Leaving Indigo Falls...

As of Tuesday 4th December 2018, I will be joining the band ‘Derivative’ I am excited about this change as I am looking forward to working with a new band and seeing what music we can create together. ‘Derivative’ is more of a rock band compared to Indigo Falls and has a lot more Band members. Our first rehearsals as a band will be on Thursday 6th December, which gives us one rehearsal before our first live gig.

Thursday 6th December 2018: Rehearsal update: Todays rehearsal went very well and was far more productive compared to my other band. During our 3 hour rehearsals we got through the whole set multiple times and discussed what would make our performance better and what would improve our set. As a band we focused on getting the endings better as it looks more professional if we can finish together and in time. It looks very poorly rehearsed if we all stop at different times and have to look around to see what each other are doing. The first song we went through was ‘Feeling Good’ which is a really nice song. It starts with just the keys playing the simple riff before the vocals come in and sing the opening verse, before the main bulk of the instrumentation come in, at this point it gets a lot louder and is a lot more interesting to listen to. The next song on the set is ‘Dani California’ which is a song by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ This song is one of my least favourite songs to perform, although this did not stop me from learning the songs to the best of my ability in the time I was given. The 3rd Song we worked on during our rehearsals was ‘Creep’, This song is one I do enjoy to play, and ironically is one of the songs that we are best at performing as a band. Next we did ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ which is a Beatles Song. I personally don’t really enjoy playing the song but again I learnt the song as we were performing it and I wanted to be fully prepared for the gig. Lastly, we closed the set with the song ‘Wicked Game’ which is our own take on the Chris Isaak song and I think it is the best song that we perform which is why it is saved until last. The song it entirely made up of 3 Basic chords that repeat throughout the entirety of the song. This gives a sense of stability and repetition which is good for the audience as they can feel the beat really easily. The structure of our set as a band is made up of our best 2 songs opening and closing the show. This is so that the audience remember to good parts of the set and the mistakes disappear into the middle of the set.

Moving into this band was a good move as I have been pushed out of my comfort zone to learn 5 new songs that I hadn’t heard of and having to learn them in just under 1 week. Typically this is not the style of music I would listen to and especially not perform but as a Musician I have enjoyed the challenge of learning the new songs and feel I have broadened my horizons as a session musician.

Aspirations and where we are going in the future. As a band I think we will be staying together and rehearsing for the upcoming gigs in April. For the gig in Dukes on the 11th we will be playing 5 songs which is roughly a duration of 20 minutes, for the next gig we need a set for around 30+ minutes which includes us getting some more songs rehearsed ready for then. This should not be too much of a challenge as we will have time from now until then to learn and rehearse the songs.

Along the journey from the beginning of the year to the 11th December when our first gig is we have been through a lot as a band in terms of rehearsal time and personally I have have had to learn new songs only a weeks before the gig.

JWJ