Capharnaüm

[Brian Dobbs]

Stephan, be sure to take some video footage of the recording process so we can get the inside scoop.

[KevinMakesMusic]

i can totally relate to that.  I'm prepping for the studio now and getting on top of the guitar parts is a lot more work than people think.  Do you do anything special or unique to prepare?

[Stephan]

Yes, I practice A LOT! hehehe

[KevinMakesMusic]

me too.  i can usually get 2-3 hours a day after work, and sometimes i feel like it's still not enough.

[Brian Dobbs]

Along with Dimitar's album, I think I'll add this to my Christmas list too.

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Stephan,

Haven't hear from ya in awhile: busy recording I'm sure. How is that going?

Tim

[Stephan]

Hey there,
   not really recording, just having a busy week at the office plus, I'm still learning songs and thightening (sp?) the others.

We have a gig on november 17th and december 6th.  The nov. 17th one is a showcase presented to judges only. If we are selected, we will take part on a nice gig at a famous club in Montreal called The Club Soda. We will play only 3 songs from the first album: Tokamak, Atomic Disco and Feedback. We hope we will be selected so, I'm double checking on those to be played perfectly, soundwise and execution-wise!!

For the december 6th gig, it's a triple program! We will have Feed the Ghost as our opening act, then us, Capharnaüm and then, one of my drummer's other bands which I still struggle to memorize the name!   

So yes, I'm not giving that much news right now but I was planning to do so during the weekend!

I have yet to write about my learning and composition process so stay tuned! 

[phyziczteacher]

Good, because I've been waiting on that!

Tightening? Is that what you meant?

Tokamak, Atomic Disco, and Feedback: killer songs dude. I'd be surprised if you didn't get in.

Well...happy playing/learning!

Tim

[KevinMakesMusic]

I'm all about learning how other musicians compose and write, so when you get a chance, make sure to let us in on your process 

Good luck with the gigs, too!

[Brian Dobbs]

a famous club in Montreal called The Club Soda

That's a great name for the club.

[phyziczteacher]

Hey bro,

Did you hear your tunes on the A' Hour this morning? I thought they were great! So did Jeremy.

Just wanted to give you a buzz...er...ring...I mean...shout out? 

Tim

[Stephan]

It felt great to hear songs from the band I'm in! If only I was the creator of these fine bass lines!

Glad you guys liked them!

As for me giving updates and whatnot, I'm deeply sorry that I haven't done so yet, I have a hard time keeping up the pace with all the things I have to do!
I put time and efforts where it's the most needed!
I will do as promised nonetheless! Promised! 

Later!

[Stephan]

Ok guys, here's a quick diary of what's going on:

We have an audition next monday (17th) in front of music industry bigshots for a gig next january at the Club Soda in Montreal.
We're really looking forward to this one!
So, what am I doing to prepare myself for this?
First, since I still have to learn new songs and soon, compose bass lines with François, I try not to over-saturate my brain by practicing 187 hours a day! 
I first play the three songs we have picked for this audition:

- Tokamak
- Atomic Disco
- Feedback

The first round of playing these is bass only with a click. This part is broken down into two sub parts:
- Play every passages I might have more difficulties a few times until it feels cool and smooth
- Play the song entirely with the click

I do this for the 3 songs. If everything is smooth and comfy, I play them along the original track.
If I have a hard time in a passage while playing either with the click or the full song, I stop, play that part slowly aain until I get it right and smooth again.

The trick is ALWAYS to play everything real slow and build the speed up gradually while keeping a nice clean tone and sound.
I tend to build the speed up a little bit faster than the original so that when I play it at the right speed, it's really comfy.

Then I take a break.

After 30 minutes or so, I play the entire batch of songs I know regardless of any errors I could do so I can practice those passages later the same way I explained earlier.
Then after, onto the new songs.
Right now I'm on an already written bass line for the song Harpsy (which can be found on our official website in the music section)
I have about 1/3 of the song learned and mastered. From this 1/3, a lot of the riffs are re-used later in it in different dynamics and forms so, it's more a matter of learning the structure of this one.
I break down the song riff by riff with Cubase using markers so I can play each marked sections in loop and play along. Also, I can copy the passage between the markers to paste it in a new audio track which I apply a time stretching effect so I can have a slower version to practice with. Then, I apply the same pattern as described earlier about the speed at which I play it.
The rest of the work is to listen to the song over and over and over all day long to really get it in my mind and once in a while, I just stop doing anything I'm doing and concentrate on the structure. I usually write down some notes when I do that.

That's about how I do things to learn songs and how I prepare before a gig.
The day of the gig, I usually just play the songs as if I was hitting the stage and play in front of people.
For having played in front of 25 000 people in 2006, I have a hell of a good idea of imagining lots of people piercing me with their staring eyes watching everything I do! 

Alright, that's all folks! I hope it was an interesting read for you as it was for me to write it!

Later!

Stéphan

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Steph,

I definitely enjoyed your "diary" entry.

The first round of playing these is bass only with a click. This part is broken down into two sub parts:
- Play every passages I might have more difficulties a few times until it feels cool and smooth
- Play the song entirely with the click

Nice...the ability to play with a click track is critical for good musicians IMO.

The trick is ALWAYS to play everything real slow and build the speed up gradually while keeping a nice clean tone and sound.
I tend to build the speed up a little bit faster than the original so that when I play it at the right speed, it's really comfy.

Absolutely! If you can't play something slow, fast and anything in between, you really don't have it mastered.

Then I take a break.

What the heck? Get your *ss back to work! 

The rest of the work is to listen to the song over and over and over all day long to really get it in my mind and once in a while, I just stop doing anything I'm doing and concentrate on the structure. I usually write down some notes when I do that.

I find that to be a very important aspect. Simply listening to a song over and over does wonders, because when you play live, you have to know the song on an intimate level...ok that sounded weird, but you know what I mean. 

For having played in front of 25 000 people in 2006, I have a hell of a good idea of imagining lots of people piercing me with their staring eyes watching everything I do!

Wow!  That's a lot of people. I only hope I can play to a fifth of that many people one day. \

Thanks for the behind the scenes look at what you are doing. I can't wait to start working on our new album and share our progress here!

I can't wait to here how you guys do!

Rock on!

[Brian Dobbs]

Awesome, loved the post.  Oh yeah, 25,000 is a lot of people.  How did that gig come about?  Whoa!

[Stephan]

Glad you liked it!
About that gig? Well, that's funny question because I was dining with the lead singer of that band tonight and with some other friends too about that gig and the year after's gig which had about 18000 ~ 19000 people showing up! We talked about the opportunity and how we pulled that off.
Funny question because we realized tonight that we've done a miracle!!
So here goes the story: I met this singer in 2005 and we started building  band together. A french rock cover band that is. About one month after we got the band formed, my singer, who's a vocal trainer working at our city's music school, receives a call from his boss that ask him that if the band he's in could do an outdoor gig for that party about the Canada day, july 1st. So we talked about it and decided to do the gig. Then, we got some special requests that we could turn down but required a lot of vocals for the harmonies and stuff and also, some were requiring a violin and harmonica. So the singer got a bit nervous about all this new stuff. In the meantime, we realized our rythm guitar player wasn't that good to be able to learn and play those songs well in a timespan of about 5 months so, we had to ask him to step aside, tough decision I must say. Then, We have also asked the lead guitar to leave because he wasn't learning anything at all for 3 weeks straight!
At that point, we were me (bass), the drummer and the singer and we learned and practiced every damn songs altogether!! It was pretty tough because this kind of music was really guitar oriented so, it wasn't easy... Then, we met this violin female player who was great and had a great voice and we got two music school students as our chorists! The had to learn all their parts individually until we found those two guitarists.
I asked my friend Frank, who is a guitar teacher and who replaced the guitar player of my former Dream theater tribute, if he had some students interested in the gig.
At that time, we didn't knew how many peeps would show up but the pay was really good, about 300$ each so, he proposed himself as the lead and one of his finest jazz student for rythm guitars!! I knew this guy is a pro and that he wouldn't lose his name by presenting us with a novice!
He learnt the rythm and solo parts, wrote them down and taugh them to his partner and we got 2 rehearsal with them a couple of weeks before the gig.
We got to rehearse with the whole lineup (9 members) only once during a hot summer day in a small room! Man it was hot!!!

Then the big day came! The guy from the gig told us there would be about 5K showing up if compared to previous years so we were all psyched up!!
So, we hit the stage, play like there was no tomorrow, had a hell of a good time! At about the middle of our set, which was about 1h30 long overall, that lady that knows how many people are on site because all the gate keepers count peeps in and out came up between two songs and told us on the side of the stage that the 25000th dude just been clikced in!!!
The energy was at its pinnacle I must say!

All in all, this was one of my best gig ever and is still an ideal I'm after for years to come. I sincerely hope anyone in here live this experience someday, it's really something that reach deep inside and touch feelings you can't imagine having. At least for me! 

[Aswepe]

Great story!

Continued success with the music Bro!

[Brian Dobbs]

Wow man, just wow.

[Stephan]

Update:
We're having our audition tonight for a gig in january for the 15th anniversary of the Showbusiness school in Montreal.
I'm pretty psyched up about this one! I've played the 3 songs we'll play over and over and I can say it'll be more than perfect tonight!
What's cool is, we will know probably right after the audition if we are making it to the january gig!

I'll keep you guys posted we I'll get back home late tonight!

Wish us to break a leg! 

[Aswepe]

Took the words right out of my mouth (No Meatloaf reference please).

Break a leg - Knock 'em dead, etc.

[Stephan]

Ok guys, I think we broke everyone's legs! haha
The audition went very well even if there was small technical issues. We had an interview after the audition and they were really nice to us and put us high on the list of possible choices! Plus, the only other band that was supposed to perform instrumental prog-rock WITH visual effects have cancelled!! So, we were the only ones bringing something fresh and different from the rest and it felt great!
There was also some italian producers really interested in our stuff and that guy that has connection to the japanese market!!
Now, we also have a VJ for visual effects and they are counting this as a plus for us to get the spot!
If we're chosen, we will have an entire audio team and filming crew working with us to make this gig happen!
I'm still a bit shocked by all this goodness and the feedback after the audition was so nice! There was a journalist there who was taling on the phone about us saying she just heard something really cool and stuff! François was beside her and heard that and then she turned around and told him it was awesome!

Ok, it's time to go to bed and hope tomorrow will bring fantastic news! (Yep, they will confirm if we're in or not tomorrow!)

Later!!

[Aswepe]

Congratulations - hope the news is great!

[Brian Dobbs]

Cool Stephan, sounds promising!  That sounds like a big production too.  Will the gig be at the Club Soda, or was the audition just at the Club Soda.  Does the Club Soda have a website?

[Stephan]

Production-wise, it'll be handled by students of the ShowBusiness school who are finishing their program and will graduate from this gig so, it'll be polished and professional which is great! The audition was a the Kola Note or something like that, can't remember how to spell it correctly but, the audition is to actually play at Club Soda which is a different place.
But Club Soda is one of the fine place here in montreal!
Here's thei website: www.clubsoda.ca/

I am really impatiently waiting the answer as you read these lines. I just woke up after a 4 hours difficult sleep (it's 7h45 AM here) and I guess this answer we're waiting for will drop by the end of the day so, I'll have to occupy myself with some work here! 

I'm glad I can work from home! (I'm a software developer consultant when I'm not playing music)

Later!

[Stephan]

Awesome update RIGHT HERE!!!
We got selected to be part of the 15th anniversary of the Showbusiness school in Montreal!! YESSSS!!!
So now, the next step is to come up with the most kickass 45 minutes set we can perform and have our VJ produce nice visual effects for the gig!!
I'm so psyched about this!!
I'm short of words right now!
Keep you posted and thanks for the good vibes, it's sure to have something to do with the success we had yesterday!!   

[Aswepe]

It's always nice to get the news you want to hear. Congrats Bro.

[Brian Dobbs]

Sweet!  That's a fine looking place too.  I checked out the site.  Really professional atmosphere.

[phyziczteacher]

That is tremendous! Congratulations Stephan! I can't wait to hear how that goes!


Rock on!

[Stephan]

You guys will like what will come out of this as much as us! We'll have a VJ that will add visuals to the show and there will be a concept on stage! Everything will also be filmed by my wife with our full HD camcorder and there's a possibility that professionals will be filming the gig on multi angle shooting setup!
Can't wait for this event!!!

[phyziczteacher]

Wow! You're right: I can't wait to see that!

You guys are going to tear it up!

Rock on!