THE AGONY OF CHOICE

Those who know me personally, will know I am an avid gamer. Not a pro or even that good, but I love it tremendously. And with this opening line, I have to admit I am at a bit of a crossroads…stumped for a decision, and I would value some input from other gamer nerds out there (or just people in general).

My Xbox360 is reaching the end of its lifespan. It makes me sad to say it, for she has served me very well in the four years I have owned her, never once overheating or breaking down. But the reality is, her insides are old. Gaming consoles are just PC’s in fancy boxes, focused on a single or limited set of tasks centred on a game. PC components have a finite lifespan. But unlike regular PC’s, consoles are not upgradeable.

When next-gen consoles were announced last year, my first concern was about the ongoing support for the current 360 and PS3. Surely developers would continue to offer games for the hundreds of millions of people still using these machines, waiting for the new consoles to settle and maybe drop in price a bit. And indeed, maybe companies were quick to re-assure fans that their older machines would not be forgotten.

But almost immediately cracks started to show. DICE, developers of the massive Battlefield 4, stated that it was a game ‘primarily built for PC and next-gen, and current gen would be toned down to allow it to run. Hmmmmmm. So what we got was a set of smaller maps and mediocre graphics to allow the game to run smoothly on the machine. It is almost certain that whenever Battlefield 5 drops, it will not feature on the old-gen at all.

And recently Ubisoft announced an exciting new Assassin’s Creed game set in the French Revolution…but only for next-gen and PC. That was a major upset for me, because AC is without a doubt my favourite franchise in all of gaming. A secondary AC game is being prepared for old-gen, but we all know it won’t be the ‘real’ game, the place where the real story is going. If you want that, you need to upgrade.

At the time of announcement, the AC decision pretty much made my decision for me. If the new game was only for next-gen, then next-gen was where I needed to go. Plain and simple.

But then I started to think about my PC.

Before the Xbox, I was a big PC gamer. I only moved away from it because my PC became old, unable to run the new stuff, and as a student I could not afford to upgrade nearly all the insides. But I used to love running around with the control a mouse gave over the player. It was far more accurate than a console controller.

Ironically, the years of practice on the 360 had made me rather adept at the controller, and useless at the keyboard and mouse thing, as I discovered when I tried my hand at Battlefield online with my laptop. Let’s just say the results were far better on the Xbox. Although…one can connect an Xbox controller to a PC. When I did that, things started to improve. (EDIT: only briefly. One needs to adopt the mouse approach to have any chance against other PC players) and of course, practice will bring the keys and mouse approach back to its best.

So now I have a few choices. And I am genuinely not certain which is best. So I will share them with you. Perhaps you can help.

OPTION 1: THE XBOX ONE

The easiest transition is to go from old gen to new gen. Years of online and offline play on my 360 has amassed a healthy profile I am rather proud of, and with the ability to simply transfer that profile to the new machine, I can pick up where I left off. Consoles have always had the advantage of being focused on a few simple tasks. This means that (usually) there is less that can go wrong or hinder the gaming experience. It simply starts up, loads the game and runs it perfectly.

Visiting a store to look for a game does not include studying the minimum requirements – as long as the console exists, any game on that platform will work. It’s easy to purchase games on that basis, especially with the healthy market for used titles on consoles. It means I can remain in my comfortable position before the TV and continue to use a controller – which also means I have a moderate amount of auto-aim assistance from the console, and it’s a fair playing field. Everybody has the same hardware and software.

There are, of course, drawbacks. Games are considerably more expensive on consoles, and hold their value longer. Online play is subscription based, normally around R500-R600 a year. There is no option to upgrade any part of the hardware – if it blows, you pretty much have to get a new one. Using a keyboard and mouse is impossible without an expensive, aftermarket attachment that is not really guaranteed to work. And, at the end of the day, a console really does one thing – play games. Focused, but limited and narrow.

OPTION 2: THE PC

The mac daddy for many, the PC presents a whole host of thoughts, both positive and negative. It is, generally, a superior device to a console, able to run all sorts of tasks and applications that consoles just cannot do (like word processing or even audio tracking, which is handy for a musician like me). Investing in a gaming PC offers the user a powerful force of a machine, and it must be said that, generally speaking, games look better on a PC than a console. This is further emphasized by the ability to upgrade her parts on a regular basis, keeping the tower as up to date as possible. Technically, you should still not need to concern yourself with game requirements if you take this approach.

However, upgrading costs money. A console only costs you once (assuming it doesn’t blow up). It is true that there are no subscription costs to play online via PC, but is that saving big enough to cover the upgrades. Depends on how often you upgrade I guess? Also, the games are cheaper, which could also help cover the upgrade costs.

A big PC drawcard for me is backwards compatibility. I have long maintained that is a complete lie and total extortion that new consoles are not backwards compatible (IE, play the previous Xbox games on the new Xbox console). This excuse of ‘it won’t work with the new software is, frankly, rubbish, and we all know it is, and they know we know it is. The fact that Microsoft recently announced work on an ‘app’ to allow Xbox One players to play 360 games is just proof of that. I bet Sony will follow soon. But at the moment, it is only on the PC where your old games can and will still function. That'’ a big bonus if you love some of the older shooters like Unreal or FEAR, or something random like Worms.

But then the elephant in the corner rears its head: data requirements. I have no evidence, but I am led to believe that online gaming for PC is far more data-heavy than online gaming for console. Patches, updates and add-ons for PC are simply bigger, even bigger than next-gen console downloads. Is this true? I have internet, but it is not infinite. Giant patch downloads could pose a problem for me.

The last thought here is that, at the very least, my 'gaming' laptop (there isn't really such a thing but it does run games smoothly for now) can suffice for the time being. I could still play the new Assassin's Creed this year without any new hardware, assuming it will run on low settings.

Sigh. The agony of choice.

OPTION NO: THE PS4

I am not hating on the PS4. It’s a beautiful system with excellent performance. But I don’t want one. Plain and simple. Just like some people prefer Audi to BMW. Why? Because they do. Xbox controllers have always felt more comfortable in my hands and their online system is super smooth. If it’s console, I’ll stick to that.

So, as you can see, a conundrum. I am, at the moment, leaning toward the PC. But only just. The potential data requirements scare me. My lack of ability with a mouse infuriates me. But the wide scope of possibility with a PC entices me. Likewise, the familiarity of the Xbox is attractive, but the price of games and online subscriptions is not.

Thoughts?

The problem of consumerism

I have long maintained that there is a major flaw with the modern business model. Nearly all of today's thinking in the workplace revolves around the customer being happy / getting what they want / never feeling even slightly inconvenienced / ect. And in our modern, Western society we have bought into it. Heck, I'm not innocent. I get irritated when I wait longer than I consider acceptable in a queue at KFC or a supermarket. Delays on products shipped from online retailers - I hit the roof. YOU said it would be here by such and such date. WHY is it not here?

This mentality is drilled into us, both as consumers and as a workforce. We believe we must bend over backwards for the client, and the client is starting to believe they must be bent over for (that could be read as very dodgy, haha). All sorts of new business models, like the relatively young beat-the-clock model, the increasing work hours for nearly every sector...it all points to us. The consumer. And our insatiable desire for 'needs' to be met immediately.

The problem with this is it causes the entire system to start crumbling. The more consumers get everything they want, they more they want everything when they want it. Faster deadlines. Shorter load times. Quicker service. More results. And eventually every business will hit that point where it can no longer keep up with unrealistic consumer expectations.

But don't dare question that, because as we have all been taught, the customer is king.

It seems to me this mentality starts to permeate everything. When I was in primary school, my parents NEVER even considered contacting any of my teachers directly. These days, many parents are given cellphone numbers for their childrens' class teachers and contact them whenever they want to discuss their child - even 10 at night. And the teacher is expected to obey because 'I paid school fees so I get to do what I want and you must fall in line'. So Little Johnny isn't getting the marks Mommy wants so Mommy calls the teacher because how dare the teacher let that happen. It's ridiculous. But it happens so much now. Parents expect to 'buy' their kids' education like they're buying a car service or a can of coffee. It doesn't work that way. Only your kid can earn that education. Teachers cannot force it.

And the ironic thing is we only make ourselves worse off. We increase our own workloads through our consumer demands for more and more. Because the more we expect from businesses, the more they have to do. Which means people have to work longer.

Those people are us.

A few months ago Capitec Bank ran an ad campaign on the radio where they 'interviewed' some random person and asked: 'one bank stays open Sundays, the other doesn't. Who would you bank with?' The brainless sheep on the other side of the mic says 'the one that's open on Sundays of course. I shop on Sundays. Why can't I bank on Sundays too?'

Because, dumbass, somebody needs to work on Sunday to make that happen. And you can be sure they aren't employing new staff for one extra day. Reverse the roles. Ask the bank worker the same question. He would hate it because he is forced to work extra. And this scenerio will become more and more prevalent in society, if we continue the way we continue (in my opinion). This sense of entitlement that rages inside so many people - it drives them to copy intellectual property like music and movies without paying (because why should I pay if the TV network paid right? as if that's the same thing), expect bottles of champagne and red carpets with slaves carrying fruit baskets every time they buy a new car, and demand banks stay open Sundays because a) they are too lazy to give up their lunch one day of the week or b) they are already in a work situation that prevents them from having time to do so. Circle.

It's no secret I play plenty of video games. I love them. But I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer. Hardcore gamers take it very seriously. Bad scores are met with rage and flying controllers (generalisation) and hours and invested into practice. I admire that.

I also like to watch the gaming community, because they are a very passionate people. Offend them, mislead them, or don't give them what they expect, and you will unleash a storm of hate and malice not seen since the Dark Ages.

So about a month ago a little game called Battlefield 4 was released. Massively anticipated, huge hype, great trailer footage. Only, it wasn't ready. There were still enormous glitches in the game system, like the save function not working AT ALL. But you know what? They shipped it anyway. Broken and all. Because they said November 1st and don't you dare not deliver on the date. The customer is king. (Some people will argue they shipped it to get the Christmas sales. Rubbish. That game would sell no matter when it was released. They shipped it because if they delayed it they would have been massacred by the community.)

And what do you think happened? You think all those gamers focused on the good and said: "Oh well, it might not save but 80% of the game is amazing and very well thought out'? HELL NO. They let loose. In a big way. Because they paid and ect ect ect ect...

I worry about where this will take us. Western society is fed by the idea that we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it. And the truth is it cannot last. Eventually we will topple our own system by asking too much of it. And then what?

Rant over.

The madness of term 4

Forgive my tardiness.

School exams are no excuse for poor BLOG-keeping, but it did suck up my entire brain. And during the times when it did not, there weren't even gigs to take my mind off it. Thankfully there was the Xbox, and the arrival of Assassin's Creed 4, to swallow the little time I had left after schoolwork did its damage.

The fact I had last been here so long ago was a nagging irritation - not an irritation to write, but an irritation with putting it off...and then putting it off some more. This week finally sees the downward descent of our routine as school is almost over. It was a rough term.

But I am excited. There is plenty planned for this holiday season to keep me busy, creative and entertained.

I've got some gigs with my band, K, Ray and The Bird, lined up. We have been working a little less this year - perhaps saving our energy for the tour we had in July, and recovering since. December, however, will see us play at least 4 shows - not exactly record-breaking but plenty of opportunity to flex our music muscles. Check us out on Facebook or www.krayandthebird.net for more info on those gigs. There's a festival in there, a carol service, a fun jam with our friends The Brother's Streep...it's gonna be a great holiday season for us.

I'm also going to be travelling to my good friends Mali and Cuan Korsten over the new year to make some music with them. It's always fun to jam it up with those guys, and launch into Battlefield 3 with Cuan when we have downtime :-)

Of course I must not forget I have a wedding to arrange. Gosh, it's so much work.

I am planning to post some updates from the gigs - photos, happenings, and so forth. If I do not stick with my word, I pledge to punch myself in the face. Repeatedly.

And I will also submit some more reviews soon. Just gotta write them...

Right, there we go. That felt more like an update than a post, but at least you know I'm still alive. I'll be back.

Album Review: Dream Theater

For those of you who don’t know, Dream Theater is a behemoth in the progressive metal world. Seen by many as the forerunner in the entire genre, Dream Theater carries the added advantage of sporting a line-up of musicians all recognized as geniuses of their craft. Which means you can forget about 4-chord progressions in a major key with a catchy jingle; musically, things are gonna get pretty intense. So one can only imagine the pressure placed (by fans) on this group to produce an album worthy of their super status.

Before we look ahead, let’s go back. Dream Theater last dropped an album in 2011, A Dramatic Turn of Events. It was their first album without drummer/long-standing member Mike Portnoy, who was also a heavy hand in the arrangements and production of their previous work. And I gotta say, his absence showed. ADTOE, while by no means a bad album, was underwhelming. It had some fantastic moments, but as an entire album, it just felt below par. And the production also seemed to suffer a bit. I had become used to the energy and (for lack of better word) loudness of the previous albums. ADTOE seemed subdued, especially the drums (recorded by the legendary Mike Mangini after the songs had been written). It all seemed a little less than I expected, and I was concerned that, without Portnoy, they were incapable of writing and producing an album as strong as their previous work.

So with the arrival of a new, self-titled album, I was keenly interested to see what exactly was what. Were my fears to be confirmed?

Well, from the start the band certainly means business. The intro, False Awakening Suite, is made of the sort of stuff you hear in movies when giant armies march into battle. That is followed by The Enemy Inside, a powerhouse song that blasts out of your speakers, before the band tastes some arena rock with The Looking Glass. And to the delight of fans, the instrumental track returns in the form of Enigma Machine, which is essentially a vehicle for the musicians to show their chops. Believe me, I’m not complaining. They haven’t earned their reputations for nothing, and it is sometimes staggering what these guys can do.

Things barely let up after that. The Bigger Picture, the first ‘ballad’ of the album, still has plenty of power, and a guitar solo that proves John Petrucci is not only capable of speed, but also finesse and melody. Behind the Veil has an early Metallica flavour to it. Surrender to Reason and Along for the Ride are both strong in their own right. I love how nothing on this album feels like filler, placed there simply to stretch a track listing. Each song has its own character, and its own style. My words here really cannot do justice to the diversity within each song. You really need to hear it to appreciate it.

And of course, as seems customary since 2005’s Octavarium album, Dream Theater end with an epic composition clocking in at twenty-two minutes. Titled Illumination Theory, it is everything Dream Theater stuffed into one enormous song. Crunching guitar, moving orchestral score, emotive vocals, huge bass and drums…this one song has everything. Is it their best epic song ever? Tough call. Octavarium set a very high standard. But it certainly comes close, and perhaps even matches it.

I also like the production. The songs are guitar-heavy, often driven by a crunching riff, and so the guitar sits high in the mix. I like the effect this gives. The album feels like the heaviest work the band has ever recorded. And few things get my head bobbing as easily as a punchy guitar riff. Drummer Mike Mangini has a thicker, more ‘old-school’ sound to his kit, which lends a slightly 80’s flavour to the album. Thankfully no 80’s cheese came along. The drums, definitely louder than ADTOE, sit very nicely in the mix, driving the songs with enough energy to match the ferocity of the guitar riffs. It all feels far more complete and full through my speakers.

There’s so much more that can be said about this album. Jordan Rudess, the mastermind behind the keys and orchestral score, is superb. He complements John Petrucci's guitar with subtle precision, and when he takes centre stage, as in the middle segment of Illumination Theory, it is properly epic, and enough to stir emotion even in metalheads. John Myung, the silent bassist in the background, is nicely audible in the mix and faultless. And James Labrie, the vocalist I often joke of as having the hardest job in rock to keep up with his band mates, sounds better than ever. He really does.

But as I said earlier, my words cannot do real justice to the entire album. There’s simply too much diversity, too much change, to sum it all up on paper. I have yet to find another band able to piece together ferocious guitar riffs, shifting time signatures and sweeping orchestral movements so cleanly and effectively, and make it all sound like it flows. This album is perhaps the best example of that. As a complete package, its best thing they’ve done since Scenes from a Memory in 1999. Praise doesn’t get much higher.

RATING: 9/10

MUST-LISTEN TRACKS:

The Enemy Inside

Enigma Machine

Illumination Theory

Don't judge a snare by it's colour

I like snare drums. They give me a certain artsy pleasure. Something about the design, construction, finish, and massive scale of variety makes me a sucker for them. I love how one drum can be so individual to the drummer that plays it; how the material used to build the drum, as well as the heads on the drum, and the tuning of both heads, and the snare wires below, all affect the end result when you hit it.

Sometimes my fiancé gets a little irritated with my snare fetish. Why do I need another one? Isn’t 7 enough? I understand that, to an extent. But we are no different to other musicians, who all want plenty of options to choose from. The only downside for us drummers is we cannot pack our sounds all into one foot pedal and carry it in a backpack.

Guitarists have effects pedals. Drummers have snare drums. And cymbals. And blocks. And double pedals. And lots of sticks. And many drum keys. Because we keep losing them.

My snares (left to right): Gretsch Catalina Club, Ludwig Supraphonic, Pearl Joey Jordison, Gretsch Catalina Maple, Pearl Virgil Donati, Remo Masteredge, Sonor Phonic

One of the things I like to do is buy and sell drums very now and again. Not like a business (although that would be fun too) but just for myself. So while I have my primary Gretsch drumkit – a thing of great beauty, I cherish her immensely – my second kit often changes. I like to sell off whatever the second kit is every few months and look for something new. It gives me an easy opportunity to try many different kits. (Recently that has also become a problem – something I will address next week). And I like to do the same with snares, although the selling part rarely happens. I just keep buying J

One of the snares I have been using is a unique little beast. The Pearl Joey Jordison ‘Power Piccollo’ snare. Joey is the drummer for the metal band Slipknot. Indeed. The drum looks the part.

I bought the drum on a whim. It is professional quality, and was on sale on Gumtree super cheap. And I had a student whom I knew would buy it from me for at least what I would pay for it, should I not like the drum’s sound. So I figured, why not? It probably won’t work, being a ‘metal music’ snare drum, so I’ll just check it out for a week and sell it on for a small profit afterward.

That was a year ago. I have yet again found parting with the drum close to impossible.

First off, look at her. She’s a beauty, no doubt about that. Ignore the fact that those are Slipknot logos on the side and you have a matt black snare with a cool tribal painting on the side.

Second, she is beautifully constructed. I have long maintained that, pound for pound, Pearl Drumworks are the best overall drum company working today, across all budget levels and quality inspections. This drum lives up to that reputation of being seemingly unbreakable.

Third, she is LOUD. And for a drummer like me, who is not a hard hitter, a potent snare drum is a welcome addition.

But here’s the big thing. The character of this drum – the ‘metal music’ persona it seems to carry – is a complete misrepresentation of her real qualities. Beneath the goth black and Slipknot logos, this drum is massively diverse and capable. I have tried it at medium tunings and high tunings, with single and double-ply heads, using sticks, rods and brushes. In every scenario – with the correct tuning for that scenario – the drum delivered.

And it delivered well. In watching footage from one of my gigs, and seeing/hearing the drum in action, I really got to witness that diversity. She was powerful but sensitive, and surprisingly warm for a drum made of steel. It just sounded…right. And that was an acoustic, folk-rock band.

I took it to that first gig thinking ‘this will look cool and be fun to knock around before I sell it next week’. But within minutes I was completely won over. I genuinely thought it would be a one-trick pony. And it isn’t. And now I love her.

Yet another snare drum I never want to sell. Even though I am once again eyeing another one…

Also, as promised, my first Youtube video is online. Go check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLO0kQ9i_k8

It's time to be pro-active

Recently I have felt my practice routine stagnating.

That's a lie. Because I don't have a practice routine. I mostly st down behind my electric kit and fart about on my iPod, playing through the same playlist that makes me feel awesome about my drumming.

But that needs to change. I am seriously feeling a loss of momentum in my playing, and I need to do something about it. A few things, in fact. I'm here to discuss one.

Before we get there, my options:

1: Practice routine. Goodness gracious, it's nothing short of disgusting that I, as a teacher do not have a regular practice routine comprised of technicals, practicals, songs, reviewing past gigs for weak points. Probably because I don;t play enough gigs. I want more gigs..! I partly blame it on my attempt to play too many instruments very well, at the same time. At the moment I have a drumkit, guitar, bass, banjo, and trumpet sitting in my room. And I try to make time for them all. Can you spell N-E-R-D?

2. Fresh faces: I love my band K, Ray and The Bird. They are awesome people who make me laugh and I cherish them and the strange music we write. But rock music has always pumped through my blood, and I desperately need to find an outlet for my rock angst. If you know of anybody looking for a drummer, I am into most forms of rock, provided there are guitar riffs (not just chords) and the vocals are actually vocals, not pointless screaming. And don't worry K, Ray homies; I'm not leaving. But we all know you won't be adding any electric guitar riffs anytime soon.

3. Educational content: An idea I have had for a long time is to upload educational material to Youtube. Being a teacher, I can honestly say I have seen some definite subjects that need addressing, as well as songs/bands that fellow musicians struggle to interpret. I've held back mainly because it's not easy/cheap to properly record an audio track for a drumkit and catch that content on video. But you know what? It's never gonna be. And I have an electric kit, which I can line straight into Pro Tools and get crystal clear audio. And iPhones record great visual. Maybe I can experiment with recording audio from my Roland, playing the same track on my acoustic kit, and overdubbing the sound...hmmmm

Anyway, the point is this: I am going to pledge right here. Because when you pledge on the internet, there's no turning back. Within the next month I will have uploaded some form of educational material to Youtube. I am not yet sure exactly what, but it will come to me. Maybe a song cover with some explanation, maybe a specific subject dissected...we'll see.

If you are a muso and you would like some topic or other covered, please comment, or email me or something, and ask. I would be only too happy to oblige (assuming I can play it) :-)

Self-publishing - easy, yet a little bit difficult

A little know fact about me is I have written 3 books.

A fantasy trilogy. I started the first one in high school (grade 10) as part of an English project. We had to write the opening paragraph and climax paragraph (because the entire climax of a story takes place in one paragraph right?) so I figured I might as well just keep writing. At that time I was reading heavily (I was a real nerd/dork in high school, reading, playing PC games, music instruments...I had no idea if a girl ever flirted with me because I had no clue how to read it. I just smiled back and agreed. Maybe I was secretly a big playa without even knowing it. One of my school friends told me I was.)

Over the past 10 years I completed the first book, rewrote it, wrote a second, rewrote both, then wrote a third, and finally made substantial changes to all three. And now we are here. Three books of blood, guts, spit and ass, with some romance and comedy thrown in.

Over the years I have given various versions of these books to trusted friends to read and assess. My only demand was that they assess it VERY honestly...as in brutal honestly. If it was total donkey twoddle I wanted to know. But the feedback was generally very good, and I was highly encouraged to get them published, which involves getting them edited, proof-read, ect.

I'll skip past the part of the story that involves me approaching mainstream publishers. Suffice it to say it was a waste. All of them have very, very strict requirements before they will even think about farting in the direction of a manuscript, and most of them are completely uninterested in the fantasy genre. Particularly in South Africa, where most publishers want non fiction or 'historically-based' fiction around a 'South African' story - in other words, a story from Apartheid, a man in a township, something like that.

So I had the option to approach overseas publishers (same strict requirements) or self-publish. I went for the latter. I figured, if I self-publish I have control, I have the say, I have all the power of decision-making.

And people always say self-publishing is easy. And it is, to an extent. The tools are all available online these days, and you can get a book ready for E-readers or physical printing at no cost other than your internet cap. The problem is, to really make it shine, you still need some green. And depending on how far you go, that can add up pretty fast.

After some online tampering: my beauties

For example, getting it set up for free excludes any editing. And unless you have a friend who does editing for a living and has no problem sorting it out for you, you pretty much have your own untrained eyes to do the work. And here's the truth: they are untrustworthy as hell. Trust me; you can stare at your work on a PC screen for hours, and still miss plenty. If you are gonna do it yourself, at least print it and do it on paper, with a highlighter in your hand or something. I also had some great friends who took the time to sift through my books and identify errors with post-it's, emails and word documents. Awesome. But after all that there's still some that snuck through. And editing ain't cheap. Once off, for sure, but still a fair amount.

What about cover design? I took the easier option; I bought online images, thus acquiring the rights to use the image (don't be illegal about it - just now your book takes off and you have a lawsuit on your hands. Can happen...), and they became my covers. But if you want a tailor-made cover, you're talking lots of bucks. Any quote I looked at was over R1000 per book, per design.

And marketing? The only way your book will sell is through excellent marketing. And that's the biggest expense of all, depending on how you do it. Word-of-mouth won't do anything for people on another continent.

Most self-publishing websites offer all these services and more, so if you are interested go and check one out and see what they can cost. You'd be surprised how quickly it can add up. At the end of the day, a professional product is still a professional product, and they don't come cheap. Ever.

So where am I?

Well, the first book is active online - I.E. for sale at the link below and on the iBookstore. It isn't perfect yet, but dammit, by now surely most of the errors are eliminated. The rest give it character, I keep telling myself.

I haven't really marketed the book, because I am still investigating editing options. I probably should just do it, but with a wedding around the corner (in wedding terms 7 months is around the damn corner) I have other things to save for. I am actually happy with the covers, but it might still be a better option to get ones designed. And for physical printing, the shipping costs from America are killing. I am still sourcing a local printing press to print my manuscripts.

What I did in the meantime, with the advice of a friend, is upload a portion of my book to a website called Wattpad, where you can share literature for free. I am hoping to gauge some sort of response based on that portion of the book, and hopefully encourage some folk to make their way to the digital store on Lulu or the iBookstore to purchase the entire story. And the feedback will be awesome. By that I mean getting feedback will be awesome. Not the feedback content will be awesome. Although it might be, but that's conceited...anyway...

At some point, when I decide I have done all I can for that first manuscript, I will officially launch it, backed with some proper marketing and all that jazz. Big announcements, party, opening specials, that sort of thing. And then parts 2 and 3 will need to follow soon after. In the meantime I just keep writing other stuff. I never got into writing to make money; it was always a fun thing to do. And it always will be. If the stories hit a note with other people and they want to support, awesome. If not, I doubt I'll just stop. Art, in any form, should be done for oneself, not for others.

And on that philosophical note, I bid you farewell.

Want to read some of my book for free? Go here: http://www.wattpad.com/23490485-baldornad%27s-chamber#.UhEsx5JmiSo

My online store on Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/eman101

GAME REVIEW: TOMB RAIDER

RATING: 7.5/10

IF YOU CAN LOOK PAST THE FEW ISSUES THIS GAME HAS, IT IS A FANTASTIC SINGLE-PLAYER EXPERIENCE.

Should there be a list of iconic video game characters, Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft would undoubtedly rank pretty high. And with good reason. She has been around for 17 years, through 9 previous games on multiple platforms. Can you think of a more popular female lead character in the history of gaming? Exactly.

So, given the recent tendency to reboot older franchises in both games and movies, it came as no big surprise Lara Croft was reborn, her story told from the very beginning. After all, how can one ignore one of the greatest characters in the industry’s history?

I must admit I never played any of the older titles. I didn’t own a console, and my PC at the time, a state-of-the-art-in-it’s-day Pentium 2, could barely get the games to run. And I was more interested in FPS’s anyway. Assassin’s Creed was the game that really got me interested in a sort of free-roam open adventure world. So when the new Tomb Raider was released, displaying a darker, grittier Lara (very Christopher Nolan I thought), I was immediately interested.

As the game starts, our young Lara is aboard a ship called the Endurance, looking for adventure. Things get going quickly. A violent storm dashes the ship against rocks, and Lara barely escapes to make it to the shore of a nearby island. But this island is not uninhabited. Men with guns (of course) patrol everywhere and some strange followers of a cult are up to something. Added to that, some pretty strange things are going down. Lara spends the game finding other survivors from the Endurance, finding ways to get off the island, and trying to figure out what on earth is going on around her.

After being shipwrecked on the island, Lara finds herself in a strange tomb

That’s all I will say about the pretty solid storyline. Pacing is good, and enough is added to the story at the right intervals to keep you going and interested. A brief backtrack via a camcorder will fill in some of the events before the game started.

Gameplay is standard third-person with the ability to swivel which shoulder you overlook. Lara will automatically take cover against walls and behind barriers when enemies are nearby. Most segments of the game give a fair amount of leeway with regards to how you go about your objective, and wandering off the standard road will often uncover handy boxes of supplies or one of the several optional ‘tombs’ for you to explore. If you get lost or confused at any point there is a handy ‘survival instincts’ button (LB in the Xbox) that will point out the direction of your objective, as well as valuable information around you. That button will prove to be useful, especially when you enter a tomb to plunder its hidden treasure.

The yellow ray of light shows your next objective when the 'Survival Instincts' button is pressed

On the subject, I must admit I enjoyed the puzzle-solving quality of the tombs, yet always found it odd the precious item Lara found at the end was never revealed. Each time she would reach into a lit up box and pull out…something. But we never know what.

At the start of the campaign Lara has nothing but her hands to defend herself, but as you make your way through she will uncover various weapons, ranging from the trustworthy bow and pistol to rifles and shotguns later on. Scattered all around the island you will find ammo for your artillery, as well as ‘salvage’. Salvage works as a sort of credit system in the game. Each crate you snap open awards a certain amount of salvage, which can be used to upgrade Lara’s weapons and other gear at resting camps (checkpoints). You will also be awarded skill points during the game, although I never figured out what exactly for. Every once in a while I just noticed they were there. These are used to upgrade…Lara, for lack of a better phrase. You can make her deadlier in combat, better at hunting, a faster climber…whatever.

Arrows can also be used to scale drops and pull over unstable structures

All pretty good, right? I think so. The game certainly feels good to play for the most part. Aiming is easy and comfortable, and there is nothing quite as rewarding as a neat headshot, especially with an arrow. Scaling rocks and large cliffs is also pretty fun, blighted only by the occasional strange camera angle. The ‘shanty town’ and ‘monastery’ sequences in the middle are breathtaking and had me hooked for hours. Little changes in the gameplay throughout the game add a nice touch, and solid voice acting makes it all the more believable. And thank you Square Enix for syncing the audio and mouth movements of the characters.

Like any game it isn’t perfect, and two specific areas stand out to me as weaknesses.

Pistol in hand, Lara enters the burning village to hunt her enemies

Sometimes the dynamics don’t quite make sense. Lara will jump as if she is attached to a rope, sailing through the air at a strange and unnaturally long arc to reach a cliff on the other side. And then two seconds later, a similar jump will be no more than two feet forward, followed by a long fall to death. When halfway through a long jump in more or less the right direction, Lara will suddenly correct her course mid-air – like a ball hitting the boundary of a track. It’s not a train smash, I admit, but it does detract from the game just a little.

Also, I have to say the small changes to the gameplay I mentioned earlier do become tiresome eventually. How many times can you navigate Lara down a slippery slope, shooting out barriers and missing trees? Only a few; then it becomes tedious. The changes are welcome, but overuse tires them out.

Ropes are regularly used to move across larger portions of the map

As for multiplayer, I had not tried it. I heard horror stories about the servers being a complete mess. What I do know is you can be either a survivor or a scavenger, and the two teams square off in different match types. So nothing ground-breaking (to my knowledge).

I have to add, however, that the good points of the game far outweighed the bad. Playing through the campaign was great fun, and I am excited for what the team at Square Enix will do next for our reborn heroine.

Overall, I am happy I played Tomb Raider. And you should play it too. It is a well told story with enough game time to make it worth your cash. Just look past the small bits that aren’t quite up to scratch and you will have a great time.

WHAT GOES ON TOUR

In 36 hours I will on my way for a short tour with K, Ray and The Bird to the Garden Route. It's sort of like going on holiday, except you take some music gear along and play in a few venues a couple of times. So I'm going to tell you a little about my packing methods for such a tour.

1. DRUMS
Duh. Not gonna get far without my instrument. Although I have a fairly large kit, I usually take a small one on the road. I'm not yet cool enough to have my own drum tech, and having less drums to pack up on tour can go a long way saving time and energy. Added to that, transport space is normally an issue anyway. I do pack a spare snare, just in case one decides to die on me. And I also pack a third snare head, for worse case scenerios. And then some small backups, like screws, duct tape, wingnuts, and so on.

2. CLOTHES
Call me adventurous, but I pack the bare minimum. I've never seen the point in taking a giant mound of clothes on tour. If anything goes horribly wrong, there is always somebody selling something somewhere.

3. FOOD
I eat badly on tour. Normally, we all do. It's so difficult to stand over a stove and cook a decent meal, and much more social to go out and have a pizza. I did once make a fire and cook some meat. Anyway, I take some Coke and biltong for the drive, and small things to nibble on during the day. And Coke. And also Coke. And plenty of Coke.

4. WIMPY
Rule 1 when Emil goes on tour: don't eat boring breakfast at home. Leave early and stop at a Wimpy for a cheesegriller breakfast. Mmmmmm, cheesegriller...

5. VISUAL AND LITERARY ENTERTAINMENT
I must admit, usually our tours are so busy there's little time for anything at all, other than play, eat and sleep (not nessecarily in that order). But when we do get some downtime that isn't spent dozing off, I like to read, and maybe play some PC games. DVD's are also great.

And that's it. Don't really need anything else. Except money.

I'll keep in touch during the tour. Usually something stupid\insane\hilarious happens and then I'll be first. To post about it.

Stay safe people!

Objective or subjective sport?

I have this strange thing that happens to me. When I start to like a particular sports personality, they start losing.

I was a late fan of Roger Federer (for those of you who live under a rock, he’s a very successful tennis champion). I had nothing against him at first, I just backed other players. But over time I started to see the elegance and beauty of his game, and so I decided he would be my new tennis hero. And around this time Nadal started pulling off all those wins against him.

Same with Formula One, which is my favourite TV viewing bar nothing. I like Alonso, he moves to Renault and has a slow car. I like Raikonnen; he leaves and goes to rallying. I don’t particularly like Hamilton; he races like a speed demon and performs excellently.

So I decided at the start of this year that I would watch sport purely objectively from now on. No more shouting for one man to ‘get destroyed’ in rugby or for a failed suspension on Hamilton’s car. I would just watch and enjoy. And I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. It’s SO much more pleasant than supporting a specific team/player, because you can never ‘lose’.

It did, however, get me thinking: why is it that we are so quick to back a specific team or player? Why do we choose to be so subjective in our viewing?

Now there are some understandable reasons that need no explanation. If your country is playing against another, it makes sense that you would like your country to drop a bomb of pain and suffering on the opposing country’s useless and annoying team. And everybody loves to back the underdog. Any of you who watched the Wimbledon final between Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic some years back will know what I’m talking about.

But this is not what I am referring to. I’m talking about always rotting for a specific driver, no matter what team he races for. And hating all the other teams - even though he raced for that one team last year and you loved them then, now they can sod off and die.

I’m talking about cheering when the opponent to your player makes a mistake, and jumping up screaming ‘break his legs!’ when your country’s rugby player tackles a member of the opposite team.

Mostly I am referring to soccer fans. They take the farthest. They talk about the team they support as ‘we’ and of course we all know about football hooligans. I can understand being disappointed by the team you support losing, but crying about it, drinking your sorrows away, attacking supporters of the opposite team? People, it’s a freaking sport!

Perhaps the reason for this show of wholeheartedly siding with a sports team that we dress like them and talk like we are in their team is because we actually yearn to be in a fight like that ourselves. Rob Bell once said that the reason so many people look for fights while driving or in a busy shopping mall is because they yearn to be in a fight, doing something that makes their blood rush and their adrenaline pump. I think he has a point. Most of us will never fight a war for our country, or defend our women and children from wild beasts in the forest. So this sport ‘fight’ is the closest we can get. We can immerse ourselves in this conflict.

I could be wrong of course. I often am. I would love to hear your thoughts if you have any.

Long lasting batteries

In my last post I sort of raved about the Blackberry Playbook, and I do still believe it's a fantastic device. In fact, I'm typing on it right now.

My Blackberry phone, though, while very functional, is not quite as stellar. In particular, the battery life was pretty dismal. And I'm not alone in this regard. One of best friends also has a Blackberry, and has to charge it every night. They seem to spend as much time plugged in as they do plugged out.

Lucky for me, then (and you, if you own a BB) I found an article on the net that offered some suggestions to improve battery. And it really does work.

So, if you have a BB and don't want to charge it all the time, here's what you do:

1. Set your screen brightness to 50%. Trust me, it's still enough to see clearly,

2. Turn off the option to automatically dim backlight - this uses extra CPU, hence extra battery power.

3. Uninstall those pointless apps you downloaded for free. Seeriously, are you even using them? All they do is take up memory and battery power.

4. Hold in your menu key on the main screen to see what apps are running in the background. Close any you don't need. Whatsapp is notoriously bad at killing battery life behind the scenes.

5. Tell your social media not to update every 15 minutes. As a default apps like Twitter and Facebook want to scan for updates every few minutes. Changing this to every few hours (or even only when you open the app) will drastically improve battery life. I know you're probably thinking: how will I survive without regular social updates! But I'm willing to bet you probably open up Facebook and Twitter regularly anyway, despite the updates. When you open it up, you'll see your updates.

I've set Facebook to update every 3 hours and Twitter to update only when I open the app. Coupled with the backlight mentioned in points 1 and 2, and the lack of stupid apps taking up memory, my battery life has literally doubled. That means I charge it half much.

If you don't own a BB there's no hope for you anyway so sorry, no help offered here ;-)

Holidays are upon me, so I'll be posting some music related tutorial-like material over the next few weeks.

Stay safe people!

Playbooking

I recently acquired a Blackberry Playbook.

After the Ipad arrived, a sudden host of competitors appeared out of nowhere with alternatives, usually at a lower price I might add. The Playbook is one of them. And I don't care much for people who say they all copied Apple's design. That's like saying all PC towers cannot be the same shape. The way I see it, a small rectangle is the best shape for a tablet. And besides, what's more important is what it does, right?

So how does the Playbook 'measure up'?

Well, let's start with the things I like. At 7 inches it's small, and that's handy for the businessman. It's has an excellent multitasking facility - you can comfortably run any 5 programs at once and the performance won't even be slightly affected. HD screen, excellent sound quality, lightweight...these are all good points,

What do I really like? Well, it comes loaded with a basic version of Microsoft Office, and that is heaven for anybody who writes a lot or works with excel spreadsheets on a regular basis. Sure, you can buy apps for the app stores for other tablets but this one is already on there.

Messages can all be centralized into one folder - from as many sources as you wish. Facebook, Twitter, email...all in one place. And you can choose to view them separately or all together. Sweet.

The real clincher is the Blackberry Bridge facility. Connect to your Blackberry phone and you can manipulate either device with the other, view your BBM\emails\contacts, and best of all, use your Blackberry's data plan to surf the net free of charge (if you have one of those Blackberry data plans).

Downsides? Well, the app store isn't as large as Apple's but they are incorporating Android apps in on a daily basis, so it's getting there. And...well that's the thing. I can''t think of a downside. It's sleek, fast, reliable and easy to use.

Perhaps it is fair to say that you really maximize the use if you have a Blackberry phone. But even without said phone, there's still plenty to be had on the device. And its cheaper than that damn Ipad.

Should you buy one? If you have a Blackberry phone, yes, no question. If you don't, look around, but I really do think it's a serious contender. I would have it over an Ipad even without the phone. Next year RIM are said to be launching a 3G one. That will be fantastic.

Right, my customer advice for the week is done. What else is happening?

I have a tour in a few weeks with K, Ray and The Bird - love touring with them. After that a production for a week and a half, and then my first drum workshop at Paul Bothner Music. More on that closer to the time.

Peace and love.

I'm blogging new style

Hello all.

Once again I have been missing in action for ages but no more! For I now possess a BlackBerry Playbook.

Hopefully this will make constant communication easier.

For now all I will say is school ends in one week - which means lessons end in one week. Holiday beckons!

Hello again...

Goodness gracious, it's been forever since I've last written on here!

My apologies. I have no excuses, other than I have been busy with work, and simply haven't made time to sit down and write something. But now I will.

Since April, a whole lot has been happening which I should have mentioned on here. My band, K, Ray and The Bird, released their second album at the end of May. We had a great album launch, and the album has been bubbling along quite nicely since then. Below is a link if you wanna check it out and hear some of the songs.

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KRayandTheBird

We actually just returned froma mini tour up the Garden Route, and we're gonna make a mini documentary about what goes on off stage between band members. It's worth watching, and I'll post some links as the episodes get uploaded.

Other than that, I have been lucky enough to be involved with a few great acts, and I am also working on some new ideas that will hopefully spread the love of playing drums. Cryptic, I know, but let me first finalize my plans before sharing them.

Lastly, I have exmas in 2 weeks - my last set of exams if I pass everything. So I am trying my best to concentrate on studying as much as possible. Weird how difficult that becomes when the finish line is right in front of you.

Anyway, hope you are all well, and we'll chat again soon!

Good luck to Mark Haze in the Idols finals tonight. In my humble opinion, you deserve the win dude.

BLASTED MIDI

I find myself irritated as I write this.

I mentioned a few weeks ago I've been looking into starting a basic home studio, primarily to make audio/video lessons for my students or to upload on the Net. I'm still waiting for Pro Tools to arrive, but in the meantime I receoved a MIDI-USB cable, so I thought I would try it out on my Roland electric drumkit.

Man, it was a mission.

I'm not very clued on how MIDI works, so it took a while to get it connected so the kit would actually record on my PC. So that was finally operating properly. But, as I have learnt, all MIDI does is transport a digital signal - no sound. So when my triggers arrived at the PC, the program - a freeware recording solution called Anvil Studio - used it's onboard sound, which was dreadful.

So now, apparently, I have to record the MIDI drums, make any edits to the track after I have recorded it, then play it back VIA the Roland drum machine in order to make it sound the way it normally sounds. AND, while it's playing back via the Roland drum machine, I must record new as a new track.

Complicated. Bloody complicated. I will let you know how this goes. Can't wait for Pro Tools to arrive, it's gonna make things much easier.

Otherwise, this is an busy week for me. I am on my way in half an hour to a meeting for a proposed online music raining facility - internet lessons. Should be interesting. Thursday I am practicing with Angela Fergusson, a good friend and superb blues/pop singer, and we're playing a gig on Sunday. And Friday I have a photoshoot with K, Ray & the Bird for our upcoming album, 'Rhymes In The Attic'.

Lots of good things happening.

SEARCHING FOR NEW MUSIC

Am I the only one who cannot find the music I look for in music stores?

Admittedly, my tastes are rather narrow, and a little off the wall. But still, you’d think, in a giant Musica stocked with thousands of Lady Gaga’s newest release, and tons of albums by artists you’ve never even heard of, you would be able to find something you enjoy. Something that you would really like to own.

Maybe you can. I cannot.

And the problem is partly mine, I’m afraid. Being a musician, I cannot help but have different standards for choosing and enjoying music.

First – and this is probably the biggest hurdle I face when finding new music – I am fascinated by and drawn to technical wizardry. In other words, I love hearing musicians play absolutely amazing things on their instrument. Truth be told, I couldn’t care less what the singer is on about if there’s a super guitar lick, or a mighty drum beat. My attention is all but sucked into the instrument.

Second, I’m not a big fan of what I call ‘PC bands’ – entire backing tracks created by a producer and a computer, pretty much taking the musician right out the equation. Artists like the aforementioned Gaga and producer Timberland spring to mind. In my opinion, they’re very good at what they do – but it’s not music. Music is created by humans, not a PC. It’s alright when the musician is still controlling the sound, like on a synthesizer or drum machine. But not when the PC does the work for you.

Lastly, I am very critical of the final production and sound quality of the albums I listen to. Again, I wish I wasn’t, but my ears cannot help it. If everything isn’t properly in balance, or the album is very bass-dominated, or badly recorded, I can’t take it. Which means I struggle to listen to pretty much anything recorded before 1975.

<Sigh> I wish I wasn’t this way.

Anyway, due to my very specific requirements for the music that feeds my soul, you can imagine the music I end up listening to is rather specific, and relatively unknown. And you would be correct.

This is the problem. Try finding an obscure album by an obscure band that plays music for technical brilliance rather than radio hits. In fact, try to think of a band that does that. There are few, and even then they aren’t all worth listening to.

And even worse, their markets are tiny. So shops don’t bother stocking their stuff.

Which brings me back to the top of this post.

These days, the only way I get the music I want is via websites, the best being a super South African online store called Take2 (www.take2.co.za). It’s great, the prices are cheap, and they have everything in their cyber-store. The only bummer is, after paying for you album, you still have to wait a few weeks before you can actually listen to it.

So what am I listening to these days?

Well, at the moment I am deeply entrenched within Dream Theater, a progressive hard rock band from America that is absolutely brilliant. Each musician is a master in his field, and the singer has a great vocal range. Added to that, they write these really long songs, with different parts within them, and lyrics like stories, rather than simple love songs all the time, and strange time signatures, and amazing guitar solos, and boggle-your-mind drum beats…

It’s my kind of band. I highly recommend everybody try them at least once. Go to youtube and type in ‘In the Presence of Enemies’. There’s an audio track of the entire song. It’s worth all 27 minutes. Or even better, check out a video of them playing an instrumental. Those guys are scary-talented.

I tried Steve Vai for the first time just this weekend. I was given what I am told was his breakthrough album, ‘Passion & Warfare’. Very eighties, super guitar work…really weird intros to the songs. It might grow on me.

I’ve always been a fan of Pearl Jam. They’re not that out there with their music style (they did do some stuff between 200 and 2005 that was quite radical) but what I like most about them is they don’t seem to care if you like their music or not. They just do what they want, regardless of who else might like that.

I think – if I ever were part of a band that achieves some sort of global status – I would hope that we never make music based purely on what people want to hear. Sure, there is something to be said for hearing your fans and giving them something in return. But if that’s your driving motivation, then you’re simply a fashion identity rather than a musician.

Music is art, and art should always be an expression from within. Which is why so many people can write good songs after a bad breakup.

And I think that’s why I feel so drawn to some of these strange bands. They’re not taking the word umbrella and singing it in pieces ten times in a row because they have no other words. They are putting down a message, a piece of emotion, and conveying that message in the form of music. I like that.

EMIL’S TOP TEN ARTISTS

1.      Dave Matthews Band

2.      Dream Theater

3.      Alter Bridge

4.      Switchfoot / Jon Foreman

5.      Pearl Jam

6.      Metallica

7.      Dave Weckl Band

8.      NeedtoBreathe

9.      Guns ‘n Roses

10.  Jethro Tull

I HURT MY BABY!

My guitar got damaged this weekend.

For five years I kept her spotless, in perfect looking and working condition. Now I’ll only have a perfectly working acoustic.

I picked the guitar up off my lap, in the way I normally do, which is grab it by the neck and lift. And for some reason, the guitar spun in my hand and the body crashed into the floor with a resounding crunch.

I thought my heart would stop.

Thankfully, the damage isn’t that bad, and largely cosmetic. The sexy veneer that covers the bare wood is cracked and chipped off on the spot where it collided, and a tiny crack between two pieces of the body has appeared, but it’s so small you cannot even see through it. Most importantly, the guitar sounds the same.

It’s interesting, the way people react to that sort of thing. Some guys say you wear a guitar scar proudly – it adds character to the instrument. Others say it’s like cutting a piece of your own heart out.

I’m in the second camp (although maybe not as extreme, but you get the idea). That’s why I own 2 drumkits. One is my carefully looked after tool of the trade, and I pretty much prevent anybody from playing it. Ever.

The other is a second hand intermediate kit that goes to all the gigs where I won’t risk my main kit, or wherever other drummers are gonna play my drums. I’m not bothered if this kit gets a knock or whatever, but if something happened to my other one I am certain I would feel gutted.

Which is silly, if you think about it. What are the chances of keeping a set of seven drums spotless forever? Especially when you’re using them constantly?

Anyway, the week ahead is looking promising. K, Ray & the Bird are finalizing mixing on Friday night, and then the album is ready for mastering and printing. Yay!

I am also busy looking into the ins and outs of building a very simple home studio, and I am hoping to get into it soon. With all the great technology these days, you can get a simple setup going for minimal expenses. I’ll talk more about this later on.

And schools are wrapping up their first term, which means holidays approach.

I’m feeling good.

A GIG IN THREE PARTS

I am, by nature, a bit of a perfectionist, particularly when it comes to playing music. I also like to improvise a little on stage; taking that risk and possibly messing things up is really scary and really healthy for a musician. But that also relies on being confident musically…hence, the perfectionist thing.

I did a gig once where things didn’t pan out so well.

Well, I suppose it can't be classified as a gig. It was a show for one of the schools where I teach. And, in a nutshell, what happened was: the school asked a few music teachers to play a complicated piece to show the students what can be achieved with hard work and dedication. Great idea. We all thought so.

But we didn’t rehearse properly. We sort of left it until the day before, and only had twenty minutes to run through the fairly difficult piece of Latin-jazz.

Now the other guys are all highly skilled, so I believed we could make it work live.

Except…

The sound guys forgot to pull out and activate the monitors when we went out to play. So we couldn’t hear a thing.

Now, I was playing an electric kit that night, which was blasting through the main system and should have come out the monitors if they were there. But they weren’t. So we could only hear the drums through the top. And, because of many scientific rules about sound waves and bouncing off walls, we were hearing the drums a few tenths of a second after I was hitting them.

And so, the band would start, and I would play in time with them. But the sound would be heard late, so they would adjust to the sound. Then I would adjust to their adjustment. Then they would adjust again. And on and on and on…

It was a disaster. And I still wish I could throttle the backstage crew who were too busy checking out girls to lay out some monitors.

Anyway, that whole story is just to show I don’t like screwing up on stage.

Now…

Tomorrow night (I am writing this on Monday), K, Ray & the Bird (the band I play for) are playing at Die Boer, a great restaurant in Durbanville, Cape Town. And to be honest, I’m not feeling so confident. The band has been so busy working on editing and mixing for our new album (to be released soon) we just haven’t had much practice time. We had one tonight, but it just didn’t go so well.

So. The night before, and I am pretty nervous. My plan is to take a simple kit, play tight and bash the hell out of the drums. Hopefully the audience will feel the energy so much they don’t see gaping holes in our execution, and hopefully the rest of the band follow and stay in time, while playing their hearts out.

THE GIG

Well, the gig went alright. I have to say it wasn’t our best performance ever. There were a number of contributing factors; we had our times mixed up, so sound check was shortened; as a result we did have a few sound issues. But most of all we just weren’t as tight as we normally are. Perhaps we were the only ones who noticed it, but there were cracks in the armor.

Anyway, it still seemed well received. The songs did get better as we played, and there were one or two real standouts.

MY CONCLUSION

Situations like this make me think about the prospect of being a full-time employed person who plays in a serious, working band.

Our time issue was that the venue wanted us ready to play by 6, where it had always been 7 in the past. I have no problem with a change in policy. But we all work, and we all finish around 530. So even starting sound check by 6 would have been an issue.

I think this is why bands fade away in South Africa. It’s so difficult to find paying gigs (or even gigs in general), guys have to do them on the side, usually for nothing. But this means working somewhere else, and that sucks up time and energy that could be spent perfecting songs. We just don’t have the musical infrastructure to support bands that are unknown. It's not like, say, America, where guys can make a day to day living walking into bars and just playing. As a general rule, only the really big guys are able to concentrate all their efforts into their music.

And so young, talented bands try to get into the scene, and they have good material, but it feels like there are so many barriers, and their music just doesn’t get to the right ears. And so they throw in the towel in disgust and walk away.

How will this change? I don’t know that it will. The entire music network needs to expand, incorporating into it more venues, artists, and, of course, fans. It can be done, but it’s like moving a mountain.

Here’s hoping.