What has happened so far....

Wow, it has been awhile since I last posted anything. I almost forgot that I even have a blog. A lot has happened since 1st July 2010. Fast forward almost 3 months, my band just completed recording our debut EP tentatively entitled Open For Registration which is kinda ironic due to Tashya's other job. To those who didn't know, she runs a few kindergartens. So I think its fitting that we're gonna name our EP Open For Registration

Moving on....My job still sucks, added few more 'toys' in my arsenal of gear for the band, performed at various shows (one in JB, our first outside of Klang Valley), a few acoustic shows, Ramadhan came and went, Eidul Fitr came and went, my dad's laptop together with my modem got stolen, performed at DPM's niece's wedding (which we got paid handsomely and got good vibes from the wedding go-ers) and my PC at home won't boot up. Life is pretty much normal. Some days are awesome. Some days just plain sucked. But life is like that. Take it as it is. When Allah gives you lemons, make lemonades...that sort of thing. Which reminds me, I gotta work on my solat. Haven't been a good servant to the Almighty. Maybe that's why my life has been like a roller coaster. The big guy up there is trying to tell me something.

This October promises to be another hectic month for both me and my band. Fortunately, this coming week we have some much deserved break. No more recordings, no shows. But come the 2nd week of October....BAM! Back to business. Starting 8th October, we have a gig in KL under Indie Youth Festival called FEYST GIG at 1Cafe in Jalan TAR,KL. Then after that, we have another wedding to perform (nothing much, just my sister's wedding), celebrating Tashya's birthday together with Bari's, and finally on the 30th of October another show at 1Cafe. Oh, i almost forgot. My degree convocation on the 6th of October and the next day, performing again at Daikanyama, Changkat KL for the monthly R(O)A/W(R) acoustic set. We're also hoping to get a sneak preview of how our EP gonna sound like this month. Hopefully Keith is able to do the mixing as soon as possible.

In the midst of all that chaos, I still manage to get some buzz in the stomach. You know that kind of buzz you get when you meet a new and attractive person but you're too scared to do anything cos you're afraid of rejection which you have suffered countless times in your life? Yeah, that sort of buzz. My friends are trying to encourage me to give it a try but something is stopping me. Probably I'm too rusty and have been out of the game for far too long. But I know that I just don't want to get hurt anymore. Its like a curse, every time I meet someone new and develops into like a buzz or crush, it just withers away. It has come to a point that I say to myself, "What's the goddamn point?" They'll just run away every time I try to get close or get attached. It's nice to have that buzzing feeling but at the same time it is one of the most horrible form of torture one can experience. But somehow, we human beings still do it. It's like a form of insanity. But I guess that's what being in love/have a crush is all about. Everything else just don't matter. You're in your own world. Nothing will ever be the same without that person.....Pure insanity!!!And we love it.

Enough of my blabber.....I'm not even making any sense....

"Aku cinta....padamu....Sungguh!!" Goddamn song is stuck in my head....FML!

redAMP Competition...

i guess some might already know that my band Tashya's Ink just finished shooting 2 videos. One of them we are using for this competition called redAmp which is organized by AirAsiaRedTix and MTV. And the winning prize is RM50,000.00 to kickstart our career as musicians. The song we chose is called Run. Written by my vocalist Tashya Basir and her companion, Nina Zeddy, the song has that bossa nova kind of feel to it. Initally, it was a bossa nova song due to Nina's influence. But all of us wanted to escape from that feel hence we decided to combine a bit of rock in it. Nothing heavy, perhaps more like a pop rock feel and personally, I'm very proud of what i managed to give to the song. Kudos to my bassist, Ike and drummer, Wan for adding their excellent groove and chemistry. As i mentioned earlier in my other posts, I really hope this line-up would stick for a long time. And things have been looking pretty clear after a very slow start to the year. The future is there for us to write and its up to us now to make it to the big stage.

Anyway, I've been going on Youtube searching for videos of bands that submitted for the redAMP competition. I got to say, in the most humble way possible that I think our video is much much better than the others except Lab the Rat. Their video is very similar to us but the difference is that we did it live and to my observation, they shot a video and put their track over it. But I guess everyone else thought that it should be a video of them jamming or performing live during a show hence the low quality videos. But there's this other band called Systematically Avoided Disaster or better known as S.a.D, who really did a proper music video for this competition which actually reminded me of Karnivool's video of Lifelike. A video of them performing in various area of a warehouse with different camera angles. The concept is very good but I think the choice of song is not the wisest. Moving on, I'm kinda stoked about the competition and I pray we get through to the second round which requires the public to vote for us. I'll post where to vote if our band gets shortlisted.

So to all my friends, strangers, bloggers, surfers, music lovers, fans and family, please vote for my band Tashya's Ink. Thank you for all your support....

Here's the video:

PRS Tremonti SE Platinum with Dimarzio Pickups at Bridge Position

I can't believe I'll be getting my dream guitar. I've been wanting this guitar for a long long time ever since I became a fan of Mark Tremonti from my favourite bands Alter Bridge and Creed. In fact, I've been a fan of PRS (Paul Reed Smith) guitars from the first time I saw it back in 1999 or 2000-ish. Back then only a handful of people used PRS guitars. People like Santana, Linkin Park, Collective Soul and Mark Tremonti. But nowadays, PRS have become one of the major players in the guitar business. What makes PRS so special is the shape of the guitar, the tone it produces as well as top notch paint job and of course the iconic bird inlays and headstock.



Basically there are two standards of the PRS guitars. One is the uber expensive, top of the line PRS USA made which can easily cost you RM12.5k a guitar. These USA made ones are the ones pro musicians/artists use. My ultimate wishlist guitar is the Mark Tremonti Model. It has his signature bass and treble pickups, his name on the headstock (it used to be on the 12th fret), a tremolo bar with routing so you can either pull up or push down the tremolo bar and of course, an array of awesome and beautiful colour scheme.


Then you have the PRS SE models which are made in Korea. But don't be fooled by the country it's made in, the quality of this guitar can match any guitar in the market out there, with a little modifications. So the one I'm getting is the Tremonti SE model. It has 3 colours to choose from, Black, Natural and Platinum. It doesn't have the Tremonti Signature bass and treble pickups but a pair of standard PRS design pickups. Just a simple change of pickups to better one and you'll be on your way rocking your ass off! I've been going to guitar shops and playing it but never thought that I would one day own it. The best part is, I'm getting it as a birthday present from my mom's friend. The colour I chose is Platinum because black is just everywhere and I'm not a big fan of the natural colour. The only downside of the this guitar is that it doesn't have the tremolo bar with routing. That would be a cool addition to an already impressive guitar.


Beautiful isn't it? Well, to me anyways. It looks so much better in real life then in picture. I've also requested Dead Eye (which is the guy I'm buying from, he has an online guitar shop so you guys can order any guitar you want) to install a good pickup. He suggested a DiMarzio Tone Zone pickups which I read about it in various websites and watched videos and I gotta say, it sounds awesome. So I can't wait to finally get my hands on this awesome guitar on Monday. Can't wait to rock out with my band Tashya's Ink with this guitar. If you want more information about PRS guitars and their other impressive array of guitars, go to their website here.

Well, I guess that's it from me today. Probably I'll write more about my band Tashya's Ink in the next post. I'll also write about my favourite bands and musicians as well as my favourite team Manchester United. There are so many things to share so I guess I'll have to write one by one. Don't forget to check out all the links I've put in here and visit my sponsors too.

Adios Amigos