It’s been a while…

Hello!
Its been a while since we last spoke. Well, that I last posted a rambling that never gets read. But I’m happy with it and in reality, thats all I care about online and in life. Its good to be selfish sometimes.

But anyway, since we last spoke.

I have gotten a job and during the summer between first and second year of uni, working at a pub at Tower Bridge. Its a lovely place to work and I’ve met some great people there. Also, it finally provides and income for the band for me to continue having more jams with Will and moving Ikarus forward.

Speaking of the old bird…

Ikarus is doing well. We are now dumping song 2 from the repertoire and have progressed in our writing. Having more songs completed and several in the pipeline that I’m really excited to get jamming. We are still mainly a two piece but Paul has come to one or two sessions now and his part in the band is big. Providing some eerie harmony lines to Shadow of the Colossus (formerly Colossus) that is now re-worked and finished. So the song tally is now up to five with completed songs: Sweaty Betty, Midular Form, Coming Together, Stoner and Shadow of the Colossus. We’ve dumped Song 2 as it was a very basic song that was a old Dragking song that we used to jam to get the feel of each others grooves while playing and as we’ve progressed and the new songs have become more complex, that song is rather simple and not part of what me and Will agree is the sound of the band now.

But thats not to say that band isn’t still writing. After witnessing Behemoth at Bloodstock 2012, I wrote a cheesy Black metal song that we are working on, along with the Ten minute Epic and most recently, an old song of mine called The Burning Eye of Ra. I’m quite pleased to be using it and also chuffed that Will hears the song differently to what I do and wants to work on it, which is a big bonus.

Anyway, enough of Iky. Onto solo.

Solo wise, not so much since leaving Uni for the summer. I have written a couple of solo guitar pieces, utilising a lot of reverb and tension and release. The two pieces are called Sanguine and Validity which I will post into the Audio section soon.

I had an amazing Bloodstock festival, saw so many friends it defies belief! It really is like having a massive party for five days.

Well, apart from cracking on with the band and looking to continue being creative in many more ways, theres not much left to say.

Catch you round the way!

Oddness

It’s been an odd month, where I’ve struggled and progressed but it’s been character building also full of good memories.

The latest news from the head is that Uni, for this term at least, is done. As of midday the last pieces of work were handed in and I’m free to chill out for at least a week or two, after finding a job of course!

Thats a good piece of news, so heres a bit of bad. It has become obvious to me that Walrus is not going to progress, and I have walked away from the project. It’s not nice to have give something up that showed so much promise but you have to realise this before you do it for too long, a mistake I learnt with Dragking and other musical and life relationships.

On a brighter note, Ikarus will be trying to kick up some steam and progress in my Uni break. We’ve been working on four new songs, working titles go as;
Stoner
Colossus
Thrashy
and Epic Slow Jam

Hopefully within the next two practices these songs will near completion and we can move onto writing some more. Our set time is building up, I think we’re nearing or over the thirty minute mark, so a few more songs should do just incase (God forbid!) we have to headline or make up time.

I’m also hoping to get into some photography soon, a good friend of mine and absurdly good photographer Michelle Murphy (http://www.mootography.com/) has offered to teach me some tricks of the trade so I can get started. So hopefully there will be a photo’s section of this blog/site soon!

I think that is all that is going on in this messed up head. Apart from the usual fears and worries we all generally go through. Chins up, we’re all struggling together, keep it metal and honest! \m/

Embrace this moment, remember; we are eternal all this pain is an illusion…

January was quite a busy month so I missed out on a post but I actually had one of the most fantastic times in recents months/years. First off, Ikarus has been coming along rather nicely. Me and Will are creating more and more and exploring what the two of us are capable of, it’s really exciting to have another person understand you musically and in return, I feel, we’re creating some cool music. I’m not saying it will set the world on fire or anything to that extent but I think we’re writing some fun shit that hopefully people will want to come and hear live or buy on a CD one day. There are some new edits of those songs online, be sure to check out the Ikarus Reverbnation page (There is a link provided on the Audio page) for these songs or our Facebook page. Search for Ikaruslondon in the search bar.

Sadly as far as I can tell, Walrus is still at a stand still. It’s hard with Uni and everyones work schedules to get time together to work on music but I’m hoping that its a thing of perseverance and we’ll get too it soon.

I’ve added another song to the sound cloud page which I will embed on the audio page very soon, it was an instrumental piece for Uni that we had to create from looking at a picture. So, Old Man and the Sea will be on the audio page soon. A friend of mine said it was a bit Devin Townsend like (in terms of echo and mood in the beginning) which I took as a huge compliment, as I am no where near those standards.  I’m hoping to get more solo material on line soon and post it here so you can all share in the horrors and delights!

I also managed to bear witness to some amazing shows. Hofesh Shechter and Antony Gormley’s beautiful collaboration called Survivor at the Barbican was such an amazing show. Seeing Henry Rollin’s (Or Hank Rolling!) Spoken Word tour was just astounding – I could listen to that man talk all night. For some reason, two and a half hours was very short it seemed. A Pale Horse Named Death rolled into town and kicked maximum arse, luckily Michelle Murphy of Metal-Rules managed to get me in to see them as a favour for doing a review which was incredibly kind. Please do check out her portfolio on her website http://www.mootography.com as she is one of the best live photographers around.

I wanted to throw my two cents in on a ‘best of’ poll or one of those end of year things, but instead I’m just going to write a list of records that came out last year that I thought were bloody marvellous for different reasons.

Machine Head – Unto the Locust

talanas – The Waspkeeper

Mastodon – The Hunter

Light Bearer – Lapsus

Devin Townsend – Ghost

Opeth – Heritage

A Storm of Light – As the Valley of Death Becomes us, Our Silver Memories Fade

Tombs – Path of Totality

There are many others, including most of these bands back catalogues. More recently I’ve been having a complete Tool/A Perfect Circle sesh of late. It’s been quite an influence on my thinking and writing.

I also shared some amazing times with someone that will forever be a great friend and leaves me with the memory of such a great week. It’s a shame we have to return to the world.

Have a good month and keep the faith \m/

We enter winter once again…

 

Much like the Opeth lyric this Blog Title is lifted from, this is a long one…

 

Now we may have entered winter some time ago, but December usually marks the winter realm as everyone suddenly realises that it’s not too long till Christmas. Also, I shall be attending the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park which shall officially begin winter/christmas for me. You can find the link here to the event http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/tickets

Presently, my band Ikarus is going well. We have a demo online (albeit rather shoddily recorded!) of two songs, an unnamed one and one tentatively titled Midular Form (usually modular but it was originally written using MIDI). You can check these songs out via the Reverbnation page and the Facebook page (a link for the Facebook one will be added ASAP). Things are looking good for Ikarus, we are rehearsing once more before Christmas officially dawns and maybe one before the new year depending on time. I’m feeling very pro-active and productive with the music as we (me and our drummer Will Ho) feel that we’re finding our sound as such, which is a big boost for me as a guitarist to know what I’m playing is going right and it gives me a sense of direction when writing. Next stop; to overcome my fear of singing and give it a bash! And also lyrics… They might be important when singing…

My other band, which I have dubbed; I am the Walrus (due to it not having an official name) has been sporadic at best. Due to conflicts of schedules I haven’t practiced with the guys in a long time, a time I do not wish to entertain with a number. But they have written a piece called Rise and I’ve been told that it is all heading in a good direction and I hope to meet up with the guys for a jam soon.

University is going well, I received a C+ for my summative and I know where I can improve and I hope to attack next term with more vigour!

Also,  on the solo and video front; my associate and I are planning to do parts two and three for Paranormal Pain. To our realistic dismay, the video hasn’t gone “Viral” liked we hoped, world conquering it is not. We’re looking into making it available to everyone outside the UK (we’re not sure if it is available to our American brothers) but hopefully, when we create the next two, we’ll be able to get it worldwide and with some luck, it may make a little bit of viral nonsense in the future!

On the solo front, I’m waiting to get some software for drums (Toontracks – EZ Drummer and Drumkit from Hell) which I will hopefully have by mid January and I’ll be able to put some solo material online (along with shoddy, beautiful vocals)

Well, what a long, lovely and informative blog for December.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Danny Draper

Numero Uno

Well hello there, this is the first post. Literally just to state that from the end of 2011 and definitely from 2012 this site will receive at least one monthly update of latest news on all projects and at least one post per months on the blog for anyone who wishes to stay up to date. I hope you enjoy the music and videos on the site and please if you have the time to spare, leave comments about the subject or anything in particular. Of course spammers and non-constructive criticisms will not be welcome. But apart from that, enjoy!