Status/Update

Whew . . . it's been a few.

In just three weeks I'm headed to the studio to begin recording the most insane musical project I've ever been involved with. The as-of-yet Untitled Project (album) from the band Silver Cypher will be the band's 4th release, and it's going to be quite a beast! In all, there's some 25+ songs with playing-time ranging anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes per song; and its been hectic these past couple of months rehearsing this gargantuan conglomeration of musical visions. How can three people (Jon Krech, Mike Lawson, and myself) have so much to say musically . . . especially after all these years? And believe me, this is the big one!

Okay, enough of that sappy-self-promotion.

Over 25 songs, each with dynamic contrasts and a multitude of time and key signatures, have taken quite a toll on me committing them to memory (muscle memory). I'm exhausted, so I've been relaxing a little lately. But in all honesty, my time-off from work and practice has been self-motivated. I need to just kick-back and relax, not bombard myself with constant practice leading to sheer exhaustion. But, I'm confident with my preparations. I cannot stress how impressive it is that in just three months Silver Cypher has constructed a colossal collection of songs that's sure to reach a few ears.

Yet, despite relaxing, I'm not relaxed. There's still a lot of work to do, and as I'm adding finishing-touches, I'm already planning my next project (or rather, planning on revisiting previous projects). And though I will be finished with the drums for Silver Cypher at the end of October, I'm not finished with the album itself. There's still guitar and bass work that has to be done, which I will also be adding. As such, I took Friday to work on a click-track to establish the tempo for the song 1 to 3 v.7. It hasn't been easy rehearsing this song on drums and looks like my only practices will be with the click-track itself before I head into the studio. So, much work, but I'm confident all will go smoothly. I've already coonstructed the main drum-lines and what few practices Silver Cypher managed with the song, all will fit nicely.

And so here it is, another segment of I'm In the Band. Check it out . . .

Work Sucks

So, I called off . . . for the fourth time in two weeks. Aye-ye-ye . . . what am I thinking?

I'm thinking: my job isn't satisfying. I'm thinking: I could better spend eight-and-one-half hours pursuing more creative endeavors. I'm thinking: I need a break before I head into the studio with Silver Cypher. I'm thinking: TrollHunter is the coolest movie I've ever seen and I refuse to leave home before watching it at least once more . . . I fear I may never see it again!

That's right! TrollHunter!



The coolest movie ever, no joke! For those of you who need your fix from Netflix, don't even bother adding TrollHunter to your instant queue, just watch it! Watch it now! It's aces!

Now, it's a Norewegian film (say wha? . . .) so it;s subtitled and there is some Christian-stereotyping (say wha? . . .), but if you have any basic concept about Norway (and I'm speaking to all you black-metal posers . . . say wha? . . .), then you'll really love this movie! It adds such a unique twist to classic fables featuring trolls; it's creative, original and imaginative, not too mention fun, while at the same time very professional.

Rarely do films hit everything on the mark in terms of self-perception -- a screenwriter's or director's ability to realize "Hey, this is a movie." TrollHunter hits that mark. There's a genuine story, constructed from various elements of fairy-tales, told through POV perspectives in the vain of a horror-documentary (think, Blair Witch) while simultaneously admitting to being a movie: using special effects, interesting camera-work and camera-shots, great dialogue, evenly-paced action with quite possibly the most epic battle in fantasy! And the scenery: oh, so beautiful; and horrifying. Overall, TrollHunter tells a story, very smoothly. So flawless is this film that it will leave you sitting, thinking "This is the coolest movie I've ever seen! I must tell everyone! They must see TrollHunter for its . . . TROLL!"

I couldn't recommend any other movie more . . .

I'm In the Band - 1 to 3 (latest version)

I'm preparing for my studio sessions with Silver Cypher and there's a lot of work that still needs to be done (on my behalf). In just four weeks I begin recording drum tracks for Silver Cypher's upcoming fourth album, but some of the songs which will be featured on the album have been written by yours truly. As such, I need to make sure those songs are finalized (in terms of structure) before I can begin recording scratch-tracks and click-tracks. Yet, one song in particular 1 to 3 has been rather difficult, and I'm still struggling with the structure. Jon Krech, lead singer, rhythm guitarist and founder of Silver Cypher has been helping me with the song and as such, this is the latest version I've come up with.

Check it out . . .

I'm In the Band - Chad's Arsenal

In preparing for the upcoming studio sessions on drums with Silver Cypher, I decided to clean my guitars and see what sort of action they still possessed.  I will most likely be recording guitar tracks for Silver Cypher's upcoming fourth album much like I did with their third album Existential Realisms.  In doing so (cleaning my guitar collection) a wave of nostalgia hit me and I thought it might be rather interesting to include my guitar collection as a feature for I'm In the Band

Check it out . . .



So . . . what's in your arsenal?

I'm A Clone!

So, I swear to science I'm a clone. People always say I look like so-and-so.

When I was in college, people would randomly inquire whether or not I went to such-and-such high school because I looked so familiar. I used to just think it was a comical coincidence, albeit slightly annoying, but I really began to take note of these strange mis-sightings when an individual started a confrontation with me at a party. I had never met this individual before, but he was absolutely positive that I was sleeping with his girlfriend. Even after I explained to him that I had no idea who he, or his girlfriend, even were -- or the fact that I hadn't slept with anyone in quite some time -- he still tried to accost me. It was only after a third-party (who knew us both) intervened that the individual finally conceded.

Since then, I've had a number of peculiar encounters:

At a concert, a girl came up to me and gave me hug, then backed away wide-eyed, stating, "Oh shit, you're not Alex!" Apparently, Alex was a good friend of hers who looked exactly like me.

On another occasion, while I was working at a bookstore, a young lady became rather smitten that I didn't say hello. She mistook me as an old friend she knew from high school. When I tried to explain to her that I was not her friend, she just sneered and said, "Whatever, Jack." Then, she walked away.

Once, while wandering the downtown district of Hamilton, Ohio, I was greeted by three different people, on two seperate occasions (roughly fifteen minutes apart), and was mistaken for familiar acquaintances. Oddly enough, according to both parities, their acquaintances had the same type of hair and even dressed similar.

These occurrences happen to me a lot. In fact, there's even been scenarios where people who are acquainted with me mistake other individuals for being me. And it seems that hardly a month will go by that someone won't say I look like so-and-so; recently it's begun to morph into celebrities.

A number of people say I look like Chad Kroeger (lead singer of Nickleback), and a few times people have suggested I look vaguely similar to Mikael Akerfeldt (best known as the lead singer for Opeth), and just yesterday, while purchasing bagels, someone said I looked like actor Paul Giamatti.

What do you think?

I'm In the Band - Flamenco?

I attended band practice Saturday afternoon with Silver Cypher, and after an exhaustive session learning Jon Krech's monumental masterpiece -- a fast, thrashy/black-metal-esque song clocking in at around twenty-five minutes -- I decided to give my limbs a rest and began messing around on the bass -- Mike Lawson (the bassist) was unable to attend, but his bass was at least present. Whenever Mike doesn't make it to band practice, I always relish with much delight playing his bass. Ah, who am I kidding, I play his bass even when he is there. It's so choice . . .

Anyway, doing what I do best on the bass, Jon Krech offered up the idea of utilizing my bass lines to write a song for Silver Cypher's upcoming fourth album. I don't know if any such song will truly happen; nevertheless, I was merely happy playing Mike's sweet bass!

Bar Bands Rock - n/a

HYPOTHETICAL -- you're a musician, and you're first band (a basement band trite and true) has just broken-up, what do you do?

ANSWER -- join another basement band! Duh!

But when that basement band breaks-up, what do you do then? Join another basement band! Gah! How easy is that! And when that basement band breaks-up (or you're simply compelled to walk-out because the singer is a psychotic ex-police-officer and thought it would be funny to aim a loaded pistol at the bassist . . . hahaha, so funny [note the sarcasm]), well what do you do then?

Therein lies the next musical chapter in my life: n/a. My first official bar band. And just what is a bar band? Well, it's a band that performs at bars. And there are two types of bar bands -- bands that play covers (performing songs written by other bands) and bands that play originals (performing songs written by them).

n/a was the brain-child of an individual known as Kaine, a singer/song-writer/artist who I had met many years prior and even had a brief musical-stint with in a prior basement band. But after I had graduated college, Kaine approached me with the idea of starting up a gothic-rock band with a few other musicians he knew.

"I have a guitarist and bassist," he said, "and we could use another guitarist."

"What about a drummer?" I inquired.

"Well, I'm working on that," he said, "but I imagine we can find one."

"Well, I'm a drummer," I said.

"You are?"

Even though we had played music together for a brief period of time, I don't think I ever mentioned to Kaine that I was indeed a drummer, and had been one for years, nor did he know that I had my own drum-kit. And so, the pieces fit perfectly. A band had formed. And in just a few months we had a couple of songs that were perfect for a demo recording. Yet, unlike our previous attempts in music, we weren't content with the mere status of being a basement band. We wanted more. And so, with a little luck, Kaine was able to set up a few shows for us at some local bars.

I was rather ignorant of the whole bar ordeal. Little did I know that there was no money involved; I mean, we got paid from time to time, but only a small percentage of what was made at the door, and being a small local band with almost no fans, there wasn't a lot of money pouring in. On average, a good night for us was when all of our friends showed up -- truth be told, we had quite the group of friends (long live The Den [that's an insider-thing]) -- but that only added up to enough cash to support our love for whiskey, which we indulged in quite frequently before and after our set.

(On a side note, I will never ever play a set drunk ever again. Only once did I ever perform while intoxicated, and being a rather versatile/active drummer, the end result was nauseating . . . figuratively speaking).

But oh, did we think we were aces! We thought our band was going to be the next big hit. We were original, unique and very talented, and our friends loved us! Unfortunately, no one else did -- for the most part, anyone who was not acquainted with us didn't really seem to take an interest in what were doing. Often times, we recieved a lot of negative criticism. However, I don't think it was because of the music; instead, I'm fairly certain it was the locale and its societal-disinterest for musical pursuits. There has never been a real musical presence in Cincinnati, save for some scream-core and/or punk bands, and most of the bars in the area were so low-key that even the popular bands in the area found difficulty drawing decent crowds. I do believe our biggest show consisted of nothing more than maybe thirty people in the crowd.

But it didn't matter. Like I said, we were aces! The music was so fresh and unique that I had a lot of faith in n/a. I was confident that with the right steps, we would reach higher grounds.

Unfortunately, we began to spiral into the obliterating status of being a basement band, which ultimately led to the dissolvement of n/a.

Shame. I really loved n/a. Still do. To this day, n/a is still one of my all time favorite musical projects. I frequently listen to the demo and live-cuts with as much passion and interest in the music as I had when actually performing with n/a.

Check it out . . .







R.I.P. n/a.

I'm In the Band - Messing Around On Bass Guitar

I love the bass guitar . . . I really do; although, it's not an instrument I usually pick-up.
I first learned the bass (for what it truly is) when I was in high school, performing for the jazz ensemble.  Yet, for the most part, the bass was merely a passing interest of mine when it came to "rock bands" and what not.  It was based on my assumption, that on average the bass is merely an accompaniment instrument, adding a sense of rhythm alongside with the drums.  Perhaps, that's why my fascination with it didn't flourish until my focus on drums became more rigid in my mid-twenties. 

Indeed, only within the past few years has my skill on the bass really begun to take shape.  I discovered that the bass was definitely one of the more interesting instruments associated with rock-esque music . . . or rather, has the potential to be.  Most bassists I encounter don't go beyond the typical root-note basics, and that's a shame.  There's just so much this instrument is capable of.  And if I wasn't so focused on drumming, I would definitely invest a lot more time and energy (and money) into the bass.

Check it out . . . 

I'm In the Band - Drum Maintenance

Here's a little video I made pertaining to maintaining my drums.

I'm In the Band - Chad Guitar #3

Yesterday, I was messing around with my song/riff after having showed it to the other members of Silver Cypher. I was rather pleased that they liked it, but it's still in its early stages of creation, and therefore incomplete (especially in my eyes).

Writing a song on guitar can be quite challenging. Most people aren't really aware (assuming, of course, most people don't play guitar . . . or music in general) of just how much thought and re-thought goes into writing a song. It's not as if number-one-hits result from the very first try; rather, most musicians are like writers, in that they undergo drafting/editing stages with their work. Sometimes, you get lucky, and things just sound so perfect together that there's really no need to fine-tune any of it; other times, however, you'll give yourself a massive headache just trying to figure which note actually sounds better - C or C-sharp. And sometimes, such intense focus on musical details lead to nothing more than a messy conglomeration. I think a number of the riffs I write are rather good (some exceptionally so), but the task of structuring certain riffs together, and in the process creating new riffs when-and-where need be, has definitely proved to be a struggle.

Jon Krech, guitarist, bassist and singer for Silver Cypher, is definitely a master at structuring riffs and writing songs. He does it so effortlessly that it's truly a thing of envy. Nevertheless, I do have my moments in musical creation and am more than eager (as well as excited) to share them.

For the past week, I've been creating a song with the combination of a few riffs I've had in my musical catalogue for years as well as a few new riffs I've been exploring. I'm pleased with the result thus far . . . and I hope Silver Cypher is too.

Without further adieu, here is my latest creation: