blog continues... confessions of free admiral rich .  feb 1, 2006 >>







PS : News to PerSwayed.com.  Rich is now publishing a blog direct to this site... >>  january 27, 2006.  the confessions of free admiral rich...  Rich, Colin and friends arrive at our Rosdale headquarters and find a group of friends and a surprised Joel, as our greenhouse studio is located at Rosedale Greenhouses where Joel lives and runs the business, and he was expecting to get some rest tonight.  Instead, there's a group who've gathered already and next we arrive and another couple of fans and they all pretty much start begging joel to strap on the guitar and play and then finally, after some tinkering with our touchy PA, we start to play.  I suppose sometimes we forget that this is joel's home and we should be quite amazed that we've never heard a complaint from a neighbour.  continued >>

january 27, 2006 continued here >> What should we call our rehearsal space I wonder right now.  it's just us and this is just our rehearsal space... an excellent location, really.  we've converted an old donkey barn into our rehearsal place.   The donkey's name is Josephine and she's kind of like a really big dog in a way, mostly quite ordinate about the band kicking around and having grabbed a share of half her donkey barn... she's heard more perswayed music than any one of our fans, and you know its not every day a rock band shows up to play in your donkey barn, you know, in between all that chow and walking it off in the soggy ground of the increasingly non restricitive 1 acre parcel she gets to walk around on.  anyhow enough about the donkey.  we're invading the donkey's space and on this night, also apparently joel's.

 we opened for our intimate crowd in our 30 x 20 enclosed space, far to loud really, a friend named jeb, who doesn't really like blogs, had to leave cuz his "rotater cuff was ratling inside his body".  yeah, i suppose we really pound out a ton of energy when we play our songs, just us four, colin on drums, andre on bass, joel on guitar, and me picking up the mic. and singing hard, expounding a lot of energy and, as per usual, opening with our song called "Top of the World" (a tough song to not like and a bit of a tune up and get ready song for the band).  I like to open with "Top" and when we're rehearsing as opposed to playing it in an official live show, I like to take the mic. to expain why we open with this song... "this is our intro song, this is our roar, you, the crowd, you want this, to feel a sense of excitement and euphoria" and they might not even know that that is what they want, the singer picks up the mic and the audience is typically uncomfortably silent, and so, now, it's like, we'll give you the euphoria you want, we'll almost shock you into it, and then we'll grab ya on our second song, "I Want to Ask" and you'll begin to move and reach for your own instruments.  we were appreciative of this crowd tonight.  they left us feeling confident that our music is good and worthwhile persuing, and one day, not to far down the road, potentially, we'll matter to an increasingly larger amount of fans.  maybe.  or we'll just play because, you know, there's no audience in art, we play because we can, this is our journey (see the lyrics for the song "Be Moved").  For what purpose would i show my face?  To PerSwayed.  I apologize in advance if i've sounded arrogant in anyway.  I really am a reluctant blogger.  Funny, that I really like singing... i suppose, potentially, i'm also a bit of a cocky frontman... potentially also unfortunate.  I do feel that confidence in one's show is part of the position and it does feel often that it's up to the singer to sell it, and you know, I think it does sell, I think it does cause a reaction... if I didn't think it was working, I wouldn't bother doing it and because I do think it is working, I, and my brothers and joel, continue to play on.  last night, we weren't really ready to play or expecting to play, to be able to take that time out and play together.  it's a real committment of time and energy.  you should hear my telephone voice next day, and for those of you who know my current day job, you know i've gotta maintain the phone voice.  busy times right and for what.  i should be home writing books, i think, music, too, but, instead, we exist all split apart from everything else, we think potentially we could contribute and yet we don't, not how we think we should, we feel we should be heard, and, you know, colin and myself arrived on a rumour from andre, yeah, we're going to play, and so we came and we spread the word around we were going to rehearse and some friends came out and the donkey listened in, and I wonder, who else?       

 Poet's Speak : I come here with some written word
                 Real as black, this is what I've heard, I've heard.
            distant communcation, frustration for the nation,
         at hand, who knows, but somebody wants to tell you,
      be moved ...

       for what purpose do i show my face,
       for what purpose?  to PerSwayed >>

       for what purpose :  to Dream it Better.