well, for a start I’m writing this on my snazzy new phone, an HTC desire if you’re interested in such things, which has replaced my 9 year old Nokia 3510i as my port of communicative call.

i’m currently on my way to a studio in London where i’m about to record an epic new pop song for proxies. it’s pretty cool to say the least. I’ve been working with a producer who has engineered some big acts in the past, so it’s a great learning experience.

What else? oh yeah, playing the festivals. my boyinaband update covers that nicely, so feel free to watch it. Hevy really was cool, since all the bands I spoke to were really friendly, turning it from a festival into a party. as per, I refrained from joining them in their eventual inebriation, instead talking with my homeslice ogre and will of sacred betrayal about psychological… stuff.

Underage fest was also ace, since I got to spend it with rachie, who got herself crushed half to death when watching yawa.

what else has happened… Well, there are a bunch of gigs coming up, we have some label interest and we recently recruited a digeridoo player to explore a new tribal sound. not really.

since I wrote the top half of this blog (I’m currently writing this in the back of the van) , we wrote a new epic tune about a robot that tears itself apart when deciding whether to listen to the person It’s defending or carry on destroying the world in order to defend them. It’s dubstep-tastic. we also played an immense gig in daventry where we appear to have garnered quite a fan base! I never get tired of awning people going mental to our music and singing along.

I’ve also discovered this awesome to do list software online called gqueues that integrates with Google calendar and gmail and it seems absolutely perfect. I’m trying the 2 week free trial now do we will see how it turns out!

next time on Dave’s blog…

well I have my birthday in 2 days so that will be fun! I’m having the traditional Dave computer party with some choice guests.

after that It’s on to gigs, business and fame And fortune! …hopefully.

later, alligators!

However, I have done a bunch of stuff    I…

- Getting used to working in my new Studioffice
- Making some custom tutorials
- Making some Axe-FX videos
- Making a big ol’ database in google spreadsheet
- Going to leeds for a Loki live practice
- Designing Rachie’s website
- Getting some “equipment” for Rachie’s videos
- Doing a G Funk 7 day song
- Going to Rachie’s Inspire-ing meeting

C.E.OOOOOH yeah!

I’m really getting into the swing of it – going to the office, clocking in when I do work, watching ted.com talks on my lunch break… it’s all very cool.   Especially for that brief moment where you finish all the work you have assigned for the day and can try something new.   I’ve got a pretty fun little video in the works that I hope will give boyinaband a bit of viral goodness and give me a nice challenge to work on production-wise and rapping skillz-wise too!

But yeah, as you can see from the above list, I got much done!   Some G66 videos, custom tutorials for people who want to learn things privately, and my favourite – a big database!   It’s not finished entirely yet, but I finally found a use for all the stuff I learned about relational databases in GCSE business and A level computing!   I enjoy getting things working, especially when they’ll culminate in a mountain of stats

Loki live!

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect – I hadn’t met two of the guys and wasn’t sure of the musical skillz of anyone.   I was gladly put in my place as everyone was well on form.   Kudos especially to Alex, the drummer, who is a top notch percussionist – can keep to a click and do crazy fills whilst doing so.   Brilliant for a band that wants to venture into drum and bass.   Oh, and Jordan could press play like a pro.   I’ve taught him well from my years of practice of that particular skill with YAWA.

Everyone was really nice as well, and it was cool to get everyone together in one place.   There’s even an adorable little picture of us all:

awww.

Revise with…

Rachie!   We got our photoshop on and put together a mock-up design ready to translate into internet food!   It’s got brushes galore and is purple (YAY), but she didn’t want a picture of her on it.   I’ll see about that.

We also had a go at putting together the first video tutorial, but it ended up looking a little bit home made, so logically we decided to go to poundland to up the budget a bit.   The props are amazing.   We now have green kitchen utensils.   Business green kitchen utensils.   I’ll save what they’re actually for until it’s all done and dusted.

Hell yeah

I got my baggiest jeans on and put together a G Funk track, sponsored by Tyson Willert, who’s a sound fellow!   Not that I’m biased since he sponsored me or anything.   Anyway, it was fun to do, though I feel like it’s getting a little samey on the 7 day song front.   I’m looking forward to venturing into different types of videos rather than simply tutorials.   Even the axe FX video editing was a refreshing change after the intensity of all the Reason stuff.

Writing the rhymes for it was fun though, even though Rachie kept peering over my shoulder and making me feel decidedly un-gangstuh.   She didn’t even have to say anything, she just emits degangstarizing thoughts (She said she didn’t mean to, but it’s not her fault she makes a G into a Gent(I’ve wanted to say that in context since I heard the name of that TV show(Yes, it’s a TV show – an MTV one(As if you couldn’t guess)))) .   Anyway, I struggled on and created this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCLyC_kXTO8

Yay, grapes!

Another Rachie-tastic day involved going to her meeting for the project she’s working on – “Inspire”, involving showing kids that creative jobs can be just as viable as academic ones.   A really cool idea I though, and I offered my assistance, I could potentially be doing boyinaband workshops for school kids in a few months time!   I can just imagine it… hey kids!   I get paid to make this! *WOBWOBWOBWOB*

After the initial meeting, I helped myself to all the grapes (and there were a lot) and ended up talking about the future of gaming with her geeky friends.   Score!

Next week on Dave’s Blog…

Well the busyness (and business) is not over; I’ve got…

- T in the park with YAWA!
- Meeting with important potential Loki manager
- Some chicken left over from today’s stir fry
- an Update video to make
- an axe fx video to make

So no pressure then ^^

Later, alligators!   I shall come bearing tales of Scotland and Eminem!

- YAWA playing Download Festival
- Setting up the office
- …did I mention YAWA played Download?

YAWA Played Download!

Remember that Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition we entered? Yeah, we won that and are now playing 5 festivals throughout the summer. Well, 4 now, since we already played download.

It was absolutely incredible. We all got a free VIP pass to download each. Though before I describe the festival, I should probably mention that the announcment was made on the Tuesday afternoon and we left for download 48 hours later.

It has been pretty hectic.

After the initial shock, we got organised and had two last minute practices, a band shopping session (cereal bars, pepparami, oranges and carrots – I couldn’t think of anything more “healthy”. The guys thought 8 cases of beer was healthy enough though.) then set off in the van to download.

On the Thursday we watched our homeslices “Silent Descent” who we played with in Worcester last summer, having a chat afterwards and I set a precedent of going to sleep at a reasonable hour, leaving the other guys to get wildly inebriated and do whatever it is normal people do at festivals. I was intent on keeping a decent sleeping pattern so I wasn’t exhausted during our set on the Sunday.

Download – Friday

It kicked off with quite the opposite of the Thursday night, which set another precedent of me going to sleep positively shivering and waking up drenched in sweat and squinting into the harsh morning sunlight. The tent only did so much to diffuse it, so every day I ended up waking at 8:00am pretty much on the dot.

The VIP camp site was awesome, and we found ourselves camped next to one of Kieran’s childhood friends coincidentally. So we spent a while getting to know them, then got on with the important business of blagging our way backstage. We did that successfully, meeting several pretty famous people:

etc.

Ring any bells? It was crazy back there; every corner was a new celebrity and there were free shoes, drinks and even free tattoos that Zak booked in for. I also got to meet Andy Copping – the guy who books the bands for download and also one of the judges that put YAWA through. It was great to thank him and have a quick chat. Apparently YAWA was one of the bands all the judges agreed on very quickly that they wanted to go through, so that made me feel freakin’ cool.

We ended the day watching a few of the bands, followed by AC/DC on their own headline stage! It was hilariously rock n’ roll, complete with giant train, blow up whore and old men rocking and rolling.

Once again, I got back early (choosing not to watch the whole of AC/DC’s set – it got a tad repetitive(yes,I do realise I make dance music)) and went to sleep. The rest of the guys stayed out late and used up another few crates, returning around 5am for a healthy 3 hours sleep before…

Download – Saturday

We didn’t manage to blag our way backstage on Saturday, with the security having wisened up and realising that artist wristbands that say “Sunday” on them mean that those artists can only go backstage on Sunday. damn.

Anyway, it gave us a chance to explore the festival from a conventional punter’s perspective, as well as promote the fact that we were playing the following day by handing out a few flyers and making some festival friends.

Stand-out bands for me were Five Finger Death Punch, who had an awesome frontman who really know how to get the crowd to respect him (I need lessons!) and Rage Against The Machine, who were AMAZING. Though that’s probably because I freakin’ love funky, dirty riffs and cool rap music.

After staying up a while and wandering round the village, chatting with Zak about business and life while the other guys experienced some wrestling (again, not really my thing) then going to sleep late, but not as late as everyone else, who got another 4 hours sleep to add to their collection.

Download – Sunday

A freakin’ busy day, since we wanted to make the most of our time backstage. We met some more stars (Slash was having a drink near our table, either that or some random guy in a big hat) and Zak got his tattoo done.

We then met up with our guests who came down, including a friend of mine “Rachel” who is pretty cool. We wandered about with them briefly, but then had to go backstage to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam tent to prepare to play.

The band before us didn’t play to many people considering there were well over 100,000 at the festival, I think Rachel said something like 100-200 people were there, so I was initially a bit worried as to the turnout, but then just before we were due on I had a look and the tent was at least half full, around 500-700 people there.

Then we went on and the heavens opened. Literally – it poured down with rain and the tent filled up. We played to the biggest crowd we’d ever played to. It was just awesome – I even got to vent my ego to the biggest crowd I’ve ever played to when after Kieran say “It’s been a dream come true to play Download” I butted in with “Not for me, I’m bigger than this” – from the varying tones of the proceeding “oooooh”s from the crowd, not everyone realise that I was joking (how big would your ego have to be to say that in that context with any seriousness? I’m not quite there yet.) but that didn’t stop the crowd going absolutely mental for us on the following songs, especially with the massive circle pits for Nebula at the end, which was just awesome.

So yes, after playing to a rapturous, appreciative crowd (check out the review and photos for more proof, there’ll be a video soon too, I’m sure) we found ourselves packing away in the pouring rain. I grabbed Rachel and after being stopped by some new fans, went back to the tent and hid in the dry for the next 3 hours or so. It was around this point that she decided to instantly crave noodles and complain about wanting them for the duration of time we were stranded in the tent. I learned patience that day.

Fortunately, the rain eased by the time Stone Sour went on, so we caught a decent amount of their set, followed by some satisfying (on Rachel’s stomach and my ears) noodles, then Aerosmith for some lols. Steve Tyler sure didn’t want to miss a thing. His guitarists sure didn’t want to miss the opportunity for multiple 10 minute blues jams either, so we quickly departed and met up with Liv who kindly drove us home.

After some serious problems with motorways (night driving is great until you find the inevitable massive diversions) we found our way back home and got the best sleep in a long time. Especially for the other guys, who I think got about 12 hours sleep total the whole weekend. Ouch.

Studioffice!

It’s almost complete now, after being put off a lot due to download (I’ve had to push loads of things back these past few weeks thanks to winning the red bull bedroom jam and being really ill the following week – probably those damn noodles…) but all the furniture barring the shelves are up and running.

Dad’s even helped put together a freakin’ awesome TV unit which will have a green screen blind in front of it, keeping everything tidy and functional. I’ll get a video of the new office up eventually when things calm down, but until then just take my word that it’s business as HELL.

Next time on Dave’s Blog

Well, assuming I can blog next week, I’ll be…

- Starting to use my new Studioffice!
- Catching up on private tutorials
- Starting the 7 day song
- Potentially getting some really reeeally good work!
- Realising I’ve got 4 more festivals (including T in the Park and Sonisphere) left to go!

Take it easy, mi amigos!

- Finishing the 7 day Liquid DnB song
- Starting to make the next 7 day song
- Getting £500 worth of stuff to review for free!
- Acquiring independant funding
- Buying an office (well, the furniture for one from ikea)
- Starting to paint said office
- A cancelled YAWA gig
- Making a new song for Loki (BTW that’s the secret project)

Thirsty?

I made a liquid drum and bass song for the 7 day song in may, which has been recieved really well.   There’s one synth in there that divides people, but I like it so I’ve kept it (makes sense, right?).   It’s already hit over 2000 views on the first and last in the series, which is really cool.   It’s also the first time I’ve done something you can relax to!

Hell yeah!

I’ve been commissioned to make a G Funk song for the next 7 day song!   So I’ve been working hard on that.   I think I’m getting closer to something nice and G whilst still remaining a nice and high production quality.   It’s a delicate line to tread between dirty and just crap.

Free stuff!

Because I’m Dave from boyinaband.com, I’ve been sent Melodyne’s Editor and Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 2 for review-y goodness!   I’ve had a quick look at both and they are just amazing.   I can’t wait to try them out on a real track.   I’ll be doing SD2 first for the review/tutorial, since I received it first, so that should be coming up later this month!

Funding!

I finally secured some funding from an independant source!   You might have heard of it, can you guess?    But yeah, this means I can go ahead and buy all the high quality gear needed to start my business in earnest!   I’m looking into an audio laptop, a video desktop pc and a reeeeally good camera amongst other things.

Office!

I also realised I should probably have a desk for the aformentioned desktop, so I went out and bought an office!   With the help of interior-designer Rachie and super-pimp Scratch, I trapsed around Ikea and bought a tonne of stuff (and ate a tonne of meatballs).   I’ll be putting together a changing-rooms-esque video of the conversion of my studio into an office which I can throw onto biab for some cool footage

Paint!

As part of the office conversion procedure, I’ve had to completely strip the studio bare and paint it brilliant white (Apparently there are different types of white, who knew?) so it’s nice and bright, but also so the green screen footage doesn’t have any coloured tinges to it from the paint.   It’s half way there with one coat done, just need the second and potentially a third if it’s too patchy, then things can start moving in!   I even roped in Kirstie to help with the clearing out of the room and painting preparation when we were intending on “chilling” (Sorry Kirstie, we couldn’t've moved that table without your inhumanly super strength though!).   We did go out for a nice meal prior to that though, so it’s not all bad.

YAWA!

Poor ol’ Zak was ill on the day of the gig so we had to cancel it, not much you can do in a situation like that!   Hopefully we’re having a get together in the near future to get back on track with our organisation!   I feel like I’m not quite sure where we’re headed at the moment.

I’ve had some ideas for new songs for the first time in a while though, which is good news for sure.   They sound awesome in my head – the most prominent one being a robot-human dependancy story where a robot who uses a human for a power source (yay, matrix!) ends up being infected by one particular human and ends up destroying itself from the internal conflict of not wanting to use the human, but needing to complete its primary mission of saving the world.

In my head, that comes across musically as painful dubstep.

Loki!

Yeah, the secret project is Loki, a band put together from Jordan Fish’s mates.   I’m the producer for said band and I’ve put together a bunch of tracks for it.

It might seem strange for me to join a new band, but considering Jordan Fish lives with Gareth from Pendulum, you can see he’s well connected.   The plan is to become a production outfit and make waves in the music industry.   I’m really excited to see how things go, this could involve working alongside some incredible producers so I’ll keep you posted when some definite stuff happens!

Until then, go to www.myspace.com/helloloki to listen to some of the demo tracks I’ve thrown together.

Next week on Dave’s Blog

Well if all goes to plan, I should have…

- Started making the G Funk 7 day song tutorials
- Start making another private tutorial or two
- Have a YAWA meeting
- Painted and set up the office
- Organised my routine for le bidnizz

In fact, it involves a hell of a lot of tidying which you probably won’t notice, but it’ll make my life a lot more streamlined!

Here’s to finding out what happens next!

- Writing the 7 day song
- Finishing Axe FX tutorial 4
- Producing a track for the secret project with Mr. Fish
- Going to Kieran’s brothers’ 21st birthday partay
- Getting stuff for free! (kinda)
- Helping Rachie to memorise a bunch of totally interesting biological facts!

Chillax…

So this month’s 7 day song is for Liquid drum and bass! It’s been one of the most tiring weeks ever this week, not only because of it being the hottest week of the year so far, but because writing liquid dnb combined with excessive dubstep (another thing I’ve been working on for YAWA) results in me needing to rest my eyes for far more than is normal.

It’s a cool track though – I’ve collaborated with an awesome homeslice from the BIAB forum called Ekol who’s bloody good at drums, so that’s why the drums are bloody good.

Day 1 released today and there’s already 23 comments only a few hours after it going up. Yay!

Axey Effexy

For some reason the tutorial doesn’t want to load. I’ve tried twice now and YouTube keeps bouncing it back for some reason. Rather annoying, now I know what businesses feel like when they’re all “pressured by the client” and stuff. I hate it when things don’t run on time!

Secrets abound!

I can nearly reveal it, in fact I think next week I should be able to do so, but this week I’ll keep you in the dark and just say that powerpop hits were composed for great justice!

Partay?

A rather random sojourn up to Kettering culminated in chilling in a hotel room with some good friends for a good evening. I got MASHED out of my FACE on lemonade, saw a really scary bug, ran, came back, got laughed at, hit Kieran’s little brother with balloons, ate too much and made as many inappropriate jokes as physically possible. All in all fun times.

Don’t you know who I am?

I’ve been flinging my status around in e-mails this week! I figured that since most magazines and websites can get stuff for free to review, I’d give it a shot as Dave from biab and lo and behold, several companies have agreed to send me some pricey software for reviewing purposes! Good stuff too, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll let you know more next week if it arrives!

Revise with Rachie

It’s coming up to exam time so I’ve been getting my Biology hat on (it’s not a pretty hat) and assisting Rachie in defining DNA and assessing amino acids. I’m more into her psychology revision, as that’s actually interesting, but I get to derive pleasure from being overly picky with the answers with Biology, so at least I can entertain myself with that.

Next week on Dave’s Blog

It should entail…

- Getting sponsored for another 7 day song
- Finishing this 7 day song
- Revealing the secret project!
- Hopefully some news on the bidniss funding situation
- Free stuff!
- A gig in Walsall that I didn’t know about until today (never a dull moment in the YAWA camp!)

So ta ta for now, mi amigos!

- A Gig in Birmingham (2/10)
- A Gig in Glasgow (3/10)
- A Gig in Edinburgh (2/10)
- Ogre chillage
- Applying for several bits o’ funding

Paid Practice

There are some times when you’re in a band trying to break a new area that you just have to cut your losses and think of things in a different context.   I feel like I did that a lot this week.

Brum had basically no-one there, so we just viewed it as getting paid to practice.   I never understood why a promoter would put on a gig and not promote it.   Surely they’d get the clue from their occupational name.   Hell, I managed it with the Worcester gig ages ago.

On the good side, Rachie surprised me by turning up at the gig!   So I got to spend the evening with her.   She and sketch raved together while we practiced on stage, so it wasn’t a complete loss

What’s a Glasgow Kiss?

Turns out it’s a headbutt.   Glaswegians are slightly prone to violence, apparently.   Anyway, even though there were a few people at the gig, they were all older people that didn’t look like they were massively into rap/rave/metal.   We did get a few congratulations from randoms though after the set

After the show we stayed at Kieran’s second-cousin’s.   Which was awesome.   We played DJ hero, looked at a plethora of pricey guitars and basses, a top of the line DJing setup and an electric drumkit.   It was like they had a toy for each member of YAWA.

Well worth the 7 hour journey up there.

*sigh*

Edinburgh had even less people than Birmingham.   In fact, one person came.   Why?   Because they changed the venue last minute… and didn’t tell anyone.   Fantastic.

However, that one person seemed to really enjoy the fact that he could hang out with the bands so it wasn’t all bad.   We played the third set of the week to the third less-than-ideal crowd of the week, then hung out with the awesome sound girl and the guy from the audience.

I proceeded to get seriously ill and promptly went to my cousin Clive’s flat to stay the night.   I hadn’t seen him since I was about 6 or something, but he was kind enough to let me stay.   I tried chatting with him, but after a while I just couldn’t because I was shivering too much.   He must’ve thought I was on drugs or something.   After a good night’s sleep I woke up to sun streaming through the window, seagulls squarking and a nice tidy room.   It was ridiculously relaxing.

However, I found the 9 hour journey home less so.   Apparently the rest of the guys continued their night in Edinburgh until 4am, crashing in a travelodge, so they regaled me with stories of that, but after those tales were exhausted, I turned to my lifelong companion Pokemon to entertain me.   I’ve got Pearl if you’re interested, and I finally got round to beating the Elite Four on it.

Incidentally, this seems like a good time to mention that on Pokemon Blue, I actually caught all 150 pokemon.   I had a busy childhood.

Civ?   Civ.

Ogre managed to claw his way down to Wellington to hang out this week!   After general catch-up-age, he proceeded to make my computer a zillion times better with a new 3D desktop “Bumptop” and a piece of online software called “Dropbox” which is basically an internet-based shared folder that integrates seamlessly with your operating system.   So damn useful.

But yes, we inevitably ended up playing a long-winded turn-based strategy game, Civilization IV this time.   Apparently Civ V is coming out later this year, so watch out for the dip in blogging regularity then.

Funding!

I’ve applied for a few grants and chucked a few over to Scratch as well, I’ve not got much back as of yet, except for a competition to win 15,000 of investment capital, which I got through the preliminary round and they want me to make a 60 minute presentation to them in Oxford!

I’m not so sure I’m happy with investment capital, as I like the idea of owning the business fully, but I guess we shall see how it goes

Next week on Dave’s Blog

I’ll be jumping back into some…

- Secret Project Production
- 7 Day Song-ery
- Travel Insurance claiming (I finally got the forms through)
- Perhaps a Kettering gig

Later, neighbourinos!

- The boyinaband update for this april / may
- Putting together some tuneage for a famous guy!
- Working on an interview for another famous guy!
- Starting work on Rachie’s website!
- …yeah I spent a lot of time on that update

That Update

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwuUS0briFA

One thing I’ve found interesting – it’s already got more views than a lot of my recent tutorials. That must mean that there are a decent number of people who are actually interested in what I have to say. Pretty sweet, huh?

Also, lol @ the thumbnail of scratch poking out with his clapper board.

Dave da producer

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in da stu-g-o writing some tunes for someone who’s pretty famous. I’ll give you a clue – 10,000,000 YouTube views and quirky pop punk lyrics.

Yeah, could be a million different people with dodgy haircuts, but I’ll reveal which one it is when things are pushed forward!

I’d like to ask you a few questions…

Mr. Fish has potentially got me an interview with a big DnB artist! No prizes for guessing who. So I’ve got my act together and prepared a decent interview for it. It might take place over the summer, so I’m all pumped for that!

Who you gonna revise with?

Rachie and I made a start on designing her website this weekend, still a long way to go but it’ll be cool to see her take on the whole vlog thing!

…is that it?

Yeah, when I’m working on projects that are 90% secret stuff it’s not going to be too fascinating. At least you’ve got the video update to keep you entertained until…

Next week on Dave’s Blog!

I should be getting down and dirty with…

- Funding applications
- Hanging out with Ogre
- Another Axe Fx Tutorial
- 3 YAWA gigs in Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively,
- Making the next 7 day song (looks like it’ll be on liquid DnB!)

- A YAWA gig in Powys, Wales (7/10)
- A YAWA gig in Daventry (6/10)
- Finishing the Darkstep 7 day song
- Posting the 2nd Axe FX tutorial
- Some seriously exciting news on my secret project
- Getting some squash from ASDA

I’m going to Fwance!

Powys was an unexpected treat. After journeying a few hours into the Welsh countryside, we found it. A tiny town with more take-aways than people.

We soundchecked and when we finished, we were applauded by some Welsh people wearing YAWA merch! We went over and chatted, turns out they’d found us on myspace and loved us. This one guy wearing a “Giant robots from the future are coming to destroy us all” T-shirt got Rachie and I a discount on our chinese takeaway since he used to work there and knew the people that ran it. Everyone was so nice! Rachel was apparently talking to loads of people who thought I was cool. Wales is good for my ego.

When we got back, the place was filling out nicely. But the night was running late – we were meant to play at 11, but it looked like it was going to be closer to quarter to midnight. We’d heard most people were leaving at that time, so I was down in spirits.

We went on and loads of people came to the front. Welsh people know how to go crazy! So much so, in fact, I’d say that’s the most exhausted I’ve been at a gig – there just wasn’t enough oxygen in the tiny venue for all the people. It was awesome.

Mid-way through Nebula, the P.A. cut out for some reason, and like 5 minutes of the sound guys trying to sort it out while we attempted to keep the crowd entertained with no electronics or microphones ensued. We finally finished off on Starcadia when it worked again and it was a fantastic night.

We made some hardcore fans that night and were talking to them until about 3am. We got home at 4:30am. I got up at 8:30 to do Day 6 of the 7 day song. I’m still tired from that one.

Daventry – Round 3

We’ve played Daventry a few times before, and each time has felt like it could have been really good, but not too many people were there.

Well this time, it felt like No-one was there at all. We hung out with Kyra for most of the time, since they played too.

The sound guy was a kid who didn’t know why the PA wasn’t working, so I had to sort it out and get something half-way useable so the synths were audible, since they kept randomly devolving into a noisy mess for some reason.

Kyra played to a reasonable crowd, the kids filed in and watched with enough enthusiasm to last through the set, it’s great to see people enjoying Kyra’s music since they are all talented, nice guys.

We went on and the place erupted. Kids appeared from out of nowhere and the whole place was killing itself in the mosh pit by the end of starcadia, even though the sound of the synths randomly went down to about as quiet as some headphones plugged into an mp3 player.

Talking to them afterwards, one guy came all the way from Portsmouth to see us there. Another told Kieran we were better than Linkin Park, which was a freakin’ awesome compliment (assuming he means old school LP!)

Listen up, you just might learn somefin’!

Man, I love the feeling when I finish a 7 day song. I’ve got 4 pages of comments on the video of the final song, most people saying it’s the best I’ve done so far which I agree with – I’ve learned so much about production since starting boyinaband.

Hopefully I’ll continue to learn loads!

There are 4000 views on day 1 of the tutorial, within a week. How awesome is that?! I remember being happy about 100.

Axe Fx! Back from the dead!

It feels like forever, but I’ve finally loaded up tutorial 2 of the axe-fx tutorial series after more problems with it than I care to remember!

It’s on Chorus and goes through making a nirvana-esque guitar tone. G66 like it and I’m intending to keep it weekly from now on.

Secret Project news!

Well, as always it’s pretty secret, but I can say some cryptic things…

- My songs may be played on a pretty important radio station
- I may soon be able to interview a pretty famous producer
- Things may soon be taking off with my production career for some interesting reasons
- I may be getting my hopes up for no reason

But it’s cool to think that some awesome stuff might happen!

Squash

We ended up getting some orange and some white grape & peach squash, though it looks like they’re phasing it out in ASDA – Boo!

Next week on Dave’s Blog

I should be talking about…

- The update on biab for this month
- The next step for the business
- The 3rd Axe Fx Tutorial
- The next step for YAWA
- More cryptic secret project stuff!

Take it easy!

- Played a YAWA gig in Kettering
- Made the 7 day Darkstep song and posted day 1 today
- Finished the business plan and sent it to people for review
- Chilled with Rachie + helped her to revise
- Queued up my Primeloops blogs on biab

Sawyers was more packed last time.

Wow!   I didn’t think it was possible.   Last time we played sawyers in Kettering, it was during a snow storm.   There was hardly anyone there, but it was still a fun gig and the promoters liked us.   This time we played and it turns out that our Kettering fanbase is not old enough to get in the venue (I guess that’s a side-effect of playing so many youth club gigs) so there were less people there!

Well, it started out reasonably packed, but everyone left by the time we went on as it was so late.   Kinda annoying – though that said, we sold more merch than in Mexborough the previous week!   The people that were there loved it and apparently we’ve been put on another gig that usually gets over 50 people there just from the DJ.   So should be a good one!

Also on the bright side, I necked an entire large innocent smoothie.   8 of my 5 a day right there.

Dark…step?

My first sponsored 7 day song!   I’ve been kindly endorsed by a boyinaband viewer who wanted to learn the finer points of Darkstep production.

Darkstep is a dirty, evil subgenre of drum and bass, so it was clearly such a hardship to turn my hand to it.   I love my job.

I’ve posted day 1 and within 2 hours it has had over 300 views.   I feel like I’m getting somewhere with this YouTube thingummy

Oh, and I haven’t said in a while – I have over 4200 subscribers now.   That’s pretty much since half way through last year.   They’re coming in at a rate of about 20 a day.   20 new people actively deciding to watch the videos I put out.   It’ll be interesting to see how many of them I can get to assist my musical endeavours after I’ve given them all this free stuff!

Finally, Bidniss is done!

Well, the plan is.   I’ve sent it off to my mentor and a few business-minded friends to take a look at – I can’t wait to hear back so I can go ahead and apply for funding!

Rachie time!

Going to a pool for a semi-picnic, helping with revision cards (I now know Japanese children on average are over 20% more likely to get upset and resistant when in close proximity to their parents than English children – interesting, huh?), eating delicious Chinese (They were only a few percent behind Japan, incidentally) and playing rounders (I got the highest score of all the games, even with a bad arm!   Though I was playing against small girls and their little brothers… but I’ll still consider it an admirable victory.)

Next week on Dave’s Blog

So this week was quite relaxing, next week should be considerably more intense, with…

- Posting the Darkstep 7 day song
- Potentially some exciting news regarding the secret project with J.F.
- The 2nd Axe Fx Tutorial
- Getting some squash from ASDA at some point (we’ve run out)

Until we meet again!

Better late than never though!   A convenient side-effect of not saying anything for a long time is having a lot to say, so let’s get started…

This past few weeks entailed…

- Releasing the 7 day Bassline song!
- Getting my new camera and starting the next Axe-Fx tutorial
- Getting the business plan 99% finished
- A Mini YAWA tour with a gig in Mexborough (6/10) and Barrow (5/10)
- Spending a whole week with Rachie where, amongst other things, we
had a picnic, watched shutter island and went to a skins audition!
- Going down to London for a secret project!
- A bunch of online teaching sessions
- Starting work on the new 7 day song

Boyinaband babay!

Rachie has assisted with some cheesy vocals for this month’s 7 day song tutorial on boyinaband, focusing on the genre “Bassline”.

It’s seriously cheesy and took about 2 weeks to complete thanks to YouTube deciding to change its layout and break its upload forms, but it’s all up there now for you to listen to and learn from!

Check out the finished product here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emTaX2xTc3A

Some of the videos look slightly different to others since Scratch and I alternated on the editing for some of them (He’s started helping out) and I tried a few different settings (attempting to get Higher Quality) that actually resulted in weird aspect ratios.   I also accidentally uploaded the last video in widescreen, meaning two big black bars either side of the video – whoops!   Won’t be doing that again.

But yeah, the general response is that people think it’s funny and Rachie’s voice is awesome.   I agree with them there (I’m totally not biased at all).

Axe Fx Tutorial 2

After the camera was stolen at the gig and having to buy another one, I’ve finally got round to starting on the next Axe-Fx tutorial.

I’ve felt like I’ve been waiting forever to get started on it since something always gets in the way, but now things are finally getting back on track

Bidniss!

I’ve been working on this since new years, but it’s finally got to the point where I have all the information I need.

I got my parents to check it over (they are very adept when it comes to checking stuff!) and it’s considerably more streamlined and professional looking as a result.

Now it’s simply a case of formatting it in the document and sending it out to people for a last review before I send it off to funding places!   I’m intending to do that right after I finish this.

YAWA Mini-Tour!

We did the Mexborough – Barrow mini tour again this past week, and a considerable amount happened.

Mexborough was great, plenty of people dancing, talked to loads of people (I ended up chatting to this one chick about synths for ages!) and I got two additional ego boosts:

- The DJ recognised me from boyinaband.com!
- Kieran got a phone call.   His brother called to say that when his friend told him he was on a music tech course and he said “Ah you should check out my friend’s website, it has tutorials on Reason…”, his friend replied “Is it boyinaband.com?   Everyone on the music tech course uses that!”

10: Dave.ego++;
20: GOTO 10;

But yeah, after the gig we drove to Scratch’s house and his mom made some amazing veggie food for us at 3am (Hospitality much?).   After sleeping in the bed with someone I really don’t want to sleep in a bed with again, I woke up early and Scratch and I had a nice chat with his parents about the business plan.   We then all chilled for a bit, enjoyed some more fine cuisine (including epic cheesecake), then departed for Barrow.

Then we noticed we had a flat tyre.

We found a tyre garage on the way and got it replaced.   It looked like Wolverine had had a go at it, god knows what happened, but we ended up getting to Barrow several hours late, but just in time for a last minute soundcheck before the majority of the crowd arrived.

Though when we actually played the show, there were less people there than during the soundcheck – you see, the bouncers kicked everyone under 18 out, even though it was advertised as a 16+ gig.   The local police had apparently told the promoters (who we’re good friends with) 4 days before that they couldn’t have it as anything but an 18+ gig.   How considerate of the police to give plenty of notice, eh?

So apparently loads of people got turned away.   We ended up playing to around 50 people, but it could have been so much better.   It was still fun, if a little off-form, since we were all a bit disappointed by the 18+ thing.   At one point we were playing whilst some Bananas in Pyjamas were doing unspeakable things to Jamie.   I’m not sure quite why.

But yes, after the post-show chatting with fans, some people getting considerably inebriated and all of us sleeping in the coldest room imagineable on 8 chairs pushed together to create a makeshift bed(Resourceful, huh? ), we ate our traditional Barrow Morissons breakfast and headed home.   We ended up getting back at like 8:30pm the following day.   An eventful weekend indeed.

Rachie week!

I got to spend a whole week with my favourite YAWA fan (Oh, and also my girlfriend) Rachie last week!

It entailed many things, but let’s start with the Mountain walk/picnic!

I say mountain walk, that was just to get your attention.   It was a place called Hawkstone Park and it was great fun.   We trekked through caves, to the top of a ridiculously tall tower (Where I couldn’t help but imagine what would happen if some random guy threw Rachie off and she landed on the spikey fence below – is that a healthy, normal thing to think?) and over tiny bridges that wouldn’t seem out of place in an action movie that finds itself crossing a cravass in the jungle at some point.

We then had a picnic of innocent smoothies, french bread and doritos and much jolliness was had.

So what else… ah, Shutter Island!   Terrifying movie, even though I guess it technically wasn’t a horror film.   It was just so intense, the music built up tension so well.   Loved the twist at the end, definitely a film to see if you like psychological thrillers.

Lastly, the skins audition.   Rachie was uncomfortable asking me to drive her, since she’s the kind of person that doesn’t like me to buy things for her since it makes her guilty, but I forced her to go to the audition for Skins series 4 in Bristol.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get in (apparently only blonde scene kids got picked from her audition group), but even though we were waiting for about 5 hours we still, for some reason, had a good time.

LOndon seKrIt project.

Well, tbh I’m not sure why I brought this up.   It wouldn’t be much of a secret project if I told you about it.   However, I’ll reveal that it involves me writing music, that I slept in Gareth from Pendulum’s studio again and that things could get very interesting in the next few months.

Stiiiiill teaching!

I educated someone in Dubai about Drum and Bass and someone in LA about trance music amongst others, it’s great fun and I feel like I’m getting into the swing of it now!

Watch out, Noisia!

Yep, the next 7 day song will be on dirty drum and bass!   I’ve been working on my disgusting basslines and synthetic breaks to put together something seriously dark and intense.

It would have been chilled liquid DnB, since that was the winner on the biab poll, but due to a sponsor paying for a dark DnB one instead, we’ve got something more evil coming up this month!

Next Week on Dave’s Blog!

Okay, so next week, I should have…

- Posted an Axe-Fx Tutorial
- Played a YAWA gig in Kettering
- Finished making the song for the next 7 day song tutorial
- Finished the business plan and sent it to people for review
- Chilled with Rachie + Kirstie!   (I need to arrange chillaxing time for Ogre too, I haven’t forgot you budslice!   I’m just slightly busy! ><)

Take it easy, geezers!