Weekly development 1-8

Week 1-8. development logs introduction.

Over the next few weeks i'm going to talking about the development of the bands co-operation, productivity and Process behind the bands journey throughout the next eight weeks leading up towards the O2 also including planning and production work.

In consideration of the mere verity of writing I need to do I’ve compiled all the eight weeks worth of development into one big blog post.

Week one.

This week we planned our set list for the O2 performance since it’s a new term we need to prepare and plan our progress and write down our plan of action in prepartion for the

O2 Preparation.

This week we were brought into the classroom and were reminded of the importance of planning the O2 so this term I’m including a guide in our development in planning the O2 so we were tasked with naming the event and the name we decided on was homecoming.

Though the marketing team isn’t always speaking we are individually going through our own promotional work for the O2 I decided on making posters to present Neoneye and the other bands included in the event though I’ve just started working on it It’s already looking good in early drafts but it should be completed next week.

Studio progress.

We left our recordings off last term in shambles the drums for You want me, Owe it all to you and Let you go have appeared to become worse than I remember so at some point a new take on the drums for these songs are in order.

We have only four songs out of seven decently recorded so in a few weeks we need to fill in the holes and then eventually finish them.

After discussing the problem we have with lack of recorded songs we had two options either finish the songs we have got done now or work on creating the extra three and then finding time to master the all at some point in the next few weeks we went with getting the originals four done asap starting with Let you go.

Let you go was practically half way done I had to get in the love room to record the ideal drums for the song which didn’t take long since the drum part for this song isn’t too prominent, Ideally I want us to get an acoustic recording of one of our songs out there for the EP but first I need to convince the band that Let you go should be the song that needs to be acoustic instead of any other song.

Problems occurred in the week.

Keeping the band together in the pod and studio was difficult this week everyone was either going on a smoke break, getting food or just simply weren’t in other than that there wasn’t much else.

Possible Solutions.

Working on organising our time better without losing track of what our band should be focusing on like recording and rehearsing.

What was achieved this week?

Making sure recordings where all organised and making sure we had the following schedule for recording the songs:

•Week 1-2, Let you go. (Mastering)

•Week 3-4, Eighteen & Time (Recording/Mastering)

•Week 5 You want me (Mastering)

•Week 6 Eighteen & Time (Mastering)

•Week 7 Owe it all to you.

•Week 8 Mastering and completing all songs.

Week 2.

Catchup

This weekend we had a group call and talked about making another action plan though my thoughts were why can’t we use the one from last term but I understand why they intend on making another one since we urgently need to focus on getting our songs recorded and mastered for the O2.

O2 Preparation.

Producing a early stage plan will come in useful for the O2 since none of Marketing are communicating correctly I’m mainly focusing on my band and preparing with them mainly for now so I focused on researching the O2 academy in general and discovered there are many different rooms and that they a widely different.

Upstairs has a rather small stage compared to the others and caps at 500-700 people, downstairs has a cap of 800-900 people by prediction I guess that we will have the upstairs gig so I’m researching the layout for the stage, realistically one of the tech team surely has done this already so I could ask one of them if they can help with making my bands stage plan.

Studio Progress

Let you go is basically finished Me and Liv spent most of her time editing the drums and bass this week and Toby and Lilly focused on vocals, Keys and Guitar.

We all listened over the song and personally I think we need to work on it more but we ran out of time, Hopefully we find some time next week to tweak it a little but until then the songs quality out of our control.

Problems occurred in the week

Toby keeps disappearing and I keep getting pains in my hand.

Both problems occurred in the studio maybe it’s just stress and I’m overthinking but it seems like both these situations are going to get worse if I don’t do anything about them.

Possible Solutions.

Tell Toby to get his stuff together and work on hand exercises before playing drums or make sure I’m comfortable before playing certain songs and alternatively go to a doctor.

What was achieved this week?

Nothing really of note this week realistically the most done was O2 research for the stage plan and finalising the Let you go studio recording.

Week 3 & 4

Catchup

Group call again this weekend again we where talking about rehearsals since we ain’t had much time rehearsing the songs cause we have been focused on the studio on our song but getting our performance planned is key to making sure we present ourselves well onstage when it comes to the event.

We also focused on merchandise that would relate to the band like Neoneye inspired glow sticks and stickers these ideas are early and might not happen but the more we talk and plan it the more likely we manage to organise making these ideas become reality.

O2 Preparation.

Organising stage wear was a must for this event since presenting ourselves will generate good feedback we could possibly use in our evaluation.

The idea is to each wear separate colour shirts to present ourselves onstage, we spent last week and this week working on the style and colour scheme to see if it’ll also match our personality onstage during rehearsals The plan is Liv wears Blue, Lily wears Purple, Toby wears black and I wear white.

Personally I have my own kind of stage wear in form of my white hat so it only makes sense my colour will correspond with my trade mark hat. I thought it’ll be a good idea to display myself with the hat to help single me out as the one with something different about them onstage other than simply being seen as just the drummer, I want to be the drummer with style.

Studio Progress.

Eighteen last week went really well recording though my drumming could be worked on ideally, I need more time to rehearse the song cause I seem to be switching up certain parts of the song while recording them which sometimes is fine cause I come up with some cool rolls to replace the original standard ones though keeping each take organic and true to how we usually rehearse them is probably the best way of speeding up the recording process instead of showing off my improvisation skills.

Time this week was performed poorly we did 18 takes on drums and it’s really embarrassing I can get the beat right and I know all my parts really well the point is my hands start to hurt after playing the song for so long since the song is so fast I implore we slow it down but it won’t happen.

Problems occurred in weeks 3 & 4

Keeping in time is becoming a real problem while recording is still atrocious, Only 6 hours of studio time of studio time out of the 16 we get within the week usually not necessarily a big problem though it is continuity to a our action plan.

Possible Solutions.

Rehearse the songs together with a click track and pre organise our week before changing the schedules

What was achieved this week?

Recording both templates for Time and Eighteen where successfully recorded and even though maybe time needs to be retook the base is there and we have had a decent start.

Week 5

Catchup

After the Easter holidays we picked up with early rehearsals relearning the 3 key songs we hadn’t really practiced in the first few weeks these songs are Time, eighteen and you want me.

O2 Preparation.

We also are preparing for the O2 so we were planning some ideas for stage Presence and we viewed a few of our inspirations live performances to get a idea of how we could successfully display ourselves onstage and engage with the audience successfully.

We looked at a performance by masterpiece which included the following things to consider to take inspiration from:

Stage wear.

Stage movement.

Audience interaction.

Studio Progress.

This week in the studio we worked on mastering You want me by compressing the drums for you want me, we also added effects at the beginning and end of the song to indicate the introduction and outro of the song and also for the effect of presenting a extra effect to the song to make it more unique.

Problems occurred in the week.

Keeping in Time remains a problem, Band Arguments seem to be getting a little too much at points and communicating outside of college has reduced.

Possible Solutions.

I need to practise more with a metronome so playing the songs tempo with a metronome will hopefully make me more familiar with the time signatures.

Arguments used to be healthy debates that would poke holes in each other’s methods to utilise the positives about harsh criticism though now it seem like we ain’t taking the small jabs at each other professionally as planned so now we have to talk about finding other ways of keeping each over on our toe… maybe by cutting down how often we criticise one and other?

Working together is fine though communicating is a key part of organising our band so I’m going to try involve the band more in my O2 planning and help with marketing strategies.

What was achieved this week?

Mastering and finishing you want me is possible by next Thursday or Friday depending on what the band wants to focus on realistically we have a base template for all of our songs we just need to evidence their production and focus on the quality of each aspect of the songs so maybe focusing on working on my timings will help me produce higher quality drums for each song we record in future (mainly you want me)

Working on the songs in the pods seem like a pointless exercise other than reminding us how we structured our song since it’s been a good two weeks since we last rehearsed them properly.

Preparing for the gig like organising a set list and understanding what kind of energy we want to have when engaging the audience is all planned and unless we plan to change anything we’ll focus on presenting ourselves the way we organised this week.

Ideas for a Neoneye kick drum skin is surfacing and though Toby is organising it I still have to contribute to helping him know what exactly he’s after and deciding what drum skin would be the best quality for what we are after.

Week 6

Catchup.

Following last weeks idea to work on you want me we took most of our time working on our song Time and though I’m still struggling on keeping in time I am developing new creative was to record the tracks drums to add dynamic.

The idea of time from my point of view is that it gradually progresses so swapping the initial ending to the song which would aim to have a grandiose drum roll and symbols to finish off the song in a spectacular and in a loud fashion, my idea is to decrease the energy and dynamics of the drums to a simple 4/4 beat then light symbol work to transition the ending of the song.

With eighteen we took five takes on the drums and I finally got the right take, Toby got his guitar perfected and now we have finally mastering eighteen and in a week both You want me, eighteen and possibly time will be 100% done even though things are sounding really good on the You want me recording I feel like you can’t ever do enough mastering so I’m encouraging to get all our songs done to a specific standard.

O2 preparation.

The band have got onto focusing on band presentation though stage wear an merchandising is planned the rotation of the band for each song in name of simplicity we focus on engaging the audience between songs making sure they don’t lose interest in between the songs, rehearsing the songs while in between songs

Studio Progress.

Working on owe it all to you we focused on two takes of the song the original version and a acoustic version of the song we should prioritise our time on one take not both but realistically the take of owe it all to you is decent so having a second version of the song won’t harm the EP.

Problems occurred in the week.

focusing in pods when half of us aren’t in it becomes tedious and difficult to get things done when people ain’t in to rehearse and do their takes.

Possible Solutions.

Organising things as a group like rehearsal times and recording times to fit our timetables more often.

What was achieved this week?

Finally the band was successful in producing the music for then original version of owe it all to you thought I’m pretty sure the acoustic one will be a better take for the EP since we plan to have some cool effects in the acoustic version of the song like a possible programmed violin and extra instruments to layer the energy of the song.

Week 7.

Catchup.

We spent some time in the weekend planning and we are struggling next week we will have to finish all of the editing within this week or at the very least next week Friday. Regardless we have the second version of owe it all to you to get finished this week to make sure our EP is 100% complete.

O2 preparation

Today we finished the stage plan and action plan for our work after researching the gig and organising equipment with the tech team we have all the information needed to provide the sound team for the O2 staff.

Studio Progress

The percussion was programmed by Liv and we have to finish off the instrumental progression and effects by Monday next week since we ran out of time this week. We also need Toby to rerecord his vocals otherwise we’ll have to get Lily to replace them.

Problems occurred in the week.

Toby wasn’t in studio to record his part for owe it all to you if he doesn’t make his presence prominent we will need to get someone else to work on replacing his vocals.

Possible Solutions.

Try and engage him more by invoking his presence and making sure he feels like he is being productive.

What was achieved this week?

Finalising You want me and having the effects tweaked slightly we should feel achieved that You want me, Coming for you, eighteen and owe it all to you (both takes) are ready/almost ready for the EP

Week 8.

Catchup.

The O2 is around the corner next week is the big week so making sure we are fully prepared and has been promoted successfully over the past few weeks will help the success of the night so we are focusing our time on promoting and rehearsing the O2.

O2 preparation

Promoting the O2 is key for next weeks effort to get as much of a audience as possible I will present all forms of promotion the band and I have made to help the success of the O2

Studio Progress

We’ve effectively finished You want me, Time, coming for you and Eighteen the only thing we need to do is add Toby’s vocals to owe it all to you and Lily has a idea to add some harmonies to Eighteen and owe it all to you (acoustic take)

Video footage of adding harmonise to the song Eighteen.

Problems occurred in the week.

Toby wasn’t in to record the vocals so lily took over and did his vocals then deci to add quire to the acoustic version of the song.

What was achieved this week?

preparing the O2 and rehearsing the songs went as well expected luckily we got all of our parts done and mastered so we finally got in the pods for the first time in 3 weeks!

organising the stage presence has gone really well our Stage wear, stage movement and overall stage plan is 100% complete.

Evidence of recorded songs and progression.

https://m.soundcloud.com/user-694931570-514241503/you-want-me?ref=instagram&p=i&c=1&utm_source=insta