Music makes the people come together

Reading 'The Guardian' [first time in ages-thanks to Clare for keeping me humble!] at work today I came across a great story of restoration. For 40 years there have been restrictions which basically stop Cuba having any involvement with the United States. But both Britain's Royal Ballet and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra have been invited by Cuba to play two concerts over four days in the glorious Cuba itself! And team Obama has agreed to a special exemption from this 40-year nonsense!

According to 'The Guardian'...

"The visits will be among the most high-profile cultural exchanges with the West since...Fidel Castro seized power in 1959"

They've done this with the New York Philharmonic before in other places...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/music/10phil.html.

God is always restoring and transforming. Maybe this landmark event will lead to a time of further restoration between Cubans and Americans? As Madonna would say...Music makes the people come together!

The beats have stopped

So I'm home now and we're done for the day with all the drum parts finished. We won't be back working on the songs till Tuesday now as Monday is mine and Eli's day off.

I'm off skiing tomorrow. I'm excited as it'll be my first time. It's warm (+8 degrees) so it could be difficult conditions. Eeek!

I guess it sounds like I'm living the high life...here and there, yes I am. But please don't be fooled. I don't write posts about those boring days where I'm sitting around the office doing nothing for 8 hours. Or the doubting days when I wonder whether I have anyone who really knows or cares for me here in Canada. As you can see I tend to only write about the amazing things which are happening and only show the glamorous pictures. Don't get me wrong though. This year has been a massive blessing and i'm so thankful for that.

But maybe I should try and share when things aren't going so good. Hmmm.

E.P recording-Lay those beats down my friend!

Ah guys! So far today has been amazing. Adrian, the session drummer I mentioned in the last post, is in recording drums for my 4 song E.P.

We've got through two songs so far and we're just taking lunch at the moment. After lunch we'll finish tracking the last two songs and should be out by 6 ready for dinner!

It's a lot of fun doing all this!

E.P on the way!

So i've been spending some time writing new material for recording here in Canada. I'm a lucky man. By the time I leave i'll have a four song E.P fully recorded and produced.

Recently Eli has been picking up some new gear for the studio (Allan&Heath ZED 16, Avalon pre-amp, SSL Alpha channel strip pre-amp) which is all sounding great. We've recorded some scratch tracks (acoustic guitars and vocals) and either this Friday or next we'll be having Adrian, a session drummer Eli knows, in to record some drum parts. As Adrian's a friend of Eli he's doing it on the cheap for me. What a nice guy!

This year has really humbled me. With all the things going on there's no way I could have pulled this off by myself. It really is all down to our amazing God and the generosity of others.

Live music is so intense

Live music is so intense.

I've just got back from the freeway cafe. Me and a friend went tonight to see what was going down. There was this one band playing called 'To Tell' who were great performers and musically very talented. They sounded very much like Ben Folds, so if that's your thing check out www.myspace.com/totell


They come from London as well! Well, London Ontario. Fail.

Recording

Yesterday I was in the studio recording a song that I wrote with a couple of guys from the band i'm in. It went really well and i'm pleased with how it's coming together. It's a steep learning curve as Eli's teaching me how to record and produce stuff but i'm enjoying it. I'll be back in there later on today to carry on with it.

Song titles, music and mandolins!

Song titles are rather irritating here in Canada. In Britain (quite arrogantly) we re-name most worship songs to be the first line of the song. So, for example, in Canada 'Over all the Earth' is called 'Reign in me' and 'Give thanks to the Lord' is called 'Forever'. So a few times i've said I don't know a certain song only to find out I do, but under a different name!

Anyway!

On Friday night I went to see Life in Sound (my friend's band who I saw on Thursday night as well) do an acoustic show. It sounded great but I forgot to bring my camera! Doh! Others took pictures though so i'll just grab some pictures off them from it.

I have another busy week leading into the weekend where me and some friends have a show at the Freeway cafe in Hamilton. We're still trying to think up a name for the band! I happen to be playing Mandolin on a couple of the songs so I have borrowed one off a friend. I absolutely love playing it! I may pick one up when I'm back in the UK after my time here!

I'm leading worship at the youth group, Elevate, tonight with a friend which'll be good and then it's back to work tomorrow.

Life in Sound

So last night I was in Toronto seeing a friend's band play (check out www.myspace.com/lifeinsoundmusic) at the opera house. Six of us from Grindstone went and it was intense. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures to put up but I'll make sure I bring it to their next gig!

In case anyone's interested the songs I did last Sunday at church were

Made to worship [Bb]
Unchanging [E]
Centre [E]
Enough [G]
O come all ye faithful [G]
Kingdom Come [G]

I asure you that my next blog will be a rant about song titles out here. All will be revealed.

The Freeway

I've just had a great weekend. Saturday night was the highlight. I went to see my good friends Joe and John Moran play at the freeway cafe in Hamilton (http://www.frwy.ca/) at a live music night. They sounded great and decided to call themselves 'Don from London'! Nice one guys ;-)

Afterwards I went for a jam with all the musicians long into the night/morning. There was voices, guitars, a bass guitar, a mandolin, violins, a djembe and various other percussive instruments! What a night!