Bompf Bompf Baby!

A friend of mine just witnessed a situation to which she informed me of this:

“Somebody just walked into the caff here, with EXTREMELY blue hair, and a mohawk. It looked really cool, but somebody just looked at him and he completely freaked out. There was swearing and yelling, then he picked up a chair to throw at the other guy.”

In my opinion, if you are going to do things that you know will draw attention to yourself, then you need to learn how deal with attention positively. I’m not in anyway implying that I believe people should conform to how we are expected to look/present ourselves (ask my Dad, I had hair that made everybody look in my direction), but face it; society today has those boarders that it puts on people. Image is one of them. If you look different than the person beside you, then people are going to be looking at you.

If you cant handle the attention, do not draw it to yourself.

We’ve all heard about Maher Arar correct? We know of how he was deported from Canada on suspicion of terrorist connections, and was tortured in his home country of Syria in 2002. We are also aware of how his lawsuit toward the government claimed $400 million in damages, which was then lowered to $37 million. Well, today Prime Minister Harper is going to announce the final settlement amount for Arar, which is $10 million, and an additional $2 million for legal bills.

Who’s covering that cost? The Canadian taxpayers. Can you believe it? The government completely screws up, and Canadian citizens pick up the tab. Not exactly a small tab either. Not to mention, its the Canadians that pay for the “services” provided by the government that made the mistake of linking Arar with terrorists. It is time for the Canadian government to get its act together, and stop shrugging these things off, at the expense of the people of Canada.

Completely Ridiculous.

Would you choose an untruthful corporate business to rely on for your own personal business, or for anything else? Pick “yes” or “no”. If you’ve answered “no”, then I have this question for you:

Why on earth are you still running Windows?

I recently discovered the Microsoft “Get the Facts” webpage, and found a number of humorous “case studies”, where corporations state problems they had with Linux, and why they switched to Windows. The funny part about it, is that I’m pretty sure that all the experienced/claimed issues with Linux, had solutions. Maybe they’d have to come up with their own software (which I believe is the main method used in creating Linux programs) or find alternative ways around the issues, that would be more cost effective in the end, then going to a Windows system.

One company claimed that Linux was more expensive to maintain, and also claimed ongoing crashes and system failures on a weekly basis. Personally I think these claims are complete garbage, as my computer has been running for over a week, and has not crashed yet. I’ve also experienced a smooth running, and excellent user interface.

Check out that site. And you’ll be able to laugh along with me at the stupidity of these “facts” that Windows is claiming, as a desperate attempt to win back the people that have realized how superior Linux is to Windows.

After so much time in the studio, my brain is in music mode. I’ve been listening to a lot of recordings lately, some from all time great bands, some from some amazing bands that aren’t quite as known as of yet. I just thought that I would share a small few of them with you. Sort of like a mini-review of some different albums that have been playing over and over in my head lately.

The first band is a band called “Broken Social Scene”. I recently picked up their 2005 self-titled album, which happens to be the fourth release from the Toronto based band. They originally began in 1999 with only three members on the first CD, and touring. At this point the bands line-up is different for just about every album and tour, as most of the members play and tour with other bands or as solo artists. Their sound is an incredible mix of experimental-indie-pop, that really does include many other styles as well. This album has been great for me because it has pushed me to think about music with songs like “7/4 (Shoreline)” and at other times just listen to the sounds that couldn’t flow better like with “Our Faces Split The Coast In Half”. This band is a very creative one, that has inspired me to be more creative with what I play. Most of the artists I believe must have some classical and jazz training. The band usually includes a horn section, guitars, drums and whatever effects that they think should be included. I have heard previous recordings from the band, and hope to soon get my hands on them. Something that I would probably classify as “great night-time listening”.

Speaking of effects, most of you have probably heard of the band “Incubus”. Well, one thing that sets this band appart from most other alternative-rock bands is that they have a full time DJ, that plays live shows with them allowing them to play almost exactly what you would hear on the CD. The album in mention here is second latest album to be produced by the band entitled “Morning View”. Many of you have probably heard tracks such as “Wish You Were Here” and “11am” on the radio. If not, I’d advise you to check the band out. The vocalist has an excellent range, and can belt out those notes for the heavy songs, but then completely change dynamics for tunes like “Echo”. A great band with a great signature sound.

The last artist I’ll highlight tonight: Miles Davis. What else is there to say? Other than the album I’ve got here is called “Poetics of Sound” and was given to me by a great man. A man who has supported me no matter what I’ve chose, and I thank him for that, and for this CD. The man happens to be my father- and if you’re reading this, you probably at least know of him. Anyways, Miles Davis was pure genius in music. His perfectly placed notes and the unmistakable sound of his “cool” changed music, and the way we listen to it. A great any-time listener.

There is a minuscule sample of some of my influences as a musician- and for those who didn’t know, I also play trumpet, and have since grade seven. There are plenty more, and maybe someday when I get around to it, I’ll make a page and list some of the music I listen to. And yes, I realize that I still owe you the “Drummer of the Month” but I’m waiting for the right first drummer to hit me (Sunni’s advice). It’ll probably start in February. Hope you can all wait that long.

So I’ve finally been able to get my own computer. The computer itself is at the moment not the greatest quality, but it is conveniently a laptop, and therefore all my work, and everything else goes with me wherever I go.

When I first received the computer, the first thing I wanted to do was just to get it up and running. So I decided that since I didn’t want to be playing around at first, I thought to myself, “Well, I’ll just quickly load Windows on to it, and do the Linux thing later”. Boy was I ever misleading myself.

The set up alone for Windows Home Edition took me over an hour, and then right afterwords, none of the hardware seemed to work. It wasn’t reading my USB ports, and CDs and DVDs weren’t working. Not to mention the headphone output, the LAN input and the wireless weren’t working. Then I realized, Windows didn’t even recognize that the computer was a laptop.

So, trying not to give up hope, I called my Dad.

“Alex, I have no idea about Windows, but Linux I can work with”, were the first words out of his mouth.

“Alright”, I replied, “I’ll try that Kubuntu disk that you gave me”. So I did just that. Within 25 minutes, I had Kubuntu up and running on my laptop. And it recognized that the computer was a laptop. The next test would be to test the LAN input. Once the cable was plugged in, I opened up Konqueror and typed in the URL for Google, and there it was. By the point of me writting this, I know for a fact that the DVD player works, that the speakers can be connected to it and work, I can play my music trouble-free, and my USB ports work. The only thing that I haven’t figured out is the wireless as of yet.

So, to anybody running Windows because they don’t want to take the time to learn a new operating system, that doesn’t fly with me. After spending a little bit of time on Linux, you get the hang of it. Not to mention that I can guarantee you’ll have less problems as far as your computer freezing goes, and it looks great. There are distributions of Linux (like Ubuntu, which I am running a version of) that are extremely user friendly, and more customizable than Windows.

Officially, I’ve decided to leave Windows for good, and spend the extra time learning to use Linux, and finding the programs that I need instead of resorting back to Windows. Now I’m not saying that I’m a Linux genius (as of yet), and I’m sure there will be times I am annoyed with it, but that’s basically the same with anything.

As most are aware, my band, Wise, Young and King, has been spending some time in the studio. We are creating a piece of work that we can be proud of, and that others can enjoy. At this point, we have now used 19 of our 25 hours, and have completed one track totally, and have yet to record the vocals for the three other tracks. We decided on four songs, focusing on quality as opposed to quantity. We divided our time up to this point, into four separate days. Enjoy!

Day 1 (Fri., Jan. 5): As usual, the band rushed around trying to get things ready for the last minute. We were booked at the studio for 7pm. By 5 that evening we were still moving stuff around (mainly returning a drum kit I had borrowed to rehearse with) and running out the door. After making a few stops on the way, we managed to arrive around 7:30. We had a quick discussion with Steve (our Engineer/Producer) about what we were going to do, and then it was set up time.

The drum set that I was using was a Sonor Force 3005. It is 100% maple, and is a very respectable kit. The shell sizes were; 20″x17.5″ Kick, 10″x9″ tom, 12″x10″ tom, 14″x12″ tom and 14″x5″ snare. We took the resonant head off of the bass drum (kick) so that it would have more attack. (In a live setting like a show, you would leave the “reso” head on in order for “low-end” and volume to prevail.) The cymbals that I used were all Sabian AA series, and although would not be the cymbals I use next time, they sound just fine. Again with the details; I used 14″ high-hats, 16″ and 18″ crashes, a 20″ ride and a 10″ splash. Every individual drum and cymbal had its own mic (not sure of the make or model of any of these) and then two overhead mics. Once everything was ready to go, including Jimmy’s bass, it was time to get down to business.

We started recording our first track (and I have decided that I will not release the names of the individual track, I will simply refer to them as “track 1″, “track 2″ etc.) and really found out the difference between “live off the floor” recording and “track recording”. At this point, the major stress began.

When you record live off the floor, you are all playing at the same time, and you all know where to go by reading the other musicians. When you are “tracking”, you record each individual instrument seperately. So knowing your songs, including lyrics, temo changes and everything else is key. Not to mention, your skills are tested when the click track is added in, which is basically just that. It’s a click that goes off on every beat, helping to keep the tempo of the song. If you go off, it will throw everybody off when they go to “dub” their parts over top of the drum track. When you are playing together, you can always see each other and you can feel if they are speeding up, or slowing down. I had never played with a click track previous to this, and lets say that I really wish I had lots and lots of experience with it, as it took me take after take to finally get one song with the click done. The drums and bass were recorded at the same time, so that added another dimention onto this type of recording. It’s hard enough to try alone, let alone keep another guy on time as well. With the bass and drums for track one out of the way, it was on to track two.

On this song, Doug played bass. We went without the click track from here on, and it took less time to get down. Lets just say if we were trying to use a click on all the rest of the tracks, then we’d still be on track two. After getting this song’s rythm section done, we decided to try one more track. However, after trying and trying to get the parts done, we scraped this tune, and decided that what we had was a good start on the cd. By this time it was around 1am, and I headed to Myles’ (guitarist) house for the night. 

Day 2 (Sat., Jan, 6): I woke up around 1 in the afternoon, and Myles was at work. So I just decided to watch some TV to pass the time. When Myles got home, we headed to Jimmy’s house for a quick gathering. Again, we were scheduled to be in the studio at 7pm again, and left Jimmy’s around 6:20.

Once in the studio, we listened to what we had accomplished yesterday, and I decided that as far as drums go, the first track was definately not up to par. So, back Jimmy and I went and re-recorded it. Again, after a few takes, I was quite happy with what had come out. For the second track, Doug thought that the bass line could have been better, so he just redid that, and left the drum track, as it was fine. Then we decided to get guitar tracks done for the two songs, and went on with that. The first track went over without a hitch. (Keeping in mind that these things take time. So as far as being quick is concerned, if you can get a part down in an hour and a half or less, you are doing alright.)

The second track took more time, as Jimmy was the lead guitarist for this song, and had to record the solo a few times in order for it to turn out the way he wanted. In the end he came up and proved himself worthy of the name, “Jimmy King” and recorded an amazing solo, that I think will make people really listen. From there it was time to lay down the rythm section for the third song.

This song was a new one to me. I had only played it a few times before, and always liked it, but didn’t really like all the drum parts that I thought of at the time. So, I decided to take some time to get something down that I thought did the song justice. In the end, what I came up with was something that I thuroughly enjoyed, and that I thought fit the song extrememly well. Once this was done, it was time to retire for the night. We stayed in the studio until aproximately 2am, so we were all very tired. Not to mention with time passing and getting used up, the pressure was begining to build and at points the frusteration level was quite high. Then next days break was being looked forward too.

Day 3 (Mon., Jan 8 ): With the bass and drum tracks needing to be done for only one song, the first order of business was to get them out of the way as it would be Jimmy’s last day with us.

This song was brand new material. Just two weeks before, we had begun writting it. Its got a great mix of different musical elements including the heavy sounds of rock, and some almost-funky grooves. Because of the more technical parts of this track, it did take a little bit more time to get it the way we wanted it, but the bass and drum parts sounded great after listening to them.

The second most important thing on the list was to make sure that anything that included Jimmy was done, so on to his vocal parts for one of the other tracks that already had all the instruments recorded. This would fill up the rest of the time we had booked at the studio for the day.

Day 4 (Tues., Jan 9): With all of the rythm parts completely finished, we needed to get the guitars done for the last two songs.

When you are in the studio, after the first day, it is basically a repetitive process. Rythm parts are done first, then guitars are added over top of that, and then vocals are dubbed in. When you get hungry, you walk across the road to the pizza shop. When you arent actually recording a part, you go out for a cigarette. Then you do it all over again. Then again. The most exciting day of being in the studio is definately the first day.

The other thing, is that it feels like you will never finish even one song, because even though your parts are “done”, when you listen to them played back with guitars over top, you start to hear things that could’ve been done better, so back you go to touch certain areas up. When you listen to it again, one of the other members gets an idea for a part they want to fix, and again the cycle goes on.

By the end of day 4, other than those little parts that require touch ups, all the instruments had been completely finished. All that was missing from the songs were vocals and the final mix down of all the songs. We scheduled Thursday, January 18th as the next day that we would be heading into the studio to finish up, but we may need to go in one more time after that. Or more even. We’ll have to see then.

So there you go. Sorry that it took so long, and I apologize if it is a little confusing to read, but I am not the greatest at writting. In the future I’ve decided that I’m going to need to explain more about technical terms as far as audio and drums go, so I was thinking of making up a “key terms” page on the site, that would be constantly updated, as I learn more as well.

And don’t worry, the Drummer of the Month feature is coming soon, but I was having some issues regarding my grandparents and their computer. However I now have my own computer, so I’ll be posting more frequently.

Ok, I lied… I did say that my next post was going to be the first of the ‘Drummer of the Month’ series, but that was before the insanity of recording came up from behind me and gave me a nice heavy whack on the head. Fortunately though, at this current moment I am riding on a cloud and basking in the glory of being in a studio, doing what I love to do and doing it pretty well (or at least so far, I’m liking what I hear). Therefore, I believe a post is in order.

I’m not going to give away too much, but like I previously stated, I do believe that things are coming together nicely. The band has started working together closely, and that has had quite a beneficial effect on our sound as a whole. It’s been a huge learning experience. I have been keeping a log of the days, and comparing the (drastic) differences between the last recording session, and the current multiple recording sessions. When I get more time, possibly tomorrow night, I’ll outline these and write something worth reading. For now though, this is all you get.

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Hope that everybody’s celebrations were safe and fun. I know that I had a great time. Me and some of my close friends decided to head across the boarder to Hull, where we are of legal drinking age. You can just guess what happened next. I also got one hell of a workout, as we had to walk from Ontario to Quebec and back (and by this time, walking was interesting), then from the bus station to where we were staying the night, which happened to be about an hours walk. Definitely a good night.

Also I would just like to inform my (few) readers that Wise, Young and King does now have booked studio time for the 4-6 January. Yes, that is Thursday. I’m extremely excited, and I know that the other band members are as well. Over the few days that we are in, I think that I’ll probably keep a small journal. It wont be big because we are not in for long, but I think that it’ll be neat to look back and see what I was thinking the first time, we took the time to make a proper recording. Don’t get me wrong, the first was good but we recorded “live off the floor” and didn’t have enough time to work with the mix. This time, we are doing fewer songs over a longer time period, and we’ll work more with each individual song, focusing on quality, not quantity.

Also, I was thinking that I wanted to start something kind of different than normal (or at least that is what I was thinking) in the blogging world. I’m going to start doing a “drummer of the month” post, but it’ll only really be based on what I’m kind of into at the time, with no general criteria for now. This all may change, but I just thought that I would start. My next post will be your first “drummer of the month”. So the anticipation begins.

Update: The studio time for the band has been moved to January 5, the 6th and the 7th. If we haven’t used it all by then, the 8th is a day that we could use to finish up all our time.