After all this time, the day of the Blue Man Group final callbacks arrived quite swiftly... I got up just before 6am this morning to get all my stuff ready and then off it was on the big journey to Amsterdam. I took the train there which was nice... I love just looking out the window and letting thoughts come and go as they please... ...there was some lovely scenery on the way there I have to say and the day was beautiful which made it all the more pleasant.... ...anyway, I got there a few hours early so I decided to walk down to the rehearsal studio where the auditions were being held and take in some of the sites and atmosphere... The only other time I was ever in Amsterdam was when I did a show with Psapp here at the Paradiso last year... Back then there was no time to do any site seeing so this was to be my first time really 'experiencing' Amsterdam... ...it's such a cool city... ...the way the roads in the center are laid out... ...has a very organic feel to it... ... ... ...but back to the audition lol! I was the first to arrive at the rehearsal studio which was no surprise as I was over an hour early... But it was cool as the atmosphere in there was nice - a real chilled out vibe... I got myself a Sprite and flicked through a magazine that was lying around... Closer to audition time I did my usual warm up exercises (as featured a few days ago on my videocast :oP) and then we were all asked inside the studio.... at first I thought it was just going to be drummers again (as in the first audition) but it turned out there were only two other drummers and the rest were string players... I felt like the audition itself went very well.... I know I gave it my best shot... made a few minor mistakes here and there but that was bound to happen considering the unique setup of their kits (that's my excuse anyway lol)... all in all though I was very happy with my performance... Jens, Todd and David, who were in charge of things, made sure it stayed fun at all times which surely helped... so now it is the BIG wait.... Apparently we will get a call between the 6th and 10th of October when the last of the final callback participants have been seen.... I am just glad my part of the auditioning process is over for now and look forward to hearing the results... ...so keep your fingers crossed!!!!
Todays edition of the beatkitchen podcast deals with the most basic drumming pattern: single strokes. These are the symbols introduced in this videocast that will be representing the right and left hand from now on. Here is the single stroke pattern... starting with the right hand (1) and also with the left hand (2). As mentioned in the videocast we will be playing the exercises along to a preprogrammed click track.... it is a basic metronomic pattern but with a little twist... normally there would be quarter notes playing throughout the exercise.... but I have found that even though this improves timing, it isn't necessarily the best method, as you can come to rely upon the quarter note click... and then when it isn't there, there is nothing left to 'guide' you.... so I have developed various click patterns to help overcome this reliance.... the particular click pattern we will be using for the time being is a four-bar pattern... for the first 3 bars there is a quarter note on every beat (as with a typical metronome pattern) and then in the fourth bar there is only one quarter note on beat 1 followed by 3 beats of silence.... trust me, it sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.... click here to download the 5 1/2 minute 60bpm click pattern.... beginners should play eighths.... intermediate players 16ths.... and advanced players 32nd notes.... it is important to make sure the volume of both hands is equal and the spacing between each hit is also equal... now get practicing!!!
Making yesterdays introductory video-cast was so much fun, I decided to get straight to work on the second one this afternoon... in this next step I decided to deal with warm up stretches... what you see above is a collection of warm up exercises I usually do before going on stage to do a show... but you can also do them before practicing if you like... these warm ups include the fingers, wrists, forearms, shoulders, back muscles and spine... please note that these warmup exercises work well for me but might not work well for you... if you have any doubts or experience any discomfort please consult your physician before carrying on... a few of these exercises were shown to me by a teacher I studied with about 13 years ago by the name of Paul Elliot who I would like to give a quick mention here... in the next video cast we will actually get down to playing some drums... well, pots and pans actually... enjoy!
Wow, I can't believe I have actually done it... I have created the first Beatkitchen Videocast! I am so excited... even though it is really rough and bad quality... I don't care... you gotta start somewhere right?!?! This is just a test-cast in order for me to get my 'feet wet'... Was pretty nerve wrecking because it all had to be done in one take... no post editing facilities (yet)... but I hope each show will be better than the last... so check it out............
Here we go... I have finally gotten around to uploading the pictures I took a few weeks ago in Dublin at The Electric Picnic... So much went wrong today... ...stuff that was out of peoples hands.... ...but also stuff that wasn't necessary... ...but there is no reason to go into any of that here anymore... so let's concentrate on the nice things that happened today... Gwen brought me soooooooooooo many new amazing sunglasses for on-stage (and possibly off!)... so cool! Then I bumped into an old friend of mine: Steve Hogan... we go way back to 1993 where we studied together in London... these days he is a very succesful drummer in Ireland... here he is with his wife after playing his show. Then I had a whole bunch of family come to our show... even though I was planning on staying here for an extra day to spend some time with them, I was pleased that I got to see them at all.... even if it was only for ten minutes after the show... some of them I hadn't seen in three years! The most bizarre coincidence of the day had to be when we reached Dublin airport in the evening and I bumped into my old school teacher, Herr Cordes! I was 11 years old when he started teaching me... and by chance we ran into each other at the airport car park... ... and this Belgian guy was on the same plane this morning and also on the same flight back with us in the evening... some weird bachelor party ritual only Belgian people will understand.... very fun guy all the same though...
This time next week I will be sitting on a train to Amsterdam for the final callbacks with Blue Man Group... I am really looking forward to this as the last audition itself was so much fun. And also having met them again at The Big Chill and seeing their production in London recently makes it all the more exciting.... so check back soon!
I have to say I am touched by all the good wishes and support I have received from both European and American Psapp fans about my having left the band - I really didn't expect it! It's nice to know that my contribution to the band was at least appreciated by the fans... some of you have asked about any possible future collaboration between Psapp and myself... as far as this is concerned I would like to give this short explanation... we had parted ways amicably and left the possibililty open for future work together... but I was recently paid a surprise visit at my home here in Germany by the band and without going into any details, certain members of the band left a bit of a bad 'aftertaste' just before they left... so I think it would be safe to say at present that any future collaboration is unlikely... a shame really... but that's life... and there are other exciting things around the corner, so it's all good... as far as Psapps future success without me is concerned, I assure you all that if they can make it happen, they will - as they have a strong vision of what they want to achieve and are apparently willing to do whatever it takes to get it... so I wouldn't worry about that... I for one wish them all the best, as I am still a huge fan of their music and think it should be heard... enough said... on to bigger and better things :O)
Now that I have parted ways with Psapp, I have had a whole bunch of updating to do over at beatkitchen... so I have been spending the past few days doing just that and a whole bunch of other maintenance issues that have been building up over the past few months... slowly but surely things are up-to-date and it feels pretty good to be able to move on now and start with a nice clean slate... over the past week there have been a couple of very interesting developments regarding future work opportunities... weird how fate works and how life has a way of taking care of itself - you gotta love it... as usual, watch this space...should get interesting :oP
Was getting a little bored with my beatkitchen myspace profile so I decided to spice things up a little and add some more photos incl. this slide show... check 'em out!
Friday, September 08, 2006
Eshan parts ways with Psapp
Hi everyone, Unfortunately I have bad news to post for once... I have decided to part ways with Psapp. This decision was based on certain business aspects that have been on-going for quite some time now... for months I have tried to address these issues with Carim, Galia and their manager but pretty much all of my attempts to start a dialogue were avoided... as far as the music side of things was concerned, I was very happy to be in this band and enjoyed the live shows, touring, hanging out and basically just the whole silliness of it all and this makes our parting of ways all the more sad for me... I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the fans I have had the pleasure of playing to for the past year and those who have followed this blog and commented on what we have been up to all this time... it has been a lot of fun :O) But I guess the time has come to move on.... and that I shall surely do... watch this space!
