Studio V. 3

With flashlight secrecy we study cracks, curiously.

We're done tracking. Mixing, mastering & all that to come.

Cool.






We celebrated with a BBQ. It was rad.

Studio V. 2

Still here.

Our voices were being lame and not hitting the right notes or tones last night so we started drinking to soften things up, but really all it did was cost us money and give us light headaches in the morning. We were getting served at the bar by some girl in a Halloween costume who we appropriately named 'Tits'. We didn't say it to her face, of course.

All the guitars are done and it sounds big. Big Al's big guitars.
We're eating a lot of fruit.

Studio V. 1

We've been in Sydney a couple of days now. We haven't really seen any of Sydney except for having to mission around the place, late at night, trying to find Davinia's house. The last leg involved dodging cockroaches on the footpath, they come out at night apparently. Feeding on the filth and all that. Fuckin' weird. Cockroaches can get fucked. Ew.

We've had a few hiccups early on, but nothing to put us out of order. We bought a brand new video camera to film all our new ventures. Used it for a few days, then left it on a train to the studio. Hah.

However, in studio, good stuff is happening. Finishing off some bass things this morning, and then onto guitars, vocals and mixing. Everything should effectively be done in the next week. We'll probably have something new for you to hear real soon.

Cool. Here's some photos.

Dave is a fuckin' King.

Human nature.

We made it to Melbourne. Alive and well.

All our stuff is in a big pile on Kimbra's floor. She's so very nice to let us stay here whilst we get our shit together. Jobs, homes, food, etc.

There's not a lot to share about Melbourne just yet. We caught an early flight here and drunk a lot of beer. It's free on the plane. We got stung with a hefty excess weight charge (as in, we could buy 2 XBox 360's instead) so we took it upon ourselves to drink what we could. Money's worth, right?






As expected we've been getting out and about, catching up with friends and procuring hangover's. It's all slowing down now though, money is tight and we can't exactly be the rockstar alcoholics we dream to be just yet.

Otherwise, that's about it. Life hunting.

x

It sucks that you're leaving...

It's funny (like literally, actual "haha" funny) how anyone in this country can say to us "aww, don't go", "pleeeeease don't go?" and "damn, that sucks that you're leaving".

This is the very reason we're leaving. Bar a small few whom we know really do appreciate our band, the rest all seem about as genuine as The Veronicas, Katy Perry etc. I'm fairly certain I've spoken to every single person that's ever seen us play. It's not like we had any support from anyone or anything significant. It's not like New Zealand was going to present us with any real opportunity.

The coolest thing that happened for us in NZ, was the HORSE the band tour, and we lost $700 by agreeing to it. It was only 3 shows! If we didn't miss our flight because we got every red light in Wellington and an uncoperative airport bitch, then we'd have only lost $400.

We can tour and make some money, sure. Once a year maybe. We could make $200. We could play 6, maybe 7 shows on that tour. Get time off our full time jobs to support ourselves. Or we could go overseas and work hard as fuck and get ourselves into a position of touring 6, maybe 7 months a year and be constantly surrounded by opportunity.

And before any indie hip d.i.y trend setting fuck tries to tell us we're wrong, we are This City Sunrise. We aren't one of the plethora of in bands that exist in New Zealand right now. We don't have a huge sub culture of sheep to leech off.

We want to play music for a living. A shit living, but it's living. Life. It's the only thing we know how to do.

It sucks that we're leaving.
Hah! I couldn't be more excited.

Busy ass.

So we've got a fair bit going on. Mainly just trying to relax our minds enough to focus on what's important with moving away.

To be honest, I have no fuckin' idea where I'm at. I look around my room and it totally does my head in. Gotta pack this, sell that, give this to someone, get this on a plane. Blah blah. Weight, money, spending, no clue, no income, no money, no spending.

Or something. I dunno. Seriously. I'm sure we can do it. Should probably stop writing blogs and start, y' know. Packing.

x

ps: Final shows all over the place. Check our MySpace for details.

Small Collection

There is a small collection of Werther's Original wrappers building up around my desk. I've been eating them a lot.

There's also a small collection of shows building up for when we get to Australia.

Pity about the small collection of money we have, selling our small collections of gear to afford things like food, water, expensive beer and new socks.

Listen to the new These Arms Are Snakes song.

x

Being Shut Down.

It's a good feeling playing shows with bands such as Strangers. They're a heavy band, but they haven't given in to the whole Metalcore movement. Which is great. Because seriously, bar very few bands, we loathe the prospect of sitting through breakdown after fuckin' breakdown.

It's good because when we're chillin' before the show we're listening to Coliseum, Breach, My Disco, Young Widows and more. Occasionally there's a humorous hair metal song thrown in that I don't find funny but people get excited. That's cool.

Furthermore, the musicians have sweet gear, put on a professional show and call shit as they see it. No bullshit, genuine as people playing music that matters to them.

We love music in general and play with bands of all sounds and sizes, but sometimes I feel it's most redeeming to see a heavy band shine with whatever it is they're doing. Akaname, Robotosaurus, Strangers, AVALANCHE etc.

Cool.

Buzzy Bee Dumpster

Majestic flight,
Feet above the ground.
I am safe upbringing,
Keeping children sound.

Drag me along with training wheels & wooden wings
I pretend I can soar
Amongst plants and things,
Comforting he who wishes he could only be
Something more.

But when creation gets close
Individual & otherwise gross
The junior that has me on string runs away
Scared of the sting.

Friends, amongst others.

We live in a circle. We're surrounded by positive out-look, 'life is more than 9 to 5' people. Our friends. The best people we know.

When it gets late, ourselves and our friends go home and write serriously about serious stuff using serious words like 'wish', 'voice' and 'transparent'. Some of us also do it wearing headphones on the bus, whilst in conversation at lunch or during ciggie breaks at work.

We're a funny group of friends. Look after your friends.

My feet upset the water on the pavement,
Grey and wet and cold.
The rain on my face doesn't bother me,
The problem lies within my shoes.
They are getting old, full of holes.

There are rips in my jeans,
This T-Shirt just barely clean.
It's a wonder anyone sees anything in me.

Though I aren't commercially impressive,
I do have desire.
I want to drown, drown, drown
In beautiful sound.
Not water, girls mother's despair,
Drown in sound, peaceful and unaware.

We Care A Lot

We're probably (most definitely, rather) one of those bands that people say "they shouldn't take themselves so seriously, maaaaannnnn".

Maybe we aren't taking ourselves seriously enough.



We're moving to Melbourne in October.
Rad.
x

I can't stop eating. Seriously, is it Winter? I like Winter. I like rain, thunder, fog, jackets and watching pretty girls make me hot drinks at cafes. I think I have developed Trent Reznor's 'void'; Physically, emotionally and financially. It needs to be filled, so I fill it with food.

I'm stunned at the food I'm eating. Whole loves of bread a day, Pizza's 2 inches thick, corn chips, ice cream, toast, more toast, more ice cream and a bottle of wine. Every day.

Melbourne soon. Should probably book the tickets.

My favourite time of day

Is the last half hour before sleep.

Smoking on the deck, the rain falls on everything

But me and the Devil's cigarette.

As if to tell me

"Enjoy your time alone"

The water will protect me like a lullaby,

Seldom so pretty.

This is This City Sunrise, and this is how we think.

I've been admiring the talents of a few artists lately that have been exploring the world of music and blogs. I mean, sure, we've got MySpace and all that, but there's something a whole lot more personal about Blogging, in our own Blog, here. So here it is. This is us, the way we think. Well, maybe it will turn into the way 'I' think, seeing as I tend to have the firmest grip on the reigns of This City Internet. But whatever.

I recommend everyone read both the Blacklisted and Little Pictures blogs. Both have awesome shit to say or at least stuff that proves really motivational for independent musicians.

Ok. Cool. I got it started.

I recently got taught how to make an omelette and now I'm getting experimental. Gotta tend to that before this house burns down.

x Sam