Dag, yo!

It's been a long time since I picked up my guitar. In a study "break" today (I didn't do much studying) I picked her up, and it was nice. I'm not mad that Dan knows so much about music and is willing to share it with me. I'm not mad at all.

Aaaand, we're back.

Hey!
Feedback's playing at the fall devotional conference. Get stoked.
The Amitie is weak, very weak indeed.
Find some other music to listen to.
Know yourself.
Grace and Peace
Love
Ben.

Friday Afternoon Blues

Today I got the Friday afternoon blues, and I'm writing a song about it! I'm very excited, because it's happening quite easily, which is a good sign! I started playing guitar more since camp, especially because I haven't been at soccer or basketball for a few weeks, so I have way more energy than normal, which is really nice! I play piano every once in a while too, to the great chagrin of my brother and sister and niece. I lost my iPod recently, and the lack of constant music has maybe led to me being able to be a little more creative. I like it, kinda.

Ah.

Alas, it's been a long hard month of no blogging, but it reflects a long hard month of no creative action. I guess I'm like every other musician who says "YEAH!" but then writes "blah." I think my problems lie in two places:
1. I come home from work and I am too tired to write anything. Instead I have a drink and go to bed, or I go play soccer or basketball or do some other crazy thing. I guess my tiredness excuse doesn't work. I suppose I should say I'm too busy to write.
2. I have no formal music training. Therefore, I can't sit down and play cool music from my own head. I can only play guitar, and not very well at that. All the chords I know sound the same, and none of my four guitars is any better at inspiring me with the way it sounds when I play it than the next.
My solution for these two problems: practice. Wishful thinking, but it's the only way, I think.

haitus

Right now I'm in the throes of the final week of high school, and songwriting is at the very bottom of my list. The great part of my creative energy is right now being directed towards "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber, upon which I have an essay to write. As you may have read at the motherblog (benbouwman@blogspot.com) I recently had a neat experience with some fireflies. They truly are some of the coolest things in God's creation, and I see a lot of symbolism in them. Hopefully I can capture some of this in a few songs maybe. I'm also moving to a new house next week, requiring me to say goodbye to my faithful Ibanez G10 electric, and my mom's CBS Masterworks acoustic guitar. I will still be able to play the masterworks on the weekend, but the electric is going back to my brother Derek, it's owner. I remember picking it up for the first time, feeding it back and starting into some Weezer tune or other. I also remember bringing it over to the Lodder's for the first time, plugging in, and learning rock music. It's with nothing but fondness and nostalgia that I remember this. An electric guitar is such a mysterious object, with so much stigma involved in strapping one on. Wearing one of these, musicians since the 50's have been pissing off their neighbours and abusing their listener's ears. Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Bo Diddly, Buddy Holly, Mark Knopfler, all the legends played this instrument. I will miss "Elsie." But, Ryan, being the man that he is, is off to camp this summer and cannot use his black Epiphone SG. I'm keeping it company until he's back. I'm excited!

I'm a bit lame at writing good songs.

I wish I could find a way to write a three chord song that sounds good, like "What Light" by Wilco. Somehow I try to make things oh so complicated though. There's some neat chord progressions bouncing around Amitie-ville lately, but not many good lyrics. Hopefully something comes around soon-ish. Good night!

Pragmatism in Music.

I work with my brother Joel, who insists on listening to country music. When a certain song comes on that begins with a woman singing "right now, he's probably slow dancing", my brother turns it off, saying "this song is useless." The idea of pragmatism in music is interesting. Music is a good pass time, it is relaxing, and enjoyable, but the idea that music should be useful is a novel one for me. This idea indicates that in songwriting we musicians should strive to have useful music, music with a message that people can apply to their lives. Interesting business, and it's got me thinking. For one day I'd like to make a playlist on my iPod of songs that are useful, that impact my actions. I will see how long a playlist it is.

Slow Motion Highway

I drove on the Hanlon Parkway in Guelph on Saturday. I never drive on it, and it inspired me. Now, if any of you lucky souls have not had the experience of driving on the Hanlon Parkway, you life is indeed better than mine. This "highway" has stoplights. Many of them. Usually these are red. The speed limit is indeed 70 kilometres/hour. It irks me a little to start driving on a four lane highway and then have to stop. Perhaps this is because I am too used to driving fast, and I should suck this up, but regardless, it irks me.
Now, while driving this highway I was listening to Wilco, as I am prone to do. Perhaps this was also part of the inspiration. Anyway, I am in process of writing "Slow Motion Highway", and somehow I think that this might be an appropriate title for an album. It speaks of slowing down, of taking time, of waiting.
Waiting has always been interesting for me. Often God answers my prayers by saying, loudly and clearly "WAIT!" When I don't wait, there are problems. It also scares me to wait. I can remember as a younger boy than I am now, my mom asking me to wait for her in the car while she ran into the bank. Without fail, I would conjure a story in my mind of some misfortune that would befall her while in the bank, meaning I would have to wait for who knows how long.
I'm praying that God teaches me to be patient. I'm also praying for a good song, and a good album.

Rock Lives.

"The LORD is my Rock!" Psalm 18
God is my Rock.
God is alive.
My rock lives.

From now on, I want my rock music to be for my Rock. I'm sick of everything else. I just want to play, and not be part of the music world. I want to play for my Rock.

Rock Music

Tonight is the rock show. Something tells me this is the last time I will be part of rock music. Like a chapter of my life is over. I think I'm ready to move on though.

Rock is dead.

Song for Sina

On the weekend I had the opportunity to play an acoustic "Song for Sina" to the girl herself, Sina. It went over much better than I expected, and today we were able to get through it pretty easily with Feedback. Sometimes I think that Weezer doesn't inspire me anymore; however, playing this song is proof that it does. Punk style, easy four chord progression, simplistic scale solo, and wonderfully cheesy but heartfelt lyrics are, among other things, reminiscent of Weezer's Green album, or some of the things Rivers did for the Summer Songs of 2000. I don't really know, but perhaps rock still lives and perhaps I can make a go at writing it.
In other news, I hope to write enough songs over the summer to make an album, and my plan is to record it in September. Please stay tuned for requests for musical aid, encouragement, and criticism. I also hope to get some songs up on Purevolume once I have my own computer, with high speed internet. This is another thing that should happen during the summer, which I am terribly excited for.
I hope this summer turns out to be as good as I am anticipating it to. All the best! God bless.

Feedback. Get Stoked.

Feedback plays this Saturday night at Emmanuel Christian High School. This is indeed a stag and doe type evening, so bring any disposable income. This promises to be an amazing event, so call your friends, check out www.al-janea.com, or just feel free to show up. The evening includes, among other things, a poker tournament, various games, and a jousting-ish event that involves mild physical aggression (all in the name of fun, of course!) So, come on out, support our music, support two awesome people that are about to get married, and prepare to rock.

Where are You?

"Where are You?" has now been finished and demoed for the guys in Feedback. I'm not sure where it is going to go, but I like it. Kinda emo though, which I guess is ok.
In other news, I'm enjoying my new (to me) Ibanez AE. The action and neck warp is improving, and it sounds good in "Yellow" and "Fight or Flight". I suppose this is all for now.
Good day!

welcome to The Amitie

This is the blog for The Amitie, a name under which I write music. I took my name from Van Gogh's "Bateaux Ste. Maries". This is a painting that I like, and Amitie also means "friendship". I suppose this is how I'd like you to feel while listening to my songs, like I'm your friend, and I'm telling you a story about my day. I also suppose that the purpose of this blog is to tell you about how writing is going for me, and maybe even post some lyrics, or stuff that I am thinking about. I hope you enjoy!