The alleged cartoon job became miraculously tangible again this week, which was quite a relief. There was a touch-and-go moment where I sortofalmostkindof accepted a job elsewhere, and then found out this one was actually on, and then might have rather annoyed some people with my vascillating.
But such is life… I hope the other fellas find someone good for the position, and there are no hard feelings over the long-term.
Musically there has been a bit of a trickle of progress on T3E#2, but mainly Knotty, Cornel and I have been working on this new groovy laid back (*cough*coverband*ahem*) thing we’ve been toying with. That, and preparing for Knotty’s impending rehearsal-themed 30th birthday bash on the weekend.
It’s been bitterly cold the last few days, after a brief mild spell. I actually love cold weather, but I’m about done with this winter to be honest. We’re very nearly out of firewood, and I am a little worried about the power bill which should be in the mail any day now.
Also, less that 4 weeks until W-day! I think everything is pretty much in-hand, although I have yet to buy a suit, which I think will be fairly much mandatory. I was considering suggesting a jeans & T-shirts affair, but somehow I suspect not all parties would be on board with that one.
Published on
November 9, 2007 in
Music.
We interrupt the complete lack of care and attention to this blog to bring you a musical service announcement.
Son et Lumiere, according to their myspace, sound like “Supertramp in a three car collision with Phish and Spock’s Beard, with Joe Jackson directing traffic and (we would like to think) Kevin Gilbert smiling down from above”.
I’ve been chatting to the ringleader on various online fora for a while (fora for a… see what I did there?) and I’m finally getting around to listening to his myspace clips.
It’s pretty damn good.
I want to buy it, but I can’t yet – it’s not available. Curses.
So anyway, go and listen to it. Then buy it. Except you can’t.
Published on
October 1, 2007 in
Music.
I’m an anti-social little SOB aren’t I?
So here’s a brief summary on what I’ve been up to in the two months or so since my last entry:
- Rehearsed for a T3E gig in Melbourne with Victorian progsters Template.
- Travelled to Melbourne for a gig with Victorian progsters Template
- Played a gig in Melbourne with VIctorian progsters Template
- Realised we’re not actually that tight as a live unit just yet… and while we were passably decent, Template’s live presentation left me in no doubt as to who put on the better show
- Continued writing and demoing for T3E #2, as well as gathering snippets of solo project fodder
- Bought a new soundcard
- Bought some new speakers
- Re-organised my little demo studio
Actually that last point probably deserves its own entry, and possibly a photo. I’ll publish this one then see what I can come up with on that front.
Stand by…
I’m fending for myself for a couple of weeks – Clare is off sunning herself in the balmy 21 degree heat of Queensland.
I’ve decided I’m going to shift the guts of my studio into the living room, so I can write and record while I sit in front of the woodheater and watch DVDs. In my most optimistic moments I like to envisage a fortnight of whirlwind creativity, during which time I will write and demo the entire remainder of the next T3E album, as well as lending some more concrete form to my sporadic solo efforts.
Realistically, I’ll probably just fall asleep in front of the fire and wake up to find I’ve melted my laptop computer.
Which could be fun also.
I just found a piece of capsicum in my coffee. Most peculiar. It wasn’t a bought coffee mind you – just a good old Nescafe instant coffee. I’m sure there was no capsicum in it when I put the coffee & sugar in, and the tap on the urn is too narrow. So I can only assume it fell out of my sandwich which I was eating at the same time. Scared the hell out of me. I guess that sounds strange – scared of capsicum – but you have to take context into account.
Cornel is off galavanting around Western Australia, so we had to get together on the weekend and work on T3E songs without him. Oddly enough, it was extremely productive. We’re well on the way (that is, more on the way than before, although with much work to do yet). In bigger news, we may be playing a gig in Melbourne early August. Stay tuned!
I’ve been mulling over the idea of jamming some of my non-T3E material with actual living/breathing musicians, which I might pursue over the next few months if work/life/T3E allow time to do so. Could be fun, and a good diversion from all of this intricate hard rock sort of stuff we’re writing lately.
There is something soothing about coming back to my own little audio-suite space on a Monday morning. I had a good weekend, and was sad to bid Sunday farewell, but being able to come in, switch on the kettle & the genelecs (and increasingly often, the heater), and sit down with a coffee while I mentally gear up for the day is quite pleasant.
I spent a goodly portion of the weekend converting Clare’s old laptop into a music production workhorse. She recently bought a shiny new silver Core Duo thingy, which means her perfectly serviceable Pentium M 1.8Ghz goes to me (for a modest fee of course). I loaded Reaper and a bunch of my favourite low CPU VST instruments & effects, and I’m all set for portable demo recording goodness. I was going to hook up my Mbox 2 Mini with the ASIO drivers (Slow-Tools would bog that machine down to a mollasses-like-crawl) but I’m actually finding the Asio4All driver is doing the job perfectly well for the intended purpose. Admittedly I won’t be tracking any hit songs with the on board sound hardware, but for donning the headphones and jotting down a quick idea, it’s perfect. Like a glorified 4-track, pretty much. Now I’m looking for a solution to use some VSTs in rehearsals/live. I was messing around with the demo for Brainspawn‘s Forte software, but it seems to have much higher perceived latency than REAPER does under the same buffer settings. Still playable, but a bit laggy feeling. Oddness…
We’ve done a couple of interviews for the T3E album this past week or so, plus the reviews are starting to trickle in, and they’ve been very positive for the most part – very exciting. It’s nice to feel the promotional juggernaut swing into action, with the ensuing promise of perhaps DOZENS of extra sales. Marvellous. Album #2 is shaping up nicely as well. Of course now that’s underway, all the ideas I’m coming up with are completely unsuitable for a nouveau-prog outfit such as ourselves. I’m sure I’ll come up with a use for them somewhere.
Failure
I didn’t record an album in February.
I wrote a couple of songs complete, and good portions of half a dozen more, but it’s nowhere near 35 minutes of music. I’m not actually bothered by it – as I said in my last entry, there’s a big difference between writing material, and writing good material, and I’d rather have limited high quality output than prolific bilge. I got more writing done that I would have otherwise, so it’s all for the good!
Success
One of the things that side-tracked me over the last month was interviewing for, getting, and preparing for a new job. I can actually put “Audio Engineer” as my job description now – at least for the next twelve months. I’m very excited, and keen to get started, but I’ll admit to not a small amount of trepidation as well. I didn’t misrepresent myself in any way in either my application or my interview, but I’m still not 100% sure why they hired me. Must be my magnetic personality… Honestly, I have no qualms about my ability to do the job, but there will be a bit of a learning curve.
We had a T3E meeting today – it’s been too long – and we are building new material at a pretty good rate! There’s also been some talk about stepping up the live performance regime, which I’m pretty excited about. I’m about to retire gracefully from the world of cover music, so I’m looking forward to devoting some performance energy to material that I actually care about.
Oh, speaking of live T3E, I posted up some live clips at youtube from our December gig at the Republic.
Falling & Part V
Tungsten Blues
Digging in the Dirt (Peter Gabriel cover)
Hurrah, and such like 
That’s very droll, isn’t it? I’d like to remove the “congress” from the door, as it’s not exactly pertinent in this example, but frankly I feel bad enough stealing some poor bugger’s cartoon and not giving him any credit for it – let alone modifying it as well.
I actually had a dream last night that a couple of rather large people in suits paid me a visit and recquisitioned my CD due to a plagiarism accusation. Apparently they weren’t concerned with the melody or the lyrics, but rather the drum sound. I was halfway through explaining to them that drum sounds are not exactly copyrightable as part of a composition, but then it all shifted into some sort of spaceship flying around thing (with monsters in pursuit – although the suit people were more frightening). I remember waking up hoping it was portentious, and now here I am blithely appropriating other peoples hard work. I just don’t learn.
So, where was I? Procrastination, yes. I’ve done absolutely nothing music-wise since the last entry, and time is starting to seem like it’s moving a bit faster. I had expected the house to myself the second half of this week, but Clare has come down with something, and so she’s stayed home from work. So I’m working hard to try and overcome this slight sense of self-consciousness about working on songs while there’s someone in the house.
That does sound very silly, I know. Clare knows I play and write music – this is not something I’m ashamed of. It’s just that it’s a slightly messy, scrappy process, and to a person who is used to hearing finished, fleshed out compositions, seeing the foundations being dug and the frame going up – well, I’m sensitive about that. Actually in my case, it’s usually a matter of the roof and windows first, then try to jam some walls and a slab underneath – which is even more embarrasing.
Nevertheless, this is something I’m going to have to overcome – so today I will finish another song. Definitely. Yes.
For sure.
Things I did from February 3rd through 6th:
- Had a surprise lunch thrown for me by Clare
- Drank too much imported beer out of a very large glass
- Caught up with some family I hadn’t seen for years
- Had a surprise trip away organised for me by Clare
- Took a ferry trip (twice)
- Went kayaking (twice)
- Had Oysters for dinner (twice)
- Read a goodly portion of Nick Hornby’s 31 Songs (on which more at a later date – or possibly not, depending on inclination. I am notoriously fickle)
- Drank moderate to excessive amounts of wine
- Was molested overnight by relentless, aerogard resistant, kamikaze (when I got a good shot in) mosquitos
Things I did not do from February 3rd through 6th:
- Write any songs
- Record any songs
It’s ok, it’s only the 6th… I’ve got time. No worries.
That’s how old I’m turning tomorrow
I wrote some solo-project music yesterday – a sort of folk meets baroque thing (I wonder if i can call it “foque”? ), but I’m afraid the well is dry for now – and I’m taking a break over the weekend to celebrate the ravages of time.
Hopefully I’ll be able to write more next week, once I have the perspective of old age from which to look back.
Ok, I’m done with that line now
