Every now and then, I am forced to think of my life and sort out my priorities and determine what I really consider important and wholly cherish. And though this might be a sad entry in my blog it is nevertheless a necessary one. If only for me to just let talk about it to feel better if I can about the whole situation. Sadly three days ago, rock solid guitarist of Shotgun Politics and friend of operator, kevin passed away. He was 25.

Such a young age for a promising musician. Now I honestly didn’t know him well. I wasn’t in his band, and I didn’t hang out with him all the time, but we did hang out a few times at gigs we both played at and this dude was cool. I was jealous of his skill and honestly his muscles. But he had fun and that’s what was always important. Here’s a glimpse of the dude I knew and saw and everybody else loved

jon
http://www.facebook.com/operatorhk

Boy, has it been a long time since I have written one of these updates and a lot has happened over here since we last met.

Over the past year, This Music Studio, has been through some cosmetic and personnel changes. First, among it’s ranks, we can add uber producer/engineer Kelvin Avon of Chewatribe Productions to our Ranks. Though not new to Hong Kong, Mr. Avon recently established his production company, here in Hong Kong and brings years of engineer and production experience and an impressive portfolio to This Music Studio. Surreptitiously coming in and out of our studio is Sean Humphries, Asia Pacific Sales Manager of “Asia Pacific Music Marketing“. As a representative of many of the world’s leading musical Instruments, professional audio interfaces, music software, sound recording equipment, broadcast and music technology products he adds a extra credibility to This Music Studio.

In its second year as a full time music studio, This Music Studio has gone through many physical changes and equipment upgrades. Most noticeable is the new addition of the Solid State Logic AWS 900 SE+ mixing and recording console. Though our Yamaha O2R served us very well for the past few years, it was time for something new. And man is this something special! In a digital world, it is great to get a little a bit of analogue back into this place. And once we have everything patched up and all cables and wires are tucked away and set up, we will be a formidable opponent to many studios in Hong Kong. Our advantage, hopefully, convenience.

Rounding out the changes is completion of renovation to our control room. Rebuilding a portion of the studio around the new mixing desk was both a daunting and exciting task, but ultimately it worked out beautifully. After a few months we had put up a new wall, and created a new room solely dedicated to recording mixing and editing music. And with the edition of a 5.1 enabled speaker monitoring system from KRK, we have the capabilities to mix and edit motion pictures and soundtracks. An exhilarating prospect that opens a whole new door of possibilities for ThisMusicStudio.

And finally our new website is now live. Courtesy of PegLeg Productions, our new look site has been streamlined with a new booking section and updated spec sheet. So click on over there and tell your friends. This Music Studio is back with a vengeance and ready to shake the musical foundations in Hong Kong.

cheers,
jon

It’s been almost months since operatoR first won Heat 1 of Global Battle of the bands. Within those two months we spent hours every week perfecting our craft and our showmanship for a two song set. All of that culminated on Friday, November 5th. Going in we were antsy and nervous. I know i certainly was, and though i do not speak for my band mates, i myself was quite nervous and the pressure of it was getting to me. I think the prospect of what was about to happen and if we succeeded was getting to me. But that is rather strange because i do not really enjoy competitions and i believe that they never are a good representation of what an entrant can do. I suppose that under pressure you do learn about your abilities to perform and react however i know i have never been good at competition however thought it might be worth a try this time.

But sadly we didn’t get it, and though I was incredibly proud what we did and achieved, i won’t lie to you, i was pretty bummed out. In fact i was very bummed out. However with every bad situation, there is a silver lining. And on this evening there were a few. Though our performance didn’t win any awards, we won some new friends and maybe even some fans. People came up to us afterward and gave us good comments and that really encouraged.

Now before this messages gets to the point of self indulgence, i must acknowledge that every single band there did an excellent job, and it was anybody’s game. After the dust settled Senseless won and i wish them good luck. I think there were some tears amongst some of the other bands but all in all a great great experience for everybody and i am proud of our work and how far we have come in the last year.

Would i do it again, i doubt it. So much work for two songs but who knows. But I can say that i was glad to be a part of it but being a judge is definitely less stressful than participating.

my band operatoR recently had a summer hiatus. it wasn’t by choice as it was brought about by holidays that band members would intermittently take throught out the summer. however we have just recently settled back into the city we call home, hong kong, and it has been great getting back together and talking new ideas and new songs.

this weekend will be our first writing and jam session in almost two months and we are all ready. in a twist of fate, our webcast videos had just finished and it definitely helped us get back into the groove of making music. below is the five songs that we have created specially for operatoR fans and we hope it will help us get a few more down the line.

video and audio was recorded in ThisMusicStudio in central here in hong kong. hope you guys enjoy watching the videos cause we had loads of fun making them.

cheers,

I posed this question to myself today, not because of boredom or i needed a new challenge. But because i was listening to some music and my favorite song came up. And I realized it then and there that it was my favorite song.

Have you asked your self this question? What is my favorite song? What puts you in a good mood when you’re unhappy, what lifts your up when you need inspiration, what do you start your day listening to and what would you want to hear before you go to bed? What is the one song you want to see performed live?

I know some people find it hard to narrow it down, and they have songs for every mood and ever occasion. But if you dig deep, you will find that one song. And it only occurred to me as I was speaking to my band mate Ben late on night.

I first heard this song when I was a kid and it was my sister’s cassette. I was bored and home and ran into her room and grabbed a bunch of tapes off the top of her desk and popped each of them into the tape deck in our living room. Bryan Adams Reckless was amongst the stack of tapes I grabbed and I listened through that album with excitedly. Run to you was an especially cool track.

I popped in the second cassette and it was magic. Up until this point I had only listened to jazz music and classical. I wasn’t a popular kid and i didn’t listen to anything outside of Dave Brubeck and Beethoven. My favorite song of all time at the time was eine kleine nacht musik. But very soon I knew what it was.

That cassette was called The Joshua Tree by a band called U2. I was instantly blown away. Side A started and just that initial swell from Where the Streets Have No Name made the hairs on my neck and arm stand up. I got the chills from a song that wasn’t classical. I haven’t felt so strongly about a song since i heard Ravel’s Bolero.

Once the drums kicked in I was sold. I decided that I wanted to play the drums. It was sounded so cool to me. By the time Bullet the Blue Sky came on, I knew that, at the time mind you, this had to be the awesomest band. Although, some 20 years later, I still think that not many people can hold a candle up to U2.

I had the joy of watching them play live a few years ago. I sat behind Larry Mullen Jr.’s drum kit and he was mesmerizing. He was amazing. Not the fastest or the most technically gifted, but he was just good, solid and the beats he played were inspired. Sunday Bloody Sunday, Vertigo, City of Blinding Lights all of those grooves were so powerful and perfect for every song. Listening to Where the Streets have no name live is definitely a special experience.

What’s Your Favorite Song?