....ANNNNND we're BACK bloggin'!!

For more than a year we've been silent.... ..err, well online atleast. Perhaps it's time to start off anew? Begin bloggin' like a wayward gossip, only devout to rock'n roll matters concerning Helter Skelter? Yes... Look out! We're hooked in!

Potholes and self esteem s*cks

Commitment to rock hard, at the cost of anything, but below a certain "hurdle" level - which is set at the point of losing face as a result of  extreme foolhardy behavior is what we believe in. We all are burdened by our required daily bread. We all have duties, responsibilities and commitments to satisfy. We all need some sort of a get-away. Some of us also need to express ourselves in a way, somewhat of a Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde based on day-time roles and after-such-commitment-roles. A sanctuary of serenity in a form of happiness or effort one desires in terms of one's measure of such a need.

We chose to play our part as a rock n roll band to escape from the nagging cell-phone calls from clients, the nuisance of meeting corporate deadlines to produce analytical reports (Yes! This is our day-time face!). The band HELTER SKELTER was in definition a five-force theory of a dual-face duty we have to play in life (and we're not talking about the "two-faced-bastard" context material, but simply about the many roles we undertake in life minimized to just two!). We worked hard during the day for a company who duly provides for our daily requirements and we rocked after hours in a rocking band to escape into a moment of talent spree.

This is what we all believed in.
Sad to know that some couldn't live with it.

Steffen had commitment problems. Eg; he hid in his office many many times when we arrived to pick him up and go to practice together.
Shameen had weird problems. Eg; he had to quit the band to study cause he couldn't concentrate otherwise :@

The above two have taken leave from HELTER SKELTER, the former was dismissed and the latter took his resignation. It's sad in many ways than one. We will miss them dearly. No matter what crap they gave us during the latter-part.

BUT - HELTER SKELTER is fighting hard and we are still in action. Joseph, Riyal and Birendra will continue to rock hard at whatever the cost (as explained above) as we are in the band for the love of chilling out while utilizing our talents by projecting it into the medium of rock n roll music. We are not in the band because we need it to survive or we die. We are in the band BECAUSE we enjoy spending that extra effort for it. To rock hard. We don't mind allocating some money to practice even if it means to play for a free gig.

HELTER SKELTER will CONTINUE on rocking hard and rocking on. We will feature as many artists as we desire to facilitate gigs with many themes. And we will continue to hunt for a new voice and new 2nd guitar-man. Let's Rock!


For those about to rock, we salute you!

Gig Update - "Revolutions of Sound 8" on Friday the 12th of Feb. Rock Hard!

Did we mention that February happens to be a great month for Helter Skelter? Well i sure do need to, for we have a couple of gigs to energize some rock 'n roll at AND our original will be put out "Very Soon"..!

Well the gig is:

"Revolutions of Sound 8"

Well, all i can say is that the line up of bands is the superb. This calls for a hardcore performance from Helter Skelter and all we can happily say is 'you f*ckin' got it, b*tc#'.

Just to point out the needful regarding "Revo 8" 

When : Friday, the 12th of Feb 7.30pm onwards

Where : Bishops College Auditorium

Tickets : Rs. 450

Rock hard and we hope to see you rock n rollers there.

Cheers!

....and joseph walked the plank?? (^_^)

---*Alarm* *Alarm* Man your stations boys, Josef's down and let's get our asses over there drag him back aboard!---

That was what the remaining survivors of "living" Helter Skelter was like when we got to know that our beloved drummer Josef (a.k.a Steve Kalum Ishara) had had it and was on his way over the hill. Birendra was busying over his "COF" report at his office and Riyal was "shooting" some chick for an advertisement. Shameen was californicating over some random business book and Steffen was, well, sleeping with his ass on the fan. Josef was.. er.. oh yeah!... he was in the ICU! (you see, we always talk in context of all 5 of us and even now were accidently trying to explain what josef, who is the SUBJECT of this blog entry, was doing at that point. *sniff* *sniff*)

Josef was pronounced history (we refrain from using the word 'dead' on any of us in Helter Skelter).. for 2 mins. And then he was back.

So Riyal and Birendra went to visit him inside some ward. 666 i think.. no just kiddin' it was ward 1.. There he was. Weak as ever.

He looked like this:

Anyway, the fellow was under recovery for a couple of days and now he is back in action. And yup, we (Riyal, Stef, Shameen and Bire) decided to pay him a visit on Friday - the day after he was discharged from hospital. However, Josef had already planned out a dinner-outing with his family, so we got the cold end. Maybe they decided to celebrate his rebirth. And then the day after he turns up unannounced at Riyals doorstep. Not that we dislike it, we actually were glad to see the man all healthy and ready to kick ass..

But you know, that was one hell-o-va speedy recovery. From almost history to bus-sing it colpetty without any aid. ROCKER baby!

 So yup, SON OF A GUN will be released as planned...

ROCK HARD! YEAH!

"Oh no! Not again!!!!" Vocal take 2

't was such a bountiful day for a final mix-down. Fueled by the hunger for a crispy release of our first original we firstly decided to have a practice session at 3pm at the god-damn "alternative" studio (as our usual choice of premises seem to have been locked up since the last time we tread upon it for a rock hard practice session back during the onstage era!). However, due to complications we couldn't carry out the practice session as planned. That was strike 1.

However, since we were to mix the takes on Son of a Gun into the final releasable version we decided to meet up at Birendra's place early. Everythings seemed quite in line with the plan untill we tried to locate the awesome takes on the vocals (both lead and backup) we recorded last week and they just weren't there! After much frantic searching (bringing up the wonderful "Windows" search program featuring the dog / bitch whatever..!) we couldn't find it and then it so turned out to be that way as the system had undergone some serious faults and a previous state was restored on the 12th (Meaning that, on the 12th when the the faults had occurred, the system was restored to a previous state which was prior to the 10th, which was the date we took the previous take on the vocals!).

All hell broke lose. People started losing minds and Riyal started crackin' like this :

Ha ha ha..

Anyway, we had to therefore take the whole vocal line AGAIN from scratch, from rock bottom! It was the PITS! :@

BUT.. All was cool, we took it again, dunked it harder, completed the drum screening and are NOW merely waiting till next Sunday the 24th to conduct the mix-down and QUITE CERTAINLY, the song would be released by Tuesday the 26th.

Sexy, ay?

 

Son of a Gun is just here!

After much delay and anticipation we have finally managed to bind ourselves, yet again, together focusing on one specific objective - that is to get the frikin' song out soon. We have been proclaiming or rather speculating the release since Dec' of good 'ol 2009 but in the end it had to be this year.


Festivities and celebrations alike mainly prevented the smooth flow of recording and editing and now since those have come to pass it's rock n roll time yet again for Helter Skelter :)


So here goes, we have finished the critical aspect of recording the vocals and the backing vocals and now, together with the previously completed drums, guitars and bass takes, are ready to release 'Son of a Gun' to quench your thirst for some real hard rock in Sri Lanka.
Come to think of it, it's hight time we did..


Ah.. Now for some pre-release to-do'ings and then its OUT.


Oh, and a pretty toned down and somewhat a february-material song is then to be finalized and proceede with recordings. More of that soon. Just keep in mind that it is a power-ballad in nature and is more focused on infatuation :P


Rock your hardest and brace yourselves for a son of a gun is just about to break free unto you! :)


Rock n Roll!

Whole lotta bass!

Finally! The bass is DONE! Poor Riyal had to go thru many unforeseen retakes till 11.30pm just earlier to get those super perfect slides and the punch which is associated with none other than a slappin' bass take with the right concentration of enthusiasm and determination!


Kudos to the third party elder fella' who had to bore thru the whole session hugged up in his own piece of the wonderful innovation in the Sri Lankan transportation menu otherwise known as the metered tuk-tuk. Waiting charges are just 90 bucks for the hour!


Perfection is Key! Effort pays off!


Finally things are getting set for the final mix-down of SON OF A GUN about to occure very soon followed by the RELEASE! *Applause*


Rock Hard!