January 4th 2012

Hello 2012!!

The past few weeks have been very busy for me.I played many gigs in December 2011 and have many more planned for January and the rest of 2012.

The last gig of 2011 was with Thunderpants @ the House Of Blues.This new year show is always a blast!Again,totally sold out and full of people having a great time.This is the 4th year for the guys(and my 3rd) at the House of Blues New Year Eve Show.Our sound guy was a totally awesome,cool guy called Zero.It would be nice if all of our sound guys were as enthusiastic as he was.:)Can't wait for the next HOB show.

In December,we also starting editing drum tracks for "The Small Hours" The drum tracks sounded even better than I remember.Thanks to Steve C for that!Hopefully the guys can start laying down some guitar and bass tracks asap.

Cheers!

Weekend Friday Dec 2nd

This weekend actually started on Thursday with a gig at Super Happy Funland.It was with Steve Steele and turned out to be quite an interesting night!The gig itself was pretty good.We are becoming a tighter band after playing the last 4 shows or so.We added another improv to the mix,which I started.There's nothing like being asked to solo a few minutes before you go on stage!We also played KCs' The Talking Drum.This version was much better than the first time we attempted it.Overall,I was pretty pleased with the performance.It definitely sounds like we are going in the right direction.

Friday was a gig with my 80's coverband Thunderpants!This was a private party show for our singers place of work.Decent show,the crowd seemed to be drunk enough to appreciate it :) Sound could have been better.
Next weekend is another private party with my other coverband,Tiger Lilly. It's in a house.Poor bloody neighbors!! haha

Sunday Nov 27nd

This week was not too busy compared to the chaos of the past few weeks.I had a practice with my coverband,Thunderpants.This is for our private party coming up in December,after we have to start rehearsals for the New years show at the House of blues,which will be a lot of fun.This is my 3rd year of playing the New years show.All in all I have around 11 shows this December.
There was also a show with Steve Steele at BFE rock club.It was a decent night apart from the hassle of having to set up my whole kit,plus sampler in 15 mins.So that pissed me off and made it a struggle to enjoy what was a pretty good show.Plus the monitor was not loud enough!!!.C'est la vie!
Next show is with Steve Steele at Super Happy Funand.Hopefully we can get a decent crowd there.In any case we can refine the show more and get tighter as a unit.

Cheers!

Good weekend

This weekend past was a busy one for me.Full of gigs and an award show on Tuesday.

I had a coverband gig on Friday with a fill in guitarist which was cool.

With Steve Steele we had our first "real" gig which was at the Houston Press Awards Showcase on Saturday.
Headlining at the House of Blues wasn't too bad even if we were put in with a load of country bands!! The set was solid and ran quite smoothly with no real hic-ups.Even though the drum kit they had was not quite up to par. They do a pretty good job at HOB.

The next show was at Super Happy Funland with Steve Steele.This was a better show than the previous night.We started off with a jam for 5 or 6 mins,King Crimson style.After, we just moved the set around a little and had some fun with it!Got some good video and some Decent audio which we may be able to use...

Tuesday was the Houston Press Awards Show.Steve was nominated for Best Rock and Best Male Vocals.Unfortunately he didn't win.However,everyone had a great night and we all met some really cool people/bands.

Smile everyone!!

Cheers!!

Teaching has begun!

Got my first student today.! Really looking forward to seeing how it goes.Better get working on my chops in case they are better than me!! hahaha

Drumhead magazine interview with Mike Mangini

I was flipping through the drum magazines at my local bookstore and came across an interview with drummer extraordinaire... Mike Mangini. Very inspiring.Just shows what can be achieved if you remain focused and keep searching...

Moving Forward

The other day the Steve Steel band had a meeting with an agent to try and book some decent shows.I would say that it was a pretty positive meeting and hopefully we can work with this guy in the near future!So look out America...(and Europe)!

We have also started to work on some new material for our next release.It will be a progression from the older stuff.Go to www.stevesteele.com to check out the last album!We hit the studio around the end of September which I'm really looking forward to.This will be the biggest test of my playing ability and a new direction for me.

Cheers!