I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my blog before, but my band blacKMahal was invited to perform at the Olympics in Vancouver. It's only been a couple days, but so much stuff has been goin on, it's really difficult to organize my thoughts in a cohesive manner. So I'm taking the easy way out. Just gonna post some random bullet points instead. I'm here until Sunday, so if you're peepin this beforehand, I'll be updating this as I go.
- Playing at such a major event still doesn't make getting to the airport at 5:30AM easy.
- If you blacked out and woke up in Vancouver, it would take you a while to figure out that you're in another country.
- Canadians are the nicest people in the world, except when they're drunk. Then they're the second nicest people in the world.
- Don't fuck with the Hell's Angels
- Red Truck Lager: a new favorite
- The broadway renditions of blacKMahal songs aren't that bad!
- It's awesome having your own suite
- It's more awesome to be faced with this dilemma when you enter your own suite: What do I turn on first? The lights or the fireplace?
- If you blacked out and woke up in Vancouver, there's 90% chance you'll wake up with a starbucks right in front of you. 10% chance you'll wake up with a starbucks right behind you.
- Last time I broke in brand spankin new DJ equipment was about 14 years ago. These feel damn nice.
- Got full blown winded running to the last row of seats
- blacKMahal dance troupe? I could get used to this.
- It's even more awesomer to turn off the fireplace, leave your own suite to go the women's figure skating medal event, seeing your country DESTROY the competition, setting a world-record, and winning your country's first gold medal in that event. All while you're sitting behind a full row of your country's rivals and biggest competition.
- Tim Horton donuts are poorman's Krispy Kreme.
- Tim Horton coffee are poorman's Dunkin Donuts coffee.
- Had the best toast and butter I've ever had in my life.
- Never knew Canadians were so prideful. Literally 90% of the population here are wearing shirts with some kind of "Go Canada" print on them.
- SF Gate finally showing some blacKMahal love.
- WTF is up with required coat check?
- Have confirmation that my racist Chinese accent is still funny outside of US borders.
- My (platonic) love for Korea's figure skating gold medalist, Yu-na Kim, has been well documented by the global press, as you can see in paragraph 4 here.
- The dressing rooms at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre remind me of my summer school class rooms at Faye Ross jr high.
- So many different accents here.
- Never thought I'd walk into a bar that's just about to explode cuz of a women's hockey game.
- A cafe with the name "Amsterdam" is probably what you think.
- Such a tease to be this close to Whistler and not be able to snowboard there.
Dumataka
Everyone, meet Nirmal Narayan (in his PJ's). Nirmal is one of the world's best players of a traditional indian drum called the mridangum. When I say one of the world's best, I mean one of the world's best. This guy tours and performs more than his arch nemesis, Lady Gaga, fo sho (maybe I'm making the nemesis thing up). This past weekend, he had a couple shows in the Bay area, and while he was here, we did a small collabo for the upcoming Blackmahal mixtape. Take a listen...
Blackmahal - Buddy - Nirmal Narayan Mridangum Solo by Jay Slim
We've been friends for years, but for one reason or another, we've never gotten down until now. The whole contrast of the collabo was off the hook. On my side, I'm working with all my high tech gear, like my 2-way magnetically shielded studio monitors, dual-core processing computer, and firewire analog-to-digital external soundcard and control surface. On his side, Nirmal's working with a simple drum with leather surfaces, that you tune with a friggin STONE (literally a round rock that looks like it came out of a river bed) and DOUGH that you could actually eat. One of my favorite sessions to date.
Stay tuned for the Blackmahal mixtape coming soon...
Lyrically Challenged
This past week was my first attempt at songwriting with wizard producer Deedot. I gotta say it's an activity that's completely different from anything else I've ever done.
First of all, I'm not a guy who's naturally gifted with words. Saying something that people would want to hear is hard enough. But add to that the confines of having a compelling melody and rhythm, and all of sudden I feel like trying to write something in chinese.
Second of all, if you're writing a soul/r&b joint, that means you have to sing your ideas to make sure it sounds right with the music. I'm not a singer. I can sing on key, but I sound not too far off from a dying cat.
And to top all that off, if your co-writing with someone, naturally you're going to be sharing and working through ideas with that other person. That means that you have to sing with/to them. Doesn't sound too bad at first. But just imagine being a fly on a wall in a room with 2 guys singing sensitive a$$ r&b/soul lyrics to eachother, while sounding like sh*t. Not the most comfortable situation I've been in.
But in all seriousness, I gotta give credit to songwriters. Definitely not as easy as it seems. This is definitely something I'm gonna have to put some work into.
