Archive: Life

‘Tis the Season to Be Grateful

Grateful

I’m so thankful for the Jam for Hungry Minds 2012 event because I found new friends, strengthened old ones, and found a better appreciation of music and life. I went berzerk a couple of times, but I cannot deny how great of an experience this was. I got to perform several times with four of my best friends Mond Merle, Nico Africa, Raizza Videña and Nico Valle, and was supported 1001% by our manager-slash-mama Arla Pascual.

I found friends in the other bands – Forever Wassaque, The Res Band, JNG Project and The Remedy. I found friends in the committee/band managers. I found friends in those who supported us and the cause – people I’ve never even met before voted for us, posted pictures of us in social media, and greeted me whenever they see me in the office. It’s such a nice and heartwarming feeling to have our band’s efforts recognized, not just by people at the office but also by their friends and family, and even by a few local rockstars.

Best of all, I was able to give back – to contribute to a cause and really feel like I did something. In previous years, I would contribute to the cause and perform a tiny role in a big group, then convince my family to contribute too via the external raffle. But this year was different – it was closer to my heart now more than ever.

I would just like to thank this opportunity to thank everyone. Your efforts and support did not go unnoticed. Believe me when I say, I love you.

Studio and photoshoots

So I have been quite busy lately (can’t you tell from the multitude of posts I have created? Harhar)…

First off, the site has been updated (yay, me!) with a new layout. I just customized it a bit haha.

Okay, onto business. For the past few months I have been writing some music and lyrics, and have managed to create a few cool songs. There’s one I co-wrote with two of my bandmates Alan and Mond… I have a rough demo lying around and we might enter the studio sometime this month with our other bandmates Raizza and Nico teeheeheehee.  That song in particular is actually for something I’m rather excited about, but can’t say yet. Stay tuned.

Lastly, I have had a photoshoot last month, and I’m planning on a couple more. Modelling, perhaps? Nah. I just plan on using the photos for some music-related stuff.

And ohhh I bought a new guitar. It’s such a beaut… red and all that. <3 I have rekindled my relationship with making music and I just LOVE it.

It’s a Sabotage

Hello! As I write to you now I am hunched over my laptop in my living room trying to figure out certain things in my life. A few weeks ago I turned 25. Ohoho. That went well – I had a toothache so I’ll let you figure out the rest.

Over the past 2 months I was having the time of my life. Me and a bunch of friends from work formed a band, now called the Saboteurs, and played 4 songs during our company’s year-ender shindig. ’twas fun! We performed Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz), Hallelujah (Bamboo), Crushcrushcrush (Paramore) and Antukin (Rico Blanco). Sadly, only the first 2 songs got recorded, so… just look for them in Youtube, yeah? :p

Left to right: Raizza Videna (rhythm guitar/backup vocals), Nico Africa (lead guitar), Alan Chiu (lead guitar), me (vocals), Abes Abenoja (drums), Mond Merle (bass/backup vocals).

We played at the Makati Shangri-La’s Rizal Ballroom. Whut! Two of my bandmates even met Apl.de.ap from the Black Eyed Peas…that was wicked. I’m jealous.

We’re planning on joining our company-wide battle of the bands. Mind you, we have about 10 offices throughout the country. This is gonna be interesting. There might also be a kind of Valentine-ish acoustic night, I’m sorta interested, but we’ll see.

Herp. Derp.

I’m going to the Evanescence concert next month! They have Bush with them, so that’s gonna be amazing. I might go alone, haha. That’s ’cause everyone’s pretty much focused on the Singapore concert of the Foo Fighters – which I might go to as well. I just need to get my passport sorted, then off I go! I’m mega excited as that will be my first time out of the country. Hopefully it’ll kickstart my year of going abroad! I plan on taking over England ya know.

…or not.

As far as new songs and covers go, I haven’t gotten any for you just yet. But wait. I’ve pulled crazier tricks out of the hat before.

Peace, love, rock & roll…

Imee

Word.

Whaddup yo yo yo.

So I’m writing in from a brand new iPad 2 which I won about a week ago or two. Yes, I won it! Ain’t that grand?

For the past few days I have been using it as:

1. Internet & e-mail thingemabob
2. Twitter device
3. Facebook device
4. A gaming thingy
5. A camera
6. Musical instruments
7. Notebook

I have yet to use it as a recording studio. My coworker beat me to it – he bought Garage Band already! But no matter, I have that app on my MacBook anyway so…

So… The seasons are slowly arriving. In the words of Charlie Simpson, “cannot believe a whole year has gone…” This year has been great (mostly). I’m pretty bummed about a few things (Brigade being semi-retired, Westlife are breaking up, John Mayer is sick, I’ve nobody to go with to Jason Mraz’s concert…) but let’s not focus on that.

Enough about me, how are youuu?

A few minutes before seven

Writing in from my new old iPod Touch. Ha! It’s almost 7am, I’m bored, and kind of sleepy. Devastated my MacBook does not have proper wifi here in the room I’ve currently made residence in. A wee bit hungry. Oh, and I need a muse. Hit me with a tweet on how and why you should inspire me and my music. K. Outta here.

Imee x

Of cliches and tired souls

What’s crackin’ what’s shakin’ what’s a-percolatin’ y’all?

…and the winner for most cliches in an opening sentence is… ME.

So heyy. I’m back, sort of. I’m still in some crazy type of slump, however. I have not written anything on here in a while and I do apologise. Basically, I’ve been at my current corporate job for a year now. To the day. Yes, my friends… I lasted 1 year at the same job! Congratulate me. Please. I need it more than you may ever realise.

ANYWAY. I have redesigned the website, using one of them free WordPress templates, but still customised it to my own liking. I’m quite the nitpicker-slash-perfectionist when it comes to webby thingies. So the cityscape background shall be replaced next time, by I have no idea what, but I’m sure it will represent something about me. Butterflies, perhaps? No, that’s Paramore (although I do have a fascination with butterflies way before BNE). Moths, then. No, that’s Evanescence. Fireflies!!! Yes. Fireflies. No… I was thinking of dragonflies but ended up typing fireflies. I’m so absentminded. Whoo.

In other news, my school UST is in the Final 4 of the UAAP. So whazzaaaaap. I can’t watch on Thursday though, so I’m just crossing my fingers, hoping they’ll win. Basketball used to be at the top of my priorities, but heh. Just wishing them all the best of luck now, and I hope they support me as much as I supported them for the past (counts…) 8 years. Wait… EIGHT?! Mothereffing freak that’s a long time.

Anyway, I’m babbling by myself and I’m 95% sure nobody really cares. Sorry ’bout that. I’m in a quarter-life crisis so let me be. Yes, that partially came from a song. Speaking of which, I have written something I think is real cool… I wrote a song called “Broken Bride” today (I mean yesterday)…well okay I have written only the chorus, but it’s dark yet catchy. How that came to be, well… I just think this will turn out really cool and potentially amazing.

So it’s nearly 2am now and I’ve to wake up in like 3.5 hours… Why the hell am I still even up?! Lord help me, I need therapy.

I’m out. Live a little, love a little. Peace!

Escape.

I’m working on this song, with the working title of “Escape.” In my head, it sounds good, but there’s been history of my brain making things sound more amazing than in real life. Haha. So anywho, here’s a bit of the lyrics that I’m working on for it:

I wanna escape
I wait for the day
That I lose the pain
I wanna escape

It’s not as impressive on paper (or in this case, on screen), but I really do think this has the potential of being real cool. I just need a band to help me out with the technical/musical details, that’s all.

ANYWAY. The past week, not to complain, it has been pretty much hellish. Monday, I lost my iPod on the way to work. Not a good start to the week. It all went downhill from there. I need change in my life. Maybe that’s why I’ve been inspired to work on Escape – I’m kind of looking for a change in my life, and sometimes I just wish I could escape my life and start over from scratch. It’s bizarre… Up until lately, I was happy with my life. I don’t know what the hell happened! I just…need to “escape” I guess.

Prft.

Well hello. Posting from my iPod onto here for the very first time. Ever.

I’m a bad musician. Not that I’m bad in making music – it’s just that I can’t seem to stand by my word. I haven’t written a full song in a long while. I have not touched a guitar longer. I am failing really bad with my piano skills. I keep saying music is my life, but I can’t seem to live up to my own motherfucking expectations.

Life has been pretty good in general to me since I last posted here. I’m 8 months into my job yesterday (Friday the 13th). Should have stayed home and freaked people out with Twitter/Facebook statuses like “damn it where’s my hockey mask when I need it?” but nooo. I had to go to work for the last day of the week and go through a shitty day within a shitty week. And for what? Just so I can get paid. Pah.

But enough about that rant. Here’s an entirely different thing – LOVE. I have come to the conclusion that (and follow me on this) I am the exception to the rules of it. Why? They say when you love, you will be loved in return, sevenfold even. Am I feeling that? No. They also say the law of karma basically means what goes around will always come back around. Has all the love, passion and affection I’ve given come around? No. Lastly, everyone around me is pretty much hanging on. Me? Barely. I claim to be happy, which I am most of the time, but I die in misery every single time I’m reminded that I’m alone, I’ve been single for a looong while, and that every guy I like either fucks me over or is just not that into me. I’m extremely sad and disappointed about this. You can’t even begin to imagine how much.

I want to relocate. I already have a place in mind – a place I love and I know I’ll be comfortable living in. Problem, then? No passport. And I need loads of money to make that happen. Like, shitloads. Gawd. What do I have to sell and/or sacrifice? No, do not say my body because I will fucking kill you.

So what is to become of me and this site and my so-called music career? We may never know until I get a grip and start anew. Properly.

Right. Trust that I’m still around. I may not be on here that often, but you can find me everywhere online.

Until then, so long, y’all…

Too busy for my own good

I haven’t written proper anything in a while… Scribbles of verses or a few notes, but never a full song. I need inspiration and time. Been really busy, with stuff I don’t even want to be busy with. Hey guess what, I’m employed again. I’m starting sometime next month I’m told. Since I signed a contract, I’m tied to the company for the next two years, else I’ll have to pay a LOT of money. Oh well. Someday I’ll escape this hell I’ve dropped myself into. For now, I should be grateful for everything I currently have.

If you feel you need to keep in touch with me, I’m almost always online at my official Twitter [@r0ckergirl14]. Sometimes I’m also at my Tumblr blog.

Current side project: FightstarLyrics, a Fightstar/Charlie Simpson typography website.

broken strings

James Morrison & Nelly Furtado said you can’t play on broken strings. And by golly, I think they’re right. There’s five guitars in this house, and none of them are working at the moment. One is my sister Doreen’s guitar, which she kind of abandoned. It is super out of tune, out of shape, and has a broken 1st string. The other is my dad’s, which was what I was using for the past few weeks. It just died on me yesterday – its 1st string broke as well.

The other three guitars here at home are mine, but alas, none of them work. My first guitar, the one pictured on the left, broke. I don’t even remember how or why it did! My second guitar is the one whose 2nd string’s peg broke just yesterday. My third, which is probably my favorite, is a blue acoustic that you could connect to an amp. Somebody dropped it when I was a senior in high school, and nobody would own up to doing so. My mom said I could probably get those fixed after we get the van fixed. I suggested that I’d just display the broken guitars & get a new one instead; my dad said it would take up a LOT of space. He’s right, given that I have the tiniest room in the house.

So here I am, left with no guitar, and feeling like I just lost a limb. I suppose I could tinker with my electronic keyboard, but I’m not a very good piano player. HA! Maybe this is some sort of signal that I should go back to playing it… I have abandoned that thing except for using it to tune guitars. Although lately I have developed some sort of interest in it again – I did try learning the piano parts of Fightstar’s “Floods” and Evanescence’s “My Immortal” this week. I’ve been trying my hand on “The Scientist” by Coldplay last night as well.

Oh, and I’ve been writing a couple of songs lately… None of them are super 100% completely finished. So with my music on indefinite hold… I’ll just blab on about what I’ve been doing in my life for the past month or so.

I should let some of you know I auditioned for this year’s MYX VJ search, but no callbacks from them. Haha. I didn’t do fantastic in my audition spiel, I mean it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t da bomb if you get my meaning. What else, what else. Ah, I went to Enchanted Kingdom with my friends Vanessa, Ickay and Cheng, as well as her friend Rona. We of course went on rides & stuff, but we also went there to support my friend Hadi in his musical “Electrifying Kiss of Summer.” Oh, and I’m also excited that Lee DeWyze is the new American Idol. Love him. He was hilarious last week on Ellen, during Know or Go. Hahaha

I’ve also been updating some of my pages all over teh interwebs. My Twitter has a new simple/minimalistic yet still grungy design. My MySpace page is totally revamped, and I did pretty well with it if I do say so myself. I also redesigned my Tumblr, so if you’re into that kind of blogosphere, then add me up – I follow back! My Facebook could always use a couple more fans/likes, and you can always ask me a question if you’re bored or curious

I’m excited that I have a bunch of celebrities following me back on Twitter. Ellen DeGeneres, John Vesely (Secondhand Serenade), Gavin DeGraw, Tim Urban, Vera Mesmer (previously known as Chris Turner of Reveille), and just today, Alison Sudol (A Fine Frenzy). I don’t know if the real Bob Proctor is following me, but I guess that counts. INSANE, huh? I think I’m now famous by association. LOL. One time, I was this close to getting followed by Shannen Doherty. I’m also working on getting the attention of Charlie Simpson and Alex Band. I want Amy Lee to follow me as well, ’cause she’s my idol, but I don’t think she does that. Damn it, what does a girl have to do to get these peoples’ attentions?! Hahaha. I’m kidding of course. I’m not that desperate, but it would really be mega cool though.

Yesterday was my dad’s 67th birthday. Could you believe it?! I think we’re celebrating it tomorrow with the whole family. We were supposed to go out of town, but since the van isn’t okay and there aren’t enough fixed vehicles to fit all eight of us, well… I guess we’re just staying in. I wonder what we’ll be feasting on. I hope there’s ice cream

PS: Does anybody have a vacuum cleaner they’re willing to lend (or possibly give) to me? There’s a dust bunny in my room, and you know how fast bunnies get when it comes to multiplying…