It's not who you are, it's what you say...

I have returned, from much pondering, and busyness. I have much news to spread with you all regarding what I've been up to since I last updated (which was about a month ago)

IAIN'S HEADLINES

MUSICAL MADNESS

Yes, since my last blog update I have played and finished with 2 bands - The Spandex Wizard, and the Summer Experiment. The Spandex Wizard was never meant to be a permanent band, and people who I've told about the end of the band think that it's a bad thing, and that we "split up", when really we knew that come after uni, it wasn't going to last. For Adrien, it's just another small addition to his huge lifelong project that he's doing called "Really Acrobatic Music". And, I'm honoured to have been a part of it, and I'm hoping to still continue to be a part of it at some other time.

As for my thoughts about The Spandex Wizard, I have much to say. It was truly my "uni band", and really improved my skills as a drummer. I had many memorable gigs with the band, and I'm glad I actually got some form of money out of it, albeit a temporary amount. And it was great to be able to play infront of so many people, again it was mostly to our friends, but there were also other times when we played to various random people, and that's always really good fun. As drummer for The Spandex Wizard, I'd like to personally thank everyone who came down to our gigs and made noise, despite probably being really confused as to what was going on. I'd also like to thank Dan Acheson for standing in on bass those times when we really needed him to, and to Greg O'Hanlon for putting up with our noise, and letting us record our noise into something half decent.

Here's a little music from The Spandex Wizard, recorded in May 2007 by my dad, at a gig in Sandino's, Derry.



Our last gig was in Mason's, Derry on August 7th. We played to a virtually empty crowd, similar to how it all started. It wasn't our best performance, we were under-rehearsed and just bored of playing the same songs for well over a year. But still, it was a positive and fun night!

My next (and newest) band was The Summer Experiment - literally created for the summer. We played 3 gigs, 1 in Mason's, Derry, 1 in the Pavilion, Belfast, and 1 in Auntie Annies, Belfast (I'll get back to those later). Despite it being a short-term thing, we put our heart and souls into it, with mass MySpace promotion, advertising and professional photo-shoots being done, despite knowing that it was all going to end in a matter of months, and it was all because we were going to make an archive website for it, just to show people what we had done, and what people can do within a matter of months. It was the brain-child of 3 members of the former band catoan, who got a pretty big following in Ireland. I knew 2 of the members, sortof, previously, and it just so happened they put up an anonymous ad on a local music website and I happened to reply to it.

Back to those gigs. The Mason's gig was very enjoyable, despite a dropout from the great band Mantic, we got great support from Furlo and Mezzanaesia. It was also the first instance of seeing MySpace promotion being used to good effect, with a few people who were invited from MySpace actually came down and took heed of our advertising. In my other previous bands, we had dabbled with MySpace for gig advertising, but to little or no effect...but it was good to see that it pays off if you do it in the right way. We also got Graham Smith in to do some professional photo shoots...hopefully they'll be put up here soon, along with my video recording of Mezzananesia I took. Not the most memorable gig I've played, but it was certainly enjoyable.

The gig at the Pavilion gets basically no mention due to it being a big sham, and the sound guy being terrible and just everything not going exactly to plan. Other bands played were Charlie Horse, some 14 year old kids punk band, and The Room..who were middle aged indie wannabes, with a knack of unprofessionalism despite their age. It was for charity though, so all is forgiven (or is it?)

But, our final grand-daddy gig of them all was our gig in Auntie Annies. This gig was seriously heavily promoted, with many flyers and posters put up around town (mostly in Auntie Annies itself), and a ridiculous amount of MySpacing. It helped though, and we got an excellent crowd turnout. And the reaction from the crowd was very over-whelming...the place was in complete silence for a lot of our performance, which is something I've never had before in a gig that was "informal". Definitely a gig to remember, for me and the guys, and for hopefully everyone there too. We got excellent support too from RL/VL and Skypilot, who, whilst both very different styles of music, were both amazingly excellent, and fitted greatly with our ethos, and musical direction. We also had an interesting idea, of getting people to fill in bios about themselves, so that they too could be a part of the experience..and once we level through all the joke bios, it'd be good to see physical evidence of people taking part and enjoying it, rather than people just being like, "yeah, there was this gig I went to...". We also got photography done by the wonderful Phil O'Kane which will be a major part of our website.

For those of you who have not yet experienced The Summer Experiment, here's a YouTube extract, taken from one of our practice sessions.



The Summer Experiment website will hopefully be launched soon, I will keep you posted!

Overall, The Summer Experiment was a very big eye-opener for me. As I was dealing with guys who were very professionally minded and near perfectionists, it got me into that mind of thinking also, and it's benefitted me greatly. It's also got me into believing that MySpacing actually does help a band, when usually I just thought it was ignored unless your a big band. But, of course, it must be done effectively. Musically, it was great music...and sortof everything I've been looking for - creative, new, different, experimental, mixing electronics and acoustic instruments...and creates a mood and ambience, with a heavy emphasis on improvisation. It's a shame it had to finish, but I would gladly play with any of the guys again on any projects they may have. I want to take this opportunity to wish Ruaidhri Mannion all the best with his MA in Composition at London!

JOB NEWS

Well, it hasn't been fruitless, but unfortunate. I almost got a job with Allstate, a worldwide Insurnace company, got as far as the interview stage which I think I messed up...and I have a job with Belfast City Council lined up possibly, with a computer test thing happening on Monday, which I'm not nervous about at all as my dad said it's easy. Still unemployed, and not enjoying it any more than I was, but of course the freedom to wake up at any time is good.

AMERICA NEWS

For anyone who doesn't know, this will be the biggest news. I'm going over to see Colette on the 14th December, and will be there until the 10th January. I am then moving over to America for good in May 2009...and finally saying goodbye to N.I. I will be living in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Colette lives. So for any of my American friends who did not know this, expect to see me again next year! And for my home friends, I hope to say goodbye to all of you before I leave, but that's way into the future at the minute.

OTHER NEWS

I've started my own club night in Derry! It's called HYSTERIA. Check out the MySpace for more details! Next night is 25th September, with special guests Under Stars and Gutters.

Have got obsessed with Dexter, definitely a worthy addition to my next "What's Hot and Not" list.

Hope to update this more often with personal news, some interesting anecdotes and the usual malarky.

And, anyone who cares about the world, go to Google Video and search for Zeitgeist. Watch, and learn. Thanks.

Iain