Was a beautiful pre-Spring day today! The temps seem to be more bearable this Spring over last. The evil North wind (My Winter arch enemy!!) seems to be a lot less potent this time around, which is damn alright with me.
So yesterday was a beauty day too, but when I went out, I forgot my ice-cleets and although the sidewalks were not tooo bad around this area, once I got more towards downtown (I live on just the outer part of downtown), the sidewalks had sections of sheer ice, like glass, but even more slippery. I made it around yesterday without falling on my ass... Butt, today, I remembered the cleets and man, it was ridiculous walking... Some places were just covered with sand, then mud, then slush, then ice, then ice puddles that were a couple inches deep. So by the time I had reached downtown, my hips and feet were killing me. Had to stop at Kings Place (A strip mall in a business high rise downtown) to rest for a bit. I was beat!
So, ya'll probably saw the article in the local 'zine 'Grid City' today. Matt had got a hold of me last Friday and asked if I might wright a short piece on how the video for 'Kill Scene - Zombie Nation' came together and I told him that I'd try to be brief as I know (You know) that I have a tendency to rattle on, but Matt said, "No, No, go for it"... So I think I didn't blab on too badly. I didn't leave much out of the process at all.
Whenever you release something, like an album or a video or a blog or you get an awesome show, it seems you always forget to mention some people when you are trying to be thankful. My brain has a hard enough time remembering yesterday, let alone a week or more haha. So, I looked at the article today and was thinking, 'shit, I should have thanked, this person and this person, oh shit, that person!' But I think everyone knows that the band is very thankful for everything we've been part of.
Before the Wasteland Zombies 'reunited', it was a bit of a surprise to us that people wanted to see us do some shows... Sadly, I think I was kinda a let down for people. Being away from Fredericton and that East Coast Metal scene from 1994 to 2012, there was two generations of musicians that had come into the fold and I know, and we had been told, so I'm not tooting my own horn here, but Dreamkick, The Wasteland Zombies, Power Syndrome, Holy Order, Antic, Caution and many others are somewhat 'legendary' in the area, as I'm sure in every town and city across the World has it's bands that were the hometown hero's 'back in the day' - When I moved back home here. I was embarrassed a few times as friends would introduce me to new people in the scene (albeit, I was the 'newbie') as "the legendary Chris Waddell"... It was really humbling to find out that the bands of my past had made some impact on the current scene. In fact, the singer of one of Fredericton's biggest current Metal acts told me that I had actually inspired him to go into music and pursue his first band... To have someone come up and tell you that? Well it's severely flattering. He told me that he had run into me as the band (I'm not sure if it was Dreamkick or WZ) outside of the old bar in Kings Place called 'Trina's' as we were on a break and had came up to me and he said he was just a young teen then, and asked me for some advice and I guess I gave him some good advice... Which is surprising lol, because looking back now at interviews I did, I was a fucking idiot, I rambled on, trying not to sound like a dick, but I was a dick... But to be a musician, you have to have some measure of ... Ego.... You want to make it, you want to write great music, you want to be a great band and when you've won Battle of the Bands and been scouted by EMI records (without contacting them to come see you) and you've made an impact, it is hard not to let it get to your head, but you also need that stuff to help give you the drive to try, to try and go all the way.
So, back to what I was saying and where I was trying to get at. I think, looking back now, the band should have had rehearsed much longer than we did. I think, that when we did our first shows, they were kinda sub-par and because, 'back in the day', I was so much more energetic and I think that was part of the erm.. myth about me, was that this 'Chris Waddell' guy, he was a maniac on stage! He used to be able to jump up and fly and when we 'came back', well i couldn't do that anymore... I think what I did do right, was to have our first show in Oromocto, so, it wasn't that a lot of people wouldn't show up, but it was kinda out of the way in a sense and gave us a little chance to stretch our stage legs before we played our 'hometown' of Fredericton. Our second show was the 'Evening of Heavy Metal' that was put together by the UNB Arts Faculty and some local artists, along with a local electronics recycling company. That was a great show (sadly, booked on a night that I think two other 'Metal' shows were going on in town and half the crowd had NO clue where to find the building we were playing in on campus, which is too bad, because 'Memorial Hall' is an incredible theater... The next show, was not planned, an out of town band couldn't make the bill because a snow storm was coming (though the band from Halifax made it) and we got to play with Hero's Last Rite (Fredericton's ruling top Metal band) and some great friends from Halifax, 'Chaos Theory', whom I had befriended at the first Nova Scotia Metal 'fest I attended.
So, we started to get alright, but there was some problems in the band with our drummer's brother, he was kinda lacking in the practice area and that wasn't all that great for the live set, with him screwing up and not looking confident on stage and when one guy isn't confident, it can effect the whole thing.
Later on, once we got Jamie Norrad and Jake Taylor, we really began to pull it together. Over 2017, I think we were really starting to come together as a band. But now, with my arthritis kickin my ass and starting up methotrexate in April, it's gonna be a rough go.
So I was just saying to a good friend of mine from a fantastic band from Saint John, NB, that I'd like for us to record an album and I'd really, really like to get it pressed on vinyl, and that's really a self indulgent plan, like I said to him, I just want to be able to put on a vinyl record of my band and listen to it because vinyl and the bands I grew up on, listening to them all, or almost all on vinyl, it would be so mind blowing... it'd be like hearing your band on the radio for the first time... It might be a small thing, but for the journey one makes in this industry, it'd be a great way to end this chapter of music in my life (though, I've had hard thoughts of putting together a 'Doom'/'Stoner' Metal band, all that Black Sabbath and recent sonic foray into Sleep, High on Fire, KYUSS has really made me interested in doing something different)... But we'll see
So yesterday was a beauty day too, but when I went out, I forgot my ice-cleets and although the sidewalks were not tooo bad around this area, once I got more towards downtown (I live on just the outer part of downtown), the sidewalks had sections of sheer ice, like glass, but even more slippery. I made it around yesterday without falling on my ass... Butt, today, I remembered the cleets and man, it was ridiculous walking... Some places were just covered with sand, then mud, then slush, then ice, then ice puddles that were a couple inches deep. So by the time I had reached downtown, my hips and feet were killing me. Had to stop at Kings Place (A strip mall in a business high rise downtown) to rest for a bit. I was beat!
So, ya'll probably saw the article in the local 'zine 'Grid City' today. Matt had got a hold of me last Friday and asked if I might wright a short piece on how the video for 'Kill Scene - Zombie Nation' came together and I told him that I'd try to be brief as I know (You know) that I have a tendency to rattle on, but Matt said, "No, No, go for it"... So I think I didn't blab on too badly. I didn't leave much out of the process at all.
Whenever you release something, like an album or a video or a blog or you get an awesome show, it seems you always forget to mention some people when you are trying to be thankful. My brain has a hard enough time remembering yesterday, let alone a week or more haha. So, I looked at the article today and was thinking, 'shit, I should have thanked, this person and this person, oh shit, that person!' But I think everyone knows that the band is very thankful for everything we've been part of.
Before the Wasteland Zombies 'reunited', it was a bit of a surprise to us that people wanted to see us do some shows... Sadly, I think I was kinda a let down for people. Being away from Fredericton and that East Coast Metal scene from 1994 to 2012, there was two generations of musicians that had come into the fold and I know, and we had been told, so I'm not tooting my own horn here, but Dreamkick, The Wasteland Zombies, Power Syndrome, Holy Order, Antic, Caution and many others are somewhat 'legendary' in the area, as I'm sure in every town and city across the World has it's bands that were the hometown hero's 'back in the day' - When I moved back home here. I was embarrassed a few times as friends would introduce me to new people in the scene (albeit, I was the 'newbie') as "the legendary Chris Waddell"... It was really humbling to find out that the bands of my past had made some impact on the current scene. In fact, the singer of one of Fredericton's biggest current Metal acts told me that I had actually inspired him to go into music and pursue his first band... To have someone come up and tell you that? Well it's severely flattering. He told me that he had run into me as the band (I'm not sure if it was Dreamkick or WZ) outside of the old bar in Kings Place called 'Trina's' as we were on a break and had came up to me and he said he was just a young teen then, and asked me for some advice and I guess I gave him some good advice... Which is surprising lol, because looking back now at interviews I did, I was a fucking idiot, I rambled on, trying not to sound like a dick, but I was a dick... But to be a musician, you have to have some measure of ... Ego.... You want to make it, you want to write great music, you want to be a great band and when you've won Battle of the Bands and been scouted by EMI records (without contacting them to come see you) and you've made an impact, it is hard not to let it get to your head, but you also need that stuff to help give you the drive to try, to try and go all the way.
So, back to what I was saying and where I was trying to get at. I think, looking back now, the band should have had rehearsed much longer than we did. I think, that when we did our first shows, they were kinda sub-par and because, 'back in the day', I was so much more energetic and I think that was part of the erm.. myth about me, was that this 'Chris Waddell' guy, he was a maniac on stage! He used to be able to jump up and fly and when we 'came back', well i couldn't do that anymore... I think what I did do right, was to have our first show in Oromocto, so, it wasn't that a lot of people wouldn't show up, but it was kinda out of the way in a sense and gave us a little chance to stretch our stage legs before we played our 'hometown' of Fredericton. Our second show was the 'Evening of Heavy Metal' that was put together by the UNB Arts Faculty and some local artists, along with a local electronics recycling company. That was a great show (sadly, booked on a night that I think two other 'Metal' shows were going on in town and half the crowd had NO clue where to find the building we were playing in on campus, which is too bad, because 'Memorial Hall' is an incredible theater... The next show, was not planned, an out of town band couldn't make the bill because a snow storm was coming (though the band from Halifax made it) and we got to play with Hero's Last Rite (Fredericton's ruling top Metal band) and some great friends from Halifax, 'Chaos Theory', whom I had befriended at the first Nova Scotia Metal 'fest I attended.
So, we started to get alright, but there was some problems in the band with our drummer's brother, he was kinda lacking in the practice area and that wasn't all that great for the live set, with him screwing up and not looking confident on stage and when one guy isn't confident, it can effect the whole thing.
Later on, once we got Jamie Norrad and Jake Taylor, we really began to pull it together. Over 2017, I think we were really starting to come together as a band. But now, with my arthritis kickin my ass and starting up methotrexate in April, it's gonna be a rough go.
So I was just saying to a good friend of mine from a fantastic band from Saint John, NB, that I'd like for us to record an album and I'd really, really like to get it pressed on vinyl, and that's really a self indulgent plan, like I said to him, I just want to be able to put on a vinyl record of my band and listen to it because vinyl and the bands I grew up on, listening to them all, or almost all on vinyl, it would be so mind blowing... it'd be like hearing your band on the radio for the first time... It might be a small thing, but for the journey one makes in this industry, it'd be a great way to end this chapter of music in my life (though, I've had hard thoughts of putting together a 'Doom'/'Stoner' Metal band, all that Black Sabbath and recent sonic foray into Sleep, High on Fire, KYUSS has really made me interested in doing something different)... But we'll see
No comments:
Post a Comment