Update – May 04, 2019!!

Been a big couple of months, I figure I will just do a summary of everything here since I didn’t manage to keep up with adding everything along the way!! Hope everyone is well!!

TUNES AND PARMAS WITH FRIENDS:

Early March I was at the Royal Oak Hotel in Fitzroy for the first time, and in the crowd were a few of my good friends from New Zealand!! We closed my acoustic set there with “Slackers and Wankers” and they didn’t throw us out, so that was good!! 😀

Will be back there on May the 8th @ 8.30pm!!

THE ART MASTER BRANCHES OUT:

Next up my mate Dan Verkys who has handled artwork for myself and The Feckers for 10 years and going strong, came to me with the idea of having more articles on his website to go with the amazing artwork that has always been there. He was kind enough to have me as one of the first things he did with the new format of his website. When that guy comes calling, I am THERE – I don’t mind what it is. Thanks so much mate!!!

JAMMING WITH A LEGEND:

Early April, my brother Skube had tagged me in something about local guitar legend Phil Para inviting people to come and jam with him at his gigs. Skube and I have sunk quite a few pints in the crowd at Phil’s gigs before, and I always remembered (despite the pints) how amazing he was – I HAD to do this!!

What a great bunch of guys he and his band are, and the staff at The Fyrefly where the event was held were also very lovely. An amazing night!!


LIVE AT SWAMPLANDS:

Late April I did a solo gig at Swamplands Bar in Thornbury, as part of a night that Dylan Beast runs there every week. Dylan and I used to play in an acoustic duo a year and a half ago, so it was a great excuse to catch up and play some tunes as well. We played solo sets and guested on a song for each other too. Amazing fun!!

THE FECKERS AND WHAT’S NEXT:

The next album from The Feckers is well underway and has actually begun the mixing process with Dennis Leeflang of Livelong Productions handling that stuff. The third song to be mixed is currently underway in his very good and capable hands and it is sounding KILLER.

This coming week I have the live set at The Royal Oak @ 8.30 as mentioned (May 08), as well as a two hour slot on Casey Radio as part of the Casey Beat program (May 11) where we’ll be talking and playing some songs live and studio. Should be great fun.

Update – August 29, 2009!!!

PIECES OF ETERNITY:

So hopefully by now, everyone has seen the cover and heard the sample from “Pieces of Eternity”?? (If you don’t know what I’m on about, go to http://www.cs-songs.com/powerfulostrichearache)I’m so happy that it’s nearly a done deal, and can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks about it.

The latest there is that I’ve OK’ed a digital proof of the album artwork with the manufacturers, and pending everything going smoothly on their end, it’ll be a done deal in the first half of September!!!

Been working on the online store here, so everything will be ready to go in time for the CD’s coming back from print. Also will be doing some promo stuff for the release – interviews, radio etc. Very excited for all that!!!

Keep an eye on my associated sites over the next day or so for a full length track!! ;)

THE FECKERS:

For those who may not be aware of it, for years I’ve written songs with folks in other countries through the wonders of modern technology, and even had the pleasure of a few guest guitar cameos too. One of these collaborations is with a mate by the name of Richard “MacGyver” Anderson, and even though we never really had the money to complete a lot of our ideas so far, we never really stopped collaborating on stuff.

For a while we were really trying to bring the songs to life, but it seemed like the gods were against that happening, which lead to us shelving the idea for a while, and he went and formed a cool little band called GONE WILD, while I was finally getting some of my own stuff together.

Now that we’ve both had some progress on our own sides of the pond, we decided it was time again to team up and hopefully tend to some of those now many songs. This was penciled in to start in July 09, looked shaky for a little bit, but ended up happening and then some.

We’ve made some fantastic progress on 3 songs, which are hard rock / metal, and on those tracks basically all the drums, bass and rhythm guitar is DONE!! Speaking of drums too, we have the most unbelievable skinsman helping us out on this stuff – more on that soon.

Basically everything is going amazingly well, and while this has all been going on, we’ve been recruiting other guest singers and players, and the list is a real impressive one! And we’re not even done yet!

I’m back in the studio next week doing lead and acoustic guitars, and possibly even getting some vocals added to one of the tracks, so stay tuned!!

MORE SOLO:

Started work on what will be my 2nd album in July also!! Once again with my bro Mathew Szkup on drums, and the incredible Stew Long running the controls once again. We’re four songs into the drum tracks, although Stew’s hectic schedule of late hasn’t allowed any more progress to be made on the songs thus far.

Again it will be a mixture of stuff – of these 4 songs, there’s a funk / rock / metal thing, a Harrison esque chord strummer, a piano based rock ballad, and a 10 minute epic kinda thing that to quite Stew “covers most countries on earth” in the moods it creates. Starts off thrash metal and ends up as a waltz!!

Will post more on this stuff as we chip away at it in conjunction with The Feckers stuff.

LIVE APPEARANCES:

While I can’t say too much at the time of writing, it looks like I’ll be getting back onto the stage in 2009, not only in Melbourne, but also interstate!!! Stay tuned!!!

AND IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH:

Just have to say a big THANK YOU to Ron Thal, and Peter Hodgson for their nice words in this Bumblefoot Interview!!!

To say I’m honoured is an understatement!!!

Check out http://www.bumblefoot.com/ for more Bumblefoot, and also Peter’s awesome guitar blog titled I Heart Guitar, at http://www.iheartguitarblog.com/ !!!