Paddys writing for album 3.........

Strange time for me at the moment as in my head i have other things taking precidence through necessity, but i have a lot of stuff in there and the stuff thats made it further is on the laptop. Im very picky when it comes to material be it riffs, a chord progression or some lyrics its rare that i write stuff down straight away.... ive always figured that the stuff you can play and remember straight off the next day is the good stuff.

Im really looking forward to the third album with our intent to have "easily recognisable Grinn stuff" on it and some more alternative stuff. My tastes nod towards the alternate rather than the trad so that kinda lets me stretch my fingers a bit. Having said that i like churning out the Grinn pop punk so i suppose its the best of both worlds for me.

My contributions so far which have made it to the band are Swansong, China Doll and American Hero. Swansong is a typical pop-punk Grinn song.... of the ones so far i am partucurly happy with this one, it just seems to work. China Doll ive had for a while and according to the guys is a bit Placebo in sound.... ive gone off it a bit now and its a hard one to nail when playing live, but we will see how it goes. American hero is again typical Grinn, im not one for politicaly motivated songs.... and this is my second. I still think there is something missing with this song, hopefully it will come to me or Ian.

So, stuff in the wings....

Century Falls:
Pearl Jam style riffage and a steady poldder rather than speedy punk, Had the main riff for and age along with the chorus progression. One of those songs where the band basically play the same lines throuought for the inpact.

Versions Of The Truth:
Far more Placebo than China Doll for me. This is actually mainly for a riff of Lee drummers and a bit of my own stuff. Chorus lyrics also Lee's.... great song one of those clean/distortion efforts :)

Ordinary World:
Smallville part II, the story continues. More linear melody relying on the chorus hook to a greater extent than its predecessor... unless the song gets busier which is possible. Up and punky but with a minor feel, the meter of the verse lyrics still need some work.

Sayonara:
Odd kinda Wonderstuff B-Side story of betrayal (natch!) Strange novelty verse patterns give way to more familiar choral stuff, though thats yet to be finalised. few minor 7ths and interesting passing notes lurking about.

Falling back To Earth:
Just a Chorus at themoment but a strong simple and hooky one. Think MUSE Bliss video.

The Distance To God:
Angry MUSE sounding rant questioning the need to belive in more than we are and asking do these ephemeral things really help. Killer intro riff a'la Stockholm Syndrome, punchy chorus and frenetic verse stuff though yet to decide what speed the verse riffage should be at....

I found the distance to God
and it got complicated
Cant find the reason to love
Cant find the comfort that it brings me

Its Not Your brains I Want:
Acoustic song i had with a simply killer chorus...... but its cheese to the power 10. Not sure if Ian would sing it.

Girl In Black:
You know those quiet complicated goff chicks who insist that nobody understands them? Wrong, we do. Still some musical tinkering but nearly there.

I
Inspiration from odd places..... try a Dido song from the Roswell theme. No it wont sound quite the same obviously.

There are also some heavier songs which are still mostly riffage.... 2 in particular.

Bye for now.
Paddy.

Boring drummer issues pt1

I am a terrible miser and a complete scatterbrain, so when i first noticed the crack on my lovely wobbly shaped Zildjian trashformer cymbal and then remembered i'd lost my reciept for it, i thought i'd just keep playing it, managing to convince myself that crack wouldn't make much of a tonal difference "cos it's supposed to sound trashy innit!"

Well this was a less than clever stance to take as after a couple of weeks it began to resemble a paper plate at an ADD sufferer's fifth birthday party (and not sound much better either). So i have bought the bullet and (no, not buy another one), but spend pretty much all of Sunday afternoon hacksawing, pulling, twisting and filing all the cracked sections out to the extent that it now looks like a cross section of the pope's hat.

Without all the loose bits wobbling on it, it can now vibrate freely and produces a "unique" and louder sound, so i'm keeping it! I can safely say that no other drummer in the world will be able to produce accents with exactly the same timbre :)

Also, you may ask the question- how did i break them in the first place? Well some might say it's because i'm a double hard bastard, but i prefer to use the more technical description of myself as not being very dynamical with the cymbals.

Expect more of this kind of drivel in the future! You did say to post about anything Ian :)

GIG - CJs, Leeds 14th Jan 05

Our second time at this venue (with Grinn), which seems to get unfairly overlooked by the Leeds punters, possibly because it's just that bit too far out of the centre of town or maybe because of the dodgy reputation of the bar upstairs and the surrounding area.

Anyway, downstairs its all systems go. A nice room with a decent P.A and friendly staff who know how to use it.

First up Mary-Jane who just seem to go from strength to strength. A good solid set and some rather nice vocal harmonies from Teri and Ben. Great stuff guys.

Next up it's our turn to take to the stage. With hindsight we probably should have pulled this gig as Ian was suffering from a severe bout of gastric flu and right up till show time was trying to sleep it off in the back of Paddy's van. But like the true rock n roll lifers we are, we pressed on regardless. It has to be said it was not one of our greatest shows, a few minor mistakes here and there but we got through to the end and seemed to go down reasonably well. Hats off to Ian for the effort he put in when it was pretty obvious to all he should have been at home tucked up in bed.

Finally Vicious Cabaret who hail from Leeds although you would hardly have known it from the lack of support they got from a thinning home crowd. A set full of catchy songs with some good hooks they really deserved better.

All in all a strange night. The venue really has got great potential but when the travelling support (thanks guys) was close to outnumbering the home crowd, you really have to wonder what is going on with the Leeds scene.