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Hey Everyone,

I haven't posted in a long while, mostly because there hasn't been much to say. It's been all quiet on the music front. Till now...

Ladies, Gentlemen, Children of all ages and Non-Gender Specific Human Entities I have some rather wonderful news. If you follow @aiseymay then you may already know but it is with great joy and, not to mention, relief I can finally say...

The Lunar Incident have drummer!

This comes as a great relief to us all, as we where feeling pretty bleak and demoralised as we struggled to find someone, but we kept looking and we have found a lovely and talanted chap called Dom. Dom is new to Oxford but he heard our demos, liked them and offered his services and after a a very success session last night has agreed to join us.

We'll be doing a formal introduction on the facebook group for everyone. If you've not gone and liked us, then please do https://www.facebook.com/#!/thelunarincident . It'll keep you up-to-date with all your TLI news, gossip and other random thoughts we feel like posting.

Also, in other news we have a gig coming up in November and, now we're complete again we'll be booking up as many gigs as we can. So please keep an eye on the FB page or the band's twitter, @lunarincident or my personal twitter, @aiseymay for up to the second news.

Good times are a-coming.

Trains

Good morning all.

It has been a while, I think. I've been a terribly busy moose. The biggest news is that the band formally known as Breathing Light can now be presently known as The Lunar Incident. Yes, we are back with a new name, a whole bunch of demos (www.soundcloud.com/thelunarincident) we've created a new facebook group (www.facebook.com/thelunarincident). So I urge you all, if you haven't already, to go have a listen, and go and have a like on the band page. We'll be keeping the band page up to date with all the latest news and what nots and you can also follow the twitter @lunarincident or my twitter @aiseymay for more news, rambling and occational links to fun things.

So recordings you say, well we had a big pile of fun doing them. Which the new techy widget I mentioned last time come in handy, very very handy. The process was very smooth, just get everyone plugged in, get some rough levels worked out, then just play the songs. There was some minor tweaking afterwards and a little bit of post, little bits of clean up here and there. Dropping out of some of the low end of the guitar to make it a little crisper, some reverb on vocals to enhance them and minor adjusting of levels. I'm pretty damn happy with them since each track, including the mixing, took about an hour each. 6 songs over two evenings wasn't bad at all. Addmittedly, these are just demos, so they aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and there isn't any drums. Mostly because we're still lacking a drummer (we're stilling looking).

Also the side project is going along nicely. It's not at the same breakneck speed as TLI got started but we're slowly crafting songs and working stuff out. As soon as we've got enough tracks ready we'll start looking for additional members and getting some gigs going. We had a bit of a session last night and hit on a rather fun way of generating a starting point for the lyrics. In which we take it in turns to write down a noun, a verb, an adverb and a location. Then we see how it sounds, pick the best one and work the song from there. Thats right, we're using word games to write songs, and it worked out pretty well actually. So good news there.

Right, I love ther smell of blogs in the morning, but not as much as I like the smell of fresh Danish pastry and Tea. So I'm going to go find me some of those.

Speak soon :D

Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies

It feels like ages since I posted. I don't think it is, but it feels like it.

Firstly, last weekend I got to go to the Milton Keynes bowl to see the Foo Fighters. It was amazing, mind blowing and totally fucking awesome. This isn't the first time I've seen them. I saw them in Dusseldorf with Flogging Molly and they rocked hard. However, this gig was immense.

The day started with Tame Impala, who I've not heard of but enjoyed a lot. Their retro space noddling was perfect for a sunny summers afternoon while sat on the grass with a drink and a picnic. I think this choice was in no way an accident. They fitting the mood too well.

Next up was Death Cab for Cutie. They started to turn up the pace and atmosphere and where again highly enjoyable. This is another band I'm going to have to give more attention to from now on.

Third on the line up was Biffy Clyro, I've known Biffy since someone lent me a copy of Blackened Sky when I was still at Uni, and I got to see them live a few times for the album and for the following album. To be honest I had forgotten just how hard these guys rock. They exploded on to the stage with The Captain and carried on exploding for a full 45 minutes. As they themselves put it, 'The Foo Fighters asked up to get you guys warm, we're going to make you hot!' Then they threw themselves into another song. They definitely did their job, and they did it well.

Then came the Foo's. They were spectacular. Dave Grohl can work the crowd like a puppet master and has seemingly unlimited energy and enthusiasm. Not to mention his sense of humour and love for the crowd and for the music. For the encore Dave has just a little platform in the middle of the arena and had just him, a guitar and 70,000 people and somehow made the rendition of Wheels seem like he was singing in some one's front room. The man is a shiny rock god. Also, they had Queen's Roger Taylor up to drum on a track and Bob Mould from Husker Du and well. To top this off they had Alice Fucking Cooper up for a couple of songs. Which was utterly awesome, made all better by how much fun the band was having at the same time. They somehow managed to top all this off by closing with Everlong, which is easily my favourite Foo's song and this was made all the more special with the fire works display kicked off at the peak of the song.

All in all, an utterly amazing day of music.

Back in the land of my music, I've acquired myself some new technical gadgetry, which is has made recording demos dead easy. The Tascam US-800 is letting us plug in all the mic's and guitars we need and record them all simultaneously. Which keeps the feel of the live music as we can all react to each other, rather than just playing out parts to a click track and sticking it all together at the end, which i've never liked doing. It leaves the music lacking in life somehow. Anyway, last night we managed to get 5 songs down. We stopped on the 4 the attempt at the sixth, we where all getting too hot and too tired to focus properly and I kept forgetting which chorus we had just played. So now I just need to do a little bit of mixing and tidying up and we should have some presentable demo's with which to share with you all and also, hopefully, tempt a drummer into our cause.

When something is ready to go up then I'll post something here, as well as on my twitter, the bands twitter, the band members twitter, the facebook page, the soundcloud page, the bandcamp page, the myspace page (if anyone even bothers with myspace anymore) and I'll take out a full page ad in all fashionable colour magazines.
Til then, take care and rock the fuck out.

Bad Habit

Well, things.

Musical things.

Where to begin?

Since, I'm English I might as well begin with the weather.

WHERE DID ALL THAT HEAT COME FROM ON SUNDAY? I mean seriously, the weather has been suboptimal for weeks and then all of a sudden we're slapped with 27degrees. Far too hot for me and my brain. I think I can blame the heat for transforming the song we where working on yesterday afternoon into something a little bit weird. I'm not going to spoil it in case one day you'll hear it, but it had us giggling for a full 10 minutes.

Next up, I might have go excited and bought myself a new guitar. A few posts ago I mentioned something about wanting a black Strat. Yeah, I got it *does a little new guitar dance*. I'll post some photos of it in a bit. I'm rather happy about it and I keep grinning. Sad I know, but it makes my simple mind happy.

... and finally, more drummer bad news. We had a guy, he had the chops, he didn't look like a moron. We where going to meet up last Thursday for a drink and a chat etc. Alas, he asked to move the meeting because of some family meal thing. Fair enough, these things happen. So, we agree to meet on Saturday.

So I mail him asking, when.

I text him asking him when.

I call him asking when.

and all I get is...

Silence.

Well he has failed me for the last time... GRRRRRR

Oh well, back to the beginning and start looking for more drummers.

Ah well... At least it's not mind meltingly hot today but sunny enough to get some vitimin D.

The Drugs Don't Work

I really should stop naming these blog posts after what ever song happens to be either playing, or in my head when I look at the title box. Oh well, one day I'll be listening to something embarrassing and it might get a giggle out of someone.

So status updates - The Band Formally Know as Breathing Light are currently still drummerless, and the saga we're going through trying find a new one is truly epic. We've been in contact with about 8 in the last week. Either they aren't interested, we're not interested or they are crap at responding. However, hope is not lost, we'll find a new one soon. Other than that we've been doing a ton of writing. At this rate we'll have a completely new set of songs by the time we're up and gigging again. Which to me is awesome news, the more songs we have the better, more choice, we can drop the weaker ones like elderly gazelle. Then the next great hurdle. RECORDING.

The side project has been going steady, not much the way of songs just yet, but we're taking it slow and getting things done nicely. That and we're not all playing instruments we're used to, Sarah is having a lot of fun playing bass and I'm getting into the mindset of a guitarist, so much so I've even started to noodle about when no one else is playing. This isn't something I do on bass, just guitar. I'm enjoying the sound we've managed to create so far, it feels very layered and balanced.

This week is looking to be another busy week. More jam sessions with both before Wednesday, and hopefully drummer auditions. I'll keep things updated.

Right, I should get back to work.

I Remember

Well this evening was fun. Had an impromptu recording session. We got a couple of 'live' acoustic tracks down. Not production quality but still pretty decent. We didn't intend to record tonight but the idea took root and spread quickly. From the moment one of us suggested we should record these things we are pretty much doomed.

As with all recordings, this one took far longer than it strictly should have. It's always the same, but most of the time was messing around, insulting Chris and trying not to giggle during the vocal takes. Oh, and letting me near any form of knob, dial, slider or switch. I spent way to much time just tinkering with the guitar sound. I think I spent more time doing that than playing Bass.

I think what we ended up with sounds ok. We wasn't attempting to create a final finished highly polished recording, just some rather swift demos. I guess swift isn't a word I should use with me at the desk. Oh well, much fun was had. I think we'll be posting these online at some point for everyone's enjoyment. However, I think we'd need to make that announcement first. Which will happen soon, I promise.

Oh, and a small musical note. Just finished reading Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well On Ganymede. I rather funny book involving electrical appliance salesmen, cyborg Dobermans, Vietman War veterans, genuis children and motorcyles. Oh, and there is something about Buddy Holly in there as well. It's worth a read, I torn through it in a couple of evenings. If you can't be bothered to read it there is a film of the book on the way.

Anywho, time for bed and dreams of stratocasters, faders and waveforms...

nighty night all. 

Seventeen

Every time the band formally known as Breathing Light get together we always manage to be so very productive. We had a jam session at Sarah's on Monday and worked on a couple of new songs. First one being a song called Seventeen, it's mostly melodic bass and piano at that moment, which makes it exciting, since piano and bass sound so good together. It's also nice to be working with a different instrument, gives things a different feel, a different sound and a different set of ideas come from it.

The second song we where working on I was having much fun playing. It seems to be fitting in with a lot of the things we've been writing. It'll sit beside Last Breath and Endless Sunshine, but hopefully will stand out from those.

I'm rather looking forward to when we get the band that was once know as Breathing Light back on it's feet again. The itch to perform is starting to make it's self know and I'm not sure how long I can ignore it before it must be scratched. I know the others are feeling the itch as well. Sounds like we caught something. Also while I'm the subject of TBFKABL, we're really getting to be a very tight knit group. Socially as well as musically. We're comfortable with each other and have been hanging out outside of the band thing. I this a good sign and will make the music better and we'll all enjoy it so much more.

Now, having a side project session this afternoon. Must get my guitarist head on. If there is such a thing. Although, playing more guitar has lit the 'I must buy a new guitar' fire in me. My current electric guitar is a really cheap knock off that I bought on a drunken afternoon in Cardiff. Lunch time beers and a pocket full og cash is a dangerous thing, especially when you stumble into a guitar shop and demand their cheapest electric guitar. I didn't buy the cheapest, because it was seriously ugly. So I went with the next cheapest, which happened to be a plum coloured stratocaster copy. It's not a bad guitar as such, just doesn't stay in tune, sounds ok but not great and seriously, it's purple. Anyhow, I've been keeping an eye out of a black fender stratocaster with a maple neck and three ply black scratchplate. Not that I've got my mind set on that or anything. I'll resist. I promise.

Right, jam time. Nom Nom NOM