One week ago we got up early to start our journey to the South Island for two shows. We got little sleep last Thursday night and the following nights would only provide less sleep again. Let me take you through those three long days.

Christchurch

We’d gotten up at 6am to catch the early ferry and then drive to Lyttelton – the port town that sits on the inner slope of a dormant volcano’s crater. We rolled in at about 5pm (we didn’t really roll in, but read on for actual rolling). That was just about time for our radio interview at the local station Volcano Radio 88.5 FM. This looks a great little station and the interview was fun.

After talking shit about ourselves we went to set up and do sound check at Wunderbar. It’s a cool little venue with a tiny wee stage and a crazy lighting rack hanging from the ceiling. It’s made of hundreds of circuit boards and theres a giant mirror ball with a ring like Saturn.

We met our opening act Anthesiac and were shocked to discover most of them were over 27 years old. Talk about baby faces! But their experience shows in their playing. We were treated to a thoroughly impressive set that night. Dave got to drool over Anthesiac guitarist Josh’s pedal board as Josh had drooled over Dave’s during sound check.

Our set went well and included two songs that had never been gigged before. The first new track Something Better (which was partially described in this ridiculous blog) was a great opener and Runner-ups and Broken Keys was debuted in the middle of the set. It felt good to finally get them heard and we managed to pull them off successfully.

After the show we went to our friend Kate’s place in the city. Kate Radford was one of the dancers that did the contemporary dance/music production Lucid with Dave and I about 4 years ago. One of the pieces of music that was born in that show eventually became Tunnel Vision. Kate told us she got chills hearing that music again.

Dunedin

After four hours sleep we got up and drove to Dunedin. After a quick visit to my Mum in Waikouaiti, where we received an entire chocolate cake as greeting, we rolled into Dunedin about 4:30pm. This time when I say “rolled in” I mean it. We had decided to see if we could get into Dunedin without topping up on petrol again. We almost didn’t make it. After coasting down the last few hills into Dunedin we managed to make it to a petrol station with less than 5 litres of petrol left in the tank.

We filled up and went to Re:Fuel to set up. There we caught up with the Made In China guys again and met Ink Mathematics. After sound check and dinner I took charge of the door and met the locals as they walked in. There were a fair number who saw us in Dunedin the last time we were down and even one guy who had seen us at our infamous Invercargill show…

I heard Ink Mathematics play their stomping set while sitting at the door in a room separate from the stage. I could hear them but not see them – still, I liked what I heard. Then it was our turn to take the stage.

We started the set with new songs again and they went down great with the large crowd. The chorus of Runner-ups and Broken Keys was particularly well received. We played well and fed off the huge energy from the audience. It was a cool moment when they started clapping a beat for us in a low dynamic section of Tunnel Vision. At the end our set the new fans demanded an encore so we played Veils to finish off.

Then it was time for Made In China to rock out to their home crowd. This is the first time I’ve seen them play in Dunedin and damn, did it go off! A brilliant, heavy, powerful band with a world class front-man. I had a ball moshing to their set with the locals.

When I returned to the door I discovered we’d already sold a bunch of CDs and when I took over we sold a bunch more. It was cool to see completely new fans snap up both the EP and album. I had a chat with Lyle, the guy who saw us play in Invercargill 18 months ago. I reminisced about the “toasted sandwiches” with unmelted cheese and burnt bread…

Long snowy drive home.

Finally, at 4am we made it to bed only to get up 4 hours later and start driving back to Picton. We felt in a hurry to get to the ferry by 9pm. So when Stefan discovered he’d left his jacket and phone at a Burger King in Christchurch we almost didn’t do the 30 minute drive to go back and get it.

But in the end we arrived in Picton 4 hours early – even after driving through a thin layer of snow outside Ashburton. We used the extra time to enjoy the local atmosphere. Sitting in a quiet bar with few patrons on a Sunday night we watched the All Blacks destroy Ireland for the 17th time in a row. We were all delirious from lack of sleep and our behaviour was…humourous….

We used the ferry as a floating bed and crashed out for the journey. It wasn’t until 3am that we managed to get into our own beds at home and rest up in comfort.

Thanks to everyone who came to see us and all the bands and everyone who helped us out – we are already planning the next trip down there.

See you soon!

Gigs, Uncategorized anthesiac, christchurch, dunedin, gig, Gigs, ink mathematics, lucid, lyttelton, Made in China, refuel, runner-ups and broken keys, something better, south island, tour, tunnel vision, volcano radio, wunderbar 1 comment

El Schlong looking tougher than usual

Many of you will know our friends El Schlong, a metal band from Dunedin/Wellington who are currently living and playing in Europe.

They’ve entered a competition to play at the Bloodstock Festival in the UK. To get the gig they need the most votes for their music video of The Baddies Are Coming. It’s a sweet video and a great song. If you want to help them out you just need to take a minute to register and then cast your vote. Here’s the link.

Thanks – they’ll love you long time

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Dave has posted a live video of Flip Side Thumb on our youtube channel. The footage is from our album release at the Tugboat

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This is just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who came to the album release for making the night something so special. All three of us are over the moon about how it all went and we have you guys to thank.

THANKS! Enjoy the CD!

If you didn’t come to the gig then you won’t have the album either (unlike all the smart punters who did come). If you want a copy the best way right now is to order directly through us. Send an email to riverblind@riverblind.com with your address. We’ll organise the rest after that. Downloads will be available at riverblind.bandcamp.com soon too.

I will post an extensive blog about the album release night soon. But tomorrow I’m going to go for a jog out to our practice space and meditate with my bass for a few hours. We’ve been hammering this album into existence for 7 months now – not to mention the years of writing the songs. And now it’s been released, I need to have a small solo musical journey for a day to cool down. Back to work soon!

Ta muchly!

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Thanks to Tindling and Racherillo for your competition entries – all your stories were adequately bizarre and fascinating. But there could only be one winner on the day and we have chosen: Elle Hunt. Her tale of having her half-asleep mind tricked by a weird Tool track can be read here.

Elle cannot make it to the release show this Saturday and so will receive signed copies of the album Hour Of The Wolf and the EP Mind Estate.

Congratulations Elle and thanks to those who entered.

Also, what did you think of the competition? Was it too hard? Perhaps a draw would be better next time? What are your thoughts?

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So I just finished my first gig of a three date tour with the New Zealand national youth orchestra.

Intense.

Mahler was a genius, and perhaps a little crazy. His music changes direction in the blink of an eye, sometimes seamlessly. We played his 7th symphony, which is about an hour and a half long. I have never had such a hard time concentrating in my life! Not only are the trumpet parts really difficult and exposed, but the amount of time you have to stay on the ball for is incredibly exhausting.

Classical music and I suppose what i would call ‘good’ commercial (or ‘not classical’) music contain mainly the same elements. Harmony, texture, melody, rhythm… so why this divide between enthusiasts? Attention span maybe? As much as i am awe inspired by classical music and the details of its construction, i still find it hard to sit through a full program as a spectator. (Playing it however is a very different story). I much prefer to take it in chunks. Piece by piece at least, so i can absorb and understand it.

I guess when you strip back the elements, its all just the manipulation of the air to tickle your eardrum in a certain way. Why is it that a chainsaw sounds like shit and Arvo Part’s ‘Cantus in memoriam to Benjamin Britten’(definitely check that one out) sounds sublime? There is some crazy connection between sound and emotion, even when the sound is unrelated to anything that naturally exists. Its cool to think that the indigenous music of other cultures reflects the emotions brought to the surface by their surroundings and social historical existence. Studies have shown that certain intervals were more prominant in cultures that suffered an oppressed history than others, and this was consistant between cultures that never ever crossed paths.

As you write music, and the music becomes more ‘you’ (ideally) as opposed to something you would like to sound like, things start to become a little frightening. It’s like you can see parts of yourself in the sound, exposed, and its not necessarily the things you want to see or admit. I find the music of oppressed cultures more comforting than those of freedom. I guess when there is more urgency to express, the expression is that much more powerful.

Enough ranting

See you all at the release party! 15th August, The tugboat. Details to follow!

Dave

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When a group of individuals from different backgrounds come together to work on the same task the results are often either very good or very bad. When that group has worked together for a long time on many tasks then the chances of things going great increase.

Dave and I have been working in music together for well over 4 years now. And both of us have been working with Stefan for a year. Although it is still early days and we are always learning new things about each other, we are starting to get a groove on when it comes to writing songs together. Take a recent jam session for example.

We started off with no set plan, but soon found ourselves in the midst of a strikingly beautiful sonic experience. Then, after letting that idea develop as far as it could for the time being, we set it aside to work on an almost complete song that’s been a bit of a struggle to finish off.

The main complaint with the song as it was had to do with the chorus sections “just not feeling right”. We had already come up with a series of dynamic shifts that appeared to solve the problem, but we were frustratingly unable to pull off what we had envisioned. We knew it should work, it just never quite did.

So, I suggested that we actually decide very precisely on what it is we intend to do with each dynamic. Make it as explicit as a classical score. Dave, using his extensive classical experience, wrote out the section with the dynamics as he was imagining them. I immediately said “That’s great, because I definitely wasn’t doing exactly that!” Suddenly we were all on the same page. Then we played it as written and everything came together perfectly for the first time.

This made me reflect on the various disciplines each of us brings to the band. Dave has a vast knowledge of the classical world, I have largely learnt organically in the world of rock and metal and Stefan has jazz training. Of course we each have many more sources of influence and been trained in other areas. I have also studied some classical composition and jazz, Stefan was playing in a metal band before joining Riverblind and Dave is now studying jazz, to name but a few. But we clearly have different strengths in different areas. When these are used together we can move into some pretty exciting areas.

What kinds of experiences have you had working in teams of different kinds of people? Do you find it easier to work with people who have similar backgrounds to your own? Or do you find that the best results come from working with a diverse group?

Dan's musings, Uncategorized classical, dan, dave, jam, jazz, metal, rock, song writing, stefan, team No comments

So Dan has been blogging his little socks off and i’ve never actually done this, and I thought it’d be about time that I sprayed some words on the subject.

So… Dave the blog virgin. Where to start?

We Opened for ‘Made in china’ from Dunedin last night at hole in the wall. We played a pretty good set I thought, The music had some guts and the improvised stuff always had direction.  The big thing for me was not knowing what to expct from the other band, I didn’t hear them at soundcheck cause i was munching on a pie…. Good pie though, chicken Korma pie from Tulsi! check it out. Anyway, Made in China completely blew me away. Emotionally driven musicianship is so incredibly honest and these guys were telling the truth. Really good lines, and chord sequences are drawn out so far that each chord feels like a secondary tonic, each one building tension until they hit the real tonic, but the last time they played that chord was a while ago, so each time it comes back, it’s like christmas when you were ten. perfectly matched vocals sung with honesty. I heard tinges of pink floyd, Stone temple pilots, Soundgarden, Gary Moore, Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep. All things that make Dave a happy chap. We’re getting set to plan our tour later in the year which will include a show in Dunedin, so hopefully these guys are around and want to play with us again.

Anyway, its been a while since I have heard live music that I really like so I got quite excited.

Some new stuff on the way, and all major recording has been completed for the album which we are releasing in August (Details to come). I’m pretty happy with how its coming out.The Choir and String quartet stuff we did sounds better than I could imagine.

Funny how when you record a song, it freezes it in a time capsule. You then play the song for a while, you find better ways to express what you wanted more accurately, and you polish the message. No matter how happy you are with a recording at the time of recording, you will always think ‘i could do that better now’ or ‘my new pedal would’ve sounded better on that’ or ‘the way we play that change now is better’ a few months or years down the track. So often they are the reasons some people like your music. I like that its morphing. Really keeps the excitement up, things don’t go stale in those ‘growth’ periods of a song.

Man, don’t blog after a big weekend of a few too many red wines. You start rambling.

Hope everyone is well

Dave

Oh, to check out Made in China go to : http://www.myspace.com/madeinchinabandnz

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Last night was the end of Nibiru Passing (hopefully not forever) and we opened for them.  And tomorrow is the beginning of Hole in the Wall bar (formerly Valve) – and we have been asked to play at the opening.

Nibiru Passing’s last gig was held at the Adelaide so the atmosphere was homely with the exciting addition of lasers, smoke and flashing lights brought in for the show. We had fun, audience had fun and several first time listeners of Riverblind pointed out very accurately some of my personal influences. We wish Kate Brown the very best in her musical studies in the deep south.

Tomorrow – Friday 27th Feb – is the opening night of Hole In The Wall. For the last 9 years or so up until late last year, the bar was the very well known Valve, run by Greg and Andy. Previous to that it was called Hole In The Wall and was run by trannies. Now it is called Hole In the Wall again and is being run by one (or more?) of the members of local group Nort. We are all very curious to see what they have done to the inside of the venue and look forward to playing on the opening night.

So, endings and beginnings are the theme for this weeks Riverblind gigs. This brings me to an important (yeah right) topic that I have been meaning to bring up for a while.

Bogus reason for calling the band Riverblind #1

The name Riverblind is synonymous with endings and beginnings. Here, let me explain.

When the band was formed over 3 years ago, I was an avid poker player. My game of choice was Texas hold ‘em. I was of course very very good and had a great ability at reading other players. Through various methods including watching for tells, habits and calculating odds, I would often be able to tell a player what cards they were holding. I have only ever played for fun though as I don’t believe in gambling. I can still be seen playing friendly games down at the local. I usually let others win these days though as I wouldn’t want to spoil their fun, I’m just that good.

Anyway, all that bullshit aside, here is what this has to do with naming the band Riverblind. If you play Texas holdem you will know that the first bets to be made are called blinds. And then after various betting and the revealing of the flop cards and the turn card, the final card to be dealt is the river. In that way, the River is the end and the Blind is the beginning. The game goes in this cycle – it ends and then it begins again. This is what Riverblind means – endings followed by new beginnings – the endless circle – the game of life.

Believe me?

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We have donated a track to Twestival.fm to help raise money for safe, clean water for the one billion people who don’t have access to it. Twestival is organised by Twitter users around the world. On Feb 12th there will be multiple events all around the world to help support this cause. The proceeds go to charitywater.org who use 100% of the money for projects such as building wells in Africa. One easy way you can help is by visiting Twestival.fm and donating money when you download a song. We have donated Checking the Sun and there are also over 300 other tracks by various artists on the site. Any of them can be streamed and downloaded. The songs will be available for download until Feb 19th.

Oh and follow us on twitter if you’re into that. @riverblindmusic has just started, but @dansimpson has been around for a little while now.

This just in:

The Wellington Twestival will start at Mighty Mighty on Cuba St at 5:30pm, Thursday 12th Feb – that’s tonight! At 7.30pm it will move down to Daawaat on Manners mall for Thursday Night Curry

Donations will be taken at the Twestival and, once again, all proceeds go to Charity:Water.

Uncategorized charity, checking the sun, dawaat, mighty mighty, twestival, twitter, water No comments