Life is good.

I love Tim Horton's. And that song 'Sorry Miss Jackson' by Outkast. I heard it on the radio the other day and I'm hooked. They rap so fast and rhythm and clever lyrics... man. Whoa.

I've been working a lot and making some dough. It feels good to earn money and buy things you can enjo

y (without getting too materialistic I know.) I finally got a Canon Rebel XT with a 28mm lens, and a Taylor 312 CE acoustic! Yase. It's so nice to have a guitar to just chill and jam out on. It's so much more inspiring for writing songs too. I think I'm going to start writing tunes. Every time I start writing something I get some kind of idea in my head that it stinks so I don't bother finishing it. I think I should though. Write some and record them even for myself.
I got to photograph a wedding on Saturday. Myself and Judith (BFF) took pictures for Nicole and Curtis' wedding (forget the last name.) They came out good - sooo good. I'm really pumped about these pictures. There's a few up here and some more on www.flickr.com/jordanmattiephoto. Judith helped a lot too. She told people where to go when I didn't know what to do and told me to chill once or twice. As if I needed to chill...pfft. Afterwards we checked out a really nice beach that a friend told us about. There were rocks with huge crashing waves. Amazing.
As of now, I'm going to work for a few more weeks, edit wedding pictures, write some songs, and then head out with the band. Oh and next Wednesday I'm going to see Bob Dylan with mom and dad and maybe someone else if we figure out who to invite. Rob, Chris and I are going to be playing with Eric Angus Whyte a bit too for his CD release tour. That's going to be so fun... very refreshing to be able to play different music with different settings and style once in a while.
God is so good. I'm starting to realize how blessed I am. Sometime I can't even believe it. it just hits me like a brush of wind, or a scent, and all of a sudden I'm overwhelmed with how much God has done and is doing in my life. There's no better feeling than to know that God is growing me and teaching me new things everyday. Thank You God.

The first non-band blog.

I changed the blog layout, and this is the first post. The album recording is complete, and I thought it was time to change the blog from the "album recording" blog to just the plan old "Jordan Mattie life" blog. I'm pretty sure I'll be the only person ever reading it, but at least I have somewhere to record my brilliant thoughts and/or amazingly exciting journeys with Life Support all over the east coast of Canada. For example, right now I'm in a basement of a house in a bed in Fredericton, NB. We're here for a conference called Encounter. Tomorrow I get to go home and spend a few weeks with family, friends, and Riley. I'm looking forward to that so much. I'm starting to get pretty home sick. I think God is using it to my advantage though and helping to not take my friends and family for granted, as I sometimes do.
I'm also listening to Brooke Fraser in my headphones. Wow. I'm so thankful for my music and headphones. It's like a drug for me... to just put on some good music and let the melodies soothe my brain, spirit, being, whatever. Especially Brooke. There's something about her music - every song is amazing. I don't think there's any that I feel like skipping. Right now my favorites are C.S. Lewis Song, Love is Waiting, The Theif, and Shadowfeet. OK, mostly the first three but I added Shadowfeet because I didn't want to sound super sappy since two of them are love songs.
Thank God for music. I'd feel so much more lonely without it. I think it's just another way for God to touch us where we're at... like sitting on a dirty subway, or alone in a city when you're really longing to be with certain friends and family. It can be so comforting. Even certain melodies or rhythms... I don't know how, but certain ones just hit me. It can just feel so good. Like this part in a Brooke song now...
"Speak to me
in the light of the dawn
mercy comes with the morning."
Whoa. That melody with the music gives me a rush.
It's 1:41am now and I have to get up early for church. But oh, one good friend from home on msn! Such a blessing...
More later.

Jordan

Thank You, Walker Texas Ranger

It's good to not be sitting on a hill this time. We're at the studio now...Rob's tracking guitars for a song that is going to be sick, while I chill and edit some pictures until it's my turn. The last few days have been good. We played twice yesterday (Sunday) at Church Without Limits, and I went to my first Blue jays game on Wednesday. It was pretty cool...almost didn't seem real when you first walk in there. It looks smalled than it does on TV, I guess just because I'm not used to seeing the entire field all at the same time. I was falling alseep a lot at the beginning so we got popcorn and pop which came to around $7, and then got yelled at when Chris and I tried to take a picture of ourselves in front of the field. The Jays lost. But at least the tickets were free and pretty close (thanks to Brandon who works at the studio and at the stadium.)
I can't really remember what else we did since then...it was also Alex's birthday on Wednesday. They got him a little cake and we sang happy birthday. Then we went outside to take pretty good, although it's always awkward to try and think of what to do in the picture. The best ones would come when we would pretend to talk about nothing. I think our favorite shot is from when we were talking and I told Rob I liked the band on his shirt - which was a Switchfoot shirt...coincidence? I think not.
While the other days since then are still coming up blank, I'm pretty sure they filled with recording, riding the subway, going to Chapters - which reminds me that I bought a really good book titled "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Phillip Yancey. I read a few chapters in Chapters (pun) and decided I had to buy it. It's really interesting so far...yes it's all about grace, and no not the prayer before dinner.
Well I'm almost done here but the last thing I have to mention is last night - after eating a lot of amazingly tasty wings, Matt, Rob, Sarah (our new Ontario best friend), and I came back to Marjori's and watched videos on youtube of Conan O'Brien showing clips from the show "Walker, Texas Ranger" starring Chuck Norris. Oh boy...all I can say is that this was a close runner up for the "hardest ever laugh award" to the time we watched the "Give Yourself Hope" video and Rob stepped in my bowl of ice cream. The clips show Conan pulling a lever everytime he wants to see a random clip form the show, all of which are completely rediculous. It's halarious. Go search "conan texas walker lever" on youtube right now, but be careful because you may laugh up a lung. Oh boy.
Two days left I guess...leaving Thursday morning early to go to Quebec before getting home to the Nish and all the students - I cannot wait! See ya soon.

Jordan

Flames, Road Rage, and DNA

Out on the hill again. Yeah here we are. I'm glad it's nice weather, no rain or anything. Wouldn't be good for the macbook. So we played tonight in Brampton at their Monday Night Life service. It was fun. They have a nice big sanctuary with very loud speakers. It's to play in a place like that once in a while...where you can pretty much feel Chris' bass in your chest. Before we played we had a bunch of wings, and then after we played we got to go out to this place for more free food. Oh yes. I think that's almost my fav part of the gigs - the after playing dinner with a bunch of people. It's always chilled out and you don't ahve to worry about any schedules - just worry about how many wings you're gonna leave on your plate!
During the day - today and yesterday - Rob and I have been down at the studio by around 10am till around dinner time. Rob has been doing all the playing lately, while I take pictures, walk around, eat sandwiches, and practice the moonwalk.

A day passes...

Well it's Tuesday night now and we just played at the same church again. Tonight was the junior teen night though, mostly ages 12-15ish. It was fun again. We played a few rockin tunes in between candy throws and interactive youth group games. They had fire again too. Big fire. This time we knew it was coming though so we made sure we were good and clear of the 10 foot flames. It looked like the roof was going to catch fire at one point, but it didn't, and the night went off without a hitch. Earlier today Rob and I were abck at the studio, doing more guitar tracks. It wasn't the most productive day to be honest. Today was more about finding a good guitar loop for a song. This takes time, as there are many many options for effects to be used on the loop. We eventually found one that we all seemed to like and went with it...but who knows, it could still change by the time the record is out. The loop was Rob's area, so after that I got to play for a bit. We messed with a lead guitar line for the same song. We figrued one out that was sounding nice - I really like it - but due to the way guitar's are tuned, and the "temperance", it was impossible to play the lick and stay in tune for all of the notes. And because of that we can't use it and have to find something else. That's kindof a bummer. There's gotta be something that's just as good or better though...we'll attack that tomorow.
So things are going pretty good...besides the extremely challenging journey that it took for Rob and I to get to the studio this morning. After getting yelled at by the bus driver to hurry up as I got on the bus with my 2 bags ang guitar, and Rob's bag, guitar, and pedal board, the bus driver chose to let out some road rage at another driver as he laid on the horn, and then got out and yelled at him beside his car. In the midst of slamming on the breaks Rob almost lost balance while trying to hold onto his gear, only moments before a lady standing next to me attempted to move down the aisle and accidentally ran her hand into my mouth in the process. Yes it was awkward. Not one of those little tap of the hand bumps...it was more of a slow arm movement that landing directly under my upper lip which then forced my half asleep mouth partially open as a small amount of DNA slipped out I'm sure. Then we got to the subway station where the conductor of the next train told us that it was out of service and we'd have to wait for the next one. We got on the next one, then the street car, then arrived at the studio. So I guess it was mainly the first half of the journey that was hard. It may sound like I'm complaining too, but I'm not. It all worked together to give us a pretty good laugh at the studio. Hope it doesn't happen tomorow though...
I think that's enough for now. It's only 12am now so there's a chance I'll get almost 7 hours of sleep tonight. I guess I'll go then. Keep reading - piece out!
Jordan
p.s. The other day Rob and I did a photoshot for Rolling Stone magazine and they put us on the cover. (It's fake...obviously)

When Animals Attack

I think I've lost track of the days of the blog. Ok I'm sure I have...but that's not important. What's important is that I now own a copy of Dumb and Dumber on DVD, and that Matt and I are sitting out on a hill by the road where there is a wireless signal. It seems that while at the apartment, this is now the only place for us to find any sign of world wide web activity. I think it's a good thing though. This way we don't spend too much time on the web when we're not recording. Instead we've been filling most of our evenings with cooking meals together, reading, and watching movies. I guess that's a bit more productive right?
The last few days have been dominated with studio time, metal works drum re-recording, subway riding, walking, cooking, sleeping, and a bit of playing. Last night we went to Brampton to play for a youth group at a church there. It was good. They had pyro-technics again (for those of you who were reading from the start - same church). The flames were big and high and they scared me but I just kept my back to them and hoped the back of my shirt didn't catch on fire. It didn't though, and we played for a while, quite loudly, and then I went and grabbed a Coke. There was also Swiss Chalet meals for us downstairs. I started eating mine before we started playing, and it was going well until Chris ran in and said the rest of the guys were waiting on stage. If it wasn't for the wet-nap it could have been disasterous to say the least.
This morning the rest of the band went van shopping while Matt and I slept in - which was amazing and doesn't happen that often when we're in Toronto. We got up in the mid afternoon and watched a show called "When Good Pets Turn Bad". It was pretty captivating. A little scary too. Afterwards I was sitting outside on the step reading a book when I heard a noise on my left. I turned and saw that I was face to face with one of Toronto's notorious "small-cat" sized squirrels. It just stood there staring me in the eye as I replayed one scene from "When Good Pets Turn Bad" that showed a cat attacking a woman in a grocery store. Still frozen I sat there wide-eyed until the squirrel grabbed a pin cone and moved along its merry way. "Yeah keep movin'...", I said under my breath..."Keep movin' real nice like, ya hear..." Now as I sit on the hill, at 12:10am in the morning, I hear a rustle every once in a while over my shoulder...I don't know whether I'll be attacked with pine cones flying at my head or feel a pair of claws on my neck. Well, I'm sure the injuries won't be as bad as that guy who got stepped on by the moose ("When Good Pets Turn Bad").
Signing off,
Jordan Mattie

The Nova Scotia/Home Blog

The time we spent back in Nova Scotia can be split up into 4 sections. Starting with...
Camp Evangeline: It was great to be back in Nova Scotia. As soon as we got back, we were off to Camp Evangeline in Truro for teen camp week. It was a lot of fun. The speakers were really good this year...they talked about important stuff that we actually need to hear. I'm not sure if I can remember everything we did now, or the fun moments at least...I know that some of us swam a bit and jumped off some rocks, I took lots of pictures, we played music every morning and night, it was very hot, Rob through some stake muffins at me, and we played this game at Late night where you can only speak using questions (we'll put it on the podcast soon). After that week we also played at a RUSH service, also in Truro, and then made our way down to...Cape Breton Bible Camp: This camp is great because the scenery is amazing. It's pretty much up in the mountains of Cape Breton. Kind of the extreme opposite to living in Toronto for the last month. This camp had a pool, a water slide, big fields, and was next to a lake with a speed boat. They used the boat to pull kids on big tubes all around the lake until they hit all the waves and fly off...well they at least did that to Finlay. The speaker at this camp was amazing too...probably one of the best I've heard. His name is Stephen Fenton, from P.E.I. You can hear/read his messages on his website: www.lhm.com. They're awesome. It was really refreshing to hear him speak twice everyday...kind of feels like we were getting spoiled a bit even. I'm not sure of all the cool things that happened there...it's been a while I guess. I did take some nice pics of a rabbit on the first day though.
Home: I had been looking forward to this for a while now and it was sure nice. I finally got to sleep in my bed, play with my dog, mow the lawn, see people in town, and chill out at Tim Horton's. There was also lots of picture taking here...one night Judith and I took pictures around St.FX until about 2am. Another night we recorded music in the big empty echoing chapel on campus till 4:30am. It was wonderful. I also got to hang out with Tito and have a picnic on her kitchen floor where the table used to be, and go see Tree63 play in Halifax. On the 24th of August I got celebrate my 23rd birthday with Tito, Stephen, and my cousins where we shot a pellet guns and caught frogs. The rest of the time can be summed up by saying there was lots of chillin, lawn mowing, and jamming with my cousin Josh at the church. Oh, I also saw the Bourne Ultimatum, twice. It was that good.
Ontario Pioneer Camp: After we played at an event in Halifax called Invasion, we drove to Ontario for another camp called Ontario Pioneer Camp. Oh boy...I'm not sure if I can describe this camp in one blog. And I don't want to offend any other campers from the NS camps, but, wow. This camp takes the cake. I've never seen more effort put into the activities and events of a camp just to help the kids have a great time. The staff here were amazing. At first I can honestly that I wasn't to excited about going to another camp out in the middle of no where for another week this summer, but after being there for a few days, all of that changed. There was always something going on there...beach parties, frisbee golf, kayaking, 8am water skiing and wake-boarding, wind surfing, a continuous story line of skits played out at dinner time in the cafeteria, photography classes, and another greaaaat speaker. Man this guy was on the money. His name was Bret...I forget his last name, but he works with a ministry called Urban ___ based in Toronto. If I had the money I'd take this guy on the road to preach a sermon every morning. Wow.
The present: Anyways, this is getting pretty long, and it's almost midnight, and we haven't slept much lately, and we're getting up early again tomorrow morning to re-record some drums in Metal Works. So yes, as of right now we're back in the big city to continue recording the album. We have another few weeks here before we go home - hopefully for a while this time. I cannot wait. Well I guess I can - I think I'll try to enjoy where I'm at from now on instead of wish I was somewhere else. I will try to put up more blogs about the recording process in the next few weeks to keep people in the loop. As for the Maritime blog - it's safe to say that my time at home was packed full of good times in the maritimes. Talk to you soon.
God bless.
Jordan

Back in the Studio

Back in the studio! Oh boy...we had a lot of fun at camps over the last few weeks/being home/chillin in the Nish/taking pics/playing with my dog. But yes back in the studio now, back to the dirty steets of Toronto where people ask you for your money but refuse free food. Soon I will put up a blog about our time at home and at the camps along with some pictures. It will talk about waterskiing and wakeboarding at 8 in the morning, failing swim tests, and over size chess matches. As of now we have to find someone who will do the artwork/web design for the new album, and then re-record some pre pro tracks for matt to play along with back at Metalworks.
Until then, stay tuned and have a wonderful day. Bye bye!
Jordan

Day 54-59: On The Home Stretch

Right now I'm eating Alphegete and drinking Pepsi (sorry Sarah) - that's mostly what I've been doing here for the last few days. That and taking photos around the studio. We've been working on a lot of Rob's guitar parts for the last few days, which means I haven't been playing that much. I did play 2 verses yesterday though. It was pretty easy. Didn't even have to play full chords.
Besides that Tim has been showing me how to use Pro Tools a bit - that's the program that we're recording the album on. It's pretty fun and good experience for when I'm a big time record producer living in Hollywood, producing big stars like Paris Hilton and Lil' Bow Wow. The most that I got to use it was today. Tim needed a little break because he was working overtime last night (he really wanted to read his new Harry Potter book) so I got to push the buttons and say things to Rob like, "That was horrible!...What is this?! 1st grade band class?! Naw, you in a rock'n'roll band now son...So shape up! We've got gold records to make!" That might not have been the exact phrasing, but it was definately something along those lines.
We had Saturday and Sunday off, a nice break for sure. Sunday I went downtown to catch a service at this church called Sanctuary - it's a church off of Young Street that has a good number of street people coming out regularly. It's pretty choice. I first heard about the church in a book I read called "God in the Alley". The book was written by the pastor of the church, Greg (something). The book was really good, and when I heard that it was based on a church here in Toronto I figured I should check it out. I went for the morning service, which doesn't exist - only a night service at 5pm. I went to the Meeting House instead, then chapters for a few hours where I checked out a few radical books, then saw Brandon (the intern here at the Hive), he told me was going over to the Bloor square to do some break dancing with his buddies. He is actually really amazing at it. He has some videos on youtube. Anyways. after hanging out at the square for a bit I walked down to Sanctuary just in time for the service. As I was getting closer I noticed that I was walking behind a middle aged man carrying a case of pop. In my head, for some reason I thought, maybe this guy is the pastor, the guy who wrote the book...as we got closer I noticed he turned into the church. "Is there a service in here?" I asked. "Yeah in a few minutes," he said..."My name's Greg," he held his hand out for a shake. "Are you the pastor?" i replied reaching for his hand, "Yeah I am," he said..."You wrote the book!!" I said with a smile, "Ahh get out of here," he said with a laugh and turned into the sanctuary. (That part was supposed to read like a story because I imagined writing it in my head that way.) When I actually stepped into the Sanctuary it was amazing in itself. It felt totally comfortable and safe. No one judging or watching, even though the make-up of the crowd might have seemed like an easy target. Instead, everyone said hello to one another while a real sense of family brightened the room. It kind of reminded me of our LIFE services back at St.FX. It was great. The service was awesome too...a real blusey worship set (great musicians) and the baptism of two new christian girls. It was amazing to see everyone crowd around them and cheer as they came out of the water. I may have shed a little tear but in fear of looking like a dweeb I set my thoughts on something less moving, like Rob standing in his boxers (since I have been seeing a lot of that lately). I talked with the band members afterwards, who were really nice, and told them that I'd be back the next time we were in Toronto.
Now back to the present...1:03AM Monday night - recording guitars through an old organ speaker for a song called Revolution. We're about to do a few final takes for the night before catching the bus back to Marjori's where we will then pack our stuff, sleep for a few hours, then get up and drive back to God's country...Antigonish! Hallelujah.
Overall the 2nd phase of the recording process was a lot of work, a lot of hours, and a lot of good laughs with Tim. I think the ratio of laughs to tracks being recorded is something like 34:1, if my calculations were right I mean. I may have mixed up the perpendicular modulation theorum of the 2nd verdabray capsul in the time/space continuum.
I hope everyone enjoyed the blogs...I know I slacked off a bit near the end but when you hear all of the sweet guitar sounds on the new album you will then begin to understand how all my time was being spent! I'm loving it so far.
Stay tuned for the blog of the next recording phase...probably in September. Keep rockin' behs!
Blessings,

Jordan

Day 47-53: Got the Mac Back

Thanks to Brandon - the super nice/smart intern that is working at the Hive for the summer, my computer is now fixed. He didn't actually fix it, but he knew what was wrong with it and sent me to the Genius Team at the Apple Store where they fixed it within a few minutes. I also met a photographer there who was getting his Mac fixed. We talked about photography and he gave me some free tips.
Since last Tuesday - which was the last blog, there has been a lot of recording/playing guitars, jokes, sneezing, and subway riding. A few of the highlighted moments include: Tim throwing a banana peel at me, then at Rob, me accidentally eating cream cheese that expired in April, Tim teaching the basics of using ProTools, watching a Walk to Remember, watching Spanglish, getting to do back up vocals, and Tim emailing clips of Dede's vocal warm up out to different people. We also got to do a part where Rob, Dede and I all gathered around the mic and sang at the same time. It might be very minimal, but it's there.
Oh yes, there is also one other event that is worth noting, for no other reason than because it's hilarious. Our good friend Tyler from back in the Nish found a website that had a little something to say about Life Support. It seems that someone saw our podcasts on youtube.com and didn't exactly find them as funny as we did. It's really not a big deal, nothing worth getting upset over, but you can check it out at this address if you want a good laugh. Also, thanks to people who wrote comments that support Life Support. There's some really good ones...http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=423.
One more site you can check out is the Flickr page I just made. It has most of my favorite photos...mainly ones that I've edited to look all fancy. Some of them are from the blog and some are randoms from home. You might even be in some of them...the site is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10121606@N08. Enjoy!
Rob's tracking some guitars now and I need to go get another dose of the #1 sandwich-in-the-world from King Deli down the street. Stay tuned...
Jordan

Day 46.....and beyond

It seems that I'm having a little problem with my computer...I downloaded some updates and now it won't start up again. All it's showing is a flashing folder with a question mark in it. I think it just needs a disc that I left at home...might be able to get it working in the next day or two though. That means I haven't been able to post any blogs for the last few days, and might not for the next few. Things are going good though. The days are a bit shorter now, which helps with getting more sleep than we have been lately, and we've mainly been doing guitars all day. I was sick for a few days, but thank God I'm almost 100% better now. Not too much crazy stuff has happened, hmm...we went to a music store and saw the singer from Billy Talent by his car. Rob was so excited he accidentally left his car door open for the entire 15 minutes that we were in store. No one stole anything though so it turned into a good laugh.
Other than that we've just been in the studio all day playing guitar and laughing at Tim. I hope everyone's doing good at home, I can't wait to get back to the Nish...hopefully by next Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm starting to get pretty sick of the city. I guess I'm just not into the whole garbage dump theme they've got going on downtown.
More to come in a few days...talk to you later.
Jordan

Day 45: Let's Get Our Guitars

Finally we start tracking guitars. Drums and bass are all finished, Matt and Chris did an awesome job, everything sounds amazing. But now the real fun starts...it's pretty much Christmas for Rob and I. We rented a couple of amps, one being a Marshall from 1959 that comes up to my neck, and another by Mesa Boogie - both will knock your socks off. If you're aiming for high quality guitar Rob put a sign on the recording booth that reads "Enter At Your Own Risk". Whenever one of us goes in there to make an adjustment on one of the amps, we suddenly become overwhelmed with fear. If the other, the one sitting in the other room with the guitar, happens to hit a note on that guitar, the one in the booth could possibly die. That's how loud it is. Well maybe not, but if the guitar was strummed pretty hard for about a minute, the person in the booth would definitely have some serious hearing damage. Needless to say, we're very careful when someone's in the booth.
We started with one of the more rocking songs first, probably one of my favorites too. But first we played around with the different tones of the amps, mics, pedals, and guitars. This takes a while, or so I'm learning. I normally don't spend too much time on it personally, but when you're working with Tim and Rob you learn different. It definitely pays off in the end though.
After getting an amp setup, I started on the tune. The parts haven't been totally worked out yet, so we did some experimenting with different chords...which did get a bit frustrating. Probably my most frustrating moment of the recording process thus far. But thank God after taking a little break to chill out and think about the part it all worked out. We eventually reverted back to the original way I first played the part - this was a lot better. It sounds awesome too. I'm really excited for everything else to be recorded on top. It just keeps getting better and better, thank God.
We ended up getting off early tonight too, around 8:30pm I think. Rob and I hit up the Royal Bank - which has an amazingly smooth floor for moonwalking on - and then caught the Subway Home. Tonight we will get more than 5 hours of sleep. This is great news.
Until tomorow,

Jordan

Day 44: Monday Madness

Today Chris was on deck to finish up the last of his bass tracks. That means 2 songs had to be finished today before he jumped on his flight home the next morning. This morning Matt hoped on a Go Train down to the U.S. border to meet his gal and her parents. That means two things: 1. We will have more time to shower in the morning, and 2. I now have a pillow to sleep on at night. Matt will be greatly missed...for 2 weeks.
We got to the studio around noon today just as Tim was finishing up editing some of the last drum tracks. Chris would plug in his bass once in a while, play the song a few times...discuss it with Tim...play it some more...Tim would change his bass line...Chris would play the new one...Tim does some editing, etc.
Meanwhile Rob and I surf the web, videotape random stuff, and work on our moon walk - which is coming along pretty nicely. Our wonderful friend Judith Zonunpari Khawlhring Thanzauva happened to post a video demonstrating how to moon walk on her facebook page that teaches the move perfectly.Rob and I studied it for a while and then got to work. It was like learning to play the guitar all over again - so exciting when we got it right. A lot of it depends on the floor and the shoes though...we need to get some good moon walking shoes. Stay tuned for the next podcast - we'll make sure there's some M-walking in there.
Eventually supper time came. Chris still had more to do so he stayed behind while Rob and I took a walk down King Street to The Real Jerk - which is actually a restaurant, not a human being. We got these things called Roti's, which is basically spicy chicken mixed with potatoes and wrapped up in a pita type bread. It was 'aight, while the twinkies I bought for dessert were amazing.
The 15 hour day ended around 2 am after Tim finished editing and Chris finished his last song. D Mac gave us a drive home and took Chris to his place, then to the airport the next morning. I think they stayed up all night too, chatting on the balcony. Rob and I on the other hand, hit the hay, without delay, as if to say, the current day, has passed away.

Jordan

Day 36-43: In the Nish Where I Belong

It was so great to be back in the Nish, especially after being in the big city for so long. It’s nice to walk down the street and smell fresh air. He night I got home I went to the July 1st celebration that they put on at the St.FX football field. We saw some nice fireworks and were entertained by musical guests, Pogey! (in the Chris voice.) My sister and her hubby were down visiting from Dallas Texas so we got to spend some good quality time together. We played frisbee at Beaver Mountain Park – watching mom play Frisbee was amazing – and we had a BBQ at our cousins house that British Dave and Emem came down for. To be completely honest, I never thought I’d see these guys join the Mattie family for a good old Bluegrass Hoedown, but it turned out great. Dave and Emem parted ways with the Mattie family with hugs and offers to come back. Dave even liked one of the bluegrass tunes so much (Blackberry Blossom) that he went home and learned it on guitar. Even though Dave comes from England/Africa/Mexico, I think he’s a true Nova Scotian at heart. After that we went back to our house and had a nice long game of Settlers of Catan where we were joined by Judith and Amanda. Sarah won the game, which means the rest of us, including Dave, lost. Although, Dave claims that he would’ve won if John had told him a little piece of information earlier on. Sorry Dave. At least you can play Blackberry blossom.
Later in the week we went to the Welcome for the Coady students at St.FX. It was pretty cool. I met a guy from Thailand and another guy from Nepal. Everyone at those things are super nice and seems very not-lazy. When it was all over, Dave, Eric and I ran out to my car that, to our great dismay, would not start. Apparently leaving the car lights on drains the battery or something. It was ok though. I just had to run to Tim Horton’s where I was supposed to meet Abena, call her, call dad for advice, and then call Scott Allen who then came to my rescue with a set of booster cables. Thanks Scotty.
Other activities on my trip to the Nish included writing some awesome songs with Judith (that we will be recording soon), going to see Transformers with my younger cousins, and eating some choice BBQ courtesy of David and Tito, once again accompanied by male-model Eric.
I flew back to Toronto on Saturday night. It was a great flight. Probably my best ever. I got to watch a Coldplay concert on a built-in TV, drink pop, and edit some photos. Kind of made me wish it were longer. I thought about just staying on and flying to China but then remembered the whole band/album/recording thing…so I got off of the plane.
Back in Toronto…stay tuned.

Jordan

Day 35: Put The Pedal to the Metal(works)

We left for Metalworks Studio in Mississauga today at around 10am. I think it was sort of what I expected, but not totally. They had the whole reception desk thing going on, but with a rockstar looking guy instead of a gal, along with gold and platinum records on the walls. There wasn’t many people that I recognized though… mainly Nelly Futardo, NSYNC, Tina Turner, and Christina Aguilera. Basically a bunch of washed up nobodies. Rob got excited about an album by a band called the Northern Pikes.
The control room was pretty cool. There was a soundboard that’s almost as wide as the room and a couch that’s even wider. Rob and Matt were already there with Tim because they went over early to set the drums up along with a drum tech Darryl (who plays in a sweet band named Hewit – www.myspace.com/hewit). They tuned the drums and plugged in Chris and his radical bass. Alex and Dede showed up with some a couple pizza’s, which we devoured in the lounge area before hitting the first tune. It sounded pretty choice from the sound room. It’s also great to just sit on a big comfy couch with a laptop and watch those boys do all the hard work (for today).
Recording the bass and drums basically goes like this: play the tune, while listening to the scratch guitar and vocal tracks, all the way through once. Then play it one more time. Then 6 more times after that. Then we’ll go back and punch in certain drum fills or bass licks that may be a bit more complicated. And if you’re recording with Tim, then chances are he’ll find a wonderful new bass tone after recording 6 songs, and you’ll have to go back and record them all over again. That was Chris’ experience. I didn’t get to see this part but I’m sure he was very happy about it and probably played it even better the second time.
The Metalworks session ended around 8pm. We then came back to the Hive and listened to what was recorded, and see if anything needed to be recorded differently. I think it’s safe to say that Tim was pretty excited about the drum sounds we got. He even said something along the lines of “these are the best drum sounds I’ve ever recorded.” That was very good to hear. After watching Tim listen to the drums for another couple of hours we eventually took off. I got off at the subway station where I caught a subway to D Mac’s place since he would be driving me to the airport in the morning for my flight home. We went for some food, got my bags from Marjori’s, listened to some tunes, and chatted on the balcony for a while until we figured we might as well stay up all night since it was already 5am. I got some good morning pictures before we left for the airport at around 6:30am - then it was off to the Nish!
Hallelujah!

Jordan

Day 34: Last Day of Pre Pro (say "pre pro" 10 times really fast)

We got to sleep in this morning. Well everyone except Rob and Matt. They had to go to the music store early in the morning with Tim to rent drums for Metal Works (Saturday). The rest of us showed up to the Hive at around 1pm to find Matt behind a nice set of Taye's, which were last used to by the drummer of Black Sabbath. That seems a little ironic - first they were used for devil music, now they're being used for Jesus music! Just joking...I don't really know the drummer of Black Sabbath so I can't really say anything about him or his drummin'. One thing I can say though, is that Rob flat out dropped the floor tom on the pavement as he was carrying it out to the car! And then he left Matt in the dark as to why it was so hard to tune. (laugh) It got worked out though; they got er' tuned up and sounding good.
The next ten hours were spent finishing all of the demos/scratch tracks. We did a few tunes, went for supper, got locked out for a bit, got back in, and rocked till about 2 or 3am. It felt like we accomplished something, getting all of the scratch tracks done...like we're entering a new phase, or as Rob would say, "takin' it to the next level!" This means off to Metal Works tomorow, giving Matt and Chris about 4 hours to sleep before recording all day. Dem behs is tuff I tells ya. Matt and Rob went to Tim's tonight so that they could help load gear in the morning, while the rest of us went back to Marjori's to sleep for an extra our or two.
This concludes the end of the pre pro journey. Just the real thing from here on in...loud amps with 5 mics, various guitars to choose from, Tim screaming at Rob and hitting him with the rubber finger when he messes up, and many layers of thick heavy guitars. It'll be so much fun.But before that comes Metal Works...tomorow, for Matt and Chris...Good luck behs!
Jordan

Day 33: Wendy's Good Subway Bad

Today I woke up on time, at D Mac’s place (who is a wonderful host) and made my way down to the subway after grabbing some breakfast at Tim Horton’s, the best coffee place in the world. The subway took me to King Street, where I took the stairs up to the street to catch the streetcar. King Street…it looked like the same stop we got on the day before…so I got on. It wasn’t too crowded; Jon Foreman was singing in my ears…I was on my way. It was all wonderful until the scenery began looking a bit unfamiliar. “I don’t remember seeing that theatre there yesterday,” I thought to myself…”unless they just built it…last night.” After about 10 minutes of unfamiliar surroundings, I figured that I should probably switch streetcars. After that the scenery started coming back, which felt good…very good.
Once there, we hung out for a bit while Tim was editing some drum tracks…then more demoing and scratch tracks…then supper – at Wendy’s! Ahh wonderful Wendys. It’s so great. This one was extra big and even had a built on Tim Horton’s. I think this is where they’ll for lunch after church, in heaven.
In the evening we focused our brains on finishing another tune – the one that I was writing some lyrics for on the subway. We changed it a bit since then, and it’s starting to sound really good. We worked on getting a solid chorus melody for a while…it was getting a bit tense to be honest, especially since we were running low on time. In the end Tim came up with something that fits it really well so we rolled with it. From that point it felt like it took a turn for the better. The bridge that we desperately needed came next, with a little less effort than the chorus, and it’s awesome. I think this may be my favorite moment on the album thus far. Hopefully you’ll see what I mean when you hear it. Woo ooh ooh woo ooh ooh…
We finished at around 1:30am tonight. It was another long one but it felt great to get that new tune completely musically. Drive home, eat, sleep…
Goodnight,
Jordan

Day 31-32: Burgers and Balcony Blog

Tuesday and Wednesday...These two days were pretty similar. They were both a bit shorter – we only went untill about 5 or 6pm leaving us with a bit of time to chill each night. The days consisted of getting to the studio around 9:30am where we demo-ed/laid down scratch tracks for the remainder of the tunes. There’s still a bit of writing that has to be finished here and there…a chorus, a verse, or some arrangement ideas, but for the most part we’re pretty close to the finish of pre production.
Tuesday night was pretty chilled out. We hung out at the house as usual, catching up on some sleep and some reading. Wednesday night I went over to D Mac’s place for a little slumber party. It was choice. We even got to go to Wendy’s and eat their beautiful burgers. D Mac lives in an apartment on the 18th floor with a balcony. I get a little freaked out when I look over the railing, but I always feel like I need to. I’m not sure if that’s means there’s something wrong with my head but I just have to do it even though I hate it. Kind of like if there’s a cactus plant on the windowsill, you just have to touch it to see what the prick feels like. Or maybe its like touching a bench with a “wet paint” sign on it. Anyways, regardless of my weak knees I was able to snap a few choice pictures from the 18th floor view. We hung out on the balcony for a bit, had some cookies and milk, and talked about growing up, music, God, and girls. It was good. Then I went to sleep on a very comfortable futon. This is the end of the night, while the very exciting story about what happens next will be found in the next blog – so read on! Goodnight,
Jordan

Day 30: The Buzz at The Hive

Monday - the first day at The Hive, the real studio. It's nice to have more than one room to hang out in, with other people around, and windows. The Hive is a cool spot. There's about 3 other guys that each have their own room all within the one main big studio. One guy named Allister Johnson works on hip hop beats and remixes, all this sick drum loop stuff. He has a wall full of records that he takes sampes from and mixes them into newer songs, making them sound choooice. He also has turntables and a couple old school keyboards that make wacky noises when you mess with all the knobs. He's really cool too. He took time to show us the remix he was working on for Jully Black and I took some pics of his studio for him. Check out his stuff at: www.myspace.com/alisterjohnson.
Craig Douglas was in again today, that always makes things a bit more fun. We got a few ideas going for this one newer tune we've been working on but it's still not done...coming along nicely though, I think it'll be a rocker. We also got to go to that amazing cafe where the asian husband and wife make the best sandwiches in the world. It's so wonderful.
After lunch we mainly worked on demos and scratch tracks (what Matt and Chris will play along with when they record at Metal Works this weekend) for a few of the newer songs, which were sounding nice over the speakers for the first time. This means playing the song together a bunch of times, recording Matt on the drums, editing the drums a bit, recording Rob, Chris and I on guitars, and then recording Dede and Al for the vocals. We got through about 3 tunes today and left the studio at around 1am. That equals 15 hours in the studio today...which didn't really seem that long, especially after sitting in that room at the church day after day. Like I said it makes it a lot more fun when you get to actually record the songs and listen back to them sounding better and better.
We got home at around 1 30am tonight, leaving us enough time to eat cereal, check email, and go to bed. It was a long one today but it definately feels like we're getting somewhere now. The tunes are coming along nicely, and it's getting closer to the serious recording sessions - very exciting but lots of work coming up. Stay tuned and say a prayer for us if you think of it. Thanks...goodnight!
Jordan

Day 29: Lazy Sunday Secrets

Today Rob and I woke up good and early so we could make it to the Meeting House on time. The last two times we went we were about an hour late and ended up missing the majority of each service. This time we left the house at around 8am and made it downtown with a half an hour to spare. The service was pretty good for the parts that we were able to stay awake. They were talking about a book that’s selling a lot right now, called “The Secret”. It’s supposed to be this self-help/will power/positive energy kind of book about getting what we want out of life. It was really interesting. The pastor pointed out some of the main ideas from the book and what scripture says about them – basically how it’s foolishness. For example, one of the teachings said: “Think about what it is you want right now, focus on it, and then open this book randomly, and that page will give you the answer to what you’re looking for.” Just to be sure that it was all a lie, Rob tried it out later when we were getting groceries at Shopper’s Drug Mart. Rob held the book, thought about what he wanted, (food), and then opened the book, which said to just “expect what you want to come to you, and it will.” He expected to get food, and then we went and bought groceries…Does that count?
After church we checked out some cool bookstores on Young Street. We didn’t see anything worth buying though so we caught the subway home while occasionally falling in and out of sleep mode. We made it though, far enough to flop down on the air mattresses and pass out until about 8pm that night. Just another productive nap before going back to the studio on Monday.
So to sum up Sunday in two main points: sleep is great, and don’t read “The Secret.”
Oh and I didn't have any pictures from today so I grabbed two random ones off of the computer. Enjoy!
Goodnight,
Jordan

Day 28: Chillin' With Katz

Sleeping in. Yessssss. Saturday’s are wonderful because it’s the only day of the week we can sleep in past 7:30am. We took advantage of this today and got up around 2pm. Chris and Matt went to a Blue Jay’s game with our friend Steph from Brampton, and then to the movies to see ‘Evan Almighty.’ Meanwhile Rob and I stayed at home and drifted back and forth between the Internet, reading, and napping. I realize this may come off as a bit lazy to some people, but it was actually well deserved. The sleep scale has been sitting pretty low this week, so we felt the need to get in as much as we could (as you will also see on tomorrow’s blog). We didn’t lie around all day though. No no no, we actually went to a CD release party for an awesome singer songwriter by the name of Peter Katz – which was the most recent album that Tim produced. (www.myspace.com/peterkatz) The show was held at a place called the Rivoli in downtown Toronto. There wasn’t a huge turn out, mostly friends and family I think, but Peter still put on a great show. The lighting and the smoke set a nice atmospheric tone, which would’ve been perfect for taking photos – if I took my camera! Argh. I’ll never leave it home during a concert again.
Once the show was over I realized that I needed some change for the subway, so Rob and I went looking for a Royal Bank that we would not find. I thought the subway ran later than it actually did, so this put us in a bit of a hurry. We ended up getting there just in time once again, catching the very last subway/bus home.
I don’t know if anything really exciting happened today…Chris got a pretty heavy farmer’s tan at the ball game, and he also caught a home run on his videophone…Dede went to baby-sit Tim’s kids, and apparently Tim’s 3-year old son Sam fell madly in love with Dede…and Alex went for a wild bike ride with his sisters where he met some interesting characters...Other than that, nothing too crazy happened today. Just the good old Ontario ordinary. Until next time…
Jordan

Day 27: No More Knox

This was the last day for pre production in Knox church. It feels good too, kind of like we’re moving forward a bit. It’ll be nice to get out of that room too and be in The Hive where there’s more than one room to chill in. Nevertheless, the people at Knox have been extremely generous in letting us practice there everyday for free. So to all the people at the church - thank you very much!
When we got there this morning we played Tim the new lyrics for the song that we were working on the night before. We couldn’t really tell if he liked it or not…I think it’ll grow on him. I hope so because we all really like it. We also worked a bit more on this tune Dede wrote, kind of a lovey girl song but its choice. We defiantly need a few of those.
Lunchtime came and I had to go to the bank to do some band business. Tim drove Rob, Chris and I down to the area where the bank was, only to find that I wasn’t allowed to withdraw the money we needed. Looks like I need to call the Nish and get something faxed up. Probably some big important FBI document or something…whatever.
We went for food after that, a Japanese place that had a picture of Christopher Walker on the wall standing next to the owner. The picture said “Christopher Walker @ 1:10pm.” Maybe it’s just us, but it seemed a little random to have the time on the picture, and not even the date. “…This picture was taken at 1:10pm. We don’t know what day or year, but it was 1:10pm!” The food took a bit longer than we expected, so we got back to the church a bit late. Like an hour and a half late. We were still able to get a bit more work done on some of the tunes before calling it quits and saying goodbye to Knox Church for now.
The original plan for the evening was to all go to this place called The Korean Grill House a bit later after D Mac was finished at a football game. Chris and I planned on going home before this to get a little R and R. We knew there was a concert of the Fray going on at the Molson Amphitheatre, but figured that at 8:30pm we were too late and it wouldn’t be worth the money…until we were on the subway on our way home and decided that we should go anyway, without tickets, or even knowing if there were any available. After asking some girls on the bus for directions, following them, and a somewhat awkward moment as they stopped to go to the ladies room, we eventually found our destination and were able to buy some tickets for a decent price. We walked in and the Fray started about 2 minutes later. It was perfect. They have lots of good music…Mostly lovey kind of piano songs that you’d enjoy listening to with that special girl. In this case – it was just Chris and I. And that was fine, just not the same. There was one moment though during their hit single, ‘Look After You’ when we put our arms around each other and shared a moment. It was nice, I guess.
In the end the concert was awesome, and we still made it to the Korean Grill House and got to cook pieces of raw meat on your own individual burner. It’s a genius idea. After that, we realized there was only enough room in the car for 5 people, leaving Rob, Chris, Matt and I to fend for ourselves with 5 minutes before the last subway left. Don’t worry though. We made it home. Home safe. Home safe and sound. Home safe and sound and ready for bed. Goodnight.
Jordan

Day 23 - 26: Long, Long Days

I must admit that I have slacked the last few days...or week. The reason for this is in the title - Long, long days! Oh boy. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were definatly more than we were prepared for, in terms of getting enough sleep. It's all a blur to me now, but from what I remember, we would get up at 7, shower, catch the bus, practice and write songs from 9:30am till 9:30 at night, with the exception of an hour lunch break. I think this may have been one of the hardest times, for me anyways. I guess after a while of being in that same room, playing songs over and over and over while only making slight changes, starts to drive you a bit crazy...all while trying to not offend anyone with your constructive criticism. But as I've said before, I know really shouldn't be complaining about it since it is still the best job I could ever imagine. We have a nice roof and clothes and showers and food (even if its bagel sandwiches everyday) and not to mention great weather. So I'll thank God for that. So I guess in relation to the blog writing, this daily routine put us back home at around 10:30pm each night, with just enough time to get some supper, do some chatting, reading, and fall asleep.
Thursday was a bit better though. Even from the beginning, something seemed brighter about today. And when we got there it all made sense - Craig Douglas was back with us today! Yase beh. This is always great. Craig brings the perfect balance to the song writer's circle. He's always excited about working with other people's ideas and he always has something halarious to say. We got off to a good start with one of the newer tunes that was still lacking lyrics for the verse. Chris, Tim, and I went to another room to work on a different tune (and didn't make a lot of progress) but came back to find the others with a complete verse for their tune. It was really good too...feels good to make some progress. This goes to show that what Tim says is usually true: Sometimes you just have too many cooks in the kitchen. Writing always seems to work better when we split up.
We finished up a bit earlier today too...probably around 6:30pm. It was nice to get home and actually have a few hours before hitting the hay. There was a song in my head on the subway - lyrics that would go with some music we were working on at the church - and when I got home I worked on that for a while so that we'd have a new idea to show Tim the next day. I think it came together nicely too...hopefully it'll be on the album!
After that D Mac came over and we went out for some chillin time. He had a skateboard in his trunk too. I haven't skateboarded for a while, but we messed around with it in parking lot and actually got a nice photo of a little grass ollie. Cutos to D Mac on the fabulous photography. We drove around a bit more after that, and then headed home since it was nearing 2am on the dashboard. Then I went to sleep. End of Thursday.
I realize this blog doesn't have as much comedy in it, so in return I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from Dede that took place over the span of the last 4 days. Enjoy.
Jordan

"I slept with my jacket on last night." -Deanna Leil
"My head feels too heavy for my neck today." -Deanna Leil with a pool triangle around her neck while tied to her jacket to hold her head up.

Day 22: Celeb Sunday

Today is Sunday. Rob, Matt and I woke up early to go to a church called "The Meeting House" located in downtown Toronto. We at least thought we were early, but after buying tickets and waiting for a bus that doesn't run on Sundays, and then looking for a subway worker who wasn't working, we realized that we had to just buy a new set of tokens. We ended up getting there an hour late, like last time, but it was still good and we're going to try and make it on time next Sunday. After church we walked pretty much across the street for something that was going on downtown known as the "Much Music Video Awards." Yep, right out on the street. Since we were there in the afternoon we even got to the see a couple of sound checks. Mainly - Fergi! Yeah I know...Fergi...to be honest I wasn't a fan before. But now? Wow. I was impressed. And the dancers? Maaaan it was choice. Sometimes people think that these pop stars aren't really that talented. Well Fergi - not the case. She was awesome. We even got to hear her and the band jamming/freestyling a bit - very impressive. We even got some pretty choice pics. She was really close too. Rob thought she was going to come over and talk to him and he started getting nervous because he didn't know what to say. Well in the end she didn't come over, but if she did I know Rob would have said something really smooth like "Hi Fergi. I'm Robbie. I play guitar-ie". (No it woud've been even smoother than that.) We also got to see Billy Talent, Maroon 5, Alexisonfirethe Used, and Hilary Duff. Pretty amazing I know. We stuck around all afternoon until the Red Carpet was rolled out. After lots of screaming girls and shoving over getting closer to the railing, the celebs started showing up. I recognized a few...Sam Roberts, Avril Lavigne, Tara Reid, Sum 41...not many else though. It was a bit crazy too...just seeing how everyone reacts to these people who - if you stop and think about it - aren't that much different from the average guy on the street. It gets a bit sickening after watching it for a while...you start wondering why you're even there in the first place. (Besides to see Rihanna - who ended up not even showing.) I think in the end it was kind of good because it just reminds got to remind me of how rediculous all that stuff was, and how I should be seeing other people as celebs inst