These days it’s always raining…I have not accessed my blog since my last entry and I have not read anyone’s blog. My streamyx has encountered some problems and I am typing this offline at the moment…sigh.
Lots of good things have been happening to me the past one week… success of BOTB, great friends, got a car, streamyx guy came…wow. Trying to live a life of gratitude by not doing anything stupid.(seem to do lots of stupid things at times, God help!!!)
I have been meaning to document PG 165’s journey. Here it goes…the first part of it. How did it all start? I sat down with Vijay one day and we had one of those talks at a funny café that he brought me to. We spoke about the possibility of seriously starting a band. At that moment, I was indeed wondering whether it was the right timing? I knew that it was easier said than done. Would it be juz an idea, a dream? That night I left wondering what would materialize from our conversation. During that time, my circle of friends were experiencing personal problems, including myself…so it was a world wind of emontions.
I guess some weeks after that, I met a friend at the library at the topic of BOTB(Battle of The Bands) came out and she told me that band selection was over…I thought to myself…We missed the chance and felt disappointed. I later found out that it was wrong info and we could download the forms. Justin, Zhen Xin, Vj and I began the journey when we agreed to take the challenge and we sat down to discuss the possible songs and band name. Band names such as ‘Band Aid’, ‘All Shapes and Sizes’, etc came and went…by divine revelation or freak brilliance, I can’t recall how we came to it but Zhen Xin’s WWar II motorcycle bearing the plate PG165 juz kinda clicked coz we all had an affection for that bike(it’s antique). We were also discussing a suitable cover song to play and we decided on Switchfoot’s Meant to Live(other selections were Love Song for a Savior, Iris, I’d do Anything)…from there on there was this sense of excitement and questions like, ‘Can we do this?’. We needed a self composed song as a pre-requisite to participate…so I tried modifying a song that I had been working on for a few months and kinda decided to propose it entitled, ‘You’re Everything to Me’ We needed all these details coz we wanted to submit the forms + lyrics before the deadline. At that time of mid terms and assignments, it was all pretty vague at that moment.
Auditions was scheduled on 3 & 4 July…we had about two weeks to prepare. Our choice venue for rehearsals was at God’s Garage at my church, Gateway CF. Our first rehearsal was on the 19th June the Saturday before the one week hols, before we went Sunway Lagoon. I remember my conversation with Vijay about ‘You’re Everything to Me’…he asked me if we had an alternative song coz it had Christian overtones in it and may not have gone well with the mainstream judging. The band decided to pray about it and enquire about it from Tones of Absolution committee.
From the start, I expressed my conviction about PG165…I said I don’t wanna stereotype our band as a ‘Christian Band’ or ‘THE BAND FROM CF’…I hate all that stereotyping by people, what’s wrong being Christians, yet starting a band? …but neither did I want us to forget our roots and core beliefs and convictions, one of them is to ultimately touch lives for Christ via our music (be it mainstream, contemporary, or even traditional). It felt kinda weird at first, but we mustered enough courage to not be ashamed to pray for God’s favour and thanking Him for talents EACH time before each jamming session. Nobody protested, we all submitted. Our first rehearsal filled me with confidence.
I guess, God has a funny way of bringing the four of us together for this project. We became better friends over that time span of rehearsals. Zhen Xin’s car was the ‘gig van’. We piled all our instruments inside it and he drove it around every time we needed it.
We started jamming as regularly as possible through out the week. I really salute the guys for their commitment to the project. Sometimes we jammed at 9.30am(that’s early). Justin had a football tournament at that time(so he was really stretched between training and rehearsals + studies and CF)…but he never complained about it and came and did his part. Zhen Xin the gentle giant, always offered to drive 8km to Gateway, never complained. Vijay had always been an encouragement to me via sharing the same passion in this, his enthusiasm is matched by his drumming skills. Evidently it was a team effort and was never a one man show right from the start. I guess the journey started well coz we made some right choices in the beginning and saw exciting consequences…
I was reluctant to tell people about PG165 and what we were at that time until we had made it through the auditions. I made discreet mentions about it in my blog.
Next up…AUDITIONS…43 bands and only 12 finalists eligible. So it was very intimidating.
And the development of Waves of Glory (best original song) and Vijay’s unhygienic hankie.
Check out some photos here:
http://eema.fotopages.com/?entry=163689
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