Friday, May 27, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
First Taste of Our New Album: Feet Aren't Sexy
It's the second song we've started working on for our newest album.
Check out the other version of this on youtube with guitar.
Feet aren't as sexy
As they once were
Ask me, I know feet
Stop romanticizing me
There's nothing romantic about me
I need you like I need death
Death needs me
Death needs you
Stop hating me and I'll stop loving you
just a small sample:
ps. we're working on our new site: go to http://dothetrikey.wordpress.com/
Check out the other version of this on youtube with guitar.
Feet aren't as sexy
As they once were
Ask me, I know feet
Stop romanticizing me
There's nothing romantic about me
I need you like I need death
Death needs me
Death needs you
Stop hating me and I'll stop loving you
just a small sample:
ps. we're working on our new site: go to http://dothetrikey.wordpress.com/
Monday, August 17, 2009
happy recording midi
i have begun making beats for the album... FINALLYYYYYY.
starting with gumball.
i almost foolishly put it online in this infant stage ... hahahahahaahahaha
that would be ... foolish.
love you guys.
xox
stevie
ps. FRED! see past the annoyance because it's strangely brilliant.
starting with gumball.
i almost foolishly put it online in this infant stage ... hahahahahaahahaha
that would be ... foolish.
love you guys.
xox
stevie
ps. FRED! see past the annoyance because it's strangely brilliant.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The End Of Yet Another Tour: Stephen's Perspective!!!
Wrote this last week, before our last show of our tour:
Götenburg, Sweden. Kontiki bar. Our LAST SHOW will take place here soon....
My stupid "built-in camera" isn't working (with absolutely no explanation. It happens often) on my laptop, so I can't film any more today). I may have a small vlog, however... using the footage I filmed in the station earlier. Perhaps the camera will work later. Spent $2000 on this macbook and since the beginning the camera has been on and off; working at times and not working at other times. Sheer frustration.
I'm a wee bit tired, after spending 10 hours on the bus from Hamburg. Sleeping upright on a full bus is a HUGE CHALLENGE. Thanks to Björn, we both had small pillows, and I sucked back a sleeping pill around 11:30, just after boarding and watching half of "Ali" (w/ Will Smith, which gave me renewed respect for him ... and Ali himself). Slept a fair amount (five hours max), but we're both pretty bagged today.
* * *
However:
Yesterday was something special. As some of you know, we are "sponsered" by the German department of Yamaha. Thing is, Claus Kruse (who works in the product department) saw us play last year, loved the show and said he would give us a keyboard and if I liked it I could keep it. Thus explains the second keyboard. It's a magnificent beauty, with all sorts of dials and knobs so I can twist, morph and alter the sound in various ways. And a million voices. Yes, it breaks fairly easily, but when it works, it's a thing of beauty.
Xania, Björn and myself met him at the Yamaha offices around noon. He took us on a tour of the place. MASSIVE rooms full of grand pianos, brass instruments, a sound room specifically made to test pianos. He showed me an amazing keyboard. "You can combine different voices and add many effects, change the quality of the sound... basically create whatever sound you want to make." he said. He went on to tell me about how you have hundreds of drum voices, bass voices... anything you like. You can basically construct entire songs, tweaking every sound on this keyboard. AND we can borrow it for however long we need it, within reason. "Can we have it for three months?" I asked. "Of course" he said, scribbling down "October 31". HOLY SMOKES!!! We get a killer keyboard, a massive mixing board compatible with Cubase with really great pre-amps and compression, a microphone, cables and any other trinkets we may need. For a poor band travelling Europe like gypsies, this is a magical opportunity to make a really nice album with great sound. Forget the last album with its many trials and tribulations. We need to make something from scratch... Not to say the last album is a waste of time. Perhaps we can release it later as alternative versions of the songs we recorded.
So that's what we'll do. We'll take a break from touring. Three months, with two small touring breaks in between. We'll stay in Copenhagen for a few reasons:
a) we're hoping to woo Crunchy Frog (label), or at least milk them for advice on what to do/ where to go from here
b) the various venues and venue owners in town that we have already made a connection with when we popped by Copenhagen a few months ago.
and
c) because our lovely friend Oliver has offered for us to stay at his place for the first two months! in return, we cook him meals. I have some sweetass breakfast ideas in mind: banana pancakes, just to mention one.
* * *
We are sitting in the Kontiki (a bar with a Hawaiian feel; bamboo everywhere, soft square cushion-chairs) and the soundguy repeatedly tells the sound check-ing band they're too loud. "There is a neighbour upstairs" he announces. "I play guitar too, and I understand the desire to make it loud, but... come on, kids" (kids? I scoff. He's the same age as them!). Tonight it's our last concert of our second European Tour. We are doing two more very small tours in one month and two months, respectively, but this is the END of six months of pretty much straight touring. Many many many UPS and DOWNS:
* 2000 euros was stolen
* Video camera, microphone and very expensive photo camera were stolen
* Many gorgeous shows: better pay, more people... way way way more better ones than last tour: Zagreb, Berlin, Austria, the Wilwarin Festival.
* We were on a label for six days before they folded
* Had a driver/documentary filmmaker for three months (Ineke), then got big muscles in the 3 months of touring since then.
* Saw more art this time. Saw the Egon Schiele exhibition in Vienna, the Kafka museum in Prague
* Had a number of good show reviews/ interviews from Macedonia to Berlin.
* Made back the 2000 plus a few hundred more... and hopefully we will only move up from here... also thanks to donations from lovely people (THANK YOUUUU!!!)
* FINALLY began selling our puppet CDs and T shirts online with paypal. YAAY!!!
* Wrote a handful of new songs
* Realized we need a BREAK!!! from touring. We NEED to record. We need control over our recordings. The albums I have personally recorded and produced in the past I am pretty happy with (The New Album, The Old Album, You Sweaty Thing and even the very lo-fi early stuff from "Zipperhead" - my previous project), and the fact is, I need more control over the recording and mixing process... and Xania tells me she has recording experience and knowledge as well, so we'll see how it works with the two of us hammerin' away at the tunes. We chose about twenty but I think we'll choose ten more, record them all and see which ones will fit well on our first PROPER RELEASE. SInce this is our first "professional" recording, we want to redo a number of previously recorded songs (Do The Trikey, Bring The Shit Back) and others that have never been recorded... send the files off to others to remix, and do a real, sexy, souped-up album.
We just did our sound check and my new keyboard started giving me grief. "This is HOGWASH!" I screamed, using the same phrase as my dad used to say, whenever the car wouldn't start or Peter and I would stay up late, lying in the hallway watching TV movies playing in the living room, unbeknownst to my parents. However, after sound check-ing "Love is a Temperature Thing" to a sea of happy faces, without too much hassle from the new keyboard, we realize we sound fine. I return to the task of writing this blog and making CDs that simply don't want to burn.
(postscript) After this blog, we played our show. It was fun. Not the best show we've had, but fun... A pleasant end to a long long looooong tour....
more to come.
For now, feast your eyes on this:
Götenburg, Sweden. Kontiki bar. Our LAST SHOW will take place here soon....
My stupid "built-in camera" isn't working (with absolutely no explanation. It happens often) on my laptop, so I can't film any more today). I may have a small vlog, however... using the footage I filmed in the station earlier. Perhaps the camera will work later. Spent $2000 on this macbook and since the beginning the camera has been on and off; working at times and not working at other times. Sheer frustration.
I'm a wee bit tired, after spending 10 hours on the bus from Hamburg. Sleeping upright on a full bus is a HUGE CHALLENGE. Thanks to Björn, we both had small pillows, and I sucked back a sleeping pill around 11:30, just after boarding and watching half of "Ali" (w/ Will Smith, which gave me renewed respect for him ... and Ali himself). Slept a fair amount (five hours max), but we're both pretty bagged today.
* * *
However:
Yesterday was something special. As some of you know, we are "sponsered" by the German department of Yamaha. Thing is, Claus Kruse (who works in the product department) saw us play last year, loved the show and said he would give us a keyboard and if I liked it I could keep it. Thus explains the second keyboard. It's a magnificent beauty, with all sorts of dials and knobs so I can twist, morph and alter the sound in various ways. And a million voices. Yes, it breaks fairly easily, but when it works, it's a thing of beauty.
Xania, Björn and myself met him at the Yamaha offices around noon. He took us on a tour of the place. MASSIVE rooms full of grand pianos, brass instruments, a sound room specifically made to test pianos. He showed me an amazing keyboard. "You can combine different voices and add many effects, change the quality of the sound... basically create whatever sound you want to make." he said. He went on to tell me about how you have hundreds of drum voices, bass voices... anything you like. You can basically construct entire songs, tweaking every sound on this keyboard. AND we can borrow it for however long we need it, within reason. "Can we have it for three months?" I asked. "Of course" he said, scribbling down "October 31". HOLY SMOKES!!! We get a killer keyboard, a massive mixing board compatible with Cubase with really great pre-amps and compression, a microphone, cables and any other trinkets we may need. For a poor band travelling Europe like gypsies, this is a magical opportunity to make a really nice album with great sound. Forget the last album with its many trials and tribulations. We need to make something from scratch... Not to say the last album is a waste of time. Perhaps we can release it later as alternative versions of the songs we recorded.
So that's what we'll do. We'll take a break from touring. Three months, with two small touring breaks in between. We'll stay in Copenhagen for a few reasons:
a) we're hoping to woo Crunchy Frog (label), or at least milk them for advice on what to do/ where to go from here
b) the various venues and venue owners in town that we have already made a connection with when we popped by Copenhagen a few months ago.
and
c) because our lovely friend Oliver has offered for us to stay at his place for the first two months! in return, we cook him meals. I have some sweetass breakfast ideas in mind: banana pancakes, just to mention one.
* * *
We are sitting in the Kontiki (a bar with a Hawaiian feel; bamboo everywhere, soft square cushion-chairs) and the soundguy repeatedly tells the sound check-ing band they're too loud. "There is a neighbour upstairs" he announces. "I play guitar too, and I understand the desire to make it loud, but... come on, kids" (kids? I scoff. He's the same age as them!). Tonight it's our last concert of our second European Tour. We are doing two more very small tours in one month and two months, respectively, but this is the END of six months of pretty much straight touring. Many many many UPS and DOWNS:
* 2000 euros was stolen
* Video camera, microphone and very expensive photo camera were stolen
* Many gorgeous shows: better pay, more people... way way way more better ones than last tour: Zagreb, Berlin, Austria, the Wilwarin Festival.
* We were on a label for six days before they folded
* Had a driver/documentary filmmaker for three months (Ineke), then got big muscles in the 3 months of touring since then.
* Saw more art this time. Saw the Egon Schiele exhibition in Vienna, the Kafka museum in Prague
* Had a number of good show reviews/ interviews from Macedonia to Berlin.
* Made back the 2000 plus a few hundred more... and hopefully we will only move up from here... also thanks to donations from lovely people (THANK YOUUUU!!!)
* FINALLY began selling our puppet CDs and T shirts online with paypal. YAAY!!!
* Wrote a handful of new songs
* Realized we need a BREAK!!! from touring. We NEED to record. We need control over our recordings. The albums I have personally recorded and produced in the past I am pretty happy with (The New Album, The Old Album, You Sweaty Thing and even the very lo-fi early stuff from "Zipperhead" - my previous project), and the fact is, I need more control over the recording and mixing process... and Xania tells me she has recording experience and knowledge as well, so we'll see how it works with the two of us hammerin' away at the tunes. We chose about twenty but I think we'll choose ten more, record them all and see which ones will fit well on our first PROPER RELEASE. SInce this is our first "professional" recording, we want to redo a number of previously recorded songs (Do The Trikey, Bring The Shit Back) and others that have never been recorded... send the files off to others to remix, and do a real, sexy, souped-up album.
We just did our sound check and my new keyboard started giving me grief. "This is HOGWASH!" I screamed, using the same phrase as my dad used to say, whenever the car wouldn't start or Peter and I would stay up late, lying in the hallway watching TV movies playing in the living room, unbeknownst to my parents. However, after sound check-ing "Love is a Temperature Thing" to a sea of happy faces, without too much hassle from the new keyboard, we realize we sound fine. I return to the task of writing this blog and making CDs that simply don't want to burn.
(postscript) After this blog, we played our show. It was fun. Not the best show we've had, but fun... A pleasant end to a long long looooong tour....
more to come.
For now, feast your eyes on this:
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Trike Tour is over.
I'm lying in the grass in Christiania, surrounded by people wearing sunglasses, smoking joints and listening to beats.
We've been on buses, trains, planes and cars, weaving our way through 14 countries, playing hundreds of shows, seeing thousands of Europeans.
We were robbed three times, were fined a bunch of times, got into a car accident (not with Ineke, with a Mitfahr driver), and have had countless sleepless nights, but all the stress somehow added to the experience. At least it was never boring.
I feel so lucky.
Playing music has dissolved the doors to meeting new people. I really notice that now that I'm sitting here alone, nobody is talking to me, I've made no new friends. But, a few months ago, in this same spot, we were surrounded with people giving us drinks, joints and love, because we played for them.
Our friend Oliver is letting us stay in his apartment for two months. His crazy humour and utter sexiness will keep us entertained the whole time.
Our friend Claus gave us get a Yamaha sponsorship, and is letting us record with the N12, a super pro mixing board for the next three months. (Stephen and I both held back tears when he described it's features.) He has so much faith in us, that we have no choice but to make a killer album.
And Björn and his family have always been amazing to us. We've met so many fuckin' good peeps because of music.
So the tour is over, and we're here in Copenhagen for three months to focus on making the best album possible.. I think it's time to stop touring anynow. Our equipment is getting worn out. One of the speakers on Stephen's black keyboard blew, (thanks to a dramatic moment on the streets of Gent when Stephen knocked his keyboard over on the concrete during our performance. It didn't work at all until a small, sweet German took time to repair it). The other keyboard's volume function is completely fucked, my "new" dancing shoes are in pieces, my glockenspiel was stolen after a gig (but I got a new one, so I guess it doesn't really count..)
We made a set list for our last show, full of songs we knew really well. (It was a new audience and we didn't have to change things up for them). We noticed only one new song compared to a set list from our show in Vancouver almost one year ago. I mean, we've written many new songs since that show, but we've only incorporated a few into our sets. We need this time to re-work our show, perfect new songs, practice and think of new elements to add to our performances.
We also need time to think about what we're going to do after the album is finished. Will we go back to Canada? Probably, but I'm not sure when.
Here's my Canada vs. Europe list:
CANADA
Pros:
-You don't have to pay to use the bathroom.
-Pay phones cost $0.50, (Not $0.50 per minute.)
-Breakfast diners exist.
-We have amazing fans in Vancouver.
-I can understand the street signs.
-My family lives here
Cons:
-Big-ass country, hard to get around.
-Hard to make $ touring.
-My family lives here. (jk)
EUROPE
Pros:
-Lots of people in a concentrated space (easy to tour)
-We get paid in Euros
-Beer is really cheap (except for in Scandinavia)
-Saturated history and many different cultures
-Get paid well, fed and usually a place to sleep at gigs.
-Most venues are full when we perform, even if we did no promotion and never visited the city before.
-Being Canadian is exotic over here, and helps promote our shows (Canada has a good rep, I guess)
-Cons
-No free health care
-Customer service fuckin' sucks.
So, we have three whole months to think about our art, work on our album and ponder the future. We haven't had a break this long for two years. I'm so used to moving around every day or two, that I forgot how long a day can be when it's not taken up by thinking about how to get to the next show.
love the pyjamas off of you,
Xania
We've been on buses, trains, planes and cars, weaving our way through 14 countries, playing hundreds of shows, seeing thousands of Europeans.
We were robbed three times, were fined a bunch of times, got into a car accident (not with Ineke, with a Mitfahr driver), and have had countless sleepless nights, but all the stress somehow added to the experience. At least it was never boring.
I feel so lucky.
Playing music has dissolved the doors to meeting new people. I really notice that now that I'm sitting here alone, nobody is talking to me, I've made no new friends. But, a few months ago, in this same spot, we were surrounded with people giving us drinks, joints and love, because we played for them.
Our friend Oliver is letting us stay in his apartment for two months. His crazy humour and utter sexiness will keep us entertained the whole time.
Our friend Claus gave us get a Yamaha sponsorship, and is letting us record with the N12, a super pro mixing board for the next three months. (Stephen and I both held back tears when he described it's features.) He has so much faith in us, that we have no choice but to make a killer album.
And Björn and his family have always been amazing to us. We've met so many fuckin' good peeps because of music.
So the tour is over, and we're here in Copenhagen for three months to focus on making the best album possible.. I think it's time to stop touring anynow. Our equipment is getting worn out. One of the speakers on Stephen's black keyboard blew, (thanks to a dramatic moment on the streets of Gent when Stephen knocked his keyboard over on the concrete during our performance. It didn't work at all until a small, sweet German took time to repair it). The other keyboard's volume function is completely fucked, my "new" dancing shoes are in pieces, my glockenspiel was stolen after a gig (but I got a new one, so I guess it doesn't really count..)
We made a set list for our last show, full of songs we knew really well. (It was a new audience and we didn't have to change things up for them). We noticed only one new song compared to a set list from our show in Vancouver almost one year ago. I mean, we've written many new songs since that show, but we've only incorporated a few into our sets. We need this time to re-work our show, perfect new songs, practice and think of new elements to add to our performances.
We also need time to think about what we're going to do after the album is finished. Will we go back to Canada? Probably, but I'm not sure when.
Here's my Canada vs. Europe list:
CANADA
Pros:
-You don't have to pay to use the bathroom.
-Pay phones cost $0.50, (Not $0.50 per minute.)
-Breakfast diners exist.
-We have amazing fans in Vancouver.
-I can understand the street signs.
-My family lives here
Cons:
-Big-ass country, hard to get around.
-Hard to make $ touring.
-My family lives here. (jk)
EUROPE
Pros:
-Lots of people in a concentrated space (easy to tour)
-We get paid in Euros
-Beer is really cheap (except for in Scandinavia)
-Saturated history and many different cultures
-Get paid well, fed and usually a place to sleep at gigs.
-Most venues are full when we perform, even if we did no promotion and never visited the city before.
-Being Canadian is exotic over here, and helps promote our shows (Canada has a good rep, I guess)
-Cons
-No free health care
-Customer service fuckin' sucks.
So, we have three whole months to think about our art, work on our album and ponder the future. We haven't had a break this long for two years. I'm so used to moving around every day or two, that I forgot how long a day can be when it's not taken up by thinking about how to get to the next show.
love the pyjamas off of you,
Xania
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