes I had asked for on Wednesday. the next few minutes went uphill hill, I even got offered lunch by her mother (who has amazing carpets by the way, so soft and fluffy). I then went look at her ponies (not a euphemism, I mean My Little Pony toys) of which she gave me two, I think they are G2 Ponies, I'm not too sure though, one is an earthpony variant of Rainbow Dash, and the other is another earthpony, neither of us know the name to, but we just know she is part of the Apple family, so she is now to be known as Apple Picnic, based on her cutie mark which appears to be a red apple on a green picnic blanket, (she has a red coat and a green mane/tail).
Unfortunately she had an unfortunate realisation; she has never had a boyfriend before and therefore didn't know how protective her friends would be over her, especially the one I had my first "totally-not-a-date" with the other week. So now she fears for my balls which she strongly believes are going to get kicked in, I really hope they don't. either way we won't find out about it until Tuesday since it's a bank holiday tomorrow, so wish my balls luck.
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Music, Love & Adventure?
Unlike last week, this week was very productive, I was also quite lonely for most of it. Also this week did have an interesting event, or at least interesting compared to everything else I do, it was the Year 11 Music Concert!
I'd like to first get the bit that you're probably not so interested in, my Warhammer game with my brother, William. Yet again it was my Dark Angels versus his Eldar, and yet again I got annihilated. I am at least slowly staring to understand the rules, I still don't have the grasp on strategy that I really need, but I'm getting the rules down. As it turns out I'm also short on firepower, so that needs changing, seems like the best way to do that would be by spending another £70, and naturally, I don't have £70 to spend on Warhammer models.
The title of this post consists of the three most interesting parts of my week, and I'll talk about them in that order. The first point, Music, is about the concert I mentioned in the first paragraph. I watched it solely because my friend Lydia Sweetmore (and contrary to my girlfriends beliefs, we are just friends) was performing in it. Unfortunately it wasn't the sort of concert where you can jump up and down like an idiot and start a mosh pit: it was an exam, so we all had to sit still and be quiet.
I know that may sound boring, sitting watching an exam for an hour and a half, but all the acts were pretty darn good, even the guys that screwed up, because they screwed up with dignity. I was actually impressed by the lack of screw ups, when I did that concert it was just full of failures, and mishaps. The only mistakes that happened in this concert was some girl (whose name I can't remember) forgot to tune the guitar she was playing before performing, and decided not to play guitar for the girl singing (whose name I also can't remember), instead she just clapped a beat. I'm not going to mention the other failure (which I didn't even notice) in case she finds this blog and tears out my spleen, yeah, she's a wee bit over-dramatic.
So what's all this about Love? simple really, I've started writing stories again, and I'm writing a romance, a strange romance, but a romance none the less. The story is about a fourteen year old lad named Jack Smyth, and about the unfortunate happenings that seem to occur to him, well actually it's about the new girl at school who he falls in love with, and the various misadventures they go on.
Speaking of Adventures, (this is even more anticlimactic), I'm planning on turning that Minecraft castle I started working on last week, into an adventure map, If that's ever finished I'll post it on Planet Minecraft so you can download it and get engrossed in whatever tale I can come up with.
As a final point, I was thinking I should learn bassoon, at least I was until I saw how much they cost. They're one of the few woodwind Instruments I like (alto and tenor saxophones being the other), they're also one of the hardest to play apparently. Annoyingly they aren't a very popular opinion, so they aren't manufactured in bulk, which means I have to fork out £900 to buy one, at least I can actually make that much in a year now (barely). I really need a proper job.
I'd like to first get the bit that you're probably not so interested in, my Warhammer game with my brother, William. Yet again it was my Dark Angels versus his Eldar, and yet again I got annihilated. I am at least slowly staring to understand the rules, I still don't have the grasp on strategy that I really need, but I'm getting the rules down. As it turns out I'm also short on firepower, so that needs changing, seems like the best way to do that would be by spending another £70, and naturally, I don't have £70 to spend on Warhammer models.
The title of this post consists of the three most interesting parts of my week, and I'll talk about them in that order. The first point, Music, is about the concert I mentioned in the first paragraph. I watched it solely because my friend Lydia Sweetmore (and contrary to my girlfriends beliefs, we are just friends) was performing in it. Unfortunately it wasn't the sort of concert where you can jump up and down like an idiot and start a mosh pit: it was an exam, so we all had to sit still and be quiet.
I know that may sound boring, sitting watching an exam for an hour and a half, but all the acts were pretty darn good, even the guys that screwed up, because they screwed up with dignity. I was actually impressed by the lack of screw ups, when I did that concert it was just full of failures, and mishaps. The only mistakes that happened in this concert was some girl (whose name I can't remember) forgot to tune the guitar she was playing before performing, and decided not to play guitar for the girl singing (whose name I also can't remember), instead she just clapped a beat. I'm not going to mention the other failure (which I didn't even notice) in case she finds this blog and tears out my spleen, yeah, she's a wee bit over-dramatic.
So what's all this about Love? simple really, I've started writing stories again, and I'm writing a romance, a strange romance, but a romance none the less. The story is about a fourteen year old lad named Jack Smyth, and about the unfortunate happenings that seem to occur to him, well actually it's about the new girl at school who he falls in love with, and the various misadventures they go on.
Speaking of Adventures, (this is even more anticlimactic), I'm planning on turning that Minecraft castle I started working on last week, into an adventure map, If that's ever finished I'll post it on Planet Minecraft so you can download it and get engrossed in whatever tale I can come up with.
As a final point, I was thinking I should learn bassoon, at least I was until I saw how much they cost. They're one of the few woodwind Instruments I like (alto and tenor saxophones being the other), they're also one of the hardest to play apparently. Annoyingly they aren't a very popular opinion, so they aren't manufactured in bulk, which means I have to fork out £900 to buy one, at least I can actually make that much in a year now (barely). I really need a proper job.
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