Funky Monkey

Sunday, July 16, 2006
I haven't had anytime to update the whole battle of the bands situation here. Well after the whole bout of anxiety and excitement we got through to the next round. Inititally I was slightly nervous, but of course more excited than anything at all. But the combination of the 2 feelings soon turned into a mix of impatience and claustrophobia. We started late due to other bands coming late. And we had to stay till the end to wait for the release of the results. All other shortcomings aside, it went very well. Much better than expected actually. The gear used at the venue was by no means top notch, but we still managed to get a pretty good sound.

Of course I owe a lot of gratitude to my fellow guitar pedal slut Brandon for his help on that. He actually came down specially to make sure the sound was nicely balanced between all of us on stage. How your band sounds can seriously make or break you. Like what Suffian would say, we may be loud but we're not noisy.

Needless to say I'm very satisfied with our performance. Right now I'm just itching for the 29th to arrive and go up on stage to play our hearts out! The next round will be quarter finals and we'll be allowed 2 songs instead of the 1 song limit as per the auditions. The song choices have already been decided on with the end of today's jam session, we'll be sticking to our guns and playing the songs we feel most comfortable with.

I took some time off this weekend to spend a morning with Val and her family. We went off to some kampong lookalike place somewhere in Sembawang. To tell you the truth I've never been there before! I find that fact all the more disturbing since Singapore is such a small country to begin with. Anyway, it's for me; the closest you can ever get to Malaysia without leaving Singapore. The place reminded me of those rest stops during our long bus ride to KL back in January. After that we hearded to a nearby park, which had a nice little shoreline with the signature lightly coloured brown Singapore sand and greenish water. I found it all the more disturbing that families were playing in the water, while huge cargo ships were docked in the nearby port about 1km away.

More than anything I found it even more disturbing than my first disturbing thought...after going through so many International Business courses I actually imagined how many TEUs could fit on that ship and how much it could contribute to Singapore's GDP. I'm so sad.

In the park I came across a really nicely shaped sea snail, nicely shaped in terms of its shell of course. It never came out for me to actually find out what it looks like.

Here it is in my hand.

I wanted to take it home with me, but I decided against it after recalling some super Pantang incident which happened in Army when I brought back a baby snake to our bunk. A whole friggin' week of bad luck followed. The sea snail would have probably done the same, just probably condemn my with a life of sluggishness spent underwater.

Last monday while everyone else was getting high on watching Coldplay I went to the esplanade with Brandon and my guitar teacher, Andrew; to catch the one and only Allan Holdsworth. Extremely amazing. The whole experience reminded me of when I went to Steve Vai perform in Singapore. While not the same genre of music, and perhaps on totally different musical planes, both of them had a profound emotional impact on me. Lucky for me they dimmed the lights during the concert. The whole time in my seat I was smiling like an idiot to myself while fighting back tears from my eyes. Sounds friggin' pansy ass but that's really what happened to me. Or more rather what I experienced.

I'd do it all over again!

I spent the whole of my saturday doing my sales force project with Cynthia and Mara. Doing so just made me realize how much I'm going to miss all of them when they head off to UB next semester. Sigh.

Till then.

Christopher.

Tomorrow is the semi-big day...

Saturday, July 08, 2006
My band has entered the Singapore battle of the bands 2006. Tomorrow is the first day. We'll be faced with the auditions come 2pm on Sunday. We have been practicing real hard for this, endless sessions at the studio. On my own, I've been putting in lot's of practice time into getting everything right.
In fact every single minute of spare time I have on my hands, I spend it going over the song, just jamming along with it focusing on the changes. Like so...


We'll be doing a rather simple song this time round for the auditions. No one million notes per second nonsense for me...or more rather the lack thereof. I'll be playing rhythm for the song. Rather than to focus on the amount of technique injected into the song, I'll be concentrating on creating a really good groove to complement everyone else. I've played the song so many times, I've totally lost count. I know every single note, chord change, and every little change in direction that the song takes. But somehow I'm just a little bit shaken by the whole audition thing. I'll keep my teacher's words close to my heart tomorrow when I'm up there, "Cleanliness and Accuracy". Or something like that. I tend to be a little forgetful though.
One thing I will never forget though, is what he told me on friday.

A Good Guitarist strives to get it right, A Great Guitarist never gets it wrong.

I want to strive for greatness. But honestly speaking that's really besides the point. I'm going up there tomorrow to do what I love, with the people who have supported me, and made me stronger in my musical endeavours. My band and I spoke long about this issue, regarding the aims of your entrance into this contest. Music is never a contest, there's no bad or good music, there's just music which speaks to you more than it speaks to another person. A jazz guy can go on all day waxing lyrically about complex changes and lines, a layman with no musical background could be just whistling his favorite tune all day long. It may seem worlds apart but between them they share the bond of a love for music. And that's what my band has.

And we'll show the judges exactly that tomorrow.

I feel extremely blessed to be able to play with musicians like them. Not because of their calibre but also because of the passion that each of them possess. Plus their a really nice bunch of guys. Benson has helped me tremendously, fixed up my computer, helped me with gear, taught me so many nice guitar lines and chords. Suffian has always encouraged me when I felt that I wasn't good enough for the band, and his fried rice is pretty damn good as well! Yat...my personal funky monkey! We're practically from the same factory!

Ok enough of my spiritual ranting...

In other news, my sweetie has got the camera of her dreams! A Canon EOS 30D! Damn happening I tell you. The cost of the camera alone can buy me a brand new Musicman Luke! Might sound nuts to spend so much on a camera, but when you love something you'll go all out to make sure the equipment is able to express what only your mind can imagine.

This camera comes pretty damn close to that very state.


But of course, that makes it all the more appropriate for me to take nonsense pictures.

3rd String High G Harmonic coupled with loads of singing distortion and Whammy bar action...Chicks love it when I do this.

Sure....

I'll let you know how our audition goes.

Till Tomorrow.

Christopher.

Aftermath of the madness...

Sunday, July 02, 2006
Everyone's favorite local music store had part one of their bi-annual sale last Saturday 1st July. I finally got the amplifier I wanted, save enough as a result of just about 5 months worth of ice cream scooping! I also just about broke now. But I'm proud to say that I finally own a full tube amp, I think I speak for the rest of my family and my neighbours as well. The sale in itself was made nuts, girls think Mango/Zara sale times one million, guys just think the same thing but with actually something there for you to buy!

In preparation for the sale I beefed up my finances by working 5 days straight 6 hours a time! Seriously no joke man. I contemplated camping over night and even made the necessary preparations like making a checklist of what to bring. People actually camped there, I believe the earliest guy came at 3pm the day before! I wanted to do the same but I could only get there at around 11 pm the day before.

Here's what it looked like whenI got there.

Another picture...


Absolutely nuts!

I got there at about 8 o'clock, by that time people were going nuts. I heard about many instances about queue cutting and all. That's the ugly Singaporean for you, I had a fair share of such an experience but I will elaboarate on that later. What I am about to say may upset some people. I got in 15 minutes earlier despite not queueing reason being I am a member of sweelee music factory outlet. I have been hesitating very long about whether to join or not, it costs a friggin' hundred bucks for 15 mins of advance buffet whack! I rationalized it this way, the amplifier I wanted to get costs 2.2k, after the sale it became 1k, what's a hundred dollars. Plus I split the cost of the membership fee with other close friends of mine wanting to get stuff.

My doubled chin look of contemplation as I surveyed the inside of the store for one more time before the doors opened. I had 4 things to get, Fender Deluxe '65 Reverb Reissue amp, Laney VC15 amp, Boss DD20 and a Crybaby Wah wah.

Went in grabbed the laney first, left it on the counter got my amp next followed by the other 2 pedals.

Was going to get ready to pay when I chanced upon the ugly Singaporean. This mofo decided to go straight to the counter and say that the amplifier I placed there was his. Great stuff man, you get an A for an attempt but an F minus for your shitty actinig skills. After I literally told him to F!@# off. I got my stuff and was out of there.


So here I am with all the gear. I went in and came out within a span of ten minutes or so, it was total chaos, some guy actually came with a trolley and loaded up a whole bunch of guitar effects pedals, I saw people taking big ass garbage bags and dumping guitars into them. Absolute mayhem.

I would never have done it without the help of my sweetie. She didn't go inside with me, but helped me with the amplifiers and effects pedals while I paid for mine. Plus she was very sweet in providing the necessary transport for me.

Thanks babe.

I'm in tone heaven.

Christopher.