By A .Thomas

January

Over the past few months whilst jamming on the acoustics we’ve covered quite a bit of territory including revisiting a lot of the current rock numbers and also writing a few new tunes. To conclude our little acoustic foray we thought it would be a nice idea to record our first DVD capturing a handful of new acoustic numbers. So on Australia Day (26th Jan) we hired a few lights for the Vault and asked our mate Tony to come in and film for us. It was a great day and we ended up recording and filming 5 songs.

February

Sent off the 5 acoustic songs to Matt Gray for a bit of mastering action after spending a few hours off an on mixing. Didn’t want to get too carried away with it but had some issues with mic bleed from the PA which was a bit of a challenge. Came out sounding great though.

The big news of the month is that we have decided to record a new rock album. Second Act will be the next in the set and we spent a fun Friday night in late Feb picking the songs. We’re also going to make the effort to video bits and pieces and post ‘episodes’ on our facebook and web sites.Speaking of which we also engaged our buddies at Datasearch to revamp the website to be a lot more professional and user friendly than it has been. Our usual partner in crime Marty has handed the reigns to Meredith and we have been bantering back and forth as we look forward to a potential release date in May.Scored a copy of Pinnacle Studio 14 Editing Software in an endeavour to learn some video editing. Seems easy to use but the old computer hangs up a bit. May need an upgrade one day.

March

5th Had a jam with Ben and Barn. Pete was sick for the night. Knocked out a few cool ideas for the album.9th Posted our first episode of “Making the Album” on facebook. Titled “Episode 1 – Choosing the Songs”. I think this will be a great thing for us and the fans as it’ll be a nice record for us to look back on and also for people to follow along with what’s happening.

April

Rehearsals continue all month. We record a rehearsal CD of all the new songs plus a couple of new ideas.23rd Upsize rock out at the jube to celebrate the launch of their new EP. Great night for them

.May

5th The Cult! Tivoli – what a great night. Feel very fortunate to be a fan of a band that not only has been around for so long but are still playing and sounding so well. Got home drunk and recorded another episode for  the making od album series.17th Played our first acoustic gig in over 3 years at the Music Kafe in West End. Sandy (the owner) invited us down on a Monday night for what amounted to some sort of audition. She liked us so much that she gave us 2 sets on the 3rd June. Rawr Vanity (from the Rise workshop) also played. They were good fun.June

3rd Met up with mum for dinner at the Music Kafe – pre-gig. Barns folks, sis and bro came down as well as quite a few people. Played two sets 7pm and 8pm. Had some issues with Ben’s volume pedal during the first half of the first set. Nearly blew out everyone’s ear drums a couple of times so eventually disconnected it and everything was fine. Sets went down well.

9th Official start of recording! Tonight we set up Pete’s drums, placed all the mics and ran the leads. It was also the first test to see if the new pre-amp is working which I’m glad to say it did very well. Had an issue with the internal clock in Pro Tools clicking away but soon discovered there is setting that needs to be changed for the new optical cable. We did some rough recording but nothing too serious.

11th Jimi Lucas celebrated his 30th b’day down at the Music Kafe. The Moniters did a couple of sets, the first being a bit of a cover set. They asked a friend of Matts (drummers) to come and do a couple of numbers and asked me up to sing Everlong (Foo Fighters). Felt a little lost without guitar so brought up a tamborine to slam away on. And slam it did – sporting a massive bruise on right leg after bashing into it. Was a fun night.

16th Recording commences with Intro III and On Your Feet. Intro III is not until the next album but because it will lead directly on from Interlude II we wanted to create the same vibe. The intro is super fast compared with our previous jams on it The new set-up is great. Ben and Pete are in the studio and Barn and I are in the control room. Communication is a lot clearer between rooms than it has been in the past and playing all together is creating a completely new vibe. Great for Pete to play along to and seems to be a bit more inspirational for him than it has in past recordings.Spend remainder of month punching out That’s Life, Take It Away, One x One. The latter was one of the first times we really wrote on the spot. We added a tom part to the bridge which inspired a whole new section in the middle. Take It Away was to date one of Pete’s best ever drum recordings (in my opinion) – just brilliant.

30th 4th year Anniversary – Pete can’t make it so recording bailed for the night. Barn comes over around 9pm after visiting Jimi Lucas in the hospital who just had a hernia removed….ouch.

July

2nd Ripped through Left Wanting and Believe drums tonight. Pretty much done in one take each with a few groovy little additions added. Just goes to show how much a bit of practice and playing live helps.

Drums continue through the rest of the record eventually wrapping up on 16^th. Massive props to Pete – amazing takes!! Can’t wait to get into guitars!

17th After 6 years of exemplary service we thought it was about time the old Apple G5 went in for a check over. Whilst we’re at it we upgraded the RAM and got a bigger hard drive. One week later brought it home, plugged it in and within a few minutes it was apparent that something was seriously amiss – freezing constantly let alone opening pro-tools. So we’ve taken it back to get them to sort their shit out. Perhaps should have just left it.It was an opportune time to have the computer fixed as we have spent the last 2 weeks rehearsing for our much anticipated Globe gig on 31st. We’ve only been allotted 30 minutes but we’ll make the most of it.
 
Other news is that Media Hammer have used Say It Again as a soundtrack to their new promo reel which includes amongst other things the Crusty Demons! Nice bit of exposure for us…
 
31st Ben and Tim (a mate of Ben’s who has kindly agreed to take some pics for us tonight at the Globe) rock up around 5pm to grab gear and head down to the venue. Barn is giving me a lift down and turns up (a bit) later. Forgetting his jacket and wallet we head back to ‘160’ and grab them before heading down to the valley. Parking in the back carpark behind (on top of) the Globe (and as we discovered by watching young women leading a variety of men up a staircase - adjacent to a brothel) we said hello to a couple of the other bands who had just turned up (Drawcard and Epidemic Over) before heading down the back entrance to meet up with Pete, Ben and Tim. Also met Cass from Misdirection who were hosting the night.
 
We then met with Gerry Nicholls from gerryrocks.com who was our ‘official’ photographer for the night. After spending 10 minutes trying to round the 4 of us up for a group photo we headed into the green room behind the stage and grabbed a couple of nice shots and one on the stage as well.
 
Misdirection did a soundcheck on a couple of songs and after they had finished we set up for our sound check. We ran through a couple of songs and were good to go.
 
People were starting to rock up by this stage and after a few meet and greets we set up the video camera at the back, double checked with Eddie ‘sound dude’ Gresack that we were all good and hit the stage.
 
I had asked Beau, the lighting guy from one of the other bands to do our lights and he wasn’t interested so we asked Eddie to keep the lights down at the start and bring them up as the first song kicked in…but it was still dark way into the second verse or longer before Eddie realised and brought up the lights. He was so busy making sure the live recording we were doing was being captured ok that he forgot about the lights! John Turnbull (from school and ‘The Horse’ fame) came along and very kindly jumped in and did the lights for us! Was very cool of him.
 
We only had 30-35 minutes so we cracked through On Your Feet (nice opener), United (crackin’ ending), Say It Again (old favourite), On My Way (nice harmonies) and Under Fire (w/ Barn cutting loose around the stage). We concluded with 2 new songs from the album, Release and Believe. Unfortunately Barn had some Bass issues and some pretty intense pops were happening which took away a little from the show but we still put in a good performance. Even through the pops and whistles people really seemed to enjoy Release with its dynamic. Ed put some killer reverb on the vox for the bridge which had a nice effect.
 
All in all it was a great set with a BIG sound. Unfortunately for the middle 2 bands the crowd thinned a bit but then reappeared for Misdirection who had a great set – really good songs and musos. Had a chat to them afterwards – bought one of their CD’s and had them sign it. Got home around 1pm and lay awake for 3 hours, struggling to sleep…

August

11th Ekka (show) holiday here in Brisbane. Barn and Ben came over and we spent the arvo getting down the guitars and bass for United. As per usual we layered a lot of guitars which may or may not stay in the final mix – but it sounds great so far! Mucked around with sounds for a bit and got some nice tones for us all. Barn used a pick to record with for the first time and it gave the bass track a nice attack. Naturally there was a bit of bass double up which made for a really cool outro.
 
17th Ben and I pack up the guitars and head to the Tempo in the Valley for the Escalate show. We’re headlining tonight and our friends Upsize are playing before us. After Ben and I grab a $5 feed (steak and chips) and super expensive Asahi beer we meet up with Barn and the Upsize guys. Whilst playing pool and listening to The Snatch (a band who opened for Upsize at their launch in April) we decided there were a lot of woman in the room and as it turned out it was some sort of lesbian gathering which was quite entertaining as the night wore on. Upsize rocked the house as usual and by the time we went on I was decidedly drunk which made for an energetic set. Barn knocked over the bas rig which left Enlightened bassless for most of the song but got back on by the time the cool solo move came on. We also threw in Sin for Rick (drummer in Upsize) which we hadn’t played for about a year. Mostly pulled it off (I think). Barn was standing on the house kick drum which Bruce (sound guy) wasn’t too happy about and Al Buchan from Fretfest had some things to say about our image when we came off (Ben needs to move more, I need to grow my hair – which I just cut off incidentally, Pete needs to where a cap, all so we can all keep up with Mr Charismatic Barn apparently), although he did say that everything else was fine, namely the music :). Thanks Al! Bloody fun night though.
 
Finally got around to getting the DVD artwork finalised and into the printers. Should have those back soon…
25th Take delivery of 20 copies of our very first DVD  Looks great!26th Music Kafe Acoustic Gig….We were wondering why Pete didn’t turn up to practice last night and didn’t call/text (he normally is super conscientious) only to find out on the day of the gig that he is sick as a dog. He thought he might be able to fire up for the show but it wasn’t to be so we went into 3-piece mode. The Music Kafe has a new back line of instruments including a drum kit. The catch is that the drummer is supposed to bring cymbals and we didn’t realise this until the previous band started taking theirs off! Approaching Stu, the drummer from the Gatherers who were busily packing up I asked if it was at all possible to borrow his cymbals. I felt bad asking but we were really in a fix. He kindly offered to let me use his gear and hung around for the two sets we played. Also, cousin Joanna and Rob Schurmann’s girlfriend Megan turned up to see the show (Joanna had seen a flyer on the wall the night before). To top the night off, during an impromptu ‘story’ type song called Dirty Thirty (a story about Kristen Gickels 30th bday party the previous weekend) I incorporated a line about getting free beer from the bar which everyone enjoyed…and they came through with a free beer. A good laugh all round…
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September

10th rocked out on one x one with the V. got some fun stuff going and a bit more of a metal sound with Ben’s pedal. Speaking of Ben he has really taken the video by the horns and is churning out some fun ‘making of’ videos.

15th Barn through on some new strings and we got some takes for……

16th 3 weeks until our acoustic EP launch. Got a few things in place like hopefully a review in Rave and posters down at the Music Kafe. This time we’ve tried something more personal and sent out a whole bunch of personalised invites which I think people would appreciate more.

October

7th Great turn out for acoustic EP launch at the Music Kafe. Ripped through 2 sets with Checkmate and Believe being a couple of stand outs. A couple of mates who I hadn’t seen in a while turned up so that was a nice bonus.Ben has cracked through most of his parts for the album. One particularly tedious night for him was making him play the metalish bridge for Never Knew over and over until it was spot on. (Was worth it though as it sounds awesome).

Towards the end of the month I’ve jumped in to do a few parts before Ben finishes up his otherwise it’ll end up being me doing my rhythm, solos and vocals for months on end (which as much as the boys like me would probably give them the shits after a while). So I’ll at least get my rhythm stuff out of the way before Ben jumps back in….

November

3rd Knocked over the rhythm parts on Crashing Down and got a rough track down for Interlude II. It’ll need some more work though. Probably another attempt next week with fresh strings and head…The month quickly moves along as fast as some of these solos :) The last couple of weeks sees some takes on the lead breaks for One x One, Interlude II and Release. They’re coming out alright considering how long its been since we’ve rocked out for any length of time, considering all the acoustic action etc...

24th The first time the four of us have been in the same room for a few weeks due to personal commitments etc. No playing tonight but we listened through every song and made a couple of pages worth of notes of things that need to be changed/revised/added. Was very productive and a good point to re-focus as we’ve been adding bits and pieces for a while now without a real good overview of the album.

25th Played our last gig for the year at the Music Kafe (acoustic) and what a great one it was… Started off a bit slow at 7pm but then Mick turned up with a few of his buddies who had been at the Gabba cricket ground watching the first day of the first Ashes test (the Ashes being a hotly contested little urn with cricket ball ashes in it since 1882). So they were pretty merry and over the course of the next couple of hours the crowd swelled nicely and we were joking around a bit and having a bit of a laugh. One serious moment was when Barn dedicated Lighten Up My Day to his friend Jeremy who at the age of 22 was killed in a car accident a couple of weeks previously. I don’t think we’ve ever done a more heartfelt and well played version than this one. The night ended with Sandy (the owner) saying we had to cut short due to time but we promised to play the last song really fast so we played United super quick but ended up going quite long as Barn took his bass off and tried to coax the cute bar girl to play it. She was literally kicking and screaming from the behind the bar so he made do with another guy who works there…somewhere in the there Sandy had the bass on too and played a couple of bars… great fun…and flogged a couple of CD’s as well…

December  7th Off to U2 tomorrow night (Wednesday being our normal band night) so we jammed tonight. Ben was the only participant as Barn was in Melbourne with his other band Moniters and Pete had a school thing on but we got the most awesome riffery down for Believe. Ben’s part that is, sounds heavy as. The bridge just kicks arse! Also got his That’s life part down and tidied up a couple more things.

15th Set up the Rode mic for a bit of acoustic action. This time it was Ben’s turn to have a night off and Pete and Barn turned up. Strummed along to Intro II which has given it a new flavour. Also strummed through Left Wanting to help fill it out. Put a part at the start of Never Knew but not sure if it suits…might just leave Ben’s cool thing there.

17th Band BBQ. Every year around this time we have a few drinks and a BBQ and a jam to celebrate the achievements of the year, 2010 being no exception. Between the acoustic EP launch, a couple of higher profile gigs and recording the second record it’s been pretty hectic (especially with everything else going on outside the band)… great food, conversation and of course a 3 hour jam! (and one or 3 beers)..

22nd After an afternoon at the Polish Club drinking 8-9% beer (and feeling it) took the train home to band prac (running late due to beer) and Ben, Pete and I got all percussive on Crashing Down. Barn had earlier dropped off a car jack and a Jim Beam bottle to which we added 2 pots, cow bell, knocker thing, triangle, bells and a whistle. Got a fun sound for that breakdown part! Nice end to 2010..look out 2011!