Progress Report

We did't go to Big Noise this week i did't see the point since we had only one guitarist and the track need two guitarists because the two parts played together make the tracks what they are and if only one guitar part is playing then the whole thing sounds empty. So instead Paul Dave and me had a songwriting session round at mine instead. I figured that it'd be a good chance to put the new Pro Tools HD 10.3.0 to work :) Anyway we went over possibilities for the verse and chorus parts to It's So Far To Hell & back its soundimg really good. The lyrics are virtually done there are a lot of definates on paper now and its coming together well we wrote a chorus riff and some possible lyrics for it aswell. Its all about arrangement & presentation now. Daves been writing and recording possible lyrics on his phone and we gave them a listen aswell as some guitar ideas from me and Drum ideas from Paul. It's shame Ryan did'nt come Wednesday or Friday because he's fallen behind now and thats not a good idea concidering the length of time he's been with us. He can't make it on Fridays and thats a problem with everyone in the band for conveniant practice time. Wie really need to sort something out cause we need that Rhythm guitar there. Apart from that progress has been good and theres talk of a new track in the band.

Rehearsals Friday 14th September 2012

Practice is on as usual tonight Big Noise 8-11 Room 3 Ryan is coming tonight for his second audition. Hopefully he's got some understanding of how the tracks are build up by now after a week with the tabs he should know the basics by now. Dave ssays he's got some new lyric ideas for Massive Overload so i look forward to hearing what he's got and i know he can't wait for me to hear it :) We're all gon na have to p+ay +a +li+ttle e-xtra tonight to cover w hat Sean did'nt pay the practice he walked out and i'm not sure if we should be asking Ryan to chip in on his second audition although he might want to. I work it out at £8.33 each and i pay £8.34 to make it what we owe and Ryans share. Thanks Sean. Anyway hopefully it'll be a good one tonight Dave and me got together last Wednesday to throw around some lyric ideas and we'll be putting em' into action tonight. Now i'm gonna eat my dinner go for a smoke and carry on with my warm up.

Song Writing Session [08.09.2012]

Cancelled going to Big Noise tonight due to lack of a Rhythm guitarist and funds to pay the bill :) Instead Dave came round to mine and we spent a few hours going over some riffs and putting lyrics together. I'm Well happy with the progress where making despite the lack of Rythm Guitar and bass. It's given us a bit of time to focus on the lyric writing and melody placements. We have possibilitys for the 1st and 2nd verse to Massive Overload and also put together a verse riff the verse melody and some lyric ideas for So Far. It's going really well. The vocals are rough at the moment but given a proper vocal recording mic a mixer and time to practice and get the placement and key right it's gonna be amazing. I'm feeling very optimistic. Gonna audition a few new Rhythm guitarists next week i really hope i can find the right person who can play the riffs as well as i can play them. I don't mind teaching but i'd prefer not to have to. I've posted the tabs for 2 FLASHPOINT tracks and i'm asking anyone wanting to try out for Rhythm guitar to look at them and learn them to the sample tracks before meeting up to audition.

Auditions

Due to the amount of interest to audition for Rhythm guitarist i'm gonna tab out the rhythm guitar parts for the 3 sample tracks posted on the FLASHPOINT blog and bandmix. Anyone wanting to audition for rhythm guitar please listen to the tracks and work them out using the tabs. The decision to keep you in the the band will be based on your ability to play the already established patterns for these tracks. If you are accepted to join the band you will be free to add your ideas to any new material we write from then on. I have already tabbed the Rhythm guitar parts for Massive overload and it's posted on this page i will be tabbing out the other 2 tommorrow for anyone interested. To everyone that has contacted me about a tryout please be patiant i will get to you. There's quite a few people wanting to try out and i'm finding time to hear everyone that wants to be heard real soon. In the meantime please listen to the sampe tracks and work out the rhythm guitar or bass parts whchever applies to you for each track. I will be posting Rhythm guitar tab tommorrow as mentioned above. Use this time before meeting up to work out and practice these tracks to the best of your ability. Thanks.

Midweek songwriting session

Dave (Singer) Mentioned that he would like to have a midweek practice. Paul (Drummer) won't be able to make it because of his working hours, And Sean walked last practice but it will just be a melody and lyrics writing session so Dave and me could do it at my home studio. I'll multitrack the whole thing through Pro Tools and use MIDI to fill in for the drummer. It'll be good to have some one on one time to get the lyrics finished for Massive Overload. I think maybe Wednesday's but i'll have to confirm it with Dave.

Girly Strops Over Picks

Well just got back from the studio, We Got the first verse lyrics written for Massive Overload tonight,Finally! We're gonna work on the chorus next week. Oh yeah and Sean packed up his shit and walked out half way through the session because he said someone had nicked all his picks... Yeah i know... I had a tin full of picks with me i would have given him a few of mine if he wanted them Not sure what's happening. I think i'll be looking for a new rhythm guitarist now. Paul (Drummer) and Dave (Singer) are still up for it i asked them and made sure. I said "If you don't wanna be here then don't come, I'll find someone that does wanna come" They both said that they still wanted to carry on. It's just Sean hes been moody and unco-operative for a while now. And he can't play half the stuff i write anyway so it might be a good thing. FUCK! Now i need to find a new guitarist that will turn up co-operate and can play my riffs.. Grrr!!! But As "Gene Simmons" once said "The thing that got me through was my own selfish stubborness to think Why should i let some knucklehead ruin what i have built, I'm not gonna let someone elses problems or ruined life destroy everything i've worked so hard to achieve" Next weeks mission is to finish the verse we where writing this week then write the chorus. Dave was talking about having a midweek songwriting seesion aswell as the Friday night 8-11 session. I think that's a very good idea, Infact i've been pushing for jaming 3 times a week for some time now. For now i'm gonna record all the rhythm guitar parts as a backing track to replace the missing guitar until i can find a new Rythm guitarist.

New Band Member

FLASHPOINT New Linup. [FilGee - Lead Guitar/Producer] [Sean - Rhythm Guitar] [Paul - Drums] [Dave Lawrie - Vocals] No Bass Player Yet (Open For Auditions) We've a new vocalst joined the band last night after answering an ad and auditioning. We where inpressed with his audition and he seemed happy with our arrangements. Welcome to the band Dave and i hope that we can all write some killer material together. Look out for thoes tracks in your email i'll be sending them a bit later on. All we need now id a bassist. Sean had the idea that maybe he could play bass for a while and i take care of all the guitar parts until we can find a permanant bassist. I'm not sure if that's what we are gonna do yet though. Time to get to work and write some music I feel more optimistic about things now hopefully it will work out well.

A fresh New Look

Time to take a fresh new look at our situation as a band. I'm booking rehearsal space today for Friday. The question is are we going to Big Noise or Audio Works ? I chatted with Justin at audio works last night and he sounded more than happy for us to go over and use one of the studios there for writing/auditions/rehearsals. Sean and me talked about it on the phone last night and he said he might check it out on the way to work. It looks quite good but i think that there's only 2 studios not sure on that though. http://www.audio-works.co.uk/ Big Noise http://www.thebignoisestudio.com/ has just been refurbished and hopefully will now how some sort of air conditioning as when we used to go there it was so hot in those rooms that the amp tubes started blowing out on the Marshall's :) personally i think we should go with Audio Works, New start new rooms i reckon. Anyway The singer that answered the ad will be coming aswell (Hopefully) so we'll get to hear what he's like and make a decision as to whether he's staying or not. He chose "Seether - Like Suicide) as an audition song. I hope he sings it well. Sean had a thought that maybe he could play bass and the band have one guitarist like Pantera and Van Halen until we can find a permanant bassist for the band. I'm drawing up an itinerary for rehearsal tommorrow so that the time is'nt wasted messing about Not that that's gonna happen :) But i think that we should'nt get our hopes up for tommorrow and think of it as time to meet the vocalist and work out a stratagy plan for what we are gonna be writing and rehearsing over the next few month's. We need a pln and stick to it if this is ever gonna go anywhere. Write, Arrange, Practice, Practice, Practice, Record, Mix, Master, Burn, Design packaging, Distribute, Promote, Promote, Promote, Gig, Gig , Gig, Promote, Promote, Promote, Practice ,Practice,Practice. A successful and well used plan for success :) Anyway i've got my fingers crossed that it'll fall into place tomorrow but even if it doesn't we'll just have to try harder.

A Bit of Optimism

Should Be Good the week to come. I'm feeling much better now finally and i think completely over my bug attack. I had a tooth pulled out at the dentist today and that pains gone aswell. It's a relief to not have a thumping head. There's a bloke called Dave who seems quite keen to try out for vocalist. He's called a few times and i have to say he really sounds promising. He chose "Seether - Like Suicide" as the song to audition with. Now I've heard of Seether but i can honestly say that I've never listened to em' so i set to work on youtube to find the song. Found it, then Listened to it about 25 times, It's a good song to choose and i thought... "If he can sing this, and well then yeah he's in" the song has a wide vocal range with melodic intro and verse and gets more powerful during the chorus and throughout the song in parts This is a good egsample of what i imagined when i put FLASHPOINT together, Melodic But Heavy "Melodic Thrash Metal" I really hope he sounds as good as he is keen. My main concern is the lack of lyrics written for our tracks. I had a go at throwing some words together to fit to the end of the thrashy part of "Massive Overload" the other day and i reckon it might be usable. I'm gonna let the rest of the band read them next practice to see what everyone thinks. It's only a small part of the track totaling to about 8 seconds of the song but it's a start. I'm hoping to have a brainstorm with all band members aswell next practice to throw around some more ideas on the verse and chorus parts to "Massive Overload" and i also want to make a start on the verse to "So Far" We have the song Titles, 3 right now and the basic ideas on what the songs are gonna be about but no actual lyrics have been talked about yet, We've been so busy writing the instrumental parts to them and concentrating on getting tighter as a band that it really hasn't crossed any of our minds to start on the vocals yet. As of yet nobody but my Mrs & the band has heard the heavier part of "Massive Overload" because i feel it's a bit sloppy at the moment it needs more practice before i think about recording it yet. The Intro, Verse parts are set in stone like what can be heard on the sample "http://www.bandmix.co.uk/filgee/" but there's more to this track that has been written but not recorded yet. The track is basically finished musically it just needs arranging and practicing I think that once that's done the words should fall into place pretty easily with all of us working on them and concentrating fully on writing the lyrics and practicing the instrumentals like mad until it's perfect then it will be time to get it recorded live and multitracked. I want 2 versions for comparison and maybe to use as bonus track later on down the line. Now There's an idea! record the whole album like that, 2 separate recordings for each track a live one and a multitracked version. Release the studio album of the multitracked songs and use the "Recorded Live In the studio" tracks for 2nd single tracks or even a compilation filler later on. I'm getting way ahead of myself now but it does'nt hurt to have a few ideas and maybe plan ahead a little if you want to succeed in anything that you do.

I'm fed up today. I'm so sick of no shows I get auditions set up they call me randomly during the week get all exited about a potential band member and guess what they don't turn up or make some excuse "I'm too busy right now" or "or something to the likes of... Well mr wanna' be why the fuck did you answer the ad ? then waste my time ? The post i put up the other day about buying a cheap bass and doing it myself that's the plan right now because i know i can rely on me and i'll turn up and i'll work on the band every single day. This is'nt just a passing fad, This band is always on my mind it has been since i was a teenager and it's frustrating being the only one who cares about it. It's always the same old story, People want everything done and ready to go so they can walk right into a sweet thing after all the works been done! Well FLASHPOINT does'nt need those kind of people and i refuse to drag people kicking and screaming to practice. It's not enough to just WANT IT, You Have to NEED IT, and you have to be willing to work for it. When your a nobody band you have a lot to prove to the industry which means work work work something people just don't want to do. There are a lot of great musicians out there but there all in their bedroom playing to themselves. Do you think that your gonna write a couple of riffs then record Labels are gonna' be throwing deals and money at you ? Because if that's the case then you know nothing and should quit. It takes a lot of dedication, work and time to get a band off the ground then you gotta keep it there. The works never ending, the way i see it is people seem to think that because you work in the entertainment industry then it's gonna be sweet with party's and fucking around and having fun 24/7 YES but after you've made it not before and even then the work does'nt just dissapear. It's like any job you'll get out of it what you put in and if you put in nothing then that's exactly what your gonna' get. think about that before applying to join my band. Or i might just lose it and follow you home with a bat :)