Preparing a demo (sort of)

After the last gig, a friend of mine who works at Zouk asks if we wanted to play ZoukOut. Of course, we would. He asked for audio recordings of our songs. Problem is, we don’t have any. The plan was always to gig what we can to hone our set, and then go to a studio. So the week had been spent putting together what we can on my home computer. It sounds all right so far, I just wish I had a subwoofer, because the HS50M’s really lack in bass. It makes monitoring near impossible.

We’re going with three songs: It’s Always Summer, One Live Baby, Unlike Other Guys.

Hopefully these three songs would be enough to get us a gig; if not, it’s a good exercise for us anyway. Apparently most places need a demo these days before you’re allowed to play. Maybe it’s because we have so many bands in Singapore these days, that it helps to filter things a little. It was different in the 90’s. Probably because there weren’t as many bands then, or that bands weren’t ever really expected to bring in a crowd.

I suppose it’s the latter. Coz then we didn’t have BayBeats.

This is the latest logo, and probably the one we’re gonna stick with. It’s done by Joanne Tay, who some may know to be Little’s girlfriend. Anyway, they celebrated their 10 years anniversary as a couple a few weeks ago.

First show rocked

Several old friends came to watch. That alone would have made the night special.

The set started slow: we were told to turn our guitars up; I struggled with an out-of-tune string. Still, by the third song, the audience began to clap along. The night ended with Teenage Kicks.

We were beaming after the 25-minute set. We couldn’t do an encore, because we hadn’t prepared anything else. Seven songs in total. Six of which were originals.

When can we play again?

This is us playing “It’s Always Summer,” technically the newest song of the night.

Debut Gig: Keeping It Peel!

3 More sleeps to our first gig! Okay, we’ve been busy rehearsing our set, and also getting our photos taken just so we can.. be sort of a band. Like you have to do band things before you can call yourself one.

So anyways, a debut gig’s always an exciting step forwards for a band. For starters, it’s months of hard work, writing songs and rehearsing them so they sound just right. Sure, we won’t be a finished product, but your first gig is how I imagine a birth to be. Not that i’ve had babies, but y’know..

Anyways, we play the Prince Of Wales, Thursday October 8 at 9pm. We play a mean set of 90’s inspired Brit-Rock. Well, that’s how I describe it, it’s really just alternative rock, there’s just so many different substyles.

If you’re coming down, let us know on the Facebook events page!

Things falling into place

Preparation for the coming first gig is underway. Had a proper photo-shoot today with Little at Colbar. We arrived at 9 AM and found that they only open at 11 AM. So we shot what we could on empty stomachs and parched throats before breakfast at Holland Village Food Centre. This is technically our second session with Little; he had come to our practice session once, which was when he shot this:

We have also created a Shelves page on Facebook.

It seemed necessary (or useful) after Ben put up our gig: Keeping It Peel 2009

Gig confirmed

We’re totally going to be playing at Prince of Wales, 8 Oct. Together with two other bands: Midnight Marvel and We GANG. I haven’t heard of either, but Ben says we’re lucky coz the latter brings in the crowd. I like its name a lot. Show starts 9 PM. I think we have the second slot.

The date came as a bit of a surprise, a week earlier than we had expected. It meant we had to pack in more practice before the gig. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Everyone seems game to make this work. I want to make this work.

We were asked to submit a band picture but didn’t have one. Thankfully, Little (fFurious) agreed to help. It’s certainly not the first time he has, having created my EP cover art while I was playing as Silverspy, subsequently taking pictures for me right through to Suchness. I doubt there were a band in the 90’s he hadn’t shot.

Unfortunately, this shoot won’t happen until next weekend, which meant we had to submit another image: the logo. Fortunately, more than one friend spotted that it was a bit too close to BooksActually. (It really was.) Out of nowhere, Robin did this, which we used:

First gig on the horizon

Got an email from Robin while I was in Edinburgh. We could be playing in October at Prince of Wales pub. A John Peel tribute gig. This couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.

We quickly settled on six songs and practised the set today. It has been over a month since we last played together. There were mistakes all over the place. We should get it right in time for our first show. I should also finish writing the lyrics to some of the songs. Can’t be singing gibberish through the set. (I got away with that once, performing at HMV with an earlier band. Made up sentences while looking at the CD rack. It’s a bit of effort.)

This is a video from my favourite band of the moment: The xx. It’s great to hear minimal pop.

Hiatus

Taking a break. I’ll be off on vacation and will only be back in September.

Robin recently got some news about a possible gig in early October. That would be grand, except Brian might be starting on a new job somewhere in Changi, which is so far away the weather’s actually different. So he’s not too sure about making it, but I think we’ll find a way.

Things seem to be falling into place. We’ve been liking the new studio. Second time was even better in the bigger room. Clearest recording we’ve gotten yet. It also meant we could hear all of our mistakes.

A few things to sort out before the tentative gig then.

Meanwhile, check out this video. I’m not sure what it is that does it for me. I think it’s the composition. So much headroom is left above the subject that it feels otherworldly. The camera is locked on the singer for an unnaturally long time, which heightens the tension. The song is perfect, though I don’t understand a word.

Avner – Bed För Mig

New Studio

Brian suggested we try somewhere else other than 3FX, which was getting to be a bit much with the stairs. The other studio is just on the next street. It’s called shiinstudio and it’s only on the 2nd floor. The place is pretty spartan. You are greeted with no real furniture of any kind, except for a desk and a chair. The chap minding the place was friendly enough, making sure the A/C was cold enough for me. (It wasn’t really.)

The room isn’t very big, and that’s good. Everyone could hear everyone this time around, because we don’t need to turn up our amps very loud. The room was also brightly lit, which meant we could look at each other, smile, nod and wink. (Ok, there wasn’t any winking.) If this sounds like the perfect room, well, it sure sounded like it. For the first time, the recording came out sparkling clear. It’s not Steve Albini. But it was certainly good enough as reference. We could finally hear the parts of the songs properly.

Bye bye 3FX. Not fixing the sputtering, barely breathing air-conditioner didn’t help.

Oh, we also started with a new, older song I wrote in college. It was always just two verses and a chorus. The lyrics aren’t fully written yet, but we took a stab at it anyway. Quite like how Alien Invasions turned out. Reminded me of Velvet Crush when everyone was playing along to it. Seems refreshing to do something relatively straightforward for once.

Getting some things right

The last session went by without incident. We wanted to pin down two or three songs for recording. We went through those pretty quickly. Not much change. I don’t know what I was expecting. The songs don’t sound wrong, but neither do they feel terribly exciting. Maybe we just need to play live or record soon.

Quandary

There’s this tune that I have been meaning to complete. It started when I first discovered Red House Painters. If anything, it should give you an idea of how old the song is. It’s not complete. All it has is a riff and some structure of progression. I find myself playing this a lot, even though it has no ending. I would mumble through the parts that is supposed to have some singing, but otherwise, it has largely remained incomplete. With the two completely new songs now (more or less) in the bag, I thought I would tackle this old friend of a song.

It started off innocently enough. Me writing the words to my mumbles. Then the second verse came along and I began to sing something else. I thought it was better, but you can never be sure, especially when it’s new. So I tweaked it a little and see if I could fit it in with the original tune. Before I knew it, a third tune came from the same chord progression. It became obvious to me then that these were three distinct vibes, belonging to three different songs. They could not belong to the same narrative. So I was left in a quandary. Do I simply write the words to the melody I had been playing along to for years? Or do I go with something newer, fresher, but probably not as faithful to the spirit of the song?

Revisiting an old song is like wearing an older set of clothes. Size aside, they do not fit, look awkward and feel misrepresentative.