Why Would I Write

  • Sunshine Underground

    This morning I woke up with Chickenrace – Heartbeat in my head which was a first for me. Generally I don’t listen to a lot of Japanese music, only a handful of bands due to my limited (none) knowledge of the language. This song was introduced to me by Jason who heard it in the opening of an animation discovered them on Youtube. It had everything we loved – catchy synths, chunky bass lines and head-bopping melodies. I didn’t understand a single word of it besides the “every night” and “anyway” in the chorus but it didn’t matter. It showed me that Japanese bands were capable of coming up with tunes that were just as catchy as their western counterparts.

    It wasn’t long until we found their discography and listened to all their music. Since I can’t really talk about the content of the lyrics (I haven’t bothered looking up what their songs mean), I listen to them for their vocal melodies and funky guitar riffs – I’ve yet to come across a band that does pop punk funk as well as these guys. Then again, it’s probably quite a niche genre? I don’t know, I haven’t done any searching. I can’t seem to find a lot of information about them online besides a now defunct Purevolume page. Youtube also has a very limited selection of Chickenrace songs so I can’t link all my favorites, but here’s what I’ve managed to find:

    Chickenrace – Farewell

    Chickenrace – Heartbeat

    Chickenrace – Story Of My Life

    Chickenrace – ???

    Chickenrace – I Want You Back (cover)

    Chickenrace – Sunshine Underground

  • December arrives

    Hello all. I am back. It feels good to be writing something unrelated to Peter Pan – something I’ve been doing over the past month for Nanowrimo. I wrote a story about Peter Pan’s adventures after his adventures with the Darlings in Neverland. It was a grueling 26 days (I managed to finish it ahead of time, despite skipping 2 days worth of writing when I was in Penang yay me) but it was a good experience. It also proves that I’m capable of churning out 50,000 words a month since I’ve managed to complete Nanowrimo twice. The last time I did it, it was back in 2014. Taylor Swift’s 1989 was released around that time, so I spent the whole month listening to the album and writing. This year, Taylor’s album only dropped midway through Nanowrimo so I didn’t get to do the same thing. Nevertheless, I still got to enjoy the album on its own. It’s not as good as 1989, IMO, but it definitely marks a progression in Swift’s music and style. Lyrics are a bit edgier, dealing with themes of revenge and reputation but fans of her brand of music should still enjoy it.

    Other than that, I’ve been catching up on some shows – One Punch Man, Westworld, Attack on Titan, Whiplash, Daddy’s Home, Coco, Murder On The Orient Express, Justice League, and I’ve started reading again. I’ve also recorded a new song (on my iPad – check it out below). So yay me! It’s been a productive month before I start my new job (TBC).

    Vocals need to be rerecorded and drums need some finetuning, so expect another recording in the near future.

    December is here, the best month of the year (of course). Malls are playing Xmas music, which is fantastic. For some reason it puts me in a cheery mood. So much better than the songs played during other festivals.

    The year is ending soon, so I guess it’ll probably be time to do some reflections over the past year. If anybody is interested. Maybe go over my goals again and see what I’ve accomplished and what I have to push back to 2018.

    The Big Bad Wolf Sale 2018 KL is happening next week, so I’ll probably drop by to pick up a book or two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight… more books to add to my backlog collection. Haha.

  • Hiatus: November 2017

    As some of you will know, I’m participating in Nanowrimo this year, so until the end of the month I will put my blog on hold as I don’t believe I’ll have the capacity to write my novel (I need to churn out about 1.7k words a day!) and update this blog at the same time. On the bright side, I have about 10 years worth of archives to go through if you want to read my work (haha). I may post something here every now and then, but it’ll likely be unsubstantial. For all those of you who are doing this year’s Nanowrimo, all the best! And if you’re thinking about it, go ahead! Make sure you sign up at the Nanowrimo website and feel free to add me as a writing buddy. I’ll also be posting my daily word count to Instagram. Here’s to a fruitful November!