13-04-09 – Barra sure can scream! / *Entrepreneurs it up*

Busy week! This week entailed:

- An AMAZING YAWA gig in Barrow (8/10)
- A lot of time spent with Kieran, Jamie and Eamon!
- A new KOC song
- Getting paid to make my first commissioned tutorial video!
- Threadz for a day!
- Ma soeur coming home
- Chilling with my homegirl Rachie!
- Sharing my homegirl Carnie’s cat “Jb” with the rest of the world:

D’AWWWW! cute, no?

So I was doing my hair and my make up an-SCREAM!!! *screams*

3 Hours driving is a long time. Fortunately, this was a gig in a place we had been to before and had amassed a bit of a fanbase – Barrow-in-Furness. If you’ve been reading that long, I blogged about our last Barrow gig last year… We’ve had two prior to this one and both went awesomely. People up there just seem to be up for going out and enjoying new bands.

So Kieran piled into my car, and Jamie into Zak’s and we began the trek. Kieran and I passed the time by singing along to busted and being generally heterosexual. Eventually pulling into a service station along the way for a rest stop. On walking in, we noticed a gambling machine which we jested: “Ha, Zak would probably go right over to that if he was with us.” We grabbed some beverages at Costa coffee and had a relaxed drink for a good 10 minutes.

Incidentally, an elderly couple gave us two chocolate muffins they had left over! Which I thought was ridiculously nice. Not that I ate one, being as averse to chocolate as I am, but Kieran certainly devoured them. To that elderly couple: you rock. A lot.

Anywayz, As we were leaving, we bumped into Jamie. He just so happened to have stopped with Zak at the exact same service station as us. We went outside to find that Zak had parked directly opposite us and not noticed. Brilliant. He went in and, whilst on the phone, proceeded to go directly to the gambling machine and win a rubicks cube keyring. LOL.

We once again set off and began our sojourn up to Barra. Through winding hills we eventually found the place, by now it’s actually kinda familiar. I suppose I remember it so fondly because it’s nice to have a place where you can get consistantly good gigs. Getting paid also adds to said fondness. For those that don’t know – the majority of gigs unsigned bands play these days are unpaid – petrol is something you have to just pay for yourself. Fun times, eh?

But yes, we unloaded and grabbed some sweet and sour at a local chinese. Zak seemed terrified of the local chavs… I didn’t really worry. Possibly because I’ve never been beaten up by chavs before – last time I responded to a group it was the guitarist that ended up with a fist in his face, so if anyone should have worried it should have been Kieran.

I digress again – We walked back in as the place started to fill up. Setting up the merch and acquainting ourselves with the support act, Kyra (the Guitarist was a nice guy – didn’t get a chance to speak with the others), we were eventually set upon by the local YAWA fanbase. Which was ace. I think it was the first time Kieran and Jamie had been exposed to a *proper* YAWA fanbase, where lots of kids wanted to talk to them all at once. Kieran went round getting emails for the mailing list, and with the help of a particularly persuasive YAWA girl “Shan” got over 50 emails. That’s half the amount we got IN TOTAL of all the previous YAWA gigs put together. In one night.

Kyra played, it was hardcore emo-y stuff, so we obviously headbanged like spazzes to it. Great fun. Then it was our turn – without being egotistical, we were absolutely frickin’ awesome.

The atmosphere was PERFECT. From the off as well. We started with our extended I am the Navigator intro (it’ll be on the EP ) and kicked into navigator, at which point I leaped over the barrier and started a pit with some random lads (I tend to try to avoid the girls now) before running back on stage to get everyone raving. Which they did.

Between songs was almost as fun as during the tracks – one recurring thing I did was test the crowd by randomly shouting “SCREAM!” and getting them to scream as fast as their reaction times would allow. Hence the title of this blog section being a phrase I mentioned. They were very quick on the uptake which was awesome. I also advertised powerade at some point. I should get sponsored.

I can particularly remember the point in which we played the random rave Jamie and I put together – the synths were brilliantly loud, you could really feel the music. Everyone was raving. Jamie ran around holding up the laser over the crowd. Kieran picked me up and spun me round at some point. I even saw Zak raving out! Gosh. Such a good atmosphere.

When the gig ended, the atmosphere again was perfect. The sound guy put on this awesome ambient music which was like the perfect cool down music… as if something epic had just happened and it was the aftermath. It was amazing. I talked to loads of kids. Shan helped man the merch stand with Kieran while we packed away.

It was actually amazing. Whilst talking to some kids about how I’m not quite sure what techno dancing really entails, I was set upon by a migraine. GAH. So I had to sit in my car until it subsided while the other guys put my stuff in the car.

The drive home was ace too. No music, just chatting to Kieran all the way home about random stuff. It’s great having such a close friend in the band. When we got home, Zak and Jamie arrived too looking shaken. They had seen a random girl in the middle of a country road they were driving down, in a dress with mascara running down her face. We wondered if she might have been raped or something and dumped there. So Kieran and Jamie sorted out calling the police.

After the hubbub of that died down, Kieran, my sister (who had got back that day) and I sat up chatting late into the night. It was such a good day. When I finally fell asleep, I slept until 4pm. It was ace.

YAWA Holiday!

Well, It’s seemed like that – since the barrow gig, J and K have been round mine, since we have another gig tomorrow! We’ve been writing music, doing art stuff, playing games, watching movies, visiting Jamie’s nan and all kinds.

Music wise we made a list of all the things we’d started and not finished – there were like 20. I make a lot of random songs when I can’t sleep. We’ve gone through and picked out the ones with potential and have started working on them. One which comes to mind is like a cooler, heavier starcadia. The lyrics are frickin’ gangstuh.

We put the finishing touches to the album artwork – Zak still hasn’t seen it (he was only round for 1 hour this week ¬_¬) but I, J and K like it. Oh, and Kieran made this:

The games of choice were smash bros, halo 3, beautiful katamari and burnout. I won at all but halo 3 – as I was busy making a tutorial video for money when J and K were playing it

I bought Tropic Thunder and watched that with the guys. Unsurprisingly, the black person humour went down a treat with Jamie, his new catchphrase being “I’m a lead farmer, MotherF***er!” Which pops out of his mouth at random intervals during the day. Along with “How else can you get to the booty?” and “Who wants this dawg?!” He’s certainly a unique guy.

A-Jazzy Jizzle in dis cluuub!

As generally happens when I’m in my studio with someone who isn’t particularly a rapper, I made a new KOC song. Scratch still needs to lay down his verse (He’s up north babysitting I believe at the moment) but it’ll be up on myspace before you know it!

I get PAID!

SCORE! That page on my website www.boyinaband.com offering my services for custom video tutorials wasn’t a waste! A Spanish fellow has commissioned a video from me which I have now finished and sent off. He wanted it private, which was no problem to me – as he paid for the privelage! It’s ace having accomplished something entrepeneurial! Though I do love sharing my videos on t’internet. I’ll just have to make some more for that

O HAI Threadz!

I hadn’t seen the guy in like a year, but I got a day of threadz this week! We recorded him for songs, for animations, for web stuff, in front of the green screen for various video things and wrote him a theme tune. Which is so incredibly Threadz that it’s… incredible.

It’s nice to see people after about a year of being away. He’s a funny guy and I forget until I meet him how much so. Really suits Interabang. But yeah! I successfully got a years worth of Threadz content in a day. That’s my new plan for Intera – stock up on content when I can so after everything’s released I can continue putting out content without the need for everyone to be there!

What a 2009 way to run a band.

O HAI SCI!

As I generally do, just mentioning that she came home so I don’t get moaned at for not mentioning it.

We had an ace chat after I came home from Barrow, which was ace. It’s ace to see her.

She’s moving to Japan in August. So then it’ll be harder to see her. Boo

O HAI RACHIE!

I had an ace day on Monday when I explored the wonders of the town center with my homeslice Rachie. I don’t think we really bought anything, but she showed me a gorgeous garden that I have walked past hundreds of times and never noticed in the middle of the town park. We basically just walked and chatted for ages which was great – it was a sunny day (as it has been most days this week!) and there weren’t many Chavs about! How novel.

She also introduced me to rainbow drops,which are pretty much what I imagine drugs to be like – addictive and colourful. So I was pretty hyper for a lot of the day.

Next week on Dave’s Blog!

So this week was jam-packed. It’s crazy to think what I’ve crammed into so few days. This next week will be more crammed though. My to do list is:

- Finish my 20,000 word final year project report (it’s in for next week O_O)
- Finish my game to an acceptable standard.
- Finish my 3D model + rig it + animate it.
- Make a report for said animation.
- Play a gig in Manchester
- Play a gig in Burnley
- Play a gig in Coventry

Holy carp. I’m going to be a zombie by the end of the week. But on the plus side I will be able to forget about university for the most part! Frickin’ YESSSSA! I’m thinking that’ll be the time for me to sort out my priorities and get my entrepeneur on with regards to my blogs + book etc.

WE SHALL SEE!!!

AND THE BLOGLY QUESTION: What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen/had happen to you?