My guitarist Jason texted me to remind me of an upcoming jamming session we have set weeks ago while I was still recuperating from my Mount Kinabalu climb. Though I had a mild sore thoat on the day itself, I was eager for our jamming session.

Cynthia, our bassist could not make it because she was feeling sick. She preferred to rest in bed instead. Jason brought along his “Golden Lady” – one of his guitars that is famous for her soothing tone – and according to Cynthia, all our songs were like lullaby to her. All along I thought our over-the-top volume must have given her hell. Pfftt.

Jason’s girlfriend Selrol has determined to document our band’s progress by photographing each of our session. I passed my brand new Fujifilm camera to her and I bet she had fun with it. All the picture above were taken by her and the captions are as follows (from left to right, top to bottom).

(1) I don’t remember why I smile. To my best knowledge my songs are pretty dark. (2) Selrol tried to play Jason’s guitar. Ouch! Those steel strings! (3) Jason in his melancholy mood. (4) Jason was trying out the new song “Kids From The Park” with a set of new chords (he used capo and played at a different chord in order to create a different feel in harmonizing with my guitar). (5) The view from outside my window. (6) I was trying out the new song with Jason. (7) Identify the chord! (8) Little did I realize that while I memorized one of the song, I changed some of the chords. Jason and I had quite an interesting time trying to map out the changes. (9) Jason’s cool guitar effect.

(I know you don’t get to see my picture in my own website often and here you are – the dude on the left is me with the Gibson Les Paul guitar and on the right is my guitarist, Jason the hunk with his Rickenbacker.)

As the self-appointed band leader of No Eye Candy, songwriter and singer behind the band’s music, I must step up and be an inspiration to my band members. If local band Lunarin, which by the way the lead singer and bassist has a full time job as a lawyer practicing where my ex-old-office was, can make it to perform at Esplanade and has albums that are sold in HMV, No Eye Candy must go further than where we are now.

My original intend was for me to go solo doing open-mic performance with my guitar. My band guitarist Jason is gamed for jamming with me on stage and that is just great news. Last weekend, he dropped by my home music studio and we jammed out 4 of the 6 songs that I have memorised. Cynthia can testify with me that with Jason’s guitar track, it adds a new dimension to the song. It will probably take a while before Jason and I can play the songs tight. I am very excited over this. Stay tuned!

Last weekend, my band has gathered together to jam out a wedding song for our drummer Lester. He has written the lyric for his wife-to-be Therecia to sing. Melody crafted by our guitarist Jason and I played the role of fine-tuning the song to suit Therecia’s vocal style. My vision was clear – I wanted the song to be recorded on the same day because face it, there are lots of higher priority wedding preparations to be done. Somehow, the rest of the band members have their expectations exceeded when we managed to record the song in one day. I am pleased with the result and we threw in our best recording track by track (drum first and then my guitar, Cynthia’s bass, Jason’s guitar, and the vocal track). Since the song will be used when displaying the childhood photos of the couple, I will wait till January next year to link the recording from where Lester is going to post the video to – YouTube – as we are keeping this as a surprise for now.

Captions from left to right, top to bottom: (1) Therecia recording vocal track with the condenser microphone, (2) Drummer Lester and Therecia’s self-taken photo, (3) Lester enhancing his drumming track after the recording was done, (4) Cynthia and her bass, (5) Jason and his smile, and (6) me and my guitar.