Max - one:day:life

Ecstacy

2008-04-20T22:52:00.003+01:00

I would like to blame the fact that my computer has been broken for my lack of posting up here - but to be honest I have backup plans in the form of my laptop and a mobile phone that I'm pretty sure is more powerful than the computers they used to send a man to the moon in 1969, so I have no excuses for not being in touch.

It's Sunday night and the last seven days have literally just flown by. I am finding this more and more in my life, before I even know a week has begun it's already over and the months are flying by faster than I am able to comprehend. I am staggered by how little I manage to achieve in the time that passes. I'm not sure if it's my propensity for procrastination, (a little alliteration there, you like it?) or if I'm just spreading myself too thin...but it seems that I am able to do a lot of things to a certain degree rather than concentrating on one thing and dedicating myself to it.

Take the new recordings we are doing for example. Dan and I worked out tonight that despite recording the bass parts earlier this week, we won't be able to get in that room together until Thursday due to rehearsals on Monday, Dan working Tuesday and then leaving that night for a schools show on Wednesday. It's constantly frustrating and I hate having to do everything piecemeal all the time. It makes me feel like we are wasting time and that is something I have a hatred of, life is too short. Even if I am lazing about - I make sure I am doing something I enjoy and usually feel guilty about it anyway.

Instead of going to a festival this year (the first time I will miss Reading in 7 years) I am going to escape my normal life for a little while and disappear. I don't even know if it's a good idea, but I feel powerless in the face of the incredible fragility of life and it's sometimes unbearable monotony. We are all aware of how short our time is in the world, and yet so much of it is spent just getting by....crawling to the next high or low on our knees. I am desperate not to live like that. Desperate for the independence to do the things that make me shine rather than the unmemorable day-to-day greyness that seems to fill the lives of so many people I know.

I don't take drugs - not because I have any higher moral purpose than those that do, more because I have already found things in my life that make the lights brighter, the heart pound harder and the eyes widen. They are not all moments of great adrenaline, sometimes it's just boring shit that other people would wonder about, but in those moments I feel alive and wish they could come more often.

I hope to whatever god it is you believe in that you are finding those moments in your life. If you haven't worked out what they are, change something. Anything. Just keep changing until you find them and then work as hard as you can to make them happen - I have a suspicion that pretty much everything else will fade into grey as your life carries on, and it will only be those times that will comfort you that you have lived well.

So it's late and I have work to do, (don't worry, after writing all of that it's stuff I like doing so I won't be plunging myself into depression or anything) but I'll catch up with you soon when I am less reflective and have some stories to tell.

Max x

Living It Down

2008-04-04T14:42:00.002+01:00

So I rolled out of bed this morning and went straight down to the studio to start on vocals for a new song that we are recording. Dan and I spent last night re-writing the first verse which is frustrating as I'd already done a days worth of work writing and recording some extra parts for it...but the new parts sound better so it was worth it all in the end.

I have recorded a whole bunch of the lead vocals for the song, and I am just taking a break to catch up on my emails, day job etc. before heading back into the studio on my own to try and work out some cool harmonies.

This song already sounds better than the tracks we put on the album, and I want the vocals to be a lot "nicer" this time round so I'm gonna be putting the hours in to try and make that happen.

The full name of the song is "It's not doing it, it's living it down that's the problem" but as nobody will ever bother to write that out on a set list, it's just gonna be known as "Living It Down".

I didn't tell as much of a story in this song as I did in "I Am The Sun" (which is still available to everyone on the street-team), but I am trying to vary the lyrics so you'll have to just wait for more straight-up lyrical stories about my life. I do have some ideas though, so stick around.

Right, back to work...

Max x

Nothing To Report

2008-04-03T10:24:00.002+01:00

So did anybody else download the Kelly Clarkson demo's that have been knocking around the net? I hope the reason these ended up online is because they'd been rejected from the album...not a 'Since U Been Gone' beater among them, not even close.

Anyway, I don't have a whole bunch to report - cool show yesterday, in spite of some breaking equipment in the second set. I then got to talk about pop music for over an hour in order to earn the money for the new merch...little do they realise I bore my friends to death with that stuff at home for free, hahaha!!!!

Max x

Frank Turner Album Out Today

2008-03-31T11:39:00.001+01:00

I am a big Frank Turner fan and his new album, 'Love, Ire and Song' is out today. I am downloading it from iTunes right now - you can get it there or you can go to his website, www.frank-turner.com

If you haven't checked him out yet, go and do it now.

Max x

You're just another part of me.

2008-03-23T10:09:00.002Z

So despite spring officially being here, it is snowing hard outside my window right now. Regular readers, or anyone who has ever met me, will be well aware of my hatred of cold weather and thus my dismay at the current cold snap. I have been invited on more skiing/snowboarding holidays in my life than I can remember and I absolutely none of them have appealed to me - why the hell would I want to surround myself with snow??

Happy birthday to my very good friend Maunder - some of you might have met him on schools tour (although we tended to call him Andrew to make him seem more professional) - and he is without doubt one of the best people to wander this little world that we're all sharing. We all headed off, in traditional fashion, to town last night where we got too drunk and talked too loudly about things that I now can not even remember but seemed vitally important at the time. It being easter, a lot of our friends were back home from all around the country and it was great to see them - they are all doing a variety of different things which impress me. I remember many of these people being in high school and fighting about someone pushing into the lunch queue, the fact that they are now changing the world in their own way is nothing short of brilliant (none of them went on to be dinner-hall monitors so they seem to have forgotten the issue they had with inappropriate queue-jumping back in the day).

Things have been going so well recently, we are about to announce a really cool competition in conjunction with the guys over at Engineer Records who have been really great in helping us get it all set up. The prizes are killer so go sign up to our street-team right now!! They are also keen to work with us so we may put together an EP or something with them later in the year - we'll see what happens.

By the way, I read about a million blogs from a variety of people - I love seeing little glimpses into people's lives, I'll bet you do too - you're reading this aren't you?? Anyway, if you keep a blog let me know and I'll come by and check it out.

Max x

It's still all to play for...

2008-03-18T09:52:00.002Z

Hey, how's things? Just thought I'd just drop you a line to let you know I'm still alive and kicking and making my own little corner of the world turn as fast as I can.

Things with the band are good - writing and recording a lot at the moment which I love, the new songs are great pop songs, and the recordings are sounding IMMENSE, seriously. I can't wait for you to hear them. I think my favourite of the new songs is one that is temporarily called "Too Hard To Hold Us Down" (most of our songs get temporary title before the lyrics are written - they range from lyrics like that one, to things like 'bouncy middle-8 song' or 'staccato song'). I can't wait to record it, just so I can have a copy!!

Plans change. We had said that once the album was released, we would dedicate ourselves to playing live shows as much as possible...but with the current climate for live music being aimed at an older audience than us, we are struggling to find the right shows that will actually cover our costs and promote the show properly. This is not us being picky - we will play anywhere and everywhere. Rather than just giving up on that plan (we pretty much never give up on anything, we are just dumb rather than stubborn I think) we have handed it over to our manager and started working with the guys at www.lemonlyte.com who will hopefully be sorting out some live show for us - no idea how that will pan out, but you gotta try this stuff.

So with that in mind, we will be turning our attention to writing, recording and promotion...and that's it. So expect to see a lot more stuff from us coming out, more things to get involved with and us asking for more help from you guys than ever before. Most of it will be online, so you don't have to get out of your chair...but if you could click the right buttons when we ask you to, we will love you for it.

I don't really have much of an update outside of that stuff as I've been in the studio so much recently (spent the weekend with Kev recording drums and then all of yesterday with Dan doing guitar and bass parts). So instead of a real, actual life here are some things I've been listening to/watching over the past week or so...

Been listening to the new Girls Aloud a lot after finally picking up a copy. Did anyone see Cheryl Tweedy on 'The Passions Of...Girls Aloud'? she looked so good I almost cried :o) Always listening to the Russell Brand Podcast's which are hilarious - I've like him for a while and those shows are getting funnier all the time. I absolutely love the song "Livin' Th' Dream" by "You, Me and Everyone We Know" - I am pretty much addicted to that song. Still watching re-runs of Dexter (they are new in the UK, but I have already watched them online like the geek I am). Also picked up a few new Alphabeat songs which sound great, pure pop music.

That's about it - if you take nothing else from this post it should be that your life is not as boring as mine, but frankly I love my life so I count myself incredibly lucky to bore you about it ;o)

Catch you later,

Max x

I Am The Sun

2008-03-14T17:23:00.001Z

Hey, I finally found myself with a couple of minutes to write a more detailed update than just a photo of Dan. I'm afraid it ain't gonna be very exciting..I've still just been working in the studio learning new things and writing new songs.

Speaking of new songs, I posted up an acoustic version of a new song just for people on the street-team today. It's called 'I Am The Sun' and it's written overtly about specific things that have happened in my life - it feels like a litany of confessions to my parents I guess, but they rarely listen to our music so it's probably the safest place to put them, haha!! I tried not to get lost in metaphor and a catchy turn-of-phrase (although I am still in love with both those things so don't think i'm all straight-forward from now on)...you can sign up to the street-team at www.thelifers.co.uk if you want to get hold of it.

Max x

What I can see right now...

2008-03-07T17:00:00.002Z

I will post up a proper update soon (and even though Dan is sitting on his ass reading a book, I am working right now...just so you didn't think I was taking it easy.)

Max x

A New Jersey success story...

2008-02-26T11:30:00.004Z

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."
- EB White

I saw that quote this morning and liked it. It's funny how other people's sentences are sometimes do better at describing things you feel than anything you could come up with yourself. I regularly quote other people in conversation, from famous people to things I've overheard in conversation...most of these are probably only half-correct due to my bad memory, but like Cary Grant said "I improve on misquotation."

I've been locked away for a few days updating our online shop. I am now of the belief that it is one of the best online shop's that a band has ever had...I just gotta sort out all the product information and photography. There will be a sale starting soon to sell the last of our old merch.

I have just seen a sketch of the new design and it's awesome. We are lucky enough to have one of my favourite artists doing it for us - his name is Matt Taylor so go check him out at www.matttaylor.co.uk

After my last post with the Alphabeat video in it, I have become mildly obsessed with that song - I found an mp3 copy somewhere and it has been rising up my iTunes 'most-played' list by the hour...although it'll have to work hard to knock "Livin' Th' Dream" by You, Me And Everyone We Know off the top spot.

I have also been listening to loads of stuff I've never really listened to before, like Kimya Dawson (yeah, yeah, I liked Juno so I checked her out, I'm a music whore at the end of the day), The Postal Service (I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I am in love with 'The District Sleeps Alone Tonight' along with the rest of the world apparently), Death Cab For Cutie (a natural progression from the previous choice), The Hold Steady (once again, I am late to pick up on this, but I really like the new album and they have a brand new one out soon which I will definitely check out- 'Stuck Between Stations' is a great song).

I also picked up the new Jimmy Eat World album - not as great as some of their previous albums, but still better than most stuff around, they are an amazing band. I wish they'd bring the Jimmy Eat World/Paramore tour over to the UK.

I was awake at 2.10am last night and received two phone calls. Neither person seemed surprised that I was awake - this tells you something about the way that I live my life. I don't really have a routine, a well-defined sleep pattern or a real job. None of those things concern me.

Right, back to work - go check out some of those bands...it might make your day a little better, you never know...

Max x

Fascination

2008-02-22T20:01:00.001Z

I really, really like this song, it's just so goddamn happy!

For anyone who read this blog on Facebook or any other feed-reader, click here to see the video.

How can it be cheating when there aren't any rules?

2008-02-19T14:15:00.002Z

Ok, it feels like a lot has been going on recently, although that maybe just because we've been away for a few days and forgotten what life is actually like. I'll try and keep this brief so that I don't bore you too much (although you are taking time out of your life to read this, so I'm guessing you're not exactly snowed under right now huh?).

Our Kerrang review came out last week and was boringly predictable. The usual negative rant about pop-punk, then a vague mention of us at the end of the review. You can hear us chatting about it in the new podcast which will be up this week but it was no surprise. I would rather be slated for something other than simply being a pop-punk band...that's all we've ever wanted to be and it still remains a passion for me after all these years - if that's the worst thing going for us, I guess we're not doing too bad at all.

There were a bunch of less high-profile reviews that came out in the last few weeks, they will be going up on the site over the next few days. There is a wide range from 8/10 to 2/10, but mostly positive - there is a saying that it is better for a few people to love something than for everyone to simply like it, I guess with divisive reviews we got something right at least, hehe.

A lot of the reviews mention the "slick production", or "high-quality production" etc. I take these as massive compliments - everything they see and hear is done by the three of us, and I take a personal responsibility to make everything as professional as possible...because that's the kind of band I want us to be.

So with the album promo still going on, we went back into the studio this weekend to start working with some new techniques for recording drums. If the quality of recording on our old EP's was ok, and the quality on the album was good...the new recordings are going to sound f*cking awesome. We spent a little while working on it and by the end of the night, it was blowing me away what we are going to be able to do on the next set of songs.

On the same note, Kev thinks I may have a form of OCD when it comes to recording. Even though we were only messing around and not actually recording anything for release, I insisted on taking time to do everything as if we were making another album. He kept talking me out of it and telling me to get on with it. He may well be right, but with the drums now sounding so good, I intend to become obsessive about vocal production. I am virtually unable to listen to music now without straining to hear every harmony and technique being used. I want to have more heavily compressed and set-back backing vocals, much more layering of lead vocals and I want to have a longer break between recording the vocals and mixing them - you don't care about any of these things but I am typing as I think so just go along with it. Basically I want to make our voices sound better, poppier and fuller. Just nod and agree.

There are some cool things in the pipeline, and if they come off it will be awesome. I hate it when bands say stuff like that, but it really is the case that most things that happen to a band are only confirmed at the last minute, and some of them never happen at all - so it's better just not to tell anyone in case it never happens. If you know us personally, just ask and we'll spill our guts without thinking twice.

We played a bunch of shows recently but if you want the lowdown on them you'll have to read the tour journal on the lifers. I will post in there later today.

So - other than band stuff what's been going on? Well, I've been feeling a lot better about life in general really. When I was about 15, I was yet to become consumed by music and wanted to be an author, or a writer of some sort (this urge has not left me, but I have zero time for it at the moment - it'll happen one day though), I had mentioned this to my sister who in her usual sarcastic way said, "shouldn't you write something then?" I believe I had been out drinking the night before, a common occurrence during my teen years due to suburban boredom, and replied "They say you should write what you know, from life experience - but how can I do that without going out and living life?" She looked at me and seemed to be devoid of a witty comeback - my family's relationships are based on witty comebacks so this was rare. "Hmmm, good point". I took this to be a positive response at the time, mainly because it seemed to sanction my teenage irresponsibility with alcohol and occasionally deviant behaviour - but it's also something I try and remind myself of when I can. I throw myself into work to avoid feeling shitty about things, but sometimes feeling shitty is the correct response to a situation and it is what you need to do to get through to the other side. Life can also become boring without the highs and lows...and as much as they suck, I try and relish them and see them for what they are, which is another experience to make you wiser, smarter and better equipped to deal with life.

I know I am doing ok. I hope you are too.

Max x

A distinct lack of vanilla iced latte's...

2008-02-09T15:33:00.000Z

Despite paying my phone bill and extortionate broadband prices at home, I find myself using my laptop and my mobile broadband more and more. Emails and websites are less of a grind when the scenery around you is changing and you can watch the world go by. The view from my office window is into my neighbours garden. I am not even sure that these people exist as I have never seen them in their little patch of suburbian paradise (or grass as it's also known). Right now, I am in my home town using the public library as it's warm, quiet and for some unknown reason the coffee shop a few doors down from here doesn't get any reception...life's a bitch sometimes right?

This is the view in front of me right now:

The guy in the beautifully crafted stained-glass window is Francis Bacon and the thought has hit me that if the people at 3 mobile were as meticulous as him in their pursuit of scientific breakthrough, I would probably be in the coffee shop with a vanilla iced latte and great reception right now rather than here. I don't know if that's irony or just my mind lumbering after a long week...whatever.

So we've played three shows this week with one more to go, a couple of days off and then three shows next week. All the shows have been cool this week, a couple of highs and lows I guess...I made a lot of mistakes on Monday but I don't think too many people noticed or cared, they were all jumping around too much :o)

I have loved being back playing shows again - it's kinda lifted me out of the funk I was in, although being home kinda kits a little hard sometimes. I would gladly be gone for longer - life away is just finding enough plug sockets to keep our equipment running and chatting about bands. Life at home is real and bad things can happen which have to be thought about, dealt with and then thought about some more.

One of these real life problems saw my mum and dad get on a flight to the other side of the world this morning. You know a crisis has arisen when it involves travelling to another continent. I don't want to go into it on here, because it's not me that's directly affected right now, but it's still on my mind.

So we made it through to the final of that Battle Of The Bands. The final is tomorrow night (Sunday 10th Feb) but I hold no hope of winning and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. If you want to come, details of the show are up on our tour page.

Ok, back to work I guess. I'll try and find somewhere even more picturesque to write from next time...but don't hold your breath.

Max x

Street Date

2008-01-31T10:37:00.000Z

For anyone who read yesterday's post, here's a quick update on what I was going on about. The street date for the Kerrang review will be Wednesday 13th Feb, so go check it out if you wanna read it.

We won the Battle Of The Bands thing last night - which is cool although I am always torn between thinking that judging different genres of music against each other is unfair, and my massively competitive ego which demands that I win. We were pretty laid back about the whole thing and just went about it like it was a normal show - we were the only band to turn up with any merch for sale (although nobody bought anything - why do kids in other bands never buy merch?...too poor i guess). Anyway - we'll be back there again playing another show for those guys at some point, I just don't know the date yet.

More stuff for you to watch/listen to - Hit The Lights have posted up a new demo on their MySpace. Their singer left last year and the guitarist is now singing for them and doing a pretty good job - check it out at www.myspace.com/hitthelights. On the way home last night I watched the movie Gone Baby Gone on my ipod, and it turned out to be pretty great...it was due out here over Christmas, but got postponed due to Madeleine McCann's disappearance (the central theme of the film is about a little girl being kidnapped). Go check out more info about it on imdb here.

Got some bad news this morning about someone in my extended family, which sucks. I am very close with my immediate family - I have two sisters, both of whom have two kids and I see them all at least once a fortnight or so (and usually more often than that), but I am very guilty of not seeing my extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc.) enough. Some of my family got in touch via Facebook recently so I am going to make the effort and go see them soon, whether they like it or not. I guess if I can drive across the country with a load of equipment to see a room full of strangers I can get in the car and visit family. I shouldn't need bad news to remind me, but I get caught up in myself a lot, so something's gotta kick me in the ass every now and then.

Hope you're all ok,

Max x

Life Is Loud

2008-01-30T14:22:00.000Z

So we just got confirmation today from our PR company that our album will be getting reviewed in Kerrang magazine on Feb 16th. It's probably just one of those quick little two-line reviews, and judging by the history they have of not being into my favourite pop-punk bands I don't have massively high hopes of seeing a long line of K's after our name (or any) - but just the fact that we are in there shows we've made something worth taking an interest in. It's weird to think that people will read the name of my band like I have to others done every week since I was a kid.

I remember sitting in a park in the middle of summer with Dan before we were even in a proper band and him passing me a Kerrang article about Sum 41 which said something like "another pop-punk band...do we need any more?" and we both said "yup, can't have too much of that" as we both toddled off home to get the album. I also have posters on my walls (yeah, yeah I know - what is this 1993?) from Kerrang - Dave Grohl and Hayley Williams are my current decoration.

In unrelated music news, I have been listening to some new stuff that people have posted on their MySpace pages. First up, Frank Turner has posted up a song called 'Photosynthesis' at www.myspace.com/frankturner - I already know that I will love his new album which is called 'Love, Ire and Song' and comes out March 31st. He has tour dates up on his website at www.frank-turner.com so go take a listen and check him out live. The other song I have been listening to a lot is 'Nine In The Afternoon', the new song from Panic At The Disco, check it out at www.myspace.com/panicatthedisco

I am off to London on Friday to see Paramore and New Found Glory - I'm really looking forward to the show, it's been a little while since we've been down to London and we're staying with some friends which is always good fun. Maybe this time Hayley Williams will finally stop being so short-sighted and realise that we were meant to be together and we can all stop worrying about it - we are like the Ross and Rachel of the pop-punk/emo world.

I will update a little more about me when I get a chance (ego much?), but I have to head out in a little while as we are playing at some Battle Of The Bands show later - read the archives for my opinions on these competitions (they are not favourable), and we only get to play 3 songs!?! It'll take us longer to set up than it will to play, what is that about?

Anyway, I will find out the street-date of the Kerrang review and let you know,

Catch you later, Max x

Most people are other people.

2008-01-28T12:05:00.001Z

First off, thank you to the couple of people who read my last post and got in touch to check I was ok - it is always appreciated to know that there are friends out there who will look out for you, even if you don't have real problems, just the usual self-inflicted nihilistic shit that we all go through once in a while. I was chatting with friends recently about the people that you let into your life and how they can make you feel. I try and cut negative people out of my life as much as I can - anyone who is mean, spiteful and even people who have a constantly negative outlook on life no matter what their situation. It's almost a self-preservation technique, surround yourself with people who believe in themselves and that will rub off on you. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about abandoning people if they start to feel down, I am always around for my friends - but some people are insistent on fucking their lives up and they want to take as many people with them as possible, don't let them get you, please.

I have posted about this before, but it's always worth repeating - I am proud of each and every one of my friends, they are all good, honest people who have my love and respect. Most of them are better people than me without a doubt, and that makes me want to be a better person. I know we all fuck up every once in a while and we all talk shit and say the wrong things, but at the end of the day I have friends that I met a lifetime ago and we're all still together after all these years when we could have walked away a million times - there's a reason we still talk/laugh/call/txt/hang-out/make fun of each other.

So back to me - I am desperate to start writing lyrics again but in all honesty it's making me a little nervous. I found the album incredibly hard to finish and I haven't written one word since then. I want new songs to tell better stories and try and be a bit less generic, but I also want them to be accessible and clever. Words are a blessing and a curse. I am thankful that I can articulate my feelings like the whiny emo-bitch I am, but sometimes the words just don't seem enough, usually in late-night conversations in parked cars - a set that will feature prominently in the movie of my life.

I read an Oscar Wilde quote recently that said "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." I sometimes think this is me - like I'm a sponge soaking up the world around me that I just spit back out in a different accent. I just hope there is enough of the real me left in anything I do to make it worthwhile. I hope that I am one day able to create something that is uniquely me. I hope that I am able to work out where the debris of the things I have seen and heard stop and the real me starts. How ironic that it takes a quote to inspire that line of thought - must try harder I guess.

Right, back to real life again, see you all soon.

Max x

Note from the road.

2008-01-26T00:42:00.001Z

Hey, so it's been a while since we spoke huh? Well it wasn't something you said, I have just been the usual mix of busy, ill, writing, rehearsing and trying to live my life as best I can. I'm writing this from the back of the van as our manager drives us through central leeds after a pretty cool show. It's the first time he's ever driven the van and kev, who has had a couple of pints and is therefore quite drunk, is nervously watching him to check he meets his stringent driving standards, it's very sweet to hear them in the front, like a teenage driving lesson.

I have been neglecting some of you online recently, I apologise for this but i've been trying to spend less time in front of my computer at the moment. It's kinda working, although it does remind that the real world is quite scary and it's why I retreat into work a lot of the time.

The soundtrack for this trip up north has been Fork & Knife by Brand New - who constantly make me feel a mixture of intense joy at how good they are and a burning melancholy at their desolate lyrics, and Robots In Disguise - a CD that someone gave me this week and has been running on my iPod pretty regularly. I am unsure how people function without an iPod, it provides me with so much happiness listening to my favourite songs and watching my favourite movies that it is used more than my brain as a method of entertainment and gaining information.

So in this little check-in, i'll provide you with a little update about what I have going on in my life. At the moment I am sorting out some stuff to go out to labels, waiting to hear back from our new PR agency about what it is exactly they've been doing, watching a lot of films at the cinema, spending too much money, having some great nights out (last friday night was really fun), played some cool shows (leeds, cambridge), played an empty show (norwich), written some new songs, written no new lyrics despite having quite a lot of ideas due to my current personal life - I will try and translate what I am up to into three minute pop songs as well as I can, being more nervous than I can remember being for a long time and cursing the inevitable side-effects of this.....in other words it's just the same shit, different day.

I hope you are doing better than me, I don't think it'd take too much right now. I seem to be veering between the highs and lows a little too easily at the moment which is brilliant and horrible at the same time. I told you real life scares me, the cocky bravado I cover my every move with is sometimes incredibly fragile and threatens to shatter and leave me exposed, and sometimes it's all I have to rely on and all I need to get me through.

No real news to report, so it's back to the rumble of the van and the ongoing threat of kev, who has now got into his bunk, falling on top of me during a sharp right turn. Is there no end to the fun?

Max xx

A little jealous of the life I'm supposedly leading...

2008-01-08T22:18:00.000Z

Hey - so after a prolonged christmas break I'm back at my computer typing things for you to read. I come devoid of any major news update - the festive period was fun, I saw a lot of old friends and spent time with my family which was all good. I got hold of a new iPod, which now holds my entire music collection...that might not sound like much, but it's one of the best things that' s happened to me in a while.

I am throwing myself back into work and the band at the same time, and doing fairly well. I am not really one for new years resolutions, because if something needs to be fixed, I don't see why you have to wait for a fixed point on a calendar to start, but I think I'm going to take this year a little more as it comes...I don't doubt myself very often and all I really want right now is to be pushed harder, on everything.

I will get a little more up-to-date with all the emails and myspace messages that I'm supposed to have answered and I'll post back with a more coherent message.

I hope christmas was good for you, and that this is the best year you've ever had.

Max x

Sorry dudes, my bad....

2007-12-10T10:22:00.000Z

It's been a little while since I checked in, but I have been busy with new stuff for the band so it's not a bad thing.

Let's get to business. Three people have already asked me how the Say Anything show I went to last night was, so I though I'd post up a vaguely more detailed post than just saying "yeah, it was great..."

The downside of seeing Say Anything, was that they were just the support band for Hellogoodbye. This means they had a short set, only 30 minutes, which was just not long enough! The set list was something like:

Belt
Woe
Skinny Mean Man
Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
Every Man Has A Molly
The Church Channel
People Like You Are Why People Like Me Exist
Alive With The Glory Of Love

Fortunately, I love all these songs so I was pretty happy, but I could quite easily have watched them rock out for another hour. They played really tight, and the sound guy really seemed to get a hold on things during 'Every Man Has A Molly' and they really seemed to step it up. My namesake, Max (Bemis - their singer), rocked out constantly and he promised they'd be back next year with a headline tour in the UK. So all good news really.

I have no idea if people who didn't know their records would have enjoyed them, it always takes me a little while to fall in love with new Say Anything songs, so if you're gonna go see them, buy the records, listen hard and do your homework.

We hung around to watch Hellogoodbye, but they sucked pretty hard so we bailed after four or five songs. The singer uses the vocoder effect live and it makes his vocals virtually indecipherable, they weren't helped by the awful backing track they were playing to, or their annoying synth sound. Not for me I'm afraid.

We did the sensible thing and headed to the bar, then home via Maccy D's. Good night all round.

In other news, the new podcast is up at www.onedaylife.co.uk/podcast - so go listen to it if you want to hear us chatting to each other about shows, other bands, whatever.

I'm not being coy, I just don't really have any personal stuff to update you on - life is good and nothing new to report in it. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but that's how it is.

Go listen to Say Anything, I'll meet you behind the bike-sheds afterwards and we can talk about it and make out.

Max x

Brixton baby...

2007-11-23T11:25:00.000Z

Hi, it's been a little while since I posted but I have been busy recently so i don't feel too bad about it. Have had to disappear back into my day-job a little more this week (this band thing doesn't pay too well at our level you know) so I am behind with all the band stuff which gets me down.

Other than work I had a good time this week. Dan's date couldn't make it to the Biffy Clyro show at Brixton Academy on Wednesday night, so he took me along instead. I'm sure I wasn't as much fun (we've been friends for so long that we ran out of small-talk and chit-chat around 1998) but I did appreciate the brilliance of Biffy and we are both so sad that we had a long chat about the logistics involved in touring with their frankly awesome lighting rig on the way home.

They had a four-piece string quartet playing live on some of the songs, along with a second guitarist - the sound was fantastic, and they played as tight as ever. Awesome.

Last night we had a show of our own at The Queen Charlotte in Norwich. We seem to end up on the same bill as metal bands on a fairly regular basis, I have no idea why..maybe they take the nihilistic view of our name and think that we are dark and depressed. Just so you know, the name will never be meant like that.

Anyway, we played first and thanks to a good sound guy we had a really good show. I find my enjoyment of a show is directly linked to how good our sound is on stage (and, or course, the size/mood of the crowd). I've talked about this before in my blog so I won't bore you too much, but what you guys hear out the front bears no relation to what the three of us (or any other band) hear. The main speakers are pointed away from us, so we basically can't hear them and we have really loud amps to contend with. A good sound guy is the key to all of this - it's his/her job to make sure that we can hear everything and that the crowd get a good mix of what we're playing. The guy from last night was nice to us, and the sound rocked so I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

If you wanna know more about the show, I will post up in the Lifers Tour Journal on our street-team, but only street-team members get to read that stuff so sign up at www.thelifers.co.uk

So what now? Well we have a photo-shoot coming up next week, and the result will be up on the website soon, so keep an eye out for them. There will also be some new stuff up on the site. I'll report back when it's up.

So until then, stay classy internet...

Other stuff to report...

2007-10-23T10:40:00.000+01:00

Ok, just a quick post today with some stuff that's going on elsewhere in the world of music and entertainment...

The Coheed & Cambria album is out this week, and I spent most of the last 7 days streaming it from their MySpace and it is brilliant, a great progression from the last three albums. Find out more info about it at www.coheedandcambria.com

I got hold of the new Robyn album and was surprised at how good it was - I heard the singles and thought it would be a little throw-away but it has some teeth and she has a cool voice. It could do with being a little more rock and a little less electro - but I'd say that about pretty much anything. Check out www.robyn.com for more info about her and the album etc.

A new tour announced today that three of my favourite bands are touring together - Paramore, New Found Glory and All Time Low. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is like a wet dream of a show for me. If anyone knows when tickets are going on sale, let me know. Dates are available here.

I am bummed because yet another of my favourite bands have released a new song today, but I can't find it on UK iTunes yet to buy. I will probably have to wait until tomorrow until the people at Apple get their ass in gear!! The band is Brand New and the song is called 'Fork and Knife'.

The new series of Dexter is being shown on US TV and I've have been streaming the episodes from SideReel - are sites like that having a negative effect on viewing figures, I never watch anything anyway, I just Sky+ it, does that matter?? Who cares. Anyway....Dexter is awesome, watch them all.

That's all from me, I am behind with everything so a few minutes is all I can spare, I'll be back though....by the way, I know I said I'd have photos from our trip to Norwich the other day, but the camera on my phone sucks and it deleted them, sorry.

Max.

A Sense Of Community

2007-10-18T12:24:00.000+01:00

If you've noticed that my last few blog posts have more been a random outpouring of opinion than an update on my life, or the band - that's pretty much because everything is just ticking over at the moment. We are booking shows, writing and rehearsing and have a few things in the pipeline that will all be cool when they happen.

If you like my band at all and you have a little time to spare then please consider signing up to our street-team at www.thelifers.co.uk - the reason I ask is that it's what I'm gonna write about in this post.

Ok, not specifically about The Lifers (although good chance for a plug though right?) and more about the community that I want it to become. I am personally a member of a couple of street-teams and they are rubbish. They consist of the odd email every now and then, usually when the band head out on tour in the US - useless for me here in the UK. What I really want from a street-team, or any community that I become part of, is to be involved and inspired as often as possible. I want to get to know the other people and let them know me. I want to be engaged and given a sense that I am a valued member of the group. That is what I want our street-team and fanbase to become in the future - a community.

If I'm not wearing a plain t-shirt, then the odds are pretty high that it has a band's name and logo across the chest. I like displaying the bands that I love to people around me - it's like a uniform, it tells people something about me without a word being spoken. I am far more likely be proud of wearing a band that engages with their fans on a regular basis, that is answerable to them (to an extent) and is always looking for ways to communicate with them beyond shows and tours.

I think that some bands forget this and are worse-off for it. We have met people who started off fans and are now just friends of ours. This is a only ever a good thing. When you are fan of a band, you believe in them and you don't want them to let you down - it's a responsibility on the band members to have the honesty and integrity to do their best not to let those fans down. I think the idea of "selling out" is an odd concept and pretty out-dated in the ever-changing music industry (if it was ever relevant in the first place) - I don't care of the band do and advert for a product, as long as they can justify why they did it and communicate that to their fans, if the fans demand to know.

Let's try an example - product placement in the recent Fall Out Boy videos. I noticed it was pretty heavy advertising in a couple of the videos (a phone company and a brand of deodorant) but when I checked their website, one of the band members explained that their label wouldn't give them the money to make the video they wanted to make and advertising was the only way they could fund it. You can argue the creative validity of being forced to put something into your video just to pay for it, but as long as I understood why they made the choice and was able to hear it from the band themselves, I felt more included and glad that they had acknowledged it when someone asked.

What I'm trying to say is that, as a fan, I understand the responsibility that comes with putting yourself out there and what is owed to the people who respond in a positive way to what you do - I have no idea whether in my life I'll be able to live up to the standards I have set for those bands that I love, but I promise to try my best and that's all I can do right now. If you see me failing, then call me on it - don't let me off easy.

Catch you all later,

Max.

Keep It Simple

2007-10-16T12:22:00.000+01:00

This morning I went through and caught up with all of the bands that had sent through their MySpace pages for me to look at in my capacity as a record-label hopeful. I really want to find bands that I love and promote their music, I am passionate about good pop music and I want to make that a massive part of my career as I get older.

It is upsetting to see how many people don't seem to grasp the basics though. Why make a band's MySpace page barely readable with some crappy layout? Why hide the bio information? Why is the gig listing empty without a little blog entry or note explaining what you're up to instead of playing live?

It's not rocket science. If anyone, whether they are a stranger that you handed a flyer to, or someone from a label - whoever they are - they wanna hear the music and find out about you as easily as possible. That's it. Only when they've done that, will they even consider taking part in the more interactive stuff you have to offer.

I am in the process of updating our website all the time to try and do those two things. Provide people with all the information they need within a click or two - and then, if they choose to, give them a whole website full of things to play around with and get involved in.

If you do play in a band and read this blog, please make sure you have your shit together before sending your details out to anyone. It only takes a few hours to get it all sorted, and it'll pay off in the end.

Rant over.

Max.

Putting the 'pop' in pop-punk.

2007-10-12T00:34:00.000+01:00

Worked on a new song tonight. We tend to have few unfinished songs kicking around at any one time, when we get a chance in rehearsal, we run through them...see what we like and what we don't and then try and fit all the parts we like together into a new song.

Despite spending loads of money of recording equipment which is in the room, we still record everything on my mobile phone (it's so loud in the room that I have to put it on the ground outside). It sounds like shit, but it does the job.

I hope the new one sticks around coz I think we got it right by the end.

Dan and I are off to Norwich tomorrow to see Maunder who is studying there, I'll try and take some photos of our little day-trip to keep us all entertained.

Catch you later,

Max x

"Waiting to be famous and wondering why they do this"

2007-10-04T11:59:00.000+01:00

So i'm pretty busy at the moment, but only with good stuff so I don't mind one little bit. I just got back from the gym where I'm pretty sure my twice-weekly jaunts are having little to no effect on my overall fitness or physique. This is probably due to my awful diet and unwillingness to stop eating pizza and chips...I guess you win some and you lose some.

So last post I made, I put up a Frank Turner video for a song which looks at the motivations and integrity of people in the music industry. As someone who is stumbling over the starting blocks of a career, this is always something that crosses my mind. In a time when the music industry itself is in a state of massive flux and sustained success has become harder to achieve than ever before - what motivates people to attempt to build a life from music they have made? Is it the quest for fame, the chance of massive wealth, the chance to impress massive numbers of the opposite sex? You gotta ask yourself why you're doing it at some point.

So what do I answer when i do ask myself? I suppose the stock answer is "I'm doing it for the music..man", which is of course, only ever partly true. My passion for music is absolute and I love the songs that me and two other smelly boys make in our little garage, but when you're dragging a ton of equipment through the snow at 2.30am as we load out of the van, the music is the furthest thing from my mind.

The reason I do this is because I'm yet to find a part of it that I don't like - from the business side of things, the hundreds of emails, spreadsheets, website admin, money (or lack thereof), and organisation stuff..right through to the live shows, the adrenaline, the long drives, writing new songs and the hours spent just hanging out. Don't get me wrong there are parts I'd rather not have to bother with (see the bit above about loading gear in the snow), but even they are nothing compared to the alternative which is a life left wondering if I could have filled my days with a more passion-filled career.

I do this because the few highs make up for the, day-to-day plateau of waiting for the next good show to come along - because there is always something new to learn and it's something that I actually care about, beyond my almost total indifference to the rest of life.

Even though I ask myself why I do it, I am proud and happy to say that my answer has never come up short, and I have never doubted whether I make music for the "right" reasons - and as long as you can answer to yourself, nothing else matters.

Back to work,

Max.

I knew Frank Turner before he got famous.

2007-09-26T15:24:00.000+01:00

I love this song and can't wait to hear the full version once it's recorded. For now I am just hoping someone records another live version and posts it up.

For all of you who read this via readers and Facebook and don't see the video, the URL is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HIf5hcJ1PS4