Transit of Venus

I’m a little terrified of cameras, even webcams (haha nervous laugh)

p.s. If your reading on a rss feed or facebook auto import thingy etc and you can’t see the above video you might have to click through to the website to watch it  http://transitofvenusproject.com/latest-news/

Just a quick general update written as I scull back a coffee.  I picked up a neenish (sp?) tart at the bakery this morning but can’t eat it cos it’s too sweet.  I don’t really like eating sweet things but sometimes I forget this and buy them anyway.  Sorry a bit off topic there.

Anyway, we have a huge gig coming up this weekend.  It’s the Jester Underground 2nd Birthday, there are 11 amazing artists hitting the stage at The Kings Arms on Saturday.  We’re playing quite early because Jester of Jester Underground is actually our very talented drummer Tory.  As well as being his event management companies 2nd birthday it’s also Tory’s 23rd birthday so we need to play early in the evening while he’s still sober enough to hit dem drums.  As well as birthday celebrations it’s the leaving party for our sexy tight pants wearing guitarist Mike who is off to the UK shortly to seek his fortune.  He will be missed.  Especially by the groupies.

Other bands playing include Bang Bang Eche who have just returned from some kind of exciting tour of other countries.  I’m hanging out to see these guys as I’ve heard so many very good thigs about them.  Also my long time favorites Battle Circus.  I’m sure I mention these guys from time to time, they’re very awesome and I’m looking forward to seeing them play again.  Turning Tricks are a pretty damn sweet two piece who’s drummer is my current bass player.  Also on the bill we have Inverse Order, Jimmy Maher, Johnny Love, Chris Reed, Janine Foster, Gemma Russel, and These Four Walls.

Presale Tickets are available through Under the Radar

In other news, my mum just phoned and we’re gonna go have a coffee. In OTHER other news, Transit of Venus EP is now available for purchase on iTunes, Amplifier, and maybe some other online sources that I don’t know about yet. We have a ton of physical copies to sell too. Haven’t set up an online store for this yet but if you email info@transitofvenusproject.com we can sort out getting a cd to you. Or if you’re in Auckland you can pick up a copy from the NZ Alternative section in Real Groovy.

We’re all actually quite quickly starving to death, so please buy our music if you like it.  Or even if you don’t like it, buy it as a gift for a relative you don’t like.

We’ve been in the studio lately (Miscreant Recordings), and have got most of the way through a couple of new songs.  This is the first steps we’re taking towards a full length album.  But that won’t be out for a long while yet.  Good things take time, like cheese.

Well, gotta dash and take a shower then run out the door.  Hope you’re all keeping well, looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it at THE GIG on Saturday.

The video has been slowly crawling it’s way onto teh interwebz. Thought it was about time I blogged about it.

The song is called Meatmarket.  It was written a few years back when I was playing round with creating electronic music, and then more recently recreated as a rock song, you know, in a band with guitars and stuff.  The song was both a piss take of sleazy club scenes, and yet a grudging acknowledgment that it’s also somewhere where (much to my surprise) genuine love and serious relationships can ignite.

The video starts out with me walking into a room.  For some reason this was the hardest thing for me to do.  I’m not an actor, I don’t know how to walk into a room.  17 billion takes later we have me sitting at a piano singing the song and then the rest of the band come and set up.  This was filmed with me playing piano in front of a green screen, then the band were filmed setting their gear up in one long take, which obviously was sped up when it was put into the background. At about the 35 second mark you can see our make-up girl Sam come in and powder Mikes face.

Around 50 seconds in Ralph comes in and pushes me off the piano stool.  First take we did of that scene unfortunately resulted in me flashing the rest of the band.  Awkward!  So embarrassed but somehow managed to get over it to do another five takes or something.  Ralph did not push me gently and I had bruises by the end of the night.

If you’ve been to our gigs you may have noticed an inconsistency in bass player identities.  First gig was Harry, then in the video we have Dave, then EP release show there’s Tim.  Well thats just our little bass player dilemma.  But Dave  plays bass in the video, and he also, amazingly plays bass on this track and mixed and mastered our EP.

One of the comments I’ve been getting on this video is “You do know that’s not a microphone?”.  Yeah.  I do know.  It’s a lamp.  It’s a magical lamp that lights up more the louder you sing into it.

The fact that it says “Stay Safe” on the wall behind Tory as he drums is just pure coincidence.  The room we filmed in is full of random interesting graffiti and this wasn’t a reference to that time he had his drink spiked.  But it should have been!

The extras, first two in the room are Angela and Anna-Claire (if I remember rightly).  They came in armed with fairy bread and cheezles to feed the party.  Next we have the fabulous Pirate Jessica with a very scary Denis in a gas mask, lab coat and feather boa.  Then enter Kristina as a mermaid and her boyfriend Aaron the lucky snorkeler.  Kristina is also the model who’s lips feature on our album artwork.  Next on the video you see Siri come and dance next to me.  Plum Green is the hot young woman with reddish hair and a fake mustache. A great disguise but she is given away by her boyfriend George wearing a “I <3 Plum Green” shirt.  Christina from Infinite Flying Kick is wearing the gold hoodie and carrying a squirrel, and Robin from Infinite Flying Kick comes in next with his guitar.  Somewhere there we have Chris from Pilgrims Pyre dressed as a wizard and bringing fairy lights.  Then Reuben from The Rickshaws looking smooth, and Lana with her pretty curls, and Adam and co. crowding through the door last. Some of the last few people aren’t really seen in the final cut of the video which is a pity because the costumes were great.  Jimmi’s especially (huge mohawk, great punk rocker look).

We had been held up filming the parts without the extras due to a few technical difficulties (if we’re gonna get technical, Tory’s kick drum was vibrating the camera and a whole section of filming was unusable) so by the time it came to film with everyone, they’d all been drinking downstairs for a few hours.  It was a very fun party kind of atmosphere.  We had balloons and streamers and party poppers and other silly things.  Art department had done amazing things with a tiny budget.

The scene with the guitar solos, Robin actually plays on this track, Mike played on some other tracks but not this one.  (Yes, he is wearing a wig.  No, not because he’s going bald.  Nice try to the person who attempted to start that rumor!)  I think I was off taking a break while that bit was filmed but it looks like fun.

My favorite bit of the video is the bit where everyone drops out at 2:55 then magically appear out of no-where again at 3:00.  Everyone was crouched down on the floor then at the cue they all jumped up and threw balloons and streamers and started dancing again.  It was funny at the time, but seeing how it turned out I’m quite amazed at how much better it looks on camera compared to how it was being there and being able to see all these people crouched on the floor around me.

I’m really pleased with how the video came out.  It’s the first music video I’d ever been involved with and it was a lot of fun as well as quite hard work and a rather long night.  The people who worked the hardest are the ones listed in the credits at the end.  Simon, Sophie, James, Lizzie, Sam, Kendal, Anthony,  thanks you guys.

K.