dan just hooked me up with the entire less than jake back catalogue...he is good to me. less than jake are such a cool band - they've been around for years and stayed popular which is no mean feat...if you read blogs like they are the new harry potter then go check out vinnie from LTJ's journal at www.pickyourpoisons.com, he seems funny and genuine, more than can be said for most of us.

we are getting our shit together. meetings, emails and phone calls. always the businessman.

things are getting away from me a little, just gotta put in some late nights and early mornings to get it all back together.

i am looking for blogs to read....if you write one, email me a link at max@onedaylife.co.uk and i will discover your secrets and tell all my friends. our new site will let you leave comments on our posts...u better be nice.

why are you still reading this? go and listen to less than jake!!!

max x

too busy to write for the last few days, missed you though ;o)

finished tour pretty close to home with an awesome show - we were back with just enough time to grab some showers (a necessity) and head out to catch some bands (our friend Tom was playing so we hung out and screamed his name after every song like friends should do). I missed James' band, but i made promises to catch them next time (low on time, full of promises, that's me).

Yeah - we get back of tour and head straight to more shows...we are hardcore, you are not.

Also hooked up a show for this Friday in our home-town, there are like a million shows running with some cool bands (if we weren't playing we would definitely be hanging at one of the other shows). I don't know if there will be many people there (last minute show, lack of promotion, you know how it is)...but we'll hang out and watch our friends get drunk so it'll be worth it.

Just a quick note about all the cool people we met on tour. i have got all the emails, messages and calls...but i am still trying to get everything back up and running here so it might be a little while before i get back to you...but i will, i promise.

new songs are being worked on already. i hope they come together soon, i am sick of waiting.

things are picking up a kind of momentum, i heart it in a big way.

so i better go and try and get some of this stuff finished. if we were at your school, or in your town, we are trying to come back, we will let you know.

max x

Day off from tour, the date got postponed so we get a little downtime. I worked, I think maunder did too...dan is sending me emails so I guess he's sitting in front of his PC, and I was supposed to be out with kev earlier but I had to bail because of work (slept in late so have been behind all day but nothing new there) so i have no idea what he's doing.

Last night was fun...plenty of drama, just how i like it. fortunately for me, i don't think i have any pieces to pick up today, i made it out without so much as a scratch (metaphorical people, we don't do violence, we're too weak). others weren't so lucky but i won't find out details until i'm back in the van hearing half-forgotten stories.

tour is still awesome (despite unplanned days off) we are out the rest of this week and then we have to get down to work in a big way. boring but needs to be done.

you have all been so cool to us, i can't believe it...i will find time to post replies on the forum when we get home.

i need my head to tell me what our album is going to look like. i'm drawing a blank at the moment and it's not good...

i will probably post up again later, when i'm bored in the back of the van...i will tell you stories.

Max x

So right now i'm in the back of the van as we cruise down the M1...this is a first for me as I have done all the driving since we first got a van and couldn't afford to put anyone else on the insurance (for anyone who thinks we make money out of the band, you are way off).

My iPod is my best friend right now, I have the whole series of ricky gervais podcasts and some of my favourite new albums to keep me entertained while I tap away at the buttons on my new magic internet phone thingy.

Tour is cool, we have just found out that one of the dates for next week has been postponed which sucks but we are still gonna make it to all the altered dates at some point, we promise.

I am gonna get back to work (yeah, even on tour I am still trying to keep everything going), but i'll check in with you soon...

Max xx

Hey geeks,

Told u I was gonna hook up a way of getting online while we are on tour...hooked myself up with a cool little phone that does it for me..now I can ignore all my calls and check my emails in the same place..

I'm in my bunk in the van and sleep is finally catching up with me..the academy is album playing in my ears has about a minute left so it's time to call it a day...

Night night,

Max xx

Right now I am supposed to be in a van with my boys hitting the road, but we couldn't sort out the postponed dates quick enough (we tried our best) so i'm in front of my computer instead. we'll be doing the sleeping in vans thing from tomorrow so it's not the end of the world.

friday was ok - i got busted by the guys for being arrogant (guilty as charged, every time.) They have to shoot me down regularly, otherwise i think i run the world. i don't think it comes as a surprise to them, but they go through the motions with me to keep me in check. aside from getting in trouble the show was pretty insane, the actual times we were booked to play were pretty tame, but hundreds of you showed up in the morning and we blew through some older songs....i was scared some of you had hurt yourselves when you all hit the floor, but i kept my eyes wide open and checked everyone was ok before i kept rolling. safety first....yeah right. Everyone we met was very cool - you guys are cool to talk to...please don't be too bummed out when we can't give you free stuff, we are running this thing on good wishes and big dreams and they don't buy much.

went out friday night with the guys and got messed up. good fun, not too eventful - we were pretty exhausted after the show so it wasn't all bad behaviour and regrets. maunder was running sound at the venue so we got to roll in for free and check out the bands while he was working. indie music doesn't really do it for me so i hit the bar and struck out with girls (my style).

weekend asleep. i wrote a new song. i think it's gonna be good, but the words came out linked to boys in bands which is something i was trying to avoid, but when it's in your eyes and ears 24/7, that's what comes out.

sat in the van rolling across hundreds of miles of empty roads and talked to maunder about plans we both have. when i was in high school, it would never have occurred to me that this is the life i would be leading....the mistakes i am making are not big enough.

max.

After some serious listening, I have discovered the following:

The first Kanye West album is a lot better than his second. I think the second one is a little self-indulgent..I know that's his style but I have a limited attention span for it.

Turns out I can listen to some old-school punk without hating it.

I am a huge pop music fan. Multiple people in the last couple of weeks have laughed at me when i mentioned that i like the new Sugababes song (Red Dress), or when i tell them i like Girls Aloud and I have the Kelly Clarkson album (since u been gone is an awesome track...the album tails off after that, but whatever).

No matter how many time I listen to the new Hawthorne Heights album, it refuses to get any better.

I am looking forward to the new Streets album....the last two are sooo good. If you don't have them, the songs you need are 'Weak Become Heroes' and 'Blinded By The Lights'...but get the whole albums coz they are worth it.

Yellowcard lift their game for their singles but live in mediocrity the rest of the time.

Yes, the Foo Fighters are still the best band in the world. They have some competition, but when it comes down to it, they always win. I won't write an essay on my worship of Dave Grohl (i'll save that for another day)...but if you don't own a Foo Fighters album, go and get one now...start with There Is Nothing Left To Lose and go from there.

Max x

p.s. FUCK - that one was for maunder ;o)

taaadaaa....told u i was gonna post more often.

i am gonna work out a way of getting online when i'm out and about, i want one of those phones that goes on the internet or something. i have no money though so i may be pretty screwed.

so it turns out i made out with a super-hot blonde girl i met a few weeks ago on saturday night and due to my screwed up body (see previous post) i can't even remember it!!! that sucks so hard it's unbelievable. she doesn't return my messages either which is sooo freaking hot...if all girls realised that they are only really desirable when they completely ignore men, we'd be screwed.

i used to know (not BFF, just say hi in the street) this girl called Alexis (yeah, a true rich bitch name...not you laurie, you're still my lover) and she was nice enough to me (i kept my head down) but had this attitude that pretty much every guy could fuck off. she owned a room when she strolled in. i was first in line with my crush...naturally.
then, one day, she wanders in and starts telling stories about how this guy had left her high and dry and she was cut up about it. that was the end of my crush (i jump ship as quickly as i sign up).

i know for a fact that some of the girls i have been obsessed with over the years probably wouldn't have even held my interest if they'd been into me...yet another example of being my own worst enemy.

so i picked kev up this morning and we headed back to our old high school. would have been weird at one point, but schools are old news for us these days so we rolled in like we worked there or something. they are helping us out with some string parts for some songs...all this is in preparation for the album. that's working 8 months in advance!!!! you mofo's better get your fucking A-game together if you even wanna try and get to where we're gonna be in 5 years from now.

am still feeling a little off, can't work out why. been making big plans in lieu of doing any real work...fuck you if that's not good enough. when i get back on top i do more in one week than you dream of.

told you i was gonna start making a bigger deal. you better believe it. you better believe it.

max x

ok - i swear to god i am gonna try and post in this thing more often, i have been reading like a million journals over the last few days and it sucks when they have massive holes in the storylines.

I am also gonna try and take it off the subject of the day-to-day band stuff a little bit - basically we're touring and writing an album...that's the gist of every update for the next 8 months, so i may as well cover that now and just tell you about how we get from A to B.

the journals will be a bigger part of the new website so more people will read - all old posts will be there. may as well give them something to read on those shitty days when you can't be bothered to work and staring at computer screens is all you've managed to do.

thank u to everyone who talks to me on MSN - and to the girls that phoned me up while i was 'working' on lyrics the other day. you reminded me why the hell i was beating myself up trying to get the words onto the page in the first place.

have started myself up a caffeine addiction. i do not have an addictive personality - i'm a self-titled master in the art of letting go. I don't smoke, i don't drink that often (blackouts mean i have lost huge chunks of my life, i'll tell you stories about that later), i don't do drugs (have tried things in the past, but it's not really my thing). so i figured fucking myself up with caffeine was some pretty low-key self destruction. i don't sleep when i need to get shit done anyway, i may as well be buzzing while i'm awake.

chatted to my sister for the first time in ages a couple of nights ago. it was cool to check in with her - if you don't know, i have two sisters, they pretty much rule as people and as sisters - we've both got stuff going on at the moment so we just updated and i re-affirmed that i am one selfish fucker....my life revolves around getting this band off the ground (to a point where I don't have to save up for months in order for us to be able to even consider putting out new CD's etc), getting my design company off the ground (yeah, you didn't know i was a grown up did you?) and getting another top-secret thing off the ground too. In order to make all that happen, i forsake pretty much everything else and look after number one. check your history, most people that have made dreams come true had to work like that for a while so i'm sticking with it.

kev just called me - he calls me most days and we chat for a few minutes, it's cool...me and dan talk for pretty much a maximum of 30 seconds on the phone unless something major has happened (not saying that's bad, just how we roll - we don't small-talk much, we make big plans in every sentence)....in some ways the three of us may as well be the same person, in other ways we are completely different...odd but awesome.

he updates me on some of last nights antics (there weren't many so don't get your hopes up). remember when i said i don't drink that often? well basically i have pretty much no memory of nights when i get drunk. it's gotten worse as i've gotten older to the point where after a few drinks i can kiss my memory goodbye and have to piece the night together from tales told by people who were there or who heard stories. thanks to this little quirk of my physiological being, my teenage weekends are now pretty much composed of half-true memories that may or may not be what happened, but that certainly make for better punchlines.

me and k for katie (yeah, she's real, you'll know all about the name when we finish the new songs) were chatting about it.....people find it hard to believe - they think i use it as an excuse to get away with some fucked up stuff i've done or whatever. but it's true....u can believe what you want. it's a little scary - especially when you wake up somewhere unexpected and have no idea how the hell you got there (even if the explanation is tame and boring, the time spent trying to find out where you are can be weird.) i've gotten so used to it, it doesn't even freak me out anymore...we roll out, we get fucked up, we fuck something up. next day i try and work out what went on and try to pick up the pieces. we don't do it that often so we make the most of it when we get the chance.

right, i'm gonna go take a shower coz i smell bad after last night and then i'm gonna go shoot the breeze with kev and send text messages to girls i had pretty much forgotten existed for a while. without a doubt, words come easier when you're eye is off the prize.....

I think i might start making a bigger deal of myself. still thinking too small...damn my fucking small-town upbringing...it will be the mediocre death of me.

max xx