In the garden

For the official Blackleaf Gardens blog please visit http://blackleafblog.tumblr.com/  

This one will continue as a personal blog, so please follow the new one for everything blackleaf!   :)

cheers,

matt

So.  New recording techniques along with some solid practice from the boys has yielded the best tracks so far!  We have 5 new guitar tracks for bill (all except AoA, will be recording that tomorrow).  Josh has 1, and Jesse is catching up to Bill with 3.  At this point I’ve probably put in between 400-500 hours recording, and I’m starting to get pretty darn efficient with it.  The takes we’re getting now are not only tighter from a playing perspective but much better EQ’d and mixed (thus far).  The road is long still but the end is now in sight.  With the drum takes we’ll do at Zeal, you can expect a Blackleaf demo to be finished well before the end of the year.   

Life is good!  The All Blacks won the rugby world cup tonight!  Man it’s crazy being here right now, the last 6 weeks have been such a build up, and now it’s over and we won!  There were fireworks and people yelling outside, and even I had a few drinks lol.  But ya…  Hmm I’ve been watching this series ‘breaking bad’ it’s pretty good.  Been slowly working through Ocarina of Time, emulating N64 on the laptop is clutch.  Kinda strange though, looking back the titles on the N64 were good but… they all just lack something now.  Maybe they’d be different if I actually had an n64 but seems just kinda lacking somehow.  Something seems different.  

Work on songs continues as usual.  It takes friggin forever to write a 10+ minute song.  And especially with all the little tricks we pull midway.  We’re about 1/2 way through our newest song, and the second half should be done within a few weeks.  Also we’re working on creating merchandise!  The problem is, it costs a lot of money to make merch.  Gotta have money to make money it seems.  I just sometimes wish someone would give us a break man, fuck. 

Here we are just a little over a year into the band.  We’ve accomplished a lot.  At the risk of sounding self-righteous, I’d say Going from 2 guitarists and a drummer with no material to a 5 piece all original gigging band in under 12 months is pretty fucking awesome.  Like, ya.  Anyway moving on, we just finished 2 back to back gigs at the kings arms on the 12th and 13th!  Was kinda crazy on the 12th we showed up at the King’s Arms and there was a sign on the door to the stage saying “all bands are playing at the gaming lounge around the corner tonight” and ya basically once all 4 bands showed up we took a bunch of metal heads in there and “encouraged” them to open the stage.  They did.  That night we played last out of 4 bands and didn’t go on stage until 11:30.  But the people who did hang around, you guys are awesome :)  The second night was more relaxed.  It seemed like we were all a lot more comfortable on the stage.  To be honest, the first time on a stage (at least in a couple years) is pretty intense.  Everything sounds different because everyone’s all mic’d up.  And we weren’t facing each other, and there’s an audience so you have to incorporate a ‘show’ etc.  It’s quite different, and you can’t really know what to expect until you actually start playing.  Of course, everything went smooth as both nights.  All that practising really paid off.  

It was good times.  And really, there’s only a handful of those.  I remember saying to the guys the second night “ya know… I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else, with anyone else, doing anything else, than right here playing a show with this band and you guys, my best friends.”  And really, that’s fucking special.  

Music is like a language in many ways, but in other ways it’s so much more.  Language has a strict set of rules.  Like I can’t say “aiwjoe gaoijad oijfwe” and expect people will know what I mean.  It might be exactly the way I’m feeling, but since it isn’t ‘words’, someone else would have trouble understanding what I meant.  In music, though, I can play a guitar riff that can describe EXACTLY how I feel.  And even without words, everyone else who hears it also feels, nay, knows what I’m trying to say.  Maybe that’s happened to you?  when you hear a song that just speaks to your soul.  Says all the right words, but more importantly, plays all the right notes.  Words always fall short when trying to describe an emotion, because there are way more emotions than there are words, and it can be frustrating.  It’s times like that I love being a musician :) 

So.  There is much nooz.  Where to start hmm about a week ago WINZ approved me back on the benefit.  So no worrying about being homeless/countryless for me anymore :)  Just had a birthday too!  The timing was impeccable.  Right, so last week we did the regular Monday instrumental jam (Mike showed up and scared some school girls with his death screams) and then the regular practice on Wednesday.  Zeal, it seems, is the place for pretty much everything blackleaf.  They’re gonna handle our drum recordings.  $200 for 12 hours of recording is unheard of.  Plus it will be with Chris, who knows our music.  And it will be at Zeal, where I’ve practised countless times.  So I know already where to get the best acoustics, with rooms, placement, etc.  We’ve got back-to-back shows coming up next week, both at the King’s Arms Tavern, on wednesday and thursday nights!  One night we’re closing, the other we’re opening, and they both get to be like 1 hour long sets it’s gonna be AWESOME.  I haven’t played back-to-back gigs since my short tour in 2007… man I wanna get back on the roooooaaaadddd

Mmmmm noodles.  Can’t remember the last time I ate something different for dinner.  It’s cheap as fuck.  And right now, that totally matters.  Have to play music to satisfy my soul.  Have to survive to be able to play music.  Have to eat to survive.  But.. you have to have money for food…. unless you’re a wild animal.  In which case… wow how did I wind up here?  The point is, there’s ways to eat healthy without much $$$$.  Wait… no.  The point is that you must eat.  Otherwise, you die, and then you can’t play music, comprendo?  

It’s the 27th…….   

Did a few hours of recording on Visual Echo with Jesse tonight.  We came up with an awesome rhythm in 11/8 that pulses in a 4-4-3 under Bill’s rhythm of 3-3-3-2 pre-chorus riff.  With the whole band it’s gonna sound pretty awesome.  With any luck… SOON! 

We practised today as well.  Monday practises are nice because it’s a really stripped down version of the band.  Mike’s got another band he sings in on Mondays so we use to the time to get the instruments sounding tighter.  We can also play at a lesser volume which makes it much easier to hear who fucks up and where :X  but it’s a good thing.  Jesse finished work around 530 and came over, we had a mean sesh and then had one long jam, it was probably like 30 minutes non-stop music.  I got a lot of good ideas for drum beats still swimming in my head.  Then we worked on the new song!  All in all quite a productive day.. even got a run in :D