| NEW WEBSITE!
This site is still currently under development, so
things are subject to change, but I'm liking the new look so the theme
is likely to stay. The band has a lot of new songs, and a few practice
videos so I decided it was time to show them off a little bit. I also
uploaded the original demo for Fah-Q for those who have asked for it.
The reason for the new website is...
A NEW BAND!
This seeds for project were sewn a little more
than a year ago when I met Ryan at a flopped party at a girl's
apartment. Neither of us had enough gear to actually play music
together at that time, and by the time I was able to get my guitars
sounding right I had met Kirk. He gave me an opportunity to join a
cover band that he was forming. I thought that the cover band would be
a lot of fun and hopefully it would lead towards doing original music.
The cover band didn't last more than six weeks however, and I was again
looking for new musicians. This time, I was hoping to find others who
wanted to focus on original music - my music in particular, although I
welcome the input of other writers. I was not necessarily looking to
form my solo project. I was lucky that I found enough of the right
people within three months to get this project started.
In late September I finally got a chance to
interview Ryan I found that he has a natural tendency to put
appropriate drum beats to my music and that he has a very steady meter.
Kirk, Ryan and I practiced on one of my neighbor's porch because we
didn't have a real place to set up. Then one day Shawn called me
unexpectedly. I hadn't heard from Shawn in years and we hadn't had much
contact since 1994 when I was in the band 'Shattered Symphony". I found
out that Shawn had been practicing his guitar and had his own house to
practice at. When we interviewed Shawn for the role we soon realized
that he was a good fit and gave us the perfect opportunity to work on
our craft. Between Kirk and Shawn, they have made this whole thing
work, without their input we wouldn't have any songs ready.
While we've had a few things go right for us,
we've also hit a few snags. Whenever I've been in on the start of an
original project, the whole group often sounded horrible for about
three months until things began to gel. Well.. some bands remained
horrible but that's a different subject. I tried something different
this time by getting the rhythm section of the band acclimated first,
and then adding in more pieces as we got more experienced. The plan was
to get Ryan, Shawn, and I familiar with some of the music enough to be
fluent and then add players one at a time. It was then agreed that a
bassist would need to go through the same process, as bass is a
constant element in the music. As it stands now, Kirk's keyboards are
needed but they won't be a constant element like the vocals, guitar,
drums or bass are. What ended up happening is that we didn't get to
practice with Kirk as much as any of us would have liked. I've been
focusing on working with Shawn out of necessity on his guitar parts as
they can be quite complicated. We've also tried out two bassists -
Dylan and Ben. We had to spend some time to get them acclimated to us
as well. Dylan was the first bassist that we tried out. He absolutely
has got to be the best bassist that I've ever heard. He's got a great
talent but he was stretched thin - He has a job, goes to school, and
also was already in another band. I completely understand that Dylan's
been to busy to really commit. Ben is the second person that we tried
out, and he has a good mind for our kind of music and has the time to
dedicate to the project. This makes him a perfect fit for this band.
Ben's real passion is guitar, but he also likes his bass and likes what
we're doing. Ben understands how important bass is to music and that it
doesn't have to be dull, boring, simple 4 note patterns played
repeatedly under the guitar riffs. Ben's a real solid player who likes
to add interesting elements to what he's doing.
The result of what we started this fall is a
nearly complete band that can function well enough to play a set. I
have been doing the lead vocals as a temporary fix until we find a real
vocalist, but until then I am OK with having to fill in. I would rather
be solely a guitarist though, so I could concentrate more on the
quality of my playing. We have fourteen songs, but only eight of them
have been rehearsed enough to play them in front of other people. I
think that this progress is very good for an original band. The first
time anyone non-members heard us play complete songs was at a party in
our practice spot and people received us very well. We played six songs
that night, twice, and 'Fah-Q' was requested again. We were described
as 'Fun' and the results were very encouraging. It's a small beginning,
but a good one.
The sound of our music is a combination of
aggressive/energetic rock, punk and metal. When I say 'punk' I don't
mean that we're sloppy, but it's the feel of the music that is punk.
Most of it is very radio-friendly too. Too often I've been stiffled as
a writer in the past, but now I finally have a chance to play my own
originals. I can play songs the way that I want to play them and with
the kind of riffs that I like to hear. I think this is because I'm
finally with musicians that I'm compatable with.
No, my first real band (Shattered Symphony
1991-1994) didn't stiffle me, but the original bands that I was in
since then certainly have. I was more of a capable player and less of a
contributer in those projects. This band is the first band in over ten
years where my input is valuable. It's a good thing. I'm feeling very
good about the potential of this project and this has led me to finally
launch the new website. I've written about doing this in the
past but I waited to do this until I had something to offer to the
public, and a good product deserves a good website. I hope those of you
who know what the old site looked like are surprised by the changes.
I'm finally making progress at making music again - it was about time
that something's changed.
-'Chopper'
|
Year!