We hit the Queen and Spadina neighborhood last night armed with acoustics, glockenspiels and electronic gadgets to busk for the NXNE concert goers.
Before we had even settled in to play a tune, a traveling minstrel struck up a conversation and told us he had been playing the streets since 1984. He thought it would be a good night if the rain held off. He played us a song about skinny-dipping in Halifax and in exchange we played him ‘Science’ which is not about skinny dipping or Halifax at all.
At times we had a crowd cheering for us and sometimes we were playing to each other and curious passers-by. But all in all it was a great night. Plus we sold CDs which was completely unexpected. We were mainly out to promote our upcoming show at the Mod Club (event details).
Perhaps this was the highlight:
An excited young gentlemen raved, “These guys are better than Lady Ga-Ga… and they’re free… and they’re all mine!!! (We had set up next to a MMVA party hosted by Lady Ga-Ga which makes it a little less random).
Hugh snapped this shot while taking an all-natural iced tea break.
I’ve spent my Sunday (the first day off with no obligations in two weeks) working on my Pro Tools chops. They’re still not good but damn that program is fun. If you’re one of those people who don’t like Pro Tools I’m sorry…but damn it’s fun. I haven’t been working on Winhara songs because we’re not yet to the recording stage with any of our new stuff. I did mess around and come up with a terrible “Hip Hop-ish” song I’ve entitled “pajamas” because it is the least “Hip Hop-ish” name I could think of. OK well I’ll let you know if this makes it on the next Winhara album…that was a joke…seriously, even if I joked Dano would hit me with a blunt object, haha. Well enjoy!
I’m reading a book on being in an Indie Band. It reads:
Not everyone is cut out to be an independent musician. Before making the decision to go after an independent career, you-as a musician-must ask yourself:
*Have you done everything you can to be as good as possible?
*Can you trade dreams of being a star for the reality of making a living from your music?
*Are you willing to bend with suggestions from others?
*How much time are you willing to devote to your music career, including touring?
*How big are your balls?
Indies should never assume anyone will do anything for them that they aren’t willing and able to do for themselves. No one will ever care as much about your music and career success as you do. The only helping hand you can truly depend on is connected to the end of your arm. Don’t expect others to do it better than you can do it yourself!
“I Don’t Need A Record Deal!-Your Survival Guide For The Indie Music Revolution”
I’m just listening to Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits and it blows my mind how many songs I recognize but had no idea that it was a Fleetwood Mac song. As much as Fleetwood Mac got it’s name from the original rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie I think most people think of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks when they think of the band. I did a little reading and didn’t even realize that FM had a lot of life long before Buckingham and Nicks even entered the picture. Led by guitarist Peter Green in the 60’s who was a famous blues guitar player they had a few hits and he actually wrote a little song called Black Magic Woman…you know that song that made Santana famous…no big deal. Anyways he left the band in 1970 approx. 13 years before I even existed and faded away, which I think is totally Rock and Roll. After that there was a bit of a transition period and then between ‘75 and ‘87 is when FM did the most damage. Most people know the drama of this version of FM and how everyone was sleeping with everyone and the crazy tension between the band members especially during the Rumours album. That shit aside because I really don’t know that much about FM (or care to know), the thing I find most fascinating is that they were one of the few bands that survived through two very vey different era’s. After listening to the Greatest Hits it’s amazing to hear Hit Songs from the same band that sound so very very different. If you take a song like Landslide and play it side by side with Little Lies there is a 10 year difference in the songwriting not to mention there were 3 different song writers in the band during this period…not to mention 3 main singers. What the hell is that! I guess it just goes to show that if you have a hit song, it’s a hit song. It doesn’t matter if Stevie Nicks is singing it or Lindsey Buckingham (or the the writer of “Little Lies” herself, Keyboardist Chistine McVie).
A fight happened right next to me on the subway. Two girls. I didn’t even know they were serious until the profanities escalated into one of them used the C-word. Then I knew it was for real.
An observation: guys can do nothing in this situation without looking like an idiot or getting punched in the face. For this reason I used all my concentration to attain invisibility. Even when one of the girls hit me with the back-swing of her purse (yes she was actually swinging it at the other one) I didn’t turn around, didn’t even acknowledge that it happened.
Also, trying not to laugh out loud when this is happening takes a lot of effort.
Just had band practice. We’re working really hard to give you different live options for all the different venues we play. We’re currently working on a mid-size live show that has Prevost playing through a drum pad that triggers MIDI drums in our Mac mini we use to play our backing tracks. This allows us to remove the full drum setup from the live show and Prevost can stand up and join the party. Hugh is still working from his synth workstation with his bass and Dano has minimized his setup to allow him to run all over the place. The stage look is changed drastically for this setup. We have Dan on the left side at the front, Prevost and Hugh facing each other in the middle but set further back where Prevost usually is with his drums and me in my usual spot on the right. We’ve purchased new pieces that include the start of an interesting light show we’ve been dreaming up and sometime in the near future we’ll be adding visuals to the show. We’re getting bigger and better every show so if you get a chance come and check it out!
I work in a shoe store five days a week. I make just enough money to pay my bills and in a good month I might pay off a little of my debt. We play music on a regular basis but it’s rare we make enough money to cover our costs. When we do make money on a gig we don’t split it between each other, it goes in “The Band Account”. We spend three to five days a week practicing, writing and having meetings to organize ourselves. In our off time we hang out with girlfriends, go out for drinks, workout, read and some of us obsess over hockey pools. All of this happens well we dream up new ideas and plans for the band. Financial stress, family pressures and personal goals are all factors that can pull the spirit and excitement from living this lifestyle. Every new musical moment, every new artistic invention, every cheer from the back of a dark dingy Toronto bar and every new soldier in the Winhara army makes it that much easier to take a deep breath and ignore the negative forces I have kindly titled “bullshit”. If you are reading this thanks for helping to relieve our pressure, we will continue to work hard to bring you our best.
With Earth Hour coming up on Saturday, everyone is trying to ‘unplug’. As you may have noticed, a Winhara show is usually on the other end of the spectrum and is quite ‘plugged in’.
So how do we ‘unplug’? Enter the Battery powered set.
Okay so it’s not totally unplugged – we play using a toy keyboard and drum pad playing through a toy amp, all running on batteries – in addition to acoustic guitar and glockenspiel. But we’re getting closer. This summer we hope to perform running the electronic instruments on solar or human power (but more on that later).
Rock Talk airs from 6-7pm on Sundays and is hosted by Blair Packham and Bob Reid. They had us on on March 8th, leading up the Mod Club show during CMW. You can listen to the full interview below as well as see video of “Science”.
Doing the show was very cool; Bob and Blair were great – made our job easy. Lesson #1 of the day: pay attention to when you’re ON air and OFF air. No major gaffs – this time – just a joke at Prevost’s expense.
