(The following blog is about my experiences of
being in the thrash metal band Blackened Eyes. It is from my
perspective, and so if anything upsets you, please contact me via Facebook and
don't hold the group responsible. Nothing will upset you though, because I'm
nice, and you aren't a UKIP supporter).
I've always loved writing songs, but writing metal songs with
Dave? It's fantastic.
Dave is the only original member from the original Blackened Eyes. I'm the only new member remaining from the first practice/audition for the rebirth. So what happened to everyone else? One drummer left after the audition, two bassists been and gone in just a few months?
Well, it was a fairly frustrating process. Personally, I was just glad Dave seemed to like me and think I was good, but I of course wanted the band to do great, and to do great, you need great musicians. A band without good musicians behind the songs is basically a solo artist with session musicians.
Dave is a great musician and a great songwriter. He writes most of the riffs and lyrics. I consider myself a good musician, (as people have told me so, not because I pray in worship to myself every part of the day that I'm not climbing up my own arse,) and so we wanted to find a shredding bassist and a killer drummer. (A drummer who is good, not who assassinates people for money.)
For our first practice, I had learned two "demo" songs that the bassist had sent me, (at the time I presumed he was an original member of Blackened Eyes, he seemed like the band leader as I spoke to him by text when joining Blackened Eyes more than Dave,) and they were pretty heavy. One was very melodeath inspired.
However, when I got there, Dave decided he wanted us to learn Forgiven in Death (his song from the previous line-up). Why?
1. He wanted us to learn the style of his previous band.
2. He hadn't learned the bassist Nick's two songs!
So, 2/3 of the new line-up (Nick and I) learned the song pretty quickly. The drummer?
I don't remember the drummer's name, how he looked or anything. He sounded foreign, and every time we suggested a beat to him, he nodded and played something completely different, and he kept the tempo too slow for our liking! He seemed nice, but then he texted Nick to say he didn't want to be in the band.
Oh no.
Nick, however, was awesome. He was very into his music theory, even more so than me. This meant that he knew some great harmonies to add, great basslines, riffs etc. and he was a great guy in general. We had a few more drummer-less practices, and transformed one of Nick's demo songs into something completely different. (Seriously, if you listened to them both, you wouldn't guess we got what we got from the demo. We gradually changed each riff until it completely transformed.)
Nick suggested this drummer he met at a gig once, called Nidge Nilsen. The only slightly strange thing was, this guy was apparently 44. Now, I'm used to being the youngest member of the band, but this dude is older than my dad! But, we had no alternative.
It turns out Dave met this guy at a gig too, so he was surprised to meet him again.
As soon as I saw Nidge, I was happy. (Not as in I'd found my inner-homosexual, I just mean the smiling/content sort of happy.) He was wearing a Metallica t-shirt.
Nidge: 1.
He told me he'd seen them 19 times.
Nidge: 2.
He sat at the drums, and played something very metal, with the double bass, for a minute or so.
Nidge: 3.
This guy was on fire!
Nidge: 4. (Just joking, he's still on three, you don't get a point for spontaneous combustion. In fact, that's a minus point. Two.)
But then...
Nick had to leave. He got a new job, and so we had one last practice together, where he told us of Nidge, and then we never saw him again. (We hope to see him around though!)
By the end of the first session with Nidge, we'd pretty much got Forgiven in Death sorted! It was sounding great, especially with this awesome double kick stuff in it! We introduced him to our next song, which was at the time about four-five minutes long, (now it's about eight.) He put some fantastic beats in that really made the song sound both heavy and melodic.
We stepped outside, and Dave asked me:
"Has that other drummer you told me about got in touch?"
"No."
"Nidge, you've got the job. You're in the band."
Nidge was so happy it was actually a beautiful moment! I'm so glad we gave him a chance, he's awesome, generous and fricking funny.
So now to find a bassist.
Dave tells us a couple or so weeks later that he'd found a bassist, the old "roadie" for Blackened Eyes.
This guy Craig seemed nice at first, helped carry stuff in etc.
But bloody hell was he a pain in the neck, as time got on.
Personality crashes began happening between me and Craig. He seemed like the typical kinda guy from the local music scene I wouldn't like in any other circumstance, except he was in my band so I had to.
He just got cockier and cockier, and needed everything writing down because he couldn't work it out for himself. At one point, I was showing Dave a dual solo I made for the "second song", (which I then wrote lyrics for, and another riff for it, making it into the 8 minute track it is today, Farewell's Song. (Though it's the song that took the longest to learn in our 10 month or so run, and we didn't actually get it finished 'til after we wrote the next song and perfected that!) and Craig waved paper in front of my face until I responded, saying:
"Write it down. Write it down."
"Write it down. Write it down."
Or at one point, I'd got there early, set everything up, everyone turned up, Craig was late, and he came up to me:
"Where's my mic-stand? Get me a mic-stand then!"
Thankfully, me, Dave and Nidge got into Dave's car and all came out with pretty much the same thing. Craig isn't good enough, and he's pretty damn rude. And so, we became bass-less. Again.
During Craig's time in the band however, we got a third song and quite a bit of a fourth song done. Dave entered the room one day saying:
"I wrote an awesome song last night! Listen!" He was so enthusiastic, and he was right, it was awesome. This ends up becoming the first song we record, Days of Terror.
I also took on the role of backing vocalist around the time Nidge joined, which I had never done before as much as what Dave wanted me to. My confidence grew, and I can now shout down a microphone in key, and even do a few death metal growls! Woo!
So, how do we find band member four?
Find out next w- nah, I'm joking.
Ye Quest To Find Ye Great Callum
It was the holidays from college. It was summer. Life was great. However, since our results just came out, for about three weeks, no one had heard anything from one of my best friends Callum. He was actually one of my guitar students for a month, and he hadn't turned up to two lessons, without telling me. So, me and my girlfriend ventured to his house, after creating a large group chat on Facebook asking where Callum was. I found his house out of memory of picking him up one night for a Secret Romance gig. We knocked on the door, fearing for the worst.
"Is Callum there?"
"*sniff* C...Callum died."
"What?!"
But the worst didn't happen. Instead, his mum just shouted:
"CALLUM!"
And he poked his head out of his bedroom window:
"Hi!"
Prick!
He came downstairs, and sat outside with me and Charlotte. He brought his guitar outside, and then he said:
"Oh wait, look what my dad picked up for me for £20!"
He brought out an old looking, paintless bass guitar.
Bass guitar.
So, I asked him if he wanted to temporarily learn and play bass for Blackened Eyes until we found another bassist, because Callum was a guitarist.
In the next few lessons I taught him, I taught him the Blackened Eyes songs on bass, and he turned up to a practice one night, played the songs near-enough first time, spot on, from memory, not written down.
Callum joined the band. Obviously.
I stopped teaching him because it seemed weird charging to teach someone in my own band, on an instrument I don't even play. So I had less money, but a great band. Fine by me!
Since, he's contributed to songs, recorded bass parts, played on stage with us, learned songs just by watching Dave play the riffs. We finally had a real bassist, and he wasn't gonna be a temporary member anymore, after just one practice it was pretty obvious he was gonna be the full-time member.
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(This photo was taken at a photoshoot we did in Retford. This was around the time we were falling out with Craig. Dave invited me and Nidge round to his house, for some beers and food, (this later becomes the thing I look forward to most when they happen, a "Mega Mash-Up at Dave's" or a "Piss-up at Dave's", many different names. We stick metal DVDs on and drink 'til the floor is covered with beer cans!) but he asked: "Should I invite Craig or...? Nah." Craig eventually found out that it was happening, presumed he was invited, but said he was busy anyway. So, we did this photoshoot without him. (More awesome photos can be found on our Facebook page). When Callum joined fairly shortly after the shoot, I subtly photoshopped him into the above photo. Can you tell he's not actually there in person?)
Blackened Eyes are now all set. Great musicians, great songs. Next up, we play on my 18th birthday at my local club, on a stage not used to having bands played on it like most venues!
Do we cope? Do we fall out? Do we get drunk? Do one of us get hit by a train? Does Callum go missing?
You can find out in my next blog, "Gig One - Treeton Miner's Welfare Club".
Thanks for reading!
Take care!
ARK Walton.
www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial
www.facebook.com/ARKWalton
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| Me and Dave at one of his Blackened Parties, on New Year's Eve. We fell asleep there for about twenty minutes. |
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