Found

It looks like it took me all Monday to recover from the weekend. The weekend stretched me to my limits but it was well worth every second of it. I played electric guitar with our praise and worship band at church for three services, one on Saturday evening, one on Sunday morning and another on Sunday evening. In total, I had to learn about fifteen songs for the weekend. On top of that, I played an eight song set at Destinos Cafe in between the Sunday morning and evening services. It was pretty intense running around, setting up gear, changing clothes and all but it was heaps of fun. It was such an awesome experience.

The best part was that I got the opportunity and privilege to serve God in this manner. I am truly blessed to be able to be a part of such a wonderful team, under such great leadership. I am hungry for more.

I don't think my words are going to be enough to describe the experience and how I felt about this whole experience. There was definitely a lot of love in the house and I stood in awe of His great presence.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Eleven O Nine

It's been freezing here the past few weeks and I think I caught a cold. You know how you get those irritating earaches and everything just seems a little off balance? I just hope it's not an ear infection of some sort. I guessed I've picked up all kinds of aches, headaches, body aches, the works. I sound like an old man already.

On the up side, the down-time has given me the opportunity to unwind and get on reading a nice book. I just started on a few pages of Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. So far so good!

After this phase passes, I've got to get my act together and start to realign myself and focus. I've put aside songwriting for a while as I've kept myself busy learning guitar parts for a whole bunch of praise and worship songs since I've started playing in the band at church not too long ago. It's good to do new things because it'll definitely give me a fresh perspective on things and spawn new ideas.

So yes, down-time is good and I shall enjoy it while it lasts. It's going to be a big weekend. Play in the band on Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday evening. In between the Sunday services, I've even got an acoustic slot to play some originals. I'm gonna need some strength.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Geelong


Geelong town


The National Hotel, Geelong.


The weekend was dedicated to The Bright Star Alliance.

Saturday. Mixed TBSA @ The Arthouse, Melbourne. It was House Vs. Hurricane's EP launch. It was a great time hanging out with the band and a Michael, a good friend of mine.

Sunday. Mixed TBSA @ The National Hotel, Geelong. Hitched a ride with Tom, TBSA's guitarist to Geelong. The drive was definitely scenic and it was a pleasant surprise to see Geelong town as the sun was out, nice and bright. It was still deceivingly freezing though. The moment I got out of the car to load-in, I was greeted with a blast of cold sea breeze. Intense! This was an all ages gig in a cosy venue. There was a bbq out in the courtyard too. Perfect lunch!

The band brought all their gear, heads, cabs, drums and the works except Nikki's bass cab all the way out to Geelong and it was worth it. Great gear = great sound = better mixing!

I had such a great time over the weekend, hanging out with the boys and enjoying the rest of the bands. Road trips are always fun. My eyes and ears are still wide open and always keen on going places. I was really happy with both the mixes on the weekend and it was the best feeling to see the boys in the band walk off stage happy and satisfied with the fullness of the sound. This doesn't mean I've become complacent though. I'm still getting there, one step at a time.

I have a great job. I love what I do. It has it's challenges and it stresses me out all the time but for the moment, the adrenalin is keeping me going. At every gig, I'd get my 30 minute adrenalin fix. The 30 minutes are always intense but it's something I enjoy doing. I can't imagine myself doing anything else.

There's always two sides to a coin and I tend to always want what I don't have. So this is a conscious effort to tell myself that I shall live for the moment and enjoy what I have. Thanks B.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Forgotten Photos








In the euphoria of launching The Shooting Star EP, I must have forgot to upload these pictures here. I realised I've uploaded them everywhere but here. They are all on the website though. www.brokenscar.com

There are more pictures from the photo shoot that I just failed to upload. I am terribly forgetful. Anyway, the photo shoot was heaps of fun. All the pictures were taken by Sharon Tan at Purple Houz and we had heaps of fun doing it. Always the best times with the band.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

http://ilovedags.blogspot.com/2008/06/dearest-prime-minister.html

I respect this dude for having the balls to say what he wants to say without any censorship.

People are slowly waking up but how much can be done anyway? We can talk about the RM2.70 increased petrol price, the corruption, the incompetent government and everything under the sun all we want but it will be mere coffee shop talk. We can voice our opinions all we want but if they are not backed up by facts, they'd be pointless. Yes, people are ranting on their blogs more openly now and there's slightly more transparency, but is there true transparency, really?

There are all kinds of freedom fighters out there trying to be heroes. I respect all that and I'm not against their awesome work, but how much can be done, really?

Right now, I'm just happy mixing bands. Call it escapism but I'm not going to let all this get to me. In a way it's a negative thing for me because when I'm happy I tend not to write any music as I write best when I'm pissed off. Oh well, whatever.

Sometimes not having an opinion is an opinion good enough for me. One person can't stop the country from self destructing. Let them fight their wars, let them indulge in corruption and the dirty politics. As long as I don't do these dirty deeds, my conscience is clean and clear, as naive as that sounds. I'm happy.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Bartholomew

I was walking towards my apartment and I saw Minotour across the road. I decided to go in and have a browse since I haven't been there in a while anyway. I am still such a kid and I can go on being like this for as long as I want. I walked around and all the memories of childhood came flashing back. It was awesome. Memories, my favourite drug.

...and look what I found?
Bartholomew "Bart" Jojo Simpson





He's tiny, really.

I've always wanted a Bart toy. When the Simpsons movie came out, I was hoping the cinemas would be stoked with merchandise but it turned out to be quite disappointing. Then I turned to those arcade machines where you could pick toys up with a "claw". Failed at that too. At that time I went, "if only I could just buy it". This was my chance! It was the last one at the store. So what the heck, it was only $6 anyway. So, now I am a proud owner of an original Bart Simpson.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Getaway Plan Live @ JB HiFi


The Getaway Plan - Sleep Spindle

This was meant to be my follow up to the previous post. Looks like it took me longer than I thought for an update. The lack of sleep caught up with me so I am sure you would have guessed what happened to me by now. I crashed.

So here's a video from the Getaway Plan in-store session. This was at the Bourke Street store. The turn out was massive! The staff didn't see it coming for sure! It was hilarious because when I walked around the store I could hear people go, "is it the school holidays or something?". School's out my friend! Make room for The Getaway Plan.



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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

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Failed Sleep Attempt

Yea, that is right. My attempt to sleep last night/this morning failed. There was definitely a lot of twisting and turning but there was no sleep at all. At some point in the night, I even had my t-shirt turned sideways wrapping me up like an over sized fruit. It was frustrating. I knew if I had stayed up I wouldn't have been productive anyway. I mean, it's the middle of the night, what can I do? I can't sing, I can't play the guitar, I can't do anything pretty much. Hitting the sack was the only option. If only that time wasted to trying to sleep could have been spent on better things.

So as I predicted, I am a total zombie now. Let's see how the rest of the day pans out.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Evelyn

It's 2:30 am now as I type this. I should be dead tired by now judging that I've spent the whole night at The Evelyn with my buddy, Dave doing sound and lights but somehow I'm just wide awake. I'm definitely gonna pay for it tomorrow. The bands tonight were awesome. The Modern, who played first was my favourite.

Tomorrow's gonna be pretty sweet. Dave will be mixing The Getaway Plan at JB HiFi for an in-store performance. I'm gonna head down there and check it out for sure! I love The Getaway Plan!

While I can't sleep, here I am uploading pictures to my Facebook. As I look at those pictures I keep thinking I've uploaded them already and shared them with my friends but I realised that I haven't. These pictures are way overdue! Taken during my trip back in Malaysia over December 2007 to February 2008. So yeah, pictures were all uploaded while I typed this post. Now, time to try to get some sleep. Goodnight.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Wish List


Wish List Item #1: Fender Stratocaster Highway One

This is currently on the top of my wish list. Everyday I'd look at the picture and go, should I get it or should I not? Should I get it online from the states or should I just pick it up from the local music store? The price difference between buying it online from the states and from here is so huge. It's $750 USD online and $1600 AUD here. It doesn't make any sense! But man, this guitar just looks so beautiful and sounds so sweet. It blows my mind!

Wish List Item #2: Ibanez TS9. The second item on the wish list was the Ibanez Tube Screamer. My brother bought for me from the states already, so that has been fulfilled.



Wish List Item #3: Sennheiser e901 Kick Drum Mic



Wish List Item #4: Sennheiser e906 Guitar Cab Mic



Wish List Item #5: A Mac

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Sunday was simply amazing. Playing in the Sunday morning service to a thousand people in the church was simply mind blowing. It's one of the most rewarding experiences ever, serving God in this manner, in praise and worship. It wasn't restricting at all as I was rocking out without a care in the world. There was definitely freedom in the house!

Headed to Hog's Breath, a restaurant famous for their steaks after that. The time spent with my friends was golden but the food wasn't all that great. For a place that is famous for steaks, I reckon it was overpriced and overrated. The menu, interior decoration and the general feel of the restaurant is very much like a rip off of TGIF. This branch was in Chadstone though. I'm not sure if the other branches are better or maybe it was just the dish that I ordered that wasn't great.

Later that night, I went to Steak Out at Crown. Now that restaurant was fairly priced and the food was good. The service wasn't the best though but the food made up for it. I had a 25% discount voucher which made it a bargain. We had seafood and steak. By the end of the night I was full to the brim. I was a happy camper!

Monday saw me mixing at The HiFi Bar for the first time. I mixed three bands, Aural Window, whom I've become good friends with, GPKISM and headliners, Blood from Japan. It was the first time mixing all the bands in a gig in one night for me and it was pretty stressful yet I felt a sense of achievement. This definitely adds to my profile and resume. I have mixed at The HiFi and I've mixed a headliner from Japan. Somehow, the headliners that I've mixed tend to be international bands from the Asian region. The last international act I mixed was from China. Blood's ipod froze in the middle of their set and we had to improvise by playing their backing tracks off a CD. The show went on
and overall it was a great gig. Big thanks to Sheena and Aki for giving me this opportunity to mix this gig.


The line outside The HiFi


The line going all the way back there.


Here's a short clip of Blood's performance.

As I type this post, looking back at the weekend just puts a big smile on my face. Sunday was definitely the highlight. Loved every moment of it.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Debut

I played electric guitar at church today as part of the Praise & Worship team for the first time in Richmond! It was awesome serving God with my Emily! Playing electric guitar again is refreshing but challenging at the same time. I could hear the lines calling out to me but sometimes struggle to play them. I'll get there, slowly.

*Adds a Fender Stratocaster to the wish list.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

I'm Cheap, Buy Me Now!


How can you resist a cheap CD? I listened to Waterdown since the Nu Metal days and this band has been around ever since. It was only 3 bucks! All the way down from $25! Woot!
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Louder Now


Today was one of those days that I zombie-d through the day. I went to Billboard to help out with sound check for Parkway Drive. Hung out with James and Ben for a while and also made some Speakon leads for the foldbacks. I remember some time back I said I hated Billboards but now things have changed. The security dudes are nice again. Did my angry post in the past instigate it? Oh well, all is good now.

I also watched Taking Back Sunday's Louder Now Part 2. I haven't finished watching everything yet. There's so much footage and the whole DVD concept was different from other band DVDs out there. It's awesome!
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Out With Jams & Ally


Tall, Taller, Tallest?








Jams and Ally would have a much better coverage of our day out. You girls shall have the honour of displaying all the awesome pictures we took and detailing what we did.

It was pretty much visit Melbourne CBD day. Here's pretty much what we did.

1. The girls had Ox tongue with rice for lunch at Melbourne Central. I opted for the usual Ten Don, to be on the safe side. I tried Jia Meei's ox tongue though and it was pretty good. I guess it's all in the mind huh?

2. Took pictures at the "big purse" on Bourke Street. Very touristy indeed! It was a first for all three of us.

3. Up next was the compulsory Federation Square. Took a walk down to the river side and took more pictures.

4. Our last stop was at KoKo Black. The Belgian Spoil was awesome! Thanks Ally! Good call!

After reading your blogs, I realised my post will be rendered totally useless. Haha. So I shall end it here and say that it was an awesome day out with you two. We've gotta go to the zoo next!
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Labels:

In Brief

The weekend in brief:

1. Saturday. Worked at Bang, Royal Melbourne Hotel. Hung out with Ivan.

2. Sunday. Spent all day recovering from the previous week.

3. Monday. Story Of The Year.

4 .Tuesday. Rehearsal with praise and worship band at Richmond AOG.

5. Wednesday. Hung out with Aki and Sheena from Aural Window. Best times!

Jams said I should update my blog more often. I guess whacking three posts in one night would make up for it, right?

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Jams!






Discovering Melbourne a little more with Jams. Time to be a tourist again! Whip out the cameras and the poses!

Thanks for bring over the heavy thing Jammies! Hugs!

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Story Of The Year @ The Billboard






























This gig was awesome! I've been waiting for years to see these guys live because every time they were in town, I wasn't. So I finally got my chance and it was definitely worth the long wait! These guys were awesome on stage and the best part was that I got to sit side stage and watch the mayhem happen within an arm's reach! It was awesome!

After the show, I hung out with the production manager and the audio engineers. By the time I left the venue it was 6am Tuesday.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar




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    Who Is Broken Scar:


    Loves Jesus. Singer. Guitarist. Songwriter. Audio Engineer. Producer. Wears band t-shirts. Wears red t-shirts. Based in Melbourne.



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