MY NEW KEYBOARD RULES!

I got bored..and decided this would fill in a few mins...enjoy

jonny.

29th today

First active fast in my life.

My stomach hates me, but I am finding food less attractive now, plus it's just been a nice day.
So, from now on, wednesday, I fast.

Enjoy your day..and your meals haha

jonny.

Andrew playing his thin line fender tele last practise
(my older brother, lead guitarest, and guitar hero!)

lame

Photography is lame....
I don't have any time to shoot...let alone devalope, then print...so digital photography here i come.
As far as I'm concerened...I don't care if I only get an achieved, it's still credits.

Oh well..

Well...i've spent my last day or so planning and thinking about next year.
Very exciting stuff.
And now that I'm finally starting to gather my recording gear, it's looking like it'll be another year of fun with arts....and not a whole lot else.

So far I have at my disposal;

boss 16 Channel Mixer
ART multi effects rack unit (old but good haha)
Edirol midi controller keyboard
Three semi crap mics (Working on buying a decent one...something like a simple SM58 would be good).
My computer
Two guitars (Fender DG-7 with Strat neck pickup, and a Crafter 335....braaautiful!)
A midi drum kit which I've had since i was 11 (YAY DECENT MIDI GEAR!)
And hopefully I'll be able to buy my brothers other amp off him for a little less than he paied hehe (lets hope).

All this, plus a little imagination is gonna make for one heck of a year!

Don't know why, but for some reason i REALLY wanna try recording my amp in a shower - just to see what the reverb is like (No water of course...unless I managed to vaccume seal the amp...Hmmm)

Any who, I'll let you know how that goes when it happens haha.

Jonny.

moneeey

Ouch...just spend $370
bought me a Midi Controller keyboard - This basically means that when i press a key, or turn a nob, or slide a fader etc, it'll play, slash increase or fade an effect which I have assigned to it (this can include any sound I assign to the board through my computer).
Basically, it's awesome in a can.

FFVII Here I come!

i was kinda freaking out because I need money, due to the moving next year, but...I was praying on it, and it came up all good...so...step 'o faith I supose.
hehe, i don't really have to eat next year..pffft food....so over rated.

Any way, I will upload some audio samples from it some time (when it gets here).
YAY MIDI CONTROLLERS!

jonny.

By the way...i have no real job...so $370 is kinda lot for me hehe.

break

Ahhh, I'm currently editing blood brothers - this years school production.
its a great show, and if it hadn't finished months ago, I'd recomend you all go see it.
But...editing it...ah...I've seen it more times than the case had rehearsed it.
*insert square eyeballs here*

BUT it's coming along, so not tooo much longer now.

Any way, this post was just my way of distracting myself for a few mins...heres a picture of the sky.



jonny

Today

Hmm practise was fun today.
Tim wasn't there...lame. But it was still fun.
We now have...five songs under our belts, which I think is a decent effort for the fact we haven't been together for too long.

Hmm, no photographer today, so sorry but no footage yet of our actual music.
But, not long now I promis. I'll have a few tracks up soon enough...hopefully.

Any way, for now, here's a picture of the band, minus Tim...and me...I'm behind the camera.

have an awesome night.

Jonny.

it's not like you wanted it!?

"ah, what?" I snarl as i fource my eyes open for the first time.
Light hurts, that is a fact i learn very quickly.
Shades of blury blue dash infront of me, just out of reach.
'hey, that's my hand. freaky looking thing."
I use it to itch my noes. This body is weird.

I keep gazzing into the clearing world infront of me.
The blue has fadded now into a white, with speks of red dancing over it, mocking it, for it couldn't move.

I don't know how, but I know that there is an "up"...what ever that mean.
So I try to find it. I nudge to the edge of, what ever this is I'm lying on, and lean to my side.
My feet hit the floor
"FEET!?"

At the realisation that I have these things I forget about that 'up' thing, then all the sudden up becomes down, as I lose balance.
The now slightly sharper red dots such towards me as i am closer to this "down" as I would like to be.
The red wraps around me, on either side. And hold me up.
I find myself back in the thing they are calling a bed.
up is still sideways, but at least down is no longer infront of my noes.
it's still itchy.

It's going to take some getting used to, this body.
it's so strange, so fragile.
Why am I in this thing. I would have been better off with out these breakable bone things.
This skin is easily cut.
So many things about this are silly.

The red blurs sharpen into figures.
They are what i assume i am, but, different.
Are they all different?

The figures are both breathing through what look like little pipes, white....with orange ends.
Hmm....that must be why they are still unhurt.
with a body so fragile, suerly they are getting help to stay in one piece.
Or, maybe their secrete lies in that brown bottle in the hand of one of them.
They keep drinking it. I suerly need some, if I am to stay okay in this thing.

Hmm, this is going to take time to get used to for sure.
what can i do to pass the time?

Hmm, I can't find anything. I am liking this lying down thing, and it seems to like me.
if i just stay here I'll be fine. So far I have only been in trouble when i tried not to ly down, so if I stay here I should be fine.

This might be fun.
either way, at least I'll keep this body in one piece.
it's so weird.

One becomes two

"I wanna, I wanna break out the tune..." ??
Listening to the new Queens Of The Stone Age album...such a great band name.

I recommend that you go out and buy it...or at least download it.

Hmm...nothing much happened today to report....it was semi lame.
learned a lot about monkies...and...elephants...and...americans with dispensable cars...they just annoyed me (red necks realy).

Yay SKY!

Hmm, currently trying to find some where to go tonight. i'm meant to be "out of the house".
I think my dad has hired trained monkeys to teach him Tae Kwon Do, and he doesn't want me to see the three of them (two monkeys) duke it out...too violent.

Either way..i wish I had credit on my phone, it'd make this whole thing so much easier.

Any way, I think I hear the monkey truck backing up, time to go...and hopefully take out a primate or two while I'm at it.

For now, here enjoy a picture.



(my mate joey...and again)

See ya

Jonny.

I recommend nothing about elephnats and americans.
Currently voilent on my monkey.
Jonny.

Happy Birthday Chansy

Goood morning all.

Sorry I didn't write yesterday, I was busy pretty much all of it.

Woke up at about 7 (dyingggg) and got to work at 8. From there I hung around in town for a while looking at recording gear and guitar stuff for about 3 hours (From 12).
Then met up with Chansy's birthday party precession and joined them.
And yup, our wee Chansy is now 18.
it was a good night, just good clean fun you know. No alcohol (although, it was some what tempting).
We played pool for a while (I played crap...:( then headed off to SubWay for dinner, where I ended up eating half of Chansy's hehe.
Then, after consuming one and a half feet worth of sandwich we decided that it'd be a good idea to play with the ball some one had won in TimeZone a few hours earlier, in the hack (City mall, big circle thing)....and it turns out, it was a good idea.
It was awesome to just play with a ball again...as retarded as that sounds.
Think about it though, when was the last time you just played with a ball. Like no objective, just throwing something at each other.
i'm gonna say it was about a year and a half for me, so it was kinda fun to do it again.
Then we headed home and hung out with Muse live DVDs, Halo2 (and an Xbox 360 of course) and watched some of SWAT...all on her new 50" tv!!!!! It's about as tall as her when on its side, no kidding, it's freakin massive.
We were playing split screen Halo2 and all four people had a regular sized 25" screen each!...ah....it was awesome.

Then we ended up going to our own homes at about...1ish.
So yeah, thats why I didn't post.

Any way...HAPPY BIRTHDAY Chansy!!!

MUSE IS COMING TO CHRISTCHURCH!

First day of prelims.
Check out how hard i was working.



Ahhhh....ahhh.......ahhhhhh........

I was singing the end to "How to disapear completly" from Radiohead's "kid A".
The song that Thom Yorke said he'd most want to be remembered by if he died the day after that intereview was done. He said it was (to date) the most beautiful thing they'd ever done.

oh, and men, I just figured out the answer to "Why is she angry with me."
here's the thought pattern;

She is angry at you, because she heard, from some one, who was having a bad day, because some one else told her about a thing a frind did, that she didn't like. And this of course happened on a bad day, for the first girl in the story, therefor she didnt bother to talk about it with you, and it got made bigger in her head, this then gets told to every one else, changing the situation, and the subiquent "She said" from the first friend mentioned, and changing information.
Now, it is here that you get blammed.

That's about as clear as things get when no one comunicates.

"You go too far, for what your worth is child....it's time."

The ever pressing question;

"When is it the right time to talk something like this out with a person."

The answer - None of the following times are right;
When the person is in traction.
Has a needle through his/her thumb.
just lost his/her thumb.
Is eatting anything soup-esk.
Is dying.

Other wise, talk...comunicate, and the world runs smoother! it's like when you havent shaved in a week, then you finally do, it feels so much better once you do.

Ah.

I'm gonna go update the video of the day..to video of the week. Becasue I realised that people probably don't visit this place every day.

Enjoy,
Jonny.

Sorry for the some what Jumpy wee blog entry.

Bizzar

Jonny's bizzar find of the day.



Hmm.

So prelims are starting tomorrow. For those of you who don't know what those are, they're like mock-exams. You know, why not waste a week of school on exams that count for anything.

Oh well. Up side is that I hardly have any.
And it means plenty of practise time for AirPlay.

Should be getting a few new songs down too. So that'll be fun.
I'll try getting a video of a few of the songs we've got so far and chuck them up here.
Until then.
Enjoy your day

Jonny.

NAME!

We are

AirPlay

That is all...

Tamara, you owe us cookies!

Enjoy
Jonny.

jam day

okay, i'll keep the text brief.

These are clips from today practise/jam session. none of it is planned haha, and you can kinda tell.
It was still fun.
We can all thank Tamara (self proclaimed #1 groupie haha) for the camera work :P
Thaaanksss Taaammmaarrraaa

These clips are just the best bits.
The whole thing was too long for YouTube-ness.
Sorry about the crap quolity video.







(this one is a sample of a song I'm working on, but I kinda sung the complete WRONG vocal line for most of it...it felt weird singing the proper one, because I'm sick..and can't sing at the moment)



Enjoy,

Jonny.

LOUD TOMORROW

Tomorrows the first time we've been able to practise with Mics.
Which is exciting me a lot.

A LOOOT!

now, I will not have to strain my voice to be heard...and hopefully it sounds good haha (of course screaming my head off today didn't help...my throat hurts...*feels sad for self*).
I'm gonna see if a friend of the band to film bits of it.
We're going to be in the biggest practise room we've got at school, that's a magical room i swear.
there is something about that room that just makes people sound good.
i loves it.

Any way, now that I get to be LOUD with out straining myself, it's time to introduce my effects kit. it's pretty basic, but hopefully it'll be effective.



From left to right;

Volume pedal (to be used after vocal effects as a cut off)
Power adapter for Zoom
Zoom 505 (to be used for vocals)
ProCo RAT (Gandalf the white)
Boss CE-3 Chorus
Zoom Expression pedal (For vocals)

it's humble, i'll admit that. But so are the armish, and look at how famous they are.

See ya,

Jonny.

Down Day

Enjoy your night.



Photo by Huei Yin - see www.yinny2.blogspot.com

Lists

the world is made up of lists...not that I can name any at the moment, but i'm sure thats true.

So the list for the night is called "Jonnys things to buy before the end of november."
not a flashy name, but it'll do for now.

We start the list with;

Hard case for my acoustic guitar = $170



Recording audio interface (Line6 UX1) = $200



Midi controller keyboard = $350



Belcat delat = $70 (its cheap but i've head good things...I'd love a DL4)


(to go with my Boss CE-3 chorus, and PcoCo Modded RAT)

This will ensure that I can continue recording when I'm living on the desert island.

Any who, it's late and I've got school tomorrow.

Enjoy your night.

Jonny.

Hey, This guy hasn't written before (eg band names eventually)

well hey guys, its stevo here (the bassist)

yeah, i just got the email that let my write a blog thingummy on this blog thingummy site. it was exciting.

now i've run out of things to say. though i guess thats normal. the great thing about writing a blog like this is that you never know that i become lost for words, except when i state it like i did as shown above.... damn, i just shot myself down.

aaaaanyway, i lost my mp3 player yesterday.... its horrible. though the full brunt of my loss has not been recognised yet as i was rockclimbing all day today. it was great, they were playing many good bands over the loud speakers as we climbed, foo fighters, muse, etc. so i was tapping away on the rope as i belayed, got dizzy and almost fell over. i stopped nodding to the music after that. i think iron maiden was playing at that point. see these are the times when it would be useful to have a small pocket sized guitar to carry around and just write stuff on wherever you go.

also i moved my bass up from the garage to my room (my sister in the room next to me isnt too happy) but oh well. so now i can just pick it up and play it whnever instead f having to brave the chill air of the garage.

and band names, i came up with a few, just randomly looking at stuff as i walked through the house. tell me if any catch your eye:
By the book
Behind the Scenes
Red
Feature Presentation
Desperate Cavemen
Concrete Pillow
Windchill
Bent Nails
Paperweight
Back To Basics
Keep Out Of Reach Of Children
Applecore
Frozen Rain
Equilibrium

thats about it at the moment, each has its own short story behind it, so yeah, let me know what you think.

laterz

Jonny is excited!

okay okay okay

So as i was saying yesterday..."lets make my acoustic an electric!"

The mission from then on was to figure out some way of installing a pick up onto my Fender DG-7 (acoustic) guitar with out any damage.
This is what I came up with.

1). Take the neck pick up out of my brothers' 62' Reissue strat (he's swopped it for a TexMex any way).

2). Create a brace for it which will fit over the hole of my guitar.

3). Configure a jack output to the side of the guitar using valcroe...valcrow...cal..you get the idea.

And there we have it. Simple. And sounds awesome (which makes me very happy).
It basically sounds like you're playing a Fender acoustic through a fender strat neck pick up....which funnily enough, is exactly what I did.

Any way, here's a photo of me and my franken-couster (haha, lame). I'll see if I can record something with it and chuck up a sound sample of the awesome that is my fender...I like my fender very much....ffeennddeerr
Enjoy your day.

Jonny.

Guitar gear

morning all

First up, I've really got to get the other guys passwords so they can post their own stuff on here. It's getting a little tired hearing my writing huh.
Oh and also, there are photos coming soon.
YAY photos.

Well, there should be at least. *crosses fingers*

Any way, todays post is all about guitar gear...kinda

here's how it goes. moving (as in the post below) and I need some way of making one guitar stand in for many guitars.
This means taking an acoustic, becasue unless i was to buy an acoustic smulator, there is no way to really make an electric sound acoustic, but you can do it the other way around.
SO, I'm thinking of taking my humble Fender DG-7, and planting a strat neck pick up in it.
I mean, why not.
luckily I just happen to have the said pick up (it was left over from my brothers mods on his not so humble frankenstrat, after he put a TexMex in his beautiful 62' Reissue JapStrat...aaahhhh!!!)
So I'm in luck with that. now how ever I'm stuck with an awesome pick up, and no way to plant in into my guitar.
i'm not a fan of cutting, or drilling into an instrument...especially not with the name, Fender, in the head stock.

Any way, i just got food, and came back to find that I hadn't finished this post, and now I've forgotten what I was saying.
So...see ya.

jonny.

New home (maybe)

Moooo...

Okay, okay...So last night was a bit of a bigge'n for me, and this is why.

For the past 4 years or so, I've been planning on moving to wellington and studying film.
A good plan, as I would like to think that I'm not half bad at it.
But recently, the whole music thing has started getting VERY big with me, and I have to admit, my passion for film has died a lot.

So I figure I've got the following options;

Go study film, and hope i like it.
Study music, and hope I like it.
Stay in christchurch and take a gap year and see what I want to do.

When my brother brings up the possibility of moving to Mauke with my mum (as she's moving there next year with my step dad) and help her build the house she's planning.

Now, for those of you thinking "Where's Mauke" do don't blame you.
If not for being from there, i'd have no clue where it is either.
And to clear up where it is - it's one of the Cook Islands (NE from New Zealand about 3.5 - 4 hours).

if I go i will be going up with the following

One Guitar
One Video Camera
My computer
Clothes
and my Tae Kwon Do pants (And my book of TKD patterns)

it (if it happens) would be the single manliest year of my life.
Living off the land, building a house, training every day, getting brown, writing music non stop.
All the while filming a lot.
I've made a deal with the friends who said they'd miss me; I'll send them DVDs from the island once a month...and hope they reach them hehe.

if I go, I won't stop recording. Plus, it'd give me really good stories to tell in interviews (if I ever have any...*crosses fingers*).
Haha, me hanging out on an island with a guitar for a year.
It's so scary.

Any way, these are google earth images of Christchurch CBD (ish) and Mauki...haha, get a little idea of what I'm getting into.

Enjoy,
jonny.

PS. Mauke is spelt wrong in the photo.

EP

do dodoooo...
DECISION MADE!

The EP (slash composition album)
will be from here on out named;

"how to dig a hole."

Enjoy your day.

Jonny.

How to dig a hole.

The following are some snippets (most of which are incomplete) of recordings I've done so far.
...From the cutting floor....but in this case, it's a bedroom.
So...it's kinda from a bedroom floor.
but not my bedroom floor, becasue it doesn't exist....becasue its covered in recording stuff...making it a recording studio floor, or a studio floor...also some times called a cutting floor...this could go on for a while.
So heres the clip.

Jonny.

Happy Birthday Joey

no post tomorrow night

okay, just remembered that I've got training tomorrow night, so i probably won't remember to post. So, here is a picture of the view from my chair instead, enjoy.

The beauty that is my rat! MY RAT!

okay, so those who know me will know that i am obsessed with three things;
Guitars
Film
Fighting (martial arts...not just random violence)

Now that I've finished my fancy first sentence (also known as a "segway") which will relate the title of the piece to the body, I will introduce to you, my Rat - and to do so, here is a poem.

My rat will kill you
it makes my crafter sound great
I love my rat, end.
And there we have a perfectly acceptable Haiku.

So basically the rat is better known as the ProCo RAT2, a very nice distortion pedal.
The original Rat2 is entirely black, minus the logo and other markings, and is made of extremely thick (and heavy) metal all over.
Now comes the fun part, there are two things which separate my rat from other rats.
The first is that mine has been modded. This means that it sounds less like a cat scratching at a monkey when you play, and more like a lion roaring! it is more of an over drive than a distortion in other words.
The other thing that separates it is it's ever so sexy paint job!
Which I just finished.
The paint job is as above, and I personally would class it as sex for guitars.
(Before above, and after below that..with the HOT creaaam)

Any way, this has been the third of my nightly bloogs to come.

Jonny.

P.S If you're looking for mods to do on your Rat, just google it. There are heaps of them (my one is definitely the simplest, and probably most useful one though)

band name

I want to teach my kids to be good through the wonder that is a wooden spoon. There are two things holding me back.
One, is - i don't have any kids.
Two, is - it is now illegal.

the first of the two points is good, the second not so much.
If your kids has enough brains to say "no!" or rebel, he should be tought that every action has a reaction.
Thoughts any body?

ANY WAY

That's my meaningfulness for the night, now onto something fun, like naming a band for example.
Okay, so it's no secrete that the band (to which the above logo belongs) is the worst kept secrete at school. All part of the master plan of course.
Problem is, we don't have a name.

The band is made up of what was known last year as the "ParkStone Project", a name to which a few of the members are not leaning.
SO, we need a new name.

Below is the band in a nutshell. Feel free to leave name ideas in the comments box.
You COULD win an iPod Nano.

Influences;
Radiohead (RADIOHEAD!!!)
Gorillaz
Nine Inch Nails

Themes;
First works are bassed on the new testimant of the bible. So christian music I guess you'd say.

Genera;
Alternative.

Instruments;
Vocals
Acc. Guitar
3x Electric
Electric Bass
Keys
Piano
Drums

I'm hoping to figure out a way to upload some samples of our work to this site.
Once I do I'll let you know, it might help for naming.

Any who,
Have a plesant day.

Jonny