Career Aspirations

Goals For The Next Two Years...

- 7" Inch
- Cassette
- West Coast At Least Twice
- Canada At Least Once ( Halifax )
- Alberta/ Saskatchewan/ Manitoba Mini-Tours
- Vancouver Island Tours
- Ghosts Throats Fest, Rain Fest, Music Waste Fest, Arson Fest, Shindig For Citr,
- U.S Tour For At Least A Month ( Glue, DIY U.S.A )
- First Full Length
- New Van

Pizza, Frisbee, Drywall, & Water

It was the ides of May and high time for us to play a show in Langley. We pulled into the Masonic Hall way too early and had nothing to do. We split a pizza (on the expense of Ian's wallet) and decided to play some frisbee to kill the time.

Shortly after realizing how bad i was at frisbee, Bodyguard and Set To Go from North Vancouver showed up. They were really nice, and were really good bands. Not to mention they recommended we go to Rain Fest, which was amazing. The rest of the bill was pretty stacked as well. Picking on Toddlers, Slingshot, and our good friends The Wrecktals.

When it was time for us to play we were pumped to go. I am having a hard time remembering everything that happened, but I do remember everyone's gear took quite a beating. Drew bashed his headstock into the ceiling and we rolled over the monitors by accident. Drew as usual spent a large portion on the ground screaming into the mic he knocked over. We poured water all over Tak and his drumset, and every time he hit a drum water would splash up.

On the last song I threw my bass down pretty hard, grabbed a mic and ran into the crowd. I was screaming and pushing people and getting the pit going, but the mic cable disconnected. Somewhere in the heat of passion the mic went flying from my hands and hit the wall. The mic was fine.

I felt really bad still but the promoters were really good about it, gave us some gas money and we went on our way home. When Drew opened his guitar case at home his guitar was covered in drywall. A pretty good show at the end of the day.

*Side note: This show occurred in Langley on May 15, 2009 at the Masonic Hall. Thank you to the fellow bands, the people who watched our set, and Spat Out of Luck Productions.

Hope River, Quartets, & Faceplants.

So by now you are probably wondering what on earth i meant by my blog title. I had 2 practices with guests before we debuted as a quartet. It was in my hometown of Chilliwack at the Hope River Lions Hall, a familiar sight to me and drew. To tell you the honest truth it was probably our tamest show since i have joined, but it was my first show so I'll cut myself some slack.

Now i don't really remember this but there is photography to prove it. Mic cables were short and no one was in the hall so we decided to mess with how we positioned ourselves. Me and Drew kicked each other pretty hard. Nothing too crazy. I'll post up a video of our opening song, and a picture of me face planting.

Side note: This show occurred on April 10, 2009. Thank you to the folks still supporting the Chilliwack scene, Noelle Frank, and the fellow bands we played with.

What to do when your stranded on the side of a highway 101

Shortly before I was in GSTS! I was playing country music and living in Vancouver. I visited my family and friends in the Abby/Chilliwack area. When I needed to go home they guys were conveniently playing that night at lugz and offered me a ride.

Back in the day drew spent 500 $ and bought a 15 passenger ford e350. I don't think I need to elaborate on how that was a bad move. Anyways, Drew's first time driving it out, we break down in Aldegrove.

It's a good thing we left early, because we were waiting for Ian's dad for what seemed like an eternity. I got the hair brained idea to start playing guitar to pass time. I took of my boots and hopped on top of the van playing some of my songs, trying to get rigs to blow there horn as they pass me by.

Slowly but surely the rest of the band caught on and hauled there gear outside. D-town and Ian were playing on the guitars and Tak was playing on the core essentials of his drum set. Remember we were on the side of the highway, so cars were flying less than a meter away from us at a speed that shook us, so it felt really cool. The most memorable (and long) jam we had was rooted from my song "Never Drink on Sunday". Every time a rig would pass we'd break from playing and try and get them to honk.

So Ian's father eventually came we put all of the gear to his van went to the dealership and picked up the part we needed. Once we came back to our van the cops were there. Apparently someone thought that a side of the highway jam was hazardous enough to call the authorities. We
denied ever jamming and they believed us, due to the lack of instruments in our van.

Shortly after we sold our van for 250$ more than we bought it for. All in all a memorable jam. A memorable breakdown.

A brief summary

Some of these entries might not make sense if i don't do a brief summary of the band. GSTS! actually used to be called Guests. Back then they were a 2 piece consisting of Drew and Tyler (who i will periodically call Tak) . Apparently it was pretty intense, but i never got to see it due to working a lot. That lasted for about 6 months give or take until they added another guitarist, Ian.
I did see this line-up a bunch of times, and it was a tight set. Sometime shortly before i joined they changed there name to GSTS!, due to confusion on fliers. I joined the band as their bassist about six months after Ian joined. Ive been jamming with drew for about 5 years give or take in other bands, so the assimilation into the band was actually quite easy. I'll leave it at that, drew might change this a bit, considering he's been in the band from day one, and hopefully he posts some pre-four piece stories.