"Practice makes perfect!"...

...says the one who's skilled enough to attain perfection. Which is also the same person who doesn't and will never exist. Ever. Because humans will never be perfectly skilled in anything because there's always room for improvement and, well, we just aren't wired that way, dammit.

School started a couple of weeks back (for those of you who don't know, I'm finally taking up Music Production in Benilde. Yay!) and I took it upon myself to practice with Logic Pro. I don't even know if what I'm doing is right. So far, I have these two tracks:

I'M NOT YOUR TOY by La Roux

Tempo's off in this one. It was meant to be a raw-ish vocals + guitar track (as made evident by the shitty tem- oh wait, my tempo's always shit). But things happened and I ended up having too much fun.

I DON'T WANNA MISS A THING by Aerosmith

This was initially supposed to be another auto-tune adventure (much like the Banana song), but it seemed too sincere of a song to auto-tune. Does that make sense? I didn't want to "taint" the song with my stupidity. I'm not implying that auto-tuned tracks are stupid, it's more of... the act of me auto-tuning things means I don't take certain songs seriously (POTATO-NA~). But since auto-tuned vocals are cool to some extent, the treatment was used on the back-up vocals.

I figured it'd be easier to practice on covers since the song's already structured a certain way. All you have to worry about is making it your own.

It was fun toying with midi instruments.

Keeping the ball rolling~

So apart from the album (which will hopefully be done around May or something), I've been lucky enough to collaborate with other musicians and form new bands. It's time that I step out of my comfort zone (a.k.a. beside or hiding behind my sister), explore the rest of the world and take on musical endeavors alongside other musicians.

So far, I have two new bands...

YOUR FACE

Your Face was conceptualized when Vince (full-time drummer of Vinnie and the Hello Kitties, part-time lesbian wannabe) and I drank too much coffee. We thought it'd be cool to have a band called Your Face and hear people talk about us.

"Your Face sucks"

"Your Face could've done better"

"I love Your Face"

"Your Face makes me cry"

"I want to see Your Face tonight"

"Is Your Face DTF (down to funk)?"

"What can Your Face do?"

"Your Face lights up my day"

etc.

That's... that's basically how we came to be. Because we were high on caffeine. #TrueStory

HOUSE OF HAMSTERS

Reese (1/2 of Reese & Vica; ) and I have been meaning to start something together for the longest time now. When we finally got around to it, we sat our bums down and agreed that we would make the most out of our ukuleles (in other words, we can't wield our other axes during gigs). And then we decided to name ourselves "House of Hamsters" because, well, it was the name we liked the most when we consulted this one band name generator online. This band serves as the outlet for all the songs we can't sing with our other bands.

❖

Apart from doing covers, both Your Face and House of Hamsters will be working on writing original material... In the future. Not necessarily in the near future because we don't exactly know what the future has in store for us. So for now, we'll be focusing on finding our sound. And we plan on doing so by covering a buttload of songs.

I'm really glad I got to collaborate with other musicians. After almost 3 years of being exposed to the music scene here in Manila, it finally happened. And I'll be sure not to limit myself to these bands. If an opportunity comes up, I'll do my best to take it and conquer it. God knows I've had enough of wasted opportunities, fearing the unknown, not trying hard enough, and giving up faster than I can scarf down chocolate. Have you ever seen a vacuum cleaner suck up cookie crumbs from the carpet? Imagine a monster vacuum cleaner gobbling up, not only the crumbs, but the entire carpet and flooring as well. Imagine all of that happening as soon as you switch it on. Yep, that's equivalent to how quickly I give up and the intensity of my discouragement when I do.

This year will be full of musical badassery. I'll be sure of it.

Musical. Badassery. Fo'. Shizzle.

Won't Cave In

Prideful girl, I’ll keep you; steal you if I have to

Shelter you and give you all of me

Ruthless girl, I’ll love you more than I would dare to.

Carelessly, we’ll slip into a lovers’ coma

I don’t wanna live another lifetime if I’m not gonna end up by your side (again)

Again and again

I will find you; I’ll find you

Again and again

We will crash into each other again

Stubborn girl, I’ll hold you, wrap your heart so close to mine and I will leave no gaps between

Playful girl, I’ll thrill you; tease you like you want me to

Make your day in many ways; we’ll make this work, just

Rest your weary heart upon my battle scars. We won’t tire; we will make it out (alive)

Alive, we’re alive

We won’t cave in, won’t cave in

Alive, we’re alive

We will crash into each other again

Prideful girl, I’ll keep you

Ruthless girl, I’ll love you

Stubborn girl, playful girl

I will hold you, I will thrill you

Again and again

I will find you; I’ll find you

Again and again

We will crash into each other again

(I won't leave you)

I’ll keep you, I will keep you

Garageband + iPhone

Two months ago, I made a daring purchase (I say daring because, well, I never really buy shit online) in the app store and got myself the Garageband iPhone application.

Here's what I came up with on my first try:

  

Lonely bee, can you hear me calling? Waiting for your sting~

10 minutes to navigate around the app, familiarize myself with it, put together the instrument parts, and then write the lyrics. I know I could've made something longer, but I just wanted to try it out. Hopefully I'll get around to recording an entire song in the near future. Knowing how lazy I get when it comes to handling equipment, I'll probably be recording my next song with this baby. 

Basically, it's a really compact version of the desktop program. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty handy app to have when you're on the go and you have something you're itching to record and you don't give a damn about the sound quality (not implying that the quality is crap because it totally isn't).

If you're the type of person who enjoys making the most out of/abusing your iPhone, you might want to look into these products:

The Mikey 2.0

and...

The Amplitube iRig

The Mikey 2.0 is a stereo microphone that you can attach to your iPhone 3Gs/iPod Touch/iPod Classic (not compatible with other iPod models). The Amplitube iRig is an interface that allows you to connect your guitar directly to your phone. Pair the iRig with the built-in Garageband amps and pedals, and you've got yourself one heck of a machine in your hands. 

More about the Mikey 2.0 in the official product page -> clickityclack

And of course, the Amplitube iRig's got one, too -> clickitycloo

And just in case you're interested in reading the poorly-written write-up I did a while back on the Mikey, clickity your way over here -> clippityclap

Hit the jump for more info on the Garageband iPhone app!

Huzzah!

Because I need a better platform for blogging, I decided to try this out.

And to celebrate the first post on this blog, here are a few videos I took the other night.

My friend Paul lent me his beanie last week. For some reason, wearing the beanie makes me feel like going out on the streets and singing my heart out and not caring if people walk by thinking I'm an idiot. I've yet to return the beanie to Paul, but I've grown emotionally attached to it, so I might just keep it... forever.

I'm kidding. I have to give it back within this week. I'll just go buy my own or something.

Song 1 - You Really Got a Hold on Me by The Beatles

This is such a fun song to sing. Not to mention the lyrics and melody are nothing short of brilliant.

Song 2 - I Want It That Way by The Backstreet Boys

Are you judging me yet?

Song 3 - Animal by Neon Trees

Song 4 - I Want You Back by The Jackson 5

OHHHH BABY GIVE ME ONE MORE CHAAAAANCE~

Song 5 - Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus

ARE YOU JUDGING ME NOW???

Song 6 - Come Together by The Beatles

I've always wanted to sing this song.

If you watch the videos in order, you'll notice how tired I get after each one hahaha.

Alrighty, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll get to post on this blog more than I do in the other ones. I'm planning to make this my main blog. Tumblr's kind of intimidating. But then again, I get intimidated easily.