YuriWong.com

Elaine forgets my name, and asks me the same question right after JP. Woohoo!

Watch it here:

Amaaaazing voice.

Guess what? Che’nelle’s in town.

Guess what? She’s performing her slow-jam song ‘2nd Nature’ this Saturday.

Guess what? I’m playing guitar for her.

It’s gonna be bangin’ yo.

I love this amp.

(I’m playing the intro to Satellite at the first bit and parts of Freefalling near the end. At the very end, I’m just wanking heheh)

I got me a new guitar amp!

Not any new amp, but a Ceriatone Expression. Hand-wired point-to-point circuitry, premium components, fantastic sound, all finished black tolex with a red racing stripe decal.

Here it is: *proud*

and here’s it’s happy owner rockin’ out…

I haven’t tried it out at FULL VOLUME yet. In fact, I’ve only tried it out at 1/4 volume so far. It’s scarily loud.

Hm.

Wait,

Come to think of it,

How can someone buy a rock amp and not crank it up?

Hmm…

….

…

I hope the neighbours like rock.

Hey ho!
I’m featured in the February Issue of S’Factory’s e-Magazine, check it out here:

Link

I’ve noticed a trend among self-styled ‘music critics’ to lean towards a certain preference in music, namely the ‘indie rocks and pop sucks’ persuasion.

You wanna know what I think?

I think you suck and I rock.
Hahaha.
Don’t wet your pants; I’m just kidding.

What I really think is this: bad music sucks and good music rocks. And pop can be good, while indie can be bad and (naturally) vice versa.

So what are the standards for good or bad music?

There are none. It’s all subject to personal beliefs.
Of course, the ‘MTV-standard’ seems to rule over a fair number of people, but think about it - sticking to the ‘indie-rocks standard’ is just about as single-track-minded (nothing to do with you Alex) as the former. Just because The Mountain Goats’ music sounds like it was recorded with a portable cassette recorder (a lot of it was) doesn’t mean people can’t feel how good the music is. Conversely, just because pop-princess Britney’s music was written by someone else and sung in a gazillion-dollar studio (with pitch correction thrown in, very likely) doesn’t mean it can’t connect to some people.

My personal standards for what constitutes good music are these:

1. Emotion
Or, the efficiency of its transfer. Think of music as an egg which contains not soft-yellowy-cholesterol-rich-substances inside but a certain amount of emotion that the composer put into the song. The efficiency and efficacy of the song to elicit emotion shows how well (or badly) it was written to be able (or not) to do that.

2. Technique
I’m not talking about Steve Vai style. I’m just talking about knowing and having the right techniques for creating what you have in your head. It’s about sounds more than scales, about feelings more than harmony.

3. Prudence
A very important part of songwriting, to me at least, is this: the idea that a song shows some carefully thought-out choices in its creation. An indication that some craft that has been put into creating music. That doesn’t mean that a song like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ doesn’t have prudence. I think it’s some wisdom (which, of course, has to be cultivated, and takes time) in deciding what to do or where to take a song.

What are yours? Have a think about it

Hey.

Been a while hey.

Like two old friends that haven’t met in years. Takes a few minutes to get the thing going,

but once it does,

it’s all laughter and good vibes again

I’m baaaaack.

My site’s slightly broken - the links aren’t working!

No fear though - Khailee will help me. In a bit.

Fixed! Thanks Khailee!

Okay, so I’ve been on the telly before.

But I’ve never been a bar musician in a law drama where all the kickass music that you hear on the show is composed by moi.

I know, modesty is one of my strong suits, yes *smirk*

Okay, more details:

* Sadiq & Co (the law drama) has been airing on NTV7 on Friday nights at 8.30pm every week.
* It’s a kickass law drama by Red Communications
* I played two songs in Episode 2 - Red Dress & Freefalling

Missed it? Not to worry - here’s a snippet: