holidays....

its the holidays!
the other day i slept in till ten... it felt sooo good.
then the other day at eight or something i was asleep, peacefully dreaming, then rosie came and yelled "WAKE UP!!!!!" right in my ear. hehe cute but annoying.... (at the time)
the days are nearing down till our shows, and its almost october. so since its the holidays we did at least an hour of band practice today, including our songs for the garden expo. it went pretty good, just need to practice a few a bit more than others and yeah.
i can't say which one i'm looking forward to the most.
nate

Quite Exciting!

Our 1st show's less than two weeks away!
Sweet.
I'm quite looking forward to it. It's at night as well, so hopefully we can get lights.
When I last checked our performance was over 15 minutes (it was supposed to be 5 minutes long [gulp!]. Hopefully they don't mind the extra time. We might be able to cut it down. I'll have to talk to the guys.)
~All things work together for the good for those who love God~
it's working pretty good at the moment.
i wonder how long it'll last......
i think i'll listen to some philmont now. beka's not to fond of jake smith aye. i think it's pretty......intresting. =)
i learnt 21 guns on guitar the other day.
check the side of our post (where it says looklooklook) for the time.
Hope you can make it!

Jordan

New post

Man I haven't blogged in AGES! Sorry guys, I've just been so busy! Work experience, band practice, guitar practice........

Na actually to be brutally honest I've spent half my time mucking around reading books.

I dunno what it is about me and a good book. You just can't tear us apart. Seriously. I cannot stop till the end. Unfortunately I managed to find a good book at the library so I've been reading it all day......

I'm a serious bookworm.

Kinda like how Nate's a serious Panhead. (no it's not an insult it's just a nickname for a serious Skillet fan)

Right so today I've been thinking about originality. In an over-comercialized world it's pretty hard to find decent original stuff. Take music for example. We ourselves could sometimes fall into a musical cliche. Even though I'm not sure what style we are but I'm sure there's someone out there who sounds like us. And sometimes my songwriting is.....pretty average. 2 & 1/2 minute long punk rock song. Soooooooo been done before.

Why settle for less?

I myself am terrible. Apart from Rapture Ruckus and the odd FF5 song, my music on my mp3 consists of rock, rock, punk-rock, rock and worship rock. Appalling if you think about it. Not saying that there's anything wrong with the stufff. Don't get me wrong; I love it. It's just my musical taste is so narrow and defined to JUST that style that eventually it all starts to sound the same and it's no wonder I end up writing songs which sound like a the Afters ballad mixed with the musicality of punk-rockers Runkidrun.

I need to branch out. Find new tastes. I know these guys still kinda fall into my classic rock formula but I really like P.O.D and Evermore. The latter have a mean song called Can you hear me? It doesn't exactly go how you think it would but it still works. That's what I love about it.

I reckon I should branch out. Any suggestions for bands/artists? 1 thing only. They must not be punk-rock. Thanks. =)

And don't worry. I'll probably be dead before I can renounce my love my punk-rock love. =)

Don't know what's up with the smileys.

Jordan

P.s I think I should write a blues song.

$25-49!!!

Skillet - Awakeit is the best cd EVER!!!!!

i love every song on it!

only $25-49...

...and it was worth every cent

nate

hot chocolate.... (and some other stuff)

woah today it snowed for a bit... but it didn't settle and its stopped now :( but we might get more tommorow.. i hope so cause i want to make a snowman... :)
so jords had work today, and me and mum went to visit him at the Regent Cafe. i've actually never been there before! :) ...and mum brought me this:it was the nicest hot chocolate i've ever tasted. better than the wild bean cafe ones even! it was reallllly nice and hot. which was good cause it was SO FREEZING!!!!
hehe when beka got back from ucol she had snow all over her car! :) it wasn't snowing so hard here though...
umm i'm sure there was something else i's going to say but i've forgotten so...
nate
oh yeah i just remembered!
if the roads aren't blocked tommorow we're going to palmy.... and i'm going to get the new skillet album! aaargh i'm soooo excited about it.. i cannot wait.

Refocus

The other day I was on Cody's blog, and I saw the meanest post I've ever read about fame. It was mind-blowing stuff. Guess it made me look at our band, and more specifically, myself a little bit deeper and try and see our actual motives for stuff. If I'm being honest, the REAL reason I want to go on the debut stage at Parachute is probably pride. All in a good, "Christian" way of course, after all our songs aren't self-directed by any stretch, but still, underneath it all is that consuming desire to be on stage, strutting your stuff, showing to all the world that this is how you do your thing, play your music.
And that's the complete wrong view of looking at it.
I should want to play at Parachute not to feed my own pride, but to reach out. To bring to message, to be the message. Just cos Parachute's a Christian festival doesn't mean everyone who goes there is Christians. And Parachutes goal is to reach out to those people through decent Christian music. We should be playing for them, not for ourselves.
Spring is a good time of year. It's the time when it stops being rainy and you actually get a few days of sunshine. It's the time when the air is heady with blossom and the fields are green with white splotches of new-born lambs in. But more important than that, it's a time when you take off your heavy winter clothing, and re-evaluate who you are.
It's time to re-focus on who we are as a band. It's not about playing on bigger and bigger stages. It's about pouring our heart and soul into our music, and into connecting it to our audience, whether they consist of 12 people (our smallest crowd) or 100+ (our biggest.) To sing our songs for God.
That's when we'll know it's real, when we know that this is who we want to be.
From now on, this is for you guys, and for God.

Jordan

oh and guess what?

parachute answered us!
they said that they'll be able to let us know at the end of october.
i hope so!
like soooooo much...
its my dream to play there...
and they have their new website up!
http://www.parachutemusic.com/festival/
nate

ground zero is actually back!!!

this afternoon william texted me and jords and asked if we wanted a ground zero* practice at the church. so we grabbed our stuff and headed off.
it actually went really well. especially since we haven't practiced for a year! :( i mean it...:) we jammed out a bit, then played the opening of "meant to live" by switchfoot... it went pretty awesome. then we got chords for "new divide," linkon park's new song. we got that sorted, and set some mikes up and will and me sang, even though i didn't know most of the words. but i'm working it out!
so we were there for about two and a half hours in all, and finished with "new divide" which went awesome as. it was sooooo fun rocking it out just like the old time. even though we didn't get around to writing an actual song, it went awesome!
and lastnight me jord and beka went to the high school talent quest... which was really cool. they had a drum battle with two and a half drumkits! 16 cymbals! it was kinda cool....
nate
*ground zero is a side project of mayday, featuring nate on drums, jords on guitar, and william on guitar. haven't figured out who sings yet, but its most likely me and william.
sweeeeeet.....

Some guitar heroes. (who are not me.........not yet! =] haha)

Ok I'm really excited about our two shows. We've managed to get the first one sounding top notch. The second one will be a bit tougher playing a full gig but we're geting there, slowly.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to go meet my ex-guitar teachers brother-in-law (what a mouthful!) Sam. My guitar teacher had been going on about him for soooooooooo long you'd think he was Steve Vai or something. Ok, he wasn't quite that good but still. Only guy I've ever seen to sit down at a guitar and play instant leads. Seriously. He could just hum something random and then play it on the spot. Or find a tune which sounded sad or happy in a second. He could even play most of Always with me, Always with you!
That's pretty talented.
This guy below is insane. You just want to punch him in the face! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fPv450OYM


So yep. We had a bit of a practice today and now I'm feeling a bit......inadequete, if you know what I mean.
Still, that's the only thing you can't do with songs like that. Mosh (or dance) to them.
Which (hopefully) you can do with ours.

Jordan

a few things....

number one: on saturday morning we're waking up at quarter to six and going on a photoshoot down that real long road by the domain. i can't wait!!!!! we haven't done one of these for soooo long, like since February! i remember the fressh morning air, and how quiet the world is at six in the morning. its going to be awesome!

number two: i learnt how to count in japenese yesterday! :) it goes, itchi, ne, san, shi, go, rocco, itch-itchi, hat-chi, coo, then ju. or at least i think thats how it goes. epic. now if a japenese talks to me i can say, "..." well actually i wouldn't be able to anything, really. but that doesn't matter! now i can tell people i can count to ten in english, and japenese? how about that? minnnnnt..... :)

number three: i want this car:what is it with orange?

number four: orange juice! mum has this juicer in her new whizz, and we have this massive bag of oranges. and so she makes this yum as orange juide out of it. and its got little bits of orange in which i love as well! i'm actually drinking some right now. i luvluvluv it!!!!

nate

we have TWO shows!!!!!!!!

TWO!!!!!!!
mintmintmintmintmint!!!
check out our show list two see the dates and the locations...
its real good too get back into it....
theres this feeling when your onstage playing for people and i luv it...
our show list's been empty since june!
if you can be there, awesome.
if you can't - next time :)
excited as right now...
nate

I love this song.

FM STATIC: Sometimes you can forget who you are.

Every day I get a little closer to/ the things that I want to say with my my life/ in no particular order/I'd like to make some sort of mark so the world knows I was here

And I've been thinking about/ How I could scream it out loud/ Or paint a picture somehow/ A thousand miles long/ And I've been trying till now/These walls are freaking me out/ Just need to let it all out/ And reach out

Cos sometimes you can forget who you are

I'm sick of trying to make it/ I spent so many nights, trying to get it all right/ I'm sick and tired of waiting/ For someone to see, and start believing in me/ But I know I'm not out here on my own......

Every year I get a little further from/ Old misconceptions that take the place of/ Mistakes and lessons/ There's things I've learned from/ Thing's I've been burned from/ It's part of who I am

There's been a lot of people think I'm getting nowhere/ Times that by ten for every time I felt like turning around/ But every time you said push on and keep your head up/ Kept me on track from letting myself get fed up

Jordan

Grow up.

How do you know you're growing up?
Is it because you're 3 inches taller than when you were last measured?
Or is it something different?
I don't think growing up has anything to do with height.
I grew for ages and became taller than my dad, without even standing on tiptoes. But I still felt like a little kid still.
Then I turned 16.
Now I've got my restricted licence (I got it yesterday! I love driving by myself) and a work experience job at a cafe. It's so much fun, but it's so different at the same time.
But I feel actually confident. I'm not scared anymore.
I'm ready for this.

Jordab

You don't know where life's going to take you, so enjoy the journey

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."
~Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the ring

I love this quote so much.
It just makes sooooooooo much sense.
It's hard to keep your feet when everything around you is falling down.
I'm glad I've got my feet on the Rock.
It's not that bad really.
Serious.
It's just sometimes I think we're never going to make it.
Why am I so scared of failing?

Jordan

a nice piece of art on a whiteboard..

today me and jords went up with beka and catherine to palmy.... cause i was beka's model for a picture she had to take in the ucol studio.
so they were setting up all the lights and stuff, saying, "2.8, go up a bit," and other weird things which sounded like a different language.
so me and jords were a bit bored.... and there was this massive whiteboard behind us. jords wrote something on it, then i did.
after a while, between photo's, we'd got to this:it was pretty epic. afterwards everyone was admiring it. it was awesome. we wrote the randomest things though, and drew the randomest pictures. it was sooooo fun!
if anyone rubs it off, we'll bash them....
it'll take ages to rub it all off hehe..
it's a work of art.
we should be famous for it.
nate

You must comment on this blog

I hate those two words.
Zero Comments.
As a band, we love to have feedback about our photos, us, our blog, but most importantly our music.
I'm not saying you have to but if you dropped us a comment it would be greatly apreciated.
Here's something to talk about:
We have a SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is more than just a three songs set-like everywhere else we've played. We could probably play all our songs if we wanted to.
Be there or be square!
(Unless you live in the USA of course.)
Here it is:

Garden and Craft Expo
17th of October 2009

That's all the info we have for now, but we'll get more up as we find out.
We've been practicing hard out to get tight enough for this, as it'll probably be our biggest gig to date.

Jordan

joshua 1:5

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life: as I was with with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

brad from rapture ruckus gave me that verse. i love it.

nate

The Parachute Roadshow....

it went like this:

there's a Parachute Roadshow going through 11 locations in New Zealand. it features: Rapture Ruckus, Parachute Band, and Juliagrace.

so our Youth Group went up to the Palmy one yesterday night.

Rapture Ruckus were AMAZING!!!

they did their new song, "hold on," i lovelovelove it.... it almost made me cry...

this is Brad Dring, their singer. he is the man. i took tones of pictures of him onstage on my phone camera:

and i loved his shirt! it was like checker-boarded with lots of colours! style :)

Parachute Band and Juliagrace were pretty good too, but Rapture Ruckus wsa the BEST!

and guess what i got my rapture ruckus drumsticks signed by him! see: :)

it was an awesome night...

nate

I'M SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

tonight our youth group is going to a Parachute Roadshow in Palmy. can't wait!!!!
its featuring Parachute Band, Juliagrace, and RAPTURE RUCKUS!!!!!!!!!!
i cannot wait....
4 and a bit hours and i'll be moshing it away....
yussssss
nate

NEW! NEW! NEW! New Song lyrics!

Ok here it is.
The lyrics to Mayday's 13th (or therabouts) song.
Sorry it took so long to get up, but we had such a long time choosing a good name for it. Even longer than the title of Not Forsaken (Fight for something that's worth everything.)
Eventually we finally got one though.
This song was truly inspired. We started just playing this guitar riff which just rose up and up. Nate kicked in with his drums, then Dan started playing this mean harmony with his violin. Then he pretty much made up the words just like that. And they were even better than some of the song lyrics I've poured over. It was truly God working through us. I've never experienced anything like it and probably never will again.
Here it is:


MORE THAN JUST DREAMING.

There's something inside/ I'm looking for/ That's hiding behind/ All these closed doors

And I'm reaching out/ To grab hold/ Of somehthing inside/ Of my soul



And I know/ I know it's there




Tonight, tonight/ I've found you here/ Tonight, tonight/ You're everywhere.

[repeat]

(c) copyright Mayday 2009

Jordan

R.I.P Arms Reach.

Yesterday I recieved the most gutting news.

Never a good thing to happen on your birthday.

Arms Reach, my second favourite Nz band, who hard out rocked Parachute '09.............

......................have disbanded.

I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

=( =( =[ #( #( #( #( #[ #[ #[

I almost cried.

Ever since I saw their mean picture on the Parachute '09 website I became obsessed with them. I really wanted to see them at In His Honour but I had to wait for Parachute.

It was worth it.

Their Mainstage perfomance: simply awesome. I moshed in jandals carrying a waterbottle. Very hard to do I tell you. Then I took them off and jumped around so much I hit a stone. It hurt. But I didn't really care at the time.

Then I got to see them again on Sunday, straight after Kingston, and that was even better. They played one of their best songs, Someone Save Us which they hadn't done on Mainstage. They had this big crasy dance party in the middle of Stop Talking, Start Dancing. A whole bunch of randoms just came on stage, frenzedly dancing, before leaving after the chorus. It was stinking awesome.

I wished I could have seen their final show.

And it said their cd was going to be downloaded free off their myspace. But the link had expired, so I couldn't get anything. =(

Farewell Arms Reach. You will be sorely missed.

Jordan

P.s Their song Stop Talking, Start Dancing inspired me to write Crash this Party. Look them up. It's worth it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday.
The funny thing was, on previous birthdays, I still felt the same age as the day before.
For example, when I turned 13, I still felt like I was 12.........
But on this birthday, I actually felt like I was my proper age.
Like I fitted.
I think I'm growing up.

Jordan

P.s Thanks everyone for the lovely presents-guitar case, gift vouchers, a hot wheels car (now I have to get my restricted-thanks Chris! =]. Give me some motivation man.) a RunKidRun cd [it's mint]............
P.s.s Something you may or may not know. It was also Daniels birthday too. (No we are not twins!) He had the skills to get born 4 years after me on the exact same date. Must of known it was a cool day or something.

its been a year....

.... since i set up that hot green tempo dixon drumkit in our sitting-room. i got it at this exact time last year.
nate