My Vitriol Studio WEBLOG

we've MOVED

2005-05-14T21:34:00.000+01:00

you can read more recent BLOGS, listen to NEW TRACKS, CHAT to the BAND and other FANS at:
http://www.myspace.com/myvitriol

New MV track on Myspace

2005-04-18T19:51:00.000+01:00

While Som is away writing lyrics on a Norwegian farm, we decided we'd air a demo from the new album on Myspace.com
http://www.myspace.com/myvitriol

love MV xx

Audio Clip Archive

2005-04-01T16:29:00.000+01:00

War of the Worlds
It's So Damn Easy
We've Lost Our Way
Into Yr Arms
Penny-Royal Tea Cover

pastlives, regression, jainism and more tsunamis

2005-03-29T17:06:00.000+01:00

Hey.
I have just returned from my trip to SE Asia. Hence it being so quiet on this blog for so long. Remote India and Nepal haven't taken that much to the internet as yet ;>
I was over there visiting various Jainist and Buddhist sites and learning a lot about Eastern Philosphy. I find Jainism very fascinating as it appears to be very similar to, quite probably an influence, or possibly even the root of, Buddhism. It has nowhere near the same level of world recognition. Buddhism seems to be the bridge between Jainism and existential realism (materialism of the non-bling sort). A moderated Jainism, if you like. They both believe strongly in social equality and non-violence and reject the old man in the sky in favour of rebirth and karma as comeuppence and explanations for some of the the differences between us. Buddhism does not however have an unchanging 'soul', and is far less strict, it seems, via the Middle Path. (The Jains are strict vegetarians and traditionally sweep infront of their feet as they walk, in order to not harm bugs)
Mahavira and Buddha had very similar lives and lived quite close to each other, it appears, so no doubt there was a trade of ideas. Both philosophies have been built into 'religions' over the years (along with the obligatory myths and, in some cases, rituals which sometimes contradict the original teachings) but Jainism came first according to accepted chronolgy. It seems the ancient world was going through an intellectual awakening around that period (600 BC) as, in China there was Confucious, and in Greece there was Thales, the first recorded Western philospher.
I visted the building where the Buddha had lived for 25 years, and got to sleep in the remains of his room under an almost full moon.

While I was in Sri Lanka I went to see a Cambridge grad Nuclear Scientist named Dr Granville Dharmawardena (google him). I had stumbled upon some of his writings after doing some research of my own into consciousness. (When I get bored I get really really nerdy. Hey- you can't rock all of the time). He gave me some important information. I had learned previously that the brain works faster than the speed of light, and he informed me that the universe itself is 'non-local' as demonstrated by 'entanglement'. i.e. the whole universe is linked no matter where you are in it. Kinda like the world doesn't have edges cos it's a sphere, not flat. The universe bends via dimensions we can't comprehend to be linked everywhere despite great distances in the apparent 3 spacial dimensions we can witness. He believes that the spiritual part of humans comes from this realm above the speed of light. Some people have gone so far as to suggest that science has found god due to this discovery. See http://www.ksharpe.com/Word/CO11.htm

I was planning on getting myself regressed into my 'previous lives' but I ran out of time. I have always been very skeptical as everyone always seems to have past lives from Earth, almost always human and more often than not, Cleopatra.

While I was in SL I gave the contributions made on selling the merch to a hosital on the coast. Thanks for that guys. Actually while I was near the coast, on Monday the 28th at about midnight we heard that another quake had hit indonesia, and belief was widespread that another tsunami would hit. The wave never came but I didn't hang around long enough to check.

So not your usual holiday by any means, but I come back with fresh ears and an open mind ready to finsh what we started. Keep you posted

love S
xx

under the wheels (live London 27/01/05)

2005-02-10T20:06:00.000Z

a 112kbps rough mix of the track..

Clip from Islington Show

2005-02-07T21:33:00.000Z

Here's a rough mix of the first song of the encore.
Quality is only 112kbps.

Islington recording

2005-02-05T16:56:00.000Z

hey guys
we've been listening back to the recording of the show. despite the hilarious technical gaffs we are working on getting a cd mixed of the show, which sounds great. we'll keep you posted.

MV Set List

2005-02-02T23:47:00.000Z

27/1/05
Islington Academy
London, UK

War Of The Worlds
Moodswings
Sometimes
Grounded
Infantile
It's So Damn Easy
Gentle Art Of Chocking
Into Your Arms
Cemented Shoes
Ode To The Red Queen
Under The Wheels
We've Lost Our Way
Losing Touch

Deadlines
If Only
Always: Your Way
Tongue Tied

Taken by Gen Williams http://www.twistedlittledreams.com/hypersynesthesia/

downtime

2005-01-14T01:18:00.000Z

hey just a quick post to update you on the studio progress
there hasn't been much action in the CrackHouse due to xmas and preparation for the show. however, all 11 tracks we started in there are instrumentally done and Som only has to some vocals now for completion. we are going to have a good listen to the record after the 'gig break' and return in Feb to fill in the blanks.
so anwways, the good news is it looks like this gig is going ahead. we're excited. it'll be great to see y'all after all this f***ing time!!
love
mv

p.s. we are working on the t-shirts and posters you have requested! fingers crossed they'll be on sale at the show.

War of the Worlds (Live/Demo)

2005-01-06T01:10:00.000Z

Click link above for larger file. You will need Flash installed in your browser to view this file

What a f***ing awful birthday

2004-12-27T20:18:00.000Z

I wake up on my birthday to hear that thousands have died back in Asia. Both Ravi and I have family out there. And it seems we all know someone who is holidaying out there right now. My sister had just flown out on Christmas day. Molko had just headed out there too. They are all okay but we got the inevitable bad news. My uncle had been travelling down to the coast with his two kids when his train had been hit by a wave and was dragged into the sea. All passengers were presumed dead. A day later we hear back that his carriage had got stuck on a hill after rolling over 4 times. It prevented them from drowning. It was the only carriage that got stuck. The others were not so lucky.
Even a Buddhist will turn towards God

My female cousin was going to drive to the same hotel on the coast as she does every month or so. Her father had told not to due to the flu epidemic down there, so she reluctantly cancelled her plans. Now, the hotel is no more and the family who owned it are dead.
Most of us couldn't comprehend what it would be like to lose EVERYTHING we have. House, clothes, and maybe even loved ones. There are a million in Sri Lanka alone who have.
Life is a crazy thing. Unlike the Twin Towers, this time however, we have no one to blame. Mother nature giveth, mother nature taketh away. We will always be at her mercy and I guess this kinda thing puts things in perpective. I still remember how we were meant to fly out on Sept 10th to Manhattan, but we had to put it back to the 12th, to finish the video to Moodswings. It seems as clear as yesterday watching the second plane crash live on tv.

I still don't understand why the govts further from the epicentre weren't warned. Especially in this day & age where satellites watch every move. I guess not much could have been done to prevent it, but it restores my faith in human nature the way the world has rallied to help. You'd imagine it'd be easy to be detached from all this millions of miles away, especially if no one you know is involved. But this hasn't been the case.... in the immediate short term at least. We'll have to see how long they care though.
Our thoughts are with everyone in Asia right now.

http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=iuI1LdP0G&b=276341
http://www.ifrc.org/
http://www.oxfam.co.uk/what_you_can_do/donate_now/how_donation_helps.htm

MERRY XMAS!

2004-12-25T01:20:00.000Z

On behalf of the band and their team....
Merry Xmas & Happy hanukkah guys!
See you all in 2005..........

P.S. Check back in the next few days for your belated Xmas present..

xx

More tickets for London Show

2004-12-23T18:12:00.000Z

Click subject line. We had lots of emails about the gig, so the promoters have just released all the guest tickets for sale to the public. The band are doing their best to confirm the show.

ALSO
TICKETMASTER SOLD OUT
STARGREEN SOLD OUT
aloud.com
seetickets.com

If possible go for the 'collect tickets at venue' option to get around the extortionate postage charges.
We made this £10/ticket to keep prices down (a break even show), but there is nothing we can do about the ticket agency fees.

2004-12-20T19:35:00.000Z

ACADEMY? ASTORIA?

2004-12-19T01:22:00.002Z

Looking at the figures, the band have sold MORE tickets at this stage (a month in advance) than when they sold the Astoria out last time.
This is without radio/press ads or a single out. I guess we are all surprised that any band can be out of the media for 2 years and come back bigger than they were! We are now discussing the pros and cons between a relatively intimate show without much production or rehearsal or a full on, big middle-finger show a month later.
We'll keep you posted. Thanks again guys for all your support.

Testing..1..2..

2004-12-17T18:57:00.000Z

evening all...thought it was about time i checked in with all of yoo.. Been having a mighty good time in the studio lately with things going down fast and furiously...... which is lucky cos december's always a slow one.,the guitars are sounding king excellent... Couple of days ago, ravi, som, carolyn and I had rehearsal for the show which sounded great...-we're all really hoping that we can do the gig.... can't wait to get out of here in someways but it's been a lot fun.. much more so than the finelines sessions were.
anyway, check back with you soon
seth x

LONDON show

2004-12-16T18:24:00.000Z

Okay so the 'secret' show has sold out now. Now, that's kinda good news and bad news. The good is obvious but the bad is that we had never confirmed it in the first place, as you know, because we are still tracking the record.
There are talks on doing a second show the night before as demand is quite high. Man it'll be like ULU 2001 all over again. The other option would be to move it to the Astoria. Man that'll be like Astoria 2002 all over again. Anyways, we're doing our best right now to get things moving. We'll keep you posted.
We'd love to hear your suggestions for support and song requests/set list for which ever gig we do perform. Post via 'comments' below...

London Show

2004-12-07T11:08:00.000Z

It's been relatively quiet on the blog as of late. We decided we'd check out a few bands last week.
Helmet were playing the Mean Fiddler and the Trail of Dead were playing ULU the day after. Watching Helmet made me realise the subtle influence they have had over our material from a rhythmic and arrangement angle. Helmet along with Rage, Faith No More and Sepultura were some of the metal bands from that era who seemed to focus on groove in a way that others didn't. Way before all the shitty NuMetal too.
The 'Dead guys were on top from, I hear. We played shows in Japan with those guys. They were on before us, so everytime we'd have to wait for the local crew to pick up all the pieces before we could go onstage. I'm surprised they aren't BANNED in Japan. We were all fooling around like Heavy Metal Idiots over there. We pelted Elbow with food as they were doing an MTV interview and the guy from the Eels said he would "kick our alternative-rock asses" if we didn't let him finish his sentence without having water balloons chucked at his head. Mr. Jason Reece, you really are a bad influence. I still feel guilty about the smashed MTV camera.
I hear that the Dead guys were keen to come down the studio to play on the record, so it's a shame I wasn't around. Maybe when they get back in Feb we can have a jam. However, musicians are notoriously bad at pulling this stuff together........I still haven't sent Chino those guitars for Team Sleep. Everytime we've seen each other we've talked about it though. I still remember how when we first met he said that he'd like to "compliment and congradulate me on a great work". I was so fed up with all things Finelines by that point that I just burst out laughing. He probably thought I was a little strange.
The Ash show at the Ashtoria was great too. Tim Wheeler is a gem of a guy. You know, even after touring Europe with those guys, I never realised how good Charlotte was on guitar until that night.
Anyways back to MV. Our UNCONFIRMED 'Secret' January show has only around 100 tickets left. This is almost two months in advance at a 1000 capacity venue in a very slow month. So needless to say we are all still surprised by all this, and it really makes us wanna make this show happen somehow. We'll keep you posted about it. If it comes down to a rescheduled date, all tickets will still be valid. We would be reluctant to move it to the Astoria though, as we haven't played in London since we headlined there back in 2002. goddammnit$%£"****%£$%?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Som at work!

2004-12-01T03:39:00.000Z

som
Originally uploaded by jimdonut.

Nostalgic Royalty.

2004-11-28T13:05:00.000Z

My good old friend Rob came by the studio to catch up. We used to play together at school, waaay before MV. I guess you could say that he was the guy that got me into all this to start with. So you have him to blame.
I had just got the Nirvana box set, so we checked it out. Kinda interesting from a musician/fan perspective....hearing the demos and stuff. We laughed about the fact Kurt was singing to a wall on the DVD, as I used to have to sing into a lamp cos we didn't have a mike stand back then.

Anyways, we ended up jamming some of the first songs I ever wrote and Nirvana tunes like Penny Royal Tea for old times sake, and ProTools had been recording all along.... here's a clip of what was recorded:

We probably f***ed it up. Whatever. If MOBY can cover Creep with a G|B minor|C instead of a G|B f***ing MAJOR|C to 50,000 people at Glasto I think we'll get away with this one.

The clinky sound of the guitar reminds me of a funny story. My sister had a guitar before I did. It was a nylon-stringed classical which she was getting lessons on. I didn't want lessons, but my folks thought I could use that instead of getting me an electric. I really hated the way it sounded so CLEAN. So I used to play it with bottle caps and stuff to try and get a little distortion. My poor sister. That poor guitar.
Once I had saved enough cash for an electric, I needed an amp but they were waaay to expensive. I remember plugging in the electric into my dad's HIFI speakers. But that sounded CLEAN too. So I'd crank it up until the cones distorted. Man, you could SMELL the speakers frying ozone. My poor dad. You should have seen his face. I got my amp out of it though. ;>
Don't abuse your family. Unless you need some new gear.

Choons??

2004-11-27T13:16:00.000Z

Okay guys. Here's a little sampler played through my phone. I'll stick some more up when I get a spare moment.

PS. Thanks for all the COMMENTS, guys. Keep talking and we will too.........

"Its so damn easy"

2004-11-27T01:02:00.000Z

Jinxing yourself with a title. Waydaggo! Oh yeah, vocals are the last thing you record... so these clips will be the instrumental versions. You'll be hearing things as they progress...

"into yr arms" clip

2004-11-27T01:00:00.000Z

More files from the future.........

Drums

2004-11-23T17:29:00.000Z

Hey. We missed out on 'blogging' all the drum tracking so I'm gonna ask Rav to post up here soon. Overall, we spend most of the time in the studio on drums, as they are the hardest to get right by nature of the instrument itself.
That's also what you get for having one great drummer and one wannabe/air drummer in the same band. This time round Rav had a lot more time to learn & rehearse the parts so we spent more time on getting sounds. We cross-referenced to some of our favourite records like Sepultura 'Roots' and Helmet 'Betty' etc.
Rav was beating the crap outta them so we had to keep re-tuning every couple of takes. Generally everything was pretty quick once Rav was warmed into it. I would just piss him off once in a while by deciding a fill could be different at the last minute. Luckily everytime we all agreed it was a change for the better. Sometimes it would give Lars Ulrich a hard-on too. But that was just a bonus. (If you didn't get the joke check out the Metallica movie. You dont have to be a fan either...its a great insight into how bands work in general. Cringe-central at moments. We saw it at the same time as Molko, who agreed in our communal post-mortem that all bands, no matter what level, go through the same shit.)
Anyway, on certain tracks I had programmed the demo drums into ProTools without paying ANY attention to the fact that a human had to play it on the other end. I guess it's pretty fortunate that Ravi can play pretty much anything. And that he has four arms and feet. At least, it sure SOUNDS like it on some of the parts.
Hopefully you'll hear it from the man himself soon
Ciao

S

tubthumping session

2004-11-23T16:50:00.000Z

fuck me was that a session! apologies for the delayed posting but my hands have only just recovered from the beating they sustained. typing was not an option! the tracking had taken a solid three-weeks and went extremely well. i had approached the kit slightly different this time around.there is a great blend of power and more power! i have expanded my kit some what but not just for the sake of expanding it but for the addition of new sounds that the tracks have benefited from.half the session was trying to get the right sounds and experimenting with different drumheads and cymbals. also used an array of snare drums depending on the track we were working on. my kit is a custom built yamaha maple custom absolute which fuckin kix ass. cheers gav. i have also started to use sabian cymbals which are just incredible.i went down to there warehouse to meet up with the head of sabian artist relations for europe jerome marcus who is one of the nicest guys you'll meet in the industry. he kind of like worked out what my needs were after i told him the style of the new songs . i was just breaking to many fuckin cymbals man. he sorted me out big time with big cymbals that sound amazing.
even though the session went well it was physically and mentally quite draining but som and dr lerock got me through it in one piece. i will be back in drum mode in december when we start recording b-sides. i will be posting as much as i can while som gets on with the guitar tracking( which i must say sound RAAAWWWKKKK) .

It dont rain, it pours.

2004-11-22T20:01:00.000Z

Okay today has been pretty sucky. First the cab speakers blew and then the Mesa head popped it too. Actually James broke it. ;> Anyways, news reaches us that the 'secret' London show is on the way to selling out. The show is a 1000 capapcity so your enthusiam is rather scary. We wanted to let you know that we are going to do our best to confirm the gig, but we are focussing totally on the record right now. Not rehearsals etc. Our management had to book in advance as slots go pretty quickly. More than one date is on hold but for whatever reason this is the one that got out, when it shouldn't have.
Check back later tonight as we'll have more audio clips up.

x

Return of Eppinstein

2004-11-20T23:10:00.000Z

It seems that traffic to this site has knocked down the server, which is why the link from myvitriol.com ain't working.

which head

2004-11-18T21:54:00.000Z

four heads better than one??

I spend my day Looking around thinking ..... Which gtr head now....

Day 32 In The My Vitriol House

2004-11-18T21:32:00.000Z

Well It's been a while since i did a post, so i just thought i'd let you know we're still doing Gtrs,concentrating on Soms this time. We've spent a lot of this week on a track called it's so damn easy which turned out not to be the case !! After doing most of the gtrs we sat there and thought shit!! theres no impact, so after consideration and a few beers we decided to drop the key again , just like sometimes..... Now It ROCKS .. i'm sitting here listening to It thinking FUUCCKK!!!!!
So were going on to another track now .. not sure which ............... first some pizza!!!!!

blah blah

2004-11-18T04:15:00.000Z

Ok, I'm meant to be on a plane in two hours headed for Rome, where they are holding the MTV Awards this year. But guess what, I realised that we couldn't lose three days of tracking and I pulled out last minute. It really isn't very rock this year so what the hell would be the point of me going all that way??
Besides I've exceeded my quota on going out right now. The guy who designed the lights for the Devotional show by Depeche Mode (get it for xmas) and also some Bjork stuff had done the Keane show, so I HAD to check it out. It was a good show. Tim from their band came up to me at the aftershow and said that he had come to see my first ever acoustic show in 1998. He came down with Chris and Johnny from Coldplay, I think. It seems that everyone went to UCL. He seems like a really nice guy. Just remember.....Coldplay and Keane beat you to MV. How strange.
We also saw the Placebo show at Wembley, which was great. The Robert Smith appearance was fucking awesome.

wembley 'cebo

I am going to try and post as much as I can on here. Even at this time in the morning. I'm listening to Mazzy Star "Fade into you" right now. Still the best love song ever written. What ever happened to those guys. Can someone please convince them to start blogging? Thanks.

Hey yo wassup

2004-11-17T17:31:00.000Z

Hey guys
Just a quick post to say thanks for checking in with us. Its crazy that we have been getting over a 1000 unique visitors every day since we put this blog thing up. You guys have been so supportive its nuts. I know we haven't had a chance to reply any of your emails for the last few months as we have been really busy, but we do read them when we can. We'll be reading the comments on this board too. I don't think we are meant to be posting tracks up here but f*^k it. Their our songs and we want you to hear them.
Also the gig in London has NOT been confirmed yet. It was not meant to have got out but it's pretty tough keeping anything quiet these days. We will let you know as soon as it is.

Love
MV xx

2004-11-15T18:45:00.000Z

This samples sounds like white noise. Will have to replace it soon. James.

Studio Madness?

2004-11-15T01:19:00.000Z

Man, recording an album can be such a rollercoaster ride.
I had developed an allegic reaction to the whole process after Finelines. Don't get me wrong, we're proud of that record now....... it was just that it became a very painful process at the time. Its funny how it's the things that you care about that hurt you the most. HOWEVER The recording so far has been really exciting and *gasp* pretty smooth sailing. So I havent broken out in sneezing fits yet. James and I are 99% on the same page and that has helped a great deal. It can feel like describing colours to a blind person when explaining creative issues to someone on another wavelength. Having no A&R twat around to tell us to edit the intros down helps too. Judging a picture before it was painted was never an easy job I guess. And hell, too many cooks...
So far the standout tracks are the ones that pretty much wrote themselves. By 'standout' I mean the songs people get on a first listen. It really feels like they created themselves using you as their tool. Maybe they are gifts from God. Or maybe its just my subconscious doing all the work. Far more likely but not quite as exciting though.
There are other tracks which take a little more to get into......almost as if you are playing catch-up with our creative process which has taken the track futher down the line.
Well, so far... so good
Here's to the madness to come.

Love
S x

Mr. Epstein Weighs In

2004-11-14T21:16:00.000Z

Greetings, MV Faithful ...

I just got back to Seattle from London and can report that Som and Seth have begun recording stringed instruments and Ravi has f*(&ed off down the pub after a job well done.

We had a way too expensive dinner in a Hoxton Square restaurant with framed pix of guitar picks from Van Halen, WASP, and Per Somebody from Roxette ... which apparently were a reflection of the plectrum-sized portions of food. Otherwise, it was 14 and 16 hour stints in the studio ... Keeping the ear to the grindstone as we say.

What other details can we share? Well the working title of the album is ... Wait, hold on ... Not just yet. As Ghostface Killah once told me "I don't want Motherf*@#ers sampling my cake before that shit is baked."

In other words, have patience, friends. You've waited this long. We promise a new MV single, album, and gig(s) in the very near future. Actually much sooner than you might think.

The control room.

2004-11-12T18:35:00.000Z

DSC00272
Originally uploaded by My Vitriol.

The tidiness of your room is the tidiness of your head.

My Geetar

2004-11-12T18:23:00.000Z

DSC00258
Originally uploaded by My Vitriol.

Those nice people at Yamaha custom made this one for me.

Som playing gtr

2004-11-11T13:47:00.002Z

Dr. LeRock

2004-11-11T00:06:00.000Z

Hey James, stop it with the porn and get back to work!

Day 15 in the my vitriol house

2004-11-10T17:01:00.000Z

Today were thinking of tracking some new guitars with the awesome sound we got last night :-)
We were working until about 5am last night, so it's been a late start today. We tracked all the rhythm gtrs to "Sometimes" last night. It was a bit of a struggle at first as they key was too high to get any bottom-end out the parts. We ended up pitching the guitars down to see how it would sound. It sounded phat. We immediately knew we'd have to re-record all the parts in that key. This is a killer track. In my opinion it could be have been a single of Finelines.

wooo hooo

2004-11-10T04:08:00.000Z

My Vitriol in the studio

2004-11-09T05:33:00.000Z

MV began tracking their second album in late Sept 04. Engineering duties were taken over by James "LeRock" Loughrey who had worked on previous tracks such as Moodswings, and Som took the production helm. The record had been delayed by over a year due to various business issues. In order to preserve autonomy over the record the band converted a two bedroom appartment in central London into a professional recording studio over the summer of 04. Using the miracles of modern technology, the band, James and their management will be posting progress of the sessions from the "Crack House" as it has come to be known........