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Thursday, July 26, 2007

New Blog From Jeff


Tonight, I felt so sick that I left the studio before everybody else. I'm not really sure what's wrong with me but I hope that a good night sleep will get me back on my feet. Till then, here's my first "blog" since my last one ;-)

I haven't bloged in over a year and to be quite frank, I didn't miss it all that much. Looking back, I guess that I stopped feeling the need to expose my thoughts and feelings for all to read because I was enjoying my new slower, mostly anonymous life. I loved spending last year at home in my little hometown of Montreal where I got to hang with my friends, play music with a bunch of different people and sleep in the same bed every night. I even found time to play a little cameo in a french canadian movie. Don't get me wrong: I love touring, I love playing shows, I love my band but I just really needed a break. That break got much longer than I expected for many different reasons but when the other guys in the band and I started talking about getting back in the studio to make a third record, I started getting excited about doing it all again. I read quite a few average "blogs" during those few months away from the band. Some were so self indulgent (I guess by nature, "blogs" all are but some are worst than others), others were too calculated, most were a little too emotional (sniff, sniff) for my taste. That was another reason why I didn't feel like writing online anymore. It all felt so trivial. The recording process got me back in that head-space were I feel again the desire to talk about me as the guitarist from Simple Plan, about my surroundings and maybe about me, the normal me, the not so exciting me. Hopefully, I won't fall in the traps of writing a "blog" and become too...you know...

The work on this record started a while ago but Pierre, Chuck, David, Seb and I got together as a unit to document those new ideas of ours about a three weeks ago in Los Angeles. I feared spending so much time with the boys again as the five of us hadn't been together in the same room for way too long. To my surprise, the chemistry was way better than when made "Still not getting any" (our 2nd LP). Everybody was much more focused, more respectful of others ideas, egos were starting to get back to bearable proportions. The "vibe" was just great. I think that we all feel that the new songs, the new sound that we're currently exploring are so fresh and have so much potential that we can't help but being enthusiastic about the future. I love the direction that this record is taking.

Today, I recorded guitars on a song called "Your love is a lie". The lyrics are probably the most upfront, forthright that Pierre has ever sung. The verses have a semi-electro feel to them and the choruses are pure old-school Simple Plan. The guitar interlude is pretty neat too. It's one of my favorite new songs.

I'm beat. I've been sharing my attention between this "blog" and a TV special on the Police. Time flew by rather quickly and it's getting late. I'm going to the Police's show tomorrow and I'm very anxious to see if they kept their chemistry intact after all those years. They better not disappoint, I've always loved that band. Almost as much as U2.

Bedtime it is!

August 28, 2007 - Tuesday

Jeff’s Latest Blog!

Alright, I've got to admit: I'm the worst blogger ever. It's so hard to keep writing them regularly. That being said, here's my latest entry...

Since I last wrote this blog, lots of things happened. I had water damage at my place and someone I love dearly got operated for breast cancer. The most important thing is that this person is going much better now. There's also the people who are renovating my place who are extreme slackers and who are sucking out so much of my energy for nothing! I just had to get it out of my system, I feel better now. I do have to say that it's a good thing that the recording of album 3 is going so well. The songs are coming along great, the vibe is good and I'm happy with my performances. There always seems to be bad things happening to me while we make records. It seems to be my recording jinx. Hopefully, i'm done with the crap and can get on with just enjoying the process. That being said, no piano has fallen on my head, no car has hit me and I haven't trip on a hole since all those things have happened so maybe my jinx is over. I'm crossing my fingers.

On the brighter side, I dig our producer Dave Fortman. He's extremely patient, meticulous and allows us to experiment with our ideas as much as we want. It seems like an obvious thing to do with the band you're working for but believe it or not some producers feel the need to control everything. Let me tell you that those guys are not fun to work with at all. Luckily, Dave is the complete opposite; he's got a strong personality but allows everybody's ideas to be heard and channeled through the music. Plus, he's a real funny kid. We went out for my birthday last wednesday and we had a few drinks (just a little more than a few but...). Dave was the funniest drunk i've ever seen in my life. Maybe funnier than David, our bass player. The guy would just not behave and It was great. I think it's pretty important to keep the balance between working hard and playing hard. I believe that those kind of things make for good records.

Today, I'm not doing much since we're tracking piano on a song called "I can wait forever". It's a nice beatlesque ballad. It's quite different than what we've done in the past. Don't worry, it still sounds like SP. It's just more...like we are now.

Tomorrow's little David Birthday. I've got to figure out something to do to him...it'll come. By the way, I loved the birthday wishes that people sent me via youtube. Some of them were quite cute and funny.

A bientot,

Jeff

haushsa che carino **