Aloy's Blog

Sunday, April 29, 2007

To be totally honest, today's band jam practise was totally and awesomely sucky. From our songlist of about 11 songs, we had to UNpick half of them mostly because the church's canteen did not have a condusive enough atmosphere for the band's sound-Loud Rock. Our sound is just bouncing off everything! NOThing was helping to absorb the sound and the result? An echoey room which made us sound terribly noisy. Songs like Take Me Out, Breakfast @ Tiffany's and Accidentally In Love were tyranically and unmercifully CUT.

I feel really sucky right now. HOWever..however..however, I have NO DOUBT that we WILL pull it off nicely. Funny. I should be feeling nervous, scared, panicky even that we will cock up....but I don't. I actually feel confident! Just remember guys......it's just another day playing music. Nothing else.

Good Luck Guys.

I love my guitar 1:47 am♥

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ooooh..ariáááh..yoh! Obá! Obá! Obá!

Finally! Found this damn Black Eyed Peas song from one of Joga Bonito's videos on Brazilian Football Skill. Eric Cantona said something like: "Believe me...you only make beautiful music if you know how to play in an Orchestra." The Brazilians were damn cool juggling the Nike ball all over their locker room! damn cool. I only wish I could be as cool as them Music wise. BUT! ALAS!! It was never meant to be!!...or IS IT???

Anyways, the old vintage Vantage AMP I got from Nick was surprisingly....well....surprising! After ALL this time NOT using it in any way, it sounded soo good I had a hard time telling myself: "Yo dude! Put it away man! it's late dude! and you feel sleepy dude! Just put it away man!" I mean it didn't fry up! It didn't just DIE on me. I thought it sounded very oldie though. Anyway, I was just "trying" it on 'coz I wanted to tweak my pedal sounds for this Sunday's gig. That's right! The gig's THIS FREAKING SUNDAY!! DON'T PANIC! I said DON'T PANIC!!!...calm down...

Yup! panic and disorder aside, the gig's this Sunday the 29th of April. AND, after 2 practises, no matter how long they were, I still don't feel....what's that word.....confident? that we can pull it off nice and sweetly. There are still so many stuff the band still has to work on. Like proper sound balances especially between the guitarists. AND let's not forget the GELling part. I mean to be totally honest...we still lack ALOT of that band "bonding" which is apparently and most regrettably needed in the forming and producing of a way to find the band uncoincidentally sounding syncronized. In other words, some of us, including me, still have problems playing ANY song together. As in we still don't know our each and every playing style...and the feeling's just not there. Which I think is very very important when playing any song....the feeling.

FEELING- It's something you should get, when you play your respective instruments and you just feel you ARE playing THE SONG. Not just playing the song for the sake of playing the song. Know what I mean?...no?...well it's hard to explain it typing IT out like this. So if you really want to know what's this "feeling" thing I'm talking about? Just ask me when you see me...hopefully, I've figured out a way to explain IT verbally...haha

I love my guitar 5:39 pm♥

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Hey...anyone knows how to get rid of this Blogger.com thing at the top ^...?

Anyway, back to me...for the record, I am NOT an 'EMO' person. The last post was to boost the morale of my band mates......really.

Got my bluish green enlistment letter today. yipee. can't wait. I mean seriously, there's nothing to be afraid of in the army. Well, besides killer drilling instructors, malicious gaylords and endless weeks of marching, pumping and shouting....the army is the place to go to have fun and get paid for it. Daryl's finishing his army time and nothing has happened to Elvin...yet. So how hard could it be right? So it's 2 months or 8 weeks or 56 days till the "Island Paradise of Tekong". Bloody short time if you ask me. Too short a time if you asked me further.

I guess Nick was right when he told us that when we are far from Enlistment date, we would say "Argh! Army Smarmy! I can't wait to hold a gun!" BUT when we are close to getting enlisted, we would say "Eh! wah lan! SOO little time left sia! Damn diu lan man!"

So this is me saying: "Eh! wah lan! SOO little time left sia! Damn diu lan man! Like I'm not digging the army dude...Rifle Smifle!"...the only up side is that I would be getting paid I guess.

So long Leaven™! Fare well LC! Good bye world! I will never forget...well you know what I mean.

I love my guitar...

I love my guitar 2:43 pm♥

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Leaven had a good jam practice today. We practiced pop songs which Helter-Skelter had played before but didn't quite pull it off due to some unexplainable reasons. Why are we playing these? Well...the band has a P.O.P gig coming up next. There are going to be 3 seperate sets of songs which we are each going to perform in between the 2 morning masses @ Holy Spirit on the 29th. With only 2 more precious practices left, alot of stress has been put onto Leaven's shoulders.

However, chords and band parts are being finalized as you read this and the band is FAR from falling apart...in fact, after today's practice, I thought the band has reached yet another milestone. We have definitely come a great way from when we first started...individually AND as a band.
Auggy's drum timings and fills are AWEsome if not for some minor mistakes here and there.
Randall's timings have greatly improved and he has some KILLer solo skills, in fact, he should definitely do more lead parts here and there...have more confidence in yourself bro..we all do.
Zac's vocal range has noticeably improved alot. He can no longer just be called a bass...I'm convinced he can do alot of tenor parts now...have more confidence in your singing dude.
Fonz's skill with the bass does not only come with his newly aquired bass amplifiers. He was shaky with his bass playing in the past, esspecially with fast bass parts. One could tell that he was smoking in the background quite often in the past....play this part then stop awhile then play another part or play something which didn't sound right. Now, he is confident in his parts and is surprisingly good and comfortable with fast bassy songs.

With the arrival of Clifford, Dawn and Verena, the band can now reach new heights musically and spiritually, which I could only day-dream about before.

Then finally there is Nick...hehehe..you thought I left you out man...Nick has been with the band since the beginning. When we didn't have a name and didn't have anywhere to have our regular jam practice he was there. He has been with the band through it's rough times and smoo...wait, the band has never had a smooth time. It was he who kept the band together when we were known as Helter-Skelter. It was Nick who has lead us to become...Leaven.

With all that we've gone through, we can only get better.....and get cool band T-Shirts which Clifford is designing.

Truly it has been a pleasure...

I love my guitar 5:41 pm♥

Monday, April 09, 2007

Starlight...starbright...I see so many stars tonight! Leaven had a good time on Holy Thusrday night...there were laughs...there was Hysteria and there was a BIG old treat by Nick the Generous...thanks again Nick! bloody filling treat...

It started small at my place at 3.30pm..then it grew...

The usual guys came over for some jamming time...which turned out rather badly. The only musical thing we accomplished was Hysteria's Intro by Muse. The rest of the time was spent robbing pedestrians and kicking as much police and swat teams' buttocks in Grand Theft Auto-San Andreas...total waste of whatever's left of my nineTEEN year old life..the air-conditioning in my room wasn't even working properly. Either that or Auggy always left my room door wide open whenever he stepped out........yeah..it was my air conditioning...

5.30pm...we ordered 4 big fat Canadian Pizzas. Went downstairs to watch the Leaven video while snacking on juicy..pizzas and Pepsi. Were late for choir practise as we thought it started at 9...and the mass at 12mid...was I a dickhead!

8.25pm...I realised the error and scoot everyone out of the house and met Auggy who fetched us on the way. My brother was kind enough to help me clear the mess we made in my room while I made sure the guys went straight to church.

When we got there, we found out that we were not actually joining the choir..but the congregation. The two 'reserved' rows weren't even reserved! They were free seating...and we didn't even have to wear white. However, there were some good points of the choir.....I just can't think of any right now...no wait...no that's not it...well at least the organist was good. I mean like he was bong bonging all over the place...now THAT was a nice show..well sort of...

After the mass, we headed out to the ESSO near church to think of a place to hang out next at. We picked Ben up at his place, and waited for Ernie at another ESSO near her place. We got soo high over methane or what ever petrol gas they were using. When Ernie finally arrived, we headed straight for some Kallang steamboat place for supper. Nick treat us to a scrumptous meal and we left and went home...rite nites...thx nick

I love my guitar 8:30 pm♥

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Uumph! It was a very tiresome night...but it was also a night to be recorded in the books..or blogs. It was Leaven™'s very very very first REal gig. I say there were quite a few noticeable mistakes and screw-ups...but the people said it was great! as in G.R.E.A.T! Looking back...it REally WAS great! Take a look...

We look sooo professional. I had a dream once...it was for us to go professional..AND have fun at the same time...

looks like I was right...BUT like most things...it didn't stop there...look who else had fun...

The people were very responsive...even those 'act cool' ones right at the back

'aCt cool' one(s) circled many times in red...

I am sure Nick has signed us up for many more gigs..and I'm psyched about it. Looking forward to the next one on the 29th(pop gig).

p.s. It would be much appreciated if Nick gave us more breathing room inbetween gigs.

I love my guitar 6:25 am♥

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Hehehe...that's me. I'm not really photogenic as some of you might already know..so this is as good as it gets. I don't know about you guys...but that's freak'in sad. I'll tell you why...better yet, I'll SHOW you why...

that's me at a certain LC confirmation camp with all the nice smelling feet...BUT that wasn't all...normally it would just stop here...but noooo...

that's me again...on the floor at the same camp...get the picture?

Now THAT is typical LC behaviour...no matter how serious the situation was..we always managed to laugh it out...sometimes..most of the time..on somebody's expense. Some say LC took a break, others say it totally died, vanished, broke up, disbanded etc. If you ask me, I say it never died, vanished, broke up, disbanded etc. Reason? Simple...ALL these stuff are still happening..and they are always done by the same group of people. Behold...

This..ladies and gents..is LC's way of blossoming a BBQ fire...

As you can see, the same bunch of people are involved...

I think it's safe to say..LC has become stronger than it had been before..you know what happened with you know who...and who's to differ?

I love my guitar 12:05 am♥