goodbye 2009...

its been an awesome year for me.... every month something aweswome happened... here's a few...
january.....
parachute was the highlight of january... of course. from left... william, me, mitchell, and dan. we all got cowboy hats. mint!!!

february...

we got this awesome picture of us! sooo cool (no idea why its so small but when i enlarge it it goes really pixelated....

march...

this was so fun... i took this picture for beka in the abandoned paddock over the road... you should of seen the neighbours lol

april...
beaches! this was akitio... in the middle of winter!

may....
our first cd/ep out! it was a lame recording, but it was all good...
june...
battle of the bands! unfortuntly no pictures, but the experience was MASSIVE!!!! awesome time... we got into the semi-finals! but then got kicked out by a screamo band...
july....
our roadtrip to porongahou was the best.... this was me in some of the long grass.... cool light aye...
also... i found a new band...skillet!!!!!
the best band ever... SERIOUSLY!!!!!
august...
parachute roadshow! this is brad (rapture ruckus) taken from my phone camera... this was cool as...
also this month another highlight was the Youth Holy Spirit weekend... it was amazing...
september...

this is the UCOL whiteboard me and jords doodled on while beka and catherine were setting up cameras for our studio photoshoot. we got a bit carried away... :) awesome
october...
TWO shows! this was me on drums at the garden expo... we literally played on a veranda. it was awesomenovember...

me and beka did some vintage photoshoots down riverdale road, the best place ever. we even named the bull down there stanley!

december...

christmas photoshoots! i love them... um... i look stoned as here... but you get the picture...

also, the final mumsdollar concert... that was stunning....

i also got this for christmas!its exactly that! i love it so much!

goodbye 2009...

nate

RECORDING!

we finally did it....
you'd think after 2+ years we would've recorded a decent demo by now.
well up until yesterday we hadn't.
even the stuff we sent into parachute was - average. not the best sound.
so yesterday, on the second to last day of the year, we got our dad, all our gear, went to the church and went hard out!
it helped that we've had a LOT more experience about how to play things proper.
all in all we were there for about 6.5 hours, setting up and then getting the tracks down. some songs were easy like Moonlight Shadows, which we nailed first time, while others, like Not Forsaken took us at least 3 goes and a few setups to record proper.
of course most of this brilliant sound went to my guitar playing! ok only joking. a guitar player is only as good as his gear. and my guitar is AWESOME! sounds a million times better than my first one! i just listen to it, and love it. my distortion/overdrive pedal makes everything sound that much better to.
we actually had a really good time. we just jammed out. did what we know. nate even got a tinkle on the piano in one song, reminiscent of old-style Mayday before we got the drums. it sounds real good.
serious. words do not describe it. ok, it could be a lot better. but for absolutely not mixed in anyway and only recorded in our church with not even half-pie decent recording equipment (but better than previous tries) and the vocals being a bit loud, it sounds really, really good!
you have to hear it for yourself. really.
i'll probably post some videos of us up here soon. and we'll definitely release an ep next year, hopefully before Parachute '10.
name suggestions anyone?

Jordan
ps happy new year!

random blog

yeh k so all my brothers are outside having a water fight. which is kinda weird cos it's not actually that hot. and i'm bored. my little sisters are just watching a sad barbie movie on the other computer so i can't even play with my usb video software thing. i've been trying to come up with a logo the best i've come up with so far is this:

it's alright aye. except it won't merge with any other pictures which is really annoying. btw the things down the bottom r supposed to be flares.

right now i'm itching to do some band practice or just something! a show, or maybe some recording. which we were going to do except now we can't cos dad still isn't ready...

me and nate jammed out to the older i get (skillet) today it sounded pretty good.

love that song.

here i was thinking the summer holidays weren't going to be boring...

darn it i was wrong again!

or maybe it's just today...

i live in hope.

jaws

i love...

-God
-roadtrips
-summer
-skateboarding
-battlefield drums
-beaches
-zildjian cymbals
-orange
-flip-flops
-laughing
-christmas
-having fun
-moshing
-playing at shows
-juggling (or trying to)
-music
-friends
-family
-playing the drums
-summer!
-soccer
-twirling drumsticks
-doing parkour with jords
-drawing
-sleeping
-my "kick me" badge (which is lost :(...)
-tinsel
-parachute
-skillet
-making people laugh
-going on photoshoots
-running
-my "stick with jesus" top (i actually got it for chritmas!) :)
-jamming out
-going to concerts
-making movies
-action movies
-being myself
-sports
-pizza
-making music
-google
-jellybeans
-collecting dead pens
-hanging out
-snow
-fairtrade chocolate
-cooking
-camping
-seeing a shooting star
-church
-finding random coins!
-skiing/snowboarding
-swimming
-vinegar hill
-that deep bass you feel run through you at a rock concert
-having a good day
-being called "nate" :)
-new cd's
-brandy snap ice-cream!
-drums!
-rapture ruckus
-exercising
-texting
-random things
-fireworks
-owl city
-cartoons
-fruju iceblocks
-sunsets
-long lists :)
-new plymouth
-supersnap
-staying up late
-listening to music
-looking at the stars
-skateboarding to the garage
-walking uptown
-being the best i can be

nate

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!
From Mayday

Life is Good (Eternal life is better)

Had my last half-day of work for this year.....it was great and later my boss came round and gave me a present ahh lovely ok I probably won't need to shave for @ least another year but it's the thought which counts aye... and I got some pay which was awesome, and a package which looks surprisingly like a box of Favourites =). Man I love working there....so nice!
In the rest of the day I just chilled pretty much. I would have done Dan's prezzie but I couldn't find it. Dumb. We took some pretty mean photo's in the field across the road. See Beka's blog for the pics.
Well, there's nothing left to say really except have an awesome Christmas. Have fun and try not to over eat! (even though that last one isn't very likely!)
Merry Christmas from Mayday!

Jordan, Nate, and Dan

guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat?!

the parachute programme is out!
we are playing on Saturday, the 30th of January, at 1:40pm...
its a perfect slot...
our mates... fallen wotld, are playing an hour before us too...
really excited
nate

today i looked up a tab for the older i get by skillet. that is surely one of the meanest songs i've ever heard! not to say i'm a serious panhead like n8, but that is a very good song! mostly helped by the mean leads of Ben. i can only dream of guitar playing this good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVq6sMC1OBs&feature=related

or i could just get practicing.......

jaws

Christmas Spirit!

Yeh...really getting into Christmas this year! Last year, it didn't feel like the Silly Season at all. Don't ask why.....
This year's different in so many ways.
Went to a Christmas in the Park thing today. They used to be on all the time back when I was little but then they stopped about three years ago. So it was nice to see the tradition kick-started back into life again.
On the news side, we still haven't done the recording yet. Unfortunately we probably won't end up getting it done this year probably =( Sorry guys. We had a bit of a crisis this week with first Grandad heading to hospital, and almost needing surgery, and then Dad got in a bit of a panic and had a stress attack, so he went over there today. But now they're both back, and both fine. At least I think. Things got a little over-reacted at times though.
Oh well. Christmas is only 5 days away, and the countdown has beginning. Oh and I still haven't got everyone's presents aye. Pretty useless!

Jordan

the purple smiley face...

i like this:

nate

stick with Jesus

well well would you believe it today after band practice i looked down at my drumsticks.

and would you guess it the odd one had no tip.
two drumsticks broken in one week...

christmas present: drumsticks, 7a's, preferbly with a plastic tip rather than a wooden tip, even though it doesn't matter to much....

also i've fallen in love with this:i soooo want it. the small writing says "Stick with Jesus." i love it!despite the broken drumstick, band practice today went awesome. i'm really keen to get another kit though. i haven't got enough money, but maybe next year... or the next... or the next... of course that means getting a better job as well...

so yeah
nate

Cool stuff

Summer & beachs, and late-night adventures, Christmas carols, lights, and trees; good kiwi music, gingerbread men with long legs and yellow icing pants, photos, work till 3:50, accoustic guitars, Parachute, green grass, lobsters, Santa Claus, WAY to much shopping. Camping and long hot days. Early mornings, when you're wide awake. Cute little kids, guitar solos, presents, random impulse, creepy randoms named Mark who want some of your iceblocks (germs!), the Shack, the world, being alive, Kutless, green mp3's called Kermit.....
I could be here forever...
Love you guys!

Jords

broken drumsticks

today i broke a drumstick.
it was just in the middle of band practice... going hard out, and then it snapped right off.
thats the second time!
note to self: take another set of spare sticks to Parachute.
nate

fireflies

You would not believe your eyes

If ten million fireflies

Lit up the world as I fell asleep

'Cause they'd fill the open air

And leave teardrops everywhere

You'd think me rude

But I would just stand and stare

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stayAwake when I'm asleep

'Cause everything is never as it seems

-Owl City

weird but awesome lyrics...

i love this song

nate

We need to blog more...

5 posts over 13 days! Man that's useless!
Gotta give at least something back into the blogger world, now that everyone else is on Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Twitter, whatever.....
To all bloggers under the sun: (or stars,depending on what part of the world you live in....)

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND an AWESOME NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Jordan

Rockin' it up at Christmas...(or at least attempting to!)

Well the last two shows at the Fountain Theatre are over, and I can't say I'm disappointed lol.
It was ok, we did pretty good on the first night, and rocked up the tiny crowd of thirty on the second, but it was a little tricky getting all our gear out, and set up, and everything, for only 8 minutes of stage time. I approached it with this verse in mind "he who is faithful in little things will I give great things...."
So yehp. Wishing we could get a few bigger sets. Maybe with some other bands or something. Where we get to play more than 3 songs =) That'd be great.
Anyway, we played our hardest to the lucky few who attended the show =). We had a few sound stuff-ups in the second show but I enjoyed it more. We made a entrance from off the curtains, and started playing. Nate had a Santa hat on his drums and put tinsel on them, so they looked pretty mean.
Apart from us, there wasn't much else of awesomness. There was a bunch of random dances, a few good singers (our little brother & sister included. Cute!), some very intresting comedy duos, and a banjo-weilding bluegrass singer. No comment there. (I'm no bluegrass fan...)
Oh well, at least the experience was good, we didn't stuff up nearly as much as on Monday night, and the Christmas tree didn't make me sneeze cos I wasn't on stage long enough.

Jordan

just stuff

our two shows at the fountain theatre went pretty good... the one problem was there was only about 20-30 people there each night, and most of them were older people.
really longing for parachute... the things at all our shows we're missing, are...
a. having a moshpit!
b. playing as loud as you want without anyone complaining about it...
c. playing on drums that are professional as! (and have the ride cymbal in place of the second tom-tom)
d. being on a real bands stage....
its going to be AWESOME!!!
also, me and jords and beka are planning a mean roadtrip to new plymouth this summer holidays! its going to be sweet!
also this holidays we're going to try and record some songs. we haven't recorded since july... and we've improved lots since then...
we went to see grandad in hospital today... he looks really good and thankfully doesn't have to go down to wellington.
thats about all the news lately
oh yeah and there's like twelve days till christmas
nate

The News @ Mayday HQ..

I'm only kidding we don't have a hq. Unless you count this blog but that's online so it doesn't count...
I know I haven't posted for ages so that's what I'm doing.
There's this mean band called Sleeptalkers who are made up of at least two members from Arms Reach. I saw them at the Mumsdollar concert last week, and had a good chat with their keyboardist/guitarist on the way to buy a cd. Turns out his band are playing at the exact same stage we are =) Awesome or what? I told him to come see our band! He liked our name too....
After that I've pretty much been listening to their cd nonstop! It's awesome!
Anyway, we've been practicing all week for the Cracker Concert, which starts tonight. Yet another short set . Oh well, better than nothing. We're determined to make the most of it.....despite a dismal practice on Monday (we always have terrible practices! Don't ask why..)
It's finally summer.....it has to be cos I've been wearing t-shirts all week =)
Oh, and finally we've decided to make a few changes to our Parachute set....nothing major just a few stuff.... so come expecting a few surprises! We haven't got to practice it yet cos of this concert, but once thats out of the way...
Just finsihed reading this awesome as book called The Shack. It was super extremely mega awesome. It had awesome pointers in it while still being a fictional book. You rarely, if ever, get that in Christain Publishing without it being corny/peachy/cheesy/cliched so when you do, you know you're on to something good! I stayed up late reading this book - I just couldn't put it down. And it made me cry! No book has ever done that. Some have made me laugh, or think, but not cry.
Go read it!

Jordan

mumsdollar

man yesterday was awesome! our youth group trip for this term was going up to Hastings for a mumsdollar concert!
unfortuntely it was one from their final tour.

noooooooo
before them these two other bands played. one was really cool cause their keyboardist was from arms reach! their lead singer might of been, too. they were called Sleeptalkers. jords ended up buying their demo cd.
the other band was pretty alright. their drummer was beserk! he cracked a cymbal (zildjian, nooooo!) broke a drumstick, cut himself, and probably blasted all the mikes around his drums. the first drummer i've seen that doesn't care about his skins. and the first that sticks his tongue out while playing! lol.
anyway, mumsdollar were undoubtedly the best. they did lots of their old and new songs. almost two hours of mumsdollar live... it was amazing.
i was moshing hardout for three hours.
a brilliant end to their career.

oh, and we met up with the Primal Youth from Battle of the bands there! they were really stoked to hear that we're going to be playing in Parachute 2010... they're going to be there... so is the arms reach guy!
anyway, here's some pictures:

man dave's guitar was hot! blue gibson, i love it! ...and i don't usually look at guitars....it was an awesome night!
i almost lost my voice, my neck hurt from swinging my head everywhere, and i was sweating the most i ever had.awesome!

nate

i would die for you

lately i've been reading this awesome book called "I would die for you." basically its about this teenage boy who went on the missionfield at age 15. he was a hardout follower of Jesus... but he died with an infection picked up on the mission trip. its really getting me hooked... i think its even starting to change how i look at things.... its good...
the one thing thats got me confused, is why did he have to die so young? after everything he did for God - for everyone! he deserved more.
any answers?
nate

Upcoming...

Lots of exciting stuff in store for Mayday in the next couple of months. First we've got two concerts in a row, in the Fountain Theatre. Unfortunately they aren't quite full sets - we only get to play 2 songs but hey the practice will be good. We're thinking of getting a few more shows too..... if anyone has any suggestions where we could play, they would be greatly appreciated!
We've also been practicing hard out for Parachute 2010. We're really amping it, and the set is getting beautifully polished. It's going to be a rocking show! Make sure you don't miss it!!!
Also in the works is the vague formations of an idea for a new e.p. Ok, some of our fans say Problem Solved was brilliant but if we're being honest, I was using a terrible guitar, we're kinda out of time, I am singing WAY to much (never a good thing! =]..), and you can't hear the drums. Jason tried his best but there's only so much he could do. The rest was up to us.....
Ok, so we've all got to start somewhere, but the fact is within 7 months we have got soooo incredibely better. One of those reasons is we wrote a few more great songs, got our timing sorted, but most importantly had a few more gigs. Experience is EVERYTHING and I mean it! That's my advice to all newly-formed/ up-and-coming bands: get out there and play. In a garage, market day, whatever. Just do it!
So yehp. This e.p (if it gets made ) will blow your mind and maybe even your stereo!
(Depends how loud the volume is though......)
Everyone get ready for a good dose of Mayday goodness over the summer.
We're going to crash this party!

Jordan

When I grow up...what will I be?

Do you ever wonder what you're going to be when you grow up?

I used to wonder all the time.
This is kind of a little embarrassing, but this is what I wanted to be when I was little....


1. A hobbit camp owner. =O For anyone who hasn't watched Lord of the Rings.... well a hobbits just kind of like a dwarf who lives in a hole in a hill and has hairy feet and never wears shoes (not a good combination- I wondered why no one went near Frodo =]...sorry - terrible joke I know)
So basically I wanted to have a Christain camp based around Lord of the Rings with the houses sunk deep into hills. I was going to have a castle and everything. If you haven't figured it out yet, I was LOTR-obsessed.
2. I was going to be an author. I even printed out one of my books and gave it to the library. I got on the front page of the Newspaper. I was so proud........
(actually kinda living that dream at the moment with all the blog posts I do and I'm still writing stories......but they're much, much, MUCH better than my first one.)
3. I wanted to be an actor. Still do movies but would never actually pursue it as a career.
4. A shepherd. This was when I was seriously little. I thought shepherds still had funny robes and crooks like the pictures in the bible stories Mum read me. Every day I'd go outside with my crook in my robes and prayed to God for some sheep. One day, 3 sheep walked up our driveway and started chewing the grass on our back lawn. I am not joking. We have photographical evidence..... (The end of that story was when a guy came and took them away. Apparently they wandered away from him somehow. I can't remember the details. Anyway the moral of the story is Miracles do happen.)
5. In a band called the Lads. They were the best.....then I decided I liked Mayday to much to leave and anyway by that time they'd completely stuffed themselves by going little kiddish like the Wiggles. =( very sad. Their guitar player was the man!


Ummm that's about it that I can remember.
In the last year or so I've been especially thinking about this quite a bit more. I don't want to be a hobbit-camp-owner, actor, shepherd or Lad anymore, so what will I be? I've got to get a job eventually and I don't just want something moderate which you do just for money like that job at McDonalds which I was going to get a while back. I want to do something cos I love it not necessarily for the money. I don't think money what matters in this life. As Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) says in his song Gone "...all the riches of kings end up in wills."
There's much more important things to do than obtaining money.
So I want to do something I love. Well there's quite a few things I love but which one is the right one? Guitar? Writing? Skiing? Soccer? Cooking?
I was having this big as struggle with it cos school seemed to be getting nowhere. Maths, English, Science, and Media Studies were doing nothing for me. I didn't want to do Correspondence school cos what's the point in getting credits if I haven't even worked out if I want to go to Uni. I know everyone says "oh you've finished school! Off to university aye?" but I don't see the point in going to "school" for an extra three years, and having to pay for it, if there's not anything I want to study there. My sister Beka goes to Uni, and she loves it, but she's studying something which she is totally passionate about, and it's helping her heaps. I mean, I'm not saying I'm not passionate about music but I would never want to study it...... I love playing it but I cannot for the life of me get my head around the whole theory side of it. In my opinion, it makes the music dead, lifeless.
So I'm not going to uni, and can't find any job which will either hire me or I like, so back to the original question, but rephrased slightly.


WHAT WILL I DO?

If you know me, you'll know that I'm a pretty impatient person, so I got quite annoyed that God was taking so long to answer me.
Then I finally got it.
What if he wasn't saying "Wait for the answer" but just "Wait"?
So now I've stopped worrying. I don't know what I'm going to to, but I don't really care either. There's this cool as quote by a guy called Edward Monkton, which I think pretty much sums up the whole thing. "He knows not where he's going for the ocean will decide. It's not the destination it's the glory of the ride."
And some final words from me.
It's not what you are that's important. It's WHO you are.

"When I grow up, I want to be just like you."

Jordan

What's been happening?

Hey guys.
Hows it going?
Yeah I know I haven't posted for a while. Been pretty busy looking after the kids while Mum's away.
Hmm. What have we been up to lately?
Well. First things first. Via bebo I've been having some pretty intresting conversations with a mate of mine who used to live in our town, but moved quite a while ago. So turns out him and his brother are in this "deathcore Christain band" called Fallen World, who (guess what?) got into Parachute! Just like us, they're playing on the Debut Stage there! Is that mean or what?
Just for the record: I am actually not a metal fan. I reckon it's an aquired taste. Personally I prefer singing to screaming. But in saying that there are bits I like about the genre (Christian stuff that is...) mainly the guitar which is always really good. And the drums usually are pretty good too. I reckon the statement "the sum of the whole is greater than it's parts" turned backwards pretty much sums it up. I like the parts better than the whole. And they do a pretty mean instrumental too! Check them out:http://www.myspace.com/fallenworldband
Anyway they came down to our church on Sunday as part of a visiting music team. It was a mean service. And afterwards they got us to show them some of our stuff, which was pretty mean even though I was playing a borrowed guitar not my beautiful Aram. But the amp was sweet! (It's a guitar player thing!)
Na it was good. They're pretty cool guys, and it'll be mean to play on the same stage as them at Parachute '10.
It's going to be a rocking 20th!
We also got another two shows coming up soon in December as part of a Christmas Cracker concert which is good cos we really need to work on our stage presence. It's pretty good at the mo' (it just could be better!) So we're working out our set for that. Drop us a comment if there's a song you REALLY think we should play!
Hope to see you there. More details as they come.
Ps our set will not be very long though unfortunately. =(
We really need to get practicing. =O

Jordan

check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-XEFgLRuY
nate

drums...

i've been thinking about drums lately....

your probably all like, yeah, well, whats new?

i've decided that i can't keep my little awesome hot green tempo dixon kit forever. maybe i'll keep my stagg ride cymbal, but yeah...

the one thing you can't add to a drumkit is an extra tom-tom (i think.... if you play drums you should know what i'm talking about. if you don't, its those top small drums:

also, i would like a ride cymbal in place of the middle tom, like here: (the second cymbal from the left)

ignore his face i agree it looks a bit wierd... good kit though... i would like one like that, except maybe an explosion cymbal and a zildjian splash.

in case you didn't know, zildjian is a brand. the best brand. and, unfortunately, the most expensive brand. i don't have any of their cymbals... yet...

crash:

ride:

splash: these are like 8 inhes in diameter... so cute!

they're just plain beautiful...

this just makes me feel annoyed... they're all zildjian cymbals! just sitting there... waiting to be played... each about $700.. :(

so yeah i wish i had lots of money...

so i've concluded to get lots of money... so that means a better job - when i'm a year or two older. that pays more than a paper-run.. which is almost anything lol

nate

news:

so there's a three-night concert at the theatre, and we've been invited to play in it.
its cool! the last couple of our shows people have rung up and asked if we'd want to perform in it. we're spreading! :)
i think the experience would be good... cause it's 3 nights in a row. if we become big, we'd be doing tours and all, night after night, so this would be kinda a taste of it...
we're also looking at rocking up a christmas carol if we do get to play there... maybe a cover of one of relient k's ones...
we practiced our slot for parachute today... its going pretty good :)
our new song sounds good too... we're putting the finishing touches to it. unfortunately we don't have enough time for it at parachute with all our other's as well...
that's about all thats been up lately so yeah
nate

dear beka:

remember this:
nate

Realization (at last!)

I just realized something....
faith is not a work. It's not something we have to work at. It's just something which is.
and man i am glad Jesus said about "have faith as a mustard seed, and you can move mountains" cos sometimes I sure am not big on the faith department.
sometimes, as much as it pains me to say it, i would prefer to live on my non-existant self righteousness, which is worse than my spelling.
but i am a new man.
and i'm not going to do it, but somehow, God is.

Jordan

nz are in!

NEW ZEALAND BEAT BURMA in the World Cup qualifiying soccer match at Wellington tonight!!
We're in the world cup!
yussssssss!!!!!
nate

good times

so yesterday we did a photoshoot at the tennis courts - the last one while beka was 17! here's the pictures... they're awesome!

we set the camers tripod up and snapped pictures with beka's camera remote... crazy!

haha we had this red ukalale and jords was trying to rock it out so i stole it off him and started going crazy....

she told me to smile, so i had no choice...

more snapshots!

haha we were trying to do red's pose....

local!

beka wanted us to take pictures of her as well, so i got this one of her and i love it!

love you guys...

cool aye!

they're awesome

which one's your best?

nate

back home

new plymouth was awesome! we got back last night..i love that city, probably the best in nz.. me and jords didn't get much time with our mate, but still had a great time.
so today we got ready our songs for parachute.. there's five and i won't say them cause it'll be a surprise...
we also figured most our songs are on the 4-minute scale, which is a bit annoying, but that means none are super-short, which is also good.
haven't got any other details yet though, like when we're playing..
and apparently we're playing at youth group this friday... not sure when though...
that's about it
nate

eskimos, shopping trolleys, and sun!

i can't remember the last time we did one of these.... but yesterday at 6:30 in the morning me and jords and beka and dan went on an early morning photo-shoot.

first we stopped by the town hall because we saw an epic trolley nearby... and me and jords did something we've wanted to do all our lives:....go full speed through a deserted parking-lot in a shopping trolley at 6:30 in the morning!
haha kinda dodgy, but it was awesome fun! also, we put it back exactly where we found it. exactly.carparks rock... we're all playing our invisible instruments... not sure what dan's doing though! me with some cool light in the background...

it was real fun..

you guys are awesome!

nate