A bit of an update, and some AWESOME news!

Wow, it has been some time since I blogged last! Been crazy busy at university as all my assignments/ tests start snowballing into one rather hectic schedule. Although with the rate I procrastinate I probably could have finished them all and written 3 blog posts! But oh well, we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, seeing as it's been a while since I posted, I thought I'd give you a rundown on whats been going on. I'm going to have to break this into sections haha.

Study

What is this study you speak of? Apart from the fact that I'm still not very motivated about it, I'm quite enjoying university at the moment. I seem to be doing ok too - got my first lot of results back the other day. C+, B+ and an A-. How very alphabetical.

Probably the best thing about uni this year, other than getting to watch Bollywood films in Media studies (favourite paper!) and meeting some cool new people was my last academic writing assignment. We had to pick a journal article for it to write about, which in itself isn't terribly interesting. However my article was actually awesome cos it properly introduced me to the Kinks, who are now one of my favourite bands. It really is a shame these guys never aspired to the heights of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones because if you ask me the Kinks give them a run for their money, and at times even better them! Don't believe me? Go listen to "Misfits" and then try telling me that isn't one of the most well-crafted songs you've ever heard.

Life

I've become addicted to walnuts and milo and skating. Though Not all at the same time. 

Oh and I (finally) bought a new guitar! As seen above. It is one meeeeeeean axe, plays somewhat similar to my brothers Epiphone Les Paul Special but I got it for a fraction of the price. Well, half. Either way it was a sweet deal because this is such a nice guitar. Real grunty, and roars incredibly when you shove it through some overdrive. Just needs a set of new strings and I'm set to crank the metal! (Well, try). No but seriously though, I'm so excited about this. It's the first electric I've bought in years and has SO many differences to my other guitar. Looking forward to jamming this beast out a whole lot more in the near future!

 Faith

While this one's probably the hardest to define using concrete events, it's been going well. I guess? I still feel I could be so much closer to God than I am at the moment. Still, church & life group have been a big part of my life this year and it's all such an awesome space to be in. I feel really privileged and blessed to be part of it all.
Lately I've taken to reading the word when I wake up. Which is actually so good, because I can concentrate heaps better. At night I find I get distracted real easy.... It's just a good way to start the day I find. Also I've been finding so many verses which speak volumes to me about pretty much everything, so I've been underlining those! Got plenty of "Scribbles" to chose from when I write one next.

Music

As usual, I've been spending a LOT of time jamming the new tunes. Radiohead are still high on the playlist at the moment - I'm loving all the stuff from In Rainbows! Yeah I know I'm like 6 years behind the times.... but oh well.
I've weirdly been jamming a whole lot of music which isn't really my norm - funk, hiphop, metal. It's good though.
I've been getting SUPER excited about the new The National album "Trouble Will Find Me". I got addicted to these guys sound near the end of last year, when heavy into my ambient music phase (which is probably still going haha). Their song "Fake Empire" would probably rank somewhere in my Top 10 songs ever written if I ever was to compose such a list. Anyway, the new album is sounding absolutely STUNNING from the songs I've heard of it which have been pre- released on Youtube. "I Need My Girl" and "Rylan" are such good songs both lyrically and musically, and then "Don't Swallow the Cap" (which I'm listening to right now coincidentally), while taking a few more listens is actually a gem of a song. Especially the last twenty seconds. That guitar tone/effect is absolutely incredible. Can't wait till the 20th of May when they finally release it!

On a different topic, seeing as it's music month here in little New Zealand, where the whole country finally decides to pay attention to it's wealth of talented artists (or at least the mainstream ones....), I thought I'd join in the buzz. The above album cover, while being pretty hideous artistically, is for a sweet Kiwi band called Carb On Carb who are actually very good. Don't judge the cd by it's cover! Seriously though, I had the pleasure of seeing this epic 2-piece at a gig a few weeks ago and they were one of the highlights of a night which included some crazy dancing, talking to some guy who used to drive rickshaws for a living, my flatmate's band rocking the stage, and this other band who managed to pull off a decent cover of a Band of Horses song. So for these guys to make an impression during all that was pretty impressive. I was looking up some of their tunes online and stumbled across this lovely EP of theirs which can be downloaded from http://carboncarb.bandcamp.com/. It's really good, especially the last track! If you're into melodic punk, or female-fronted rock bands that don't sound like Paramore (unfortunately all to rare in todays world), go check them out!

Personally I've been jamming music a lot lately. Found out I lived next door to a drummer the other day, and we've been having a few informal practices together which is cool cos he's pretty much at the same skill level as me. So cool just to jam random tunes again!
Also I got invited to join a band at Crossroads which is going to be playing for their youth service next week! Pretty exciting stuff, but also slightly nerve-wracking because I haven't played in a band for so long and I'm actually pretty rusty.... 

And now for the exciting news...

 

Yeah. This happened.

FINALLY, after a good year and a half of living in P-town, I joined/started a band!
Considering how long I spent on the lookout wondering about it, the whole thing happened surprisingly fast. The majority of us all met each other last year during the Ucol music course, and the two months we spent playing together was truly awesome, as we gelled so much musically as well as personally. Seeing as we were all still in Palmy, we decided it'd be a good idea to get together and jam out, and Caleb invited one of his mates to come jam some bass with us. And the rest is history (or hopefully will be!).
Seriously probably the most exciting things to happen EVER! We're all super serious about our music, and the range of styles we can play is eclectic in every sense of the word. Looking forward to the future with these guys!
Go check us out at http://www.facebook.com/PreetiAndTheGentlemen?ref=ts&fref=ts and give us a like or two! Hopefully we'll have some stuff up soon!


Well, that was probably the most exciting post I've done all year! But it's getting late and I'm mega tired after a long day of uni and playing music, so I better hit the hay.

Catch you on the flipside guys! And go give my bandpage a like - you know you want to! 

Qualified!

It's official now!

I actually have a Certificate qualification to my name, proof of my completed studies in music.

This is a good day....

Not going to lie, I'm pretty stoked with my achievement. Even though it was only a year, it was a year filled with blood, sweat and tears. Nights where I'd lock myself in my room, and practice and practice my chops. Day after day where I'd cart my not-so-light guitar down the road for the twenty-odd minutes it took to walk to UCOL. Hours spent trawling Youtube and the internet, listening to music that I'd never heard before and googling random facts about bands.

That was the year where I discovered the heaviness of As I Lay Dying, Animals As Leaders and Depths. Where I listened to reggae for the first time and found magic hidden in the simplistic chords and chilled-out beats of The Black Seeds and Bob Marley. The year where my ears, and my fingers finally adjusted to blues and the incredible solos of greats such as BB King, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn. More importantly, it was when I discovered the power and depth to ambient indie music such as Sigur Ros, Bon Iver and (to some extent) Radiohead - all 3 of which would go on to becoming some of my favorite bands.

All of these in their own ways went to helping me really develop in songwriting in huge steps and bounds. From the backwards structure of my rock & roll riff we based our 50's style "Take My Baby Home" to the bluesy twang of a slide which I utilized for my "slow solo" in "Lonely Baby Blues".  Then there was the backbeat strum and entire bridge section I added to our punk rock kiwi original "Running To The Sun" (probably one of my favourite songs to write/play EVER), as well as the little instrumental flourishes I added to give depth and texture to "The Hospital" and "Nothing Stays The Same". Finally there was two of my proudest moments with "We Are Still One" and "Prodigal". Despite never having written (or played for that matter!) reggae or country I somehow managed to write full songs in both genres which actually played off pretty well. In terms of music and songwriting, it was a year well spent.

But perhaps almost equally in terms with musical achievement was the fact that it was one of the best years of my life. I was hanging out with a bunch of super cool people, doing what I loved best (playing music, duh!) and just generally having a good time! It really was awesome in hindsight being surrounded by people who were equally as passionate about music as me - we all got on really well (most of the time) and had quite a few laughs along the way. I made a couple of really, really good friends from my time there, and it was super awesome to catch up & graduate with a few of them today.

In a weird kind of way, I guess I slightly miss it. Playing music every second or third week was actually AWESOME! Not only did I get more comfortable with playing & performing, found out I could branch out a bit more (first year playing anything other than a guitar!), and made a lot of musical friends/contacts but I realised something really important. That this is what I loved doing more than anything in the world. And that no matter the circumstances, it is really important to follow your dreams and do what you love - not what you're good at, not what others tell you to do, not what seems the safest option. No - DO what you LOVE! Even if it's something as obscure and hard to succeed in as music! JUST DO IT! You'll find it drives you in a way that few other things can.

And I think one of the saddest things in the world is when people never get to do this. Some people never get the opportunity - and that's heartbreaking enough. Yet even worse is when you have the chance, but never take it. Or by the time you decide to it's almost too late and you're left wishing you'd gone for it years ago.

So on the eve of my graduation, I offer you this advice. I'm no world-weary musician - in many ways, I still feel like I'm beginning. I don't know it all, but I've been a few places and seen a few things, so don't completely disregard what I say just cos of my upbringing, beliefs, age or writing. This is legit good advice which I believe if applied can change your life in ways you won't believe.

Quite simply put, it falls into that cliched statement: Follow your dreams. Even if they're big. Even if people laugh at you for having them. Even if secretly you think you suck. I've been there, I've felt all these things. But screw what people tell you. If you have a dream, it's worth chasing, it's worth fighting for. And don't ever forget it!!





One (now qualified!) musician, out.

Jords

2012: The Year In Review

January

In January I got real excited about the music of 2011, which was kind of a start to the album reviews I would do later in the year. I also went and checked out Parachute which was pretty fantastic. It was also the month where I had to break by far the most meaningful and difficult news to the 29 or so followers: The impending breakup of my former band (which was also what this blog used to be about). As well as leaving me feeling more than a little lost musically, I had to also wonder: just what was I going to do with this blog? What was there to write about anymore? Should I even keep at it?

February

February was an interesting month - it was all about endings and beginnings for me. As I ended my 3-month stint working and prepared for the changes of university I got a little bit retrospective with this post. On top of that I moved into the hostel, and had a deep and meaningful revelation about giving.

March

This was a sweet month I spent meeting everyone in the Hostel and making plans for the year. I also finally reached 30 followers! Ok for everyone out there with blog followers in their hundreds, that's not too much of an achievement, but I was pretty stoked about it! I also got a bit of attention with a sweet post about justice, which was unfortunately linked with the Kony craze going on at the moment. But despite being slightly misinformed on that fact, I don't regret anything I said. I also wrote my first song of the year "I Can't Say".

April

Chilled out in the holidays, tried to learn blues, bought a new guitar, blogged about Saturdays and about my favorite guitar models. That was pretty much April for me...

 May 

In May I blogged some more about guitar models and went to watch The Avengers (such a good movie!!!). Unfortunately I got a little bit gutted about life & my musical direction - which was kind of ironic seeing as May was when I also got my second song for the year - "Breathe". This song out of any I've written highlighted my desire to want to make something new and "blaze a new trail", as well as musically telling of my experimentation and growing fascination with ambient music.

June

In June I finally took the first steps in re-creating my musical direction with a change of blog address and launching my Youtube channel (which unfortunately has been shamefully neglected of late). On top of that I was in the thick of it at Ucol spending long days practicing for our rock gig (Cream & Tool are not the easiest bands to cover!!!) and recording/mixing music. This was an important month for me too, as I discovered a band which now rank up in my top 5 artists - Imagine Dragons. I also went a bit nuts reviewing their incredible EP.  

July

We had our mid-year performance at the Globe in July, which was were I took this photo. Somehow, despite being spectacularly busy, I managed to blog the most this month, with a grand total of 14 posts. Some of my the best from July were my musings about My Favorite Guitarists, Life being awesome and my review of Sigur Ros' Valtari. 

August

I didn't post much in August (probably because I was worn out from July!) but it was still a pretty good month. I went up to Mt Ruhapahu with some friends and pretty much had the best day ever. I also was hugely surprised when the reggae song I'd written,"We Are Still One", won the best song award at our gig and we got to record it the next day. 

Oh and I got a year older...

September

In September I blogged about two topics which have had a large impact on me: Love and Insomnia.  I also got a physical copy of Night Visions by Imagine Dragons and went on a bit of a rave in my review.

October

October found me rekindling my love with lists in this post. I also found out that writing about 31 things takes up a whole lot of time! I also wrote another list, this one on things you can get up to in the holidays, and had a bit of fun at Ucol jamming everyone's favorite style of music - country. 

November

November was a good month. I wrote one of the coolest songs of my life with "Prodigal" and had fun performing it at Murpheys Brewery, despite tuning problems (a guitarist's worst nightmare!). Despite having problems with writers block, I managed to blog a bit. I somehow managed to create a post that was retrospective, tinged with sadness and yet hopeful for the future with "I spent all November saying goodbyes". We also had our final performance for the year at the Regent, which despite epically failing this one intro, was the best night of my life and some of the finest stage work/musicianship I've been privileged to be a part of.

December

Well the last month of the year is well and truly upon us - in fact in one day it will be over! It hasn't been without it's share of adventures though, what with moving into a flat, working long days, surviving the end of the world and Christmas. I also managed to find the time to start my current feature "19 Things I Like About..." with this post.

There's so much I could say about it, but it's late and I'm mega tired so everything from now on will probably be a blur as I zone out and my fingers keep typing random words.... hgahghahg9aiidz;dkakznvoanga 0jgoaerkzg[a p[jga[jga gja-

Ok that was a joke but seriously I've always wanted to do that on my blog. Haha.

What I shall briefly say before we part ways is thank you so much for following/ reading my adventures through 2012. Your support really means a lot, and I hope you've enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have writing them!

Catch you on the flipside,

Jordan

31 = AWESOME!

Ok, so it's not quite the 31st of October yet, but it IS only 1 day away. And besides the number 31 is totally awesome. Not only is it the date of my birthday, but I just checked the followers list and now I finally have 31 followers! Thanks Stephen!!!!! You have no idea how long I've been waiting for that "30 followers" sidebar to creep up.
But I guess in the last couple of months there hasn't really been anything much worth following. So today I thought I'd do something different for a change, and post 31 reasons why YOU should keep on reading The Falling Movement!

1. There's usually photos to look at! Like this pretty sweet picture of a whole lot of 31's. Or 13's if you read them backwards....
I'd love to say that I was the insanely creative person who took these pictures and compiled them all together, but unfortunately I have to give all the credit to Google Images this time.

2. I can make a lot of average things sound interesting when I really want to. Even just talking about my day makes for a few good yarns usually.

3. I'm from New Zealand. 'Nuff said.

4.  Blogging is so much cooler than Facebook.

5. I have a fetish for writing lists (like the one you're reading now), which always seems to work well because it means I can say a whole lot of stuff and include numbers like 31. Actually, maybe not - this has probably been my longest list to date. But some of the others have been pretty decent - this one's a particular favorite: http://thefallingmovement.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/my-top-15-guitarists.html

6. One day I want to write for a living. And I think that's worth getting behind!!

7. I post slightly nerdy musical posts on occasion. If that's your thing, then there's another reason to stay! If not, keep scrolling and you're bound to find something you like!!!

8. On occasion I do spontaneous awesome random things, and chronicle the events Like for example I was supposed to be writing this post last night, but at 11.30 my mate messaged me on Facebook and was like "Hey, want to come to the beach?" So I ended up out at Himitangi at 1.30 under the light of a full moon walking across the sand, staring at squashed blowfish, doing the Gangam Style dance (or trying too), and almost getting "trapped" by a super big wave with 3 really good friends. It was such a good way of spending the night!!!!

9. One day soon, I'm going to post about zombies.

10. 31 followers can't be wrong!

11. I really, really, really like music. And I post about it heaps!!! In fact, it would be an interesting challenge to sift through my blog and find how many posts don't talk about/include the word music. Bet it would be a very small percentage!!!
Any takers?

12. Speaking of music, I've written some pretty rad music reviews about artists/albums. Here's a few of my best: Four, The xx, Valtari.

13. I get really excited about this cool band Imagine Dragons who are making a few waves in the music scene at the moment.... http://thefallingmovement.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/album-review-night-visions.html

14. Spontaneous rhyming: http://thefallingmovement.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/mumerings-of-assent.html

15. One day I might just post up some short fictional tales. And that could be interesting.

16. Sometimes I start getting a bit deep and it's interesting to see what topics come out: love, running, other things....

17. God totally makes my life! And that's worth raving about in multiple posts.

18. There's totally enough links in this post alone for you to be reading for ages. And we're not even up to number 20 yet!!!

19. My blog is kind of like a "Message in a Bottle".
(Actually I only said that because I'm listening to The Police right now...)

20. If you don't keep reading, then this guys coming to get you!!
Haha I joke, I joke....

21.  As noted in the previous reason, I have quite a good sense of humour :D

22. I write songs and usually some, if not all, of the lyrics get posted up here. I love getting feedback from other bloggers about them, and it's just awesome being able to share my words and music with people in this extremely personal way. My best (so far) have been Symphony Of The Heart, Love is More Than This, and Breathe. For more, go into the LYRICS list in the sidebar! Check it out!

23. Speaking of songwriting, I wrote this awesome as BRAND NEW song last weekend, and the lyrics are definitely going to be posted up here in the next couple of days. Get excited!!!

24. The 25th reason is simply because this blog is awesome!

25. This blog is awesome!

26. The whole reason I changed my blog to it's current, awesome name is to promote this on-off side project I've got going called The Falling Movement music. The reason behind the title is because the words "falling" and "movement" have so much meaning and have been themes which run through both my life and my music.

27. And on occasion, music does get released! So far just one instrumental track has been put out onto the world wide web, the song in question found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxOGFh67Ss&feature=g-user-lik. But rest assured, there's more coming your way!



28. People from Alaska have read my blog! :O

29. I do try to dish up healthy servings of inspiration and meaning. Not just always blog about random stuff. Though that's always fun.

30. I stayed up till 12.12 writing this (wow what an exact time!) Now that's got to be worth at least one comment, if not three or four! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaseeee? :)

31. 31 reasons weren't actually to hard to find (though I do apologize for 24 & 25, I got a bit tired there sorry) and that must mean we've got something good going on here!

Cheers for reading/ following guys!!!

Life is amazing!

Had the bestest of days today!
For class today, we had to travel to Wanganui and play a gig. Just casual as! It went really well, we set up everything pretty much all by ourselves, and in double-quick time too! And everyone played super well too! All the songs I was playing in were first on the setlist, which was pretty cool cos I got to watch everyone else. The weather was actually really nice, and we were playing on a sweet outdoor stage in the square with awesome acoustics. I love playing outdoors!
Oh and a few of us walked around taking heaps of pictures, so once I get hold of a them, I might put a few up.....
Apart from a bit of study, that was pretty much my afternoon. Then tonight we had Lifegroup, which was SO awesome! I actually missed it heaps over the holidays.... it was great to see everyone again! And when we got into it, things got even better! Had some super deep conversations - but it was so good! I came away feeling super encouraged and MEGA excited about what God's doing in me, in our group, in Palmerston North, and just LIFE itself!!!
Plus, me and my friend Nathan had this great idea of helping each other out with reading the Bible, which is something I've been getting into heaps lately. And I'm SO EXCITED for it! It'll be great to get another opinion on some of the more confusing chapters in there, as well as general encouragement from the Bible's awesome pages.
YUSS! Stoking over everything right now! Life is awesome! God is awesome! Things are just awesome!
Hope you've had just as good a day as me. Because you're pretty awesome too!

Catch you on the flipside!

What would be awesome....

Things that would be awesome right now:

- Skittles.
- If I found out Imagine Dragons were coming to play in New Zealand.
- A plane ticket to Italy.
- No writers block, so I didn't have to revert to lists....
- My computer to work properly.
- Being in a band.
- Not having to play reggae tomorrow. One-chord songs get a little bit boring.
- There being a decent tab for "Exodus" by Bob Marley, so I could play a little more than one chord...
- A mandolin.
- Finally finishing this new song of mine.
- If they sold Broken Record's cds in New Zealand.
- And Imagine Dragons' cds for that matter.
- Some awesome person deciding to be the 31st follower of my blog.
- Some equally awesome person suggesting it to some fellow bloggers. If you can do that....
- Zombies.
Actually wait, now that I think about that, that particular thing might not be that great.
- What would be great though, was if the new season of The Walking Dead came out on TV so I could watch some fake zombies getting fake killed. It's a great show.
- This year going slow instead of fast.
- 10 + comments. Haha.
- Getting my act together, and doing all those things I keep putting off.
- Getting an email which was actually from someone rather than just spam or notifications from Trademe, Facebook, NoiseTrade, whatever.
- Owning a longboard.

Things that are awesome right now:
- That people still read my blog : )
- Spotify! I love listening to new music! And it streams so fast, and is ethical for artists as well! TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS IN ONE PLACE!
- The Bible.
- That I can write a whole blog post, when I thought I had nothing to say. Even if it's not one of my best....
And finally...
- Despite the fact that today could have been so much better, the great thing about life is I still have the potential, and the means to do something about most of those things which could be better.
After all, life is 10% what you're handed, and 90% what you make it.