My Sick Desire.mp3
Contempt 1.1.mp3
Teenage Friday.mp3
Panz Kit.zip
RPM Website | My RPM Page | 27th Jan | 28th Jan | 29th Jan | 30th Jan | 31st Jan | 1st Feb | 2nd Feb | 3rd Feb
Feb 4th | Feb 5 to Feb 16 | Feb 17 and onward...
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4th of Feb
Lots of cool stuff has happened today. I've been doing some writing and a lot of good stuff is coming out. A LOT. I've got at least two new things in the works just from today's session, maybe three. I'm going to keep going for a couple of hours, but I've pretty much decided that I won't post anything tonight. Rather than focus too hard on one thing, I'm just going to keep channelling the music as it comes. So bare with me until tomorrow. I promise more music will be coming, and it will kick arse. I've actually been getting some inspiration in the direction of love and bodily fluid exchange for some reason. That's not to say that I'm writing love songs - not at all - but there are definitely some different themes happening at the moment. I must be in that kinda mood. Girls call 1800-CHRISLOVIN NOW! I mentioned yesterday that I might have some awesome, spectacular, brilliant news. Well indeed I do. I have a date and time for my band's next gig. It's on the 7th of March at T2 in Oxford street at the coveted position of 9.30. I'll have more details soon, but mark your diaries because it's going to be an awesome show, I promise. |
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3rd of Feb
We rehearsed today, and all went well. We went through almost all our songs and did quite a lot of refining, and it's sounding very nice indeed. I can't wait to play for you again - it's going to blow your face off. Some images of the rehearsal are on the right. First two are of me and some idiot in the background (Raff, no offense). Next one is of Raff playing the drums (although he's not really playing - just pretending). Next is Rehan. I can't show you his face because he's a guitarist. I have no idea what the #@%# the last photo is. I assume I was moving the camera around violently and accidentally pushed the button or something. I can kinda make out my delay pedal (the green thing). I'll be back into the RPM groove tomorrow. Hopefully I'll also have some awesome, spectacular, brilliant news. Stay tuned.  The above photo of Raff has not been photo-manipulated in any way. Now while that's a downright lie, I hope Raff sees the good humor in it - after all, he did pull the silly face... |
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2nd of Feb
I 'acquired' a handheld tape recorder last year. I won't say from where, because the person I stole it off might read this. I had it sitting on my desk not doing anything until a few days ago, until I decided to pull it out and use it. I took it for a walk with my dog Meg, who you can see passed out if you scroll down. I was quite happy with the results - it gives a nice lo-fi sort of sound. You can hear some tape recorder parts on Teenage Friday at the beginning (All you need to know, is I...I am gonna get you, tonight) and end (the footsteps). I'll no doubt do some more experimentation over the course of this album, with a bit more singing into it, and maybe recording some acoustic guitar with it. I haven't done much RPM stuff today - just put down a few ideas. I've been busy preparing for band rehearsal tomorrow. I won't have a lot of time to do RPM stuff tomorrow either due to the rehearsal, but that's ok, I'll be back in the swing of things on Monday. Tomorrow night I'll upload some pics of my band, and the room we rehearse in, so stay tuned... |
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1st of Feb Twas the start of the challenge, I twiddled the knobs To write the first song My progress is far Though my ego discounted, So bare with me now Here's the first track from the upcoming album. Notice that it doesn't appear on the track list I posted earlier. That's because my creativity tends not to follow plans. I fact I knew even when I posted the tracklist that it wasn't going to be the actual tracklist. So why did I post it? Well, I needed to post something... So, Teenage Friday. I had a lot of ideas for what it was going to be about, but I found it quite difficult to come up with lyrics that fit the song. In the end I started down a somewhat literal path, about teenagers and fridays. It turned into something slightly more interesting - a tale about not stressing too much about circumstances, because everything can change (on a teenage friday). I normally let my songs marinate for a while before I consider them done, and that's exactly what this one will do over the next month. Lyrics will be modified, little bits of music will be changed, and hopefully, if I'm lucky, my drummer, Raff, will record some nice live drums for me. I hope you enjoy the song. I can't wait to finish some more. Lyrics:
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31st of Jan So, it's the last day before tomorrow comes, as always, but tomorrow is the day of the RPM challenge, which makes today's tomorrow all that more exciting, and today kinda exciting too because of the proximity to that oh so special tomorrow. That last sentence represents my current state of mind. I'm feeling a bit weird. I spent today working on musical ideas and groundwork for the album. It has been really hard to hold back doing anything more substantial. I really, really want to get into things. I'm probably going to be a bit insane by the end of this month, but I'll have a nice shiny album so listen to (and play for you). Just quickly, I managed to get a sneaky photo of the person who will be watching over me for the next month. I took it while he wasn't looking. Don't tell him or he'll get angry and I'll have to set him on fire. |
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30th of Jan Ok, so there's not much to do till February. I really feel like cheating and starting early, except I can't because I have all these people watching me... Hehe, just kidding. They aren't really people, just little trinkets and things my dad brought me back from around the world. And no, I'm not delusional, I know they aren't actually watching me - they aren't even alive. They're just pretty things that make my room a little bit more interesting, and give me something to stare at when I'm thinking. On a more serious note, there is actually someone in here. Can't talk now, he's just woken up... |
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29th of Jan So, it's like 3 days to go till I'm allowed to start. Hrm. So what exactly am I supposed to do until then? I mean, I've already banged pots and pans together, so... what else could I possibly do? Maybe I should just sleep for 3 days, like Meg (isn't she cute). Or alternatively I could do something productive, like come up with track names and such. The problem is that I've already done that. I don't know what order I'll put them in yet, but it'll be a good order, I promise.
If you remember back till yesterday (or scroll down and read) you''ll know that I'm calling the album Teenage Friday. The tracks all relate to being a teenager and growing up, but I'm more concerned with how growing up as a person works as a metaphor for society at large. If you take the simplistic way that young people often view the world (lacking wisdom and experience), and then at the decisions and mentality of today's adults and leaders, it's easy to see a connection. Looking at the titles, think of society as a whole as if it was a teenager, and think of ways in which the titles could describe the current state of living in the western world. Think of how 9 to 5 slavery, consumerism, fear and corruption have lead to our depressed, machine-like existance, and how society's misconceptions, arrogance and apathy that have led us down this path. Also, I'd like to note that this album will be a lot more guitar based than my previous work, simply because I'm enjoying playing it at the moment. |
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28th of Jan I've zipped all the samples up and put them up for anyone to download and play with. One feature about recording in my room is that my computer is quite loud, so it features quite prominently in the samples. So lucky for you, you get two sounds for the price of one. Album title As far as album titles go, it’s a difficult thing. I went to a band name generator to get some inspiration, and was amazed at some of the things that came out.
In the end, it came down to a few options. ‘Obscure Experiments Of The Pleasurable Drug’ was too drug related. ‘Deaf of the Decadent’ was interesting, but not quite the vibe I’m going for. I want to doing a happy, bouncy, energetic album, so I think I’ll settle with the name: Note: The picture on the right of my picking my nose has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it looked funny. |
 
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27th of Jan • Ten songs or 35 minutes of recorded material, on a CD, postmarked or hand-delivered by noon on March 1 to:
RPM HQ • Recording can only be done in the month of February – no prerecorded songs. • All material must be previously unreleased, and we encourage you to write the material during February too. There don't seem to be a lot of (any?) other Aussies doing this thing. That's cool, I'll go it alone. The biggest problem I'm going to face will be the postage time from Sydney. I'm probably going to lose a week. Recording myself banging stuff (not women) and loving it! I made a sample bank back in the day called ‘percussive cutlery’. It consisted of knives, forks, spoons, pots, pans and my lunch box… being banged! I’ve used it in quite a few things and I always get good results. I’m going to make another sample bank of me banging stuff for this album. I’ll do it later tonight when everyone else has gone to bed, just to piss them off. I might try to get some sounds out of my dogs too... Also, I noticed that there's at least one more person from Australia doing the RPM thing. He's in Perth. |
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