Dom Barnes’s Blog

Date: 10 January 2007
Location: Lilac Room, Rich Bitch, Selly Oak

I should’ve blogged this sooner really but there you go. I got there on time (just about) to find out that my fellow band members were there about 30 mins prior and had been in the room for that time. And they didn’t tell me! I would’ve left sooner. I showed up at the right time though  cos I walked into the beginnings of another new song. Nick had kinda put this one together so I just wandered in and found myself a really deep, slightly tribal bass line to go with the song, and I think it helped sculpt the drum track too. We worked on this as yet unnammed song for most of the session with only a small break to run through Russia, Sequoia and Gouge Away which we hadn’t played for a week. It still sounds wrong, I think the guitar parts come in too late so I’ve put the song on my phone and can play it for the guys later to see what they think, cos otherwise my timing is wrong. Its only two notes early I think but it all matter.

The lilac room was nice. Shorter than the beige but it had white leather sofas, a table and decent gear. Sounded like I was getting a lot of bass on the low tones from the amp which was ideal for the new song. We went to the pub afterwards and decided to book one for the 17th as well as we couldn’t wait till saturday (so thats tonight and I’ll have to leave soon)  so we’re in the Red room this time. So if you’re lucky, you’ll get an update tomorrow while I’m not so busy at work.

I’ve just got back (a few hours ago) from my annual Sales Conference for work. Its the first one I’ve been to and it was out in Coventry. About 6 sales offices were invited and packed into one hotel. The actual event was a bit of a waste really. All political nonsense and broad general statements, not an educational informative day I though it would be.

In the evening there was an African themed dinner and drinks and I have to admit, I had a few of those. I’m not a big drinker so I was only gonna have a few beers and then go to bed. But I had a few beers, then, I had a nice pot of tea (with the intention of then going to bed) but unfortunately I got plied with more alcohol in the form of gin/vodka and tonic/lemonade. The result was I talked a lot with my consultant at work who practicall poo-poo’d the fact that we were spending a whole 2 hour rehersal practicing songs we know and only getting through one new song a time. How cheeky! I was quite annoyed by this, thinking that we had been making good progress. Anyway, what does he know about being in a band. He also asked whether we had a manager which we don’t, seeing as we haven’t even played any gigs yet. All will come in time…

I remember seeing this years ago on TV and the song has stuck with me since. One of the reasons why Youtube is worth it.

Istanbul - Youtube

Date: 6 January 2007
Location: Rich Bitch, Selly Oak (Beige Room)

Firstly, the reason I mention the room colour (they’re labelled by colour. Fancy eh!) will become clear later.

Our first practice of the year was a good one. Its been a while since our last and it went well. I got to try out my overdrive pedal at last. I didn’t get a chance to try it before so it was a bit hit and miss. I need to try out the suggested settings in the manual and see how it all sounds. Anyway, we started on Sequia for once which was interesting. But we moved on to Russia as we love it so and it sounded really good. All these different versions sound good but we can’t play them all. We pretty much just played those two a few times, then hit a problem.

Nick’s guitar started cutting out, so we switched cables around and tried again, and with a different amp, but it just kinda gave up. So he borrowed a fiver and rented a guitar from the front desk. It wasn’t the best in the world but its all he had to work with. So its going back to SoundControl tomorrow and Nick’s going back to his stratocaster. But we got on with things, and started on a new song. Nick had some stuff he had been working on, and James, Chris and I joined in to see what we could form. The intro (as it turned out to be) was cool, me and James had fun making up silly lyrics and grooving along. So we spent about 40mins on that, working on the chorus and verse, and progressions. Its sounding good (as all our tracks do) but it needs lyrics and finalising.

We managed to get through a rehersal without Gauge Away though. Pretty good going!  We finished on Russia just to end on a bit of fun.

Then we get on to what I hinted at earlier. We went to book our next rehersal but Chris has plans so we are doing a midweek practice. But out ususal room was taken. We were gonna try out the brown room, and Nick asked what equipment they had and the woman said it was like the dance studio and we could have a look. So we peeking inside and wow. It was a massive room with a full stage and massive Marshall speaker stacks and full PA system. They also had a 32 channel mixing deck. There were some guys finishing off in there and they said that for a few quid, one of the guys there will set up a minidisc or CD to record your rehersal if you want which is pretty cool. So we think we will one day hire it and get some tracks recorded. Its also an ideal room for a bit of a show-practice for others which James mentioned doing, playing for our friends. But thats for another time. In the meantime, we’ll be in the lilac room this week, which is smaller and therefore cheaper. We thought we’d try somewhere else, see how it all compares. Maybe try something else next time too. I think we’re all looking forward to the Dance Studio. It has a proper studio feel to it. Very professional.

So stay tuned for the midweek update.

I finally got round to installing the GarageBand jam pack I got from Katie. Haven’t really got time to try it out at the moment but when I get some time, I’m gonna try record some things, maybe Russia or Gouge Away and see what I can do with them.

It comes with loads of loops and software instruments so I should be able to get some good effects out of my bass, and with my overdrive pedal, I can get more. Its all coming together, just need time to devote to it. Hopefully, when I move,  I can get a mini studio set up, with my guitar, laptop, and all the leads I need to record music. Then get the other guys in and record the rest. Any suggestions for equipment would be good. I can get a Tascam cassette recording deck if I want from Katie’s dad to help. Could do with a USB or Firewire Audio interface so we can jam and record it all at once.

Keep living the dream. This could be our year!

Well its the new year and its about time to start looking for a new place to live. Our tenancy is up at the end of March as we just renewed it for 3 months so we can look for somewhere.

We want to move out of town, and into a more spacious 2-bed house in a nice suburban area. And we’ve found somewhere nice already. I saw it looking on primelocation.com and we’re having a look next week. It sounds good and looks really nice. All we have to worry about is filling it with furniture. We’re also looking for somewhere considerably cheaper than what we have at the moment and something near a train station. So not much really.

Its stressful at the best of times so Katie and I think we should give ourselves about 2 weeks to move. Thats likely to be one week of just evenings, and one solid week. Then we have plenty of time to do it (probably won’t need that long though) and we can take it easy. We then need to clean this place as we got a few marks on the carpets.

Of course the main priority is getting some damn hot water. Its been almost 2 months now, having to travel to Katie’s parents for a shower. Its not nice. I miss my morning shower, and knowing I probably smell good. The plumbers have been messing us around, really difficult to contact, but still I try.

Fingers crossed for some good plumbing this weekend and a nice house next week

I saw this over at the Evil Genius Chronicles and while I haven’t been tagged by anyone, I thought I would start off. So here are 5 little known facts about me.

1. I actually have an Economics A-level, even if it is an E
2. I once went for job as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor. I had little interest in the job really but got offered it.
3. As a child, I always seemeed to win a bottle of wine on raffles and tombola’s, but I’m not a big wine drinker now
4. My first claim to fame was being on The Time The Place (local discussion show like Kilroy) with my mum when I was about 6.
5. When I lived in the first house I can remember, I used to watch the bin men on thursdays collect our rubbish and I wanted to be one when I was older.

There you go. Not that interesting but facts none the less.

It may be a day late but happy new year everyone. Like many people, I hope this one is better than the last (which would probably go for most people unless you had a fantastic year).

I’m not much of a resolution maker. I see how the new year can be seen as a fresh start but why can’t every day be like that? Either way, I have not made resolutions this year, merely recorded my hopes on someone’s digital camera for prosperity. My hopes for the year are to finish my A+ exam at least, and help (beyond playing bass) record some songs once we’ve finished them. There is a recording studio at Rich Bitch but it costs more and while I have GarageBand and Logic Express on my laptop I might try it myself.

On the subject, just two things to mention. My main gift at Christmas was a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive pedal. I have yet to give this a try but hope for good things. I have a Zoom multi-effects pedal but they’re not very good and I haven’t got time to sit down and figure out how to make my own so I am gonna try the single pedal method. The other gift was a JamPack from Apple which covers the rhythm section so I can hopefully throw some drum beats down on a few acoustic tracks James sent me.

One impending doom which I fear is my laptop. I have a 15″ Powerbook G4 which I think is slowly dying. I’ve had little trouble since owning it, had to reinstall Mac OS X a few times through my own negligence, but now the display is starting to go like many others on the Apple Discussion Forums. I’m going to keep using it and hope it lasts a bit longer but then I will just splash out on a new Macbook I think. Hopefully Macworld will bring some nice revisions but I would like a black version.

Anyway, best wishes to you all in the new year. Hope you all have a few moments to look back on by the time its past!