Dizzy in Loops

Clarification and Catch Up

2010-06-20T21:00:00.006-05:00

First, Happy Father's Day!

So, yeah...

It's been forever since I've done this...

Shame on me. I didn't mean to take a 3 month hiatus on the blog posts, but that's what happened.

Since 2010 is half over, I'd like to revisit my goals for this year.

recording my next album - temporarily on hold

adding a live drummer to the live set - still looking for a drummer (know anyone?)

summer regional tour - today is the first day of summer...I have no dates booked

finalizing the fairy concept album (story and songs) - Oooh! Almost done with this one!

Needless to say, I still have a lot of work cut out for the remainder of the year.

I have been playing a bunch of cool shows in the past few months, that I didn't blog about. I'll do a quick recap in a bit but I do want to clarify something that has been bothering me lately. I've noticed that the press has been dubbing the "One Woman Musical Enigma" as a self proclaimed title, which is not true. Amanda Wells from Landlocked Media called me that a couple years ago and I just decided to run with it. Mostly because it sounds cool and I know damn well I couldn't think of anything on my own.

Why is this bothering me?

I don't know why but I feel like when something that bold is "self proclaimed", it means I'm arrogant as shit. I mean C'mon, my name is Syna So Pro, and I'm constantly having to re-iterate the "So Pro" part means "Solo Project" not ~~"So Professional"~~. So when I ran across my in-studio performance, and a recent album review that has this self proclamation, I feel... ah I don't know...vain... and lame for being that vain. So I guess before this gets too far out of hand, I need to change the artwork to reflect that Amanda Wells stated the quote, not me.

...
I'll probably get to that in about 3 months.

But the last few shows I've played have been very interesting:

June 4th @ Firebird
I pretty much killed it. One of the best shows I've played in a while. Plus had a great time watching The Breaks debut their first show, as well as Russell Bliss perfecting their performance.

June 5th @ RFT Showcase
Yeah...I sang a lot. People really really dug it. But the PA system was not powerful enough to handle my set up. Plus I was having some weird volume issues with the drum machine. I still feel as though I finished strong and I think I blew some minds.

June 9th @ Darkroom (Chicago, IL)
Uhh...I have been trying and trying to block this terrible memory from my skull. I have absolutely no idea what happened. Basically, my rig failed me in a way it has never fail me before rendering me looking utterly confused and desperately trying to figure out the problem, while everyone stares at me in silence. I finally just gave up and did an acapella set to finish off the show, but Good God that was embarrassing!

June 24th @ CAMSTL
I'm hoping the trend of "BEST SHOW EVER" to "WORST SHOW EVER" stops here. I'm playing with 3 really awesome bands and I want to impress all.

Time for the Facebook Event!

Before I go, I'll try to update you fine people a bit more often...
I'd say about twice a month.

...until next time...

~Syrhea

Rolla Misery??

2010-03-08T08:41:00.010-06:00

Most, if not all, of you know that I played KDHX's Live in St. Louis Series 2010 on Nick Acquisto's The Space Parlour last Thursday. I've conveniently tracked my performance on this Mini iPod below if you happened to miss it.

I'm very pleased with my performance and the overall turnout of the show. The mix is a bit vocal heavy...but that's radio. I am, however, ashamed of how I threw Rolla Missouri under the bus during my interview. (Listen to the interview pt 3) There's so many positive things I could have said, but instead I focused, as usual, on the negative.

I'm very appreciative that I grew up in Rolla. Yes, it was hella boring more than a few times, but I received a great education as well as performing with a group of people that shared the best musical experience I've had in my life. Which, sadly, I took for granted at the time.

The music program was, hands down, the best the state of Missouri had to offer. Performing around the country (Corpus Cristi TX, Winter Park CO, Carnegie Hall) as well as being invited to perform in Europe (damn I wish I did that) proves that claim. But it wasn't the fact that we had many talented singers our school. It really came down to one man, our music director, Mr. Sandquist.

He single handedly, taught me so much about music, without ever opening a book. Just a number of "one-liners" and the selections of college level songs we performed, he somehow implanted the overall feel of Syna So Pro without me ever knowing it. A prime example being, "Mezzo Forte is Mezzo Boring". He would say this to us often when we were just going through the motions and not conveying any dynamics. I've never forgotten that which is probably why I'm told my music is very epic on it's own.

Although I sound resentful about growing up in Ro-Town, I'm really not. I'm pretty positive if Rolla never happened, Syna So Pro wouldn't have happened.

Ok, I feel better now...

Listening to my performance also solidified in my head that I should take vocal lessons. It's not that I think I can't sing, I know I've lost a lot pitch control over the years of "lazy singing".

In other news, for those of you who's picked up and listened to my debut album, posted below is a Syna So Pro cover, recorded by my good ol' friend El.

Walk Away...

..This song was written by SYNA SO PRO. I recorded it about a year or twelve ago when I used to live in a musicians halfway home. It sounds nothing like the original except that both me and the person that wrote it are sexy as hell :)

Enjoy!
~Syrhea

P.S. If you have nothing to do this Saturday, come out to Fort Gondo for a Celebration of women of art. Facebook event here!

Live Loop the R-Waves

2010-02-28T22:23:00.005-06:00

After almost 2 weeks, the congestion has finally left my head...which is the best feeling in the world. I no longer talk, hear, cough, and breathe like a 60 year old man who smoked a pack a day for the last 30 years of his life. No to mention sleeped with his mouth open.

Bill's CD Release show last Saturday was a lot of fun in so many ways.

Dottie (.e) killed all in her path as usual.

My instrumental set was awkwardly different, but it worked.

Alberto and Kevin played a mean improvisational set that started as a trio with their friend on Dottie's Jaguar. (I'd love to drop his name if I knew it.|HELP!)

Bill Tucker and Friends performance kept a consistent smile on my face. I've listened to his new album, Mythological Creatures, about 5 times in the last week, and it's a different take on folk music. I strongly urge you all to check out his music.

I've got the photos back from the shoot I had about 3 weeks ago. I'm not going to post them all at this time for they are being enhanced at the moment. I will, however, leave you with this.

Eric Seelig is the photographer who walked with me, out in the cold, to shoot me carrying my heavy-ass pedal board around town. We also did some night shots involving me with random instruments and a projector. Check out some of his photography here.

Pretty sweet stuff if you ask me.

Also, if you haven't heard, I'm playing Live in St. Louis Series 2010 on Nick Acquisto's The Space Parlour Show, Thursday, March 4th at 9pm. Click the flier to see the facebook event invite.

Tune in and listen on 88.1 fm if you live in St. Louis. If you don't live in St. Louis you can listen online at www.kdhx.org. And if you happen to miss the live feed, you can always re-vist the show at a later time. WIN FOR EVERYONE!

I'm hoping this will be my flawless show.

I have more than a few shows coming up from March through June. I'll keep you all posted as they are confirmed.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Embarrassingly Crazed

2010-02-17T19:50:00.004-06:00

First off,
This blog is waaaay late. I've managed to get some terrible head cold and haven't felt like doing anything, let alone wash my ass. So, I apologize for the tardiness.

OK

So the Asobi Seksu show didn't go as well as I planned and practiced, but it still was a good show. My keyboard was acting funny and eventually died mid-set. I was forced to skip a whole song because of this. I pretty much messed something up on every single song that I played. But it still was a good show. I had a lot of positive feedback from the audience, of which I'm greatly appreciative, and Yuki and James even had some nice things to say about my set. That pretty much meant the world to me.

But my keyboard...

After several diagnostic attempts I figured out what happened. First, I left my S-composite to 1/4th stereo cable at the house and didn't have it for the show. So I was forced to not only use a mono instrument cable for my set, the keyboard also had to share the input on my mixer with the microphone. Which also explained a few glitches I was having with the mic.

Second, my dumb ass let the keyboard run out of batteries.

Ahh.. it's the simple things.

I should probably buy another 9 volt adapter for my keyboard, but I honestly don't feel like it. It's probably time for me to get a new keyboard anyway. I've only had it since I was 15 years old. So if it actually did die, it's probably it's time...

Back to Asobi Seksu...

So when Yuki came over to talk to me after the show, I was pretty intoxicated at this point, embarrassing isn't the correct word to use. I went from a respectable performer to a stupidly crazed fan in less than a second. I honestly don't remember what exactly I said to her, but I was raging on and on about how awesome her drummer is/was while telling her, "I don't shake hands, I give hugs!"

Full embrace. *** Yuki probably thinking, "Ok...let go of me..." ***

I think it was then when I realized just how petite she is...

And that was probably when she decided to walk away from me.

Larry, the drummer I was raving to Yuki about (as if she didn't already know), came over and I "crazed fan-ed" his ear off for faaarr too long. But I just had to let him know that his talents weren't unnoticed. The dude has the most beautiful falsetto I've heard in a long, long time and can sing as high as Yuki. I mean c'mon! That deserves some mad props!

ANYWAY,

If you have nothing planned for this Saturday, you should head over to Floating Laboratories for Bill Tucker's CD Release show in Stl.

Facebook event here!

Hopefully by then this head cold will be gone and I won't be forced to play a instrumental set.

Fingers crossed!

Also if you live in StL, tune into KDHX on the 4th of March around 9pm to hear me play live on the Space Parlor show. There might be an interview as well. Let's wish for no stuttering!!

~Syrhea

Photo M&M's

2010-01-31T18:26:00.006-06:00

Soooo

I'm gearing up the Asobi Seksu show this Thursday...I hope to see some of you there. I bought some M&M's just for this event. I'm not much for Valentines Day...as a matter of fact, if you know me at all, I absolutely hate that "holiday". But I did muster up a little "mush" for the show. I think it fits just fine. Check it...

It actually matches the buttons I have, but unfortunately will not be giving away at the show. My supplier has had a run of bad luck and I pretty sure they won't get shipped in time. Oh well...

But, I have a pretty sweet photo shoot lined up this coming Saturday. I still need to do a bit of ground work to find outlets in the crazy outside environment, but even if that doesn't pan out, I'm pretty excited. I'll speak of the photographer, and the like, when I have the prints in my hand. I don't want to jinx this.

It's going to be soo phenomenal...

...especially if I can get my hair as big as possible...

And Bill Tucker is coming down to StL again to promote the release of his newest album "Mythological Creatures". Here's a little video featuring bits of it from when .e and I played in Chicago.

The bill includes:
Bill Tucker
.e
Alberto Patino and Dave Stone Due
Syna So Pro
@ Floating Laboratories

And I could blab on about a few more things...

..**..

lazy

~Syrhea

♫Candy Says♫

2010-01-19T16:46:00.005-06:00

Ok,

What to say...what to say...

My New Years Resolutions are still holding strong. Yes it's only been 3 weeks but you know...it can be tough.

All you digifreaks can get my album on either iTunes, Napster, or Rhapsody...I find it hilarious that Rhapsody has it listed as "Alternative/Punk"

My demo titled "Numbers" was played on Dirty Radio a while back... I forgot to mention that I went internet radio as well. Oops. The people who are on my Mailing List are the only ones who's heard this song. Just perks of signing up...

I'm opening for Asobi Seksu on the 4th of February at the Old Rock House. It's a Thursday and I think tickets are $12 in advance but $14 at the door. Pretty effing steep I know. I don't know how else to encourage you to come to this show other than offering you a bunch of cool shit (T-shirt-Buttons-Stickers-M&M's-My Album) for $5. And if you have all of that already, I will be busting a new tune or two at this show. I really, really hope to see some of you there. Not only for me, but Asobi Seksu is the shhhhh...

This Saturday will mark the 1st Annual Empty Pocket Music Feast & Swap Meet. There's a ton of awesome artist playing as well as delicious foods, indie clothing, and tubular art.

...who says tubular anymore?

Check it.

Schedule is as follows:

3:00pm- Dave Stone + Alberto Patino
3:30pm- Mmmmelt
4pm- Larva Lu
4:30pm- Ghost Ice
5pm- Max Garcia- Rubio
5:30pm- Syna So Pro
6pm- Kevin Harris
6:30pm- Ghosts I Have Been
7pm- Bangerang
7:30pm- Right-Eye Rita
8:pm- Hood Kicks
8:30pm- Super Fun Yeah Yeah Rocketship
[Hour for flex]
10pm- DJ Dymynyte

Aaaannnyway, I've got to practice and write some more banter.

Lates

~Syrhea

Begin with '10

2010-01-01T12:40:00.003-06:00

~~OFF TOPIC~~

I've finally concluded that the shorthand term for 2010 is just ten. Sounds weird as hell but hey, we'll only' have to deal with it for 10 years...

~~ON TOPIC~~

So...

I must say I'm pretty anxious to get this year rolling. I have a lot of plans for this year including:

recording my next album

adding a live drummer to the live set

summer regional tour

finalizing the fairy concept album (story and songs)

But these plans are going to take a lot of discipline and I must rid myself of a lot of distractions. Which is why my main two New Year's Resolutions are try to be and remain positive and no more dating. Men are my second highest distraction, with music being the highest, and I need to stop compromising my time. Instead I need to use this time to get back into shape and take care of me. The end of '09 was a huge wake up call for me in health related issues and I hastily need to make some changes to improve my quality of life. Plus I've been slacking on networking, promotion, and just contacting necessary press to help get the word out. It's like a never ending resume and cover letter.

...I really, really hate writing those...

But...

I must do them, cause no one will do it for me.

You all should check out my friend Michael's project Marthasville, for I've found myself acting as a semi-producer for some of his tunes. They are still demos but something is definitely there.

I'm also playing at Cranky Yellow on the 23rd of this month as well as playing in KDHX's Live in St. Louis 2010 in early March on the Space Parlour show.

More shows soon...

Here's to you all having a great 2010.

~Syrhea

In the Funk

2009-12-19T20:24:00.017-06:00

This one's going to be short...

I haven't had much motivation lately. There's various reasons for this that I'm not going to get into, but I'm trying to get myself out of a funk that I (in a way) put myself into.

So I'm just going to post some music that I demoed a few days ago.

Ethereal was supposed to be a stella song, but seeing as we're no longer a band, it's now the 4th song of the Fairy Album. (I've got to think of a name for that album)

Fairy Run is going to be track 6 of the album. Those of you who's seen me play in the last few months, you've heard me play this track live. Bass lines are still kinda "iffy" at parts but it's the general idea that's important. I'm definitely going to add violins to this one. The parts are undeniable.

In other Syna news, I should be playing a show at Cranky Yellow early next year (details still finalizing) as well as potentially doing an in-studio performance at KDHX.

I've also joined another band which will quench my thirst of playing music with other people. I would say who this band is...but I want to make sure this all pans out as planned. Looking forward to rehearsing with them in the coming weeks...

Hope you all enjoy the holidays!

~Syrhea

The Beginning of the End

2009-12-04T08:11:00.007-06:00

I've been procrastinating on writing up this blog for several days now...

There's plenty to blog about, but I'm slightly still in denial, upset and angry about the main post I'm going to quickly mention.

I'm sure most of you know by now that Stella Mora has decided to call it quits after our show tonight.

Why?

Honestly I still don't have an inkling of an idea. This is by far the best line-up we've had. We all get a long with each other, and we play some pretty awesome shows. Sure our "show-load" has slowed down this past year, but that's life at times. The notion of not feeling like doing it anymore is absolutely unfathomable to me and therefore doesn't compute as a legitimate reason to quit.

But we did have a great 3 year run with many ups and a lot of downs, in the beginnings (at least for me), with a ridiculous amount of members throughout the years. I'm going to try my hardest to not get too emotional tonight at our final show. Sounds pretty stupid but the time invested in all of our songs is numerous, as well as this is the longest run I've ever played in a band. So of course I'm going to feel like a huge musical chunk has been stolen from me. But like I said earlier, that's life at times and I guess my sensitive ass needs to get over it. (Give me about a year)

So please, please, please, I implore you to come out to the Firebird tonight, find me sulking in a corner somewhere, grab me and take me to the bar, and from there we can enjoy a drink together.

*sniff*

Anyway, on the Syna front. Been doing a lot of research on radio stations in the regional area and the album should be available digitally (itunes and the like) here in the next month or so.

I'm also playing at APOP Records this Saturday with Mavis Concave, Eric Hall, .e, Evolve, and John Tamm-Buckle.

That is pretty much it.
Hope to see a lot of you at the final stella show tonight.

RIP Stella Mora: 11/29/06 our first show - 12/04/09 our feedback finale

~Syrhea

Chicago and le Wood

2009-11-24T21:26:00.008-06:00

So, this is way late...

What can I say other than I wanted a little break. I had actually written a 'day by day' run through of our (Dottie plus me) trip to Chicago. I was going to post it...but it was stupidly long, and I didn't want to proof read it or bore you all with my overly detailed dribble. Plus I was being lazy. So I'll tell you how Chicago was in 12 short sentences...

1 - Dottie fell 2 hours after arriving resulting in a terribly bruised foot and ankle.

2- -We stayed, for 2 of the 3 nights, at Bill Tucker's apartment with another artist Derek (Mallow Hazard)

3 - I actually had to go to Guitar Center twice that weekend and knew it was going to be just a douchey (sp?) in Chicago as it is here in StL.

4 - Had some vegan pizza and it was delicious

5 - Bill, Derek, Dottie and I all played awesome sets the first night at Fill in the Blank Art Gallery

6 - a Light Sleeper helped me unload and load the gear Saturday night, since Dottie's foot was non-weight bearing

7 - Derek, Dottie, Bill, Kristen, and I stayed up until 3 am talking of old high school stories, Michael, how gay 2012 is going to be, as well as taking pictures of Dottie's foot.

8 - Dheeru's apartment has ridiculous amounts of stairs.

9 - Honey BBQ was delicious

10 - Fellow former shoegazers Matt and Julien came out to Cole's in full support on a Sunday night.

11 - The Sunday show was surprisingly awesome considering the day of the week, the L running every 15 minutes, and our overall exhaustion from the trip.

12 - We fell asleep around 4am on Monday morning resulting in about 3 hours of sleep before we loaded gear and headed back to StL.

In a nutshell, I had loads of fun and I'm confident that Dottie will laugh at the experience in the future... It's not sad, it's awesome!

This past Friday I played the Maplewood Arts Walk at the Turner Center for the Arts on Sutton. Unfortunately I didn't arrive there until, literally, 15 minutes before I was scheduled to play. I had absolutely no time to check out the event and I regret that I had to work that day. The show went ...eh... reasonably well. I didn't practice at all between the shows in Chicago and the Maplewood shows. But I still managed to reach a handful of people there resulting in a success.

I uploaded a song that I performed in Chicago to youtube and facebook today...
check it out...

I'm still struggling with the video camera.

First, at my CD Release show, I set it up, but never hit record.

Then, a month later, I forget the camera entirely.

After that, in Chicago, I repeated to set up the camera but never hit record on the first night. The second night, I set it up, didn't hit record, while on stage, asked one of the audience members to record me, only to have the battery run out after one song.

At the Turner show in Maplewood, I left it in the car.

I don't know why I can't remember to do these basic things...

...oh well.

I also revamped my website (synasoloproject.com) and would kindly appreciate any and all feedback. Just let me know what you like or don't like.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
I'm planning on eating myself into a coma this year.

...

...

~Syrhea

What's Ahead in My World

2009-11-08T14:13:00.013-06:00

Yo Yo Yo!

The show this past Sunday went really well. Half Handed Cloud's new album is definitely worth $10. Well orchestrated, arranged and executed, while each track is no longer than a minute and a half. Yet the album seems so seamless... Pretty effing genius if you ask me. Thanks to Alberto for, once again, asking me to play one of his shows. It was fun as always. My only regret was forgetting to bring my video camera to capture Kevin's awesome studio space. Something I WON'T forget to do in CHICAGO!!!!

That's right peeps...Dottie and I leave in 3 days. And I haven't told her that we're not coming back. She'll find out when she reads this. (To Dottie: We're not going back to St. Louis.|From Syrhea)

I've recently decided that I'm no longer going to solicit for Indie Record labels.

*GASP*

But WHY Syrhea? You're album is the shit!
Ah...you're sweet. It has nothing to do with me not thinking my album is good enough, but everything to do with the fact I'm convinced that I can just as easily start my own label. Of course I'll have a lot of business books to read up on...might as well enroll myself in a few classes. I figure if this endeavor is an epic fail, I can always go back to trying to solicit other Indie Record Labels. We'll see how that goes for now.

I sent a fresh new track to the peeps on my mailing list earlier this week and judging from the feedback I've received, some of them are convinced that I should start my own studio. Or at least stop paying money to use other studios. And I guess this could be feasible but I'm not an engineer and I'd rather have live drums on all of my albums. At the same time if I just save about 2 grand (which is about as much money it'll cost to go to a studio) and buy a G5 with Pro-Tools, I could have a start to my own studio. Baby Steps...baby steps... Maybe one day..

But first, I'm planning on heading back into the studio sometime, before June, of next year. This time the songs that I actually play live will be on the album and I won't feel so guilty during the release show.

I've finished the outline to the "Fairy Album" (scratch title) and I'm currently writing a couple more songs to finish the story out. I'm thinking it'll be pretty cool...

...hopefully...

Playing now is either What's Ahead, (a track you've heard via myspace or the website) or My World, an instrumental I just demoed the other day. There will be vocals on the track, I just didn't feel like recording them at the moment.

Oh and please ignore the crappy guitar solo in the middle...I was just trying to get the arrangement where I wanted to. I'm kinda torn: Should I add violin or not? I hear parts but I'm thinking I have too much already...thoughts?

I'll post more "unfinished" demos here in the future...

I figured this is a Music Blog so I should post some tunes from time to time...

Anyway, I think that's it.

I need to go practice for the Chicago shows this weekend.

Lates!

~Syrhea

The "Vacation" Ends...

2009-11-01T20:19:00.005-06:00

So...yeah! Been a while eh? Sorry about that.

Let's do a quick recap of the last three weeks...

Friday Oct 9th: I was very excited to play a show in Urbana IL only to hit a unidentifiable canine (I'm still thinking it was a werewolf) an hour into the trip. This animal managed to render my vehicle not drivable leaving me very upset. I would later find out that my insurance company sucks ass and wouldn't fix my vehicle...

And yes, I'm still car-less but I'm thinking I'll have some good luck blow my way soon.

Saturday Oct 10th: My album was finally released and the show went pretty well. I made a few mistakes here an there but nothing to cry over. Had a great time at the Listening Party as well. Fun time all around. Glasswaves and a Light Sleeper kicked total ass and I'm still amazed at the talents of both of those bands!

This is WAAAAAY late but I'd like to thank each and everyone of you for coming out and supporting my musical endeavors. I pretty much busted my ass up to that point, and there are a few people I'd like to personally thank, who lent a hand.

Huvona Brackins (see, I spelled your name right)- The Listening Party wouldn't have even happened if it wasn't for her. Plus she hooked me up with the talents of Kevin McCoy, a person that I'll thank next. And I might add, if you need a party planned, that's the woman to contact. She's definitely a super-human!

Kevin McCoy

website is www.stoopidfresh.com

Jason Robinson- Hooked me up with T-shirts at the very last minute for the Listening Party as well. He had his lovely pregnant wife (With Twins!) working all the way up until the 10th finishing up the T-shirts for me. You both are awesome and thanks soo much!

Dustin Miles- I pretty much bombarded his basement forcing him to help me assemble jewel cases...a task I was growing less and less fond of. It was mundane work yet fun times. Thanks!

James and Brea McNally- Thanks for letting me play your venue! It was effing awesome and I'd love to do it again sometime!

Friday-Sunday Oct 23rd, 24th, and 25th: In the weeks in between the 10th and the 23rd, the stellas were practicing after a 3 months long hiatus. We had ourselves a "mini tour" that was probably some of the coolest and most fun times I remember having in a long time. Nothing like sleeping in rental vans with four guys, unloading gear at 6am, sleeping on futons and couches, and generally having a great bonding time with band mates. I could have done without unloading and loading gear about 10 times in 72 hours...that sucked, but the shows were awesome and we all had a blast.

From Oct 26th to Oct 31st: I was feverishly putting together my planned Halloween costume that I kept secret until the night before Halloween. I must say I'm pretty proud of this costume even though I didn't finish it exactly how I wanted it. But I was a Ghostbuster by day and Orora Munroe (a.k.a Storm) by night. Of course I have pictures for you!

So I've got some new shows booked and they are as follows:

Sunday Nov 8th @ Floating Laboratories with Alberto and Half Handed Cloud
Floating Laboratories
4528 S. Ohio St.
St. Louis, MO 63111

Saturday Nov 14th @ Fill in the Blank Art Gallery with .e and White Rose
Chicago IL

Sunday Nov 15th @ Cole's with .e and a Light Sleeper
Chicago IL

Friday Nov 20th @ The Turner Center for the Arts
Maplewood MO

Saturday Dec 5th @ Apop Records with a whole lotta artist
St. Louis MO

Hope to see some of you there!

I'll start setting up the album to be sold via my website soon, then I'll go digital cause that's what all you kids want to do anymore.

Thanks again all!

I need to go practice and ship disks out for more press... luck Luck LUCK LUCK!

...that is all...

~Syrhea

All We Hear Is...

2009-10-05T11:54:00.010-05:00

...radio ga ga
...radio go go
...radio ka ka

All we hear is...
...radio ga ga
...radio blah blah

So as most of you already know, my local artist spotlight bit is being played on KDHX. I think it sounds pretty good after getting over my initial thought, which was pretentious and retarded. I always get a little uneasy when I'm described as a classically trained musician. It puts this idea in the listeners head that I'm some sort of prodigy, which I'm obviously not. Every single instrument I play, I play mediocre at best. I just have a way of putting it all together. But since I did have classical lessons as a child, I'm classified as classically trained. This is something I need to get over.

Santhem also got some air time last Friday on Thomas Crone's "Silver Tray" show. I caught the beginning of the song and thought that it was just local artist spotlight clip. Then I realized that he was playing the whole song. Surprised I yelled at work, "Oh my God! They're playing the whole song!"
No one really knew what I was talking about...except for Smalls, but she knows everything.

You can hear both the Local Artist Spotlight and a clip from the Silver Tray show in the mini iPod.

Anyway,
I've got my stage banter lines memorized for this Saturday. Taking a new approach and I think it works pretty well. I changed my mind at the last minute about doing an all Acapella set in IL. I'm going to treat that show as the dress rehearsal for the release show. If I really want to tour next summer, or ever, I might as well bite the bullet now and start playing back to back shows.

So in light of this, I've decided to play a 15 minute acapella set tonight at Friendly's to further promote the Cd Release Party. (10.10.09 @ the Luminary Center for the Arts with a Listening Party @ the Royale immediately after the CD Release)

Hope to see you all there!
And the flier as promised...

p.s. I only have 30 more disks to make!
Yay for ME!

...that is all...
~Syrhea

Down to the Wire

2009-09-28T08:45:00.004-05:00

Boy oh boy oh boy...

Where do I start?

I haven't practiced, or played since my show on the 17th...nor have I written any banter. I've made about 31 disks, but can only sell 13 of them because I'm giving away 18. These aren't really bad things...what's bad is that I'm talking myself out of working on this right now. I'm tired of being in this hole, working all the time. So I took a few days off last week. What did I do? Well, I mailed more disks out, stopped by KDHX again, oh what was that? What did I do that wasn't CD Release related? Oh, dude...you guys. I saw this pilot that I believe is watched via television called Battlestar Galactica. Holy shit that show is amazing. I might have to start adding that to my netflix queue.

But down to some Grrrreat news! My girl Nana, who's really been pulling through for me here, (You know you're awesome!) has hooked me up with the talents of Kevin McCoy. (I'm not even joking, go to his website and click "archive") He has just recently designed a pretty b-dass logo for Syna So Pro and I would love, love, love to post it here and show you, but I'm gonna make you wait. But it's sooo friggin AMAZING! No, forget amazing, it's STOOPID FRESH!

What is he designing it for?
Ah, well I'm glad you asked. It's for the free merch that I'm GIVING AWAY (FREE!) at my Listening Party on the 10th of October at the Royale. Why am I mentioning this multiple times per week? Well I'm not sure you folks are understanding the magnitude of free here. I'm pretty much giving away easily $12 worth of merch as well as a little sumptin, sumptin, Nana was thinking about adding.

How do I obtain this free merch?
Just sign up on my mailing list. It's not that hard, I swear! Then I'll send you a ticket and then you give me the ticket in exchange for the free stuff at the Listening Party on the 10th. C'mon guys!

I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but knowing how sometimes I can be a procrastinator, I know I'll pull it all together at the last minute. I wish these damned social networks weren't so time consuming...and more importantly necessary.

Syna's adopted quote:
"Make 10 jewel cases a day, and your urgency and anxiety will go away!"

And once again, don't forget:

Tell a friend, bring a friend!
Bring yourself too!

...that's all I got...

~Syrhea

God I'm Weird...

2009-09-21T21:09:00.005-05:00

So, despite previous circumstances, the show last Thursday went pretty well. I was testing out if I could in some way use the PA as my own monitor. That was an epic fail. I don't think I'll have anything to worry about on the 10th, and I might not have much to worry about on the 9th...

Oh yes the 9th! So, I'm playing a show in Urbana IL the night before my release on the 10th of October. Should I really be doing this? Will I jinx myself? I've actually already thought of those two questions, so I'll only be doing another a'capella set and try my hardest to fight the urge to drink and party with the rest of them. Plus I'm thinking this should be a perfect opportunity to sell some disks the night before the release. Get a little bit more exposure. a Light Sleeper hooked me up with this show at the last minute and I'm appreciative, but I only wished that I had shipped some disks out to the north side earlier to get better publicity and promotion.

But back to the show on the 17th. For those that were there, you all knew that I didn't have enough time to program "stage banter" scripts into my loop pedal. So there was unbearable, for me anyway, silence in-between songs. I'm not sure what has happened to me in the last several months...I guess working feverishly in a hermit state has caused me to forget how to be social and work a room or a crowd. I was a little bit more awkwardly weird than usual and I have no effing clue as to why. And for some reason, I'm still afraid to look at my audience while I'm playing. What is up with that? What's happening to me? Where did all this fear come from? It could have been because I was immediately following Daniel Francis Doyle because he's friggin' awesome, but BAH! I've even noticed this quirk during the last stella show. I wasn't working the crowd, just kinda sitting off to myself extremely tired and ready to play so that I could go home and sleep. Yes, I had a lot on my mind about planning this release but geez! This is something I definitely need to work on in the next coming months because I want to give it my all in Chicago. .e and I are going to rock that city, with are ethereal-like qualities.

Anyway, I guess you all need a little bit more poking than usual. Do you guys not want free merchandise? How could you not want free stuff? Well, If You Really Want It, sign up on my mailing list and I'll send you a ticket that you must present to me on the 10th of October at my Listening Party. Give me the ticket, I give you free stuff. It's not that hard peeps!

Once again, in case you forgot: (I'll be posting this every week until the show's happened)

Tell a friend, bring a friend!

...that's all I got...
~Syrhea

The Question I'll Always Hate

2009-09-14T11:09:00.002-05:00

Most of you know that this past week I had a little interview with KDHX for the Local Artist Spotlight, and I think overall it went pretty well. I may have gone off in my little tangents and side acting stories a bit much, but hey, that's me. I did, however, encounter a question I'm learning to hate more and more twice this week. The first time was obviously in the interview at the radio station. Just one simple question that I don't think I'll ever be able to answer confidently or with any absolute idea of what I'm talking about.

The question is:

"What does your music sound like?"

Not that this question isn't already hard enough to answer but we all know what that really means. It means, "Who do you sound like" or "What artists that I've heard do you sound similar to?". I'm not sure why we must always compare music with other music. It's true, I do it too, but can't our vocabulary extend beyond this general comparison?

I stumbled over the answer for about 3 minutes before I finally said, "I hate this question...I don't know how to answer it."

The same thing happened this past Saturday at bar. I can totally understand an owner wanting to make sure a disk doesn't sound like shit before he agrees to host a party, but God I hate that question! Just listen to the album! I got you a free copy! I could say that I sound like a female fronted MUSE with drops of Queen's vocals, Trail of Dead's rhythm's, and arrangements touch to the like of John Williams, but I won't. Why, because I'm not that sure that it even sounds like that.

I can say confidently that I don't think my recorded album sounds anything like Imogen Heap. I get that comparison quite often and Imogen has been a huge inspiration to me, but her music sounds more like the music I WANT to make but somehow falls short and in a whole different genre. Maybe the next album I could agree with that common comparison I get.

Anyway, enough about that riff-raff.

I booked, with the help of Nana, (actually SHE booked) a Listening Party at the Royal immediately after the Release of the Cd on the 10th of October. The Party is obviously free, and we'll sit and drink some beers and listen to my album...for free! But this is not the end of this news. For those of you who are already on the mailing list, you will receive a little ticket in your email that you can print off and bring to the Listening Party. In exchange for this ticket, you'll get a free (did you see that...FREE!) grab bag of Syna So Pro merch because, let's face it, you're special. I'm very appreciative of all you who willingly signed up on the list.

So if you want to get a freebie bag of Syna So Pro merchandise, you need to sign up on the mailing list. So easy.

And here's the flier for the CD Release show! Whoopie!

click to enlarge

Plus I'm playing a show at Lemp Arts Center with the awesomely talented Daniel Francis Doyle, and .e this Thursday! Come out if you can. It's a night of loop-de-looping!

...that's all I got...

~Syrhea

Just Watch the Video

2009-09-07T22:12:00.004-05:00

Yeah,

It's Labor day...

I ain't postin' nuthin...

Just watch the video!

~Syrhea

Pep in the Step

2009-08-30T15:34:00.001-05:00

So...

Despite the fact that I'm still very, very tired, I've gotten energized about what I've been doing with this project. I pretty much forced myself to sit down, on Saturday, and finished the animated music video, as if The Goblin King himself would crown me Princess of the Bog of Eternal Stench. (Yeah, I just recently watched that movie...classic)

Like I've posted a million times before, it consists of 834 frames and I did it all by myself. Whoo hoo!

I probably shouldn't brag too much. It totally looks like children animated the video. But I kinda like that look.

The people who's already signed up on my mailing list has already received the video...except some of you Hotmail peeps... Apparently the attachment is "too large" and I have to resend the email to you. Lame...

In other news, I shipped out some disks of the album to local press and I'm sure I'll be playing the waiting game until the very last minute of hearing anything back. Thanks to all who wished and wishes, and continues to wish me luck.

The next step is to send out about 10 more disks to local noteworthy bloggers...I know of about 4, if any of you actually read music blogs in the area and dig them, send me a link! I need to get on this pronto!

But first, I need to wash my hair...

...it stinks...

...that's all I got...
..except...

♫♫You remind me of the babe
What baby? baby with the power
What power? power of voodoo
Who do? you do
Do what? remind me of the babe♫♫

~Syrhea

This Case is a Jewel

2009-08-23T17:39:00.003-05:00

So...

I'm not going to lie...

This blog is dated 8/23/09 but it was actually written today. (8/25/09)

My head is spinning, face pale, eyes swollen, appetite gone, liquid drained, and joints aching. I feel so far behind when in actuality I'm doing fine. I guess the sensation of being overwhelmed is hitting me...pretty hard. Somehow, on top of putting out this disk, I've managed to be responsible for building my company a website, and making fliers for a co-worker's baby shower.

*inhale*

*exhale*

But, on to the task at hand...

Somehow when ordering jewel cases and printable disks...instead of receiving 100 of each, I received 200. That's great an all, but geez, what the hell am I going to do with all of these? It literally took me an hour and a half to paste, cut, insert, assemble 5 disks...

FIVE!

Still no progress on the animated music video, as well as actually practicing any of my songs...

And I'm still tired as hell

I need a vacation, and needless to say, a little bit of help. If any of you fine folks could find the kindness in your heart to donate you house, home, shack, garage, whatever you have to a CD Assembling Party for my benefit, I would, greatly, greatly appreciate it. And obviously, throw in an album and some beer for free.

Let me know!

And thanks to all who made it to the Jovian CD Release Party...

...it was neat...

Anyway,

I've gotta jet...

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Slow Burn...

2009-08-16T21:17:00.004-05:00

This past week has been pretty interesting...

I pretty much stopped working myself ragged from Wednesday to earlier this afternoon. This wasn't by choice. I suddenly feel like my mid 20's body has been replaced with the body of a frail and frigid 60 year old man. I find myself being hungry, getting something to eat, and falling asleep before I even finish my meal, and waking up confused as hell and still hungry. I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion twice (that's right twice) this week before 9pm.

I'm yawning right now...and it's barely 9:30pm.

Friday night I went to El's place to catch up on new mailing list subscriptions (You guys are awesome!) and a little Linux education only to fall asleep on the couch while watching Arrested Development at around 10:30pm. I mean seriously, who the hell falls asleep on Arrested Development? And once again I have to thank the person who invented the striated concrete on the shoulders of interstates. If it wasn't for those loud, god forsaken vibrations, I would have sustained serious injuries trying to drive back home, on Friday, while sleeping.

Saturday I made it a point to actually get out of the house and act like someone in their 20's. Had a few beers, hung out with a couple of friends, saw a few bands, and was in bed by 12:30am. Still a bit early for a Saturday, but baby steps...

...baby steps...

I'm pretty much burn out on this music video. I've got one more minute to animate, but I can't bring myself to do anything with it right now. So I ended up doing what this project is supposed to be about...playing music. Practiced for about 2 1/2 hours today (too tired to go longer) working on some new stuff and trying to perfect the old. And jotting down a wave a lyrics that came from nowhere..as if they were there the whole time. I was going to post some new music here but... yeah, I'm effing tired...

But I did make a couple of paintings that will be printed on the album discs.

I dig it...

Took a wooden turn table, taped paper to it, got a few colors of watered down acrylic paint, spun the table, dropped some paint and Voila!

Test 1

Test 2

Combination of tests with the aid of Photoshop

I dig it a lot...

Another quick reminder that Jovian's CD Release party is this Friday @ the Firebird... It would be cool to see some of you out. Let's hope I can stay awake for the night of music...

*yawn*

*smack* *smack*

...

Yeah, I'm going to bed...

~Syrhea

Listeners and Parties and Releases OH MY!

2009-08-09T16:07:00.007-05:00

Many things to say but only 2 things are really important.

First the unimportant stuff. (In my opinion...not that's it's unimportant, you've already heard or knew it was coming...I don't know...who cares/ SHALL WE?)

I'm proud to say that I've successfully animated 318 frames to my music video!

Oh yes!

Is it finished?

Well...no but it's halfway! BOOYAH! I've got 1 minute and 20 seconds (and counting) of it finished, and I'm very confident it'll be entertaining your beautiful eyes in about 2 weeks.

The mastered disk is back in the hands of Jack. There were just 3 small things that weren't sitting well with me. Although I've had a few close friends listen to the album,and they have no idea why I'm sending it back, I know I'll never be able to listen to two songs without shaking my head. I would never forgive myself.

Having regrets like,'What did I see in you?', 'Why did I eat that chili before this meeting?', 'Why didn't I slap that bitch in the face?' is one thing, but this?...nononono. No regrets.

Jack did an awesome job and I'm lucky he's willing to work on the changes.

The album art. Well it's done...kinda. You know it looks nice and stuff. But my poor band mate Jim is totally slammed at his job. He's been slammed for a while and I feel bad for him. So for now, I'll print maybe about 10 cd's or so for the press and promotion and save the REAL ONES for you listeners.

And speaking of you listeners... the first of you who signed up on my mailing list last month will be receiving a free mp3 from this album next week. Think of it as a thank you for putting up with my weekly emails and reading this blog. I appreciate every last one of you! If you aren't signed up to the mailing list but you want to receive a free mp3, you can either send me an email @ synasoloproject@gmail.com or simply sign up on my mailing list by visiting http://www.synasoloproject.com/contact.html

Soo exciting!

The Important Stuff!

The Jovian Chorus will be having it's first CD Release Party this month (08.21.09) @ the Firebird! I think you all should come and give Mr. Moseley a big pat on the back. He pretty much recorded all the instruments (except a few) himself as well as arrangement and composition of the songs. (Trust me, that shit's meticulous) With Mr. Jones at his side pounding out the mixes, and production, I can very well say the record sounds pretty sweet. Plus Jack did that whole magical mastering thing again!

You're wondering where I come into this equation, and the answer is simple: I don't. I'm just the bass player for the live shows.

You can stream his whole album via myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/thejovianchorus. And I've heard something about T-shirts and digital downloading directions can be purchased at the show. It starts early (9:00pm) and I hope to see you all there!

And last but not least!

Syna So Pro (that's me) CD Release party will be on Sat, October 10th @ The Luminary Center for the Arts. (10.10.09) It will be a night of live looping with Glass Waves and a Light Sleeper from Chicago. I'm pretty excited/scared/anxious/nervous/relieved/stressed and any other adjective you can think of. More details as the date approaches.

And...

some pics...

Glass Waves

a Light Sleeper

...that's all I got...

~Syrhea

Deadlines in Sight

2009-08-02T21:08:00.007-05:00

A few of you may have seen that I just spontaneously decided to make my own music video...

This is proving to take up more time than I had originally anticipated. I thought I could make a little cheap video with pictures and toys in frame by frame movement, but I decided not to deal with issues of lighting and scenery etc. So I'm drawing it. Got the story board finished in about two hours and started the animation right away. Story board images are below...

click to enlarge

It will have ducks, water, cliques, planning, motivation, excelling, and back packs...Don't ask, you'll see.

So, I'm not too terrible of an artist...I can dabble a little, but what I can't do is dabble with a mouse. The software I've been using requires me to draw with a mouse and only with a mouse...I don't even have shape tools to my advantage. I could just open up photoshop and import the frames in that way, but I actually like the way the video looks in it's childlike cartoonish form. I've animated about 120 frames so far...which is about 20sec out of the 2:38 seconds of the song.

Will it be done before the release of the cd? With everything else that's going on, I can't make any promises...but I really should fine time to practice while I'm doing all of these promotional projects.

In other news, I got the mastered disk back from Jack yesterday. El and I had a little meet with him at his effing awesome pad! I must say, I'm pretty impressed with his work and I'm excited that the rekkid actually sounds like a record. I'm going to let the disk soak into my brain for about a week before I decide if it's a no or a go. Just like what my boss says,
"Take your time, go slow, and do it right!"

Plus I still have a crap ton of research to do, as well as the finishing touches on the album insert...I need to clone myself like Michael Keaton in Multiplicity, so I won't be so exhausted from working my 9 hours, then going home and working the remaining 7-9 hours on this release. I'm tired! But like Mrs. Schwartz says, "You've got to get off of your butts and your buts!"

Hmm...but if I were to clone myself...it's best to clone 5 of me...

...then I'd really be my own band...

I'm off to do more research...

...I've got deadlines to meet...

...that all I got...

~Syrhea

The Reveal

2009-07-26T21:27:00.015-05:00

So, as promised, I'm posting pictures of Big Blue. I received many compliments on his construction at the show last night, as well as comments of my overall sexiness for building it...even in my spider man t-shirt. And without further ado, here are external picture of the new male in my life...

He barely fits in the trunk...

Some nice corner blocks...

My favorite feature!

More to come on his sweetness from the inside. I meant to snap a few with a new, but old, camera I just purchased today, as well as a laptop and some headphones, from my friend/old band mate Dan, but I wanted to hurry and get this laptop to El so that he can work his magic of make it a Windows-less Operating System.

Sure enough, he fixed it up in about 30 minutes and I'm currently at his place, typing this blog, watching Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas, and uploading the new teaser Syna video to facebook on the laptop, all at the same time, with no lagging! I'm glad I've snatched this up, even if it is about 5 years old. It will just make it that much easier "stay connected" with everything, for I have another reveal...

I finished the website and would love for you all to check it out and pass it around. (www.synasoloproject.com)

But wait, there's more, I also opened a twitter account, as well as a facebook account for Syna So Pro.

...

*sniff*

...

That wasn't as climatic as I had hoped...

Anyway, Bliss City East, Panda Riot and Fractured Army all kicked some ass last night. It was a lot of fun, and the night seemed to speed on by. Thanks to all who made it out and stuck around!

I really don't have much else to blahg about but I want to keep playing on this laptop...

Who's going to tell me what kind of operating system I'm running? #! (psst...alan...that's your cue)

...that's all I got...

~Syrhea

A Year Ago Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow...

2009-07-19T23:36:00.008-05:00

I was nervous, excited, moody, unsure and very, very anxious. The night before a year ago yesterday, I couldn't sleep too well. I couldn't wait to get up at 0730 and start cooking breakfast for El, Will, and Shae because that would mean that I was that much closer to recording my first debut album.

Sleeping that night was like sleeping the night before Christmas when Christmas was the most important thing to a child. Even on the "couch of lethargy" I couldn't drift away. I was up, mind racing:

"I think Shae can knock out the drum tracks in about 5 or 6 hours"
"...I really hope I get halfway done when this weekend is over..."
"...you should have practiced the violin more..."
"...and your guitar parts..."
"...you should really start with these songs first..."
"...I hope El will help me with distortion sounds..."

Sleep finally came and recording started with only a little bump in the road. The drums took most of the first day, leaving me with about 2 hours to squeeze some bass lines in. Bass and guitar was all day the second day, and guitar the remainder of the third day. I remember being disappointed that I didn't get at least halfway through all the instruments to be recorded. I also remember being in slight disbelief that I could forget to add a part or two to a song. (How could I completely forget about parts, not the parts themselves, but putting the parts in the songs?)

Looking back a year ago, I learned that nothing, nothing ever goes as planned...EVER! El said it best: "You can't record songs when you have time booked. You have to record when you feel it...when you're in it." I agree 100%. When I started recording, I didn't want the process to take a year to do...and here we are a year later with the final product to be release in a couple months. The whole process was time consuming, tiring, difficult, monotonous, frustrating, and tedious in every way possible. But I couldn't be happier with how everything is finally coming together.

It's been a long time since I posted some music on the blog. I thought it would be fitting for me to post a song that I wrote a year ago, and still haven't gotten total lyrical inspiration. It was my attempt to write a riff...

I think it's kinda funny...

It's got anvils...they're always funny...

I especially like the ebowed guitar parts...

Hope you guys dig it.

Last night El and I went driving around to capture some footage for a video idea I have. I not going to say much more than that, but since you are following this blog, I figured I could at leas post some stills for your pleasure...

Two questions before I "sign off" here. Of the few of you who actually read this, how much more or less inclined are you to buy a jewel case of the album, as oppose to digital? (this is if you were going to buy the album of course)

And are you coming to the stella show this Saturday? You can finally see my pedal board! (this is if you didn't already see it earlier this month) I did, however, add a new feature to Big Blue...you'll see.

Ok...

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Probing the Biz and the Brain

2009-07-12T14:43:00.017-05:00

In this past week I've come to the realization that I have no idea of what I'm doing:

How should I list the album info?
Do the little things really matter?
Should I include the people who helped my stars align or not?
Should I get the album registered with the Government?
Or is my post dated copyright enough?
Does it need some sort of publication?

I have no idea...

...then the paranoia sets in, with all these different scenarios coming about and what I could do to prevent it. It took 2 phone calls and a IM chat to calm my ass down. Not that I was really freaking out or anything...

...you know...

I also found a website that answered all of my previous (legal) freak outs above. Very helpful...so the wheels have slowed to their normal pace and my brain can function once more.

But I need to find a way to kill the little voice of doubt. Of all of the "nay-sayers" she s the most threatening to my success. If there was a way to shoot her (we'll call her Cyrhea...'Mario:Wario' anyone?) out of me, much like what Ed did to Brad in Fight Club, I'd jump at the chance. But, obviously, that isn't a valid option and I'll have to find my own way. I do know that she feeds off of the negative energy from others and I need to surround myself with more "successful" people to fuel my drive...in the positive direction. Lucky for me, I do have two people who's been supportive of me since day one. One of you were even behind me before the was anything to get behind. Two is not a lot, but it's better than zero and I thank you both.

This sudden reflection of my overall conscience of myself has caused me to wonder of the stage banter is taking it's toll on the issue. I think it works, and it's kind of my own way of making fun of myself. I know my close, close friends kinda get the pun/joke but when strangers ask, "Why are you so hard on yourself", it's probably time for a different approach.

I did, for the first time in ages, go out this past Saturday. My Brodurr came up to visit and we hit a Drum N Bass BBQ at a park in St. Ann. (he's a DJ by the way...ahem...A REAL ONE... ...*cough*) We then chilled for a while at a house party and I got to do something else I haven't done in a while. JAM! It ain't...It ain't too much to JAM! It ain't too much...IT AIN'T TO A MUCH FOR ME. LET'S JAM!

I jammed a little on the bass...
Then a little on the guitar...
Then a little on the drums...

Definitely needed the release and collaboration with others. After the session, my bro and I headed to The Upstairs' After Party, which, sadly to say, I ruined the rest of the fun to be had. I can barely stay up after midnight anymore from working myself ragged for the rekkid release. So we promptly left after last call and snapped a quick pic of us.

Awwwww....

The last time we were in a picture together was at least 5 years ago. INSANE!

I will be "getting out of the cave" again for the Sonic Youth show this Friday. See you there? Plus the stellas has the final show before recording fresh demos the Saturday after. (07.25.09) And last but not least, Jovian's Cd release show is slotted on 8.21.09 at the Firebird. So yes, I'll leave my cave for these events but I must stay focused on what needs to be done.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Tests, Tributes and Flashes

2009-07-05T20:10:00.021-05:00

Once again, thanks to all who made it out to the show last Friday. It was a lot of fun and it made me realize that I need to play out more often. And a special thanks to .e for asking me to play the show and Bill Tucker for just being himself. You both are awesome!

It was also a test to see if Big Blue could survive being transported, and if I need to re-think any elements within him. He passed with flying colors but I do need to make one minor adjustment. I put Easy Liner on the actual board of the pedal board and thought that industrial strength Velcro would keep it in it's place. Well, apparently the weight of all the pedals, pulling downward on the Easy Liner when the case is upright, pulls the Liner from the Velcro.

The Velcro is strong enough, but the adhesive on the back of the Velcro isn't. So I'm thinking I should just use some cabinet liner that has an adhesive backside and cross the fingers... (still not going to post pictures... probably after the stella show on 07/25/09)

I was going to get some today, but I was too lazy...

Plus the thought of having to go to a Walmart/Kmart (insert any other chain mart) makes me annoyed, impatient, and dreading every second I'm there. So I watched (again) Michael Jackson's live in Bucharest concert instead. And speaking of the late MJ, I have to give mad props to all the people on Friday who sang their asses off during my performance. I made a little video for your enjoyment. I'll definitely have to play that song again sometime in the future.

Oh yeah and those business cards that I printed and were feverishly snatched up has the incorrect link to this blog. It's synasoloproject.blogspot.com not ~~blogspot.synasoloproject.com~~. Not sure why I'm even posting it here, but I'm hoping that some of you already knew the correct link or can use a search engine.

I watched the footage of the show to critique myself and to get newer media up for viewing and I was absolutely horrified at what I saw. The performance was pretty good...confidence about as normal as it can get with my solo shows...but the wardrobe... uh oh. Talk about a wardrobe malfunction that I not only didn't notice, but not one person who witnessed the show informed me of this. Not One! Dude, I practically flashed a group of people on the left side of the room...for a long, long time. By far the worst 1.07 seconds I never remembered. It was hot in the room...but geez, you'd think I'd notice something like that!

And the image...edited of course!

I'm very surprised El didn't zoom in on the atrocity.

Anyway, hope you all had a great 4th and mother nature (we're not on good terms) didn't ruin too much of the festivities for you.

Plus I just uploaded another video from my last show.

Check it out.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

The Saga Ends...

2009-06-30T22:30:00.004-05:00

YAY!!!

Big Blue is finally finished and boy is he heavy! I still haven't figured out how I'm going to get him out of the basement...even with his wheels.

I would post a picture, but I'm really wanting you folks to come out to Cranky Yellow this Friday(07.03.09) around 8:30 to see myself, .e and Bill Tucker and friends. Then you can see my new pedal board, listen to some sweet ass tunes, and hang out with me. I mean c'mon! There should be no thinking...just GO!

I spent most of the day today at El's place making the final edits on the album. Why has this taken so long? Well, there are a few reasons...the main one being, I'M SO EFFING TIRED OF LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM...IT'S MAKING ME CRAZY...ALMOST TO THE POINT THAT I DON'T EVEN CARE ANYMORE! Seriously, it's getting pretty old...but it's work that has to be done. Editing is a very important aspect of the flow of an album and it cannot be overlooked...plus I'm picky. And having a sense of pickiness (yes I'll make up my own word) and monotonous redundancy causes me to fight with myself. Either I don't care, or I have to do this right...Pick one!

I then spent the rest of the late afternoon/evening memorizing stage banter lines that I've written for myself. I wish I had more time before this show on Friday, but I think all will be fine. Just trying to think of ways to entertain you folks while I'm setting everything up for the next song. So I'll be rehearsing for 4 hours each night until Friday to make sure that I don't even have to think about what I'm doing anymore. Did I already mention monotonous redundancy?

I also just want to quickly mention while I'm finally gained my composure and self. Michael Jackson is one of the best things that could have ever happened to me as a child. Just listening to his music brings me back to my family, summer days, bbq's, dance off's, and all around happiness. Janet's Control and Rhythm Nation does the same. So when he passed last Thursday, it felt like those days left with him. I'm glad I had this experience with him, although I've never met him, nor been to any of his concerts. (watched all the live videos 5x over with my papa though) This was something that was shared by not only blacks, but ethnic groups and generations of the world. Although I'm absolutely devastated that he's gone, I'm even more saddened at the people who cannot relate. He was the most unique entertainer I ever seen, and probably ever will see. And a handful of you missed it.

That is the real shame.

...and I still love him...

~Syrhea

Sempre Con Calore

2009-06-21T14:37:00.006-05:00

Happy Father's Day!

Ahh...First off I'd like to make a quick little note:Big Blue still isn't finished! Remember me bitching about how I've waited a little over a week for a manufacturer to ship in an item that I ordered from the ma and pa hardware store? Well it turns out the so called manufacturer stop producing this item and decided not to ship it to me. This doesn't bother me as much as the fact that no one at this said ma and pa hardware store bothered to call me to inform me this. And even that doesn't bother me as much as it took 5 phone calls, from me, to them, to get this explanation. So I got my refund and a name of another hardware store located in downtown Kirkwood...Yeah, I'm getting it from the internet this time around.

I started and finished the front cover of my album art this past week. I wanted the art to be full of layers to compliment the album but at the same time, I want it to be more about expression and impression as oppose to definite objects/images. So I got canvas, paint (no brushes) and worked in my little laboratory until the wee hours of each morning. It was a lot of fun to make, and to attempt to put the images, my songs create in my head, on paper. It's about as close as I can get, but I'm please. I have to admit, about half way through the meshing of paint, I panicked...convinced it was crap. Determined to not let myself stop me, I continued with the project and finished it today. I'm also graciously, thankfully, (insert other synonyms) accepting help from my fellow band mate (stellas) Jim Harper. He's agreed to design the album artwork as well because let's face it...I've only got the cover and I'm sure he can bring out other textures that I can't. And I'm tired...geez this shit his hard work. But the work must always be with feeling...or there's really no point in doing it.

Check out some of his stuff here and here.

Beginning:

and untouched end:

Each square represents a song on the album...could it be a bit too artsy for the content on the record? Ehhh maybe, but I think it's cool and so does my father. For this was his Father's day gift. Love that JOKER.

The website is practically finished...just need a little bit of help on the html/css of mail list forms...Anybody...anybody?

Also, the show on 7/03/09 @ City Art Supply has been moved to Cranky Yellow which is a little further east of APOP on Cherokee street. Hope to see some of you there!

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Shoot Me Once, Twice, Five Times. HOORAY!

2009-06-14T17:59:00.005-05:00

Photo shoots and fun!

My good ol' dad has been wanting to get out to new areas in St. Louis to shoot people just to stay loose and to feed his artistic needs. What better person could he shoot, other than his very photogenic daughter... That's right. I jumped at this opportunity, because not only have I been slacking on just getting new media out about this solo project, but just to have some professional looking photos would be nice.

But why would you need these photos? It's not like your solo project plays out that much...

Yeah, thanks...I'm aware of this. And I'll take the time to explain to some of the 'Debbie Downers' out there.

You're right, I don't play out often...I've got three other bands to practice and play for...plus my set up is a bit more complicated...Don't want to play when I'm not ready. But what I am doing with these pictures is building my own website.

I've already got my basic layout complete, as well as a few of the tabs in the navigation bar...A few tweaks on color scheme, setting up shop, and actually writing something of substance and VOOWAHLAH! A website.

I'm heading into Yellow Hat tomorrow (hopefully the last time) to fine tune 4 more songs on the rekkid, pass the rekkid to Will so that Will can pass it to Jack to let him do his magic mastering. YEAYUH! But what good is an album if you have no means to sell it digitally? Ahhh...the website.

Indeed...

Still doing a bit of research on digital downloads but the ship is in motion. I will press about 100 and I plan to use them as I see fit. (Sell Sell Sell!)

But let's get back to the photos...

Fun times with dad...
Difficult times changing in the back seat of a car and praying no one can see...and if they do, no one will call the cops. And it was Hot...in the car. (No air conditioning) Here are several pictures I'm willing to share.

Whu-whu-Whoooaah!

Dad, I have no idea what you want me to do...

Loungin'

Your soul is mine!

Wheee!

Wheee agaaain!

Model wannabe

Unattractive close up...

And another...

I have no idea what I was doing

And now, the one I'm most proud of. I call it the Barack Obama meets a JC Penny Model...Enjoy!

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Delays in Sagas

2009-06-09T10:48:00.014-05:00

So...

Yeah...

I'm not too happy right now...

My pedal board is practically finished...FINISHED! But am I going to get to use it at tonight's show? (Viva Voce et al) Nope. Should I really be complaining? Probably not...but I went out of my way to give a local hardware store some business. They promised me my item would be in on Monday... ...that promise was made last Tuesday... have I heard anything yet? Nope. I mean c'mon, seriously? This is why Ma and Pa business are going down... I could have gotten this shit by Friday of last week if I had just ordered it online! I knew I should have done that. What was I thinking?

I guess there's always the July shows. The 3rd is approaching faster than I'd like. Mostly because I'm having a really hard time with volume levels between the Headrush, Repeater and the Jamman. The chain of wiring events goes as follows:

All instruments to Mixer
Mixer to Pedal Board
TU-12
OD-20
Big Muff
Whammy
Small Stone
Holy Grail
DD-20
Headrush
Repeater
Jamman

Pedal Board to Bass Rig

Here's a lovely picture I drew! CLICK TO ENLARGE

With this set up, the Jamman will be the "drum machine" per se, while the repeater takes over the looping and the Headrush and DD-20 can serve their main purpose. DELAY Delay delay delay. Which is a lot of fun and is definitely adding to my orchestrated sound. I still use the Headrush and the Jamman as loop pedals on the old tunes...which is where the problem I stated above lies. I'm not sure if I have the mixer output level too high or if it's the Headrush's or the Jamman's or the Repeater's but my levels aren't fitting in the correct spot with my drum machine. Yes, I could just push the drum machine volume up, but when I do so, it effects all the loops being recorded into it...causing the loop to be louder than the current instrument that I'm playing. And that poor Backline didn't sign up for that. I'm slowly breaking him, and I know it. Which is why I desperately need a PA system to run this craziness through.

So this one seemingly little problem will and can indeed cause me to spend a whole 8 hour day to figure out and fix. This is what I plan to do after I post this nonsense. And the process is painfully frustrating and monotonous. I guess the first place I should start is to re-recording all the drum beats onto my Jamman...this way I'll know that they're all at the same exact volume. I anticipate this alone taking a few hours and I already don't want to do it. But like I said before, I can only depend on myself...I can't let anything stop me...not even myself. So let's get this loopage started right...

But I'm kinda hungry...

I will let hunger stop me...

...temporarily...

I'm going to get some food...

Hope to see some of you at the stella show tonight! It's early, all ages and it'll be fun!

...that is all...

~Syrhea

Pete and the Repeater

2009-06-02T20:20:00.007-05:00

It was April 16th, 2009.

I was at work, gmail chatting about tax money. The thread reads as follows:

Scott: sooo... .what is the damage?
me: I'm expected to get about a grand back
Scott: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me: 400 from Federal and 600 from state
12:55 PM

Scott: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Electrix Repeater????
HeySus Christo, that is awesome.
me: Nah...
not yet
hmm...maybe
I don't know
I want an i-pod too
Scott: hehe
repeater!
1:00 PM

me: Yeah, you're right
I could probably swing both...
Maybe.
Scott: Yeah!
me: I just hate to spend all the money at once on one thing.
Scott: Does this mean we'll have to go to Chicago to buy gear?
me: You know?
Ahhh.
I don't know
Only way I can get a reapeater is ebay.
Scott: haha - nah, I know. It's good to hang on to some cash, for sure!
I can't believe they stopped making that.

1:07 PM

me: looking up repeaters now
Scott: lol
me: Look at what you've got me doing!
Scott: awesome!
I am a good influence

1:11 PM

me: And I've found one for $600!!!!
Scott: That's good?
me:
let me see
Bidding ends tomorrow
Ahhh...what am I going to do!
Scott: when do you get your funds?
me: Should I just get it?
Scott: With what?
me: Next friday
Scott: hmmm
me: But I get paid this friday
Scott: Well, check it out thoroughly ya know, seller history/references, etc...
me: yeah
I don't even have an ebay account
Scott: do you have a paypal acct, tho?
me: no
I know
it's actually only $530
Scott: Well, you might be able to check it out late tonight when ya have more time, and set up the accts, if ya want to. Otherwise, I am sure there will be more on the market!
me: But that's definitely the cheapest one I've seen
Scott: Wow... of course, the bidding could spike as the dealine approaches.

1:20 PM

Where is the seller located?
me: I can't figure it out.
I'm trying to look
it just says he's from the US but he has great feedback responses
Scott: that's weird... I thought they usually had more specific info.
me: he hasn't sold anything in the last year...he has a blue star but the comments left were very positive
http://myworld.ebay.com/cellowings
Scott: cool - I just pulled it up
oh - It's Bainbridge Island, WA... Right across the water from Seattle
Upper right of screen
me: oh..

1:30 PM

Scott: Yeah, that is a lot of good feeback, even from buyers
me: You think i should go for it?
Scott: Yeah - I'd drop the seller a line and inquire regarding any known problems... But it looks good, and comes with a foot pedal..
me: I wonder if he'd just sell it to me for a flat price
Damn you Scott!
Now I can't stop thinking about it!
I was going to buy wood to start my pedal board this weekend
Scott: Wood is cheap
me: But my heart needs that repeater!
AHHHHH
Scott: Awww
Sorry!
1:35 PM

btw - I think it is a chic sellin it
I was reading her feedback responses to other people
me: oooo even better!
Scott: that unit really does look pretty mint
I think I want one too
;)
me: and it's not too expensive!
Scott: word - go for it!
me: I think I will
THANKS!
when should I place the killer bid?
10 minutes before?
1:40 PM

Scott: I would be ready to make a little move in the last 2 minutes, actually
me: Ok, tonight I'm going to set up my account...
Then in the last two minutes make a bid at about 550
I know that's 20 dollars over but I really want this now.
Scott: Someone else might have a max bid set higher... If you thought 600 was fair, ya might wanna go that high
me: I think I'll risk 550
Scott: Cool

So, that evening, I set up my accounts and by later on that afternoon, the repeater was mine. Outbid those losers in the last 10 seconds. Sooooo didn't see that coming. It seemed like eternity for the repeater to arrive, mostly because I didn't realize that it took 3 business days for pay pal to verify a bank account, as well as another 5 business days to transfer the money to pay pal. But when it finally arrived on April 28th 2009...I was estatic!

I immediately ran to the laboratory and tried to figure it out. (very difficult without a manual) I knew I would be spending every moment I had with Repeat (that's her name) but my time with her was so short... I started building Big Blue (that's the pedal board 'his' name) causing the last time I touched her, to be the first.

I neglected her...

For over a month...

She was probably wondering why I bought her to begin with...as was I the other day. But in the last 72 hours, almost all of my spare time has gone to her. We've already created 2 new sweet songs that we'll bust out together on July 3rd @ City Art Supply. (w/.e and Bill Tucker and Friends)

I must say, I'm enjoying actually using delay pedals...as a delay pedal instead of a secondary and/or tertiary loop pedal with my previous set up. I'm very excited, and can't wait until Big Blue joins in all the fun. Plus, good Old Greg(g) just happens to have a midi footswitch controller laying around his place that I can use to join forces with The Repeater. Big Blue just might be big enough to hold all that hardware as well.

Speaking of the pedal board, it's almost finished. Waiting for the finish to dry and then I can apply all the accessories to my baby...

...dude...I tingle...

I think I might have it finished for the Viva Voce show next week...but I had to special order some parts today, so no promises...

...that is all...

~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.6)

2009-05-25T20:38:00.009-05:00

Happy Memorial Day!

This past Saturday, I finally traveled to good ol' Springfield Mo to visit my nephew. He's about 3 months old and this was the first time I've seen him.

The kid's adorable, and he's stuck with me. He'll soon realize that I'm going to be the craziest aunt he'll ever have.
...
...because I'm his only aunt...
...
...and I'm the craziest by default.

The 3 hour trip down and back (same day) proved to be quick. I listened to my album 4 times; twice on the way there and twice on the way back. (It's about 45 minutes long) I believe El and I have accomplished much and although there are still (STILL) some tweeks I'd like to make, if I were to release it now, I'd be pleased.

I'm really hoping to have this out by the end of summer or beginning of fall. This whole project has proven to be a lot of work...and money. I had some artist lined up to do the artwork, but they all fell through for various reasons. But this is not going to stop me. Syna was born because of former band mates not believing that my songs were "songs". I think it's fitting that not only did I record, produce, and mix (etc) this damn record, I might as well do the artwork. I'm on a mission, and I'm not going to let the nay-sayers, non-believers, jealous-opposers drag me down anymore. Sometimes, a person can only depend on themselves... So once the pedal board is complete, the artwork will begin.

But first, the pedal board.

I spent most of the early evening sanding this sommamma bitch down but only after I sanded a sample piece to test my dye. I went with blue because I think it'll look cool.

I tested the dye solution (8oz H2O) at 10gtts; 20gtts; 40gtts; and 50gtts. I believe I got the shade I'm looking for. I'm waiting for the test board to dry so that I can see if the dye solution warped the wood in any way. If I can get away with not using denatured alcohol, that would be great. Either way, I'll probably be staining the sucker tomorrow after I finish puddying up some holes and test the polyurethane finish I got. I'm pretty excited.

I'm sticking to a blue theme with this board. I've already got some sweet ass casters to add to this mega box and it's going to be the sweetness!

Anyway, for any of you Lou City Folk, .e has put together another Tower Grove Park show this Sunday. (05.31.09) I will be playing (violin/vox) as well as:
.e

the staircase

of course you realize...

true callahan

sleep in sundays

killer b and the drones

mavis concave

color blind

andrew markee

We'll be there around 1pm. Message me for the location in the park.

...also .e has a facebook page and I suggest you all should become a fan.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.5)

2009-05-19T21:11:00.009-05:00

Sooo....that Gorilla Glue...Eff'd me up man! Most of last Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and Thursday, I was having uncontrollable asthma/allergy like symptoms on top of sounding like a man. I actually didn't go into work on both Wednesday and Thursday, but I will not let this set back stop me!

I got back to work on my precious last night. I decided to not use the Gorilla Glue but to just stick to Elmer's Wood Glue. All is well. Finished up the second box and made a mental note: If I'm ever to build another one of these again, I'm getting more expensive plywood. The wood on the bottom box of the board totally split leaving the screws visible and bare. I'll have to puddy it up and for some reason, I forgot to take a picture of it...oh well.

But the box to hold the board is complete, and HUGE.

It's seriously like a little bit bigger than a Fender Twin amp...no fooling. Wheels are a must. There's going to be no way around it.

I then propped up the board that's actually going to have my pedals on it inside of the box to get an idea of where to put the hinges.

I found some 3/4 in thick wood pieces and screwed them to the back of my box and then placed the hinges on the wood blocks so that I could have space to feed cables/power strips/etc through the void. I finished up and called it a night.

This afternoon I connected the bottom ends of the hinges to the pedal board, after conveniently making a little hole to grip the board.

Making the connections seriously took me about an hour because I needed about 4 arms and hands. After I got the board connected to the box, I realized there was about a 1/4 in overlap of where the board is supposed to land.

Frustrated, I'm thinking of ways to just cut the extra wood off without taking anything apart. Around this time a dude on the west side of the Isle of Sky came around and became the second set of arms and hands that I needed. We took the hinges off, used 1/2in wood blocks, screwed those in the back of the box, and inserted the hinges on the blocks...Success!

Well...almost. The bottom of the board still wasn't clearing the edge of the box...just barely. Here comes the sanding...and sanding...and more sanding...and sanding...and blah blah blah FINALLY!

It's looking like a pedal board! Hells yes! And to see how much room I would have for my power strip, I decided to place it in the bottom of the board...

Look at all this room in here! I mean C'mon...LOOK AT IT! I could fit a small child in there. My fear of not having enough room for power turned out to be unfounded. I'm actually going to put two power strips in there. One for the pedals, and the other for bad-ass accessories. You'll see and yes, it's going to happen.

But for now, I'm tired and dusty...

And help me think of what color I should stain the wood (I've decided to stain)

...that is all...
~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.4)

2009-05-12T20:56:00.004-05:00

Ahh man. Now I can totally understand why a durable and efficient pedal board goes for $250-300. This is seriously hard work. I do not envy carpenters and the like, especially if they hate their job. If they like the job, then I'd probably envy them, getting a job that you thoroughly enjoy is hard to come by.

Anyway, I was working on the pedal board until about 11pm last night. I didn't want to test the neighbors too bad. I meant to quit around 9:30 but I just couldn't stop. I shaved some pieces of wood to make a border for my routing mishap and then proceeded to glue the pieces with some Gorilla Glue.

I started to drill the sides of the boxes together when I discovered two things:

One-my length side board was cut slightly crooked
Two-drilling is effing hard!

I actually had to get my dad to come out and drill the first 3 boards together after attempting several times on my own. Turns out half the reason I was having so much difficulty was because I was using a broken drill bit to make the initial hole before I screw. Couldn't get that sucker to penetrate the wood. When we exchanged the bad bit for a good one, I finished up the sides and turned in for bed.

I woke up at 6am this morning to continue where I left off last night...but I didn't actually get to work until about 8am because of those damn addictive Law and Order Criminal Intent marathons. I would have to say that my biggest personality flaw and strength is confidence. Well, this morning, I was very confident about using the drill...a little too confident. Not realizing that the reason the drilling went well the night before, was because I had the assistance of my dad. So here I go clamping everything down, listening to some MGMT, marking my spots, and starting my drilling.

I happened to make a mistake

after mistake

after mistake

after mistake

after mistake

after mistake

I was so disheartened. I was ready to quit.

"Maybe Paul was right", I thought. "This is way to frustrating...what was I thinking...thinking I could build this..." Around this time my dad was leaving for work. He asks me whats wrong and I proceed to show him all the mistakes I've made and how I'm afraid it's not going to be strong enough to hold all the weight.

"Oh this is all fine Syrhea. Quit acting discouraged. We can puddy all of this up. You didn't think you were going to build this perfectly the first time around did you?"
"Yeah...I kinda thought this would be easy..."
My dad laughs at me and leaves for work.

I head over to my buddy Elshua's place to record some guitar (yes guitar. I'm no prodigy but I can play a little) tracks for one of his songs. I cooled off, wrote some new stuff, and was eager to get back here to finish what I started. I managed to get the bottom drilled to the sides of one half of the box this afternoon. I took the advice of El and my dad: Drill straight and be assertive.

All in all, I think everything is fine. The picture above will be the lid to the pedal board in hopes that when I start bottom, I'll do a better job. We'll see.

On a serious note, my finger tips are all irritated and brownish looking...even worse now than this picture taken earlier.

Turns out that the Gorilla Glue is apparently a skin irritant. I also read on the back of it's label "Asthmatics, consult doctor before using". Ooooh! This explains why I've been having trouble breathing for the past two days! Who knew? Not me...

...that is all...

~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.3)

2009-05-10T20:12:00.003-05:00

First off, Happy Mothers Day.

Ok, after realized that my intial dimensions were waaaaay to big,

I decided that I needed to cut a good 7 in off the width of the boards. I spent most of the late afternoon and early evening, doing this while attempting to relive the Asobi Seksu show last night. I re-bought "Citrus", because I've lost 2 copies, and was cranking it to my hearts delight. Plus it was loud as hell, and I wanted to hear it over the saws/sanders/routers.

After the boards were cut to a more resonable size, I started to sand the pieces...Well about a quarter of the way through, I got bored and impatient and decided to skip the sanding and start the routing.

I want to get this damn thing finished, if it's the last thing I do...besides the album *cough*.

I called upon my dad to show me how to use the router, because, well, when would I have ever used one? Wait, now thinking about it, I did use one on shop class in the 7th grade to make a yard sign that read "Conaways'". The lettering was so curvy and wavy that I only put the sign out for people to see when it was Halloween. It looked SPOOKY.

After my dad gave me the ultimate demonstration,

I set out to routing the top/botton and length side pieces. I started with the sides...all is well. Tried to finish with the top and bottom pieces...this is where the trouble began. The boards are awkwardly large for the routing table, which cause me to use the machine in a less than ideal fashion. Plus I was paranoid about losing my fingers. I managed to make it through the first board, but the second board I had a little mishap. Some how the board shot forward, and in my paranoia about losing digits, I just let go of the board. This is what resulted.

I guess it could be worst, but like I said before, I want to get this thing done. That is just one extra step I'll have to take in order to fix my mistake.

When I got all the routing done, I placed all the pieces together to see how accurate my measurements were.

Well it turns out I'll have to take another 1/4 in of the width of the sides of the boxes.

With this other bump on my road to a funtioning pedal board I decided to quit for the day. Unfortunately the garage and myself is a mess and I've got a lot to clean up...plus a nice hot shower.

...The saga will continue...
...That is all...
~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.2)

2009-05-05T14:31:00.004-05:00

Right, well... Home Depot, Lowes...suck. Seriously I had to compromise on almost every piece of hardware that I purchased. I'm sure everything will still work out fine, but I was just overall disappointed. Apparently no one has ever heard of open hinges...couldn't find them in either store. Enough about that, I'll just rant on for the rest of the day...and theres' still so much to be done.

I did happen to pick up:

#2 Keyed Sash Locks

#2 Sash Locks

Heavy Duty Felt Pads

Chest Handle

Narrow Hinges

Wood Screws

Early Sunday morning, I started to cut up some wood when I realized that the sheet of wood my dad thought he had, actually wasn't long enough for what I needed. So I went back to Home Depot and had them cut some plywood up for me.

Apparently when you tell them to cut a 4x8 ft sheet into #2 2x4 ft, and #4 9x48 inch, leaving the remainder, that actually means #1 1.5x4 ft, #1 2.5x4 ft, and #4 10x48 in, which was the remainder. That was fun.

When it came down to measuring and cutting, my dad asked me how I was going to screw the pieces together.

"I was just going to cut each piece at an angle and start screwing"...I drew him this picture

"I could screw longer screws for this first one, but wouldn't the second on be better?" (pointing at the second image) My dad responded,

"What are you an idiot? That's the weakest possible way you could build this. What you need to do is this..." And he draws me the third image. "This way the pieces are supporting each other."

"Oh"

"You didn't didn't take this into consideration when you were calculating your measurements....did you."

"Nope...but that's cool, I added an extra 2 inches to length and depth because I predicted I'd do something wrong."

So I added an extra half an inch to my measurement of length only and we began cutting. It was fun, dusty, hot, and way harder than I expected. But as of now, all of my pieces are cut. This thing is pretty huge. I didn't realize how big it was until I saw all the pieces laying on the floor. (I might have to add some wheels to this equation.) When I'm finished typing this, I'll be heading down to sand these pieces and make sure the pedal board measurement will still be correct after making the last minute change.

I was really hoping to have this finished by this Saturday, so that I could use it for the stella show (with Asobi Seksu), but...eh...we'll see.

Off to get more splinters on my hands and sawdust debris in my lungs.

...that is all...

~Syrhea

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.1)

2009-04-30T10:20:00.003-05:00

So, this past weekend while lounging around town for gear, I was thinking a lot about how I want my home made pedal board to be designed. I don't like the idea of all the pedals being in a straight line because it'll make it that much more difficult to stay center with the microphone. Two rows is a must but three rows is pushing it. Sunday, after having an awesome jam, I layed all of my pedals (and Greg's pedals)onto the floor to start the measurments:
I meant to rotate this picture but I forgot, and now I'm too lazy
This board needs to comfortably hold:

1 Digitek Jamman

1 Digitek Footswitch (optional)

1 Boss DD-20

1 Boss Tap Tempo

1 EH Holy Grail

1 EH Small Stone

1 Digitek Whammy

1 Akai Headrush

1 EH Big Muff

1 Boss OD-20

1 Boss TU-20

With my current board, I have problems accessing the 2nd row of pedals. I knew that I'd have to elevate the 2nd row some how to solve this problem. But which would be easier for me to figure out and measure? Making "stairs" or making a slope...SLOPE!!! Now that I've decided I want the slope, how much of an angle do I want? And this design will most definitely effect the box...so the box must be cut in a slope too? Does this sound right to you all? After about an hour and a half of thinking I came up with these measurements and this drawing... Another problem with my current board is storage. I thought it'd be cool to store the power strip/cables and any other stuff I might need for the stellas or for this project in the board. So I decided to add hinges one inch from the top of the Box #2 to the top of actual board holding the pedals. The bottom of the pedal board will rest on a 1/2 inch strip 2 inches from the bottom of Box #2. I will also leave about a 1/2 inch of space on either side of the pedal board from the the sides of Box #2 to flip the board up when needed or to even feed cables through. (I haven't really figured the cable acess part out yet: But I could always drill holes later...right?) So I believe phase one is complete. Just the basic measurements and ideas for the board. I'll probably head to the hardware store and look lost as hell this Friday to get large sheets of ply wood. I'd like to laminate it as well. But we'll see. I should also go ahead and get a handle, hinges, rubber stoppers, and more hinges to make sure my measurements work before I cut and screw everything up. Wish me luck! ...that is all... ~Syrhea