Neonixehertz.

19.12.06

Yo people!
Good Morning!
Selamat Pagi!
Chao An!
and
"Good Morning(in Tamil)"!

Just an update on nxhz..we're currently 'dead' now as our mister afiz left for a 5-day vacation yesterday.C'mon man,the foreman of the band needs to take a break as well while keeping his cool yea?We're gonna miss you bro.Nevertheless,the rest of us are still up to our own stuff.Hafiz and me asked Imrant to learn "Creeping Death" 's solo(Imran,you better have learn it.I dont care if its not perfect)..me with my air-drumming..got Khai to assist us in bass for the song and brush up on the parts that he's not sure to play on and so,a big thanks to Khai for helping us out.I love you Khai.Oh yea,i think we're having this 'disease' or habit of saying 'I Love You' to each other among us.Hafiz and Khai got it started and Imran,he's no.1 when it comes to loving guys so that just makes it even better and I'm the last one to get infected by the 'disease'.Whatever,I love you guys.(=.
LoLs!!!

Anyway,boring sials..like when the heck are we gonna jam.Kinda psyched up that we're working on our own songs.Tryna restrict myself from getting over-excited.Its kinda of an amazing feeling to know that your band's writing songs of your own,especially when its the first time.All the crazy ideas come out.But have to admit that I come out with rather plain and stock ideas for the drums.Honestly,I'm not that good on it but I'm still learning and improving and hope to keep up with Imran and Hafiz,whom these 2 people definitely have alot of potential in song-writing.Both proved themselves during last week's sesh in dmn's basement and thanks to Khai again for assisting us for the bass.I love you Khai.(=

Oh yes!I've found a way,(still not perfect though),to record songs in super clear quality!!!Yessaaah!!What a breakthrough..hehe.I'm doing this for your sake neonixehertz.Although its kinda of a long process,i guess its worth.Its some sort of the same steps to usual studio recording except that we dont have studio equipments.Just using what we have and a big thanks to my digi cam which can record sound clips and giving awesome results and to this 'sound-editing' program Praba introduced to me.I was on the verge of giving up the whole idea as I was taking like..3 to 4 hours just to get the sound clips recorded from the camera into the suitable type of format so that the program could recognize and read it?The program is able to read sound clips of most formats but the ones that were coming out from my cam were "IMA ADPCM".Like..wtheck of a format is that?!The usual ones are like wav,PCM and mp3 formats and I just never came across "IMA ADPCM" but thats all solved now as I've found a way to convert the sound clips recorded from the cam into formats that are readable by the program.Wheee...(=

Oh man..I'm talking too much.Well,thats all for now.Till we jump in the fire again.
\m/

Posted By Zul at 4:16 AM

13.12.06

Wow, the blog's not bad eh? The blog format looks cool, but somehow I think the small letters in our logo at the header looks a bit too simple in a way. Otherwise, everything looks hot :-)

Our performance at Graduation went pretty well but personally, I felt disappointed with myself. I told most people that I was nervous, but that's a really big generalisation. Here's the real screw-up: my amplifier equalisation settings (vol, bass, middle, treble, crunch and so on) were different from the previous (rehearsal) day and so my guitar's distortion sounded like crap. Not only that, my guitar volume was overpowering. Throughout the performance, i was trying to restrict my energy so that Hafiz's guitar could be heard. There was little time to make adjustments as explained by Zulraihan in the 1st post. So yeahh, all that made me nervous. There were some solo parts where my guitar couldn't be heard because of either 1 out of 3 things:

1) I missed the string
2) I didn't pluck hard enough
3) the amp equalisation made it inaudible

And as if that wasn't bad enough, I played the wrong notes a couple of times. It was really embarassing. I was kind of in a state of shock after the performance. In fact, someone smsed me/us after our performance; "OMG, U GUYS RAAAWWWWK!", it went something like that. The reply I gave was "really?" (one word)...at that moment I subconsciously responded as though I was talking to someone in front of me. It was only after a while I realised that it was a really weird kind of thing to text-message someone. Oh well...

Hafiz was cool. Not many ppl can sing and play the guitar, it was really an eye-opener.

Zulraihan impressed the crowd with his drumming skills, as usual. I heard one guy saying he played like Lars (metallica's drummer)

Khairul was great too. He had to learn how to play songs at the last minute! He was really moving like a rocker.

As for me? "Well...your band got the biggest crowd. Don't worry, you were ok. It wasn't noticeable/that bad." This was the kinda response I got. Still, I'm grateful that our performance as a whole was good. I don't expect any praise on my part especially for screwing up. I feel guilty actually. Feel free to criticise me, I noe I sucked up there. I'm really open and I'm not depressed about it.

Enough on the performance, let's move on shall we...

We jammed in school on tuesday, it was really cool. We went crazy playing all the things we wanted to since we weren't confined to an hour like how we usually are at Wee Lee Bedok. The equipment's much better, except for the fact that the drums had only one paddle. I even parodied Hindustani songs (nope, I still hate them), the backstreet boys and Linkin Park's In The End. Zulraihan ran around the jamming corner while we played the 4 horsemen (Metallica song). Personally, I didn't think it was stupid. It was crazy, and going crazy is exactly what we're supposed to do when we jam. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fun, would it? =D

About our own song, Hafiz and Zulraihan seemed to like a slow part I came up with...but it sounded really emo! Come to think of it, I did come up with it a couple of months back, when I was feeling sad. Haha. Even the riffs I had in mind sounded sinister, also due to dark thoughts that I had/have. It's about some cool character in a fantasy world I created. Those ideas would probably make a cool video game. Think God of War + Legacy of Kain + Tenchu adventure game. Ok, going off-topic here..

I tried coming up with all sorts of riffs. Funny thing is, all of them were everything except metal. I even came up with a Spanish jingle! Somehow, it's hard coming up with something heavy and cool. In my opinion the riff Hafiz came up with was ok, but it was too basic unless we add some stuff later. It's not about making it complex, but it sounds so common to me that I can't help but realise how basic it sounds, people might not even recognise it as metal. It would sound like simple plan trying to come up with a metal riff. Not insulting his idea, but I think we should do more to make it work. The same goes for my slow part.

The metal scene looks glamourous and I daresay that there are more and more bands that claim to be metal but they just don't have the juice. There are bands like Dragonforce, whose songs I find to be too technical-their songs don't really give me the adrenaline rush that I expect when I listen to metal. Too much solo. On the other hand, there are bands that over-play the bass strings with a simple riff and it doesn't feel very exciting when you know what they're playing is soo simple.

It'd take too long to explain, but these are my thoughts to sum it up. A good metal song usually has a nice riff and an adequate solo (or two). The riff need not be complicated but one thing for sure, it has to be cool. It has to sound nice. Take the Red Hot Chili Peppers for example, they're not the band with the most professional guitarists/drummer, but they sure made it big. On most guitar tab websites, you'll find the most popular artist searches to be stuff like Metallica or RHCP!

I'm done. Wow, this post is really long. If I were to bitch, I bet I'd be really good at it. haha

Posted By Imran at 9:47 PM

Die!! Die!! Die!! Whats with the die die die?? Haha..thats cos' we jammed at dunman today! We had fun at the jamming corner at the basement!! From 2-6 for fucking FREE!!! We're like graduates who are abusing the stuffs there but we kept the place clean. (= .Everything sounded great..the 2 guitars ,the bass,the amps,the mics are a little bit fucked up though,the speakers,..everything(Credits to dunman for really providing with good equipment although the jamming 'room' turned out to be a corner.Still,its a place to jam).Everything except for the drums.Sounded like shit(as usual) and no double pedals(I personally feel having a single pedal somehow hinders the ability and skill of dunman's future drummers to develop.Unless you can use the technique of making a single pedal sound like double).Starting to pity myself cos' wherever we go to jam,the drums suck big time.Oh god oh god,Neonixehertz needs a drum kit of it's own.

Started the session with Imran's cool idea for a song.Hell yea man..finally we're writing our own songs.It sounded quite emo but it was damn nice.Hafiz,Khai and me liked it very much.Added in the drums and the whole thing sounded pretty cool(actually cool and nice la..LOLs,wth).Was scared at first if the guys would say my idea for the song was too boring or shit but Imran said he liked it.Although Imran's idea was just an intro,we kept playing and discussed on how the song should go on and surprisingly,we managed to get the verse,bridge and chorus parts to be done as well.Honestly,I myself am shock to see our fast progression and we shall thank god for that.The 2 guitarists had trouble trying to make the song sound more metal-ish but they made it through and Hafiz came out with a cool bridge which i personally like it very much.Khai's contributions for the bass made it even sound nicer.We got stuck and ran out of ideas after that and so we decided to jam the usual songs.

Creeping Death and Master of Puppets.Fade To Black was left out cos' Hafiz and me didnt want to play it.Out of the blue,we played Four Horsemen and the part where there was a rhythm solo,I did something really really stupid.Tried to follow Lars Ulrich of running from one drum kit to another when it was that part during a concert in San Diego in 1992(watched it on youtube).
Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws1WqMOxpQs
The solo is short and so he had rush to the other drum kit.I really thought that was cool.AND SO..when we came to that part,this was what i did: Since there was only ONE drum kit there,I ran one whole big round on the small platform of the jamming corner.YES I KNOW,IT'S STUPID.The rest looked at me in confusion.I could see in their faces like as if they were saying "what the heck is han trying to do?!"When the solo ended and everything came into the music again,Hafiz laughed like mad and smiled at me while playing to show that he understood my point of running around the platform during that solo because he watched the video that I was refering to.Yeap..thats the truth and reality of it..Neonixehertz has a retarded drummer.

After all that stuff,we tried on another song that again,Imran came out with.It was a nice riff and i added the drums in and bla3..we only did the intro as there wasnt much time to spend.The basement was supposed to be closed at 5 pm but since the key was handed over to me and due to our thrash-playing,we ended jamming at 5.25 pm i think.Then we took our time to pack our stuff before taking pictures.When we got out of the basement,thats when we only realised it was 6.Imran and me were the last people to go out while Hafiz,Khai and Azip were out of school.After returning the key,guess what.Imran realised that he had left his mp3 in the basement. -.- ..so he took back the key and open up everything to get it back.After that,we got out and everyone headed home.

Oh yea..Imran said that Mdm Suhani asked him if he want to put a show in some sort of a gig in the basement next year when school re-opens.I thought it was him alone performing but he said its a band performance.Its like 'back-to-school' kind of thing and I guess if that's going to take place,we are really looking forward to it.Guess its somehow of a way to make the basement more popular and well-known?The basement would be an attraction to the lower sec especially sec 1 as they are new to the school but I hope that the bands mainly from sec 3 and 4 would seize the opportunity to use the jamming facility to do your stuffs.One thing for sure,if the gig is confirmed,WE ARE COMING.=D.

So today basically we had a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves,got 2 songs currently in progress and erm..Roy,I'm sorry but you cant come jamming with us anymore.You are just TOO irritating.Alright peeps,thats all..here's the pics.. (=

Posted By Zul at 1:40 AM

11.12.06

First post for the band's blog.. Agreed to Han's idea to have a band blog.. Hols here.. feeling bored.. Why not?.. haha.. trying out this new idea.. seems cool tho..Aite. so changed the skins and everything.. tagboard is up.. current band's logo is up too.. wad else.. hmm.. posts.. i gez so..So yea.. basically our Mr Han summarised what happened during our first performance on our graduation dae.. From my P.O.V tho.. we cocked up big time, as in the two guitarists.. haha.. not much movement, played some parrts wrongly.. but wth, we had fun.. a great experience.. Big thanks to khaii and seth, for helping us out with the bass for the rehearsals n actual performance.. appreciate everything.. Gd luck guys with ur band..
Aite..so gez dats all for now.. Rock on metal lovers n all.. \m/

Posted By Afiz at 10:53 PM

10.12.06

Hello? Hello? Testing..Hahaha. I don't know why I wanted to come out with a band blog. I just thought it was kinda cool. Well,anyway,its Han here. Basically just typing out crap and nonsense to try out this thing which is so new to me. Hafiz and Imran..please please please start writing some shit for our song. When are we going to have a song of our own..haiz. I need a rift for me to work on the drums..

21/11/2006. Our very first performance. Got the feeling of playing on stage. I guess we were fairly nervous at first but told each other to trust ourselves and not screw up. However,things went wrong at the LAST MINUTE. When it was our turn,afiz's guitar went out of tune,imran's guitar wont produce a sound due to the wires. So,it was just khai and me on stage with our instruments ready and we were like "oh no" when trouble arose. So much for our early preparation so that we won't look stupid tuning our stuff on stage when people are waiting anxiously. But overall,it went well i suppose..kinda surprised that we attracted a bigger crowd compared to the other bands when our slot for the graduation programme was the second last band. Feedbacks from others was that they said ours was the clearest amongst all and that we played well and nice. So i guess..that rocks. \m/. Here's a view from the crowd..

The amps for the guitars and bass were good and solid as it was brand new. The drums? Honestly,sucks thanks to the school band. It was a brand new kit bought earlier on this year. After a band performance during CNY celebrations, it was left unused and so the school band use it over time before "claiming" it that its their's. That's one thing, so much for calling themselves "musicians" and BANDITS. The kit was in total thrash when Wei Ming and me got to it! It was in a rather bad condition for a less-than-a-year drum kit and the sounds,very very very poor. For example,the low tom sounds higher than the high tom. -.- ..what the heck?! The school band does not even tune the toms after playing for such a long time and not to mention even maintaining the kit. So much for the sticker "Tune for Thrash" at the front of the bass drum,it says for itself i guess. Special thanks to Wei Ming for providing a drum key. We did some tuning before fucking the drums upside down.

The performance really gave us vital and meaningful experience as we now know what to do and expect for a show. I guess afiz would wanna headbang more often and imran,move around! Hahaha..Khai was cool! Headbang man..whoo..and me? Nothing to say..i'm off form when it comes to single pedal drums. Not acting like some pro, but i prefer double pedals or better double bass but did the best so as not to let the band down. Looking back at the whole thing,it gave us confidence to do better and perhaps perform more. Whatever it is,i believe that our relations are improved and that we are much more emotionally-attached now..LOLs! Right bros? ;)

Posted By Zul at 3:50 AM