Blogs and stuff
Put yourself in the Melting Pot
Wow!! First gig back with Starmatix since having Adam on board and WOAH, what a night!! Possibly the strangest yet best performed gigs I have ever played. Imagine this.......as you're setting up to finish off the night, people start leaving. At the same time you're thinking, I'm just gonna go on and play the best I possibly can and prove that we were worth sticking around for!! So when you fulfill that and then some, you can't help but smile and feel on top of your game.
Picture yourself on stage, guitar in your hands and ready to play to oooo............about 6 or 7 people. It all starts off and the reactions ok but hey, that's not difficult when you're head-lining. It stays this way for the majority of the set. You then break into a cover late on in the set, which to be honest is a bit risky. All of a sudden this crowd appears from the darkest depths of the pub, albeit a small one. Things start to heat up and before you know it this group of maybe 15 to 20 people are going mad! Who would ever believe that a butchered cover of the classic love song, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" could send this small crowd into such a frenzy!! Then into the last song, "Arm in Arm", always played so tight and with such power. So this energy that's suddenly built just keeps going and going to the point where we now have a mosh pit going in the said congregation of people! I couldn't help but just smile and laugh, so much so I had to miss out the last line of the final chorus because I was simply stunned and couldn't stop laughing..........
So I think it's safe to say the future is looking bright for Starmatix. I couldn't have asked for a better result considering we only had one person come to see us! If you've never seen us live check us out, even if I do say so myself! Hahahahaha
Peace and Love
Josh
When I was 21, it was a very good year!!
Well another year has passed and looking back it was quite an eventful one. So as I reminisce in my slightly drunken state at about 630pm New Year’s eve, here is an insight into my year……
January/February
To start off the year I was working full-time at Trax Bike shop in Buntingford for the third year. I remember one day it was so cold whilst riding the 12.5 miles to work my drink tube actually froze to a sort of slush puppy state!! Brrrrrr……. I was also finishing work on my first self-produced album “Killing Time”. Later in this period I was standing in on Bass for a friend’s band going by the name of “Bad Innocence”. We did three gigs back to back and it was a case of work sleep gig work sleep gig….. I slept well after that!! Great fun though. I also had a CD’s printed for the album and began selling them.
Gigs:
Bad Innocence: The Red lion, The Inn on the Green and The Phoenix.
March/April
It was a relatively quiet time as I wasn’t playing in any bands. It didn’t lack any important changes though. At the end April I left the bike shop to spend some time sorting out where I wanted to go next, what I wanted to do with my life and concentrate on Music (and doing lots of house work, thanks Mum!! Lol). In this time I sang live, in public for the first time. It was a very daunting experience, especially as I was on my own with just my Acoustic guitar.
Gigs:
Open mic acoustic: Shorty’s Sports Bar
May/June
I bought an electronic drum as a leaving present to myself (how sad!!) and began learning how to play. I joined old friends “The Funky Monks” to help out on keyboards. I received a call the day before from the drummer asking if I would like to do some solo acoustic stuff but I offered to play the whole gig instead. So the next day I met with the guitarist the day of the gig and we went through about 2, 45 minutes sets worth of music in about 6 hours. We then gigged that night. I was understandably nervous having literally only just learnt it. A couple of weeks later we played to a rather large crowd at Stevenage’s Rock in the Park gig. It was by far the largest audience I had ever played to and one of the people in that audience I would eventually meet at another gig!! :-P haha!! The week after this I competed at the mountain mayhem 24 hour Mountain bike race. Although our team didn’t finish we had such a great time and I got verily sunburnt!! I also started jamming with drummer friend Alex (formerly Bad Innocence). This jamming gradually formed the band “Starmatix”.
Gigs:
Open mic acoustic: Shortys Sports bar
The Funky Monks: The Wilbury and Rock in the Park.
July/August
Jams with Alex carried on and we found a Bass player, Barry a mutual friend, to complete the line-up. Over the next few weeks we came up with “Melting Pot” and “Arm in Arm”. We then decided to go into the studio and record these to songs. I remember writing the lyrics for Arm in Arm the day before and finishing off the Melting Pot lyrics in the studio whilst Alex was recording the drum track. Being out of work meant I had more time on my hands which lead to a lot of songs being written(“Sunlight”, “Leap Of Faith”, “Feel” and “You Make Me Wanna” to name but a few). I came up with the idea for an EP entitled “Leap of Faith” in this time as it encompassed and described that period of time really well. I went to Rhythms of the World festival in Hitchin, saw some amazing musicians and acts and got very sunburnt!! Oh and I turned 21 and had my very long hair cut off!! Lol
September/October
I started, and left almost as soon working for an industrial type job agency. Having to get up at 5:40 am was difficult and the people there didn’t seem to keen on individuality but I desperately needed a job. As much as I didn’t enjoy it, it was a good experience. On a more positive note the “Starmatix” debut show at Club 85’s Bank holiday party went well enough to get booked to play two weeks later. It was a busy time for me. I remember telling a close friend a couple of years ago that I always wanted to meet a future girlfriend at a gig I was playing. Never really expecting it to happen, when I hear someone call out “my mate thinks your hot” in my direction, I’m sure you can imagine I was pretty shocked, especially as it was Starmatix first full half hour gig! Over the next few weeks we chatted and gradually met up on a few occasions. We are now very much together and happy!! : D (thanks loser girl!!) I started work at Strum and Drum, teaching guitar, bass and keyboards. More gigs with The Funky Monks. I met up with London based band “The Sliders” in this time and our debut show at the Oxjam charity gig, in benefit of Oxfam, in Islington was really quite something!! Unfortunately Barry decided to leave Starmatix and so it almost failed before it managed to get off the ground. My solo stuff was going well though and I managed to complete the EP “Leap of Faith” deciding to make it a freebie. I also started work at Birthdays card shop in Stevenage.
Gigs:
Starmatix: Club 85 bank holiday gig, Club 85 and the Green Room.
The Funky Monks: The Wilbury, Stevenage 60th anniversary celebration and Chells Family pub.
The Sliders: The Chapel bar Oxjam gig.
November/December
Things carried on in much the same way, continuing to be busy. Still more gigs with The Funky Monks, including the Christmas lights switch on show to possibly a bigger crowd than Rock in the Park! Late December we played on the Hertbeat FM Christmas show, the first time I’ve ever played on Radio. Starmatix got back on its feet having found a new bass player, Adam from The Art of Opposition. We are currently writing new material ready to gig in early 2007. Meetings with the Sliders continued, writing and recording new material ready to gig with in 2007. On the 22nd November I went to see Muse at Wembley. I’ve never managed to see them before and being a huge fan this was a chance not to miss. The hype around their live show is incredible and they definitely didn’t disappoint!!!! 13th December saw the first time I’d ever been on an aeroplane!! My beautiful “loser girl” and I went to Paris for a few days to celebrate her birthday. It was great to get away from normality for a bit and you can’t get much further away than watching the sunset from the top of the Eiffel Tower!! :D
Gigs:
The Funky Monks: The Four Emblems club, The Wilbury, Stevenage Christmas lights switch on, Hertbeat radio Christmas party and Chells family pub.
So it’s been a very eventful year and a year for many new experiences. I hope 2007 is equally as successful!!
I wish you all a very happy new year!!
Peace and Love, Josh.