boxing day & drum brushes

I love Boxing Day. You can just blob out after Christmas and play with all your presents.
Anyway, yesterday went well. As usual I woke up at 5:30. (well I woke up at 4:00 last year)
I got these awesome as drum brushes - they have steel brushes at one end and wire brushes at the other. They're really cool. I used them in our song, I Wish You Were Here today. It sounded real cool.
nate

25th of December

Merry Christmas everyone!

From Mayday

Man I love writing

I love writing things.
I like writing books and let my imagination run wild. I like txting people lots. I like writing about things. I like writing in my diary, and of course I like writing blogs.
Man writing's cool. I'm so glad God invented it.
I don't like writing poetry though. No way.
Or essays.
Though once I wrote an entire essay randomly on the computer about how impractical igloos were.
It was quite fun.
I think the reason I like writing songs is because of the lyrics. I always write them first, and the tune always kind of follows on behind.
Now someone's probably going to point out that isn't writing poems like writing songs?
Well I entirely disagree.
The other weird thing is that Daniel, who is lead singer of our band, and in the most powerful position as a general rule, SHOULD be writing all our songs (or at least the lyrics). Cos that's what singers usually do.
And he's good at poetry too. He even likes it!
But he's not very good in the songwriting department (no offence Dan).
So we're a bit of a back-to front band. But I guess it's not all that weird. After all, when we started our band, I was the lead singer.
(And I was trying to convince Dan to play another instrument for our band, among those was the guitar. Then Nate says "Why don't you play the guitar?" and I think about it for a second then said "Why not?")
Oh well I don't really mind. Personally I like what I do and even though it's a bit different from the norm, it all sounds really well in the end.

Jordan

Wow! I won

Man today was funny.

First we checked out the plums but none were ripe. So off I headed to do my guitar practice. I only managed to do 8 minutes though before Nate interupted me and we did band practice. Properly.

It was all good apart from I wish you were here which we havn't practiced for ages and we kept getting off time in it. And we forgot to do another song as well.

But we played One to a Hundred real good. We rocked it up and it was loads better to play. Mum's capo works much better on my electric guitar.

Then we had lunch, and Mum told me and Dan to make our little sisters some lunch. We put some cheese toasties on to grill and go off.

10 minutes later Daniel runs outside to tell me the ovens on fire!

My goodness I am sooooooo forgetful!

Then in the afternoon after we tidied the house, Will and Mitch came over and we made a movie. It was actually a serious one too. Then we watched it and it was real good.

After dropping them home we made tea and Christmas mince pies, and after tea and dishes, I suddenly remembered that I forgot to do my guitar practice.

Meanwhile Nate's suddenly developed a splitting headache and went to bed.

Another cool thing was yesterday I found out I had an email! No-one ever emails me so I was pretty excited. It was from Soul Purpose and they told me I'd won in a photo competition, and the prize was two cds.

The photo had to be of you with either Parachute Band or Primal Band. And it said to be creative.

So as I've never met anyone from either of tohose bands I used the next best thing:

Yeah, pretty cheesy I know but it's outside the box.

I tried to get Beka to take one for me but she was to busy and so I took this all by myself. I didn't even use the self timer. Probably cos I don't know how to.

So that was pretty awesome.

Also I've been thinking we need a new band picture cos that top one is months old. But Beka's been so busy working it's been impossible to get one.

Jordan

Mumsdollar are awesome!!!

So here I am typing and listening to Mumsdollar. They are actually a realllllllllyy cool band. I mean, now they're up there in my list. Lets see. If you haven't heard any of these bands, you're crazy!
Stellar Kart (they always come first!)
Everyday Sunday
Mumsdollar
Rapture Ruckus
The Ember Days
Kutless
and many more.......
They are all so awesome man. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to Parachute 09. We got the programme the other days and The Ember Days are on Mainstage. That's going to be soooo awesome.
nate

The 12 days of Christmas

Only three days to Christmas!
Awesome!
Man I love Christmas time. The food, the presents, the fun, the family, the festive season, the Christmas trees, the carols.
I really want to get Relient K's christmas album Let it snow baby, Let it reindeer. It is awesome!
Speaking off which, I wonder what their newest cd, The Bird and the Bee sides. Weird name if you ask me. But it still might be good. Cos Relient K are awesome. Their lyrics are awesome.
And their guitarists!

Jordan

Parachute program!

Man I'm so excited!
It's like Christmas!
Christmas is only 4 days away.
Oh dear, I still need to make a few presents.
Anyway, the reason I'm soo excited is because they released the Parachute lineup today. We printed it off and waited for Beka to get home from work so we could show her.Then we highlighted all our favourites and scrawled green by the ones we are definitly going to see.
The only sad thing is that False Start, which we wanted to see are on at a REALLY dumb time. In the middle of all the big acts at Mainstage! Grrrr!
Another annoying thing is that Availine, a band I wanted to see are at a dumb time to. So I probably won't be able to see them either. =(
Apart from that it's all good. Really good. All of the main acts except for David Crowder Band have at least two shows each. Awesome! I can't wait to see Kutless. And Kingston. And Casting Crowns. And Mumsdollar. And Family Force 5. And Nathan King. And David Crowder band, Arms Reach, Season Pass (which we kinda saw this year), and Parachute Band, and Rapture Ruckus.
And guess what?
The Ember Days are playing on Mainstage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man I was so excited about that!
Bring it on!

Jordan

One to a Hundred

Yeah ok so Nate spilled the beans about the big "surprise" hoped you liked the song whoever was there.
Well quite a while ago I was pondering the question "Would we get stage fright?"
And now we've done it, I reckon the answer is no.
We did it pretty perfectly even if we did have a few problems.
Which actually weren't our fault.
But oh well. It was pretty good.
The thing was we'd practiced that song so many million times that doing it on stage was a breeze. Just like doing it at home.
So here's the words to the song:

One To a Hundred

Do you remember when you were just one/ And you wanted to walk and you wanted to run/ And you took each day as it came/ And when it was over you'd start again

It's just a part of life/ Let's live like we're alive

Do you remember when you're twenty-one/ And you're plans had been made and your dreams had begun/ You had to speed up you couldn't slow down/ You grew up and took your feet off the ground

It's just a part of life/ Let's live like we're alive

Will you remember when you're a hundred and one/ Will you look back at the things you've done? It's time for you to start brand new/ This life is over, now the next ones begun
~dedicated to Grandad (c) Copyright Mayday 2008

Jordan

Our first concert! - sort of....

Man I'm zonked...
Lastnite me Jords and Dan had our first concert. Well, not really, but there were thirty adults - most old people though. So it was our Grandad's 70th birthday and we decided to put together a Mayday song for the entertainment part thingie.We just did that one song, called One to A Hundred. And we peformed it perfectly, too. no stagefright or anything, we just did it! So it went pretty well and it was all good. I've forgotten the words but Jords will write them in when he posts something.
The only problem was, getting my drum set to the hall. We had to stuff it in Beka's small five-seater-car, as well as me and Beka in it! Then there was a problem with the bass drum pedal. Daryl came home from Palmeston North and fixed it though, which was cool. So it went pretty much better than we hoped
nate
p.s. that was the surprise by the way. you see our Grandad reads our blog frequently and was'nt supposed to know about our song so yeah

things i love

well i must say i love stargate.
i love guitars too.
and kutless.
and stellar kart.
and everyday sunday
and my family.
and my band bros.
i also love chocolate.
the bible is rockin' as the most inspirational book ever.
i didn't like rap until i heard rapture ruckus.
and calling elijah.
now i think rap is ok.
not as good as pop/punk/rock though.
of course i just love rock worship like parachute band, magnify and especially the ember days.
i really like raisins too for some random reason.
and i am just in love with zeppelins. (don't ask why.)
i like electric lights to. i'm just going to turn one on because my eyes are getting sore in the dark.
that's much better.
i love plums too. they taste like summer. especially the ones of our plum tree.
i don't like depression.
not that i'm depressed.
i don't like it in other people.
i love parachute.
i really like moshing even if you do get injuries and mild concussion.
not that that's ever happened to me.
and i love a good movie.
like prince caspian.
man i want to watch that movie now.
i love icecreams on hot days.
i love having food.
i love drinking water.
i love being able to acess music and write blogs through the computer.
i love playing soccer.
and running.
and skiing.
and rock-climbing.
think about all the poor kids my age who never get to try these things. the people who don't even have mums or dads.
the people who have hiv/aids.
the people who live in poverty we couldn't imagine.
the people who are our brothers and sisters.
i don't know about you but it makes me feel sad.
it makes me feel like having a job other than a paper-run just so i could sponser a kid.
it makes me feel like making a difference.

Jordan

The biggest and bestest drum set I've ever seen.

Today me and Jords had our music lessons at Daryl's. I went on Daryl's drumkit. Man it was awesome! There were nine cymbals and three extra drums. The snare was worth two and a half thousand dollars! It sounded real good though.It was real loud though. I had to wear earmuffs! There was also a double kick pedal, which was really cool. You had to switch off the high-hat to use it though. Anyway, it was a mean drumkit and sooo cool playing it.
We got back home and did some band practice. It was real weird playing on my drumkit which seemed so tiny. haha one day I'll have a drumkit like Daryl's.
nate

Everyday Sunday & Rapture Ruckus

Man, at Palmeston today, me and Beka and Jord's brought Everyday Sunday's latest album, "Wake Up Wake Up!" and listened to it all the way home. It is sooooooooooo awesome! Seriously, its one of those good good, really good cd's. As soon as we got home I loaded them onto my mp3 and I just listened to them b4 for an hour! And also Dan got Rapture Ruckus Live on Parachute 08 which is pretty cool as well. Cd's. cd's, cd's! Everyday Sunday are seriously awesome, though. Like up there with Stellar Kart!!!!! Although Stellar Kart are still slightly better. Woah - its 10:00 gotta go
nate

the random roadtrip

Well the surprise is going well-kind of. I'm getting a bit tired of it but all revealed by the end of the week. And then we need not work on it so much. We did a bit tonight and Dad gave us a hand.........
Ok enough of the suspense.
Today was real cool. Me, Beka and Nate roadtripped to Palmy to do a bit of shopping. We also went to some friends places. We had a swim in a pool and it was heaps of fun. I shoved Nate in lots. And guess what? We got Everyday Sunday: Wake Up! Wake Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so excited. We listened to it all the way home and I'm uploading it to my mp3 right this moment (that's if it works. My mp3 is real stupid and copies them to some place I don't know where and it's really bugging me. I've tried to copy the stupid thing on at least three times now.)
Soooooo that was really good.
And that's about it.

Jordan

One week and a day ago.....

K as you may have noticed we are not in this picture but Mumsdollar are so that's why I put it there. It's from the concert last week. Man that was a mean time. Beka should have got a picture of The Ember Days. They were really awesome, almost as good as Mumsdollar. Except you couldn't mosh to them. They did A Drop of Blood which is a real cool song, which was the only one I know. Thanks to the radio (Go LifeFm!). And their other songs where good to. They played this mean as instrumental and a real cool song called Seven which was about the boating disaster
at Elim Collage when those seven people died. I only just found that out a few days ago looking on their myspace page.
Anyway Mumsdollar were real good, real loud and rocked hardcore. They were playing so hard out that we retreated from the moshpit. One of their guitarist broke 3 strings! Man! They did Sticks and Stones while we were still in the moshpit. That song is seriously cool. And they did about 3 others I knew. There was this one called Sunrise, and right at the end of the set these two last ones, Rescue Me, and One Day. They were so good. It was just massive.
I can't wait to see them on Mainstage at Parachute!!!

Jordan

Can you hear it?

The sound of silence/ That keeps me up at night.

~Mumsdollar

Jordan

I got up to 30 kmph!!!!!!!

Well today was real fun we went round to our friends place and made a movie. It was real funny. Man it's fun making movies. Then we had a massive scrap on their big tramp. As usual.
And somehow we managed to get the Head too, in a box of Favourites. My goodness, that has to be the most nasty thing someone's done with the head.
But don't worry I have a few diabolical plans up my sleeve.........
Anyway we didn't do any band practice. Cos we had a day off. I managed to finish Josh's present though, and I had a driving lesson. I drove all the way up to the supermarket and parked in there. And only stalled three times! And I even got up to thirty k! (yes I know how pathetic that sounds! It's really fast when you're driving though............)
Much less boring than yesterday. Haha.

Jordan

drum lessons.....

woah next week me and Jords are going to the Withey's for our drum and guitar lessons on Thursday. Daryl has his entire drumkit set up - it has eight cymbals! Awesome aye? Its going to be a mean time!
nate

''The Head''

Well today was good. Beka got ''the head'' in a box of chocolates! If you don;t know what the head is go to pass the head please - there's a link to it from our blog.
And I picked up something at the church which kinda has something to do with the surprise Jords has been on about so i can't tell u what it is sorry.
And me, Beka, and Jords are planning a roadtrip on Tuesday to Palmeston North which will be cool too.
nate

The random day

My lip is seriously sore right now cos I have a cold sore and to get rid off the ugly thing I put Frankencence on it. Then I put some zinc on it. Now my lip is stinging like a bee sat on it. So I'm blogging to take my mind off it.
Anyway today was real random. I did Josh's present on the morning, and then we went to the warehouse. Then we had to go in the Christmas Parade for soccer, so we walked up and down High Street. Fun. Then when we came home our cousins were here and we mucked around. Me and Nate were real bored. We to do band practice but Mum, Dad and Aunty Julie were in the sitting-room and being good little boys we decided not to blow their ears off. So we sat outside. We were so bored that we sat watching a ladybug crawl on the bricks. Whee. Then everyone came to see what we were doing. Like it was very enthralling! So me and Nate went down the front. Nate had a stupid idea off watching a rock to see if it moved. I thought that was real dumb, so I proposed the idea of running round the block. Nate thought we should do it in the go-kart which was sitting close by. Pretty handy. So off we went. It cheered us up considerbly. That's always a good thing to do when you're bored.
(Actually I wasn't THAT bored cos I could have done my guitar practice, Dan's present, or written a book but that would have left Nate bored and with no one to talk too.)
And we did get to do band practice after all. Awesome. Out of it all is actuslly working still which I'm pleased about. Except in the middle off it Mum came and started harmonizing with Dan on his mike. I didn't see the problem but somehow it made Dan pretty mad.
So then we went round the block again. Dan was on the scooter, and Nate managed to steer into a ditch. And we beat Daniel home. Haha!
We had a good day really, even if it did have it's fallbacks.
It's not the boredest I've ever been either. There was that time in Auckland. And I didn't even have my guitar to play!

Jordan

P.S I did have a guitar then but it was Mum's which as we know has nylon strings. Ugh. =(

P.S Mum thanks for letting me use your guitar. It's quite handy really. We just need to replace the bottom three strings.......

The Secret

Well it's going awesome here we had a great practice today, but I can't talk about it as much as I'd like to. Cos it's a secret. But don't worry it will all come clear in about seven days.
Anyway it's not a bad secret. It's a good one. I just can't reveal what it is just yet.
Actually it's not really a secret. It's more of a surprise
So what else have we been up to? Not much really just the usual. I've been listening to the Mumsdollar cd heaps lately, the one Beka borrowed off Kerry. It's real cool. We should have got it at the concert.

Jordan

200

I was just looking on our blogspot and it turns out we've written 200 blogs (this is our 201st blog). Pretty impressive.
Anyway, today was pretty good cos all our songs worked. Also Mum found the missing clamp-on for the guitar so I played around with that for literally ages. And later in today I finished writing a song which was really awesome. I've had bits floating around for ages but have't got around to finishing them. So anyway I finished it finally. It's called Can't Stand to be Sleeping. And I've got about 3 songs to work on as well. It's all going sweet.

Jords

Today

Well, band practice today was the best we've ever done it with the drums! It went really awesome. B-)
And also our cousins from Saudi Arabia came to visit today which was good. And this is our 200th post! yay :-)
nate

yay!!!!!

yay its the holidays for us! no more school for three months!
yessssss
nate

Dad looks different

Well, today we came back from our paper-run at 7:30 in the morning. I went into the bathroom to wash my hands. Then I saw Dad. First, I thought there was a really weird guy in our bathroom. But then I realized it was Dad. He'd shaved his beard completely off! Now every time I look at him I feel like I'm looking at a photo album!
haha nate

mumsdollar concert

Wow on Saturday night me and dan and jord and beka went up with the youth group up to Bay City in Hastings. There was a Mumsdollar concert on. We got lost first, but eventually arrived at about 7:30pm. so we got there and saw the ember days who were really good. they played this awesome song called 'a drop of blood' And their drummer was really good.
Then mumsdollar came on and it was awesome. They played 'Sticks and Stones' which is the awesomest song ever. We were moshing heaps. The mosh pit was a bit dangerous though. People kept shoving you everywhere.
Anyway this random guy gave dan some earplugs.
I got all of their signatures afterwards and it was a really cool concert. we had the funnest time ever. we got home at 1:00 in the morning! B-o B-0 B-O
nate
ps jords was actually supposed to blog about the concert but he's at bible study and i got bored. don't tell him haha

Turn on the Lights

Wow the Mumsdollar concert was AWESOME but I'll wait to see if we get any pictures before raving on about it. But Mumsdollar and the Ember Days are definitely favourites now. I am so going to see them at Parachute.
Anyway today we decided to not write that song just yet and instead we fixed up Turn on the Lights and it sounds so cool now.
Another good thing is I've woken up now, and I feel alive like crazy. Well yesterday I didn't,but I was pretty wasted from staying up to 1'o clock on Saturday night.
So it's all great here.

Jordan

Annoyences.

Today was pretty good, except we tried to write that song and it really DID NOT work at all.
We didn't get anywhere. Mostly because Dan went out when we were ready to write it and then when he got back we were stuck and couldn't think of anything.
Which was pretty annoying. So I went off and did my guitar practice. Not very constructive, but hey.
It's a bit annoying cos I want a few more keyboard bits in our songs (cos now we've got the microphone stand we can use it) but unfortunatly Daniel is not as creative as Nate was. He tends to just play stuff not make it up. No offence. It's better some than none. It's just that I think our songs need a bit of musical variation. Taking back everything I said a month ago, I'm actually thinking we could throw a bit of reggae in there too.
Well the good news is that there's that concert tomorrrow night which is real exciting. It should be pretty inspiraring. And if not, well it'll be a great night out anyway

Jordan

I can drive! (well kind of)

Wow I am so excited cos today I got my Learner's so now I can drive around! Isn't that just the coolest? I had to spend ages waiting in the AA place though. There were so many people there! But finally it was all over and I only got one wrong so it was real good. And then this evening I drove the van up to Nana's. I wasn't very good, but then again it was the first time I've driven in town. I had trouble getting around the corners. I think I need some more practice.
We did some band stuff today and Make up your Mind worked this time which was good. We were going to write that song but didn't have enough time cos it was time for our lessons. Daryll showed me this cool as reggae song by Tiki Tane and Daniel learnt how to sing.
Anyway that's about it.

Jordan

my special cookie

wow it was cool as today i brought an icecream and they gave me a free cookie. it was a cool cookie. and a nice cookie as well. Dan and Josh went to get an icecream as well. they didn't get a cookie though. oh well i guess i'm just special like that.
nate

Our Special Day

Well today is Jords special day but he'll tell you why.
And its me and Dan's special day as well. We're allowed to go to Parachute 09 on the bus with tthe Dempsters! Man I'm so excited. Its going to be the funnest time ever.
nate

Parachute 09 opening set!

Hi everybody!
Exciting news! On Parachute's website http://websites.parachutemusic.com/festival/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=263&Itemid=30 you can get the chance to vote who plays the opening set at PO9!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok here's my opinion-something I'll always give you.
Vote Small Town Heroics!!!
Honestly. Please. They kinda sound like Stellar Kart. And that's a good thing.
Or vote for Arms Reach. They are really cool.
Check it out on the website and vote!

Jordan

The microphone stand at last.....

Well a good thing and a bad thing happened today. The bad thing was that someone stole our website so could hack into our blog. So if we stop writing then you know why!
And the good thing was we got a microphone stand! So we did band practice this afternoon which went really well. Except there's something wrong with my snare drum and the snare keeps flipping off. So I have to tell Darryl about that at drum lessons. And I saw the car Beka loves - the Datson 2-80 on the way to Waipuk. It is totally awesome. Like the best car ever. As in ever! And now my tooth's fixed yay
nate

It's not working.

I'm annoyed.
I just can't seem to write any songs. I have a few verses jotted down but nothing else springs to mind. I am so out of ideas. When I want to I can't. I want to get at least one of them finished , and I keep thinking of good guitar things, but my songwritings all down the drain.
This has happened to me before. I get a phrase where I write two to five songs and then it all dries up. And the stuff you think of takes so long to do and then when you've finished it actually isn't very good, and you feel like you've stretched it out instead of it coming.
It's kind of hard to explain. So I'll do what I did last time it happened. Just stop. Give myself a break. Time to relax. Even though I feel like I'm pretty relaxed all ready.
So I'm off to write my book.

Jordan

December 1

Wow its December already. And Christmas is just around the corner. And that's about it for the 1st of December. Except I'm going to Waipuk with Beka tomorow to fix my chipped tooth which chipped for the first time at Easter about 4 or 5 years ago. And around every six months it falls off again. This time it chipped after a month though. Stupid aye
nate