Music

It's that time again, time for music talk again....lalaaalaa...

So, whut up wif da music scene nowadays? Seems like everyone's into this band nows'aday..






But me, naahh..they're good...have a few of their live gigs clips..there's even a clip where he sang thru a loud speaker...you know those ones? usually used by protestors or for crowd control wan? hehe... groove is good..they have a unique sound...it's good..but not really my kinda music tho..

So..what am I up to these days? Previously I blogged about Story of the Year, Breaking Benjamin...They're still my favourites..But I kinda moved on again..One day I just decided to not put the good broadband connection to waste...simply download any band that comes to my mind..I downloaded these old dudes for fun...and..yesh...I got hooked on to them..*blushes*
Ladies and gentleman, welcome....

KORN.



Uhuh...uhuh...I can see some of you squinting and smacking your foreheads...I don't care..haha...really like their music...just ask the people around me...they're probably sick of me blasting their songs everyday after work..Yea yea..I know they've been around for ages..guess I'm a late boomer...or watever you call it..BLLleek..

My music tastes are evolving..come to think of it...it all started with listening to The Used...then I moved on to Story of the Year...then bla bla..then bla bla..here am I today...listening to Korn and occasionally Slipknot...man.. I hope I don't move on to there...

Anyway, recently one of Korn's members, Head, accepted Christianity. No joke, wei. Just go to wikipedia, search for them and it's all there. He's the 2nd person from the right. He got baptized , left the band and I think he's starting something of his own.

I'm not sure whether the 'old' Korn had 3 additional members, but it's all shown here in the cover of their album, See You At The Other Side.





Rabbit face is the backup singer, Horse face is the keyboards, and White-kid face is on 2nd guitars..They look really weird live..hehe....a dude with a horse face playing the keys..
Like their groove, like their feel.

Ja.

These are the moments

This is a part of a song from The Calling:


Is it love tonight
When everyone's dreaming
Of a better life
In this world
Divided by fear
We've gotta believe that
There's a reason we're here
Yeah, there's a reason we're here

Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives
.
.
.

It got me thinking a lot...
There's so much I wanna do..
Big visions and dreams..
I often wonder if will it ever become a reality..
And, I strive, you know..to touch the unseen..
step by step..little by little..

And then I'm reminded..

Proverbs 16:9
9 A man’s heart plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.

I look forward to this year with anticipation. of the best.
and the worst, maybe...

Probably would be making some major decisions...
Taking on big challenges..
Going to new places..
Some days I'd be soaring like the eagle..
Some days I'd be hurting badly...

But one thing I learnt, is that I can't go solo..I can't do this alone..
I need You...my dearest Father..
and I need you, you and you too...though I don't really ask..

These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...


Ja.

Home

It's good to be home. :)

Coming home was an adventure itself. Fancy getting caught in the traffic jam at 5am in the morning? Oh yea, couldn't believe my eyes. Silly me thought I could've outsmarted everyone by setting out at 4.30am in the morning. But noOoo, apparently everyone had the same idea.

But anyway, thanks you, for tagging along last minute. Would've been a lil quiet without you. :)

Think getting caught in a massive jam on a highway wee hours in the morning is crazy?
Let me tell you what happen.

Scenario: Crawling bumper to bumper on the highway. Mel pengsan-ed already.

Me ( in thought) : Miennn...stupid stupid...next year I'm gonna leave 1am in the morning...am I gonna get stuck in this jam the whole trip back?... Sighs.. The traffic's crazy...worst thing to happen is to get into an accident..

10 minutes after that.

*BAAANG* Car moves in front a lil bit.

Me: What the..? IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?? * takes a look behind. smacks head*

oh yea. I got hit behind by a driver who was falling asleep.

Lesson learnt: Don't think about bad things in your head. Don't think about bad things in your head.Don't think about bad things in your head.

I'll spare the details. haha. Just thank God we weren't injured or anything.

Anyway, above all else I'm just thankful to be home. Spent the last few days practically doing nothing but eat, sleep and erm...erm...I can't think of anything else. haha. Coming from weeks and weeks of rushing about, it felt weird at first not having anything to do or anywhere to go. Found myself walking around the house aimlessly. But it was good, cos I came back having only 5 hours of sleep for the past 3 nights, and on the brink of getting sick.

Home.

Really glad to spend countless hours just chatting and joking wif mom. Dad would sometimes drop in to our conversations, but after a while he just wanders off. hehe. We'd stay up just talking. haha. Getting fed good food too. No chicken or sorts. It's all seafood on the table, baybeh. :P Priceless moments.

Really cherishing my 'rest' moment. Been reading up on books, and doing some good evaluation and thinking too. Guess I need to spend more time wif God too. The hunger to learn, to change is greater than ever. I'm just glad that I just keep on learning good stuff. Be it myself personally,
or about work, or anything else, I continue to search for more...

Catching up wif old friends is a classic moment. So much stories to share. So much advice to give and to take. I can't believe some of my friends got married last year and I knew nothing about it. and some of them have already registered their marriage. How times have changed.

Everything seems to be changing. Had a precious moment last nite where we jz sat on the swings, and gazed at the stars in the night. Memories came flooding back. And yet, as we looked forward, so much still lay ahead..

Let's do this together. Don't get left behind, ja?

Happy CNY everyone.

Ja.

Update

It's friday. New year's eve is tomorrow. It's so quiet here you can hear a mouse squeak. Here am I sitting in the office like a dungu. It's not that I'm not doing my work. There's no work to be done! All my potential clients are either 'on leave' or 'hilang-ed' somewhere.. And new ones just don't bother, the standard feedback I get is " Get back to us after CNY".

Don't know why our boss haven't given us half day leave. No point us wasting time here.

So do I do then?

Muahaha..I looked into my phone...and....lo and behold! Discovered some drum pics which I took during one of church practice

There you go..








This is my signature setting. It's different from all the other drummers in my church. I used to play with the standard setting, two toms right in front of me. But after I realized it wasn't cool..hahahah...I adjusted and got used to this setting. I prefer playing with two floor toms..but since we don't have two, we make shift la..haha..

I like playing with 3 crashes. With my 15" thin crash Stagg hovering above the ride cymbal. Heck, doesn't really matter how many crashes. The more the merrier. hehe. anyway, it' not my complete setting though. Usually, I'd add one more snare at my left. Either a 10" or piccolo if I ever have the priviledge of playing one. :P It gives a sound and dynamic.

In the future, maybe a china at the farthest right side, and a splash would be nice. don't really like our church cymbals though. Bleeeek. Not nice sound. But me no money to buy. So better shut up and don't complain. Anyway, my Vater drum stick holder is sticking out so coolly. Yea, to tell the truth, I bought it cos it looked cool and all my favourite band's drummers have one too. Yea, I'm a victim of commercialism.

Ooo! just remembered. I finally met a person who starting using Vater sticks after all my recommendation and 'preaching'!! HAhah...VijaY!! hahah..don hide it man!! Search deep within your heart, and you know, Vater's the one for you. muahaHAha...~~!!! It's ok man. I don't feel so alone now..heheh..come, together we shall spead the word of Vater!!

--A walk among musicians--

On a different note, the past month has really been an exciting month for me. I feel so priviledge and honored, to be able to take a walk among the great musicians around.

I had to opportunity to shake hands and to perform together with Mia Palencia.
Till then, honestly I wasn't really aware of how big she is in our country. And thanks to AYA Fest, I had the chance of a life time to walk on the same stage, work together, and make friends with the big bands around. Heck, I even got play in front of them!! Thank God I wasn't too intimidated and drumbstuck by them till I forgot how to play. hehe.

I got to work with Unabashed.
Had a chance to see them play, and work closely with Judson, their big drummer.
I got to work with AF.
who else but Agnel.
I even had the chance to work with Stephanie. Drummer for Mia Palencia, and the best girl drummer I've heard so far. Btw, she's the drummer for the band Plush, the all girl band.
My biggest priviledge, was to work with Chris, drummer for Sonic Flood.
From just working with him and watching him play for two days, I've managed to learn so much that even ppl commented that my drumming has changed since then.

And recently at church, it was a surprised who drop by for our church service. :) Upcoming big wave Army of Three. Managed to make contact, but more importantly, made friends with them

Not forgetting our very own PG 165 who just recently just played at a gig. Once a drum tech, always a drum tech.:) Had to help our local Mike Portnoy Mr Vijay set up his setting.

Whenever I'm in the presence of bands, there is a buzz of excitement going on within me. I lurve every bit of it. I like watching people carrying guitars on their backs, I like seeing how cool some musicians look, I like checking out different brands/types of guitars, drums, pedals, you name it..
And if given the chance, I'd like to stick in this line for a long time. :)

Heh.

Going back tmr liao. Cant wait. It's been 7 months since I was home.


VEeery excite!! ....
I'm going back to A-lor of Star!! veeery excite!!

:)

Ja.

I wonder

I wonder...I often wonder..

What's it like, to love someone, and have that someone to love you back too..

I have no idea how it feels..
I have no clue..

Everytime I see a couple, or even my attached friends around me, I feel happy for them, cos, they know how it feels to love someone, and have that someone to love them back..

I'm familiar with the one-way-ticket feeling tho, where you like or love someone, but it's just a one-way ticket thingie..

*smacks head*

I'm such a noob huh..

Dang. Either it's about February, or my colleague's slow jazz music coming out of his speakers which is messing up my feelings.

Sighs.

Even my crappy housemates know what's it like.

*bangs head against wall*

What's it like, actually?

To all the happy couples, a happy V day.
To all the single people, come my house watch 'Borat'.

Ja.

Semangat-ness

Yesh yesh...I know...2 postings in a day?

I'm actually waiting now to go for my company annual dinner. Everyone's stopped working. Just waiting for the boss to come back and we'll go bowling. :P

Anyway, just to share a lil' story.


This is my 512mb mp3 player. Bought it a year ago during some pc fair at uni. Look carefully, it's glasses are cracked. And it's always malfunctioning. Sometimes when I listen to it, it justs turns itself off. And I have to turn it on and off a few times just to get it working. I usually attached to a decoder in my car, so I could listen straight from the car stereo. Decoder I say? yea. Cheap only la. RM10. Go Giant and buy.

Anyway, it kept giving me problems. Quite frust with it.

Recently, I thought I lost it during AYA fest. Thought I must've misplaced it somethwere in the midst of the chaotic rushing about. Thing was, when I 'lost' it, I didn't really felt anything. To me, it was a 'junk' anyway. Always rosakking. Useless.

Or so I thought..

A few days later, I started to miss it. I got sick of listening to the repetitive songs on the radio. It was either the same songs again and again, or total silence. And, I didn't have a pen drive to store any stuff. I started to really want my mp3 player back. Really sad I became..

Till,

Yesterday when I stepped out of my car pulling my cymbal bag, everything came spilling out, and lo and behold, my pendrive was there!! WOHOO!! I was so happy~...Yes, it was a'junk' to me then, but now, I'm so glad I have it back~ :)..

And it made me think..

That sometimes in life we take so many things, so many people for granted. They are there when we need them. They are there, around us, as though they should be around us. And sometimes we might find them irritating. good for nothing.

One day..

They might just not be there anymore. And when that happens, then we start to miss them. We start looking for them. We regret saying the things which we shouldnt say, doing the things which we shouldn't do.

I've been wanting a lot of things lately. But I guess it's high time I should be thankful for the people I have, and the things which God gave.

To think, that my cracked, malfunctioning little mp3 player taught me such an important lesson.
Huh. Still nobody back to the office...

Tell grandfather story oledi laaa...

Ja.

GIG

Well, you guys have my utmost support. Go PG! Hopefully will be able to make it in time for your time.

On the other hand..

I once did a posting on Vater drum sticks. Now, I'm gonna do it again~ WAhahah...
I've been a fan of Vater sticks. And I think to date, I haven't really come across anyone who's using this brand besides me.

Since I started drumming, I started with the default TAMA 314P sticks. Heck, I think everyone starts with that sticks. It's like the drummer's beginner's kit. hehe. I stuck to it till I came to uni,
that was when I started using ProMark sticks. Changed to Zildjian sticks for a while, since everyone at church was so into Zildjian sticks, especially the Travis Barker signature series. So I decided to give it a try as well. Eventually I stumbled upon my the Vater brand. And since then, I've stuck to it. I do own a Vic Firth Dave Weckl series sticks. But to me, Vater rawwwks big time!! :P

I use the Vater XD-5B series. The same used by Chad Smith by Chilli Peppers and Logineu Parsons by Yellowcard if I'm not mistaken. It's quite fat actually. And it has a good weight. Not too heavy, but not too light as well.
Anyway, look at the pic above again, can you see a drummer there? Know who that is??

Meet..


..David Silveria..

Wohoo~ My favorite drummer at the moment! He plays for Korn. mhmm, mhmm..Vater endorsee as well. His playing is awesome. Not much fancy stuff. But, his energy and strokes..

......

power.

And he's got a body builder's body man. Model for Calvin Klein Jeans I think. Wohoo~

Anyway, meet 2 of my whackiest friends.


And


I'm so blessed. haha.

Ja.

Drummers Only

Nah. I shan't blog about the experiences last weekend. Words won't be able to describe it. heh. I treasure every moment of it. But, what words and pics can describe, are the drumkits that passed through my hands!! wohoo!!

Sorry about non musicians out there for this posting. Heh. Here we go.

We used DW collector's series drumset. till now, the closest I've ever encountered a real DW drumset was a few months ago, at JS music. I wasn't even allowed to tap it with my fingers.
It costs around RM 30k. heh. add in a couple of thousand ringgit and you can get yourself a brand new Iswara aeroback. :p Last weeekend, I had the priviledge to bang it with everything I had! ....MUHAHAHAHA...!!! * evil laugh*

Next up we have the DW 9000 series double pedals. My pearl eliminators costs just slightly more than RM 1k. The TAMA iron cobras VJ's using costs around RM 1.4K. This baby here costs more than RM2k. You do the math.

HHX 14" stage hats. Nice crispy sound, and gives the "oomph" you look for when needed for driving the song. Good control of sound, unlike our church's hats. hehe. It's so good, none of the drummers changed into their own hi hats during the show.



The HHX 20" Evolution Crash. This is the first time I'm using such a huge crash cymbal. And you know what? It rocks big time! For such a big stage, you really need a huge cymbal. 15" and 16" are small fries. Use it at a small setting or church, you're probably gonna get banned from playing drums there. You can't hear a thing. Lurve the projection. Lurve the resonance. Nobody wanted to change that too. :P


This 16" HHX stage crash. Fast decay. Used it to 'ride' for fast songs. The intro of "Majesty" comes in with this baby carrying the song. Chris of Sonicflood almost "killed" this little guy. heh. A lil small for a big stage, but it's still ok.




The 20" HHX stage ride. I've never had so much fun with the ride cymbal. Prolly cos I could bang on it whenever I come to a chorus. I've never played like that for a ride cymbal. Saw Chris playing it as though a crash, and I thought to myself, what the heck, if you can't beat them, join them. :P


The Sabian HHX China. So far, I don't really like China's. Not because of their sound, but cos I don't really know how to use it. So, even for this, I just used it occasionally. Not really my favorite.

Ok, so far above are the 'default' settings provided for the concert. Sonicflood actually used all of the above, except the snare drum, which was Agnel's Pearl Master's Series. I won't upload the pics cos I can't seem to find the correct model.

The most work I had to do was actually our own local artists. hehe. Chris actually only came with his Pro-Mark drumsticks. And his MAC laptop.

Let's see what Judson from Unabashed brought into the house.

This is the Pearl Dennis Chamber's Signature Snare series. Except that Judson changed it to a black coating. It sounds good on stage, but I guess it's projection isn't really made for rock songs, more to jazz and funk. For me, it didn't really bring up the strength of the song, but what the heck, seeing Judson slamming on it just makes you feel good.


People, say hello to one of the most expensive cymbals on the market. The Zildjian K Dark Crash. And he had 2!! !8" and 19". The perfect cymbals for the big stage. It sounded so good, I was just salivating throughout the whole time. One cymbal costs almost RM 1k. 2 cymbals, and I don't have to eat for a month.

Let's see Agnel's new snare.

I thiiiink this is the one. PDP Pacific's wood hoop snare. That's why all he had to do was just lay it down nicely with sticks, and you'll get the nice " keh-taank!" sound. Nice warm sound, but at the moment it doesn't looses it's loud and definite sound. Sweeeeeet. RM 1k.

Finally, he used the Alpha Paiste Crystal Crash 16" This model isn't exactly the one. Just lazy to find the correct model here. heheh. It sounds ok, but then again, 16". Big stage. Said already. heh.

Actually he has one more Zildjian 20" ride cymbal. But I can't really make out the model. ah. Lazy d. It's time to go back home.

There you go people. I lurve every moment of it. Tweaking and setting up all this expensive gear.

Oh yea, probably lost my hearing by 25% too.

Ja.