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DIARY Jan 10th 2006 I thought it was about time that something was posted here, so here is what has been happening in the past couple of months through the eyes of the drummer. After hitting the road hard last year, missioning it to Sydney, Adelaide and playing numerous Melbourne shows, we took a brief, well deserved break in November. I went home to NZ to ground myself, and to catch up with friends who reaquainted me with METAL!!! motherfucker yyeeeeeaaahh!!!! I contemplated life in this multiverse and the fact that our solar system might be heading toward a photon belt, which will cause major shifts in the magnetics of the matrix encompassing this dimension. Shit. Maynard save me!!! So this was the frame of mind I was in when Jika hit the rehearsal room to write some new material. We are back at the place where we wrote a lot of the "Just like the Others" stuff. The environment is dirty, smelly and in need of some electrical maintenance, but it is full of inspiring energy and has a soul all of its own. I think we have all tapped into it. We are heading back to Adelaide (personally one of my favorite places in the world) tommorrow to rock and roll, we will be playing some new stuff up there, which I am thoroughly looking forward to... ZANE Jul 11th 2005 June 7-9 - The Tote and Adelaide shows Feeling pretty tired right now, after a very awesome weekend in South Australia. The weekend started off with a show at the tote in melbourne on a freezing and foggy winter night. The first band, Artinem were a really cool funk-rock-metal sort of band, though defining them as this probably does them injustice, singer/guitarist Sam is one of the mental guitarists to live, he's reminded me of dream theater in his work. Rimmend were phat as usual with a psychotic front man, and Fingerprint Resistant from Sydney were a real surprise packet, with a melodic and heavy sound with really unusual time signtarues, very cool. Personally really enjoyed the show and our sound guy Jase Buchanan did a superb job, then we were off, after packing our gear in the van at the tote at 1am, we managed to leave melb at 3am (after we all went home, dropped off our cars and had a shit, shower, shave), the fog in inland country victoria was really thick and got to a point where we could barely see what was in front of the 12seater van we were driving. We arrived at adelaide at midday and got well rested before arriving to the first venue we played at called Jive, which I am nominating as one of my favourite venues ever. It looks a mini version of the palace in melb with two levels crossed with the colours and vibe of the yahoo bar in shep, bloody awesome! I wish I could pick the venue up and take it to melb, I wouldn't bother playing anywhere else. Lapdancer were on first and they feature Niko guitarist from IST (Insect Seeking Technology) and he was on vocals and they were extremely ,metal,I loved seeing Niko let loose. Then Qantam Kaos were up and played a very unique style of music, I can't find words to describe it, they were wicked!!!! Then we played and got to really love adelaide for all their positivity and respect. Then of course were local legends, IST, who once again tottally had a ball, this is a band that tottally rules. Then we were off to party after the show, met a lot of cool people at the cranker and finally made it back to the hotel at daybreak making saturday's day focus for us to recover and rest. Vlad, zane and myself, mysteriously used the afternoon to walk around myer on rundle mall and and change into heaps of different outfits and experiment with our identity, vlad seems to think its therapy, however we were all tightarses and didn't buy anything. We also at a place called 'organic yiros' that pretty much sells everything a kebab shop sells, but its all organic and they sell fruit juices too. everything was really expensive but the taste by far beat the price, the hot chips there are unlike anything you've ever eaten, you must go to organic yiros. Then we played at the tiny exter on rundle st. The place has a wicked vibe and the band room is in the beer garden. Our support from spatial monkey were also very cool and original, very groove based with a singer that sounds like a cross of anthony keidis and zac de la rocha with a stage presence of a zoo monkey on speed - awesome, for some reason there is a very high ratio of very creative musos and bands in adelaide, it must be all the weed there. Met heaps of cool people there and went out to part with a crew and the night was very interesting from that point to say the least, we ended up with an hour sleep and then had to drive back to melb afterwards, adelaide is awesome, wanna say thanks to colin, Niko and Ist, Tom, Chelsea, Munchkin boys (you tripas), spatial monkey, kylie and friends, and everyone else who partied with us and came to the shows, we will be back soon. Jun 12th 2005 Sydney is gone,,,personally i didnt particulary like sydney and its enormous size, and the hume highway, Mcdonalds, police and trucks. The music scene is a good one with plenty on offer while the Oaks hotel is a story on its own with pokies and locals with pride....Great fun to be on the road except we can do without few fines. THE BUS PARTY WAS AWESOME and thanks to all that attended and hopefully next time will be even bigger and better... vlad May 23rd 2005 Friday we played in shepparton at the yahoo bar. Personally i think it is an awesome vanue with great managnment and staff whose hospitality cannot go unnoticed!!!! It definately sets the standards that not only country but melbourne pubs/venues should follow. They treat band members with respect and make the night stress free for the bands like us and many others that put all the hard work before and after the gig.. vlad May 6th 2005 It has been 3 days after the big night at the espy. Personaly myself i have had the best time on and off stage with Jika over the last year, especially last few months. Since starting the band with Tibor in 1998, it is the first time i felt our music was appriciated on a larger scale being our CD launch. I am also glad that our hard work over the last few months has paid off and presented to us the oppertunity to release all the hard work and good vibes and our music to the dedecated friends and our followers in one night.. big thanks to everyone that turned up and helped to make this weekend special. Our percussionist jim, lemmy, lobson, nat, lisa, nick, talia, mick, jason(mixer) dave taylor(lighting), Dean Jackson(stage managment),Matt(Dork), Alex(Impress), Nick Snelling, Jessie Shrock and Lord Fing(Beat)Salt Studios who recorded audio,Chris Obrien(Solitaremanagment), Disfunktional, Bordello, Pawn, Dj Boong and the bold man Rene Parese(Melbourne Records). VLADIMIR Apr 27th 2005 It has been 3 days after the big night at the espy. Personaly myself i have had the best time on and off stage with Jika over the last year, especially last few months. Since starting the band with Tibor in 1998, it is the first time i felt our music was appriciated on a larger scale being our CD launch. I am also glad that our hard work over the last few months has paid off and presented to us the oppertunity to release all the hard work and good vibes and our music to the dedecated friends and our followers in one night.. big thanks to everyone that turned up and helped to make this weekend special. Our percussionist jim, lemmy, lobson, nat, lisa, nick, mick, jason(mixer) dave taylor(lighting), Dean Jackson(stage managment),Matt(Dork), Alex(Impress), Nick Snelling, Jessie Shrock and Lord Fing(Beat)Salt Studios who recorded audio,Chris Obrien(Solitaremanagment), Disfunktional, Bordello, Pawn, Dj Boong and the bold man Rene Parese(Melbourne Records). VLADIMIR Apr 19th 2005 Adelaide shows - April 16, 17 The first leg of the just like the others tour kicked off in Adelaide last weekend with leaving with a broken stage and injured drummer but went totally through the roof nevertheless. Performing at the Exeter Hotel, we cranked the juice of the venue causing the venue's power to shut off during the song Gosando Con Poco (living with little), Zane continued the song whilst the power shut off switching the lights and PA. Without a powered mic Jeff continued as three members from the audience jumped on stage and joined us on percussion. The power had switched back towards the end of the song but half the stage had literally collapsed beneath me after leaping off my quadbox, making it the fourth stage that we've has destroyed in our career. We kept playing and Zane got slices on his arms, hands and fingers from colliding cymbals caused by the smash. Continuing with the set Zane kept bleeding whilst drumming and was immediately rushed to The Royal Adelaide Hospital after the set. The emergency report states that Zane had lost over three litres of blood in the course of the last three songs, however Zane is expected to make a full recovery before our album launch this Sunday. We wanna also shout out to Insect Seeking Technology from Adelaide a metal-jazz-funk-electro fusion band who were absolutely amazing and really wicked blokes, check these guys out when they come to Adelaide. We literally listened to their CD more than 12 times on the drive back to Melbourne. - T |