Meet EARTH.

Last nite I went jamming and then visited another studio afterwards. Pretty far, and as most studios in this historical city, they're usually located on the 2nd floor. Including this one.

There was a notice on the wall outside saying in Malay "don't smoke on the stairs" so I was quite positive I won't smell anything. But then when my friend open the door...

GAH.

Cigarette smoke in an air-conditioned room!! Dude. Nothing I hate more than the smell of cigarette smoke in an air-conditioned room!!!!!!!!! So I was so congested and feel like dying. Makes me wonder the smell of a poisonous gas. I bet it smells nicer.

So we started talking with the owner. Earth. Wicked name right? hehe. Well we didn't ask of his real name and we found out about his name when we saw his EP. The dude is one of the local metal band as a drummer (he's friggin good, fyi), pretty involved in the local music scenes including the underground one, and he has a family already. Shared a lot of stuff with us including a couple of personal ones. Well, after talking about some jamming and recording prices then we got into serious stuff. The fella was really into Sting. He let us listen to one of Sting's stuff and told us that he is one heck of a songwriter. Also he was talking about a band that came to his studio for recording, the vocal was terribly off and he said to the fella "dude, do u know that your notes are off?" then the fella said "yeah. It was intended to be like that. That's how I'd like it to be." then when he listened to the song again, he said that the song was actually deep and the composer has good "Illusion" he said. He called those kind of song as "Asymmetrical". I nearly burst :P In maths, sure. But in music? "Asymmetrical"?? hahah. Earth dude used lots of interesting vocabularies last night.

Then he started talking about song writing. He said that songwriters are like architect. It's about how you build a song. He said that the off-key fella just now is one wicked architect because he build one strange building--an asymmetrical building that looks mad cool just like the elephant tower he saw during his trip to Bangkok. Songwriters will need some kind of good illusion. And the best part is, he lit a cigarette and then continue talking. I couldn't concentrate anymore..

And then he took us to the recording/jamming room. pretty standard, didn't touch or try out stuff because he sat down and then continue talking. This time it gets really personal and as the time goes by I gained some knowledge about being a struggling musician. He mentioned that he has day job (like most of the musicians in this country :P), he worked as a chef while maintaining his studio couple of years ago, and even sold some snacks so that he may continue his passion in music. He was quite inspiring to me.

Towards the end he showed us some of his 'antique' collections and then we head out.

Hellllllloooo fresh air!

Look Ma, another wedding gig!!!! :D

hey fellas!

I got a gig last saturday. Yeah it's a pretty late update but better late than never rite?

It was a wedding gig at a restaurant. The couple is from my church so they asked me and fellow rubbers to play.

The songs are totally cheesy but hey, that was a wicked experience!

Never in my entire life I ever imagine that I'd play Westlife's or Michael Learns to Rock's songs! hehhehe. During practice some of our friends came to watch. When our vocalist started singing "From my youngest years....." their expression was like

Hah! That was fun :D

We played 3 songs during the morning ceremony, and 14 songs for the wedding dinner. I got a really important lesson.

BUY A CLIP ON LAMP!

It looks like this..

So, you gotta clip on that thing to the music stand where your chords are.

"Why the lamp?" you might ask.

The MC asked us to play a song as a wedding march, and when the parents came in followed by the couple, we started playing. At the first line of the song, they turned off the lights!!! We didn't remember the chords and lyrics cuz we just learned the song the day before!

Panic attacked. Thank God I remember a couple of lines of the verse and it wasn't pitch black after all so we could see a little bit. Also during the first verse it was only guitar who was supposed to be playing.

2nd, it would be great if you have a car. We're all transportless. The couple provided a van and a driver and we thought that we're gonna sit on the van with the instruments. Ah. Foolish. How could we all fit in there?! =.= That was when we wanna go to the restaurant for setting up. We called for car rent but none was available. Our friends were all engaged as well >.< Thank God the uncle was really nice to us that he called someone to pick us up.

So before the real thing we rented a car. That car was supposed to pick us up about 5.30 but then the owner was stuck somewhere in town that he couldn't make it on time. We were running really late. And then finally another friend picked us up and we squeezed in his car hihi. That happened also after the wedding but then once again one of our friend is willing to send us back. Jehovah Jireh!

But seriously. Buy a car if you can.

Image credits to:

http://cliponlamps.com/1-3736561-headboard+lamp-sr-1-Lamp_headboard_lamp.html

http://www.infendo.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/oh_no.jpg

Look Ma, a wedding gig!! :D

Long time no blog!!! >.<
Been extremely busy these days, and I started interning at a company..
I was gigless..
Until last night!!!!! hehehe
Last night was my first wedding gig :) It was a wedding of my bandmate's friend..
It was held in a hotel and we played about 12+ songs. The couple rented my bandmate's gears and as usual, before the gig we teamed up and loaded stuff into the car.

There were 2 of those, a portable drumset, and 1 real fat bass amp. And our gears..

 Bittersweet life of struggling and unfamous musicians LOL!

There was quite a lot of people, mostly uncle and aunties.. One cool thing tho, the wedding march was Yellow by Coldplay! Pretty dope and unconventional. Well at least for me, And so the gig started. A little bit pissed because the MC didn't give us any notice that the newlywed will enter the hall so when the MC went up the stage and announce, we were all sitting down, so we got up the stage STAT and then straight away play.

My sound system went crazy. The sound was soooooo frickin punchy. The eq setting on my bass and the amp were totally the same as when we checked sound! But then it went FUGLY. I just bear with it for a couple of song, and then lastly I suspected the battery. But then I was also quite unsure because normally if the bass' battery is running out, the sound will turn low. Well, in my case it did but i didn't expect the FUGLY sound!! It was all punchy and buzzy and crap >.<

So after the first few songs ended, we stopped to allow the couple to do some stuff on stage. Then I went off stage then change the frickin battery. When I checked it again, it worked just fine and sounded just nice! Fiuhhhh...

So it was the battery.

This is my first time dealing with battery issue >.< aaakkh! Should've change to new one beforehand..

Moving on, our guitarist's string broke. So it kinda messed up his solos =.=" But fortunately it was towards the end of the gig. So those songs in which he has an intro already been played.

Oh! did I mention anything about the crowd?

Oh my goodness. Dead as zombies. They just ate and ate and sometimes turn their heads to see us and then that's it. Erm, when we played Can't Take My Eyes Of You, some aunties and uncles were singing along silently and move a little bit. We're being ignored badly hahah. I think asian wedding is really different with those western ones. Y'know with the dancefloor, people get drunk, dancing and stuff. So far, this is the first wedding with a band that I've ever been to. That being said, here's 1st lesson for the night: On a wedding event, you gotta be ready when the crowd is unresponsive. Don't loose your cool, you may try harder by interacting with them or maybe just clap your hands during up beat songs to try persuading them to clap along with you. But then if they're still unresponsive, just play good music and enjoy yourselves~!

Oh! One more, we didn't even get a table. Not even seats! Well, at first. After a while, somebody ask them for chairs and they gave it to us and so we sat in a circle, extremely hungry. Most of us didn't go for dinner because after the checksound, we only had about 1 hour to change clothes and stuff. 

 No food for us, but hey at least there was free beer..Yaaaaaamm seng!

But then after the event, we packed all our stuffs including the amps drums and everything, unload it to the studio, and eat like nobody's business. Btw, this is lesson no.2: Y'all better bring some snacks to the gig place. Like bread, muffins, chewing gum, or whatever just in case you get hungry during the event. I won't prefer to eat heavily before a gig because I don't like to be constipated when I play heheheh. Also, after eating oily food, voice tends to crack and you're might not sound as nice. You can eat after the gig which is more fun because that's the time when you tell those funny things that happened during that gig. After a good laugh and with your stomach filled, it's time to get home and hit the bed. One of the best feelings ever.

Anyway, Maximum the Hormone's new single is out!!!!!!!!!
Well actually this is kinda outdated because it came out last month but then too bad I didn't have time to post my thoughts on it. Maybe tomorrow :P
For a moment I thought that they have changed, but thank God they haven't!! I'll explain why in another post. Pretty hard to blog now because I'm at the office and there's too many people passing by.. Haizzz. where are cubicles when you need one?!?!