Still here, part x

Woke up today, the back was hurting, but not as much as yesterday. No hangover either. Been mainly playing poker and browsing the net in search of a new computer, I'll probably buy one next week. Would really help my songwriting, so I'm thinking it'll be worth it.

Brent's back!

He is!

A Day in the life of...

So, today I've woken up too early feeling like I couldn't even compete in the paralympics. Yet I managed to go to the store to buy groceries (and whiskey), take care of some paperwork, make a backing track for Risto so he can rehearse for the drum sessions, write some music, play some poker, cook, watch some Californication, take out the trash, do the dishes and take a shower among other things. Now I think I've deserved a glass of that whiskey I bought earlier. Maybe I'll even head out for a beer or two (not seven this time). Hopefully tomorrow my back won't be killing me again when I wake up...

On Friday it's time to hit the road again with Mr.T, this time we shall kick some major and minor asses in Kuopio and Joensuu.

Fuck my life, or my back in this case...

I thought my back-issues were over as it had really not bothered me in a while, but apparently not. Woke up after 3h of sleep or so, not able to sleep anymore as my back was hurting no matter what position I tried to sleep in. Fucking fuck. Maybe it just took some damage during the extended weekend I had, or maybe I'm just fucked. Maybe I'm turning into Mick Mars or something...

Maybe I should get a pair...

Sexy underwear for men...

I've seen the beers turn into dust...

Now feel the rust in me...

Wow...

I'm out drinking with Timo and Matias, beer is good and they are playing Pain of Salvation, not a bad night :)

Back to the world of hats

Tampere...

Was fucking great. I almost love my life at the moment. Lets see if Jyväskylä can kick some major ass as well. And knowing what lies in store for tomorrow, this has been a pretty damn fine week.

Oh yeah, yesterday we played "If The Story Is Over" from Nemesis live for the first time. It's the first song we've written together with Timo, and I think it has one of the best lyrics I've written as well.

Lets Tampere tonight

Sitting in a train on my way to Helsinki to meet Mr.T for some rehearsing and then a drive to Tampere. We've always had fun there, let's hope this night will be no exception :)

Train is a great place to sit with a beer, staring into the distance while listening to new demos, gives you some ideas. I'm thinking of actually writing an albums worth of metal music for a chance, I'm into a good start :)

Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker

Yeah, went to see "A Good Day To Die Hard" tonight. Aaaaand.... It's really not very good, actually it's pretty bad. It has basically no decent plot whatsoever and some truly horrendous dialogue. As one review said, Renny Harlin can be glad, as now Die Hard 2 isn't the worst of the series anymore. I still think the original "Die Hard" and the third instalment, "Die Hard: With A Vengeance" were brilliant, but the rest... Blah... That being said, John McClane is still The Man :)

Quote of the day:

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. 

But let him not vow to walk in the dark, 

who has not seen the nightfall"

Lets have a beer

I've spent the last two nights and all of today writing some pretty interesting shit, now I think I deserve a drink or seven. Tomorrow I'll continue writing and on friday it's time to travel to Tampere to play some acoustic metal. Not a bad week indeed :)

Damn it!

Why didn't anyone remind me that writing music was this much fun??? If they would've told me I would've gotten back in the saddle a lot sooner :) I suddenly remember why I love this job :)

Welcome to the industry

Kinda sad considering that last night I actually started writing new music again after quite a long break. Oh well, who gives a shit.

Finally

Finally got Miroslav Philharmonik up and running, now I only have issues with the damn drum plug-in. Maybe I'll have myself one victory drink and then try to blatantly rip off Hans Zimmer for the millionth time :)

EDIT:

Btw, while downloading crap from their website I noticed that Miroslav is now on sale with 60% off, if any of you want to get this software and sample library for very cheap, now would be the time. You can find it from http://www.ikmultimedia.com/

The Truth

Lets study metal lyrics

WT adds heavy metal lit class

I would like to take that class :)

Train, again

Vaasa was awesome and weird, life is a terrible thing to happen to a person :)

El Gringo

Went to my favorite bar in Vaasa to have a beer. Used to come here a LOT before, don't even wanna know how much money I've spent in this bar :)

Vaasa rockcity

Shitloads of friends (yeah, I actually have some) coming to see the show, pretty excited about this actually. Gonna be great :)

Morning coffee

Dream Theater

Haven't been a big fan of the band in a long long time, but I think I will have to get this:

Live at Luna Park

Thursday night delight

Well, I've installed Logic Pro and some plugins, how's that for a Valentine fuckers? Apparently updating the OSX has caused some issues with Superior Drummer and I have to update that one as well to get it working properly, and also the new OSX doesn't support PPC (or whatever they're called) programs anymore, so Miroslav Philharmonik is having some installation issues as well. I knew it would be a gargantuan task to get everything up and running again, but damn...

I'm also thinking about buying a new computer, a 27' iMac would be really nice for composing and recording. Unfortunately they are also pretty damn expensive as well, but it would be an investment for the future and better, easier songwriting, so...

Tomorrow I'll head to Helsinki again, playing some shows with Mr.T on Friday and Saturday. Ought to be fun. Now I'll get back to fighting with the updates and shit, thankfully I bought some wine today...

Happy Valentine's

Looks just like you

More guitar stuff:

Must be your lucky week my fellow stringmeisters, as I transcribed the "Blinded No More" solo for your viewing and playing pleasure as well, you can find it at the same place where the rest of the shit is. Now don't you go saying that I never do anything for you or that I don't appreciate you folks anymore :)

Metal for the intelligent masses

"Heavy metal a comfort for the bright child"

To be quite honest, I've also seen metalheads who are anything but bright :)

Pretty badass rappin'

Jesus is My Nigga

Guitar update:

So, I transcribed the harmonised solo from SA's "Silver Tongue", from the Winterheart's Guild album. It's at the bottom of the "Guitar exercises..." page now. Transcribed both parts so if you have a friend who also plays guitar you can learn both parts and really go to town with this shit :)

Have fun :)

I thought I'd transcribe something

Yeah, I thought I'd transcribe something for you guys for the "Guitar exercises..." section today, but I forgot that I did a total wipe reinstall of my OSX, so first I have to reinstall some software that allows me to transcribe the shit and also export it in some sort of readable form. Thought I'd give you some SA-stuff for a change, lets see :)

Anyone else excited about this?

Yngwie will release his official memoir, "Relentless" in May. I wonder if he will also release the fucking fury...

BTW, does anyone know if "Såsom i himmelen, så ock på jorden" has been translated into english? My swedish is most likely not good enough to read through this 350 page epic, but I would love to :)

Pretty accurate

Techday, again

Today I've been updating my iPhone to iOS 6 and jailbreaking it. I'm really iffy about fooling around with this shit, as I am always afraid of losing my contacts lists or something similar. And before anyone thinks I'm a moron, yes, I do have a back up stored. Haven't had time to get really into the new iOS yet, but I doubt there's much of a difference, aside from the now infamous map service.

Hey fuckers!

Beer was good, life is good, love you all even though you are all assholes. Don't take it personally, I am too you know :)

Funny James

I found this amusing :)

James LaBrie on American Idol

I got mine

Whiskey, beer and my brand new copy of Nemesis :)

Back @ home

Unfortunately the worst possible song won yesterday, but we had fun nevertheless :) I also met two fine gentlemen that go by the names Paasikoski and Klingenberg in the dark Helsinki night and had some beers with them :) I'm too tired to write more now, I think I'll sleep for a while and then head out for a beer, or two, or seven :)

@ Barona Arena with Perttu and Arion-guys

@ drunk with Petri and Henkka

Here we go

@ On The Rocks with orchestrator extraordinaire and all around nice guy Mr. Perttu Vänskä. A beer or two and then we'll head to the Barona Arena to witness the final.

Hi folks

I had a sauna, drank wine and watched Frank Zappa from youtube with Jens Johansson, how was your night?

Thursday... I suppose...

Today I should continue with the lyrics and also try and find some time to get my hair coloured. Tomorrow I'll head to Helsinki and from there to Hyvinkää to rock with Mr.T and on Saturday I'm supposed to go to the Barona-Arena in Espoo to witness the UMK Final. These kind of events are really not my cup of tea, but I guess one should make an appearance. After all, this might be my last and only chance to do so :)

Once again, burning the midnight oil

No, I'm not burning Australian musicians who had a hit back in the day (My god, that was a pretty terrible joke even by my standards...), but just working late. But hey, I actually managed to finish up one more piece of lyrics, and still sober! Way to go me and a pat on the back. Should probably head to sleep now, as I only have tomorrow to work on this crap and then I have some other stuff to do until monday.

So, good night good people and assholes alike, live long and prosper. Or catch a fucking herpes, I don't  care.

Quote of the day:

"I don't have pet peeves - I have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

I HATE "reality" TV...

...but I would LOVE to see this!

As sad as it is...

I have to admit, writing lyrics while a bit drunk is waaay easier than trying to write them stone-sober, which is what I'm doing (trying) at the moment. I am trying to cut back and tone down my alcohol intake, so I guess I'll have to just power through. I can't be so shitty of a poet that I can't write ANYTHING to save my life while sober. Granted, this might not become my greatest work and magnum opus (hell, I'm only co-writing these anyway,  I'm such an asshole I would never share the credit of my best work:) ), but if it will be even decent I'll be happy.

I have to say I'm positively surprised how good these songs actually are, I was waiting for something a bit worse and already though to myself "Jani, why the fuck do you keep doing this to yourself?", but hey, this shit ain't half bad :)

Well, I'll get back to the old drawing board. Just thought I should let you folks know it's 04:04 here and I'm actually trying (and failing) to do some work here while thinking outside the box, or more likely outside the bottle in this case. Hell, if this doesn't work out I'll just go and buy a bottle of whiskey and get shit-faced tomorrow. I hope this will not boil down to the question of whether I'll rather be a working alcoholic or unemployed and sober :)

Another week endured

Hello you homo-Hitlers! Yours Truly has made it back home after a weekend of entertaining people and morons alike with our "music" and "standup", which is kinda tragic :) I had fun though, and also got to meet a few friends I hadn't seen in a while, which was great. Went to eat in a restaurant with the guys on Saturday, I ordered some pasta and water, but suddenly there was also wine and weird drinks. Go figure...

Girly but refreshing drinks, and a girly but refreshing man

Pre-show entertainment, one has to kill time somehow. BTW, I won :)

Cheers, you stupid little cunt! Also behold my shirt, it has a penguin. A fucking PENGUIN.

@ Lappajärvi again

For a change :) Arrived here today with Timo, did a little bit of work and chilled. I've also been working a bit on the lyrics I promised to help this friend of mine with. Dead tired now, should try and catch some shuteye. Hopefully I won't wake up a cripple again tomorrow, I've had some issues with my back, have had to take some painkillers every morning so far this week. Today was already a bit better though.

Tomorrow we drive to Kalajoki and rock the shit out of that joint. Ought to be fun :)