A Way To Shake Up The Nerves…
Ok, so we’re a week away from being tracking our debut album.
We’re even less than a week away from our showcase show at the Kings Arms.
What has to happen?
My Ampeg packs a sad. Bloody Ampeg. Everyone goes on about how much of a work-horse they are. Well, my so-called ‘work-horse’ was born lame, and just broke his ankle. Mind you, I give it death and it it only breaks an ankle after the touch of death, it must be pretty good…
This afternoon I dropped it off to an electronics whiz, and I have faith in him. Unlike the Rockshop. But I’m really not worried. I’m extremely confident I’ll have it back in working condition by Friday, so guys don’t worry!
I have one more week left of work and then its a month of sitting on a couch and eating pizza! And occasionally telling Gray to pick up his game. More blogging from the studio!
Peace!
Preparing to hibernate…
Alright…
…The arguments are over
…Decisions have been made
…The track list is finalised
…No… You don’t get to see it yet…
Basically – the only chance anyone is going to hear / see the track listing is at the show on the 3rd of May at the Kings Arms. Sorry to all of those unable to attend that show – you’re just going have to keep your patience up…
Basically – I just want to personally thank everyone for their messages – both kind and unkind – over the last few months whilst we’ve been plugging away. Thanks for your suggestions for tracks on the album (They’re actually really had a profound effect on our thinking). Thanks for contributing album names (There’s a lot of gold in there, but most of it is unusable due to either the ridiculous nature or sheer copyright infringement…)
So yeah… THANKS
We’ll be coming at you all really soon with the new album
See you at the Kings Arms on the 3rd – it’s going to be awesome to play live again!
Gray
The Final Countdown
The first sessions of pre-production with The VDG has been amazing. It’s so refreshing to get another viewpoint on the songs we’ve been playing solidly for the past year or so…there have been some great changes…there have been fisticuffs…but overall, everything is sounding toight loike toiger.
We’re currently putting together the final list of the songs that are going to make the cut, and i’d like to confirm for the people that have commented already, this will NOT be a short album.
I think we’ve got a really healthy looking list of possibles, so i’m frickin excited to how this albums going to turn out. Once the songs are picked, its another few weeks of drilling making sure the parts are perfect, instrumentally and vocally. We’re going to get the best we can out of these songs.
We’re on the long road home.
Steve
May The Fourth Be With You
Song selection is going well. We’ve got the songs whittled down to a shortlist of about 16 or so and we’re working through each one to make sure they’re equal parts awesome and wicked. Those are the two main ingredients, although there are some secret herbs and spices we can’t reveal at this stage.
We are looking foward to playing our first live show in ages. This is also the first time out for a lot of these songs, so it will really be an interesting show. We’re also pretty stoked about getting into the studio. We start recording drums the day after the show, which just happens to be May 4 (May the Fourth be with you) so there’s not really any question that this will be our Star Wars themed day. The real trick is finding a Star Wars outfit that doesn’t impede my drumming. George Lucas doesn’t really give me much to work with in this department, I might just be stuck with Leia’s gold bikini.
It’s Begun…
Okay… So…
We’ve had meetings… We’ve had some more meetings… In between, we’ve had a few meetings… Now we’ve finally sorted out.
After initial hiccups, Chris Van de Geer is on board as Producer number one, Mr Pre Production and Mix Master VDG. Fighting out of the blue corner, resident Pirate and fellow Westlake old boy, Andrew Buckton is back on board for his third sitting with us, running the desk while we muff our parts and generally prove once and for all, you don’t have to play well to look good. Basically – it’s the setup we enjoyed during the Under The Shadows and Fly Home sessions and this time around, we’re all bringing a new level of game.
Steve and myself has been writing like maniacs – and this time REALLY pushing new territories. new styles and also improving ourselves as musicians and lyricists to create something quite different. It’s still These Four Walls, just more focused, more assured of what we’re doing and with way cooler beards.
As far as lyrical and emotive content goes, I’ll leave that for a video blog that should be up in a few days. Just wanting everyone to know that we’re really trying hard with this one – not that we haven’t in the past – but again, this is completely pushing all of our boundaries and it’s gonna be sweet!
Till the blog goes up – keep it real, we’ll see ya’ll really soon
Gray Vickers
Comfortably Shagged
I spent the weekend down at the Homegrown festival in Wellingtown, the highlight of which was definitely Head Like A Hole. It was the only time I’ve ever seen them live, and I have to say it surpassed every expectation I had. It was a Rock n’ Roll lesson, pure and simple, and Booger’s beard was amazing. The set ended with the crowd going abosolutley mental to Hootenany, it was a great way to end the show. All the bands were pretty good, but HLAH really kicked some fucking ass.
Now the pleasantries are dispensed with, let me tackle the real topic. WHY IS IT that McDonald’s will go to almost any lengths to keep their customers happy – i.e. you could eat your cheeseburger, go up to the counter and tell them you never got the cheeseburger, and they’ll probably just give you another cheeseburger cos it’s not with the hassle arguing - BUT – if you want breakfast AFTER 10:30am they basically tell you to fuck off?
I was standing in line for 10 fucking minutes starting at about 10:20am while they crawl through the ordering process for the people in front of me. I have to watch them flip the menus over as I’m standing in line, then when we finally get to the front the fat prick behind the till says we can’t have breakfast because it’s 10:30:03am – THREE SECONDS! And they just won’t fucking budge either. What is so important about that rule that they have to enforce it so strictly? I mean three seconds, give me a fucking break.
Now there’s only two times I eat McDonald’s breakfasts – that’s road trips and hangovers. Now here I am, on a road trip, WITH A HANGOVER, and no Mcdonald’s breakfast. Poor form Ronald, poor form.
Things Are Starting To Happen…
Well thank fuck for that.
Last week we pretty much sorted our engineer/producer situation which is fantastic news because to tell the truth I was getting VERY bored sitting around. I was starting to feel like ‘Lets start recording or play a show, damn it!’, and as luck would have it, the wheels are actually rolling thanks to a push start by our finalised decisions.
At the moment we’ve been demoing every potential song for the album using our very basic studio set up at our practice space. Thanks to Pro Tools, and mBox mini and 4 Behringer microphones purchased for $100! While I’m having my woes with the Rockshop, my SansAmp has stepped in to take up the roll of bass driver.
We’re hopefully entering the studio first week of may – no dates are confirmed, but that IS the time frame when we’re hitting the studio! And, hopefully we’ll play a show or two before that!
God I’m looking forward to this!
Dear Sushi Lady, I’m sorry…
This is an open letter to the sushi lady who I normally buy sushi from, who shall never read this because she has no idea what I get up to in my life away from lunch time…
Dear Sushi Lady,
For the last year and a half (or so) you and I have gone through the motions. I show up, you say ‘Hi…’ and I smile. You then ask me how many pieces I’d like today. I reply ’six please’ or sometimes when I am hungry I say ‘8 please’.
We’ve gotten to know each other so well that I don’t even need to ask for that extra soy sauce, and you don’t even need to ask for my eftpos card – I willingly hand it over.
Now there’s something I must tell you.
I’ve been seeing someone else.
There’s a bakery across the parking lot. They’re cheaper than you. Service without a smile. I’m sure they’re health rating is a B. I think I’m going to have to leave you, because the Asian girl behind the counter seems very upset every time I tell her I’ve been eating sushi. And to tell you the truth she scares me. You’re very high maintenance, and I’m running out of money trying to keep you happy. I just want you to know if things were different I’d chose you every time. Its just a shame things didn’t work out.
One day I might see you, and we might smile at each other. But right now, this is goodbye.
Writing Smells…
The above title is to be read in a very literal sense.
Our writing room has no windows…think about it.
Just got home from another one of our regular writing sessions, we finished off vocals for one, and tracked a rough run of the most UBER metal odyssey i think we’ve written to date.
I’m the kind of g (that little homies wanna be) that has every kind of profiling site…but never checks his messages. Like, i’ve got 41 unread messages on Facebook…i login all the time, but i still have 41 unread messages. Why? WHY!?!?! But anyway, i stumbled across Brads recent message (40 unread now) asking for suggestions about songs y’all wanna hear on the album. You people sure know how to pick’em.
But be ready to hear a bunch of new track on there as well, because i am really excited about some of the new stuff we’ve got. So keep your ears and eyes peeled on the website, cuz we’ll be updating regularly.
peace.
Heat Wave
We’ve been recording a bunch of demos for the album for the last few weeks, and unfortunately for us, there isn’t much in the way of air conditioning in our studio. It’s even worse inside the “control room” (a picture would illustrate why those quotation marks are necessary) as there isn’t even a window or vent. When the door is closed the only way for air to get into the room is through the crack beneath the door, which is normally clogged up with a tangle of wires. Remember when there was a rumor going around about how the yellow Teletubby had died inside the suit, from lack of oxygen or something? I think that might happen to one of us.
We have done about 5 songs so far, and we have plenty more to get through. Still a few months before we head into the studio, so we’re trying to get through as much as possible and put together a really good tracklist. You should let us know which tracks you’d really like to hear on the album – you can post a comment here – just let us know which song is your favourite. DO IT!
