As some of you may or may not know, I’ve been writing a concept album about the actual Transit of Venus.  The one that this project is named after.

If this requires a bit of back-story, here it is in brief.  A transit of Venus is the astronomical term for when Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, a little black dot of an eclipse. (This is an ASTRONOMY thing not an astrology thing.  You’ve got no idea how often I hear “You don’t believe in astrology? But your band is called Transit of Venus!”  An easy mistake to make I guess haha)  Venus transits occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years.  The last Transit of Venus was in 2004 and the next one will be this year in June.

You may be wondering “Is this at all interesting and why would anyone care?” so I’ll tell you why the transit of venus is interesting to me. I can’t promise it will also be interesting to you, but thats ok, you can go read your horoscope instead.

I first heard about the Transit of Venus when I was sitting in a lecture room, Auckland Uni, Physics 107 – Planets, Stars and Galaxies.  We had this certain lecturer who could sing you to sleep with his monotonous dreary rumble, no matter how interesting the subject matter was I’d find my head nodding and my breath slowing and I’d have to fight to keep my eyes open as I stared at the whiteboard.  He was talking about the Transit of Venus one particular day, we had an assignment where we had to replicate the calculations required to determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun.  He told the story of Captain James Cook.  Growing up, I’d only heard the primary-school version of the legend where a somewhat vilified Captain Cook lands in New Zealand and starts shooting people.  I’d never heard the backstory of the amazing journey of scientific discovery.  These explorers were our olden time astronauts, risking their lives for new knowledge.   The Endeavour had a botanist and an astronomer on board, their trip was about more than traveling to new countries with guns to stir up trouble.  And it annoyed me that I’d never been told about this at school.  

Anyway, there’s a lot more depth to the story of the observations of the Transit of Venus (which were necessary to calculate the distance of the earth to the sun, which itself was necessary to calculate the relative distances of everything in the solar system*) the whole of it IS quite interesting, and I’m not really a writer so I won’t blah blah blah about it too much, and will in fact wind up my little story by saying that back in 2005 I named my recording project Transit of Venus, I got an A- in that paper, and then later I dropped out of Uni because I wanted to spend more time on my main band Amperzahn and work in a music store. /Backstory

I’ve been writing a collection of songs inspired by stories related to the Transit of Venus, for a concept album I wish to release before or around June.  It’s going to be bookended by two instrumental pieces, first Evening Star, and it will end on a piece called Morning Star.  Now life being what it is, the last song on the album is the first one ready, and here it is…

 

If you like it please do share it around.

In this song I was trying to capture a feeling of wonder, trepidation, but then adventure excitement and discovery, as well as a nostalgia or sadness that this coming Transit will be the last within our lifetime. I felt morally obliged to include twinkly sounds because everyone knows stars (and yes, planets) make a twinkling noise when they sparkle***.

Adam played Drums and Bass and that instrument that is called a Brazilian Viola but looks neither Brazilian nor like a Viola. I played Piano/Keyboards and Guitar and the thing that makes a sparkly noise which I often call a marimba though it’s definitely not one.

We recorded at The Rock Factory Studio, which is always the best of fun! We finished the whole song in a day by prioritising feel over perfection. We had a picnic in a tree at the domain, which is something of a tradition now. We ate Burger Fuel, I had a Beatnik Burger. A bug flew into my mouth while I was eating it. (We should get free burgers for that plug right? Someone tell them to sponsor our band…)

And that is part of the story of the song Morning Star. I missed out the bit about planetariums but I’ll tell you that sooooooonish haha!

Bye for now,
Kristie

*Some may argue that ‘necessary’ is the wrong word and that they’ve lived their lives quite happily without ever needing to know this information, but I’d argue that all past knowledge is relevant to present and future knowledge so while you might not specifically need to know the distance from the earth to the sun, your TV** needs satellites, and satellites need space travel and space travel needs a half decent knowledge of at least the close bits of space, am I right? Do you like your TV?

** Unless you just use it for DVD’s, like the one at my place. In which case substitute Google Earth, or GPS or whatever it is you fancy that needs satellites.

***True fact, you read it here first, on the best place for all true facts; the internet.

According to my Jan 2011 blog my plans were…

1. Finish building the GUITAR OF DOOM

2. Play some mean shows

3. Finish an acoustic album/EP.

4. Overcome my dentistry phobia and get my damn wisdom teeth out.

5. Try to be less awful with money.

I’d give myself a 1.5/5 for achievement here.  I did play some mean shows, and I was slightly less awful with money than usual.  I got some work done on the Guitar of Doom, but not nearly as much as I’d have liked to.  I recorded acoustic demos, but never took it further than that.

What my goals for 2011 should have been is…

1. Play piano/guitar/ukulele for a theatre company

2. Play some mean shows with ToV, especially fun out of town shows

3. Do something fun like the 48 hour film festival

4. Be in Moe and Sashis music video in Malaysia

5. Get swept off my feet by unexpected Handsome Disney Prince

6. Record a bunch of acoustic demos, and track some songs with the band that I haven’t yet had mixed because I’m useless

7. Record, mix and release this song in a day, in the gap between Christmas and New Years http://transitofvenusproject.bandcamp.com/track/morning-star

8. Go to the gym semi-regularly when I can be bothered and haven’t had a late night

9. Play ‘keyboard’ in a band (as a ‘piano’ player, I’ve never really done this before!)

10. Be Happy

There, 10/10 ;D  I win at awesome!

I daren’t write down any goals for 2012. I know what I’m working towards, but I never know what will get thrown my way.

Here is some stuffs from 2011 for you to watch/listen…

Happy New Year!

<3 Kristie xxx

Trying to remember what actually happened in September… a glance at my calendar indicates that it was spent rehearsing for a theatre production of Hairy Maclary (which is now being performed at The Pumphouse), recording exam pieces for a school, and rehearsing some other things for some other secret things.  Not so much secret, as just I’m not gonna go blah blah blah about them until I’m really sure it’s all happening.

Apparently I haven’t been to the gym in seventeen yonks, nor have I managed to play netball or build anymore of my guitar.  I have two songs in partially completed states of recording… and I’m a bit mad at myself for not getting more done!

I did play a little acoustic gig at Juice Bar a couple of weekends ago with Adam, our acoustic duo Herbacious Pepperonicle basically is sounding like a Transit-of-Venus/Amperzahn covers band at the moment.

Oh yes, and here are a couple of pics from our gig with Miss Plum at Whammy Bar late August. It was a really fun night and I was stoked to catch up with so many people I hadn’t seen in ages!

Thank you for taking the time to read my irregular monthly updates <3 <3 <3

[posted by Kristie]

I also have some pictures to share with you from last months trip to Napier where we played at The Cabana. Pictures are by Melissa Thorburn

We have a gig coming up in Auckland, on August 19th we’re playing for Miss Plum Green to celebrate a digital download release. This is happening at Whammy Bar on K’rd (downstairs in St Kevins Arcade). Keep an eye on our gigs page for details of upcoming shows  http://transitofvenusproject.com/gigs/

In other news, slowly chipping away at recordings.  I have a habit of trying to complete numerous projects at once, which sometimes makes things take forever. But I’d like to think I never really abandon ideas, I just stretch them out over the years. Speaking of which, I’ve been doing more work on my Guitar of Doom… Have a look here http://transitofvenusproject.com/building-a-guitar-of-doom/

I’m sure I have more to report… I mean, I know I do. But some of it I can’t blog about yet…  So I hope that’s enough news for you at the moment.  Those of you who read this, thanks a ton for your support. It means a lot to me

Take care,

<3 K xxx

The Band and I have been playing around a little, you could almost call it a nation-wide-tour but that might be pushing it. Over the last fortnight we’ve gigged in Auckland, Raglan, and Napier. It’s been pretty fun!

Here’s a video from the Napier gig that Ninja Monkeys were kind enough to put on youtube…

And here’s a bunch of random road trip and random gig pics…

In other news… I’ve been playing piano for a ‘Tim Bray Productions’ show that starts next week at The Pumphouse Theatre in Takapuna, Auckland. The show is called The Lion In The Meadow and is based on stories by Margaret Mahey.  It’s aimed at kids but I definitely think adults would enjoy it too. I certainly love it!  Tickets available from here…. https://www.patronbase.com/_PH/Productions/0407/Performances

On Friday I played out with my new line-up. A gig at the Kings Arms organised by Invader Cain and Mystique promotions with all proceeds going to Red Cross.

Nikolas (drums) and Dan (bass) kicked ass and I consider our first show together to be a sucess. Was so much fun!  Thanks to everyone who came along, and big ups to everyone who came and said hi to me after the show. Lovely to meet people who enjoy my music!

The other bands who played were my good friends Mile High (who have recently been in the studio with me at The Rock Factory and I really need to get my A into G and sort out the mixing of that epic song…) Invader Cain (watch the video for their song ‘Shonky’, tis cool!), The Dirty Sweets, Doppler and Benny Profane. Take the time to check all these guys out if you can.

I hate the way I can’t embed facebook vids into blogs. Damn internet. But if you go to the link below you should be able to see the vid my drummer Nikolas took of his drumming during our set.  If anyone else has any pics or vids from the show feel free to send them my way info@transitofvenusproject.com

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150264806093332&comments&notif_t=video_comment_tagged

I’ve been super busy lately, working for epic legendary workplace The Rock Factory and rehearsing for a play called The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch with Time Bray Productions which is due to start on Monday at The Pumphouse Theater in Takapuna.

About a fortnight ago  I managed to get thrown in a pool for a quick photoshoot with Jacki Jane Photography. My fav two pics are here (I may get thrown in a pool again as punishment for posting unprocessed pics, but I just happen to like the randomness of them!)

Also did a photoshoot a few months back with Anthony Corban who is my kinda ‘label boss’ type person with Black Doris Music and runs the rehearsal space I practice in called The Manor.  My fav pic from that ‘shoot’…

If you haven’t seen, I’ve been posting up a few acoustic demos on my bandcamp page, they’re pretty rough but sometimes people like to hear them at this stage, so go download them if ya like. http://transitofvenusproject.bandcamp.com/album/acoustic-demos-summer-2010-2011

Well, thats about it from me. My brain is asleep so I’m gonna go get some exercise hopefully in the form of walking from my car to the fish n chip shop.  Om nom nom!

Catchya soon! Don’t forget to add yourself to the mailing list*, I send out a email not more than once a month with news/gigs.

<3 K xxx

*The thingee has disappeared down the bottom of the page for some reason. I should probably fix that… er…

Often at the start of the year, I like to write about what my new years resolutions for the previous year should have been (though scrolling back I see I haven’t really done this properly since 2007, busy past few years? According to my blog, kinda. LOL).

So 2010 my new years resolutions with the benefit of hindsight were…

1.  Visit two previously unvisited countries (Thailand and Singapore)

2. Play some music overseas (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia baby)

3. Get bitten by a snake

4. Learn to swear in another language.

5. Read more than 100 books (Classics mostly, old stuff out of copyright that are free as e-books)

6. RIDE AN ELEPHANT! (lifelong dream!!!)

7. Learn to like beer (this was a New Years Resolution I really truly  made at the start of the year and not just made up at the end. There is a story behind it but it’s one that is probably more interesting if I don’t tell it at all.)

8. Discover the joys of hanging out at a mamak at 3am with good friends. Many of my dearest memories of Malaysia seem to involve this

9. Get the worlds most awesome job ever on returning to New Zealand! I’m dead serious, I really like my new job working for recording studio and event production company The Rock Factory

10. Don’t fall apart when everything around me falls apart. I don’t know if I kept this all year long but in the end when push came to shove I’ve managed to swim rather than sink. So far.

So what does 2011 hold? Lets hazard a guess, though really I’m usually so wrong with these.

1. Finish building the GUITAR OF DOOM I really really want to do this! (yes it’s really not finished after all these years, most of you probably don’t even know what I’m talking about…)

2. Play some mean shows (I’m already hearing rumours I’ve put a new band together for Transit of Venus and that the first NZ gig is booked in March…?)

3. Finish an acoustic album/EP.

4. Overcome my dentistry phobia and get my damn wisdom teeth out.

5. Try to be less awful with money.

There ya go. Hope to catch you at a show this year my darlings! xx <3 K

The Egnater Renegade 212 is a 65 watt combo with two different 12” Celestion speakers in the cab (a vintage 30 and a custom voiced Elite-80), two independent channels, 6 12AX7s in the pre-amp, 2 6L6 and 2 EL34 tubes in the power amp. It’s a smooth and sexy hunk of amp in cream and charcoal, with the many controls hidden away on top rather than spoiling the front panel.

I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised with the Renegades versatility. I could see myself covering a lot of bases with this amp, especially thanks to the dial that allows you to blend and choose between cool 6L6’s and warm creamy EL34 tubes on each of the two channels.

I also especially liked the ability to switch between 65 watts and 15 watts, allowing you to get a good sound out of it in the bedroom/lounge as well as on stage.

The clean sound was clear enough to run my acoustic through (which I did at a gig and had no problems), and both channels sounded amazing back home with a Tele and pretty darn nice with my old Ibanez Roadster. The reverb is really natural sounding. Overall my impressions were of a warm sweet beautiful sounding amp that was probably a bit out of my price range. Turns out I was wrong, at $3000* it’s ridiculously affordable considering how good it sounds.

So here I am singing the praises of the Renegade, you may be wondering what’s in it for me? Not a free amp sadly. So here are the things I didn’t like about the amp:

The first I should probably be a little embarrassed to confess. I wasn’t able to bring it to my one of my gigs because I couldn’t get it down the stairs of my flat on my own. It was just too darn heavy.** (Admittedly if I actually owned the amp I would have bumped and slid it down without worrying about a few knocks…)

The second thing, the noisy cooling fan got on my nerves a little.

The third thing, the colour. I would have preferred it in pink. Bogans might prefer it in black, but they might want something a bit more ‘metal’ in the first place. It’s hard to imagine someone playing Metallica through this, though I did try it and it sounded legit.

I give the Egnater Renegade 212 four and a half cookies out of five cookies. It’s sound quality, versatility and affordability are fantastic. It has a cool name. Someone should buy me one for my birthday.

*Apparently on special for $2500 at the moment…

** I have since been informed it comes with wheels!

In the interests of “what goes on tour stays on tour” I wont describe the smell of boy-farts experienced in the van on the trip home.  Or what was drawn on the van windows in the frost. Or who drooled on themselves when they fell asleep in the van.

DAY 1

We took down two vans, Michelle and I and Mile High (minus Kitty and Q-slop) in one, and John and Mark in the other.  We left on tuesday morning, the first show being in Turoa Lodge Tuesday night.  We stopped on the way to view the magnificent feat of engineering that is the thing where a train does some kind of loopty loop.  There is a model of this shown below. Which is all I could really see of this world famous feat of spectacular railway engineering.

Much more interesting was the giant driftwood sculpture of a t-rex. All the more impressive for being so far from the beach!  That’s Ditty standing next to it btw. He is Mile Highs singer.

There were also some horses in a paddock. We lured them close to the fence with handfuls of grass and patted them.  I like horses.  This is Michelle feeding a horse!

It was a pretty long trip.  Kevin entertained us by making fart noises on his iPhone over the van speakers.  Ditty entertained us with lollies. I got really excited about seeing cows and sheep and trees and things. Ooooh and baby lambies!  Michelle had a little nap.

Eventually we got to our destination, Turoa Lodge.  I don’t know which to mention first. The roaring fire, the mysterious dance floor stripper pole, the several deers heads and what could have possibly been a mooses head over the door… Crazy yet awesome.

The Gods of Nothing kicked off the first set.  They gig pretty rarely so if you ever get the opportunity to see them play make sure you do. Great songs and a kick-ass live show.  Husband and wife front-team Mark and Michelle are adorable and entertaining on stage together. I wouldn’t change a thing about this band!

Mile High played next. By this time my camera was dying so I used Sloppy-Q’s one which worked much better than my dying one. Mile Highs show was good fun, everyone was like, dancing and stuff and apparently a fight broke out thanks to someone dancing too hard with their elbow and someone was thrown out and it was all very rock n roll and I didn’t see anything because I may or may not have been singing backing vocals at the time or perhaps was in the bathroom.

DAY 2

The next day we went… TO THE SNOW!!!

Most of ‘the boys’ went and almost repeatedly killed themselves with skiing and snowboarding activities. There are some videos on facebook. It doesn’t look like nearly as much fun as SNOW BALL FIGHTS and SNOW SCULPTING! Which is what Michelle and Ditty and I did and it was totally the best day ever!  Actually Michelle tried to ski a bit (traitor).

Later we retired to a spa and dinner and an early night. Oh and rolling up beer soaked microphone leads that were so sticky broken glass had stuck to them in places.  Epic.

DAY 3

Mile High were supposed to play up Whakapapa but thanks to the weather going all icky it was cancelled just as one van arrived, and while van 2 awaited chains at the bottom of the mountain. While we were up there I took this picture and drank a mochachino.

Oh yeah, and I’m not actually sure which day this happened, but I was astounded to see these milkshake cups (as modelled by John) still exist!

Also I had a ‘traditional New Zealand breakfast’ of Fish and Eggs.  It didn’t taste nearly as bad as it looks haha. I’m sorry, I should save my breakfast stories for twitter, but what the hell. It’s my blog so I can put in it whatever I like so nyer nyer nyer!

Mile High and the G.O.N. played a gig later that night at the National Park Hotel. It went off something wicked. What a night. Must use pictures stolen from facebook to describe.  (I took these on Quintos camera so I don’t feel bad about stealing them)

Kevin joins the table dancers guitar and all

I may have got a bit carried away with the slow-shutter-speed thing hehe so much PINK!

There were even more backing vocalists later, but I didn’t get pics because I was up there singing too!

It was Kitty’s last gig with the band for six months so naturally he was forced to don a pink dress partway through the gig. OK maybe this pic is from the other gig. But if you’re leaving the band there is no limit to the amount of times you must wear pink.

We headed back to Aucklandtown the next morning, some of us more hungover than others.  It was a great trip, thanks heaps Mile High and The Rock Factory and the Gods of Nothing for letting me come along, I hope I was more help than hinderance. And thanks Turoa Lodge and National Park Hotel and Fallout Festival!

LINKS:

MILE HIGH: www.milehighband.com

THE ROCK FACTORY: www.therockfactory.net

FALLOUT FESTIVAL: www.falloutfestival.co.nz

]]> http://transitofvenusproject.com/thats-a-lovely-story-mile-high-winter-tour/feed/ 2 http://transitofvenusproject.com/thats-a-lovely-story-mile-high-winter-tour/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TransitOfVenus/~3/LtPM0viVpHs/ http://transitofvenusproject.com/there-and-back-again/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:39:40 +0000 admin http://transitofvenusproject.com/?p=633 [...]]]> Maybe my height without heels is a little hobbitish, but I don’t have giant hairy feet. Nevertheless I recently embarked on a grand adventure like the ones famously traveled by Bilbo and more recently Frodo.

At the end of last year, as many of you know, I went to Malaysia.  Malaysia is very different from New Zealand. You can buy Milo in a can and it’s bloody good!  It’s very very hot all the time, there are mosquitos that can allegedly kill you.  It rains every afternoon at 4:30pm.  Anyway I had a series of fabulous adventures and am now back safe and sound in New Zealand, sitting about the fire telling tales of The Land where Winter Never Comes.

On my journey to there and back again, I met lovely people and made friends I will never forget.  I played a gig or two or three.  I read a lot of books, spent a lot of time on the train, ate a lot of new foods, wrote a lot of new songs.  I threw a magic ring into a volcano and defeated a dark lord.

THE VELVET ACES

I met Moe through Twitter when I’d been in Malaysia a little while.

He was looking for a guitarist and I was looking for a band, so after texts and tweets we organised an In Real Life meeting at Starbucks.  Soon there were jams and auditions and hanging-outs and shisha and The Velvet Aces began to take shape.

And like all bands, the band involved not just the people who happened to play the musical instruments in it but a group of friends and supporters and hangers on who all made up the musical family that had formed around Moe the nucleolus.

TRANSIT OF VENUS

And through playing in the Velvet Aces I became friends with Riz the other guitarist…

And he and I ended up jamming on some of the Transit of Venus music together with other friends Henry and Ash.

Unfortunately I had to leave before we got to play any gigs together, apart from that one time Riz and I hit an open mic night, which doesn’t really count does it? haha

But I just remembered ‘that one time’ I played some Transit of Venus songs with Ziam and crew at No Black Tie That was when I first got to Malaysia.

BINTANG

And then there was the time Moe and Sashi got me to play session guitar on their song Bintang, which was then nominated for an AVIMA award for the acoustic version. That was pretty cool I thought!

NEW ZEALAND

I arrived back home on Tuesday, started looking for jobs and flats and all those things one needs to survive.  I’m really glad to be back, though I’m going to miss a lot of things about Malaysia.  Even though I spent half my time in Malaysia missing so many things about New Zealand!  Mostly people are the things I miss, and I’m just so thankful that the internet exists and makes it easy to keep in touch with everyone!

(For those of you who want to know the gossip first-hand, long story short I moved to Malaysia for my boyfriends job and now I am back in New Zealand because our relationship hit some difficulties. But I’m ok, he’s ok, we’re still friends and all that so no need at all to look all worried and pat me on the head when you see me!)

Looking forward to getting back into the music thing here in New Zealand, got a couple of projects I’m working on, and a concept album I’m planning for release in conjunction with the june 2012 astronomical event – the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun.

Well, that’s about all I can be bothered writing right now. If I don’t update regularly enough feel free to nag me about it

Hope this finds you well,

<3 K xxx

p.s. check out The Velvet Aces http://www.myspace.com/thevelvetacesonline