Catch up with us on:
Written by A. Thomas January Mixing goes on in ernest with the guys all listening to their CDs and giving notes on their thoughts (well, Pete gives actual notes and the other 2 tell me what they remember :) A meeting with Media Hammer locks in an album release date of 25 April and all the PR/Marketing and Tour dates have been determined around that date. Tour will spread over 4 weekends with a 2 week road trip in the middle to Melbourne and back. Have started contacting venues to lock in dates. Work is quiet at the moment so it has enabled me to do up some speadsheets on towns and various venues within them to contact. We are also applying for a government grant to help cover costs. Mixing to be concluded on 26th January and mastering is happening on the 27th with Matt Gray. Over the course of the 7 months it took to record the album it is worth noting a few experiences that stood out in the process: Intro I · We were struggling to work out a cool enough fade in at the start of the song. One Friday night it was just Pete and I and over a few beers and just trying random stuff we came up with what is on the record now. At one stage we had cymbals and mics set up in the control room which is quite small – Pete’s standing with his back right in the corner with headphones on, a beer in one hand and shakers, tambourines and eggs in the other. A funny site at the time but yielded some cool results. · Last minute decision to straighten up the drum beat towards the end of the song just before Pete recorded it. Checkmate · Because of the heavy nature of this song we weren’t sure whether the Marshalls were going to be ‘metal’ enough on their own – enter Ben’s This pedal is so metal you’ll be shitting razor blades for a week pedal. On its highest setting it was a bit too intense so after backing it off we found a nice compromise and all the rhythm guitars used it. · In the gap before the jamming part it was Barn who suggested the chord being loosened sound effect which worked out a real treat. We added some feedback as well to fill it out. · Pete suggested dropping all instruments after the solo when it comes back into the third chorus for a very nice effect. · This was the first track we put guitars down on, it was a Friday night and enthusiasm was at a peak as the guys didn’t leave until around 1am. During that session Barn got his bass part down which didn’t take that long and I must have spent quite some time in that room layering guitars over and over as the guys gave there reactions in the control room. Say It Again · Had an absolute shocker at attempting to do the vocals for the first time on this song. Don’t know what it was but the vibe wasn’t there on that particular night. We came back to it a few days later and nailed it. The elevated vox on chorus was done relatively late in the recording process. Don’t Stand Alone · When Mel came down to do the violin for Lighten we had a last minute thought of adding a bit for DSA. Turned out a treat – subtly used but nice all the same. When doing the solo in the middle I remember getting the main part down and then said to the 3 guys in the control room to give me another pass over the top of the previous solo. Had a go at that harmonised bit on a whim and got it in one take. Ben was particularly enamoured by it. Promised Land Where to start on this one… · At the end of solo 1 Ben played his guitar part back to front although we didn’t realise it at the time. After I had done my rhythm we were listening to it and thought – well that was a nice ‘stuff up’ and kept it as it sounded great having the 2 rhythm guitars play off each other through the second verse. · Seeing as the song is all about unscrupulous evangelical types it was only fitting that we expand on that – hence the inclusion of the organ. Ben had brought his keyboard in for something else and I was mucking around on it one night and came across this organ sound – the light went off above my head and I recorded the organ part for later use under Pete’s preacher. · Pete’s preacher – a classic night of recording. Unfortunately Barn couldn’t make it to this particular recording for one reason or another but Ben and I were cracking up at Pete’s take on the preacher man (luckily got a bit of it on video between the mirth). The first take was a little fast in relation to the music but he nailed it on the 2nd take and that is what is on the record now. · Barn’s funk bass part toward the end was conceptualised almost on the spot. In typical Barn fashion he got in there and started jamming doing several takes. The stuff he makes up on the spot is really something to see. · After Barns funk there is a bass line running down to which we added a guitar part using the ‘metal’ pedal in drop D and the last guitar solo was done on a whim during a night of inspirational recording. Common Cause · The vocal in the verse was sung through my Marshall amp to try something different. · For years I was never sure what to play in the opening section of the song but finally came across something that sounds cool in that ‘wah’ filtered based riff. · Part way through the recording process I went snowboarding for a week at Perisher and one beautiful afternoon with awesome conditions and blue sky I was cruising down the hill and the bridge section for this song popped into my head. Up until then we had never considered doing a bridge but upon showing the guys everyone thought it was a good idea and we added it in toward the end of recording the song. · The ‘wah’ part just before and after the solo at the end was a new idea during recording as well. I remember showing it to the guys out at the Coominya Farm bash we had at John’s house and originally Pete wasn’t overly sold on the idea – but I think he’s warned to it. The other guys liked it…. Lighten Up My Day · Because the song fades out it meant recording quite a long song which gave Barn an opportunity to improvise his bass line, particularly from the solo on. It was just the 2 of us on that particular day and he played it through once and came into the control room. He said he tried some random stuff on the spot and it all sounded so good we ended up using this first take in the song. · Similarly when it came time to do the electric guitar solo I was alone one night and decided to have a run through on this solo. I decided to record it for good measure just in case some good ideas came through. So I played it through once and went in for a listen. Playing it back I thought it actually wasn’t too bad and showed the guys next time they came around. They seemed to like it and so this one first take was the keeper. Kinda funny how both the bass and electric guitar parts for the same song were one takes. Must have been a good vibe going on. · The acoustic guitar solo part took a bit more time however. Trying to make it over complicated at first wasn’t happening and it got simpler to a point where it ended up on the record. · Young Mel came down from the Sunshine Coast one weekend with her dad Waz to do some violin and viola parts. We spent a few hours basically making it up on the spot. There were around 10 tracks in the end to go for the more orchestral thing. She just did a great job, a real talent for her age. Into The Fray · Reworked from EP2 – new snare and bass. Barn re-did his bass line in one take :) Under Fire · Pete’s 100 sound effects CD inspired us to find a cool sound for a jail door slamming. The CD didn’t yield anything but a quick search on the net and we were able to find a buzzer and great sounding door slam. Nothing To Lose · The acoustic guitar part after the second chorus is actually Pete. We were all in the control room listening to that section and Pete was just jamming on that riff in the background. I looked at Barn and Ben and we all went ‘that’s real neat’ so just to capture it I lent across with the inter-room comms mic and held it in front of the acoustic guitar to capture Pete’s playing. Yet again, it sounded great so we ended up not having to re-record it at all and just used what Pete played then and there. I’m sure we were all talking throughout that so there’s probably some random voices in there somewhere… · I remember looking into the corner of the studio where the cupboards are and seeing Ben bending his guitar over his knee to get the sound to bend as it faded out. This ended up being used in the fade-out after chorus 2 under the acoustic as mentioned above. Conflict Within · The big guitar solo at the end of the song had to be massive to not only live up to the epicness of the song but to conclude the album on a winning note so it was very important to me to play VERY well on this one. It was getting late one Friday night and I had been in the room for over an hour busting out solos and not quite getting the groove 100% right. As the clock approached midnight I picked up the guitar and said to the 3 guys in the next room that this is the last attempt for tonight. Strapping on I noticed the guys and all stood up in a show of unity and I played a hell of a solo to much cheering from next door. This is the one that ended up on the record. You couldn’t have scripted it better! · I must say that not only on this song but on all tracks it was great having the guys in the control room offering advice and encouragement. And vice versa – it’s really nice to be in a position now where we know each other well enough that we can all give and take advice without offence (or at least feeling guilty for offering advice). The results we have achieved on this album are really something else and we all should/do feel proud of this achievement. Overall we are very happy with what we have produced in the last 7 months and we should all feel proud of that achievement. I think we’ve all taken our instruments, song writing and vocals to a whole new level. We have also been working on 3 new songs. One is based off a riff that Waz came up with and is going to be a beauty. The other 2 are based around riffs of Bens, one of which is an instrumental. Nice grooves… February New songs are coming on in ernest, now we have about 7 new ones we are working on including: United (Waz’s riff), Release (a slow heavy one based off a riff by Ben), a cool metal thing with awesome bridge, Intro II (quite mellow), a jazzy instrumental, a poppy sort of thing which sounds like a cross between RatCat, Hanson and AT :), and a Bluesy metal number called ‘Sin’. The CD has been sent off and hopefully we’ll get it back by the end of Feb… Initially we had planned to do the tour in May and we had everything locked in around that date but Pete’s boss canned his holidays. Initially we were a bit put out by it but after we worked out that we could rearrange gigs it will work out fine. It just goes to show that sometimes things are meant to be because one or two members in Upsize (who are touring with us) would have struggled to make the May date because of their teaching commitments and it gives us more time to organise the gigs. We have now locked in the mid-year school holidays as the time to go as it will suit Upsize better. We have shortlisted all the venues we would like to play at and at the time of writing have locked in two with more to come over the coming weeks or two. A lot of work organising all this but it will work out nicely (we hope)… Jammed in Barn’s loft with the guys from his other bands (Dobbo from The Figures and Jimmy and Matt from St Arthur). Was good fun and Tony filmed some of it. Veronica provided pizzas so was a great afternoon. We recorded all the new songs live on a Friday towards the end of Feb. Not too bad a sound (except for muffled sounding vocals – need to check the PA before singing away for 2 hours!). There is some awesome stuff in amongst it all. We’ll just have to remember all the cool bits. Had a bit of writing frenzy this month as well cranking out lyrics for: United, Release, Believe, Sin, Try Stop Me, Faded Memory and Travellin’ Man II. March 5th – a VERY significant day in the life of the AT band. We picked up our 1000 CD’s today for our debut album – First Act! Just looks fantastic and sounds even better (now that its coming off of a snazzy looking disc :) Barn came around to work whilst I still had them in the back of the boot of the car after picking them up and scored a few copies. Continuing to lock in dates for the tour. The top half is done (Sunshine Coast to Sydney), now we just have to do the bottom half (Canberra to Melbourne). 18th – another significant day. We sold our first CD for First Act within 24 hours of it being placed on CD Baby. It was bought by Jorg of Germany. He also bought our EP2 a few months back. Thanks Jorg!! Photo Shoot – On a Saturday mid-march the four of us packed up our camera gear and headed to the Mill in Albion early in the morning to get some promo shots of the band. The Mill is a disused flower mill and is a great back drop with lots of broken stuff and grafitti. We had to ‘break’ in through one of the loose black side panels and over the next hour as trains went past and we avoided the odd rain shower we got a tonne of cool pics. We had to use the tripod with a 10 second timer as no one else was there to take them. It was very windy and half way through the black panel we came in through completely dislodged and fell against Pete’s car – marking the white paint work…oops…. After grabbing some pics (including the funny jumping in the air ones) we headed to the Valley and my current (temporary) work place in Brunswick St. The Eastern Busway site office where I’ve been working for a few weeks has a great roof top that overlooks the city and you can access the unguarded roof next door. After climbing the stairs to the roof Barn wasted no time in jumping the ‘fence’ and walked around on the next door neighbours roof. After proving that it wouldn’t fall in we all climbed up after setting up the camera on a tripod with a 10 second timer. Battling the wind (messing up the hair you know) we got a few shots before bailing due to a roof-top function that was about to start. After scrambling down the internal stairs we discovered that my swipe card wouldn’t let us back out of the building so we used the adjacent fire escape door. (Hopefully no alarms went off at the fire station..). Heading west we drove out to Pullenvale (via a quick Hungry Jacks lunch break at my house) and found a nice looking area to get some pics walking down the road between rocky near vertical walls of rock. For a deserted road in the middle of nowhere there seemed to be a lot of cars coming past. (The tripod was set up in the middle of the road so we had to move it quite frequently). We concluded the shoot at a small, quiet park somewhere in Pullenvale (down the road from where Barn used to live as a kid). Don’t think we’ll use these photos as they aren’t really Rock! But it was all very pleasant. Got some fun photos there…. April After many phone calls over the last few weeks/months we have booked in 9 confirmed venues for the tour as follows: 13th June Sands Tavern Maroochydore 20th June Norville HotelToowoomba 25th June Hoey Moey Coffs Harbour 26th June Hamilton Station Hotel Newcastle 28th June Lewisham Hotel Sydney 1st July Sodens Albury 2nd July Noise Bar Melbourne 3rd July Barwon Club Hotel Geelong 1st August Jubilee Hotel Brisbane It is possible that we’ll get Canberra but we’re still to confirm that as of writing. All in all a good amount of dates and we’re all very much looking forward to getting out there on the road and rockin’ the f#ck out!. April has also seen more practice and jamming. On some days where all 4 of us couldn’t make it to practice we’ve been jamming on new stuff. On Tuesday 14th before Barn turned up Ben and I quickly recorded his new ‘Delay’ idea which no doubt will be used sometime down the track. When Barn arrived we warmed up with a random riff that Ben made up on the spot. With some guidance for a chorus we had a pretty cool sounding groove so we recorded that as well for future work. Most notably this month has been the ‘War of the Worlds’ opus that Ben, Barn and I mucked around with on Friday 17th April. What started as a mellow bass riff morphed into an epic 3 part thing by jams end. We rehearsed it a few times with the intention of recording it roughly so we can remember it – all the while I was drinking beer. I was quite drunk by the end of it and can hardly remember recording it with the 2 overhead mics. On Tuesday 21st we invited the guys from Upsize to come around so we could all meet. Sean, Matt (singer), Rick and Matty (new guitarist) rock up first and we convene in the downstairs lounge. Duff turns up around 10 minutes later, Jim Beam in hand and Barn follows up 15 minutes later after jamming with the Figures at Rathdonnel. After a bit of a chat we went into The Vault to discuss the dates, accom, van, money etc. Everyone seemed quite taken with the studio which was nice. 24th Friday afternoon – picked up a hire generator from Kennards Indooroopilly in preparation for tomorrow’s video shoot. Heavy bit of kit. 25th Pick up Barn and he’s left he’s boots at 160 so we scoot over there to pick them up. Arrive 9:45am and Ben, Pete and W are at the site in Albion, a disused flower mill (previously used for covert photo shoot). Driving the cars through the 3 foot grass and parking next to the tall silos and gaining access through the locked lower door we then spend 15 minutes exploring all the various floors scouting out the best locations. There are 4 or 5 levels with many various rooms, all with debris scattered about the place (old conduits, spray cans, broken glass and a shed load of dust). The lowest two levels on the east side are very dark rooms which will be used to some effect later in the day. Deciding that the generator is way too heavy to lug around everywhere we park it on the bottom floor (up the first flight of steps) and run the many extension leads we’ve brought up the concrete stairwell on the west side of the building. Lugging the drums, amps, guitars, esky (cooler) full of beer and other miscellaneous equipment to the 2nd floor we set up a ‘band’ room amongst the graffiti covered walls. The first couple of hours are spent capturing various overall band shots during swigs of beer as well as the hand held verses and a few other shots. After a quick break for lunch (at the ever convenient McDonalds) we head back for the afternoons shooting. Pete the resident pyro (so we found out) had brought along a lighter and spray can which we used to capture some cool (so to speak) effects in the ‘dark’ rooms previously mentioned. These rooms weren’t ventilated so they quickly filled with noxious fumes. We eventually resurface in to the lighter areas and decided it was time for a workout. Climbing to the upper floors we captured a whole bunch of running shots for the ‘escape’ scenes. A couple of the guys couldn’t help themselves in such a derelict building so scattered throughout the days activities was a bit of wanton destruction including smashing and dropping bottles from great heights, breaking windows and other acts of senseless violence. A particularly amusing event was when Ben was punching through an old masonite wall (with timber stud frame). Barn thought he’d have a go and without too much thought he hit this wall very hard only for his fist to come to an abrupt stop against the frame on the other side, producing a bit of a laugh from the rest of us and a fracture in his hand …. 6 or 7 hours later after much footage, lugging gear and a few beers we were well and truly knackered but it was a great day. May
1st Got in contact with Brendan R through the media guys to edit the video. Spent the last few days making storyboards of all the footage for a guideline. 5th Spent the last couple of nights going through the story boards after printing screen shots off the computer of all the different shots. There’s a couple of hundred shots there and it took a bit to get them in order but I reckon its going to look very cool. The tour is coming up fast and everything seems to be in place (except for Geelong who ‘kindly’ double booked us – still waiting to see what happens there…). The posters for most venues have been sent off, we’re using Posterbill to distribute 300 odd posters around Brisbane / Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. Band practice is back on Wednesday nights which will suit us all better. (We had been doing it on Tuesday due to Ben’s work commitments and it wasn’t the ideal night for Pete and Barn but Ben’s bailed that night job). The biggest news of the month is we’ve secured a distribution deal for the album through Green Media Distribution – an offshoot of MGM Distribution. This will enable our record to get into all major record stores in Australia including HMV, Virgin, JB HiFi amongst others (if anyone actually still goes to stores :) And if they can’t see it in the store customers will be able to order it so great news for us as a band and a big step forward… 28th Geelong has fallen through due to them double booking us! Very disappointing but we'll just have to put the spare energy into the other shows! :) 29th What an afternoon! Spent half an hour with the video editing guy (Brendan) who is putting together the film clip for the Say It Again single. Looking great! Can’t wait to see the final product!! We just got out of an epic three and a half hour jam session in The Vault. Aided by a few beverages everyone was in fine form and we must have played well over 30 (maybe 40) songs and still had some to go. A beautiful moment (amongst the many tonight) was when we were fully into a faster new song called Believe – everyone was in their zone and letting rip when we looked up and saw Barn’s (step) dad in the smaller control room with my partner and our 2 year old son. After the song had finished my young guy jumped up on the chair and applauded over his head – one of the coolest things I have ever seen … We commenced and completed the session with this brand new riff (song) idea which kicks maximum arse! (Not too late to get it on the tour list)! The countdown is on for the first show of the tour! June 14th The tour kicked off with a bang last night with a very enthusiastic crowd at the Sands Tavern Maroochydore. Upsize and Adelle warmed the crowd up (and I had the pleasure of filling in for guitar duties with Martin Duffy on rhythm whilst their other guy was completing his tour of duty with an ACDC cover band). We jumped on stage around 10:45pm. Played for 1.5 hrs and had an absolute blast! A highlight was the combo drumming during one song where I grabbed a couple of sticks and joined Pete in a syncopated jam and just being back on stage after such a time was a great thing... 20th Hit Foggy / Cold Toowoomba around 4pm and after seeing some friends went straight to the Norville to set up for the night. We brought our own vocal PA so we were responsible for the sound for us and the 2 supports Upsize and Project 62. We really wanted to play inside but John the publican wanted us outside (to protect the carpet I think). Paula his partner was on our side and after some too-ing and fro-ing sanity prevailed and we played inside in the dining area. (Just as well because it rained and got even more miserable outside as the night progressed). Whilst we were waiting to set up the bands were given access to the male and female bathrooms in the back corner behind the stage to store all our gear in. After an inpromptu photo session with Barn by the urinal bathed in the sickly glow of the overhead lights we set up all the PA equipment. There were leads running everywhere and somehow it all hooked into the correct spot by the end of it all. We were also given some groovy flashing lights by the publican which added to the ambience (along with our 500W bright construction light - talk about multi-purpose those things are - we always seem to find a use for them whether it be photo sessions - video shoots - gigs). After the diners had pretty much finished up we got Upsize off to a flying start around 9pm. After a few adjustments we got the sound sounding pretty damn good. It was quite a small area but it sounded great. The guys rocked it and by this stage a sizable crowd had braved the wintery delights of the city to partake in some good old fashioned rock. Not to be outdone Project 62 with their 6 members were on next and entertained with their intense version of southern bluesy based rock with a twist. These 2 bands are just fantastic - very professional and an awesome bunch of guys. I'm not sure if I was a bit generous on the previous bands set lengths but we didn't get on until after 11:30pm. However we had a great set and time. Most people stuck it out to see us which was really appreciated considering we finished close to 1am. Our bud 'Daz' was there prompting yells of 'Scream for me Norville' inspired by a mutual viewing of the latest Iron Maiden Doco where Bruce D excites every crowd with that mantra. After the show we had a funny moment with the bass player from P62. I had the video out capturing the moment and he regaled us with a short story on a new saying he had come up with. "...you know how if you want to tell someone to go away in no uncertain terms you tell them to F#ck Off!, well if you like someone and you want them to come closer you tell them to F#ck On!..." This had us laughing until we left the building and drove away :) With these 2 gigs complete we are now on the countdown to hit the road south in a few days time. Can't wait! 22nd Rang all the venues to make sure everything was OK for the shows. Incredibly two of them said there was issues. Hoey Moey in Coffs Harbour said they had cancelled our show a month ago but had neglected to make sure we knew about it and Sodens in Albury had closed down! A kick in the guts for sure after all the planning but we dusted ourselves off and decided we could only make the most of it. 24th Picked up the hire van late afternoon and headed back home to meet the guys with all their gear ready to pack. After a bit of mucking about got it all in and bid farewell until the next morning ready to hit the road. 25th The day has finally come for the road trip and we are all amped for it (despite the 2 venue setback). We jumped in the van and my car and headed over to Rick from Upsize’s house to meet the other band and grab their gear. Because we are sharing bass amps and drums it has cut down on a lot of gear for the van so we soon had it all packed in. We had planned to stay in Coffs Harbour at the (now-cancelled) venue so we decided to head there anyway to break up the trip to Newcastle. We set out in my car, Rick’s car and the van and had a leisurely drive to Coffs, stopping at Hungry Jacks on the way for lunch and calling other venues in Albury to try and tee up another gig. Rob from Roibar in Albury was very helpful and tried his best to accommodate us but in the end it was a bit too late notice. We arrived in Coffs late afternoon and met with Larelle (head bar lady) and Simon the manager. We were originally told that the venue Hoey Moey was going under renovations and no bands were playing. After arriving and not seeing a renovation in sight let alone the fact that Evermore had played 2 nights earlier we decided there was something a bit dodgy going on. We had a chat with Simon who was equally vague about the whole thing and convinced him to let us play through our own PA we had brought (as well as throwing in the accom for free)… This was good news not only for the tour and morale but the fact that some friends from Upsize had driven all the way down to see them play now made their trip worth while. So we set up the PA on the massive stage and grabbed a bite to eat (no doubt the chicken snitzel for Barn – his staple dinner for the duration of the trip). After a quick couple of games of pool we hit the stage first and belted out a fun set with a few songs that we hadn’t played live before and a few oldies. There wasn’t a big crowd but it didn’t matter as those who were there really enjoyed it including King Charles from Papua. After our set he came up and decided he wanted to buy us all beers and promised that if we ever went to Papua New Guinea he’d have 100,000 people turn up J. I don’t remember getting any free beer but have a clear memory of an affectionate punch to the kidney from King Charles in what could only be a local custom I expect. (The guys seem to remember receiving quite a few beers from him though…) Upsize took to the stage (with me as their fill in guitarist) and blasted through a fun set. Had the crowd dancing (including Ben and Barn) and we all had a swell time. There were some other people from the bar next door and the 2 guys from a myspace invite who turned up (the first time I recall a myspace message actually working). Anyway we flogged a few CD’s and tour shirts and what was going to be a total non-event turned out to be a very rewarding night (followed by a party in the Upsize room). 26th After relocating to another room during the night due to someone who shan’t be named snoring volume we all eventually surfaced and after a quick look at the adjacent beach hooked into a great breakfast across the road from Hoey Moey at the local café. After breakfast and a quick trip to the chemist to buy some earplugs we all hit the road towards Newcastle, another 4 or 5 hour drive. Using the ol’ Navman and TomTom navigation aids we arrived at the Hamilton Station Hotel and unloaded all the gear from the van into a shed ready for the night later. Having arrived earlier than the Upsize guys we met them at the Cambridge Hotel where we’ll be staying the night. After checking in I had a little lie down to regain some energy for the night whilst the others lazed about in the common room or played pool downstairs. Arriving early at the venue we threw all the gear into the back room and grabbed a delicious dinner (chicken snitzel amongst other things). The place was pretty packed but everyone seemed more interested in singing (and listening to dodgy) karaoke than seeing live music. Anyway, some mates of mine were there and a local band called Truth Ruby opened up. Young guys not long in the game but they were fun to watch and they had a few mates there as well. Upsize (again with me helping on guitar as for all shows on the tour – their other guitarist is still committed to the AC/DC band for the time being and couldn’t make the tour) jammed out on stage. I nice moment was when a whole bunch of young guys ran in and jumped around for a couple of songs and then had to leave equally as fast to grab a train. We then played our set and again some young guys came in right at the end and wanted us to play more but Dale the sound guy had already pulled the pin. A strange set up for sure at this pub – would have been a lot better for us if the bands were out in the main room and not packed into the back corner room but you learn from these experiences. After a few post gig games of pool (with the walking boobs) we headed back to the Cambridge to sleep. Barney decided he wanted to party on downstairs (even though he wasn’t aloud in) and then couldn’t get through the security doors to the upstairs bedrooms as he didn’t have a key. After an amusing phone message about wanting me to let him in (which I didn’t get until the next morning due to my phone being off) he was eventually let in by a couple half hour later. Upon entering the room where Pete and I were he exclaimed that he couldn’t wait to “…get out of this industrial shit…” and promptly fell asleep. 27th Next morning we packed up and grabbed the gear from the shed at the venue. After locating a café in downtown Newcastle and having a breakfast wrap (which was bloody delicious but too big to finish) we headed to Warners Bay to meet up with some friends of mine by the lake. Upsize continued on down to Sydney whilst we had ice-creams and caught up with our mates. After we left Newcastle we headed to Sydney passing through the beautiful Entrance and carved out cliffs. Navman took us to Marco Polo in Summer Hill (near the Lewisham Live House) west of the city where we would spend the next 3 nights. We had this first night off so the 4 of us walked to the nearby centre of Summer Hill which had a pleasant village feel to it with a bit of a square and restaurants dotted around the place. After picking up some supplies from the supermarket we walked back to the room and met up with the Upsize guys for a chat (remarking on how we had seen football legend Arty Beetson in the hallway ?). The four of us then headed back to the town square to the local woodfired pizza place and proceded to have a very amusing night as we enjoyed great food, a bottle of ‘Promised Land’ wine and fun company (including the Liverpudlian girl Pete mistakenly called Welsh)…. 28th Next day we caught a train into Circular Quay and Barn, Ben and I split from Pete who was to meet up with a long lost relative he hadn’t met before. So the 3 of us thought it would be fun to catch any random ferry out into the harbour. At the dock we talked to two nice old ducks (ladies) who showed us all the best walking tracks and placed to see via ferry – and gave us their map as well. So we jumped on a ferry and spent the next half hour cruising around the harbour near the bridge and opera house, around Kirrabilly House (where the PM hangs out). On the ferry we received a text from Pete that the new Transformers movie was being shown in Imax at Darling harbour on the biggest screen in the world. Any thoughts of extended ferry travel were cancelled and as soon as we got back to Circular Quay we hoofed it down to Darling Harbour (again ‘borrowing’ maps from total strangers) and made our way to the Imax theatre. Unfortunately all shows for that day had been sold out but we got tickets for the 3pm showing in the following day. Ben, Barn and I then walked up to another cinema near Town Hall and grabbed a Subway feed before heading back to Summer Hill on the train to meet Pete later on. We got off at Lewisham station and took some photos of a wall of a dark green shop that someone had painted with Star Wars murals then walked down to the venue to scope it out. Had a beer and a relax after walking all day and made our way back to the Marco Polo Hotel. Hooked up with Pete and the Upsize guys and dropped our gear down at the venue before proceeding to eat more snitzels and dinner and beer… Mike Cook and his partner from Redeeming Features turned up to do the sound and after setting up Upsize hit the stage (again doing guitar). Great sound and venue, Upsize’s friend jumped on stage for a bit of tambourine action. We were up next and blitzed through a set that sounded great on stage (and apparently front of house as well). They don’t usually do bands on Sunday night so they were quick to cut us off around 9:50pm to get out by 10pm. Was good fun though and nice to meet the Redeeming Features guys. After the show Barns mates John and Bec came back to the hotel and Upsize crammed into our room and an impromptu jam broke out, the highlight being Pete belting out Tom Jones in his best Welsh accent. 29th A slow start to the morning but Ben, Pete and I made our way down Parramatta Road to Jacksons Rare Guitars, a shop I’d wanted to visit for sometime. It has some really rare guitars on show so they have the front door locked. After gaining entry with the special code word we had a browse and we asked permission to take a few pics which they were completely happy with. They were so casual they didn’t mind me playing a $90,000 1960 Fender Strat! After checking out the neighbouring record store we headed back to pick up Barn and think about heading down town. We met up with John and Bec again for lunch (everyone feeling a little worse for wear) at PJ Murphy’s Irish Pub not too far from Town Hall Station (after a quick walk through QVB). After Pete had consumed his giant dick shaped sausages and we had all finished we bid farewell to our Sydney friends and slowly made our way to the Imax theatre to get in line for the Transformers movie. Luckily we arrived early because it really started to fill up but we had a snooze and lay about until they let us in. After taking a back row centre position we awaited the onslaught that was Transformers 2. If you have never seen a movie at Imax do yourself a favour and check it out. Our hung-over brains were overwhelmed by the shear scale of everything but it was a great experience. When we got out of the viewing with our pupils dilating back to normal it was dark so we headed into the city for a light dinner and drink at a bar before making our way back on the train. By the time we got into bed we were well spent and some made a valiant attempt to watch Braveheart on TV but before it was out we were all well and truly out. 30th This morning we packed everything up and headed south with the intention of staying around Albury. After dipping into the combined fuel fund we filled up van and cars and off we went. Quite the hike across the countryside and around 5pm we arrived in Albury. The Upsize guys were behind us a ways but we decided to press onto Melbourne to get the drive out of the way. Somewhere around 7pm we hit some significant weather (to the point of not being able to see the road for a few seconds at a time due to the rain). After powering through that we had our mate Matt tee up some accom near his house in St Kilda. The Upsize guys decided to stay in Albury and we arrived in Melbourne around 9pm. The easy-stay had secure parking which was great so we parked up and through some gear into the room, grabbed a very tasty kebab from the boys downstairs before heading over to Matt’s place to see him and Nina. It was decided to go check out the Espy nearby and we enjoyed a couple of bands over a few beers to celebrate the band’s 3rd anniversary and arriving in Melbourne. July 1st Another slow start with a big breakfast before packing up and leaving the cars in the car park we walked up to Matts unit. After piling into his car he drove us around to a few guitar shops (including a bass / acoustic store). The final one will be memorable, particularly for Ben as he bought a Gibson Explorer there amongst the many beautiful guitars. He seems to think I twisted his arm but he was going to get one – it was meant to be… Heading up to Brunswick and the Noise Bar. We met up with Simon and Dan who run the music there and Poppy showed us to our rooms. After getting comfortable and loading our gear into the venue we hung about and checked out Ben’s guitar, changed guitar strings, checked out Ben’s guitar, cleaned the guitars, checked out Ben’s…..you get the picture… The four of us then headed up to find somewhere to eat and after a bit of back and forth searching found ‘The Penny Black’, a great high ceilinged pub with open fires and a very cosy feel. After a few beers and some $6 pizzas Pete came back from the bathroom and pointed at me and said I have a challenge for you… Back in early 2007 we were playing Galaga in Rics bar so Pete knew I liked it so he gets me to look out the back and there is a Galaga machine with a challenge attached to the wall. The piece of paper said if you can beat the highest score you’ll get 9 free beers. 9 Free beers! Challenge accepted! Admittedly it wasn’t the highest score but after some extreme shooting we went well passed the highest score and scored our 9 free drinks :) This was followed up by some long range dart throwing before retiring to the Noise Bar for sleep. If there was a reason the place was called the Noise Bar tonight was the night to live up to the name. Around 9pm the Gay and Lesbian night kicked off downstairs in ernest and such a din I haven’t heard in a LONG time. The sound system was that loud that we might as well have been sleeping in the club. Walls were shaking and tempers were fraying under the weight of the sound. Being a light sleeper there was no way I could have even thought about sleeping there so I grabbed my mattress and dragged it through the kitchen and into the storage room in the back corner where it was still loud but down to a dull roar. 2nd After spending the night with the rats I got up and waited for the others to get up after a hellish night trying to sleep. I think it stopped around 3am… Eventually the others rose and after breakfast we caught a train down town to Melbourne central. Taking in the sights we ambled around as trams trundled past. Barn bought a nice jacket from Myer from Naomi who promised to come to the gig tonight (but didn’t). After lunch in a nice alley way (McKenzies row) we caught the free city tram around to Flinders Station and caught the train home to Brunswick. Later in the afternoon we returned to the Penny Black for a cheap pizza and beer before heading back to sound check. Dan, the friendly sound dude did our sound check after we’d set up and we unpacked everything ready for the first band The Oakes who were to kick off at 8:30pm. They were a John Butlery type group and had a nice crowd. Around this time Matt, Nina and Amy turned up and got ready for Matt to play in his band Teaza. Paul is the lead singer and we’d been talking over the last couple of months about this gig so was good to finally meet him. They had a fun set but I would have liked to have seen Matt do more of the solos… We took to the stage and ripped straight into Checkmate, Slidey Song and That’s Life. We were having the whole show recorded (multi-tracked) so we went in all guns blazing. We also had the middle 3 songs videoed for Noise TV and they were Sin, Lighten Up My Day and Promised Land. The start of Promised got everyone to their feet with our new little kick drum intro which was great. We finished off with United, Take it Away and Believe with an impromptu encore of Under Fire. A memorable moment (amongst the many) was the crowd particularly getting into the bridge of Believe. Great vibes… Upsize then took the stage and rocked out. Part way through the set Ben was gesturing to me and I had no idea what he was saying. After I while I worked out that he was asking if I wanted to play his Explorer! Of course there was a very positive response to that so he grabbed it for the next songs..Great to play! A great gig to end the road part of the trip. 3rd On Friday we packed up and headed back towards St Kilda to stay back at the easy stay we had stayed at on Tuesday night. After checking in we split for the day and I headed to Geelong to see an old friend whilst the others went to the market. After a brief reunion with the guys later in the day we all went our separate ways to catch up with respective friends who had moved to Melbourne. Pete and I had to share a double bed so we didn’t sleep too well… 4th Up at 5am to begin the marathon drive home to Brisbane. As per standard procedure Barn was co-pilot in my car and Pete and Ben wrestled with the van. For all of us the first couple of hours were a struggle to keep the eyes open. Eventually we pulled over to grab some breakfast in a small town somewhere in north Victoria. After some food and a Mother energy drink (which we should have taken shared out in) we soldiered on, soon departing Victoria for southern NSW via new roadworks around Albury which through us for a bit of a loop. It is fair to say that there is not a great deal between Melbourne and Queensland when you travel out the back up the Hume and Newell highways. Plain after plain, mile after mile we slowly ate away the distance to home. Around lunch we stopped on a wind swept plain at a café for a hot drink as it was VERY cold outside. We eventually made it up to Narrabrai after 15 hours driving and after finding a relatively cheap hotel (where this time Barn and I had to share a bed – but at least it was a queen size) we hit the local bowls club for dinner. You know those movies where the stranger walks into the bar and the music stops and everyone turns to stare – well that was the Narrabrai bowls club. None-the-less after a great feed and a few beers we went back and hit the hay for the final leg of the journey. 5th Up by 7 we were on the road just after 8 and knocked over the final 580km to Brisbane (going via Toowoomba) to arrive back in Brisbane around 2pm. After dropping Pete off we dropped all our (and Upsizes) gear at our place and returned the van in one piece (but a hell of a lot dirtier) to the hire joint. Road Mission complete. 14th Spent the last couple of days finalising the vid for Say It Again. Uploaded onto youtube and atband sites. We’re all really stoked with the result! And considering the length of time we had to shoot on site – great result. Spent the rest of this month rehearsing for final tour show on Saturday and talking about what’s next on the cards…. August 1st A day that will live in infamy :) Tonight was the final show on our tour and what a way to go out! Held at the starbar, up a flight of stairs at the Jubilee Hotel in The Valley, we arrived early to help Dylan the sound guy load his gear into the venue as well as lugging all our own crap up the stairs (Barn’s amp is always a favourite). After setting up the gear and the front table Pete, Ben and I grabbed something to eat downstairs (Barn was coming later for some reason) and headed back up to man the front door until our ‘ladies’ turned up to take over for us. Met with the guys from 1989 who were to kick off the night. Cool bunch of dudes. They went on around 8:20 to a pretty full room and rocked the house with their take on AC/DC inspired rock. A very enjoyable set from the parts I saw when not talking to everyone… Next up was Upsize and I helped out on lead guitar duties again for a real kick-arse set. By now the joint was pretty packed and the boys put on a great show. I tended to take a step back and let them do their thing but that was kinda hard as Duff was doing his usual best to push me toward the front! Great fun though and very enthusiastic crowd. The interlude between bands was kindly played by the likes of The Cult and the Foo Fighters and before long it was our turn to shred up the stage. After a quick thanks to the other bands we did our little intro only for me to realise my amp was on stand-by! After that minor hick-up we kicked into Checkmate and a killer set. With a couple of encores we played for about 1.5 hrs and loved every second of it. The crowd were really great and getting into it and our photographer Mick got some cool shots for the record. A great way to end the tour. We are stoked with what we achieved on the road and look forward to the next adventure…. For the remainder of August we put aside the electric gear and ripped out the acoustics with the intention of doing some live recording in the studio and scoring a few gigs later in the year. A few new songs are appearing too which is nice and we look forward to developing those as time goes on. September Had a couple of ‘rock-mode’ jams for a gig on the 11th at the Step Inn. Upsize are putting on a show and have kindly asked us to support them along with Method of Play and Temple Mount. Had the Upsize boys around on the 10th for a quick run through as their other guitarist is still contracted with his other band. Looking forward to rocking out again! 11th A different sort of gig tonight at the Step Inn. It was held in the corner bar at the front of the venue and was different because of the stage position and configuration. The bar in this room takes up most of the available space leaving little room for many people let alone a band amongst them. Consisting of pieces of wood spread across milk crates in an ‘L’ shape around the bar, the stage was actually quite fun to play on. We were the first band on of the three and so we squeezed around the ‘L’ and played through a few songs that we don’t play very often. About 30-35 minutes worth. Was great fun as usual and Barn took advantage of the close proximity to the bar top by standing on it for a while. Upsize were on next and I helped them out again on lead duties so there were 5 of us up there (four people up there was challenging – five was plain funny but we managed). A great set and enthusiastic crowd for the boys. Last up was Temple Mount – Lowy the bass player knows my brother and we had looked forward to seeing our respective bands play. It was worth the wait as they were really cool with great riffs and a mad lead singer – I think his eyes rolled back into his head on more than one occasion. They also commented on how much they dug our set so that was encouraging. A swell night all round. Pete went on holidays for a couple of weeks back down to Melbourne so we had a couple of low-key jams with the other boys. We took advantage of the chill time to work on some new acoustic riffs. All 3 of us had something to offer and by the time Pete got back we had a few new songs to work on. This pretty much saw Sept out. October Acoustic jams continue and we are all really enjoying it. Such a different vibe from the rocky stuff and some really interesting chord progressions are immerging. Barn picked up Ben’s acoustic at one stage and presented a groovy riff which we’ve since turned into a song. It is our intention to not only do some acoustic gigs soon but we want to video ten or so songs in The Vault and make it a bit of an event with nice lighting etc. So we’ve gone through all of our songs (50 or so) and narrowed it down to the 10 which we’re rehearsing until we think we’re ready to video and record properly. 31st A momentous occasion today. After many years of talking about getting a piano our new (old) one arrived today. Last weekend our check out the ‘Weekend Shopper’ paper and after 3 phone calls and one visit to suburbia we decided to buy this old piano (after only seeing the one). It is beat up and I’m not sure how old it is but it is in tune and plays well enough (and was really cheap). So it now stand proudly in the corner of The Vault where other bits and pieces that once had a home have been relocated to other parts of the room. (The room is fairly chockers now so if new stuff comes in something’s gotta give). November 3rd Tried to have a jam with the guys on the piano only to find that although the piano is in tune (with itself) it is not in tune with the rest of the world so we abandoned that idea. 4th Piano tuned 6th Had a great jam with Pete and Ben and the piano (Barn couldn’t make it). Was great fun and look forward to exploring that concept again when we next get together. Next prac had a very inspiring jam with all of us and played the piano and rocked out a few old tunes. I’m sure it will make its way onto an album sometime in the future… December Rounded off the year with a handful of acoustic rehearsals getting ready for some acoustic shows in 2010. Wouldn’t mind recording a few as well. Been coming up with some nice ideas (also for inclusion on an album at a later date). 29th Barn and I brought around a couple of mates for an amazing afternoon jam that went for around 8 hours. Combined with a ‘couple’ of beers it was a very fun and inspired afternoon/night with a bunch of random originals forming followed by a bit of a covers session going through classics by bands like the Foo’s to STP and Chili’s. I pounded the crap out the drums for the session and woke up a bit worse for wear not being used to that type of exertion :) Overall a fantastic year with the release of our debut album, signing a distro deal and experiencing our first tour. Can’t wait for what 2010 brings…..