Production Journal
First Week: 3/3/25
The first step of our planning the performance was deciding on what songs were going to be included in the show. I chose "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon as my piece that I would have full control over and manipulate independently with the aid of three other session musicians which are Kai, Jaime, Brock.
In doing so I was also chosen to help out with a few other pieces including:
-Fuck you and all your freinds - Falling in Reverse
-Little Monster - Royale Blood
-Touch Me Im Sick - Mudhoney
-Baran's Original
-Scream - Avenged Sevonfold
-The Pretender - Foo Fighters
Many songs were suggested to play in the show although a lot of these songs would have made the performance too complicated and would have run the whole thing overtime so as expected many pieces were cut.
Two songs I was going to be included in was "I through glass in my freinds eyes..." by Destroy Boys and "Denial" by James Marriott.
For the song I chose in particular, I have Jamie Smith on Drums, Kai Hawden on Bass, Brock on Lead Guitar and Me on Rhythm Guitar and Vocals.
Second Week: 10/03/25
This week, I rehearsed "little monster" by Royal Blood. Most of the progress on this song will have been through this week as the original composition is fairly simple utilising basic barred chords in drop tuning.
The only thing that can be polished can be the timing and structure as well as the overall tightness of our playing in unisen.
We did a couple run throughs of "use somebody" although the overall mix is sounding empty with only a three piece.
Third Week: 17/03/25
For this week we made a start of rehearsing "The Pretender" with Ryan, Brock, Kolby, Jaime and Kara. This song was fairly straight forward and easy to put together as everyone studied their parts in the song long prior and already knew the structure of the song. Brock still needs to work on his fried vocal section but is pretty much there. I focused quite heavily on creating all the neccessary tones on the HX stomps of which I asked one of the technicians Josh to help me create a heavy reverb lead tone for "Cirice". I reused most of the tones I made for each song as there were mostly a bunch of Distort/Overdrive tones and would have made it a little jarring to have a different Harsh tone very every other song. Although I am proud of making a nice cleaner tone for "Use Somebody" which still obtains a little bit of sting as well as a slightly pushed lower end in the EQ which is the exact opposite of what I was trying to do for my Distorted tones as I wanted something harsh, just not muddy and unclear.
Fourth Week: 24/4/25
This week was intended to be reserved for studying the PA system in the theatre as well as the lighting panel. Instead our time was just spent rehearsing over songs. Although my song "Use Somebody" isn't quite ready yet as I need another person to play lead guitar as Brock is too busy to play on it. I have mainly focused on Toby's piece "Cirice", which still has a sort empty mix which we are going to get Kara to fill in with keyboard to replicate the organ sound, and Jaime's piece "Little Monster", Which is probably the smoothest and quickest song we have done. We have yet to start on Kolby's song "Fuck You And All Your Friends", I urgently need to learn the songs guitar part by ear as all the tabs I have found arn't even close to being accurate as well as the lead vocal part. "Scream" was also rehearsed relatively heavily this week as I have managed to push my vocals enough to get a some what similar grit that the original singer has, still we are yet to get a bassist on the song which has made it just a little bit awkward to rehearse sound wise.
Fifth Week: 31/3/25
We occupied the time this week solely with rehearsal time dedicated to poloshing and refining all aspects of each song.
We havent touched Fuck you and all your freinds and still needs to be put together as we have focused mainly on Cirice, Little Monster, Pretender. Cirice needs the most attention as is the most compostionaly technical out of all of the songs. Monday we had a small session on how to operate the lights and PA in preperation for the actual performance. A major thing that went wrong when showcasing the songs on Wednesday was Use somebody. I still need to memorise the lyrics, Kai still needs to learn the structure of song as well as Jaime as the bridge was completely forgotten about.
Six Week: 21/4/25
We spent most of a time this week centered around our practical work, just going over everything we have done so far for the Fmp performance for next week. We finally moved onto the last song we needed to learn for the show which was "fuck you and all your friends".
Singing the relatively cleaner yet harsh vocals was quite easy off of the bat although remembering lyrics can be improved. Cirice is finally now sounding full and polished with the vocal harmonies proving effective and the guitar and bass tones are fitting and suitable. Everything I touch is fairly simple and didnt require to much effort or time and is almost completely polished.
seventh Week: 28/4/25
This is is our last week before the final show, by now my own performance (Use Somebody) is polished, practiced and ready to go as well as the rest of the performances that I am taking part in assisting. Nerves have risen in most everyone and at this point everyone is just anticipating the moment they step on stage. This week was kept repeatedly rehearsing and running through all the pieces in the main area in the new block as well as individually in the practice rooms. Most of the songs I have focused on this week were the pieces I am doing with the small group I have come to rely on in the class being Jaime, Kolby, Kai and Toby, with the exception of Brocks piece "Scream".While most of our time has been spent playing through our pieces, we have also been ran through the PA system in the main theatre as well as the lighting panel.
Eighth week: 5/5/25
This is the week of the final show and we have had only two days to make final changes and prep before Wednesday where we perform the final examined show of this year at 7pm. I spent monday pretty much just doing written work in the mac room and Tuesday was spent running through all the pieces for the show in the main area of the New Block. All the songs that I am on are fully prepared except for Lewis's song "Purple haze" which was sprung on me last second although I am fairly confident in as its not a massively complex song except for maybe the guitar part which is fine because I already play it with my band outside of college.
