Last Nights Gig

It was a great return to action after a long period of non playing, and we really enjoyed it, the crowd was really great and as always at the Red Door, so was the sound.
There were a lot of nerves before hand it was the first time Colin would be playing his new Electric drums live and we had been so long out of playing live we were wondering if we could still handle it. Everything went smooth though and we were happy with the way things went.
Much must be said for Steve and Tara Fataar (whom we were supporting) they put in a great performance with his great guitaring and her amazing and powerful voice, it was a good time our retinue returned home at about 12 and then continued to sit up until 1:30 this morning, so I’m Tired but happy.

Next up is Newcastle on the 8th which were really looking forward too, before we return on the 12th to backup Dan Patlansky.
Have a restful day

Liam

Tonight

So last night we bashed (not really) our way through our set for tonight and refined ourselves in a couple places. We’re playing a new song that’s still got wet ink on ‘cause I only just finished writing the Lyrics, but we’re all relatively happy with it and are hoping you’re all going to love it - it’s called Step by Step, so if you’re there listen out for it.

We’re supporting the Fatars (I hope I spelt that right) at the PMB musicians club at the Red Door in PMB tonight, in case any of you didn’t know.

It’s been a while since we’ve played, and I think we’re all really exited to get back on stage and just enjoy the music.
Spot you all later.

Liam

Autumn Winds

Life is spontabulous - (spontaneously fabulous - a word a friend came up with after one of my spelling errors).
It’s a beautiful autumn/early winter here in the midlands of KZN, the sun is shining down, and not in the overly oppressive way it can in summer, but in the soul and heartwarming way it does in winter.
Soon the grass will turn gold and the leaves will shed their autumn coats, the bright blue sky will stand out in contrast to the bare stark landscape and for a moment all will stand silent.
For now we have autumn and its rich rusty colours, and I’m loving it, still warm enough to wear shorts and slops - but cool enough to wear longs if you’d like. Sleeping in or reading a book in bed is comfortable, because it’s nice to be warm and snuggled up, but you’re arm doesn’t freeze when you take it out from under the covers to turn the page.
This is autumn and I love it’s pastel beauty, below are the lyrics to one of the earliest songs I ever wrote, I guess even back then Autumn held something special for me

Autumn Winds
Autumn winds often blow
First comes summer and then snow
But I’m leaving my seasons of change.
Seeds of thought are planted deep
In the autumn for the winters sleep
and they’ll blossom with springs bright avail
Crazy lady different man
Take the right path if you can
and I’ll see you on the other side of life

My seasons of change pass me everyday
and the reasons of faith leave me open to say
I’m going home with autumn winds
and with the first snow a new year begins
Springtime arrives and there’s a girl in your eyes
but the heat wave comes and you wave goodbye
but I feel at home with autumn winds
See the leaves fall to the ground
The autumn winds blow them around
Till the gather like thoughts in my head
Pastel colours wrapped in brown
Catch them children and throw them around
Till they scatter like memories left behind
My seasons of change pass me everyday
and the reasons of faith leave me open to say
I’m going home with autumn winds
and with the first snow a new year begins
Springtime arrives and there’s a girl in your eyes
but the heat wave comes and you wave goodbye
but I feel at home with autumn winds

I feel at home with autumn winds

Step by Step

Last night the band were working on our recently finished new song “Step by Step”
I really love playing new stuff, so if you’re going to be at the Red Door on Tuesday, you’ll be the first people to hear it live. I really enjoy it, in fact I think we all do, in our long hibernatory period the bands been playing around with our sound and been coming up with a whole lot of new tunes, but I’ve been battling with the lyrics, and so finally I’ve broken my block and got something down. Nothing Shakespearian, or terribly poetic, but it suits the song. So come on down Tuesday, so you can say you were the first to hear “that song”
Peace out everyone

Liam

Words for Watching Sattelite

Watching Sattelite

Sitting in the darkness laughing at the sky
Lying on our backs watching Satellite go by
Big and round you arc the sky and frame the world
if the sun is the son and the worlds the mum then you’re the girl
So round, so round so symmetrical
You pull at me you move me why do you affect me so

Satellite how we miss you in the day
Satellite do you watch us when we play
Satellite do you guide and watch me to?
Satellite how I’m so in love with you.

By the water moving bodies through H2O
Slick as seals so we flow
You are dancing on the surface,
dancing on the surface show us your light
In the water is the only time we’ll feel your touch tonight

Satellite how we miss you in the day
Satellite do you watch us when we play
Satellite do you guide and watch me to?
Satellite how I’m so in love with you.

Moving quickly sound of swift feet running past
Flicker light on naked bodies as they pass
Hear the laughter, hear the laughter echo through the night
Caught and illuminated by your light

Satellite you’re the witness to my youth
Satellite You have always been my truth
Satellite how I long for your embrace
Satellite you always chased me when we raced.

Words for Noel

Noel

There’s too much noise in the world today
No-ones listening to a word you say
You cry out peace and love to all
But they’re too busy making war
The temples line the streets of man
But no-one seems to enter in

There’s a girl on the corner
and her name is Noel
She tells the truth of the Father
as she rings her bell

The coming of man to this desolate world
He said I’ll show you the way so that love can uncurl
He left us a message and it was one of truth
He said "Love one another as I have loved you"

There’s a girl on the corner
and her name is Noel
She tells the truth of the Father
as she rings her bell

Latest News & Gigs and basically whats up!

Okay so what’s the latest? Well Myself & Jeremy had a great weekend at Splashy being inspired and drawn in by all the music and mud - yup it was pretty wet.
Colin decided he wasn’t quite up for it this year, so he stayed at home working on the settings on his new Electric drum kit. Oh yes that’s news a couple weeks ago he took the plunge and a large financial loan and went out and bought himself an electric drum kit! We’ve only had a few practices with it, but it’s cool and it brings a whole new dynamic to the band so much so that we’ve been coming up with new tunes every practice, and now suddenly I need to write a load of lyrics, something that I never have to much trouble normally, but recently I’ve faced a bit of a block. I’ll get over it though, you’ve just gotta let the words come.
We’ve also finally made the step of getting the next one of us into the studio, Colin’s booked with Barry for Tuesday night, if I can I’ll go in and lend him my ear and support.
As Far as gigs go, we have a few lined up in the near future, I just gotta remember all the dates. We’ll be playing in two areas of Natal we’ve not ventured into yet, Newcastle and Margate and we’ll be picking up in extra gigs we can get when we head down to Margate.
Before all of this though we’ll be playing at the Pietermaritsburg Musicians Club on the 24th of April, doing a bit of a support act, so if you’re in the area come check us out.
Peace all
Liam

Listen to the Rough cut

The Start of recording on Saturday went well, I managed to Get down 7 rough cuts of our songs - but it is definitely looking good so far.
Barry was really helpful as I just ran through as many songs as I could on the day and now at least we have a platform to do our proper recordings on.
That evening a myself and Jeremy went with our family and friends to the music evening they have at the Forgotten Falls, we were asked if we would do a couple songs after the last band had played, so naturally we obliged and really enjoyed it.
I’ve added a link to the blog that leads to our Myspace, where I’ve uploaded a rough cut of one of the songs I recorded this weekend - this will just give you a basic Idea of what the final recording will sound like, as we will go in and complete the polished version with the rest of the band backing us. Click on the Link named "Zephyr Songs" at a later stage I will add our finished recordings there as well.

The Birth of an Album?

So it seems some forward progress has been made on our avowed recording, let me say this in our defence though - unfortunately we’re all busy at work or studying, Jeremy’s In his third year studying Industrial phsycology, Colin’'s running his business - and I’m being kept busy at work as well.We decided the best way to go about it was for me to go in and record the songs we’re wanting to do, each of us carrying a copy around with us, which gives us the chance to get the recorded song into our heads. Then we’ll all go in and put the proper recording down together - so that’s what I’'m doing this weekend. Heading Into Barry Meintjies (hope I spelt that right Barry) recording studio in ‘Maritzburg. I’m looking forward to it and it’ll be nice to finally put some of our songs downSo watch out for it, Zephyr’'92s going to have some recorded music available soon.

Ragfest Concert

Once again, we’ve been asked to play at the Pietermaritzburg ‘Varsity "Ragfest", I’m not sure who else will be performing, last year we opened up for the Parlotones, which was pretty cool.
It’s being held on the 30th of March at the ‘Varsity Rugby fields, I’ll add more details when I know them.
The bands pretty phsyced about it and this year in general, we’ve got some really great new tunes and some awesome gig’s lined up, so catch us on the road.

Old Times

I was up In Gauteng this weekend with work, and I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet up with my friend and fellow musician Jason. We’ve known each other since highschool and he’s the one who got me on my way playing guitar, teaching me as he was teaching himself.
Myself and some colleagues went to watch him play on Thursday night - I even got up and did a few songs with him which was nice, I aint played with him in a while and it’s always nice to Jam with an old friend.

Southern Cross 2006

"wait Liam I have a question?"


Some of the fans
2006http://www.southerncrossmusic.co.za

the call is stronger than the pain

Well my finger is still giving me trouble, but the call to play is to strong and I've started playing (though in a limited fasion) again. We've had our first couple practices of the year, and they've been very constructive and great fun. Though I haven’t relly been able to play alot of our songs (’cause I just can’t get my finger to do what I want it to).
We have been coming up with alot of very cool new stuff though and experimenting alot with our sound and I’m loving where it’s going. Hopefully my finger will sort itself out soon and we’ll be able to gety back up on stage soon.
The picture is from last years southern cross, there’s a couple others I’ll post soon.
Peace all

Scroll Bar

Busted finger

Well not really - but I've been unable to play my guitar for over a week and it's really starting to get frustrating, I'm not sure how it happened, but some How I twisted/ sprained - did something silly, to my right index finger and I can't currently bend it properly at the joint, so I can't form any chords. Maybe I should take up Piano, then I wouldn't need to bend my fingers so much... or wait the triangle, now that's the way forward.

Just the DVD

So we listened to our recording last night and though not absolutly horrible, we weren't happy with it and decided we'd rather wait until we get a decent version down before we let it loose out there. Quality is important, especially if your name's attatched to it. It wasn't all bad though - the DVD came out pretty well, and the quality of sound was not bad considering it was just coming through the DVD's mike - there is however a slight delay between the sound and the visuals, which if you're in the right mood can be quite amusing.

Our General sound on stage comes through though, which is good - I think at the moment I'd have to say we're a better live Band than a recorded band, somkething you can only work on and Improve, the more you do something the better you get at it, the good thing is now we have the time to work on our recording, which is exactly what we'll do. And here is where you'll find out first when it's available.
The new web design I'm working on should hopefully be up and running early next year, once I've gathered all the content and put the finishing touches to the Design - you'll be able to hear all the news, check out picks from our latest gigs and stuff, and hopefully once I've figured out how to do it download songs (which will also depend on when we get some tracks down.
Peace out
Liam

Rough Cut

So last night Myself and Jeremy finished off the Vocals and Guitar and Bass to the three songs we we're recording for a demo. Though we've decided to call it rough cut, because of the time contraints we had, which prevented us from getting down exactly what we wanted. But it's done and wer'e happy it is, we can get it out to varoius festival organizers etc. and perhaps a few dedicated fans. We will be working on a more finished version shortly, something more complete, something we can take our time with.
For now though I need to get a copy of this one (once Steve has finished mixing it) down to Pedro in Durban so we can see if we can get into Splashy.
All right all, keep well
Liam

Dan the Man

This Saturday we'll be playing alonside Mr Dan Patlansky at the Red Door - which we're seroiusly chuffed about, Dan has played around the world including The New Orleans Jazz festival, he's a virtouso on the Guitar and really awsome to watch and hear. So the fact that we'll be setting the stage for him is a seroius bonus, if you've been to any of the last5 few Southern Crosses you would have been gifted to see him in action and know it'll be worht your while to do so again, with the added bonus of seeing us ;-) if you have never seen him before, now's the time.
Oh yeah the gig at the last Musicians club was awsome, great crowd and great musicians, if any of you were there, thanks for the support and compliments - it's a real boost.
oh and may you have a blessed Christamas and New Year.

Liam

Demo Recording

Last Night Colin, Jeremy and Myself headed to Hilton College’s Music Department to Start recording our demo. Colin was tired from work, I was tired from the flu and Jeremy was tired well, because he student on Holiday and decided to stay up to late the night before.
As alwaysthough playing seemed to lift all our spirits and energy levels, it was either that or the half dozen fizzy cooldrinks we drank in the time we were there. Whatever it was when we all left at 10:30 that evening we were definitely feeling alot better, though it wasn’t quite enough to completely cure me of the flu.
It was great however to be starting to make steps in the direction we’ve been threatening to over the past year, even though it’s just going to be a Demo it’s a step in the right direction.
Steven (the Guy doing the recording) has been really helpful and accomodating, and is great to work with, last night we put down the rough cut’s to three of our songs - “Watching Satelitte”, “Judas Kiss” and “2 second silences”. We’ll be going back at different times this week to play over each track individually to get the sound we want.
I have to say recording is fun, there’s an atmosphere about being in or around the studio, listening to each track and laughing at slip ups and each other.
So even though I’m bound to have a tiring week heading to the Studio after work it’ll be a fairly entertaining one.
Steven’ sgoing to be at the Musicians Club at the Red Door tonight to - make a DVD of us playing so if you’re coming wear your best smiles.
He also mentioned a short film he’s making and wanted to use one or two of our songs on it wich of ‘course we said definitely. Anyway back to work - keep well all
Liam

Last PMB Musicians club for the year

This Tuesday is the last Musicans club Gathering for the year, and yup we'll be one of the bands in the Line up, along with "The Hairy Legged lentle eaters" With a cuple of guests. We'll be Starting at 7:30pm. The Venue is "The Red Door" on Quary Road, just off Victoria.
It'll definitely be an entertaining evening,and it's your last chance for 2006 so get there if you can.