New York City Day 2

so here i am back at the electric lady recording studio sitting in the lounge area while some keyboard tracks are being laid down. i found out that pontiac spent $20,000 on 2 days in the studio with mark plati. that cost more than our entire record! there will be over 2 million people watching from the streets below. i'm pretty nervous. i'll be the guy who looks like A.C. Slater playing along to a pre recorded track.

day 2 was a pretty grueling day in the studio. the entire time we were playing there were cameras and lights in our faces. so many distractions...it was very frustrating and difficult to muster up any sort of vibe or emotion while recording. we decided to kick the camera crew out and after that the recordings went swimmingly. after that we visited the pontiac stage where we will be performing and my nerves shot through the roof just thinking about 2 million plus eyes and ears on us....not to mention the tv audience.

we left the stage and headed over to an amazing steak house called gallagers and stuffed my face full of rare filet mignon and waddled back to the hotel. when we got back to the hotel we all watched tv on the pullout couch until we fell asleep, thus ending day 2.

New York City Day 1

The title of this particular blog is partially a lie because i'm writing this on day 2. nevertheless, i will commence. day 1 was actually pretty uneventful. a camera crew met all of us at dragan's house in the morning and conducted a few awkward interviews. we then headed over to the granada theater where we conducted a few more awkward interviews and hung out for a while.

sorry if this blog is pretty boring. i'm trying to write as dragan is tackling bear right next to me. and bryce is shouting for us to look at a menu, so sorry for the lack of brilliantly written literature.

we got on our plane that ended up being delayed by over 4 hours, which was no problem because we were so excited. when we got to new york we piled into 2 suv's and went over to the famous electric lady studio's, where jimi hendrix, led zeppelin, the stones and a pile of other classic bands have recorded. in fact, right now ryan adams is just down the hall, and interpol are upstairs. we met our producer mark plati, who has worked with the cure and bowie among others. he just said "i'm going to bring my mic's out there, put on some pants, and life's going to be f***ing glorious!" haha. he's a really cool guy and we're lucky to get to work with him.

after our brief tour of the studio we went back to the hotel, which is directly smack in the center of times square. from our room, i can look down and see the stage where we will be performing. it's amazing.

so far the trip has been a real blast, and i'll keep the updates coming!

new year's eve

just last week i had a picture of what my new year's eve will look like lodged firmly in my brain. it included a relatively quiet night with close friends and loved ones (the radiant boys, wives, and others), champagne, and possibly some low caliber fireworks, but all that's changed now thanks to an incredible opportunity the band has stumbled upon.

last week i received a phone call informing me that radiant has won an all expense paid trip to new york city for 8 days. this information blew my mind seeing as i didn't even know we were in any competition. the prize doesn't stop there, it also includes a new year's eve performance in times square opening for kasabian and my chemical romance, which will be aired live on the jimmy kimmel show.

this new version of new year's eve is a far reach from my original idea (which i would've completely enjoyed), but since so many friends have purchased plane tickets and will be joining us in nyc, it has the potential to be an amazing time.

set your tivo's, and tune in here as i will be cataloging the entire trip.
daniel