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Went For An Audition Today


Kramer Ferrington III.

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Posted

One of the reasons why I wanted to move to NZ was to live in a place with a decent band/live scene. Milan was pretty dead for all that, but NZ is pretty vibrant.

 

So, today, I went for an audition! :bor:

 

We left it that they'd send me some .mp3s so I could work out basslines that I'm happy with. So I'm past the first hurdle.

 

Who knows what will happen... Anyway, it was great feeling like I'd come back to the real world. And I was just a tad disappointed/amused/comforted to see that the real world hadn't changed much in the meantime.

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Posted

Sounds like a lot of fun, Kramer! If it doesn't work out I hope something else does. I agree with your sentiments at the end there: I like smaller bands better. I can hardly hear myself at church sometimes cuz the music coordinator will let 3 or 4 other guitars play at the same time. Not ideal, but it's church so there's not much of an argument from me.

My only experience with that whole retro thing was about 10 years ago I stayed a night with a buddy in Nashville who was playing with Waylon Jennings. Same type of set-up: older house with wood floors, lots of junk, but lots of instruments too. We ended-up staying up til daybreak jamming and singing.

Congrats and good luck!

Posted

Hi Vince, :wave:

great to hear from you now that the move is over.

I am rather curious to know how everything went; I mean, you went to the opposite side of the globe! You couldn't have choosen a more distant place to move, from Italy! :eek:

So, can you tell us something? How was the trip, how did you feel soon after you arrived, etc...

I know that your wife is from New Zealand so you have already a family there and you have also been living in Australia, but I am still curious, nonetheless. Maybe it's because I enjoy traveling and challenging myself with new realities, so I guess that I am simply asking myself how I would react, in your place. :)

Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
Posted

Well done, Vince!!

 

I too had an audition last week (Wed), but since I have not yet heard anything I wasn't going to mention it. Like you, I am a bit older then the band (a working band with gigs).

 

All I can say is that I practised their set list for about 3 weeks and when it came to the point, I didn't let myself down and they were obviously impressed (up to a point).

 

They were auditioning another guy Thurs. So if he gets the gig, he's either a better bass player then me (so good luck to the fella) or he's more in the 'image' (read age) for them.

 

So good luck to you and I hope I get my gig too.

 

Part of the 'Get a Life' plan for me.

 

Geoff

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the World will know Peace": Jimi Hendrix

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=738517&content=music

The Geoff - blame Caevan!!!

Posted
Originally posted by Dreamer:

So, can you tell us something? How was the trip, how did you feel soon after you arrived, etc...

I think the biggest thing is re evaluating Italy from afar. Italy has really changed me ("mi ha segnato" is how I would put it :) )

 

I sort of like it here, but I find that they have too many rules (and take them seriously) and they're kind of funny about T&A on the telly (they have it, sort of, but try to find some sort of excuse for it, unlike Italy where nobody really cared). I've also found that Milan was a lot more organized than we ever gave it credit for.

 

As far as culture and spectacles and stuff they try a lot harder than we do in Italy, where we sort of take it for granted and assume that we have a great cultural life just for the fact of living in Italy. There is a much bigger live scene than we had in Milan and they have a lot of foreign (read "world music") acts touring. Often enough, it's nobody you've ever heard of, but at least they come over and people go see them.

 

I really, really miss speaking Italian. Sometimes I come across as being a bit tongue tied but that's because often, my initial reaction is to speak in Italian. I can't seem to get rid of expressions like "mboh", "ma va" and "mah!", for example. I tend to speak a bit like those Hollywood movie foreigners that manage to speak in perfect English and yet come out with "mon ami" or "mon dieu" at the end of every sentence :D I'm going to try and join the local Italian club just for the language. Midn you, a lot of them apparently don't really speak Italian, just whatever dialect their parents did. I can manage the Lombard dialects, and the Sicilian ones but anything else is terra incognita. I'll have to see how it goes, hope I don't have to learn Pugliese or whatever.

 

Oh, and the food is crap, but Italy is such a hard act to follow. I've given up on coffee and just drink tea these days :D

 

I also have to try hard not to come across like some smarmy know-it-all. A lot of people here have never been outside NZ or if they have, they've just been to Australia which is a lot like NZ. MInd you, when I said I'd lived in Sicily and someone asked me about the mafia I had a real captive audience :D

 

They're really great people. I just need to get used to them.

Posted

Great stories, Vince! and wonderfully told, as usual.

 

You're right about the band scene not changing, though unfortunately I have. I auditioned (on bass, as it happens) a couple of years ago with a band - great drummer, good guitarist, hot red-headed chick singer with a good voice. They had asked me to learn some No Doubt and Dave Matthews stuff, very new territory for me. I learned it well, nailed it at the audition. I'm pretty sure I didn't get the gig because I failed the drug test ("Do you smoke pot?" "No, not any more").

 

I later found out the drummer had knocked up the chick singer, his wife had left him, and the band fell apart before it got started. Too bad :D ...

 

I hope you get the gig if you want it, and if you don't, that you get the gig you do want!

 

 

Posted
Originally posted by Hard Tail:

Hope everything works out. I can't wait until I get good enough to audition for some real bands.

Come off it HT you could audition for a band tommorrow.
Posted
Thats cool Vince. Hope it go's well for you mate. Dont forget as your a decent bassist you can normally get the pick of which band you want to be in. :D
Posted
Originally posted by Trucks.Of.Love:

Originally posted by Hard Tail:

Hope everything works out. I can't wait until I get good enough to audition for some real bands.

Come off it HT you could audition for a band tommorrow.
I appreciate what you're saying. But... I need to learn my tunes better. If I were to audition for any band right now that already had a good set list known between them, I would just annoy them.
Posted

don't sell yourself short.

everybody has thier own thing, and of all the times i thought i was not going to fit in i have found that eventually there were things that they needed work on.

the longer you hang with new people the less talented they seem.

fitting is allways a bit awkward but if the guys are cool it doesn't take long.

Posted

Congrats, Vince!

 

I'm working on a coffeehouse project with two other guitarists, which can get messy if we're all trying to strum at the same time! But they're talented guys, and it's a chance for me to play mandolin on some tunes. The other two guys are pretty decent singers, and one of them brought in a girl who is an EXCELLENT harmony singer, which adds a lot. I don't know if it's the same as a real band, though - so far we're only committed for a "one night stand".

 

It's not easy to be in a full-time band if you've got to work a 9-5 day job and have a wife and/or kids to take care of, too!

 

I agree that a lot of "modern" rock ain't all that different from the "classic" stuff. Yes, things like 7-string guitars become popular for a while, and some work in alternate tunings. But how long do most of these fads LAST?

Posted
Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Milan was pretty dead for all that...

Hmmmm...?

 

So what kind of music scene existed there?

Was there none to speak of...or were the styles and music tastes not to your liking?

miroslav - miroslavmusic.com

 

"Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."

Posted
Originally posted by A String:

I've heard you play, and you are definitely good enough.

Thanks Craig. I think quite highly of your guitar playing as well.
Posted

Good luck with the hopes of getting a gig Kramer. It sounds like you got along with them personally so age shouldn't matter.

 

I am surprised also that NZ has a better band scene than Milan. I guess us naive Americans always picture any place in Italy as being at the hieght of culture and New Zealand as being kind of laid back and outdoorsy.

 

I would be curious to hear details on the rules, I always like hearing about other cultures and norms. America is "the land of the free" supposedly, but we sure do have lots of rules. It works out for the most part but some of the laws just make you squirm.

Posted

Hey, Vince! Congrats on the move and the audition! :thu:

 

It's interesting to hear your reaction to your move from Milan to NZ. Nashville has about as many people from other states as native Tennesseans. The locals hate hearing how us outsiders think Nashville should change to reflect the places we moved from. :D

 

Good luck with the band, the Italian and the food! :eek:

It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman

 

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fntstcsnd

Posted

Yes, some of us old dogs CAN teach new tricks to young pups.... of course, they then turn around and play them better than we do...

 

If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas...

Posted

I agree, that is a good entertaining story.

 

Hey you might wanna do some professional writing if yer not already.

 

Band name suggestion: KF3 and the NZ whippersnappers. :D

Just a pinch between the geek and chum

 

 

Posted
Originally posted by miroslav:

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Milan was pretty dead for all that...

Hmmmm...?

 

So what kind of music scene existed there?

Was there none to speak of...or were the styles and music tastes not to your liking?

Oh, there were a lot of guys doing piano bar stuff (read: putting diskettes into a workstation) and a couple of places that had blues bands. The squats had a better band scene, but they were into being anarchists and letting everyone play so there was a huge waiting list (up to six months or more). And often as not, that was all punk and thrash metal. Other than that, there were a lot of tribute bands doing classic rock band tributes. Soma jazz. It wasn't exactly a vibrant scene.
Posted

I still call Aus... ...err new Zealand ...I still call new Zealand hom-m-m-e...

Welcome home (almost) cobber!

Here's a great interview and performance by surviving members of Kiwi band Dragon.(NB Tommy Emmanuel was in Dragon for a while too)

Dragon on Richard Fidler\'s Conversation Hour You probably weren't into Dragon, but there was a lot more to them than being a Countdown teenybopper band . The story about how Marc Hunter blew their big chance at the US market is hilarious.

Amazing how many successful Australian bands were actually Kiwis. :mad::confused:;)

Posted
Originally posted by Philemec:

I still call Aus... ...err new Zealand ...I still call new Zealand hom-m-m-e...

Welcome home (almost) cobber!

Here's a great interview and performance by surviving members of Kiwi band Dragon.(NB Tommy Emmanuel was in Dragon for a while too)

Dragon on Richard Fidler\'s Conversation Hour You probably weren't into Dragon, but there was a lot more to them than being a Countdown teenybopper band . The story about how Marc Hunter blew their big chance at the US market is hilarious.

Amazing how many successful Australian bands were actually Kiwis. :mad::confused:;)

Hey, Philemec, I'll be in Sydney 1st 2 weeks in Nov. Any gigs?

 

Geoff

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the World will know Peace": Jimi Hendrix

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=738517&content=music

The Geoff - blame Caevan!!!

Posted
Originally posted by Philemec:

The story about how Marc Hunter blew their big chance at the US market is hilarious.

So, what the story? Inquiring minds want to know...

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

 

 

 

 

Posted
Originally posted by Geoff Byrne:

Hey, Philemec, I'll be in Sydney 1st 2 weeks in Nov. Any gigs?

 

Geoff [/QB]

Depends what you mean by 'gigs' - if you mean me, I'm about to embark on my Subway Tunnel Tour after a long layoff. Clapton's in town in November though.

 

The story about Dragon blowing their chances in the US is better told by singer Marc Hunter's brother Todd, but it involves Marc standing on stage, arms stretched out like Jesus being pelted by everything from champagne bottles to cowboy boots (this was in Texas)with members of Johnny Winter's band placing bets as to how long it would take before someone pulled out a gun and shot him.

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