A band diary... a fairly random thing to put on a fairly random website...

Well, recently I've been thinking about my goals for the next year, and I've decided that getting a band together would be one of those goals. It's seeming like it might actually happen lately, so I thought that keeping a diary would spur me even further into action, so that I would have something to write about.

I used to be in a band, back home. We were actually fairly successful. As in, we released an album, and went on a two-week long tour. Which, for my part of the world, is pretty big.

So now, I'm starting all over again. If you're interested, please read on. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be able to say you were around at the start of The Next Big Thing. ;)



Thursday, June 26 2008 || Entry #002

This weekend just gone was a pretty inspirational one for the whole music thing. Some friends and I caught a flight to a little island called Miyako. It's fairly close to Taiwan, but is part of the prefecture of Okinawa, which is part of Japan.

Every year, this island plays host to a rock festival. The Rock Festival. The slogan is "Save the Sea. Save the Sky.", and collections are taken up in order to preserve the beauty of Okinawa's oceans. This all goes on while 8 fantastic bands are going nuts on stage.

This year, I was privileged enough to see Hearts Grow, Tokyo Skunx, Straightener (�X�g���C�e�i�[), Puffy, Ellegarden, Shonan no Kaze (��T��), Funky Monkey Babys and Mongol 800 play.

I'd heard of all of them, but had never heard the music of Tokyo Skunx, and wasn't really familiar with Shonan no Kaze. They definitely didn't disappoint. Once I figured out Tokyo Skunx was a rocking ska band, a South African friend and I ran up front and skanked our little butts off. Unfortunately, we were skanking our little butts off in the Okinawan midday heat, so I felt rather sick after. :P

Luckily, the beer tent was not yet open, so I sought shelter under a little strip of their tent, caught my breath and calmed my beating heart during Straightener's performance.

Just as they were coming to an end, I gave some of my Japanese friends a call, and met up with them as they had just arrived. My friend, Tomo, loves live music as much as I do, and she was really keen to get up front for the rest of the festival. I swear, this woman has the stamina of an ox. She stood in that mosh pit until the very end of the very last band.

I managed to stick by her for Puffy (who played a great rendition of Green Day's Basket Case, and rocked the place out with Tokyo, I'm on my Way, written for them by Dexter Holland of The Offspring), Ellegarden (the band I most wanted to see, as a) I love them like mad and b) they're breaking up at the end of next month), Shonan no Kaze (whose stage gimmick, unfortunately, is to get their fans to swing hand towels around their heads. Unfortunately, I say, because I'm 10-20cm taller than the average person in the audience, which is the perfect height at which to get a sweaty towel in the face every 2 seconds XP) and Funky Monkey Babys (who're even better than their name sounds!).

I had to admit defeat at this stage, though. My feet were aching from being trod on a million times, I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, nor drunk anything since Straightener's act. Unfortunately, you'll know if you've been to a big concert, if you leave a friend in the mosh pit, you'll never find them again. Luckily, I did manage to find my gaijin friends, who were standing on the outer edge of the crowd. This worked really well, it turned out, because there was plenty of dancing room, which meant that I could go absolutely nuts for Mongol 800, an Okinawan band I've been a fan of since arriving here.

I was fairly comatose (and very stinky!) after that lot, though, so after a quick visit to an izakaya (Japanese bar-type thing) for some food, I left my friends there and walked back to bed, where I fell asleep within minutes.

The next day was planned for sightseeing around the island, but 5 minutes after reaching the first touristy place we received a message saying that all the bands were at the main beach. The next 15 minutes were spent running around the tourist attraction as we all wanted to get to the beach, but didn't want to entirely waste our ticket money.

The beach certainly delivered! It produced a member of Funky Monkey Babys, the whole of Ellegarden and Tokyo Skunks and Puffy's backing band. And those were just the people I recognised - there could well have been more of them. A whole day of chilling on the beach with these amazing bands... I wish every weekend could be like this one!

It also brought about a few hours of interesting conversation with my Irish friend. He was originally going to be our guitarist, but he's moving to Osaka in a month. Both of us have thus promised each other that in the next year, we will make a bloody awesome band, and we will come back to our island, and play a gig in the ocean. We agreed that a sound setup wouldn't be inconceivably difficult on a raised stage in the ocean, and it would be great for the fans for cooling off if they could stand knee-deep in the water. Don'tcha think? ;)

After that perfect day, I packed up my belongings and my awful sunburn (Consumer warning: hours spent staring at the cute lead singer of Ellegarden may cause one to forget to re-apply sunscreen), I headed for the airport and got on a plane out of there, leaving behind a promise to return for another amazing weekend next year.

Sunday, June 15 2008 || Entry #001

When I came to Japan, I didn't think I would want to start up the whole band thing again. I was in one for two years, and the amount of in-fighting and scheming that went on gave me several decent migraines.

Having said that, though, those were two of the best years of my life. There's nothing quite like being totally in-sync with 5 other people, and collaborating in producing a work of art. There's nothing quite like being on stage, in a spotlight, no matter if the stage is a bit of wood in front of 20 people, or a giant steel monster up above 2000.

So, here begins the search.
I'm a vocalist, which kind of sucks, because vocalists are the easiest and cheapest musicians to come by. I like to think that I'm fairly good, because a few people have told me that I am. I don't think I'm anything special, but I think with the right people, I could make magic.

This does mean, though, that I have to set about finding guitarists, drummers and bassists, at the very least. I'd also be interested in adding other instruments to create a unique sound. Though whether or not the other instruments will be regular band members or not, I can't tell yet.

Step 1: Guitarist
I currently have two options for guitarists. One is a Japanese guy I've known for a little while now. He produces his own music, and he can play at least 3 instruments, though I've not yet heard any of them. He's very quiet, but maybe that'll mean he'll be the "broody, introspective" character.

Option two is an American who'll be arriving here in a few weeks. I've already put the idea to him, and he sounds keen, though I don't really know much about him.

Step 2: Drummer
Guitarist number 1 and I have been looking for a drummer for ages, and I think I've finally found our man. Funnily enough, I've worked with him for the past 2 months, but only now found out that he's the drummer in a medium-famous Japanese band (as in, they have a few albums, they've played at a big festival I've been to, and they have one song in the karaoke list at a fairly big karaoke house). His band is currently on a break, so I'll be asking him this week if he'll join me. As a bonus, he is also incredibly good looking. ;)

Step 3: Bassist
I've heard guitarist number one say he might know someone. But, that's all I've got right now.

Step 4: Other instruments
I have a friend who plays the shamisen - it's a traditional Japanese instrument with three strings. It sounds kind of plunky, but very uniquely Japanese. I think she'd be keen.

Step 5: Rule The World
Yes... we shall.

That's all I have for today. I should be making another entry sometime this week, when I know what cute drummer's answer is. Cross your fingers for me, ne!