Unit 8 - Easter Break
Over the two week break from college, I tried my best to make use of the free time and do some research into important aspects of the project as well as work on the bands overall image and synchronisation by doing some gigs. I've also written some lyrics throughout the time off ready for our latest song.
Monday 25 March - Today is the first official day we have off from college. I decided to take the time today to make some test merchandise. I took an old t-shirt and decided to add a band design to it. Starting with chalk, I hand drew our band name in its font onto the shirt and then bleached over it using a paintbrush. This was my first time painting on fabric worth bleach but it wasn’t as difficult as I originally thought. I’ll add some photos in once I’ve washed the shirt. With the creation of this, I’m hoping it’ll be a good start to making our own merch as it doesn’t take much time and each design can be slightly unique.
Tuesday 26 March -
Wednesday 27 March - Future Blood Rehearsal. Today as a band we attended our first ever Future Blood rehearsal. Future Blood is a free youth program run by Rich Thair and Steve Balsamo. During earlier units I actually wrote and researched Future Blood as a rehearsal space. Most of today was spent getting to know the layout and people of the venue and I found it was a very open, supportive environment. We then spent an hour in the main rehearsal room running through some of our songs ensuring they were the best we could get them. Rich then asked us if we'd be interested in performing with the rest of the Future Blood students at a showcase next week, which we agreed to do.
Thursday 28 March -
Friday 29 March - Sound Haven rehearsal 3-5pm. Friday morning I contacted Sound Haven Studios via Instagram after being recommended them by a friend. Then we popped down for a quick rehearsal session. Everyone in Glass Star managed to make it except the drummer so it was a pretty good turn out. We decided to rehearse a set ready for our upcoming gigs which included One Day, Paper Notes and I Get It, three of the songs we've been recording for the EP. Overall, I think the rehearsal went okay and I'm very glad we booked it in as I really needed time to rehearse and experiment with my singing.
Saturday 30 March -
Sunday 31 March - Put Sunday aside to do some research regarding my project. I looked into a lot of mixing and logic tutorials in preparation for the work that will come once Glass Star has finished recording. I'll create a blog post on what I learnt also.
Monday 1 April -
Tuesday 2 April - I contacted a girl called Northey who also attends and helps out at Future Blood about being the photographer for a Glass Star band photoshoot. We've been looking for opportunities to get some band photos done that we could use on our CD leaflet or even just as promotion soI thought this would be a great option. Northey and I discussed some photo themes and ideas which I've added to another blog post and we're currently discussing times and locations as well as payment.
Wednesday 3 April - Gig at Grand Theatre with Future Blood. Today we had our Future Blood gig in the Grand Theatre bar area. We played second to last in the whole line-up, just before Purple Waters. We only had time to perform 2 of our songs, One Day and I Get It but I think we pulled them both off really well and I thought the band felt very musically tight too. We had a great audience reaction which was really encouraging considering this was our first gig outside of college! I truly feel my stage presence has gotten so much better through each gig within and now outside of college which I'm very grateful for. This gig also gained us some followers online which will be great if we choose to publicly release and advertise our upcoming EP.
Thursday 4 April -
Friday 5 April - Rehearsal at Sound Haven 2-5pm. Today we had another rehearsal at Sound Haven which we had booked last Friday after our previous session. This one was 3 hours long and luckily everyone within the band was able to make it! We started off by having Amber tune her guitar to drop-D so we could play Square Hammer as we had decided to cover the Ghost song at our upcoming gig since it's what a lot of the people coming know us for. Over the next couple of hours we rehearsed our set and smoothed over any issues we had. I think this was a great session for us as a band as I think we really improved on the songs we're going to use for the EP.
Saturday 6 April - Gig at Elysium with Swansea Young Musicians Network and Taliesen Community. Today we had our gig at the Elysium! We performed a short set which included our EP songs alongside other musicians our age. We were also interviewed by Taliesen Community about our bands and the songs we've made.
Sunday 7 April -