The "Vacation" Ends...

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
- This dude made the most badass logo for me and got my stickers and buttons made in less than a week, just in time for the Listening Party. Check it out...

I'm looking forward to working with him again soon!
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

Down to the Wire

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

This Case is a Jewel

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

Deadlines in Sight

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

Sempre Con Calore

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

Delays in Sagas

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

The Saga of the Pedal Board (pt.4)

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