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Caught Somewhere in Time
General | Posted 17 years agoWall of text :S. Sorry
Well my time off is almost over, I've only got one more week and then I'm back on the 2nd. Unfortunately I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped. I had really hoped to make a dent in my EP project in the month, but life threw me a few speed bumps along the way.
For starters, my guitars input jack wouldn't allow me to fix it again for like the 6th time. It's an easy fix, but it won't work now for some reason, so I took it in today to get that replaced and set up proper, so I have nice intonation and action. This has put off recording any solos because it's my main guitar and plays the best. My backup Rhoads is fine for recording rhythm, but I don't like the neck for lead work.
Secondly, I've been trying to write lyrics for all this, I only have one song that's
completely done with lyrics and that's "Heavy Metak." I have partial lyrics for Soldiers Prayer and had partial lyrics for Sasha, but grew tired of them and its melody. I've since re-written it 4 times and have settled on a set I like best.
Rush Delivery and Alone in the Dark have yet to strike me with any ideas for a premise and subsequent lyrics. As for "Scritch" and Switch it On, I'm planning on leaving those two off this disc, as I think I can finish them better separately. I haven't worked on "Scritch" in months as I was having a tough time completing the arrangement for it, so I'll leave it be for now. Switch it On I may re-arrange for it to have lyrics instead of being an instrumental. I like the riff enough that I think this would suit the song better.
Now, all of that is quite moot, as on New Years eve, our close family friends lost their 12 year old son to cancer. He had been battling it for 6 1/2 years, and at one point had it beat, but it came back about 3 years ago. Our families met when their oldest daughter and I met in grade 1 and have since been friends. Both our sisters became close friends, and our parents as well.
I'll try to keep it short, (believe me, there's a longer version, as I am renowned for my long-ass, super detailed stories), I drove out to my buddies place for New Years in North Van and got there around 10 that night. My parents were spending New Years with his parents, which happened to be at the hospital because he had suffered a rather strong seizure earlier that day, due to advancement of the cancer.
We were jamming in my buddy’s living room with his brother and I felt my phone vibrate and it was a text from my mom saying he had passed away 35 minutes ago. I just kinda froze, not moving or saying anything. I showed my buddy the text, then called my moms cell to find out which hospital they were at. I quickly raced across Vancouver to get back to Surrey and at first couldn't find the entrance that's open past 9pm. After going around some construction there, having to walk through a forest because of it, I finally found the entrance just as it struck midnight. Fireworks exploding in the distance, I thought, "wow...happy freakin' New Years."
Basically I got there and my family was already there. My parents were there when he passed and my sister and his sister raced from their party in Abbotsford. There was a CD still playing of all his favorite songs that they had turned on as he was slipping away. His mom had him cradled in her arms as she sat in the bed. The important part is he passed away peacefully in his sleep. He had started having troubles breathing, a sort of gasping as he slept and when it started to get further apart and eventually stopped, they called in the nurse. She took his pulse and said "It's getting very weak. Do you wanna get in the bed and we'll prop him up in your arms?" So they did, and literally not a minute more, and he was gone. We went home at about 1:30 and his family stayed there with him all night til 8am.
For the first two weeks of January, I didn't do a lot of work on anything, just cause I was kinda at a lose for what to do. I just tried to keep myself busy doing little things, like watching all 3 Jason Bourne movies. I couldn't concentrate on bigger tasks that required some degree of focus, as my head was not in it to play. Plus, I was totally in denial about the whole thing too, just because the whole situation at the hospital was so surreal. I woke up the next morning convinced it was a dream. It wasn't real, it couldn't have happened, it didn't happen. I'm not really in denial anymore, but it's still hard to believe he's not here. It's weird not to see him on the couch up at their house anymore. My dad's taken it pretty hard too. He was his little fishing buddy and best friend. They did everything together when our families were together. He was pretty much a second son to him and our families were and are more like family and not just good friends.
From there I spent all of the week prior to this one, practicing acoustic songs to play at his Celebration of Life. I rented a really nice Gibson J-45 electric acoustic, $2500 guitar. It was held at the Bell Centre and I played guitar as people walked in and watched a slide show of him that played behind me. For those who are curious, I played "Ordinary World"-Duran Duran, one of my acoustic songs (haven't recorded), "Dee"-Randy Rhoads, "I Got You"-Stone Temple Pilots, "Tears in Heaven"-Eric Clapton and something I just pulled outta my ass on the spot. Later on in the program I got up again and with his oldest sister, we played
"Delilah"-Plain White T's, his favorite song.
All this shifted the priority of things, especially learning songs that sound good acoustically, (already knew Tears in Heaven and Dee tho, so that helped). That, combined with guitar problems and writers block, I can only hope to squeeze out some progress in this final week. That, and it'll probably take you all of next week to get through my enormous wall of text. Haha ;). Again, sorry for the giant entry in a journal that I hardly use, probably could've broken it up into four separate ones as it all went down. Thanks for reading.
Well my time off is almost over, I've only got one more week and then I'm back on the 2nd. Unfortunately I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped. I had really hoped to make a dent in my EP project in the month, but life threw me a few speed bumps along the way.
For starters, my guitars input jack wouldn't allow me to fix it again for like the 6th time. It's an easy fix, but it won't work now for some reason, so I took it in today to get that replaced and set up proper, so I have nice intonation and action. This has put off recording any solos because it's my main guitar and plays the best. My backup Rhoads is fine for recording rhythm, but I don't like the neck for lead work.
Secondly, I've been trying to write lyrics for all this, I only have one song that's
completely done with lyrics and that's "Heavy Metak." I have partial lyrics for Soldiers Prayer and had partial lyrics for Sasha, but grew tired of them and its melody. I've since re-written it 4 times and have settled on a set I like best.
Rush Delivery and Alone in the Dark have yet to strike me with any ideas for a premise and subsequent lyrics. As for "Scritch" and Switch it On, I'm planning on leaving those two off this disc, as I think I can finish them better separately. I haven't worked on "Scritch" in months as I was having a tough time completing the arrangement for it, so I'll leave it be for now. Switch it On I may re-arrange for it to have lyrics instead of being an instrumental. I like the riff enough that I think this would suit the song better.
Now, all of that is quite moot, as on New Years eve, our close family friends lost their 12 year old son to cancer. He had been battling it for 6 1/2 years, and at one point had it beat, but it came back about 3 years ago. Our families met when their oldest daughter and I met in grade 1 and have since been friends. Both our sisters became close friends, and our parents as well.
I'll try to keep it short, (believe me, there's a longer version, as I am renowned for my long-ass, super detailed stories), I drove out to my buddies place for New Years in North Van and got there around 10 that night. My parents were spending New Years with his parents, which happened to be at the hospital because he had suffered a rather strong seizure earlier that day, due to advancement of the cancer.
We were jamming in my buddy’s living room with his brother and I felt my phone vibrate and it was a text from my mom saying he had passed away 35 minutes ago. I just kinda froze, not moving or saying anything. I showed my buddy the text, then called my moms cell to find out which hospital they were at. I quickly raced across Vancouver to get back to Surrey and at first couldn't find the entrance that's open past 9pm. After going around some construction there, having to walk through a forest because of it, I finally found the entrance just as it struck midnight. Fireworks exploding in the distance, I thought, "wow...happy freakin' New Years."
Basically I got there and my family was already there. My parents were there when he passed and my sister and his sister raced from their party in Abbotsford. There was a CD still playing of all his favorite songs that they had turned on as he was slipping away. His mom had him cradled in her arms as she sat in the bed. The important part is he passed away peacefully in his sleep. He had started having troubles breathing, a sort of gasping as he slept and when it started to get further apart and eventually stopped, they called in the nurse. She took his pulse and said "It's getting very weak. Do you wanna get in the bed and we'll prop him up in your arms?" So they did, and literally not a minute more, and he was gone. We went home at about 1:30 and his family stayed there with him all night til 8am.
For the first two weeks of January, I didn't do a lot of work on anything, just cause I was kinda at a lose for what to do. I just tried to keep myself busy doing little things, like watching all 3 Jason Bourne movies. I couldn't concentrate on bigger tasks that required some degree of focus, as my head was not in it to play. Plus, I was totally in denial about the whole thing too, just because the whole situation at the hospital was so surreal. I woke up the next morning convinced it was a dream. It wasn't real, it couldn't have happened, it didn't happen. I'm not really in denial anymore, but it's still hard to believe he's not here. It's weird not to see him on the couch up at their house anymore. My dad's taken it pretty hard too. He was his little fishing buddy and best friend. They did everything together when our families were together. He was pretty much a second son to him and our families were and are more like family and not just good friends.
From there I spent all of the week prior to this one, practicing acoustic songs to play at his Celebration of Life. I rented a really nice Gibson J-45 electric acoustic, $2500 guitar. It was held at the Bell Centre and I played guitar as people walked in and watched a slide show of him that played behind me. For those who are curious, I played "Ordinary World"-Duran Duran, one of my acoustic songs (haven't recorded), "Dee"-Randy Rhoads, "I Got You"-Stone Temple Pilots, "Tears in Heaven"-Eric Clapton and something I just pulled outta my ass on the spot. Later on in the program I got up again and with his oldest sister, we played
"Delilah"-Plain White T's, his favorite song.
All this shifted the priority of things, especially learning songs that sound good acoustically, (already knew Tears in Heaven and Dee tho, so that helped). That, combined with guitar problems and writers block, I can only hope to squeeze out some progress in this final week. That, and it'll probably take you all of next week to get through my enormous wall of text. Haha ;). Again, sorry for the giant entry in a journal that I hardly use, probably could've broken it up into four separate ones as it all went down. Thanks for reading.
Well hey there
General | Posted 17 years agoSo…I’m not usually one for journals, but I’ve been here over a year now, and haven’t really gotten to know anyone here, or really said too much about myself. So on that note, I figured I’d toss up a little something about me musically for shits n giggles.
Favorite bands, (in no order): Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Prism, Boston, Def Leppard, Van Halen, The Police, Journey, Rush, Queen, Ozzy (especially Randy Rhoads era), Queensryche, and Black Jacket, the band I jam/record with/for. Pimpage…www.myspace.com/blackjacket00
My main influences when I play stuff are kinda sectioned by each instrument, with a few specific artists, also in no order.
Singing; Steve Perry, Sting, Geddy Lee, Ozzy, Ronnie James Dio, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Ron Tabak, Bruce Dickinson.
Lyrics; pretty much the same as above.
Guitar; Randy Rhoads (my idol), Alex Lifeson, Eddie Van Halen, the Angus brothers, Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Slash (to some degree, mostly in rhythm playing I find).
Bass; Geddy Lee, Sting, Dan Monument, bass player from Yes, can’t for the life of me remember his name right now.
As you can see, a lot of overlap, but that’s just like specifics. There’s all the 2-300 bands I listen to that all contribute to it in every way possible.
So, there you have it. Me, musically, in a nutshell.
Now, to open up the Q&A, ask me w/e questions you like to better know me, and I’ll answer them as I see fit ;).
Also, collabs are dandy. Just throwin’ that out there. :P
Favorite bands, (in no order): Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Prism, Boston, Def Leppard, Van Halen, The Police, Journey, Rush, Queen, Ozzy (especially Randy Rhoads era), Queensryche, and Black Jacket, the band I jam/record with/for. Pimpage…www.myspace.com/blackjacket00
My main influences when I play stuff are kinda sectioned by each instrument, with a few specific artists, also in no order.
Singing; Steve Perry, Sting, Geddy Lee, Ozzy, Ronnie James Dio, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Ron Tabak, Bruce Dickinson.
Lyrics; pretty much the same as above.
Guitar; Randy Rhoads (my idol), Alex Lifeson, Eddie Van Halen, the Angus brothers, Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Slash (to some degree, mostly in rhythm playing I find).
Bass; Geddy Lee, Sting, Dan Monument, bass player from Yes, can’t for the life of me remember his name right now.
As you can see, a lot of overlap, but that’s just like specifics. There’s all the 2-300 bands I listen to that all contribute to it in every way possible.
So, there you have it. Me, musically, in a nutshell.
Now, to open up the Q&A, ask me w/e questions you like to better know me, and I’ll answer them as I see fit ;).
Also, collabs are dandy. Just throwin’ that out there. :P
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