In life we all have good days and bad days. It can be affected by weather, like a rainy sunday afternoon will leave you bummed out and feeling like shit. Sometimes your feelings can be the direct result of a change in your day to day life such as a new apartment or a vacation somewhere warm. Sometimes you will hear a song that takes you back to when it meant everything to you and you’ll have a little three minute flashback of the “good old days”. Your feelings and emotions might not be what guide you down the long term path of life but they sure as hell fuel the tank that moves you on a day to day basis.
Some people go through life trying to enjoy every moment and appreciate what they have. Bad times are often softened with good family, kind friends and lots of distraction. Some people go through life sad or angry and often pointing out the obvious flaws in our messed up world, only elongating the down time. Many of us are both of these people and we’re just trying to make sure that we steady the wings on this f$#%ed-up plane so that we don’t fly off into the atmosphere or crash into the ocean.
Writing music is not one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy the end result of writing a song and I even enjoy moments of putting a song together. For the most part writing a song can be mentally and emotionally draining, that is if you’re working hard on it. Where your head is at when you’re creating and assembling a song usually directly effects what you’re doing with the song and where you want to take it. Writing a song with another person or a group of people is really a helpful way to bounce ideas around and reassure each other about vocal melody, drum beat, key changes, song structure and all the rest of it. The downfall to writing with other people is pride. Good constructive songwriting comes from working together, knowing how to approach suggesting change to the song and knowing how to accept change to the song. Pride enters the picture when one person is unwilling to change something or they want something done there way. Good songwriting chemistry is hard to find…overly proud songwriters are not hard to find.
Some say music is art but what’s art if the artist is the only one who wants it? If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound??? If a shitty song is written and no one listens to it, is it really art???
Starting NOW until August 30th we are running The GREAT Hold Back Light Show Scavenger Contest. Up for grabs is the new HOLDBACKLIGHTSHOW t-shirt (pictured below) and a $20 gift certificate to iTunes or HMV (your choice)! It’s easy! Here’s how you get into the fun:
Head to our new site www.holdbacklightshow.com.
Hidden on the backs of 10 of the photos you see there are items of information you need to find and send to us. Some of these things will test your wit (answering questions), some will let you show off your life experience, some won’t prove anything at all but we hope you have fun!
Once you have gathered all you can, e-mail your snippets of information to winhara@winhara.com.
You’ll notice that for some questions you have to include some visual evidence as well – pictures and/or scans for example – and you can do this any way you like: attach it in an e-mail, give us a link to your Facebook or Flickr page, you can even snail mail them to us if you want. Have your answers in by August 30th. The winner will be announced shortly thereafter and sent the most excellent grand prize mentioned above (we will get in contact with you about sizing etc.).
Happy scavenging!!!
Recently a very traumatic thing happened. I was reading Marvel’s Civil War series and was saddened to see that Spider-Man was convinced by (his now mentor…wtf?) Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) to unmask on national television. I won’t go into details as to why this happened, or why it seemed important to the “cause” at the time (because really, do you care?) but it certainly started my brain in motion. I often relate very closely with the trials and tribulations (okay…so I want to be Peter Parker) of the story line throughout the Spider-Man comics. Not the good versus evil, or the whole super-powers thing, but the life of Peter Parker – the nerdy, scrawny, often maligned by his own good intentions, wallflower kind of guy. I often joke about the fact that no one ever sees me in the back because I am hidden behind the drums / three tall guys, but for the most part I also make myself scarce before and after shows – protecting my secret identity. It’s something I work hard at, much like Peter Parker worked for so long to conceal his identity. The difference is that I intend to continue to play things close to the vest – the fact that this blog is out is almost an unmasking in its own right
For the most part this was just to let people know that if you ever tried to say something or get my attention (pre or post show) and I failed to acknowledge it…it wasn’t a shun or cold shoulder, I was just trying to protect my secret identity
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!
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6′ 1″, White, Male, 135lbs
Has been known to play drums, read comics, sleep and not do his dishes.
This man needs to write a blog. Soon.
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).
Fleetwood Mac, you have some wicked little tunes!
Songs to listen to:
Name-Songwriter
Rhiannon-Stevie Nicks
Sara-Stevie Nicks
Don’t Stop-Christine McVie
Little Lies-Christine McVie
Go Your Own Way-Lindsey Buckingham
Tusk-Lindsey Buckingham (this song is wicked)
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.
