At the Red Door

A week later and finally I get round to posting about our last gig with Redeye at the Red Door – well it was great, and we had a lot of fun – the Audience was great, it was great to see so many people we know out to support us, it’s nice to be able to chat to people you know in the crowd before and after you’ve played. Redeye were great as usual and we’re really looking forward to playing with them again at the Royal Show on the 23 May, so look out for both of us there.

In other news my awesome coworker is doing some great work in designing our website, so that should be up and running in the near future… now we just need to get that CD out.

Peace and love all

Liam

Heating it up in May

We’re shifting gear as we head into the cooler part of the year – Yup Zephyr’s getting ready to warm your souls and heat up your hearts, there are four gigs in the pipeline for us in May, some yet to be finalized, but mostly definite.

The first would be at Swissland Cheese in the Midlands (2 May) for an afternoon of relaxing and enjoying great music in serene surroundings, there will be two other artist at this function yet to be confirmed, but we’ll keep you updated.

The next would be at the PMB Musicians Club (6 May) – hosted by the Red Door, in Quarry Ave. off Victoria St in PMB, the musicians club is always a great gig for us and we love the crowd there. A big bonus is we should be joined on the night by our very Good friends and fellow Musicians Red Eye, who will definitely have you grooving the night away.

During the month we should hopefully be playing the backing music to the visual feast at art in the park, myself and Colin really enjoyed ourselves last year, playing our music set in the Autumn trees surrounded by amazing artwork, and we’re really looking forward to enjoying it again with Jeremy there.

Then we’ll be rounding off the Month bye kick starting the Royal Show into action on Friday 23rd, where once again we’ll be accompanied by Redeye and another one or two bands, yet to be confirmed.

So hold onto your hats, ‘cause Zephyr’s going to be blowing strong through the month of May – We’ll be posting more details on each of the gigs closer to the time, but we thought we’d just let U in a little earlier so you can prepare yourself.

Love and Peace.

Liam

Our Splashy Gig

Nerves rung high backstage as Colin Jeremy and myself sat in our own private partition, tuning our instruments, running through harmonies and chord sequences and then making sure our instruments were in tune again. We tried forcing back the nerves by drinking numerous cups of coffee and tea that were supplied, only to find this made us need the portaloo outback more.

This was a gig, we’d done it before, what was with all the Nerves – Well to be fair we’d been out of gigging for a few months, but the probable answer was “this is Splashy Fen, Even the Big Name Bands have been telling me how nervous they were” as Sue the backstage manager put it. I’m sure the more renowned older hands delt with their nerves better than we were, but I bet they had them none the less.

The time came, the band before us played the last chord of their last song, and suddenly we were asking each other “do we go on now?”. We entered onto the stage, bearing our instruments and studiously avoiding looking at the Crowd, instead focusing on setting up. We ran through our sound checks, in what felt like a bit of a blur. Then before you knew it we were into the first song and the crowd cheering signaled its end. The Nerves barely left me as I played but I was held solid by the crowd’s applause and the Smiling encouragement from faces of friends and loved ones.

We were fortunate enough to have Kech Sanchez accompanying us on two of our songs “Watching Satellite” and “Maybe Angels” – he’s an accomplished musician, and Good friend and he definitely brings something to our songs, filling them out with his Haunting Pipes.

Jeremy and Colin were as Solid as ever on Bass and Drums respectively, though Jeremy said to me after he was Just as nervous as I. Colin seemed to be having an awesome time and rocked the whole way through - all in all it was a great gig, but passed by rather fast, if you were there, thanks for the support – the Audience was great.

God bless all

Liam

P.S see below for a video clip of us on stage, and below that Colin Interviewing me the morning before we played

Clip Of Ladybug at Splashy Fen

Colin Interviews Liam Before Splashy Gig

Anticipating Splashy Fen

Anticipation… right now it’s like sitting in a playhouse or large musical production, and you can hear the Orchestra warming up, all the stringed instruments warming up along with the wind section getting the reeds wet, with the occasional cough from the audience and you know at any second now it’s going to start.

03 Days Until Splashy fen 2008 gets underway – and the excitement is mounting, almost everyone I’ve spoken to is going, and yes it’s going to be great. Aside from really looking forward to playing there, I really can’t wait to pull up a splash of grass, get comfortable, and enjoy some quality SA music. Being a musician you get exposed to a load of local talent, either playing along side them or supporting your fellow musicians. The talent in South Africa is amazing, and the sounds so fresh, and it feels like an age since I’ve been able to sit back and enjoy the plethora of sounds I’ll be able to enjoy this weekend – I’ve been checking out the splashy Program and following links to the band/ musicians respective sights, and listening to some of their tracks and it’s really been getting me in the mood for sitting in front of the stage in three days time… as for being on the stage a couple days after… well I know the crowd and the beautiful scenery will have the band ready to share their musical souls.

Zephyr at Splashy Fen

It’s the big one once again! If you love music and the beautiful outdoors then this is the event of the year for you Splashy Fen kicks of in a few weeks time. And that’s the next time to see the band in action. Zephyr loves this festival and has been working hard in the practice room to come up with a brilliant play list and we’re really looking forward to this one. There’s going to be a great line up of Local and International Musicians this year (click through on the link to get to the Splashy Page and have a look at the program) so get there as early as you can and stay until the last musical note has been played. Call in sick – tell them your favorite goldfish “spot” died and you're holding a service, just make a plan and get there. Zephyr will be playing on the Sunday afternoon, and there’s a great line up of bands on the Sunday evening, so make sure your set up to stay until Monday (which is a Public Holiday).

Here’s part of the press release to get your musical taste buds salivating.

“Most diverse line-up in recent years

Proudly supported by East Coast Radio, Durban's No 1 Hit Music Radio Station, Splashy Fen 2008 is geared up to offer one of its most diverse line-ups in recent years. Expect a showcase of not only the best in folk, blues, rock, indie and electro dance, but also some of the most exciting new acts to come out of South Africa in a long time.

Included in the four-day, two marquee programme of over 80 artists are the likes of Tree63, Goldfish, The Rudimentals, Miriam Backhouse, Dan Patlansky, Plush, Gonzo Republic, Redflecks (USA), Kidofdoom, Southern Gypsey Queen, Syd Kitchen, Josie Field, Avatar, Crossingpoint, New Loud Rockets, Napalma, The Arrows and many more. Whatever your preference in music, Splashy’s got it covered!

Snuggling up under the Southern Berg stars

Just as this year’s line-up is better than ever, so are the choices of where to snuggle up under the Southern Berg stars at the end of each day. The long-standing tradition of staking out a site, setting up camp and settling in for a weekend of fun and fellowship means the general camping areas will no doubt continue to be the first choice for many festival-goers. As always, entrance to these campsites is included in the ticket price and campers can also look forward to improved ablution facilities.

Family campsite

With the festival fast approaching its 20th anniversary, it’s not too surprising that many Splashy ‘veterans’ now have spouses and children in tow, making the centrally-located, cordoned-off family campsite an option well worth considering. Although it carries a R100 per vehicle surcharge (payable on arrival), don’t forget that entry for children under 12 is free. Also situated in this area is the children’s marquee and entertainment zone, with a full programme of daytime amusements plus an evening child-minding service.

Other attractions

Aside from all the great music and fun outdoor activities on offer, festival-goers can also look forward to a bigger and more colourful Craft Market and an even more extensive selection of appetizing treats in the Food Court.

Whether buying or just browsing, Splashy Fen’s ‘new-look’ Craft Market offers the widest-ever choice of original handcrafted wares, ranging from aluminium flutes and other musical instruments to décor items, pottery, basketry and fine-art, funky local clothing lines, jewellery and accessories. There will also be marble mosaics for the home and garden, hammocks, solar-powered camping gear, goods crafted from pewter, silver, leather, crystals and recycled materials, plus authentic Native American arts, crafts and teepees, complementary health therapies and the opportunity to see one of SA’s top graffiti artists in action. And rest assured, Saswitch-enabled ATM facilities will be available around the clock for when the shopping bug bites!

With a line-up of over 80 of the country’s hottest acts, fun activities for the whole family, arts and crafts, an abundance of different food and drink outlets and various camping options, there’s no doubt that Splashy Fen is the place to be this Easter – make sure you’re a part of it!

Tickets are available at selected Game stores (R300), Computicket (R350) and at the festival gate (R400). The price includes camping for the entire long weekend and entrance for children under 12 is free. For more information and the latest festival news, visit www.splashyfen.co.za or contact Pedro at 082 892 6176.”


See you all there

Splashy Fen

It’s that time of year again, and I can’t wait. The organizers are holding a competition this year for musicians to write a song for Splashy, which I heard about while I was on that cold wet island – so bumbled around on my brothers guitar a bit and ended up finishing the song a week or so ago. Which we have recorded and will be sending in soon, and this is the cover I designed for it which I think is pretty cool. Whether our song gets chosen or not, we’ll see, but either way we’ll more than likely be playing anyway – and I’m definitely going. So who’s up for another splashy experience? Hope we’ll see you all there, follow the link to our myspace to have a listen to the song

http://www.myspace.com/zephyrsongs

An awsome evening

What a great night Saturday was – to all of you who were there thank you for joining us the crowd support was awesome. It was so great to play with Redeye, they are all good friends of ours and we’ve been meaning to do a gig together for a long time now. So big thanks to them for coming all the way down from Jo’burg, the evening was everything we expected it to be and more.
At the moment that’ll be our last gig of the year, as my brother and I are visiting family in December, if a gig pops up between now and then we’ll let you know.
Words really can’t express how much we enjoyed Saturday, that’s why this post is so short.
Until next time
Peace and light
Liam

Expanding Horizons...

Hey again! I’m back due to popular demand. (Ha! Not really, but hey!) Not that I’m really anyone to say but, I’ve always claimed a band who can pull off covers successfully deserve the utmost respect and recognition. Its no easy task “replicating” (there’s the scientist in me coming out!) or duplicating the brilliance of a world-famous band, especially one of Coldplay’s standard and class!
But Zephyr does it again and again!
“Til Kingdom Come” is just the most recent addition to their repertoire and its not just Coldplay, but many other varied bands as well. This clearly shows their diversity and versatility and some may say its brave, which it is, but if it’s done properly, a cover can earn an enormous amount of appreciation from the public to a band.
So can Zephyr do it? For sure!
Ambitious, yes. Successful? Definitely!

Here the beautiful lyrics, interpret as you will, no matter how you look at them, they’re very special!

"Til Kingdom Come" – Coldplay
Steal my heart and hold my tongue.
I feel my time, my time has come.
Let me in, unlock the door.
I've never felt this way before.

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummer begins to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know which way I've come.

Hold my head inside your hands,
I need someone who understands.
I need someone, someone who hears,
For you, I've waited all these years.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come.
Until my day, my day is done.
And say you'll come, and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

In your tears and in your blood,
In your fire and in your flood,
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing,
"I wouldn't change a single thing."

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummers begin to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know what I've become

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come,
Until my days, my days are done.
Say you'll come and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.


But wait! It gets better! Call now... (Just kidding).
Zephyr's next gig is at Forgotten Falls, on the 10th of Nov. They are performing with Redeye, a funkadelic band from Gauteng, good friends of Zephyr and just as talented.
Come along and you'll get a chance to see Zephyr perform "Til Kingdom Come", plus Ladybug (see below) and many of their others - new and old, originals and "replicates"!
See you there! Don't miss it!
Caroline

Lady Bug

It’s taken a while but finally I finished a song I’ve been meaning to for a while now, work wise I’ve finally reached a place of breathing space so I sat down when I had some time and finished off the song. You may not understand the lyrics but the melody is happy and will have you singing along for days-there is meaning behind them, and I know at least one other person out there does understand them – love you Ladybug

Lady Bug

It all started in the mud and rain, when my heart came out to play again
It had wrapped itself in layers of pain and hidden from the world.
Enter in the girl of sweet release, with bells tied to her feet
And brown eyes that run so deep you could spend a lifetime there
She took my hand and she showed me to dance, she held my heart in her beautiful hands
And I knew there was still a chance as I felt it beat again
The night passed in a blur, falling never felt so good
The world spun as I danced with her – lady I’ve just got to say

That you make my world go round
And you make a funny sound when you fall asleep next to me
You make the sun cry and you make the rain shine and I can’t believe you’re with me.

Well Monday came and we headed our ways, with the hope in my mind that we’d meet again and the sneaky suspicion that she felt the same left a smile on my face.
She called me up on the telephone line and asked if we could meet over a bottle of wine
And maybe we could take the time to get to know each other well.

Well - you make my world go round
And you make a funny sound when you fall asleep next to me
You make the sun cry and you make the rain shine and I can’t believe you’re with me.

I’ve been down and I’ve been lonely, lived a lifetime in a day
Sometimes your way seems like the only – until you’re shown another way

Now we dance almost every night and when we can’t we talk on the telephone line
Talking deep, making each other smile and Laugh out loud for Joy.
Well Ladybug you put the colour in me, and I’m just a bumbling Bee
But you make me weak at the knees so I sing this song for you.

You make my world go round
And you make a funny sound when you fall asleep next to me
You make the sun cry and you make the rain shine and I can’t believe you’re with me.

Zephyr & The Gloucester Blues Project

So as a "guest blogger" on the zephyr website i'll try keep this short and painless. I just couldnt let a gig go by without letting people know. So here's the deal...
Zephyr are playing along with The Gloucester Blues Project on Saturday nite (the 6th of October) at Red Door, Pmb. Its a fundraiser event for Hylton Smith to race the UAE Dubai Desert Challenge and the cost is 30 human rands (as Corne and Twakkie would say) at the door.
Guaranteed it'll be worth your while travelling from where-ever (even the uk, or china:) to come check these guys out {ok,ok, so i mite be biased, but it really would be worth a trip up from Durbs, or anywhere in the province, at least}. The line up is lookin and sounding good and its going to be a 'bopping and jiving' nite with unique sounds from both the bands playin.
Studio 1, -Uniting Dance-, will also be doing a fire performance between sets and i can assure u from 1st hand experience this'll be cool! - Well.... quite hot actually, but from a bit of distance its impressive stuff!
With fire spinning, good music and friends, this is going to be nite to remember! Be there!

My honour to be here, take care and see you there,
Caroline

The Band as South Park Charachters

Myself...

...Jeremy...

...and Colin as Southpark charachters

Heh heh heh... I had fun making these - click the title to link through where you can make you're own SouthPark Charachters

Latest in News and Gigs

It’s been an age since I’ve added any updates – mostly because I’ve been hectically busy at work (I still am) – and ‘cause we’ve been pretty quite lately.
So what was the last update?... Oh yeah art in the park, so since then myself and Colin did two gig’s a couple Saturday’s ago, just the two of us – one at the opening of Marshal Music at Cascades centre in PMB the other at a charity gig held at Cliffies, both were mostly just acoustic sets, being just the beatman and myself. Another reason for this was Jeremy had decided to take some time off, which myself and Colin are pleased he has decided to come back from, some songs just don’t sound the same without his bass and backing vocals.

We’ve also had a couple practices with a new guy Gareth, who also plays guitar; we’re in the process of assimilating him to our sound and songs – so far sounding pretty good, but as I say it’s still in process at the moment.

We’ve got an upcoming Gig down in Margate on Thursday, so we’re keen to see what the crowds are like down on the South Coast, and a couple really cool Ideas banging around in our heads, but we can’t reveal any of that just yet… so stay tuned, and hopefully we’ll see you all out there somewhere soon.
Peace & Light
Liam

Art in The park

Wrapped up warm in winter woolies - the crunch of leaves underfoot - the rusty smell of autumn and beautiful art, perhaps accompanied with a glass of mulled wine as you peruse all the beauty all around you - what more could you want, some pleasant music in the background perhaps?

The Annual "Art in the Park" in Alexander park in 'Maritzburg is almost upon us, it's the weekend of the 1st June, and myself and Colin (Jeremy will be in the middle of exams) are going to be playing there from 12 - 2pm on Saturday the second and 2 -4pm the following day.

So come along and enjoy the wonders of autumn in the park, search for some artwork for your homes, and enjoy some pleasant background music.
It's been a while since we've done something like this (myself and Colin played there a good few years ago) - we'll be doing few covers and some of our mellow originals between the two days.
Come on down and say hi.

Rocking on Saturday

Once again it was a great pleasure to play alongside Dan Patlanski, the guy really is amazing on guitar.

We really enjoyed the set and the crowd was great, so thanks a lot to those of you that were there, you guys made it. I’m sure Charlene appreciated it to.
I was really chuffed that a bunch of my friends from Durban made it up, thanks guys I had an awesome eve. We ended up getting home pretty late, so Sunday was a really lazy day, but I had the memories of the night before to get me through it.

We haven’t got much lined up for the next month, but we’ll be taking the time to work on some new songs and dust out some old ones, I really enjoy getting as much new or new-old stuff into our line up, because we don’t feel like we’re playing the same stuff and those of you who support us regularly don’t have to listen to the same songs again.
Rumor has it my brother Jeremy (the bassist) has a song he’s been writing in the pipeline and myself and Colin are eager to get our grubby little fingers on it and get him up there singing one of his songs, so watch out for it.

Peace and Love All

Liam

Picture Courtesy of Andrea Arbuckle

A great Night

Yesterday Afternoon saw me escaping from the office at 1:30, picking up my brother and Colin on the way home, where we hitched our trailer packed with our equipment and bags and hit the Road to Newcastle.

None of us knew what to expect but we new we wanted to rock and we we’re exited at playing somewhere a lot further a field from our base.

Let’s just say it was an evening beyond our expectations, the crowd was awesome, those Newcastlers area a friendly bunch and they know how to give it stick.
There were a couple of really talented local groups that played before us, and Then Eryn Fourie from PMB set the stage for us, from the first song the crowd gave us a welcome reception that put us on a high to carry us through the night, we invited Angus up non stage to join us for the last couple of songs that ended up being four with the encores.
It was definitely one of my Favorite gig’s to date and the Newcastle crowd has got to be thanked for that - you guys Rock!

This morning we left the hospitality of Angus’s’ house and set out on the long journey home, it was early and we’d only had about 4 hours sleep, but there was a satisfied silence in the car we’d played and had fun and so it seems did the crowd.
As I took in the beautiful scenery in the morning sunshine as I steered us homeward I reflected to my fellow musicians that if we were able I would quite happily do this everyday, go on a long Road trip/Tour of the country... perhaps one day soon.

Saturday Night

Saturday night sees us playing with Dan Patlansky at The Red Door in PMB, the gig is a fundraiser for our local female BMX champion, currently ranked 4th. She’s trying to raise funds for a ticket to the states where she can compete for the number one position. So being the nice guys we are of ‘course we said yes when she asked if we’d play - and obviously the chance to play alongside Dan Patlansky was also a big incentive, the dude just rocks and is a really nice guy too.

The Saturday itself is actually a friend of mines birthday and she designed this really cool invite to all her friends to join her there - so cool that I asked her if I could post it here and extend the invite to all of you out there, it’ll be awesome. If you happen to bump in to Van, buy her a drink.

Tonight though we head up to Newcastle in our new mission to spread our music to all the places that will host us, so we’re looking forward to it a long drive though.
See you all out there somewhere soon.

Liam

Listen to the Demo Tracks!

Okay we got a copy of our demo last night and we’re pretty pleased with it considering the amoun t of time we made it in, we needed a copy asap so time was resricted, I’ve posted them on our myspace so go have a listen to "Step by Step" and "Noel", and give us some feedback, we’d appreciate it.
You can either use the link to the left "Zephyr songs" or click on the title of this entry and it should take you right there.

Little Steps

Above are a couple of options my friend "noodle" came up with, simple but cool!

Above is another option I've tried with warmer colours, different logo.
Jeremy and I added the vocal tracks to the two tracks that will be going on our demo, it's strange recording is a completely different process to playing live. We play well live because we feel the song through each other, have got so used to playing in practice with that person when they're going to change the beat or chord or whatever.
But try and keep time with a prerecorded version of that same person and it's a whole different story.
And so it was that on thursday evening we decided to record ourselves all playing live and get the best takes we could out of that for the demo, there were quite a few takes I can tell you, and quite a few blunders and laughter, but we got them done in the end.
Then on Sunday Jeremy and I went back and put the vocal tracks over, Barry was having issues with his Computer he wanted it to work and it was doing anything but, eventually we got our chance and got the vocals down chop chop, if only playing were as easy as the singing part.
Anyway the picture is an Idea I came up with for the cover, though I haven't settled on it yet, I've asked a couple of My friends (whjo happen to be designers) to give it a crack if they'd like to, so I'll see what they come up with.
Peace all

Liam