In the Studio Week 2

Ahh 2nd week of the studio is all over. Nothing different really happened last week. Still the same old muckin around, joking around and recording some sweet sweet music.

We aren’t finished. We just have to take care of some loose ends and it’ll be all done, so James is going to squeeze us in around his schedule. It’s all sounding really good so far.

I’ll have heaps of videos and stuff to put up if i ever get my hands on them as they aren’t with me.

Also i’m goin back to Uni today: Yay! Can’t wait to catch up with Mitch and the fellas again. We’re also going out to have some Japanese today as well. Woot.

The application process for Japan has been on hold for the past weeks due to: A) Not enough money for my passport, and B) i need academic references ie. i need to befriend tutors that I am only going to meet for the first time today. So the whole apply for Japan thing picks up again now, which is great!

Anywayz, more as i come up with it!

Ciao for now!

In The Studio Week 1

Ahhhh its been a week in the studio and things are shaping up quite nicely! Lots to talk about… let’s get to it! WARNING: HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE POST!

Insinner

Quick intro of the band members:
Jamie: Guitar
Jesse: Backup Vocals, Guitar
Lee: Bass
Brent: Drums
Me: Lead Vocals, Keyboards/Keytar
James North: Our producer <– I consider him a band member whilst we’re in the studio

Guide guitars were done Tuesday morning and Brent started recording drums and knocked over 2.75 songs (ie. nearly finished his 3rd) in half a day! I guess his practice seriously pays off. I mean this guy is determined! And the band is so lucky to have him, especially with the style of music we play. Brent practices a good 4 hours a day, it blows your mind how solid he is at drumming. I mean we even added and changed up parts of the songs we’re recording (with James, our producers, help. More on him later) and Brent had no worries changing it up. So on Day 4, Thursday, Brent was done at about noon. We messed about with our songs a lot on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lee started recording Bass in the afternoon of Thursday, but we had to leave early on Thursday so Lee only got about three quarters of a song done. And Lee finished up his 3rd song today, Friday, even though we had to leave early again. James pretty much altered all the bass parts being recorded and made them groovier and cleaner, basically more effective. It all sounds really awesome. So that’s where we’re at now.

Before i get to the producer, I might mention a few other events, and maybe share some great Insinner EP Studio quotes! (WARNING: Quotes May be Offensive)

Turkey!

Event 1: The Turkey
There’s a wild turkey that hangs around James’ Studio that he’s been trying to get his hands on for years. We were all sitting outside on James’ porch eating lunch when the turkey came around. And it was trying to sneak up on James. So I handed James a huge stick and when it came close James swung so hard for it but missed. In the process he dropped his lunch on the ground and snapped the stick lol

So Jamie and I have taken it upon ourselves to catch this turkey. So on Thursday we had a Cornetto wrapper with a bit of chocolate on it. Jamie hid himself behind some chairs that have covers on them so you can’t see between their legs or anything, and Jamie covered himself with a chair cover and hid behind these chairs. I would get the turkey’s attention and drop the wrapper near Jamie and walk away. Once i walked far enough away the turkey would think it was safe and come and have a look at the wrapper, and that’s when Jamie would lunge and grab it… Theoretically.
We came so close one time! The turkey walked up to the wrapper and stuck its head around the chair that Jamie was hiding behind. Apparently it just stared at Jamie for a moment and he jumped up but it flew away. So close!
Then today (Friday) we tried the same technique but it failed again. So i came up with the idea to hide behind the chairs WITHOUT the chair cover covering Jamie. Instead use the chair cover as a net! But unfortunately the turkey was being too cautious so we didn’t think we had a chance. That was, until Jamie got fed up and jumped up and chased the turkey into a corner! HAHA! The turkey didn’t know what to do! But just as Jamie went for it with the “net” the turkey flew high up in the air and over the fence we cornered it in with. Dang… We’ll get him on Monday…

Tuning Fork... set at 3682hz lol

Event 2: 3682
All throughout our recording I would hear this occasional ringing noise, it almost sounded like a telephone. I’d never heard it before in my life. I noticed it on Tuesday and asked Jesse if he could hear it, he said he couldn’t. I thought nothing of it. But today I asked James and Lee if they could hear it, because I just wanted to be sure that it wasn’t coming through in our mix. It only came occasionally and it was a lot stronger in some parts of the songs. So James went through the songs and asked me where I hear it and we found a section where I could hear it constantly. James and Lee looked at me funny and said they couldn’t hear anything. But it was clear as day! Well, i’d been sitting in this seat on the right side of the room everyday, so we thought it might be that spot in the studio. So I got up and walked to different areas of the room and I could still hear it when they played the section of the music that I found it prominent in. Then James goes, “Oh… that’s fucked”, before he explained that it might be a form of hearing loss and could escalate into a serious case if it was in fact what he thought it was. Basically he said that there could be a frequency that my ears are seriously irritated by and therefore are ringing. So to figure this out he decided to find out what exactly was creating the “bad” frequency. He went through the drums: toms, snare, kick, hi-hat then the cymbals. We narrowed it down to 1 exact cymbal that would set off the ringing. It was narrowed down so much so that we went into the recording room, he picked up the cymbal, smashed it and the ringing began! Lee asked if he could narrow down the exact frequency in Hertz, James said he could. So he went back to the recording, grabbed a section where that particular crash cymbal was hit, and scanned which frequency was the most prominent. It was 3682hz. He then opened a tone producer and made it produce that exact tone. This is where it went downhill, he had the studio monitors turned down, but then he went to turn them up, but he turned it up waaay too loud and that frequency hit my like a punch to the gut. My head felt like it was about to cave in and I had to cover my ears and I screamed for them to stop. They turned the volume all the way down, as in they muted to sound, and i felt so sick. Like i was gonna pass out, throw up, I was hot flushed and everything. Then I the frequency came back again and I was telling him to turn it off, and James is like “It is off” and I could still hear it. It was insanely shit. I had to go outside for a breath of fresh air. So uhh… gonna get my ears checked. James was telling me that there are special ear plugs I can get custom made that cut out a certain frequency band and that’ll prevent any more hearing loss. Good idea James.

Imagine that with 5619611341516 more cars

Event 3: The drive home
UGH! The drives home are gay! Granted, I don’t actually drive home I get a lift off Brent, but I feel sorry for him. The studio is just passed Brisbane city and we have to drive there and back, in peak hour traffic everyday and it’s pretty crap. I don’t see how some people do it every single day. That’s it really lol

Quotes:
Quote 1: “Insert a tube?” – James messing up our song title “Incertitude”
Quote 2: “Ahh I dropped the soap” – Lee or Jesse; “Yeah pick it up and I might drop a cock in your arse” – Me
Quote 3: “Lolololololololololololololololololol” – Lee being Lee
Quote 4: “Yeah you bang your drums more than your girlfriend” – Jamie (Maybe)
Quote 5: “It’s like a huge wall of ‘F*** OFF’” – James’ explanation in technical terms
Quote 6: “We should get a tuning fork that rings at 3682hz and chase Jace around the place” – Lee

James North - The man himself

James North
Anywayz, so i’ll do a bit of a spiel (yeah, coz this entry needs it *sarcasm*) on our producer James North. James is pretty awesumo. He’s a really kind guy with a sense of humour that can handle our bands crazy ramblings (trust me, you gotta be mentally tough to spend a day with our band, let alone a week or two!). Not only that he’s EXTREMELY talented at producing music (not to mention being an amazing multi-instrumentalist). This guy knows exactly what needs to be done to boost the effect of a song. He’s brutally honest, to the point that he’s convinced us to ditch some of our favourite riffs and restructured some of, what we thought to be, our strongest songs. But the songs have seriously taken an awesome turn, they are so much more powerful than they could ever have been without James. He has taken our music to another level, and not only that, he has shared with us golden information and techniques in terms of songwriting and the music industry. We are going to walk away from this EP with more than just an EP, we will walk away with precious knowledge of where to go from here and we will forever have an invaluable contact.
Now i’d like to be corny and say “we have also made a new friend”, but I dunno if it’s true or not. Now this is by no means a quick stab at James, allow me to explain!

James is the type of guy the band (i assume) and myself would like to hang out with, I mean it feels as though he fits right in with us and vice versa. He eats lunch with us and shit and we talk about random stuff and its great the sort of relationship we have with him. It feels like he likes us and I know we all like him, but I can’t help but think that we are probably just another band to him. Now, don’t get me wrong, he hasn’t done anything to give this impression, but thinking that someone who makes money off us truly gives a damn about us, our future and our music is just the kinda thing that has always screwed this band over before. James has what we need to get where we want to be; the knowledge of the industry, contacts, and his production skills. Not only that he’s just a cool guy.

Now, with this EP, the main thing we want to get is find some sort of management to push us in the right direction, seeing as that is the weakest part of this band at the moment: Direction. I was even suggesting to Brent if we should possibly ask James if he would be interested in managing us. But I came home today and looked on the internet and saw all the other stuff he’s been doing with his friends/partners and it just seems as though he’s got his own stuff to do. And it really kinda gets me down, i don’t know why. It’s like, in the hands of James North, we’ll get to where we want to be, but it feels like the only way we could do that is if we had enough cash to throw at him, don’t get me wrong, its not because he gives the vibe that he’s money hungry, but because he seems like he’s got his own projects to take care of. And it *seems* like he gives a damn about our music and us, but realistically he produces musicians all year and i’ve only known him for a few weeks so how would i truly know if he cared? So I dunno if i’ll pop him the question or not… (the question about management, I’m not considering marriage or anything lol)

Anywayz, I guess it feels a bit better that I got all that out of my system…

Ciao for now…

In The Studio

Woohoo! The band has completed one whole day in the studio! The first of many more to come.

Well yeah, basically we started recording yesterday with our producer, from like 9:30 till 5:30 or so. It was a long day but not once did I get bored (unlike 2 of our guys who went outside and played with a stick lol). We just recording guide guitar tracks yesterday for our drummer to drum to. So he’ll start recording drums today and will probably take 2 or 3 days. But yeah, i’ll keep this short because i’m about to be picked up to go back to the studio. I’ll make sure to include a full detailed blog when we’re finished!

Ciao for now!

Passport and ラーメン (Ramen)

Ok, this blog is pretty much about the day I posted the Skydiving Video post, as well as some other information…

Beenleigh Station

Mitch and I met on the train into the city as we usually do. We live on the same train line, (the Brisbane – Beenleigh/Gold Coast line) he’s 4 stops towards the Gold Coast from where I am. So he jumps on the express train which stops at my station and we generally meet in the last carriage. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the City.

We got off at Brisbane Central and decided to go grab some Japanese food before the lunch rush. There’s 2 places we usually eat at, can’t remember the names… But yeah, we were talking about how everyone seems to make a big deal about Ramen, and neither of us had eaten it before.  So we made a decision to go with the Ramen that morning. We got Miso Ramen and they brought it out and it looked pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of soup-like foods in general but this was pretty good. But, like, if I went back there (which I will, i’m craving Japanese food as I write this), I doubt I’d get the Ramen again, because I would prefer Chicken Teriyaki or Karaage (fried)…

But yeah, overall, for a soup, Ramen was pretty good. Although I have read that it is kinda hard to get “good” ramen outside of Japan. Now this was my first Ramen ever so I dunno if it was “good” or not, so i’ll just wait till I reach Japan and try the various ramen over there. Another thing I’ve noticed is my Chopstick skills are getting a lot better! Yay…

After lunch, we headed into Uni and jumped into a computer lab. I tried to upload the Skydiving video but it wouldn’t work, so I had to work a bit of my magic and finally got it to work. Mitch and I then decided to chill a bit and play some games and study up on some Japanese. We were there for a while but then we got hungry again. So we know of this place where you can get a full serving of Chinese for $3.80! So we went there before it closed, it was gooooood.

After that we felt very asian. Next paragraph.

We then headed to the Post Office to see what the deal was with Passport photo’s and passport applications. Like we didn’t know if we had to make an appointment or what. But as we walked in the door we saw a sign that said “Instant Passport Photo’s”. So we just decided to get our photo’s done there and then. After a few minutes and $14 later we had our Passport Photo’s. I look like the biggest Criminal. Meh.

Brisbane’s Post Office

We also enquired about the Passport interviews etc. We didn’t need to make an appointment, just bring all the correct documents down and they do the interview there and then. But one thing they didn’t mention was any costs. I looked up the passport costs on the net the other day and it costs $200!!! WTF!? Guh… Well seeing as I have recording with the band next week and I gotta pay for that, I won’t be applying for my passport anytime soon. Although all my passport stuff is completed, I’ve had my guarantor (my best mates mum lol) sign off on what she needed to sign off and so I’m ready to apply for the Passport… just need a wad of cash first…

So yeah, a few steps closer to Japan which is all good. I’m assuming my next post will be Band related and be about recording our EP. Can’t wait!

Ciao for Now!

Got my Uni Results!!!

Howdy all, as the title says, I got my university results! And I like very much!

Crappy design -> 4 (62 % = Pass)
Game Studies -> 5 (66% = Credit)
Professional studies -> 6 (83% = Distinction)
Programming -> 7 (95% = High Distinction)

YaY! So that gives me a GPA of 5.5, which if I maintain that i’ll be eligible for the $3000 travel bursary! Nice! That’ll be handy for Japan… But if I get this JASSO scholarship thing I won’t be able to get the travel bursary, but the JASSO scholarship is way better. The JASSO scholarship allows me to get 150,000 yen on arrival in Japan, then 80,000 yen every month I stay in Japan. But yeah, either way I’m happy… just as long as I don’t drop below 5.5, otherwise i’d get the $2000 travel bursary, which is fine, but i’d prefer at least the $3000 one…

What I’m really proud of is my programming subject… I got a total of 95% of the marks! So in an entire semester, I only lost 5% worth of marks Pretty happy about that…

Yeah so all the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. My friend Mitch, who I am going to Japan with next year, also got his GPA up to qualify. He’s studying a Bachelor of arts and he didn’t do too well last year and ended up on a GPA of 4, but he turned it right around whilst studying a bunch of IT subjects this semester and got his GPA up to a 4.583 or something wacky. Which is good, because if he needs a GPA of 4.5 to qualify for Japan. He’s got a bunch of IT subjects next semester as well so he’ll most likely be able to get that GPA up even more so.

I’m feeling really confident about making it into Kansai Gaidai, because the exchange officer said that they can be pretty flexible with numbers, so Kansai Gaidai may accept up to 3 people. But she said its flexible, so I think Mitch and I will be safe. Although I also realize that I am setting myself up to be very disappointed if we don’t make it.

Anywayz yeah! I’ll close up this blog… There’s more i wanna say but that’ll be in the next blog… which i’ll write right now.

Ciao for Now!

State of Origin

And State of Origin is over once again! The deciding match last night was pretty damn good, definitely an Origin standard game. It’s a shame that the Blues lost, but at least the Origin provided my mates and I with 3 awesome parties/gatherings.

For any overseas readers (lol, people read this?), the State of Origin is an NRL (National Rugby League) event in Australia where 2 states, Queensland (Maroons) and New South Wales (Blues), compete in a 3 match competition for pride, glory and the State of Origin trophy. Each team is a combination of that states best players chosen from the first grade clubs. Players who participate in the Origin must play for the state where they played in their Junior league (i believe…). So even if someone plays for a Queensland team now, they must play for the New South Wales side if they played their junior years in New South Wales. I think that’s right…

Now the majority of people support the state they live in/born in quite strongly. Now the fun part is that I was born in Sydney, which is in New South Wales, and lived there for 12 years before moving to Brisbane, Queensland. So i’m a Blues supporter in a sea of Maroons. It makes for fun times. So here’s the results from this years State of Origin series:

Game 1: NSW 18 <——– QLD 10

Game 2: NSW 0 ——–> QLD 30 :’/

Game 3: NSW 10 ——–> QLD 16

So yeah, congratz Queenslanders! They really did deserve it this year (lol look at game 2).

Ciao for Now!

Skydiving video

hey all, just the skydiving video of the jump Mitch and I did last week that i finally got around to uploading. Enjoy!