We'll Meet Again, My Friend..

.. Some day soon..

It's been 2 days in a row that I came back at 4am in the morning, and I won't be sleeping until 6am at least due to my laundry. It's interesting how working at odd shift hours can be.

Reminds me of the good old days, but not entirely everything.

Now everything has changed, and more changes will be done during the beginning of December, I wouldn't know what to do, plan, or to stay.

Not entirely lost, but it's the thought of getting the job done regardless the matter.

It's an interesting thought, and mentality; like a body that moves from one place to another without a mind.

But I've got no choice at times. After all, I'm just waiting for the days, weeks and months to pass. So, until then, I'll just do whatever I feel like doing as long as I've sorted out my priorities.











I admit I don't have a life. But who cares? If you do, that's good, because I don't. Hohohoho..

Hush.

It's time to hide in this shell once again.

To achieve what I once called my dreams, yet facing reality.

The perfect contrast amongst each other.











But nothing stops a passionate heart.

I Got An Off Day To..

.. Attend Iz's album launch @ Bangkok Jazz in KL, today at 3pm.

See you all there, I suppose. I'm not sure what sort of title he gave me in the presentation or whatever it is, but I think it's going to be rather ambitious.

Oh well.

http://imborntosingsongs.blogspot.com/2008/08/from-ninth-in-one-in-million-to-being.html

[Poem] Chances for Wishes.

Something I stumbled upon. Was written back in 2005..

Hey yo.
Some stories, they end well, but some they end up in flames?
Listen to this, and see who takes the blame.
'Cause I don't even know myself.
Just listen.

Verse 1
If I had the chance, would you come back to me?
And patch things together, so we would be what we used to be.
Everytime I try, I get hurt in the end,
When I put things together, and when it never blends.
If I had the chance, I would always turn around,
Notice when something's wrong, notice when you're down.
So I can try and make things right, through just one starry night,
Instead of leaving you alone, surrounded by grand lies.
If I had the chance, I would turn back time,
And study everything we did, and noticed the crimes,
The fight and mistakes, the reason our love was wrong,
And everything else that caused our love to crumble; and then gone.
If I had the chance, I would change myself,
and everything else, that would make things go well.
And to achieve this chance, I would gladly sacrifice,
As long as it brings happiness, and not tears to my eyes.

You know that's what I would do, if I had chances.
But what about wishes..? Hmmm..

Verse 2
If I had a wish, would things be the same?
Would love be how it was, how we'd usually claim?
Or would things be in vain, or would our love be tamed?
Will all this feelings be released, or fully retained?
If I had a wish, would my dreams be it?
Having you in them, knowing they wouldn't be a trick.
In every single dream, would everything be a treat?
Or would it bring sadness? And our freedom? A constrict.
If I had a wish, without a doubt I'd wish for you;
Where you'd wipe tears, and urge me on away from gloom.
But that's not what you want, I'll be the sadness in your life
If my wish came true; your nights? (Spent in silent cries).
If I had a wish, I would vanquish in a swish,
So somewhere far away; and myself I'd vanish.
To a land of no tears, no fears, no lies and no despise,
With death implanted in me, and soon; I'll just die.

Hey yo, that's all I gotta say.
And until today, I don't even know what went wrong.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
All this things that we feel? Maybe it's just a blessing in disguise.
Well,I don't know.
Maybe I'll find out soon enough.
Hey yo, just listen.

Verse 3
If I wished for a chance, I'd hide everything I'd knew,
So nobody would see my thoughts, my senses and have no clue,
Would the chances be my desire? To notice what went wrong?
Or just to leave it as it is, since it's been fated all along.
If I had a chance for a wish, would killing myself be the answer?
Would everything be forgotten? Or would memories be a blur?
Losing my heart, and breaking it into a thousand pieces,
Or believing in the lies been told, and this treason.
The next step is hard, when my mind's indecisive,
When life's so hard, and when happiness is priceless.
Even harder, when what you believe is deceiving,
I just want a chance to wish; to be neutral to everything.
Now I have to pull myself and keep on moving on,
Cause I can never stay down for my time's never long.
You can never know, when time slows down like a curse.
And that's when I want a chance to wish; for the wishes for chances.

Best Audible Thing So Far.

Taking in the view from the outside;
Feeling like the underdog.
Watching through the window I'm on the outside;
Living like the underdog.

A New Experience.

Today, as you know, I mengamuk'ed and merajuk'ed at my scheduling manager for stuffing me at The Curve for Wesak's Day.

But honestly, the environment there is better. Except that the bar was kind of .. small.. It's hard to move about and all.

And the best thing is, instead of listening to the usual Starbucks music, there was a pub in front of us, and damn! The band there was playing Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix.. My all time favourite, then Van Halen's Jump .. and then Hotel California by The Eagles.. and ... and..

It really put me in the mood to work.. Although I was kind of slow .. I could've done better over experience.. But..damn, I guess I'm not prepared to handle a busy store.. Had a brief shot at it. Honestly, I nearly died.







But all was over when I kept on listening to ... Worthwhile, reviewing its mistakes, flaws, and getting more ideas of what to put in the near future..





Still in the arrangement stage, and there will be no preview for this song until ... Well, I feel like it.. XD

Progression.

It is beautiful.

Because of the glorious blessing of my internet connection being down at the moment, I actually sat down and started working on Propellerhead Reason 4.0, and started searching for the right sounds.

The right instruments.

Although the thing that puts me off is that I still don’t have a proper keyboard to sit down with and to hit the notes, instead of clicking them into Propellerhead Reason, but.. Whatever. My inspirations came in at the wrong timing, once again.

Then I switched off the fluorescent light in my room, and switched on the evening sun, as what I would call it, and it put me in the perfect mood.

With the light shining over the screen, over my progress, over my soon-to-be masterpiece, it really put me in that ambience. That emotional ambience. That perfect feeling to be in touch with nobody, but myself.

Digging into myself, asking myself questions of another language:

What do you wish to speak? What are you thinking? What comes across your mind, NOW? What are you thinking? Is this a sad thought? Is this a liberating thought? Is this a..

And all that, written into a bar. Not even writing with a normal pen or pencil, but musical notes.








Yes, I have finally sat down, and I'm working on the instrumental version for Worthwhile. I might be recording vocals over it, but.. I will consider upon the results.







Oh.. my ... God..








It..sounds so beautiful............................................................................









I found my sanctuary for the moment... And.... and... I'm in another universe..

Guitar Recording Progress..?

I'm extremely tired at the moment, no thanks to my bloody laundry last night. I was way too tired. But nevermind about that, because last night was so fruitful!

I recorded my first draft guitars for Iz, and out of 8 bars, he only liked the 2nd. The other 7 bars failed. And that's quite a bit, I think. Had to practically re-write the whole thing. that means that I had to re-write a 25 second solo.

And one thing about me, a lot of people know me when it comes to guitars, I can never play melodious stuff. Until last night.

Another different side of me in the guitar was discovered, I guess? The one that I've been searching for after all this while. It's like, implanting my soul into the guitar, and use it to speak my thoughts out, instead of vague shredding notes, I guess.

And finally! In a recording, or writing a solo, I managed to switch back and forth the neck to bridge pickup, and ending the solo with the neck pickup. I keep forgetting that there are a few pickups installed into this thing for a reason; and that is, it's meant to be used. Huuuu..

I'm digging the guitar solo now, even if it's a draft. EXCEPT for the bloody notes that went out of timing.

But the thing that turns me off is that when I hit the first few notes, it sounds like a solo from Dream Theater's Another Day or something. Buh. But it doesn't sound like it, because you know why? Simple:

I can never catch up with John Petrucci.

Wheee! So I'm not copying his melodious works in any way. Hahaha.

One reason why it sounds good is because we have to thank the technology of recording multiple layers of guitars. Wheeee!




And the recording session this Saturday isn't confirmed. In fact, I don't even know when it is. So till then, I'll leave another entry regarding those plans. *Burp*

Time for college..

The Sessionist.

I received an SMS from Iz, and I'll be back in the music scene, once again, after my long absence. Regardless if I'm from Penang or now based in Selangor, the music scene should be known to be as one. Only because we need ALL the support we can get in our own ways!

I won't be producing tracks or music because Iz has already a really good beat going on for one of his songs, which will be featured in his single.

This is going to be my first semi-Malay track to record my guitar nonsense on! I'm looking forward, and I would want to do my best; not because of money, but because how I looooooooooooooooooooove how this song sounds like! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Can't wait!

And by the way, this is my 2nd time doing official recording for an album, even if it's an EP, but my very first time recording in an actual studio! Which means that this is an invitation for you to come along, if you're interested to have a little sneak peak of whatever Iz has recorded (oops!), and what I will be doing.

I will have to get things prepared real soon. Ugh. This is the only thing I've feared right after I took up a job. :(





Oh! On another note, please head to Iz's site, and vote for his single which is being played on Xfresh.fm and Fly.fm .. Remember, even the best entertainers are nothing if there aren't people like YOU to support them!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee work tonight T_T

The Re-Mix.

As some of you might know, I'm working with my friend, and boss, Iz. Only because that he approached me with a whole new genre to mess around with for his song, Gonna Be Alright.

This remix version that I worked on a few weeks ago will be featured in his upcoming EP which will be released probably next month after a few more recording sessions I guess?

But ignore the above.  Last night, I went to The Ark Studios @ TTDI.  Managed to literally see the almighty Nick Lee for a brief moment, before he retreated to his shell of ideas on the upper floor.

I always loved studios.  But last night, was rather tiring for me.  I don't know if I focused too hard in figuring out the mistakes, planning lyrics (which was eventually forgotten the second right after it came out of my mouth), and assisting Iz in timing and ideas, I guess?

But it was a really good experience.  I always tend to learn more and more regarding mixing, recording and music production.  It's inspiration, get what I'm saying?

Anyways, I won't let out too much information regarding about this little.. project, but here are some pictures of The Ark Studios @ TTDI with my crap Nokia 6151 camera.  The rest of the pictures are in Iz's camera.  Waiting for those to come by, and I'll post them up here too :)

In the meantime, try and enjoy the low quality pictures.  Lol

Bunch of pre-amp racks for mics and guitars.. AND a Microsoft machine!  *boo!!*

Maestro Izzie at work

Too bad.  No wide lens was on the market for Nokia handphones.  HAHAHAHAHA

The always-so-patient-and-constantly-contributing-ideas audio engineer, Keith.  Very down to earth person.  I never get pictures of his face..which means he needs a haircut!!!

I forgot who's Yamaha synth is this, but what Keith told me is that she's a very famous arranger in the Malay music scene..

Ah.  The other Microsoft machine  *booo!* .. This needed to be on because I had to re-bounce some tracks on a last minute basis.  Some of my files were 'corrupted' earlier on.  Stupid Vista.

Until I get the clearer pictures from Iz, these will be the current eye candy.  Lol

Guitars: Cheating In Recording Sessions.

Hello all. This will be my very first post on Blogspot.com regarding music tips, if anybody would find them quite useful, of course. But anyways, back on my other site, I provided plenty of ideas, and tips about what I do. Regardless if they're valuable, stupid, or you can find them anywhere else through google.com, I'd still spend most of my time sharing what I know. And I was always known to post up musical nonsense that none of my friends that I usually talk to, would usually understand because they're detailed, or my friends just aren't musicians.

Because I'm kind of sad that people who are good in musical instruments, can't expand and broaden their experiences in music.. Especially Malaysia!

There're some of us who are constantly trying to improve the music scene by playing many gigs for free. We don't even ask to get paid, but we're trying to show how important music can be to others, only if the authorities allow it, of course.

Don't believe me? Better read on how Bob Marley united Jamaica as one through MUSIC only. Should be availble on Wikipedia.

Anyways, with all of that aside, I will share today's tip about recording. I was messing around with my guitar a few minutes ago, and I think this would be well applied on soloes which uses anything BUT the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fret of the guitar.

I learnt this from my guitar instructor, Kelvyn Yeang, for legato exercises. Or rather, the thing that looks like this..


Two-hand-on-the-neck trick.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Steve Vai. A symbol, an icon, and a wizard when it comes to the guitar. What he is doing in this picture, would be a signature. Many guitarists practice this method, which is to only hit the notes with their left hand without picking - called legato. A series of pull-offs and hammer-ons along the neck of the guitar is a good example of how this is being put to play. You can refer to youtube.com and check out "Tender Surrender" by Steve Vai and see how this is possible.

The trick is, you use your picking hand to mute the strings by holding the neck, and your fretting finger to perform your solo.

Doing it while you're on stage can be fun. But what about trying to get some practice? Would you practice the same solo over and over again for let's say .. an hour?

Your armpits would probably stink the whole room.

So, here's the method to cheat: use a sock, a cloth, a wristband, your cat's tail, or anything that's able to tie around the neck, so that would be the alternate to your right hand which should be holding the guitar's neck.

With this, you can practice your legato. And if you're sick and tired, you can start shredding your soloes with the cloth still being tied on the neck.

In fact, that's what I did. What's the difference? It's simple. If you haven't practiced on clean picking and if your style is messy, you can use this cloth to block out all that muffled strings, accidental open strings, etc, while recording your solo.

I never came across this simple method, but try it. I guess it'll save your time on recording if you have clumsy fingers.

Though this may be a cheating method, but please do remember to always practice the right picking positions and always play it right! Try not to cheat. But if you don't have a choice.. Then.. GO figure!!