The Edge of Life

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2006-02-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

Bugger!

Got a job today.

Return to the Ice House

2006-02-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

No update in a while, sorry about that!

Galahad are back in the studio tomorrow to finish guitars and keyboards. By the end of tomorrow we should be just about ready to track vocals and so the light at the end of the tunnel can now be well and truely seen. I'm really looking forward to going back there and listening to the stuff again; I haven't heard it since I finished my bass apart from a single band rehearsal we had last week. Galahad is certainly no 24/7 commitment! Sometimes I and my band mates wish it were.

The trio that rose up out of Parachutes is going very well. Mark, Steve and I are up to about 10 songs and I reckon we'll be ready to gig in a matter of weeks! Well, we're not doing complex stuff, so rehearsals are more like run thru's!

Things MAY be about to change in my life again soon, I'll know more next week ;)

Lee

1 Score Year and 12

2006-02-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

So today I'm 32.

Yep, 32 *sigh*

No job, no substantial income, no career, no decent car.

But I do have an MBA, a loving wife, a little lad, a knackered car that I own outright, a 4 bedroomed house (which we own more than 50% of outright), a small digital studio, a a lawnmower, 5 guitars, 2 keyboards, 2 bands, a successful solo gigging routine, 6 CD players, 3 CD burners, 8 pairs of jeans, an MP3 copy of Black Light Machine, a pension plan, 6 various bank accounts, a sister I never see, 2 corkscrews, a BIG TV and a video iPod!

Is having no job at the moment really such a big thing? Shouldn't be should it!

I had my ass well and truely kicked by a mate and his bird the other night who are both fine spokespeople for working for yourself who both told me in no uncertain terms that I need to work harder and smarter or I will be back in that crap office by the summer. They have a point, I just need to get the confidence growing to be able to badger these media and video production types over the phone. Hmmmmm, maybe tomorrow!

Definately by Wednesday!

Lee

Untitled

2006-01-29T05:24:00.000-08:00

First post in a while as things seem to be going, well, not to plan.

The music writing fortnight yeilded about half an albums worth which isn't bad I spose, but not great and certainly not what I was expecting. I shall be busy demoing as much as possible to get the songs into shape.

After a drought of gigs since xmas things have picked up again and I'm doing 3 gigs per weekend for a little while, which is great as it keeps those small bits of paper rolling in. In a rather frustrating move I had to blow out a Galahad rehearsal today as the gig clashes with it. I'm right f~~ked off about it but there's nothing I can do, I need the cash and my mortgage payments must come first. The guys understood to thats cool.

Edge of Life Music is still worryingly quiet and a few jobs have come along again in my line of work. Noth that I've woken up and smelt the coffee, but the kettle is certainly on and I'm starting to stir! Watch this space for the forthcoming sad announcement that Lee has had to take a job! I could sit here plugging away until the summer, but I think I really would be mad and depressed by then.

You know when you're on holiday having a great time and all of a sudden its the last night before you go home? Well, its the afternoon of the last day for me at the moment I fear!

Lee :(

Rough with the Smooth

2006-01-18T03:06:00.000-08:00

Things never go according to plan do they. There was me, full of good intentions about the writing of me new solo CD and, well, its a tad disappointing. 2 and a half days in and I've got the beginnings of an epic, 2 sets of lyrics and one other chord structure. And thats it! I'm not going to make 5 songs by Friday, not unless I have a sudden creative burst! (ohh young man!). Well I'll just have to see how far I get by the weekend. It is kind of bad to do it this way as I'm forcing myself to write stuff rather than letting it come naturally, this either produces complete crap or nothing at all! To be honest I'd rather write nothing, so I'm going to back off abit, maybe the rest of today, and then start again tomorrow.

Lee

"I'll sing you a new song"

2006-01-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

I realised today that I've not written a proper song for about a year. I finished my last CD at xmas 2004, then in the spring 2005 I finished my MBA, the summer I started that new job and then in the autumn, things just kinda fell apart! Over the winter I have been submerged in the world of snippet writing to build up my portfolio and learning Galahad stuff. So I've not written a single proper song (although I did demo one, its not any further on than a demo).

So next week I'm setting myself a little challenge. I'm going to write a song each day. Thats 5 songs in 5 days, I shall attempt to demo them as well, then next weekend I will flesh out the recordings into full songs, then the week after do the same again until I have an entire albums worth. It may not be 10 songs, just an albums worth (when in prog land, 1 song can make an album!). Pretty wacky idea? Indeed, but I need this to focus my mind. I shall then contact some friends and get some decent performaces recorded (mainly drums) and lets see if I can get an album done by early Feb!

I usually get inspired to write when I've heardsome new stuff which is, well,...................... inspiring! And I certainly heard some last week. YOU MUST go and download a song called "Black Light Machine" from the blog which is accessed via www.f-r-o-s-t.com

The brain behind it is Mr Jem Godfrey a man who's music, in prog circles, is going to be in a lot of CD players in 2006 - you heard it here first!

Lee

Know your own Mind

2006-01-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

All of my Direct mail must've been opened, read, screwed up/torn up and thrown/filed away by now, and not one call or email I've had.

Hmmmmm

This is getting worrying. So to move on to the next stage, I have produced an Edge of Life Music Showreel CD (also soon be available as a downloadable MP3) which showcases (I think) some of my best work. One thing is apparent from this showreel and that is I should specialise in writing moody/ambient/rock type pieces, but having said that I seem to be quite good at orchestral arrangements too! :) Thats not to say that I couldn't do any other type of music, but those come naturally and easy to me. So I'm off to get the Showreel CD's professionally "blinged up", as they say, ready to be mailed out as a follow up to many of the Companies that have already had direct mail from me. You can't say I'm not trying now can you!! But my faith and conviction in this project is being tested!

Parachutes is dead, long live Parachutes!

Well, sort of. Steve and I are having a practice/audition with a bass player/vocalist tonight as we're thinking of carrying Parachutes on but not strictly just a Coldplay tribute. We're opening up to be just a modern covers 3 piece. Fingers crossed he turns out to be a good'un.

Had an email today from the writer of the current No. 1 single (UK) "That's My Goatie", and he likes my CD View from the Bridge!! COOL, I must be doing something right! Alas, he does not have a large multi-national record company with millions of £ waiting to be invested in a new UK progressive artists............. so its back to the drawing board!

Lee

".....I turned to look, but it was gone....."

2006-01-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

Had a call from Scott the Parachutes vocalist tonight; he's quitting the band as he cannot give the time to it. Bit of a blow really considering the amount of work we've all put in since the summer, but I'm a considered old chap these days I just took it in my stride, wished him well blah,blah,blah. My wife said to me that she could tell I've changed as 10 years ago I would've called him "a wanker that couldn't f##king sing anyway"!

Its a shame and I'll miss him, he was a good singer. But onwards. Steve the drummer still wishes to carry on but I suggested to him thatnow is the time to let the newly aquired bass player go as well as he's not quite 'grasped the nettle' like we'd hoped, and perhaps take a fresh look at the project. Steve suggested moving away from only Coldplay material. I had been emailing another potential bass player since before christmas and we may have an idea forming of a modern covers band made up of just the 3 of us. Could work?

Sometimes I find life very strange compared to what I was doing 6 months ago - I sometimes have to pinch myself to remind me that I've just recorded some wicked prog bass with Galahad where Karl Groom was producing, I'm being involved in discussions about a european tour in November, I'm trying to forge my own music writing business, I'm gigging more than ever and probably strangest of all, I met up/had a beer with and now keep in email contact with the guy that wrote the current No. 1 single "That's My Goatie" or whatever its called! To think, earlier in summer 2005 the most exciting thing that happened to me was when 5pm came and I could go home from the office!

I didn't get the job by the way, phew!

Lee

Pics from Thin Ice

2006-01-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Some pics!

The Prisoner

2006-01-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

I have just got back from Thin Ice Studios. I have been there with Galahad recording my bass parts together with Roy doing guitars and Dean doing some keys.

It has been both stressful and boring at the same time. Karl Groom (Threshold) was our engineer/producer and he gets you to lay down tracks which can be very stressful, but then we stop for sometimes up to an hour while edits, cleaning of audio and all manner of tweakings are done - just as you relax, you're off again! I got all my bass done in a day and a half which was half a day longer than I'd hoped, but there was a 17 minute epic that I didn't know before today so I had to learn it then record it, but having said that, I still don't know the song structure as I did it all in different bits which Karl will stitch together later...... weird! My latency was less than 10 milli seconds too which Karl was highly impressed with!!! How about that then!

For those that are unfamiliar with the studio, it is housed within Clive (Arena/Pendragon) Nolan's house which is on the outskirts of London. The house is amassive 7 bedrooms or something like that, with the studio taking up around half of the ground floor. The studio comprises of a large live room for setting up drums etc. and a fairly spacious control room where all the toys are! We stayed in spare bedrooms in the house so it was like a residential type affair with Clive popping in and out of the studio at various times during each day with food and nibbles etc for us all. Quite funny really when you think about it! The whole 3 days we hardly left the house and it makes you feel cut off from civilisation in a way, my only contact with my family being on the phone and texting, very odd feeling, almost like a prisoner!

All my bass parts are done and sound extremely good, Karl really got the best out of me as a bass player and had me doing things I never thought I could do (more on that later ;) ).

Job interview in the morning - talk about landing back to earth with a bump!

Lee

Out with the old, In with the...........old?

2005-12-31T00:54:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve never has never meant much to me in the past, just another day leading to another which happens to change the last digit of the date. But this year it means alot. I'm so looking forward to kissing 2005 goodbye, argueably one of the worst years of my life, if not THE worst.

So I have a gig tonight and from us entertaining musicians poit of view its the biggest gig of the year, well, the highest paying anyway - I'll be bringing home an entire weeks pay just from one gig tonight and that'll be a good feeling, but the trouble is I will bloody well earn it as you always end up playing for the best part of 4 hours, I'll probably play every song I do (around the 60 mark) and its in a god-awful pub in a city called Portsmouth, I think no-one else at the agency would do this pub so they asked me (lol). I've done it a couple of times in the past and while no trouble actually breaks out, you feel that the whole place could erupt at any moment! I'm sure I'll get out alive, it'll just be an uncomfortable few hours!

Got this job interview early in the new year and I'm really tearing myself up inside about it. I even found myself looking at expensive BMW's again on eBay (BMW's are my favourite car and when I was working I had a really fast one that I was almost in love with!), thinking to myself 'all I have to do is get the job and I could have one of these for the summer'. Of course the best thing is to forget about all that and build my business up and buy one but, well, you know, its just easier and (to me) more likely the get one by getting a job. But this frame of mind leads to a worrying conclusion: I only want the job to pay for a BMW? That's not really the right motive for going for a job. All my brilliant quality of life will be gone if I return to the 9-6 Mon -Fri drudgery.

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure!!

Happy 2006 to all, whatever we all decide!

Lee

Are Friends Electric?

2005-12-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

Had a great Christmas, how about you? Mrs A excelled herself this year and got me one of those nifty video iPods, a 60gig mutha! IN the absence of any easy way of transfering stuff from ipod to ipod I have to reload all my CD collection into the new one, not that I'm complaining mind!! I also got some neat software that allows you to put DVD's onto it, so far I have Kino Live in Cologne and an episode of Little Britain on it! Top stuff, the quality is amazing, even the sound is better than the 3rd generation ones (my old one, which my wife now owns ;), she's not stupid!)

Our lad got LOADS of stuff as is usual, but one present was a hit above all others. At 4 years old he has been introduced to the truely brilliant feeling of speed and power that a radio controlled car can bring! He got 2 for christmas and he's used one of them (the faster one!) sooooo much already thats it died today, yes, at just 2.5 days old, its gone to the scrapheap, so armed with some of his Christmas money we hit the shops today and got him a turbo charged, off-roading, monster stunt car! OH YES! But it had to go onto charge for most of today, but tomorrow I'll be, errrrr, sorry - WE'LL be out in the driveway make no mistake!

Had a last run thru of the Galahad CD with Roy the guitarist - I'm now offically ready! BRING IT ON!

Lee

Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire..........

2005-12-24T16:08:00.000-08:00

Well its just gone midnight so in the words of Noddy Holder "ITS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hey, have you downloaded the Christmas message from Neal Morse, its on the front page of his site. Its cool, Its like being sat in his lounge as he jams a seasonal tune on the acoustic, and he manages to get thru the 3 minute little video without mentioning Jesus or "the Lord" once - way to go Neal! ;) Quite difficult I'd imagine for a christian at Christmas!!

Did my Christmas Eve gig tonight and it went really well, I really enjoyed it. I was in fine voice too which always helps. You never know how your voice is going to be until you start and tonight was one of those nights when I wish I was recording vocals! You know!!??

Got my bass backfrom the bass doctor today and it plays mighty fine. So much so that I took it up into the studio and gave it a quick run thru of the entire new Galahad CD - sounding good!

So tomorrow I will be up at some un-godly hour with my son who will be a frenzy of wrapping paper and the happiest kid in the street! I can't wait to be honest, he's so appreciative of the things he gets which is so cool, not many 4 year olds are like that - "boring! - next?". I've bought some cool things for my wife too, I hope she likes them. Its been a tough year here in the Abraham house so we're looking forward to celebrating xmas and leaving 2005 behind next week.

When I think about it 2005 has been a crap year for quite alot of people I know. What with all my problems and what-have-you, my Uncle has been diagnosed with cancer (albeit not life threatening at the moment), my mother has had surgery on each of her wrists, one of my mates was made redundant.... and so was his wife!, another mate of mine had similar problems that I had at work so he jacked in his job and has gone self employed and my wife's parents in Spain are trying to sell their home with no success due to not liking their area. All in all 2005 is a year I will be f**king glad to see the back of! 2006 is shaping up to be so good, I hope it lives up to expectation!

Happy Christmas all, I better go, I think I just heard a sleigh land on our roof!!

Lee

So Mr Abraham... why have you applied for this job...?

2005-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

It's a good question isn't it? How the f-lip am I going to answer it?

I applied for a managerial position in local government at a Council fairly local to me and I've got an interview. WHY did I submit an application? Part of me is still in my "old world" and can't move on. That part of me is scared. Scared that Edge of Life Music is a waste of time and won't take off, scared that if it does take off I won't be any good at it and it will quickly fold, scared that come summer 2006 I won't be able to pay my mortgage. My wife went mental at me saying that she doesn't want me to apply for any job at all as life is good at the moment and we're happy, which is true - I can see it from her side; the last time her husband worked in local government he was entering depression and was ill alot of the time, but to be fair, it was mostly the organisation, not the work.

So the interview is right after the Galahad sessions in early Jan and as with all top managerial posts I will be grilled at length and then have to make a presentation; its about "the challenges facing local government in 2006". F**k, I'm regretting it already! What if I get offered it? *sigh*

Must focus on the Galahad sessions - thats the most important thing right now - that an enjoying christmas!

Lee

The Ace of Base

2005-12-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

Well mixing of the Parachutes demo CD has come to a grinding halt, because of one small fact............................ WE HAVE A BASS PLAYER!!!!

His name's Matt and he has been hanging out with us for a a while now but not really cutting it. We said to him to really practice hard and come and see us again in a few weeks. Well that few weeks was up tonight and he played really well. He wasn't note perfect but then none of us are really (this ain't prog you know!), but in the absence of any other bass players banging at our door, we're giving him a go......... he's in, and he was really pleased to be in too so I guess thats's promising. We'll have the Christmas break and when I get back from the studio with Galahad, he'll come round and lay his bass on the demo.

On the afore mentioned Galahad front, my bass has gone to the bass hospital for a thorough MOT and service before I go off to Thin Ice studios in January. I'm about 70% there with the album and the rest I'll absorb mentally during days 1 and 2 in the studio when other band members do their parts. I will have one last run thru with Roy (guitarist) before we leave for the studio just in case I'm doing anything drastically wrong. I really can't wait for these 3 days, it's going to be the best laugh I've had in years - the real life of a rock star; recording by day, hard drinking by night (lol :) ).

Christmas is coming and its not only the geese that are getting fat. I am too :(

Concerted effort to get fit and loose my belly in the new year (yeah right, I'm full of enthusiasm and promises now, but come January..................................)

Lee

The Church of Prog

2005-12-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Borderline club in London waschoc full of prog gods on Friday night for the last UK appearance of 2005 of the prog supergroup KINO. Those present were able to rub shoulders with Martin Orford, Geoff Downes, Steve Thorne, John Wetton, John Young, Steve Rothery and of course, members of Kino.

Kino played a blinding performance to boot, mixing most of their debut with classics from the "day job" bands such as Sugar Mice, Plastic Dreamer and Kiss Like Judas. For 2 short hours I was in heaven! On the way up to London I commented to the Mrs. that I hoped the gig lived up to my anticipation of it.................. no doubting was required.

On the Parachutes front things are very busy. All the tracking is now complete for the demo CD and I have mixed almost half of it. I should have the rest mixed by Wednesday or so and then a few priliminary copies run off for family/agents/publicity places etc. Brace the diaries, I can feel those bookings coming!

On Saturday I was doing a gig at a pub called The Lamb which is in the middle of the New Forest (John Wetton's local actually!) At 11am I get a call from the agent handling the booking saying that the gig had been cancelled some time ago, I just hadn't been told!!! WHAT!!?? I started to express my frustration at this agent who shall remain nameless as I said that I had turned down work on this date as recently as last week as I thought this gig was on, and the agent merely turned around and said "oh well, such is life". Well its not MY LIFE PAL! I made a mental note not to accept any more bookings from this agent for next year. I hastily rang my regular agent (in this line of work you tend to registered with a handful of agents but perrito's 80/20 rule applies - I get 80% of my work from just 20% of my agents), he fixed me up with a cancellation that had landed on his desk just 2 minutes previous and the icing on the cake was that this booking was worth £50 MORE than The Lamb!! I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm doing some labouring work on site tomorrow! Yep, you heard right; the former office manager with an MBA is going to get his hands dirty for a day. A mate of mine runs a building company and he's asked me to help him out for the day, should be a laugh and I get some extra wonga just before Christmas.

Did I ever say life is ice cool at the moment!

Lee

If you Sing............ Sing, Sing, Sing

2005-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Scott came round to start his vocal takes on the Parachutes demo CD and he made a good start. 1 of the takes is a good one so thats one song done, then it all started to go a bit awry! From then on, bits were good and bits were..... not so good. He's coming over again tomorrow night to try again and then again on Friday morning. He says he's sings better in the morning (!?) so we'll try at................... 9am !!

I'm starting to enter into stupid and wacky conversations with silhobbit.com. If you've never been on that site, check it out - but remember ITS ALL JUST FOR LAUGHS!

Live work is starting to flow in for the new year which is good, but I really want my composition/production side to start and I'm starting to get a little impatient now. Literally hundreds of targetted companies know about me know as I have direct mailed over 300 and appeared in a few fairly well circulated periodicals! But all I've had is a few enquiries which seem to have gone cold. My wife says I should still give it time, but really, how long should I give it? I'm going to do another few hundred direct mailings next week. I am good, honest, I just need someone to give me a try! My rates are probably the most competitive around as well! Let me get my calculator, I think you'll be very surprised.

Ooops, sorry, pitching to the wrong audience there, perhaps thats my problem. Must try to remember all those marketing tricks I was taught when I did my MBA - should've paid attention during lectures!

*sigh*

2 days till KINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Lee

Bad Day

2005-12-12T02:33:00.000-08:00

Met up with some old colleagues from years ago on Friday night. They all work in the same line of business I used to and they managed to talk nothing but shop nearly all night. I'm trying to distance myself from all that and having to explain what went wrong with my last job was just so painful. I did think twice about going at all, but at the end of the day we're all mates and have been for years and that won't change. It brings home hard to me though that I have left behind a big part of my life that was very secure, only to replace it with something less secure................ but infinitely more exciting and satisfying.

Saturday was a bad day as a result and I had a face like a wet weekend for most of the day, but a nice friendly gig in the evening cheered me up (and the resultant cash in the pocket always helps too!)

Had a great rehearsal with Galahad on Sunday where we ripped thru the majority of the new album......and its great stuff too! My head is full of riffs, chords, melody lines, drum lines etc! I'm ready to record my bits NOW!! But I have to wait until early Jan and thats not too far away now is it?

Kino gig this Friday and its going to be a goodie! Meeting up with hoads of proggers beforehand as is the usual drill. Mrs is coming with me too which will be nice, we've not had a night out together on our own (without the boy) for about a year!

Lee

We Don't Need No Education.........

2005-12-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

Played the very first Parachutes gig this lunchtime at Itchen College, Southampton. WOW, what a way to spend a Friday lunchtime. Scott, our singer is a lecturer there and he booked the gig, we performed in the student "common" area. It went incredibly well, the 3 of us showed no nerves as we started and we just settled into it and got better as the hour progressed. For those that are familiar with Coldplay our set was:

Square One
Yellow
In My Place
White Shadows
God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
Speed of Sound
Clocks
Fix You

Encore: Talk

Hopefully it'll be the first of many enjoyable gigs. Next week we finish our offical demo CD as Scott comes round to do vocals.

My attention now turns to more pressing matters: GALAHAD.

I have a full band rehearsal in 2 days time where we will be running thru the entire new album - shit! Thin Ice Studios have been booked for early January 2006 so I have to get my stuff together - the pressure's on!!!

This is what life is all about!

Lee

Offending the Prog Gods!

2005-12-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ooops, looks like I un-intentionally offended Jem "F-r-o-s-t" Godfrey by using the same blogger template as him! Sorry Jem, didn't realise you could have different templates/layouts.

Looking forward to Jem's CD Milliontown, its going to be one of THE releases of 2006 (along with the new Galahad CD of course!) As Paul "Artwork Guru" Tippett suggested to me, I ought to call round Rob Aubrey's in Feb to "borrow er........ some.......... er......... sugar, ooooh is that Jem Godfrey's new CD you're mastering there Rob?" :))

PS Jem, how do you get those composition jobs with the BBC?

Lee

Testing......1......2.....testing...................1...1...1

2005-12-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

Had the penultimate rehearsal with Parachutes tonight with full in-ear monitoring. I've always been a fan of in-ears ever since my early band days, it was expensive back then, but hey - I had money then!! Prices have come down alot over the years and if you're able to put up with a hard wired system you can get them dirt cheap. I've managed to get the whole band up and running with in-ear monitoring for the price of a half decent mixing desk!! AMAZING!

Scott our singer has always shyed away from using it as up until now we have had the PA facing us when we rehearse, but tonight I turned the PA round the other way, as it would be at a gig, so he had no choice but to plug in and wear the in-ears. After the first song he turned to me and said "My god thats brilliant! I can hear every timbre of my voice delivered straight into my head!!" I always said he should trust me more!!

Porcupine Tree tomorrow at the Shepards Bush Empire in London. Looking forward to that one, especially a few beers beforehand!

Lee

Fix it in the Mix

2005-12-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

I spent all of yesterday mixing the Parachutes demo and boy! does it sound good! When you record, its inevitable that you make a mistake here and there, but Steve knows these songs SO WELL that there was only one mistake out of 6 songs that I had to fix with editing. All it was, was he put in an extra kick drum beat at the end of one of the drum fills - fixed in 30 seconds, no bother at all! So its all ready for vocals and then its finished.

I just looked at my diary for next week! WOW I'm busy! I have managed to land a little bit of freelance work associated with my old job (not at the same shithole organisation, but same line of work) and I'm working on that on Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, Parachutes rehearsal on Tuesday night, Porcupine Tree gig in London on Wenesday night, my sons school play on Thursday, another Parachutes rehearsal on Thursday night as on Friday we have our first gig !! Solo gig next Saturday night and finally a Galahad rehearsal next Sunday!!!!!!! Before all that, I have 2 solo gigs this weekend (just to keep the cash rolling in). To be honest, I don't know how I ever managed to fit a full-time job in as well - but the truth is, I didn't do any of this fun stuff before, well only a small amount of it. My salary may have halfed, but my quality of life is just amazing at the moment! Everyone should try this!!! Go on, quit your job today, be a devil!

Lee

Drummer Boy

2005-11-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Had a great rehearsal with Parachutes last night, getting ready for our gig.

We are also doing a demo CD and we recorded the drums today. As you can see my lounge is nice and tall and ideal for recording drums. With the wooden floor as well we got a REALLY BIG SOUND- fantastic. Using several thousand pounds worth of Rob Aubrey's drum mics helped as well!!

Hats off to Steve for doing such great sounding takes so quickly, we got all 6 songs done in half a day! Pressure moves to Scott our singer, as he has to lay down his vocals now to finish a great sounding CD off in style, that should hopefully, get us loads of live work.

Lee

Aubitt Studios

2005-11-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well my sample clips for the DVD and corporate productions I had enquiries about are all in the post. In the words of Homer J. Simpson "now we play the waiting game".

Just got back from Rob Aubrey's Aubitt Studios. That place always takes my breath when I walk in. Its just such a vast, well equipped, PROPER studio! Stuff, gadgets, rack gear all with flashing lights everywhere. Rob has kindly lent me about £3,000 worth of drum mics for the Parachutes demo. Those drums are going to sound better than on my last CD and this is just for a "covers" demo!! Still, it'll be good experience for me to use them and get a good sound with them (hopefully!). These mics have been used to capture drum performances by NDV (Spocks Beard/Tears for Fears), Mike Portnoy(Rob recorded the Transatlantic DVD), Steve Christey (Jadis) and Paul Cook (formerly of IQ) so Steve (Kingman - Parachutes!!! HA HA) has alot to live up to.

Had a few emails today from former colleagues in local government. Makes me feel guilty when I have contact with what I now call "the working world", and it makes me think I should stop messing about with all this music stuff and get a proper job again. When I earn some money from Edge of Life Music I'm sure those feelings will pass, but until then I can't help it.

Lee

Songs From the Sitting Room

2005-11-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been pretty good. I did a gig on Friday night in a great little village pub not far from home. Come 11pm (closing time) they didn't want me to stop playing, so I carried on..... and on...... and on and they fianlly let me go at 11.20pm! Fantastic gig, friendly crowd - it'd be a pleasure to go back there sometime next year.

I waited all day for a call from my agent on Saturday as I had no gig in the evening. Usually Saturdays are the nights of the week that get booked up all year, but 26 November was strangely free in my diary. Cancellations and last minute gigs can come in right up to 6pm so I was on stand-by. When it got to 7pm it was obvious I was home for the evening so I cracked open a beers.

After a refreshing walk around the Sunday morning market with wife and son, I packed up my stuff and headed to Roy's house (Roy Keyworth - Galahad guitarist). I met up with Roy, Dean (keys) and Spence (Drums) in Roy's lounge to go thru (quietly!!) stuff from the new Galahad CD. There's some very interesting and busy stuff on the album, its going to sound great......... when I can play it!! HA HA HA!

I'm also the guitarist in a project (I say "project" as we have no bass player at the moment) that plays only Coldplay songs. We're called Parachutes and we are currently recording a demo CD at my studio. Steve (Kingman - Drums) is coming over to my studio to record drums on Wednesday and that extremely nice bloke Rob Aubrey (Sound Engineer to Spock's Beard, IQ, Jadis etc) is lending me some of his top notch drum mics for the day. What a top bloke, thanks Rob! Parachutes is actually working towards its first gig which is to be held on (fanfare please!) 9 December at a local college (students = Coldplay fans, we thought it would be a good move!). But with no bass player we will be relying on my programming talents, Steve's ability to drum to a click and a cardboard cut-out of some-one holding a bass. It'll be interesting to see if anyone notices or if people start approaching the bass playing trying to shake his hand and complimenting him on his bass lines!! HA HA!

So next week is looking pretty as on the Edge of Life Music side of things, I have music samples to finish ready for consideration. Also my wife is working full-time 2 days this week (she normally finishes at 2.30pm) so I will be entertaining/looking after the boy in the afternoons as well! I can't believe I ever had time for a 40 hour-a-week job as well!

Lee

Walking on Thin Ice

2005-11-26T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well here I am in my new life. Let me explain.

For the last 11 years of my 31, I was a local government employee - 9 to 5, Monday to Friday and doing quite well thank you very much. Drove a nearly new BMW 323ci for pose value. And at the weekends I was a keen hobbyist musician, loving and writing prog rock, but performing pop and ballads in pubs etc.

Then in the summer this year I started a new job in a new organisation. It was the worst mistake of my life. I was unsure of my new team and boss to begin with but felt with time, everything would pan out OK. But months passed and it got worse. I just didn't settle into the job to the point where it was making me ill and depressed. After much soul searching I decided to quit..... just like that. A £30k a year job, just jacked in. So what now?

Well the most important thing is being happy. This has come to the forefront of my mind more than anything else in recent months. Before, I was so unhappy I can remember feeling LESS depressed when my father died some 15 years ago, thats an indication of how I'd been feeling. Money is great, don't get me wrong, but a career, status and all that, is just a major pain in the arse if you hate your life.

While working out my notice I gigged at weekends and saved harder than ever and have managed to provide for my family and I for about 5 months. The BMW has gone and in comes a 9 year old Ford Escort, but the mortgage is paid and we eat well. But what am I doing? Well, the weekend gigs are now my only income, but its an income (and at Christmas time, an almost comparable income to local government!). I am also setting up my ownmusic poduction company, Edge of Life Music (.co.uk!) in which I specialise in writing music to accompany videos/DVD's, TV productions, corporate presentations and advertising. But thats not going to take off overnight - I have to advertise myself, make contacts, build bridges do a bit of free work etc. all to get my name "out there". So far I have realised that a career in advertising (particularly magazine advertising) would have been a good career move from a fianacial point of view! I am currently working on music samples for a wildlife DVD and a corporate business presentation for a project called The Living Rainforest, so things are looking promising (fingers crossed!)

In addition to this, I recently saw an ad saying that prog rock band Galahad were bass player-less. The bass is my main instrument and I have played many, many happy hours practising and gigging as a bass player, but in more recent years I have switched to lead guitar. I answered the ad and dusted off my bass. After a very successful audition, I was in! BRILLIANT! Galahad not only have a small deal with an independent label, but also tour allover Europe, this is going to be schweet!

So what am I trying to say? Well, just a few weeks ago I was a depressed office clerk who just got up, went to work, hated it for the most part, went home, hardly saw my son as he was just going to bed as I got through the door, went to bed. Got up, went to work..........................

After a MASSIVE wrench and some serious soul searching I took the risk of my life and waved all that bad feeling and boring monotony behind, but also waving goodbye to the security a job in the public sector brings. I now have a business doing what I love - composing and producing music, from my home studio - although its early days I have a few promising projects to work on, I have a successful gigging routine most Friday's and every Saturday night, which although itsnot the type of music I enjoy, I enjoy the performing (if you see what I mean!) and I'm also in a signed band who are about to record their new album at Thin Ice studios (home to Arena and Threshold) and we're making plans to tour europe in 2006. Life is shaping up to be good.

Remember, life is short and you only have one chance. If you're spending 40 hours a week sat behind a desk making money for some-one else and you enjoy it, good luck to you. If there is one shred of thought in your head that says " I wish......" or "I wonder what it would be like if.........", make plans, change your life, do something different, take a risk. The worst that can happen is that in a year you (as I MAY do) go back to that desk................ but what if it all goes well...?

Lee

The Edge of Life

2005-11-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hi

I'm Lee and I'm on the edge of life.

more later.........