2005 - 2006

Written by A. Thomas

February 2005 Began construction on The Vault Studio.

August After MANY after hours and weekends, completed construction on The Vault. Couldn’t have done it without some special helpers :)

September Began recording of Trapped and Haunted with production in The Vault - playing all instruments.

November Trapped and Haunted mixed at 301 Studio Byron Bay with Paul Pilsneniks

Trapped and Haunted mastered at 301 Studio Sydney w/ Steve Smart

Photo shoot in The Vault with Mick Powell for use on upcoming website

December Commence work on website through Martin Hill of Datasearch, north Brisbane

January 2006 atmusic.com.au website completed with first incarnation

Trapped and Haunted were an experiment to see if I could produce my music myself. Whilst fairly happy with the results they still ended up sounding like demos and not the full-on style that I favour.

After spending several months drifting in early 2006 after a loved one had died it was not until mate Shane Foley prodded me into gear over a telephone conversation in May 2006 to start a band and get going! Although it was always my intention that I would form a band the lack of direction and Shane’s comment hit like a thunderbolt and I placed an add to Rave magazine that very day (through their website).

May Phone conversation with Shane Foley hits like a truck and a new focus is born.

Place ads in Rave Magazine and website.

June As is my wont to do things quickly. I had in my mind that I wanted to have the band formed by the end of June. As it turns out the very first people I auditioned were Pete Turner and Ben Vawdrey. Neither had heard any of my songs but in that very first session we had 4 songs sounding great (most likely Intro I, Common Cause, Trapped and Haunted). I saw a handful of other people but I kept thinking that the first 2 gelled immediately – surely that was too easy?? After contacting another bass player who wasn’t available he suggested a friend of his. On the 30^th June we auditioned Barnaby Gickel and I offered him the spot that night.

July-August Twice a week, Wednesday and Friday we jam and within a few short weeks we had a 9 song set list together: Intro I, Common Cause, Trapped, Haunted, Each to Their Own, Travellin’ Man, Things Must Change, Elevated and Sometime.

Around this time I entertained the idea of doing an EP as a way of solidifying the group. Through the Rave mag website I saw an ad for greatmusic.com.au and got in contact with Wernher Pramschufer. After an initial meeting where I played him Haunted, Travellin’ Man, Trapped and Common Cause he showed some interest in the songs – particularly Travellin’ Man and the start of Haunted (he didn’t like it when it sped up!). Soon after this meeting he came around to The Vault and met the guys and we played ¾ of our set list. He said he was quite impressed and was a little surprised given that we’d only been together for a couple of months. We soon decided that Wernher could be the man for us so we decided to go ahead and record the EP through Wernher and greatmusic.com.au

August Sometime in August I was jamming on the acoustic guitar (recorded for good measure) and wrote Feels The Same within an hour. (At least the first version of it). When it came time to see Wernher in the week leading up to recording the drums (at Wavelength Studio – north Brisbane) I showed him Feels the Same and he really dug it. He suggested a few changes such as adding another verse and changing the heavy part to be more of a focus in the song.

We recorded the drums with Joe at Wavelength on Saturday 19^th August. It took a full day to get the drums for 3 of the songs down (Elevated, Sometime and Feels the Same).

September Upon returning from a snowboarding trip Wernher and I set about getting the guitar parts down (done in less than a day), Barney did the bass in a few hours and we did vox for all 4 songs in a few hours as well. Wernher then spent some considerable time (above and beyond his initial quote) in mixing. As always with a budget he had to pull the pin somewhere but we had a fine product in hand. I was happy with the results – I can only wonder at this stage what could be achieved with more time and money…

October Around mid October I had the 4 EP songs mastered with Matthew Grey at his north Brisbane suite: Feels the Same, Elevated, Travellin’ Man and Sometime were now complete and it was time to get the CD done. I did up some art work for the CD and with the boys help in choosing we decided on the CD layout. I took the mastered CD to Select Media of West End as well as the artwork on a memory stick and they proceeded to send the CD offshore to get the 1000 copies.

The days of 30^th Oct through to 2^nd Nov 2006 will prove in time to be a most historical time for me personally. The reason for that is that I always keep in the back of my mind must do’s to be accomplished during my life and I happened to fulfill 3 significant ones in these few days:

1. Witnessing the birth of our first son Jacob at Wesley Hospital just down the road from our house

2. Receiving in hand our first 100 CD’s of First Act – Chapter 1 EP (900 more to come in a few days)

November 3. Playing our original songs live for the first time at The Living Room – Caxton St Brisbane around 11pm (headlining no less). Only a small audience but the support from family and friends will never be forgotten.

15^th November we had a jam session and started work on a new song I’d recorded roughly in Feb/March 2006 – called the A-D-E song (to become Hold). We also signed 100 CD’s in preparation of generating some interest through myspace etc. Of the 100 CD’s that were signed and individually numbered (all in the bottom left corner adjacent to the copyright) I kept number 1/100. The boys and I also took home a CD signed by all 4 of us but not numbered. So in total there were 104 CD’s signed by all of the band and 100 of them were numbered.

December 16^th saw us play our second gig at The Big Night In on the Gold Coast. Wasn’t what we expected as the average age of the bands was probably 17 and the musical styles were very different from us (Extreme metal, screamo, punk). It was an all ages event in a basketball shed. 10 or so bands on but not many people turned up. We were offered the gig at the last minute. The parents who turned up seemed to like us though :)

20^th sees out first Acoustic gig at The Alley Bar in Milton as part of the new Acoustic Revolution set up by Ben Garvey. Ended up headlining with our full band after 3 solo acts after 11pm. We had invited a few people down and the poor buggers had to wait a long time as we told them we’d be on at 8pm! Very cool gig though – sounded great.

A great way to end 2006 with band formed, EP done, gigs coming in and really enjoying where we are at.

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BAND DIARY

2005 - 2006