JoskiBlog

Hi intelligent rock pop fans!

Club Smash! was good last Monday - great little venue - especially with an audience - It was great. Three bands - The Stuns (www.myspace.com/thestuns) and Yin (www.myspace.com/yinuk) were really good to play with. All the bands there are itching to play bigger venues!

We are doing another Club Smash! (www.myspace.com/clubsmash1) in July and then not doing the August one.

we will keep you guys in the loop.

Q - Which film is this line taken from? “We are sorry about this little snag fellas’ we are still checking with our sister nine triple zero computer and will get back to you as soon as possible…”

Hey - So we did it!

We recorded our new EP - ‘Catch the Rising Sun’ - It is now mastered and about to be printed and copied as I write this little billet-doux!

We went to The Premesis in the end - as we got a good deal - and because it has a really good reputation as a live studio. We were in Studio A - that is the Solar powered one - so we were very green doin our biz in there! we were very happy to be in that studio recording - it was great fun!

First session was March 3rd - and we were very well rehearsed having spent a few weeks at Pulse Rehearsal Studios getting the songs tight. It was still very ambitious tho - trying to get seven songs down in one day with a whole band - that IS very cheeky!

It always takes a lot of time to get drums set up - sounds working - foldback and monitoring levels and trying to control the spill from the guitar amp or bass amp. Keyboards were easy to record as they didn’t go thru an amp. Guitar was tricky as Col. Joski didn’t want the amp to be quiet!

Xande and engineer jason worked on getting a good modern ’70’s’ drum sound  - moving kick mics and snare tunings etc until they were set - then the bass mic and D/I and same for the guitar.

We rattled off our songs usually in three or four takes so that we could choose the best one later. We did:

She Loves
Howard Roark
Catch the Rising Sun
Finest
Whadya Want
Feel Loved
I Know we’re from the Stars

…and that is a loty of songs in one 7 hr day!

The Premesis is a cool place to work in - lots of studios and rehearsal rooms in one rambling tenement style block on Hackney Road, East London. They even have a cat - Mrs Dawkins - who is on Twitter. Lots of names record there. While we were in they also had Skunk Anansie and Peter Green.

The next session was to do the lead vocals. We did most of the backing vocals at home - Joski with Jenty at the home studio and Sara did her BV’s at her gaff with Xande. The lead vox are always fraught with a bit of tension but luckily Joski knows his songs quite well and pitching was good and we got all the main vocals down in about five hours. This was at the second session on 23rd March. This left about an hour to do a rough mix of ‘Catch the Rising Sun’.

Then came the third session on 3rd April. This was to mix the seven mighty songs. However it did prove a challenge and we did rush a bit in the early stages which ended up with five songs mixed but not with the best overall sound. We found the kick drum was a little wooly and the lower mid was getting indistinct. Part of the problem was aiming to undertake tooooo many songs in one day originally! Now we had spent another day (day 3) and we weren’t getting close to finishing!

Luckily jason the engineer is very experienced and we decided to do another full day (April 12th) and work on the basics first. This meant we were more able to control the sounds and get the frequencies sorted on one song before spreading that out to the other songs and mixing them.

It worked - we did a humungous amount of mixing work and managed to get all seven songs mixed and sounding really good!!! Next stage was to check everything and make sure we were all happy with the mixes.

We wondered about Mastering. Mastering is where you take the final mixes to be finished off and given that sheen and clarity that recordings you buy have. It is also the process that maximises the volume of the tracks so that they compare well when played on radio etc.

I sent one track to MediaShack in Ireland - ‘Finest’ and was very happy with the final result. I have now sent the other six tracks and am awaiting the final results. Then we can finish off the cover and get em out there!!!

I used to always record songs at home and build up tracks on seperatly recorded drum sessions. However, after recording at The Premesis, despite any challenges, I will never bother recording at home again! You just can’t get a big sound at home and need the out-board gear that they have in The Premesis and similar places. Home studio is just for rough demo’s from now on!!

Ciao,

Joski

JOSKI and Smash!

Well, Club Smash! has been up and running for six months now! - July to December. It has been fun and will continue to be.

It is also a challenge! We always try to book four bands and give free backline and 40 minute sets with the proviso that bands should bring five punters along to see them. Quite often we get three bands showing up (including us) and the fourth mysteriously, quite often, is not in contact and just dosen’t show up. It is funny seeing band life from the side of the promoter for a change. We can see that a lot of bands out there are lacking in the ‘professional’ attitude or even basic courtesy!

Still, this isn’t a rant. We love doing smash! and are awaiting the time when huge numbers of fans force us to a bigger venue on a better night! We have had stacks of really good bands play at Smash! It shows that there are a lot of acts out there with their own sound and really good delivery! Songwriting is often really good too with arrangements to match.

December smash! was great for us. We got to play a humungous set of ten songs - Sara and Xande were fantastic in the bass drums rythmn section powerhouse that they are - Jenty was jumping around on her keyboards and I got to flash my legs in sliver tights and Kerrang lots of noise out of my brand new white Fender Stratocaster guitar!

That guitar is so easy to play that it makes the Les Paul even harder to play or use for many songs. Currently the only song I use it on is ‘Feel Loved’.

Thered ain’t gonna be a January Smash as we will be hibernating! There will be a Feb Smash! and we will report news and waffles then.

Ciao a bingo me hearties!

Joski

Hi guys,

Now we are into the New Year - 2010 - and it can take time to get up to speed can’t it!

2009 was a good year for Joski band. We finally got a brilliant line-up which consolidated our move from being a five piece band down to a four piece. Xande joined on drums and proved to be a spectacular player and really good guy. Then Sara joined on bass - and is a really good player and all-round musician with lots of strings to her bow (bass…).

Club Smash! - Which we started in July - was going strong in December for our Xmas show. The silver leggings went down a treat! Grazza did the videos and we now have a different film for each song. It really helps our live persona!

Lots of fine bands have played with us at this JOSKI residency now including - Calatrilloz, The ViPs, Sarah Tonin, Pretty Limelight, Rubinger. See www.myspace.com/clubsmash1 for more details…

Very soon we are going into the studio to record new drum tracks for the new songs. Then we will work on them at our own studio - Ne Plus Ultra - before mixing them at another studio with posh gear! We can do a lot of the leg work and vocals etc here but need a bigger better sound stage or monitoring for the final picture. It could take a while but hey - are we in a hurry?! er, Yes we are!

Also this year 2010 apart from the Smash! gigs continuing - we want to play more gigs around town and in the country. especially doing some Festivals and stuff. So keep your gims locked to joskimusic.com and we will give you news and info as it appears.

If you want to join our mailing list just send a mail to info at joskimusic.com and we will be happy to have you aboard! Happy and productive new year!

Ciao for now,

Joski - Jan 2010

Hi All,

We are playing Club Smash! again this month - after all - it is our residency! This month is 21st Sept - stage time 9:10pm - be nice to see you all there! Remember to get the flyer from the bottom of the homepage so that you can get in a bit cheaper!

We have a really good band line-up now. Sara Farina has joined us on bass. Sara is a consumate musician - tremendous experience and musical ability - and still young! She also plays with The V.i.Ps. with Sara and Xande and Jenty and Joski we now have a fabulous line up of talent within one lovely band!

Laters,

Joski

Hi Pop pickers!

CLUB SMASH! is all set for Monday July 20th launch at The Comedy Pub - 7 Oxendon St, Piccadilly, London SW1Y 4EE.

Four great bands:

The ViPs - Indighost - JOSKI - The Smackhounds

Download this flyer to get a quid off your £6 door entry.

Each band gets a 40 minute set - this is a feature of Club Smash! so that we can have a longer time to embellish our music and performance. we are reacting against promoters who want to screw unsigned bands by making them provide a large audience or making the band pay cash when they don’t hit unfair targets.

Club Smash! requires bands to bring a minimum of 5 punters - not 25! “We still want bands to bring an audience though”, says Joski, “At least this way it is a bit fairer and more about the music, we want to make a nice vibe for bands and people to want to come see bands at every Smash! nite”.

For full details visit www.joskimusic.com or www.myspace.com/clubsmash1

Ciao,
Joski

Hi guys and gals! From 4th May when the voting becomes active!

We have a song up at Overplay.com because we are entering one of those dopey competitons that get spammed by other bands street teams and professional Ad Agencies! However - why not, we thought, maybe they will find some wheat (us) amongst the corporate chaff (other bands!).

So - click on the logo above and rate our song and you can help us be, well, be up there!!

Ciao bela

JOSKI

So - here we go! Welcome to Xande - our new stickman and the best we’ve seen recently. Xande has real flair and wicked rock drumming together with great experience in Latin and Brazilian beats.

He also has good recording experience and it is looking good for gigs soon! You heard it here first!

Hi Pop Pickers. Joski are about to start recording “I Know we’re from the Stars” and also do a remix of Howard Roark.

“We don’t want to mess with Howard toooo much - we gotta keep those razorback guitars and swoopy synths!” says Joski.

This is all work for the new EP

Hey - It is time for a hair cut! - having let it grow for a while now - I need to springify it a bit!

Not the most pressing Joski issue you might say - but it all helps!

Now that we can break the ice off the studio door recording can commence again. There are some re-mixes of a couple of tracks and new songs to record.

It has been a long winter and without a drummer we have had to use our CD drummer. He helps the rest of us stay in time and groove along but it aint da same!

Ironman was a good movie!