It’s a Dogfight!

Evening folks!

Well, here we are again…all settling in for the night.  The PJ’s are on. The hot chocolate is bubbling away.  Man…I’m just using that to set a generic night time vibe…but now I’ve got a mean hankering for a hot chocolate..and pajamas!  I’m going shopping at Cotton On Kids tomorrow!!

We had a meeting tonight to talk all things numbers.  A lot about our up and coming tour came onto the table  Once everything is all finalized, it’s going to be a fun little one.  Playing a few places we haven’t played in donkeys years!  I just wrote out that phrase…and realized that I haven’t used that phrase donkeys years in donkeys years!  The actual phrase was originally ‘Donkey’s Ears’, going on the fact that they are big.  ‘..as long as donkeys ears’.  Then over the years the slang evolved from ears into years.  So, in actual fact, the phrase has nothing to do with years at all.  We’re all learning something tonight!

So, talk has begun about our setlist for the Disturbed tour.  For those of you who read, but didn’t know, we will be supporting Disturbed on their NZ tour playing Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.  So those of you that are going or are soon to be getting tickets…we’ll see you there!

What I would like to know is…if you are coming…what would you like to hear us play?

There it is…it’s out there.  I’m going to post the same question as the tag on the facebook link…but let me know any way you can what would get your rocks off to hear in an arena setting!!

BOOM!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

…that’s a paddlin’.

Evening folks!

Just got in from our first real jam of the year. We assumed the usual circular position we’ve become so accustomed to at practice and everything just fell into place like good things should.

It was really cool hearing the demos that Gray and I have been working on become real songs. Hearing Mr Bradley and Mr Christopher add their charm to each phrase always gets me on a high. We took two of the demos back to square one tonight and had some very organic ideas grow from the ground up.

The two songs we worked with tonight are codenamed ‘Barn Stormer’ and ‘Dead Air’. The thing I really noticed when jamming through them, after we’d nailed them from start to finish…was how different these tracks are to anything on Down Falls An Empire. Not in a bad way. The sound we’re all used to is alive and well…just different in the way that we’re playing, in the way the structures are laid out and in the the way the songs feel. It’s exciting. I dare say we’re growing.

I had a great jam tonight. Driving home I really felt good. That’s the way it should be.

Meeting tomorrow night at HQ. Were talking all things secret and hush hush!! So I’ll see you all afterwards! Sleep tight!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

…LEEEEEEEROY!!!

Evening folks!

I have had the geekiest night of all nights.

Brilliant.  When I got home this evening, I chatted to our dearest friend and sound-guy Tyler at great lengths about the attributes of different Pokemon…followed by a SOLID round table marathon of online gaming with my family.  I’m dead serious.  Round a table.  Four computers running…

Seriously…best day ever!

Early night tonight.  Got a big first half of the day ahead of me tomorrow, followed by our first practice in years outside of our old practice room.  Which will be one of two things.  Productive, or painfully awkward.  I’m hoping for a nice mix of the two.  I’m a bittersweet chocolate kind of guy!

So, time for me to hit the hay.  I’ll see everyone tomorrow night after practice…where we’ll be trying out a bunch of the new tracks!  Wish us luck!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

…everyone butterfly tummy!!!

Evening folks!

Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly Creek. BUTTERFLY CREEK!

I went to Butterfly Creek today for a birthday present. Not my own, but hell…it could have been! It was awesome!! There were promises of butterflies. Promises of large creepy crawlies. Promises kept. You should have seen the size of some of these bugs! I’m not all that bothered by the little things that go bump in the night…but these things gave me a solid case of the heeby jeebies.

There are dinosaurs among us. I witnessed one. They called it a Crocodile. I know the truth. ‘The Man’…hiding an ‘extinct’ species in plain sight. Bravo to you Mr ‘The Man’. Bravo.

I drove around this evening listening to a bunch of the new tracks that we demoed in Australia. I think we’ve got some amazing stuff there. We head back into practicing on Tuesday evening and pick the routine up from there. I can’t wait to jam these new songs out and see where they end up.

I’ve been housesitting since I got back from australia. I’ve blogged about this house before. The one with the dogs. It has been no different this time around, but tonight is my last night here then I get to spend a night in my own bed for the first time in weeks. Woop. Now THAT, I am looking forward to.

Until tomorrow!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

Unfortunately…it was dusk…

Evening folks!

I was out and about today…kind of. Let’s just say that I was out…and I went to places that were about, thus being out and also about. More milling around. Loitering.

Chapter One: Out.

I went to the local coffee shop to kick my day off. I live on caffeine. Absolutely live on the stuff. I’m sure it’s all uber bad for me…the coffees, the energy drinks, the IV drips feeding me Red Bull syrup directly into my heart. Probably bad for me, but hey! What a ride.

Medium trim cappuccino in hand, I went to exit, turning to wave goodbye to my favorite frother…when I was offered an attractive little booklet from a gentleman in a dirty beanie in the cafe. It was about the size of my palm, solid black with a proud silver fern in the middle, the words ‘take the test’ printed boldly at the bottom. I noticed everyone in the cafe had been given one. As dirty beanie man exited the cafe we all opened the booklet at once, surely expecting something around kiwiana or the All Blacks. Surely.

In the same amount of time it had taken us to open the first page, the booklets one by one had been thrown in the nearest receptacle. We all know what was inside don’t we? I’m not going into it. To each their own…but come on!!!! This is my coffee shop! My haven, my peaceful little nook! My frappe will never taste the same again…

Chapter Two: About.

I pulled into a BP today to refuel (and get an energy drink of course). This flash silver car pulled up beside me to my right. I watched this epic piece of machinery glide up beside me. Now, I’m not a car guy, in any way…but this thing made ‘Top Gear’ muscle twitch. Then the situation stepped up another notch. Out she came…her hair blowing in the breeze like a model on a French beach…her clothes clinging to the body her Dad is likely still paying off. It was like a scene from Revenge of the
Nerds. Surely this situation couldn’t get any better. Surely.

Out came Dad. The sugardaddy emerged from his batmobile. The entire forecourt lost control an buckled over in laughter. The best way I can describe this guy would be a generic movie reference. You know the movies where the family goes to the skifield for winter, an meets the cute girl on the slope but is then confronted by that blonde jock in the tight shirt? That guy! Imagine him…when he’s fifty.

Blonde hair. Undercut. Tight, white spandex shirt, with an incredible potbelly all bought and paid for. White cotton cardigan tied in a knot around his neck. When he laughed he cocked his head back and his jaw bucked with each chuckle. I was in stereotypical heaven.

Chapter Three: Goodnight.

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

Playing catch up…

Morning folks!

I had actually written the usual ‘Evening folks’ into my blog app on the phone last night.  Woke up in a substantial pool of drool with my phone still in my hand.

Holy, am I tired!  It would seem I’m still catching up on the sleep missed from the Aussie tour.  I think I need to get some iron into me.  There are these mean pills called Iron Melts that I usually take and they sort me out.  Full of all the goodies I need, and they also taste like candy.  I will likely become part machine from eating so many of the suckers!

It’s Saturday and it’s a BEAUTIFUL day outside!  For the moment.  I couldn’t believe how quickly the ‘turn tables’ yesterday…it went from a gorgeous day to miserable in about a minute flat.  I was running around the backyard collecting animals and laundry from the downpour.  Both of which ended up being fine.

Get outside folks, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the day…enjoy life!  Wait…is that a Coke slogan?  Will I get sued for copyright infringement?  Hmmm?

See you tonight!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

Fiddlee Dee Potatoes!!!

Happy St Patricks Day!!!

The best unofficial holiday ever!!  Today is the only day out of the full roster of 365 where if you’re walking down the street completely inebriated, covered in an abhorrent mixture of both green food coloring and your own sick…no-one will judge you.  In fact…they will often congratulate you, offer you another beer and then take you home where you will wake up at the bottom of a well putting the lotion on it’s skin.  Oh St Patrick, you’re a treat.

I actually have no idea what St Patrick’s day is actually celebrating…

I imagine this guy named Patrick Shamus O’Haunessy used to wear green a lot, and was able to blend into the hills of Ireland thus becoming the greatest crimefighter this world ever knew.  He was made a patron saint for foiling the plot of the meanest, darkest criminal Ireland had ever known…Shaun Shaunessy, otherwise known as The Clover.  The Clover was planning to heist the Bank of Dublin, but cleverly, Patrick Shamus O’Haunessy painted the building green inside and out after a tip off from the Dublin PD that The Clover was planing a caper there.  He easily blended into his surroundings and captured The Clover, putting him behind bars for life.  As the cell door slammed behind The Clover, Patrick Shamus O’Haunessy looked right at the camera and said…

‘Looks like The Clover isn’t lucky after all…’

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

It’s my parent’s wedding anniversary tonight, so I’m off into the city to have a few with the family in celebration!  So wish me luck, as I sink into the sea of green!

Until tomorrow night!

This is me, signing off.

Peace and love.

Oh where oh where has my little Steve gone?

Hi Guys

Steve is in the land of no internet again tonight – so you’re stuck with me.

Now, I’m generally the kind of guy who will talk for hours and hours about nothing at all, but sadly, after 3 days of blogging here, I seem to have run out of things to say. I guess I need to be prompted or at least given some subject matter to really rev the engines of dialogue. If only we could figure out some form of Q&A, then these blogs would be mammoth!

I’m going to keep this one pretty short, not only because I’m steadily running out of stuff to say, but also because I’ve been at a business meeting tonight.

Now, I’ve been to business meetings before. Been to many! They’re usually so damn boring! More often than not, it’s just a bunch of people sitting around the table, talking about whatever it is their talking about in order to make things better for everyone blah blah blah… I’m usually the guy in the back, with a piece of paper, looking like I’m taking notes, but in fact simply doodling ridiculous crap. Sometimes I write lyrics or something – however, it’s dangerous to drift that far from the talking in the room, because it’s right about the point where I’ve got a great idea that the boss will ask me to summarise what’s been spoken about… That’s where my ability to talk absolute crap comes in handy – but that’s a whole other mess!

The cool thing about the music industry, is that meetings rarely take place without at least a little imbibing of alcohol. What results is usually about 5 minutes of business, then several hours of talking absolute crap. Pretty much tonight’s meeting! I can’t go into too much detail at the moment… BUT… I will say that our NZ tour is looking freaking awesome – it’s gonna be a short one, but it’ll be completely awesome! We’re going to try and hit a few places we haven’t been to for a while, which will be nice!

Anyways, I’ve said too much, so I will leave you with that

Have a good night all! Hopefully Steve will be back tomorrow night with more pearls of wisdom…

Till then, Farewell!

Gray

One more for the road…

Hey Guys!

Steve’s still out of reception so, I’m back again with some more ramblings…

First day back in Auckland, first day back at work, first day back in traffic…

I hate traffic

I sat in traffic this morning for over an hour on my way to work. I haven’t really even seen traffic for 2 weeks! And to make this morning’s adventure more interesting… I was joined on my daily ride by a massive spider! As you may remember, I don’t like Spiders… I saw my fair share of giant spiders in Australia and didn’t enjoy it one bit, so you can imagine my shock when, as I was looking right to sensibly merge into traffic, I spotted a massive Woodland Spider staring at me from the outside of my window. Needless to say, my swerving must’ve been entertaining for the other motorists!

I hate airports too

They’re an endless supply of lines and over charging, but what really gets me about them , is that I seem to get picked – constantly – for random searches! It started when Steve and I went to LA for the weekend – yeah, that’s right, the weekend… that’s how we roll! Anyways, as we were boarding our plane, a man jumped out from what seemed like nowhere shouting “RANDOM SEARCH” and we were taken aside… When we went to Australia last time, I was pulled aside for a random “explosives” search. Well, this trip was no exception… No doubt, you may have seen the photo’s from my tender “Pat Down” at Auckland airport… Well, as I boarded the plane in Melbourne, homebound and without any form of “random search”, I thought my luck was changing! WRONG!!! Turns out I’m also a key candidate for “Random Selection” to review the damn airline!

So that’s about as much rambling I can do for now – My gear just turned up from the airport – silly Melbourne airport forgot to put it on the damn plane – So I’m going to work on some new tracks

Till next we speak

Good night!

Gray

Just checked in, to see what condition my condition was in…

Hello All!

It’s me again!

Now that we’re back home, I thought I’d pop on in to say hi!

So New Zealand, how have we been? I’ve missed you!

I’ve been in Australia making new friends!

People are so friendly in Australia. Everyone treating us so well and I know Steve has already said it, but I want to make mention of it again… Crystal, Mark, Paul, Lee and our new friend Vinny Leather – all such amazingly beautiful human beings! They made us feel so welcome! I also need to mention two other really amazing cats – Luke and Kevin – Bellusira’s lighting and sound guys – it was great to get to tour with them as well!

And of course our AMAZING new friends in Australia – You’re all so FREAKING awesome! Thank you all for coming up and saying hi and being so lovely to us – can’t wait to see you all again!

Alright – now it’s back to business!

Word on the street is that we’re working on a new record…

It’s oh so real now – we’ve got a nice long break between now and when we hit the road with Disturbed, so we’re in full pre production mode. We’re hoping that by the time we get back into the touring world, we’re going to have a bunch of new tracks to play for you – which is going to be sweet!

Anyways – I just wanted to pop in and say Hi and YAY for how awesome Australia was, but also how great it feels to be home and back to work on the new record.
I’ll be blogging tomorrow as well – hopefully with more than a few hours sleep to keep me fuelled – so I’ll share some of my anecdotes and tales from the road with you then…

For now – stay safe – have a great night!

Gray