Goatboy - 31

[dragonorchid]

Adrian is the 31st person to become a Rock Factory Community VIP Member... Adrian is an Audio Engineer and who also plays in the band NebulaOne. Adrian's partner is a school teacher that also sings in band too.

Adiran has the -amil address alias goatboy@therockfactory.net reserved for him should he want to use it (let me know)

[dragonorchid]

aha! i see you are in... welcome to the vip section

[goatboy]

When I saw a thread entitled "Adrian - 31" I almost crapped myself. I'm not 31....yet. I did turn 30 last month though. Was pretty traumatic. I guess my dream of becoming overlord and supreme ruler of the 9 universes with my army of milk powered cyborgs by the time I'm 30 will have to be put off another year.

[dragonorchid]

its strange, Mark turned 31 Oct last year, and it seems that when you turn 30 you start thinking about Life the Universe and everything.... his qoute to me is "by the time your 30, you've seen enough sh*t to stay out of the sh*t"... turning 30 seem ts to bring out the confucius in everyone  ,
he thinks the 30s are better thn the 20s... less turbulent... heck... 3 years to go for me...

[goatboy]

Yeah to that. Seems to be, for me anyway, that getting older makes me wiser but less tolerant of other peoples bullshit. Luckily they off-set each other quite nicely i.e. I pick and choose my battles carefully.

Age doesn't make you smarter though. It really pisses me off when people act superior just because of their age. It's like those idiots who think that because they're a Dad or Mum they instantly have a more "adult" and "mature" perspective on everything. f**k that! Any moron can have kids, hopefully they don't pass those same moron genes onto them.

[goatboy]

Very busy on the band front at the moment organising a gig in Wellington at Bodega and experimenting with guitar sounds before my bands starts its new recording project.

The gig is coming together quite well but is going to make a significant dent in my pocket. Costs for the gig alone (soundman, poster print and distribution, radio advert) is about $600. Luckily all the bands involved are pretty cool with splitting costs, which is a good thing as nebulaone have to pay for transport and accomodation costs on top of our share of the gig. The advert for Radio Active sounds good, they let me put my own music bed together so each bands got their 7.5 seconds of fame

http://www.box.net/public/3lox1hekv0

 .....unlike another student radio station in Auckland who I gave explicit instructions on how I wanted an ad to sound and they f**ked it up. We got the mp3 file a few days before it was supposed to go to air; instead of 7-10 seconds of music from each band we got about 10 seconds of nebulaone playing so quietly in the background it was indistinguishable and 20 seconds of Tegan blasting over the end. This is the same Tegan who emailed me 2 weeks before the gig (after the advertising had started) to say they weren't going to pay for anything. So yeah, thumbs down for bFM on that front. Conspiracy; Tegan have mates at bFM, nebulaone don't.

Crossing fingers that this gig gets the numbers that Bodega want. The one I organised at the Kings Arms last March took quite a bit on the door, but the KA is a hard place to fill. Still, I think the people that did come and more importantly the bands really liked the gig. Having lots of people coming is cool, but it's more important to me at the moment as a largely inexperienced promoter that I get my sh*t sorted in regards to making it a positive gig for the bands. My thinking is that people won't hum and hah so much about doing gigs with my band, we'll see.

Recording wise, having a sh*t of a time getting the guitar sound I like. My lead guitarist uses a very cool Fender amp, not sure of the name, but it's probably the loudest solid-state combo I've ever heard. Usually just chucking an SM57 up against the grill cloth gives me that instant "nebulaone" sound, but not so lately. Am going to try feeding the signal through 2 different combo's this weekend and miking up both with SM57's and use my Oktava MKL2500 as an ambient mike. I'm not quite over the learning curve of using the full functionality of pro tools either so this recording experience is a hard one for me.

Still hunting for a drummer for my girlfriends band. Have found this 42 year old guy who has ADHD who might be a go, depends what he thinks of my girlfriends music. Admittedly, I'm not a massive fan of what they do but I can appreciate good songs, which they have plenty of. In fact I'm a bit jealous of how prolific they are compared to my band. I think last year her band wrote 3 songs for every 1 that we wrote...the wheels turn slowly in the nebulaone camp

Gigs coming up; one at Galatos with Willow's band and someone else (yet to be confirmed). Also trying to suss something out at Schooner and/or PR Bar. Have emailed and called both entertainment managers but neither have gotten back to me. Obviously not famous enough yet.

If you're in Wellington on the 10th of June then come to our gig.

www.myspace.com/wearenebulaone
www.nebulaone.com/sounds.html
www.myspace.com/alabastertheatremusic
www.nothing.co.nz/halvaeve
www.myspace.com/sideprojectnz - recommended listening is Trolley Boy.....these guys are f**king nuts

[dragonorchid]

that sux about the ad... but sound like you've got lots going on in the gig and recording front.  

there is no better way to build your rep than to just do it... damn nike for nabbing that one.

[goatboy]

Damn it! A few weeks ago one of the bands for our Wgtn gig pulled out. We did a call-to-arms as such to find a new Wgtn act to fill out the bill. One of the bands that emailed me said they were interested and an event they were going to be playing at on the same night had been moved so they wouldn't clash.

Well, apparently this person was full of sh*t! That event is still going ahead and is more than likely going to have a significant impact on the numbers through the door. The bastards have really left me up sh*t creek here. I really wish they'd emailed me and asked if I would move the date of my gig, would have been no problem. Gotta wonder why they decided to go ahead. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the afore mentioned band didn't get the gig and this is partly out of spite....probably not but I can't help being a bit suspicious though.

I'm trying to be as accepting of this as possible but I am more than a tad pissed off about this. Let's just hope that our $5 door charge, 4 bands, FREE CD's and some FREE alcohol is more attractive than dressing up like a cartoon character and paying $15 to watch a fashion show (I sh*t you not).

Personally, I wouldn't give a rats if only 50 people turned up, but Bodega "need" around 120-150 people to make it worth their while. I guess choice is good for the public.

[goatboy]

Very short but very stressful week coming up. Thanks to the public holiday yesterday and the day off I'm taking on Friday to travel down to my gig in Wellington, I'm left with 3 working days to squeeze my entire weeks worth of work into. Still, I'm looking forward to this weekend!!!

Made some good progress on the first 3 tracks for nebulaone's EP/album, finally nailed the guitar sound we needed after 3 seperate attempts. Turns out the less grunty of the two guitar amps gives the warmest sound for recording. It's a wholly different guitar sound than anything you'll hear from the bands on this site but it's perfect for us i.e. soft and ambient but loud when it needs to be. This is an example of what we've been doing, excuse the mix, drums need to be turned up and the bass track is just a guide I put down for the guys. Also no vocals, but if you've ever heard our singer then you know that's probably a good thing

http://media.putfile.com/away2

Note, the only effects on the guitar are the delays our guitarists usually use. The nice ambience during the chorus(es) and the final few minutes of this track is a mixture of the 6 different guitar overdubs we did, some clever panning and pure natural loo-verb (the amps were recorded in my bathroom). Still getting use to this pro-tools thing but I think I'm on the right track....we like it anyway.

Once everything's finished we're going to get it mastered via a friend of the drummers and pick a song to get a video made (also free). Then it's time to do some serious leg work and door knocking to try and get this play listed, will try and get it on an Indie Hitdisc as well. Our biggest problem is trying to get a track that fits the less than 4 minutes radio friendly format. In the past we tried chopping a song down but it just lost its impact something chronic.

Back to the hitting my head against my desk now

[goatboy]

All week I'd been looking forward to auditioning a new singer in the weekend. For those that may have been following another post you'll know that we've been having some problems with nebulaones current so-called vocalist. I had dreams of some guy with a Thom York voice and a Maynard James Keenan weirdness taking up vocal duties for nebulaone. However, what we got on the day was kermit with a bowl cut.

Needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway) we're all pretty dissapointed. The guy was actually quite good with his own songs but was not compatible with nebulaone's sound at all! I'm yet to break the news to the guy but I think he picked up on our vibe on the day so hopefully no big surprise to him. We have a plan B (and C) of sorts but in the meantime we're still looking for a vocalist, probably don't need to tell anyone on this forum but in order of the hardest band members to find singers are right up there just in front of drummers. Bass players come along quite regularly and guitarists, no offence, are dime a dozen in Auckland.

So yeah, if you know anyone who might suit us then give us a bell by PM. I'd advertise my nebulaone email addy but I did that on another site and got blasted with SPAM the next day. Some of you have seen us, others haven't, but for those of you who saw us when we were "3 guys and a drum machine" you might want to have a listen to the tracks at these links. This is our new direction.

http://media.putfile.com/Bitter-and-Twisted-150706
http://media.putfile.com/Soundcheck---020606
http://media.putfile.com/Morphina-15th-of-July-2006

Thank you, come again.

[goatboy]

It's only Tuesday and it's already been a week of ups and downs. We're going to be auditioning and jamming with a new singer this Sunday, really looking forward to it as the guy is really talented. If he works out he will really make a difference and put the finishing touches on the sound our new direction is heading to. I won't name this guy yet as it's not official and some of you will more than likely know him or have heard of him.

On the bummer side, our drummer sent me a text a few hours ago saying he doesn't want to spend anymore time on the band doing gigs and auditions but is okay to do more recording. In a couple of words "f*uck that!". It's no big deal that he's decided to leave, these things happen, but it would have been nice if he'd had the courtesy to ring one of us or even sent a detailed email telling us why. I tried calling him as soon as he sent the text but he's not answering, that's pretty final as far as I'm concerned. The other guys in the band are trying to call and text him to see what's up and convince him otherwise, I personally don't see any point. Leaving a band is not something that musicians usually do lightly, he has his reasons and whether he wants us to know what they are or not is his call. But yeah, pretty gutless way of going about things.

I let our new vocal prospect know what was happening and, as luck would have it, the guy not only sings and write songs but can also play drums and sing at the same time. If there was ever a time I believed in fate it would be now

[simon_ishtar]

Simon has edited as start of a thread mentioning a drummer currently depriving a village of an idiot + not meant for public eyes - Not having a go at anyone ever NebulaOne just for the record, or a RF regular.... BTW  welcome back Adrian 

[goatboy]

Ha! [abovementioned person], the thing that cracks me up about that guy is that he never refers to himself as just "[mr x, edit-sw]" it's always "[mr x, edit-sw  ]"......"okay mate, yes we do get it".

Fate shmate!!!! The guy that was going to rescue my band by singing and playing drums decided he's too much into his own thing to dedicate any time to us. You've got to respect that kind of decision but it's still annoying. Still, only took me about an hour to track down another drummer and another singer who are both keen from the onset. nebulaone version 4.0 may be on the horizon.

[goatboy]

For those that were unfortunate enough to read the ugliness between myself and another RF forum member you'll possibly be aware that I haven't posted here for a very long time. The good news is that myself and that person well and truly buried the hatchet many months ago and moved on. Have been meaning to post here since then but have been stupidly busy...and of course the forum was out of commission for some time.

What has Goatboy been up to?

Nebulaone died late last year.  Was a part of another group called The Connoissuers for about 3 months but it wasn't my thing. Currently hooked up with a band called Black River Drive. Have recorded a couple of demos for the next round of grants. BRD have some pretty mean contacts which means I might finally be playing original music to more than just bar staff and the other bands playing on that night. Have also been busy recording demos for a few paying customers....yes, people actually pay me sometimes.

Bought a house as well.

[simon_ishtar]

Welcome back Adrian  Good to hear you're hooked up with another band...

 Umm I've edited slightly in preparation of the blog going 'public' cause I don't think either of us really wanted the man named after a drink making fun of him + when talking with Michelle about relaunching the forums she did say it would be preferable not to have any slightly negative stuff... the whole thing of putting mostly positive karma out there future posters would hopefully follow example....

 Anyways, welcome back to the forums 

[goatboy]

Fair enough about the edits but there was no malice intended towards Mr. X. He's a decent bloke.

[simon_ishtar]

yeah agreed, despite a long checkered history with Mr X I think he's cool... Run into him a little while back + he was in fine form, he came into a venue one night while I was on the door, was there to support a band. When the singer was asking the crowd how their night was he yelled back "It'd be a lot better if your band got a real singer".... Pretty much what everyone in the room was thinking I reckon...

 Anyways...   

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