We Do Adventure

A couple of weeks ago one of my guitar students asked a question. Was it me who made the video of a girl he knew singing? Yes, was the simple answer I gave him. The slightly more complicated answer would have gone something like this. That video was something I filmed while recording them rehearsing a couple of songs for an acoustic performance with Budo, our Novi Most colleague in Jajce. I'd sent it to her in a private message, she'd left her Facebook signed in somewhere public and a friend leaked it online. She had about 1500 views overnight. I think she was happy about this. Either way, it wasn't my fault! His follow up question was obvious. Could I film him? He had sung a song at the same performance and wanted to record it to put on YouTube. The challenge for me was he didn't want to play the guitar, opting to just focus on his singing. This left me needing to learn the song and play while overseeing audio and video recording. We filmed on Wednesday afternoon,...

Yesterday I dug out my guitar amp for the first time this year. In fact it was the first time in a lot longer. It's not that I don't play guitar anymore, more that I have a habit of playing my electrics unplugged when I'm at home. Pragmatism has trumped purism when it comes to recording. I have an impressive collection of virtual amps and cabinets in Amplitube that probably cost less to assemble than it would to replaces the tubes in my Marshall. But when it comes to live playing you can't beat a nice valve amp. Truth be told yesterday's rehearsal was a little too quiet to quite hit the niceness of a well driven combo; although niceness isn't something to strive for in punk. Neither is quietness. Playing along to sequenced drums on a Macbook probably breaks the rules too. Ultimately, though, isn't punk all about challenging the status quo? That, at least, is what I was led to believe the other day via Twitter when I stumbled across a picture of a Joe Strum...

Upselling is every sales-assistant's dream. If the guy behind the counter had known I'd only come out with the intention of picking up a few plectrums he'd have been slapped himself proudly on the back for coaxing customer through the purchase of a nice new guitar amplifier. Instead he chose to comment on the irony of an English guy buying perhaps England's finest rock'n'roll export, a Marshall amp, in Bosnia. It was a slightly impulsive purchase, although not an entirely unpremeditated one. The amp I brought with me from England has been playing up and experience says that it's the sort of playing up that is not easily rectified. I have been keeping an eye out for a small, all valve combo. When I saw the Class5 today I knew my search was over. It looks great, sounds fantastic (and will hook up to a 4x12 cab for sonic enormity!) and, best of all, was a wallet friendly price very comparable to its UK rrp. Given that I usually expect to pay half-as-much-aga...

The second song from our first gig in Mostar. This is our as yet untitled band rocking at it's hardest and fastest...which is way the sound quality suffers a little at the end! Filmed at Klub Novi Most in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The drummer and I teach music there and the performance was part of our work to inspire young people to get involved in learning to play an instrument. Early signs show we succeeded.

In case the last few days have given of an impression of all-work-and-no-play I thought I'd draw attention to this video. I'm having a lot of fun distilling more than a decade of song writing into a decent set list. Rowan is enjoying getting serious blisters...ok, maybe not that part, and Budo's enjoying the chance to really play the drums. Yes, it has a purpose and fits into the big picture of what we're all involved in too, but it's one part of the journey we're definitely all enjoying!