god april was nuts, it seriously seemed like i never stopped playing shows, doing rehearsals and running around like a goddamn madman. anyway, let’s start with the beginning of the month.

TLG was invited to play down in Spring Scream this year which was fun!  though getting down there is always a giant hassle, especially with all the equipment, we played a pretty solid show and got to see a lot of really cool bands!! and of course, got to party continuously throughout the weekend with all our friends.

i was also invited to do a photoshoot for the newspapers feature on spring scream

here’s us playing at our stage

keeping it classy with vigar

seriously best hot dogs i’ve ever had (with the exception of the ones you can get in LA) it’s fried bread, sausage on top of pickled veggies and onions!

i still have no idea who this dude is, but apparently he’s very famous and he wore our sticker during his set, haha

japanese bands seriously are the best bands on the planet, not to mention hardest working

why we were rabbits for these few seconds i don’t know

here’s a video of us shot by a friend

it only seems like there was no one there because everyone standing farther away…I SWEAR -_-

anyway, that was spring scream. it definitely seemed like there weren’t as many people there compared to when we played there 2 years ago, but it was a still a great time!

while TLG was preparing our new record and doing spring scream, my other band, Destroyers, was playing shows around Taipei.  we played a really fun show with some really cool kids from singapore.  here’s a pic of us all together with members of other various taipei based bands, haha

at vicious circle

our new stickers are ridiculously big

fever trend still playing many shows on the streets

allie’s birthday

really like this pic

cutting up katie’s pants

TLG cd release party at the wall

after the cd release party…a nice little family photo on the floor of the wall

a clip from our cd release party

another one on stage!

while all these shows were being planned, i also played with dom again.  she had a big concert at riverside a few days after the TLG cd release party.

all the people in this picture should look familiar, except sasha on the right…super cool bass player haha

various non-show related pictures!

the men cooking

i guess this is a new trend of putting our giant ass stickers on our faces

and the last thing i’ve done this month was go on the radio station ICRT again!! i think it went a lot smoother this time around hahah

if you missed the broadcast, we have it uploaded on youtube in 7 parts! here’s #1

i trust you guys can find your way to #7!  it’s still really weird to hear myself or the band over the radio waves!

anyway, after this super insane april, i’ve decided to go home in may for a bit to kinda cool off.  see you all back at home soon!!! yea!!

check it!

it’s been a pretty good month, busy, but good.  still working through a bunch of personal nonsense lately, but as a whole, things have been looking good.

i went on TV again with my friend, Dom (蔡詩蕓).  if any of you have been to taipei before, i’m sure you’ve seen her modeling ads posted all over the breeze center(s) malls.  anyway, she just released her own record and she asked me to go on 娛樂百分百 with her. it’s a tv show with a really famous host in taiwan!  i don’t think the episode has been released yet, but i’ll be sure to post it up when and if i ever see it! haha, here are some pictures i took while on set

the ever so beautiful dom and me, not being awkward

let’s just say that i was super happy that i only had to perform the song and not have to talk to anyone.  i mean, i’m a pretty talkative person, but when i’m put in the spotlight, i really don’t like to talk.  those of you who have seen any TLG shows know that i absolutely hate talking while on stage.

lately, the weather’s been real nice, so we’ve been doing a lot of street shows around taipei.  i’ve been playing with fever trend and destroyers for those shows.  it’s a really cool experience.  it definitely draws huge crowds which is really encouraging!

destroyers 擊沈女孩

we actually just finished recording our first EP…which should be out soon, actually, i think it’s already out, hahahha

i love these 2

it was mikey’s birthday this month also!!! here’s us 2 with ruby

played a pretty good show with fever trend to a crowd consisting mostly of high school students drinking alcohol for the very first time …

i have to give credit to the many photographers that come to our shows and snap pictures of me that make me look a lot cooler than i really am

our after show feast…the food just kept on coming, it was nuts

as for the looking glass, our EP is officially being printed right now!!! so, it should be out VERY SOON.  we’re doing our CD release party at the wall on april 17th, but the record will most probably be out before then.  hopefully it’ll be out before spring scream so we can sell it down there!!!! anyway, here are our promotional pictures taken by mikey

ok, that’s about it for now.  i gotta go now get a long overdue haircut.  oh, and also, i’ll be home in may for a week, my friends.

it’s been a busy month.  in a nutshell, i’ve gotten more work hours which is nice because that means i now have residency in taiwan!! also, playing in 3 bands + sessions with pro singers keeps me more busy than i ever thought i’d be.  it’s crazy to think about because only a year ago, i was only playing in 1 band, going to school and working part time.  at the time i thought i was a pretty busy dude, but nope, it seems that within the past few months, things have just gotten that much busier, which is good, i guess.

i’m playing at least one or 2 shows every week now, which doesn’t include practice times and just casual jamming.  the looking glass is finally done recording our sophomore EP, which we will be releasing on april 19th, at the wall!  it’s still in the mixing/mastering process but i’m going to have to say right now that the material we wrote for this record are by far the best songs we’ve ever written (at least in my eyes).  i feel like it really shows how the band has matured and progressed in the last 2 years.  we haven’t been playing too many shows lately because we’re busy with the record.  we have played a few though…

at revolver

i really need to do something about my strings always breaking

a picture taken just yesterday actually, at a charity show!

which brings me to my next band: destroyers (擊沈女孩). this band was originally started between lee and i as a side project.  we’ve only been an official band for like 3 weeks now, and we’ve already played 4 shows.  on top of that we have shows throughout march and april already booked.  we had absolutely no idea the band would take off as fast as it did.  to put it in perspective, the looking glass has had a facebook fan page for a little over a year now and we have close to 700 fans on it.  destroyers was started last month and we’re getting close to 250 fans!

our first show was here, a really cool place to play

though i thought it was weird that they put giant paper cutouts of famous rockers on stage that made us look super tiny

but it was cool because we found a giant pig…johnny is in the pic for size comparison

a show we played a revolver

lee

dawei

our stickers

we put them everywhere we can

lee and i playing a destroyers song acoustic

a pic from when we played an acoustic set at ximen

so the other band i’m in, fever trend, has also been very busy in the last few weeks. we actually haven’t played at a venue in a while after the EP release, but we’ve been playing a lot of acoustic sets around the city which has been a really awesome experience. i had always wanted to play outside because i noticed that here in taiwan, people really like to stop and listen!

here’s the other band we’re currently ‘touring’ with

so much fun

people watching from the MRT

although we had a permit to play, we still got complaints and eventually got kicked out

us standing in front of the store that called the cops on us

on the flip side, a group picture of us after playing 6 straight hours in front of the 101

and lastly, played another *sold out* show with the lovely rose (which hopefully you all know by now) i took this picture while i wasn’t playing hahaha.  i’m so professional.

ok enough with the music stuff.  i’ve been 3rd legging with these 2 a lot lately, which has been seriously a lot of fun.  we always go to the darts bar, just the 3 of us, and play stupid drinking games that always end badly hahaha.

us being degenerates inside the bathroom of ktv

the girls have this thing for picking all of us up

i love these people

new friends

and the start of something new…destroyers dinner parties?!

well that’s about it for february. those who i still talk to regularly should also know what’s been going on in my life lately, so i won’t go into that.  i know i’ve been a little distant with a lot of you back home, and i promise it’s not intentional!  just wanted to say thanks to those who have been supporting me emotionally in the past few weeks.  i love you all.

k bye february!

 

if we’re connected through facebook, i’m sure you’ve all seen that i was on TV lately with the lovely rose liu.  i never really got a chance to explain everything through the facebook update so i figured i’d do it here, though i’d like to thank each and everyone of you who ‘liked’ or commented on the status.  it made me feel pretty cool!

rose had competed in a show here called 星光大道 about 4 years ago and placed 2nd, though common consensus says that she should have won 1st.  anyway, they occasionally invite her back on the show to do special competitions.  this one in particular was the new years competition.  as most of you know, i’ve been doing quite a few shows with her lately, so she called me up like, 3 days before the taping to ask if i wanted to go up on stage with her.  OF COURSE i said.  so in 3 days, we made our own little rendition of usher’s ‘OMG’ to perform.

how the show works is that there are 5 judges.  each judge can give a maximum of 5 stars to each performer, and the performer with the most cumulative stars at the end of the episode wins.  it’s very similar to american idol, except the people don’t get to vote. it’s all up to the judges.  and of course, the judges get to take turns judging you, which is the stressful part.

to tell you guys the truth, i wasn’t so nervous about the performance part, but i was SUPER nervous about the judging/interview part afterwards.  it was my first time on a real soundstage and it was quite an experience.  the filming is NOT live, we actually filmed the episode a good 3 weeks before it aired on january 13.  when we went in for soundcheck, i noticed that the judges mic’s weren’t on super loud…they had their own monitors, but it seemed like their voices weren’t coming through super clear on our monitors.  same with the hosts voices.  i was nervous that they would try to talk to me and i would either 1) not be able to hear them or 2) not understand what they were saying.  i mean, i’m confident enough in my chinese that i can respond and comprehend properly, but the fact that i was being freakin FILMED made me a little uneasy. well if you watched the video, you can see that they really didn’t talk to me much, and hey, i even got a few words in there too!  hooray for me!!

we were also just as surprised as all of you when we received full stars and we ended up winning the competition.  the reward for winning this competition was $30,000NT …. worth of make up supplies -_-  and yes, that’s exactly how they told us what the prize was…with the stupid pause and everything.

another side note, if you look at the youtube video on the actual site, you can see that one of the top comments left is one that says ‘吉他上有 the looking glass的貼紙耶!!!!!!! 帥!’   some fan of the looking glass noticed i put our sticker on my guitar.  pretty cool!!

and for those wondering what the judges were saying, i’ll sum everything up in a nutshell for you guys:

1. the part where they kind of interview me, the judges tell me that the guy judge is also named ‘JOHN’ …. yes, they spelled my name wrong ><  then the girl judge says ‘ya, but there’s one here who plays well and one who plays shitty’ …. then i butt in and say ‘YEP HE’S THE BETTER ONE’ .

2. the judges basically say that our rendition of the song was very unique and special.  one of the judges said that it would have been nice if i added harmonies so that the song wasn’t so repetitive and ‘boring’.  overall though, they loved the rendition, which was inspired from a cover that rose saw on youtube.

again, a big thanks to rose for letting me leech a little off of her fame!  i’ve even been recognized by random cashiers at 7-11!

also, here’s the ad that was run on tv about a week prior to the episode’s airing