Recently...

Recently, I started a band with a few friends. It's probably the most fun I've had in a band in a long time. I haven't taken it too seriously and I'm playing drums again for the first time in a while for a band. I'm actually having fun. Music is fun again. But anyways, we decided that we'd lose the first song we wrote and write a better one in it's place. I wrote lyrics for it and again, another first in a long time. I haven't written seriously on my own in what feels like a year. I claimed to have a bad case of writer's block, but I think I was just scared to try it again. But as I was writing, I wasn't getting angry, I wasn't throwing out page after page. I just wrote. It all seemed to make sense to me. I thought I'd share the lyrics with you guys. It's not one of my best works, but, regardless, it's mine.

I know this place,
too many familiar back streets;
you and your intentions
pressed to streets.

Lets keep this between you and I,
once more, please.

Pick it up
pick it up
and kindly take your leave
kindly, you've been fine
I know you mean well.

Pick it up
pick it up
and kindly take my place,
you're doing just fine
I wish I meant well.


So those are the lyrics. Bit short, but I never wrote lyrics that were long anyways.

Why do I do?

Why do I do what I do? I wish it was simple, but there's nothing in art that's simple. Each thing I do is very similar. I write, I play music, I act, and I draw when I can. I started writing because I had to, not because I wanted to. I needed to get the phrases I'd get in my head out and the only way it'd work was with paper and a pen. I'd write my poems on anything I could find to relieve my head from the attacking stanzas. After a little while of writing, I began to play music. Music had always made me move. I don't mean dance, I'd keep tempo with my hands and feet and I'd be moving my head back and forth with the song playing. Hell, I'm even doing it now listening to a song. I got my first guitar in the 4th grade. A Fender Strat that was my dad's friend's and he didn't use it anymore. I got rid of it, but if I still had it, it'd be known as the catalyst for my interest in music in every aspect. I act because it's what I've been doing my whole life and I never realized. I was constantly doing odd things as a kid that I knew would either make people laugh or get annoyed. I can't stop acting...it's pretty much who I am, not who I'm not. All these things take quite a toll on me mentally and physically and drawing is how I relax from it all. But I suppose all the pain and fatigue that I get through my art is something I don't mind. I'd rather die doing something I'm disgustingly proud of and have scars and bruises to show for it then working at some office confined to a cubicle. My life is sacrificing my body and mind for my art. My art is product and subject to change of me. I am my art.

365...

I'll be showing you the evolution of my bass that I'm building. Before I can show you it, you should see my other basses and where the inspiration for the body came from. I've combined elements from my 4 basses to create the bass I'm building.



The red bass is my newest bass, and most prized bass. A red Spector bass with one passive EMG humbucker. This bass gives me the capability to play a nice warm song and, if I so desire, a bright funk slap and pop groove all with the turn of a knob. This bass pretty much says I can do anything you can throw at me, which ties to my optimistic outlook on things.

The middle, an epiphone knock off precision bass. I didn't really ever care for it to be honest. I just wanted another bass that I could throw flat wound strings on. These past couple of days, this has been my go-to bass when it comes to practicing. I'm trying to see what kind of tone as a bassist I prefer, and I'm leaning more towards to low warm tones of this bass. I suppose I can only define this bass as the beginning of a summer night, before it gets too dark and its still cool out.

The final bass in this picture is my second oldest bass in my possession. A 4 string Ibanez Gio with GHS Boomers on. If your a musician, you'd know that this bass is the brightest sounding of all my instruments. The GHS strings are really in your face and give off a slap sound even with a pluck of a pick or the pluck of my index finger. I only use this bass for fast music to capture the meaning of the given song. This bass has an attitude of it's own and is completely underestimated by me every time I play it.



This bass is my Squire 5-string and has undergone surgery. This bass is the reason I got into building. I did this bass whilst going through my folk phase. This bass has changed, but is still the bass I bought regardless of the look. This bass is sweat in the grain and I've got the arms to prove it. This bass taught me to take my time with things, and to wait for the end, it's always the best part.

It's with great pride that I unveil to you the bass I've been building. The picture doesn't capture the flaws as much as I'd like it to. Despite the way it looks now somewhat, it still has a ways to go before it's even CLOSE to being done.



Tober Bass #0709 From now until it's completion, I'll be putting up pictures everyday after I work on this bass. Enjoy the show.