zemo.co.uk

Well I am currently working on a website which will be purely for music and guitar. I have been planning and working on ideas for the site for months now. I don’t know yet whether I will use this domain name for the site or not. I am currently working with two bands at the moment recording and also recording and writing for two new Guitar competitions including Guitar Idol 2010. The site I am planning will contain backing tracks recorded by me and my own tracks, it will basically be a pure guitar orientated site. I am also planning on doing gear reviews on the site ranging from amps and effects through to studio recording software. If the site takes off and gets quite a few viewers then I might start running guitar competitions. Watch this space!

Well an extremely sad week this has been for me anyway. One of the greatest singers (if not the greatest) passed away on the 16th of May after a battle with Stomach cancer. Dio was the first band I saw and the first real band that got me into proper music and the metal scene. I played Holy Diver for years after I saw the band live and managed to collect a big collection of Dio’s work with other great bands such as Rainbow and Black Sabbath. Dio was a true hero of Rock and his music will never ever die. Not only that Dio did a hell of a lot of work for Charity – when he created the ‘Hear N’ Aid’ project it really showed what an impact Rock music had on people, this time period in my mind was the best Musical period EVER (I’m talking about the 80′s), he had a ton of amazing singers and guitarists play on this charity song, and what an impact it had and still has today. I have researched a lot of bands from the 80′s and followed musicians individual stories, be it Vivian Campbell (now in Def Leppard) or Craig Goldy (who replaced Vivian in Dio), there are some amazing musicians who are all still touring strong after 30 – 40 years. The current state of the music industry is really getting this period of music noticed as people are seeing through the whole manufactured pap that the mass markets try to spoon feed and are actually looking back at when music was about being a Musician and an artist.

An article that really got my attention to write this post was the one wrote for Metal Hammer by Dom Lawson (click). The two main paragraphs that I totally agree on are the following:

The mainstream media will never understand heavy metal. Just look at the clumsy obituaries that Ronnie has received from certain quarters this week, most of which focus primarily on his status as “the guy that invented the Devil’s horns”, with obligatory references to Denzil the Dragon and Spinal Tap and how silly heavy metal is etc etc…oh fuck off, you ignorant, patronising twats. Metal fans are fully aware that their music can be preposterous, over-the-top, bombastic and daft. That’s one of the main reasons we like it so much. But don’t pretend that it doesn’t have substance…that it doesn’t mean anything. Because it means a lot more to me and my metal brothers and sisters than the bland, banal indie rock and sterile pop tripe that mainstream magazines exist to exalt mean to anyone.

In the event of a nuclear holocaust, who do you think will crawl from the smoking rubble? It won’t be Pete fucking Doherty. It won’t be Justin ‘The Singing Wankstain’ Bieber. It will be some guy in a Venom shirt, clutching a half-drained bottle of Merrydown and shouting ‘Slayer!’ at the top of his voice. Heavy metal fans are the most devoted and passionate fans in the world and I defy anyone to prove otherwise. This music will never die. Ronnie James Dio’s music will never die. Every time we crank up Neon Knights or Stand Up And Shout and raise a glass to our fallen hero, his legend will grow.

Rest in peace, Ronnie. Thanks for everything. We’re missing you terribly but we will continue to rock in your honour, now and forever. Horns up!

Rest in peace Ronnie, your legacy will live on in our hearts and in your music.

Well my band is currently in the studio over the next few months to come up with new tracks, we are currently using studio time to just create tracks and write material, but we plan to start recording songs next month. Our website is complete and all promotion is ready for when we release our material… Watch this space!

Well I am currently thinking about sorting out a new campaign against the X-Factor using Rock music and against allowing auditionee’s from singing Rock songs on the show. The recent RATM campaign just shows that not only are people fed-up with the current music industry, they also see past the fact that music is presented from short term sales – personally I think they should change the charts from single sales to ‘Ticket Sales’…

The main thing I personally hate about the whole show is; it is supposed to be a POP show where someone is manufactured and used for short term sales with 80% of their profit taken. The whole point of Rock music is longevity and musicianship. Recently people who watch the X Factor went against what they were beforehand for – in the sense that as soon as a Rock band was up against the show suddenly Rock music and musicians were ‘stupid’ to X Factor fans… but they seem to ignore the fact that 1) Rock Music is the biggest selling Genre in the WORLD 2) Every other auditionee sings a Rock song. If people that watch the X Factor are so against Rock music – WHY do auditionees sing Rock songs?… They sing them because Rock songs never die – why do you think that is?.. Because people like ‘me’ who go out and buy tickets to see these bands, also it brings it back to Rock music having the biggest following anyway.

When the campaign is going I plan to contact as many Rock publishers and producers as possible to make a Legal stance against the X Factor from using Rock music on the show. If they want to go against what created the Music Industry in the first place then they should ONLY allow POP Songs to be auditioned.. Simple as that!

Well a funny story really, started off with me placing a message on a Joe Satriani video saying how he is my favorite Guitarist. Some kid posts to tell me that Satriani is nowhere near as good as buckethead (yes I did fall off my chair in fits of laughter). I then went on to check out some videos of buckethead playing live, and my god it’s no wonder why he wears a bucket on his head. His playing is so not technical, every video I watched he was just doing major scale runs as fast as he could, on another video half the song he didn’t even pluck the strings, he just used a switch on his guitar which mutes the guitar for a second. What’s the big deal with this guy? I went onto the Gibson website and he has a signature Guitar out watched the video linked from the site and laughed so much… 4 finger tapping LOL which sounded like a spectrum computer loading, all his music is noise. All his live videos I have seen he’s not playing in tune, and his string bending is completely laughable!

I am planning on creating a page on this website for Guitar riffs and exercises. I have worked through a lot of players exercises which have really helped (along with Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Dave Weiner), if you have any riffs or good exercise techniques or tabs then please contact me!! I found that learning Blues has really gave me a good base for lead Guitar, just want to know really what other players started with and what practice techniques they use day to day.

Well I have been practicing a lot for the past few weeks, especially at weekends. This weekend I practiced for about 4 hours a day and have really seen changes in how I play and strength in my fingers. I have been following Dave Weiners (plays in Steve Vai’s band) lessons and his teaching style has really helped me. I am currently doing strengthening and speed techniques to try and build up my full technique of playing. I have some songs in mind that I want to record and will hopefully start recording soon!

Well I just received some long awaited Headphones. I ordered them from somewhere first and they didn’t send them within a week so I canceled the order, and then 2 weeks ago I ordered them from another place, they were sent first class and only just arrived today due to me having to contact the supplier which in turn they must have contacted Royal Mail!

They are Sennheiser Headphones ready for my studio, all in all I am happy with them. The sound and Bass in them is pretty good and the build quality is excellent (which you’d expect from Sennheiser). The only down point I would say with them is that there is not a volume control on them. Would be handy, but then I guess it makes them last longer as most headphones I have had before the volume controller has ended up breaking and I’ve had to re-solder the wires direct. Great buy for the price.

As you can probably see I have added a last.fm page to the site, I have just signed up to last.fm to see what it’s like more so than anything. It basically just shows other people what songs you have been listening to, the page has a link direct to last.fm.

More pain and misery in the history of mankind
Sometimes it seems more like
The blind leading the blind
It brings upon us more famine, death and war
You know religion has a lot to answer for

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

And as they search to find the bodies in the sand

They find its ashes that are
Scattered across the land
And as the spirits seem to whistle on the wind
A shot is fired somewhere another war begins

And all because of it you’d think
That we would learn
But still the body count the city fires burn
Somewhere there’s someone dying
In a foreign land
Meanwhile the world is crying stupidity of man
Tell me why, tell me why