It's been a busy few weeks!

It really has been a busy few weeks.  As you know the band have been sorting out the final mixes for the album and we're absolutely thrilled with the work that James over at Stymphalian Productions has done on the tracks.  He's weaved some kind of voodoo and they sound simply stunning.  We are exceptionally thrilled with it and can't wait to finally release it.

Of course we also broke the news on the 17th of July that Triaxis have signed to Rocksector Records.  you can read the full press release here (and at the bottom of the page there is a sneaky peak at one of the new tracks).  We've worked with the guys at Rocksector for a few years doing a number of gigs with them and we've got on very well with Mark, the manager so it seemed to make perfect sense after bustling up that relationship and forging trust, to go ahead and sign to them. And we're glad we haven as Mark has proven how hard he works of this bands already, in the short space of time we've been officially on their books.

On top of singing to a label, we're also returning to Bloodstock :)  We're hitting up the Jagermeister stage on the Saturday and we're looking forward to it.  It's going to be a good weekend no matter what the weather and we love Bloodstock like no other festival.  There is something about it that just makes it special.

So the album, 'Rage and Retribution', is due for release on October 8th 2012. We've got some cracking things lined up on the run up to it, but I can't give too much away at the moment.  Needless to say, the music side of my life is going amazingly.  It's been my dream since I can remember to sing for a living (and not just pubs and clubs rubbish as I used to do) and slowly that dream is becoming a reality.  I'm not so naive as to think that I can quit the day job just yet, that's just not feasible but one day hopefully we'll be able to get on that big bus and tour around this little ball of rock sat in an arm of the Milky Way.



More updates soon

Krissie
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I R Rubbish!

Taken at Twitrfest 2  by the gorgeous Kat

I really am.  I've also been stupidly busy but then aren't we all?

The other blog, my fitness one No More Mrs Fatty McFat has been going from strength to strength and I'm really pleased with that.  My whole passion for fitness and a healthy lifestyle has taken over somewhat.  I've now qualified as a Level 2 Gym Instructor and I'm in the process of my Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training.  The website has launched http://www.krissiekirby.com and is still a work in progress.  But I love it, I'm loving helping people re-educated themselves, regain their own confidence and build themselves a healthy future etc.  It's made such a difference in my own life, I'm paying it forward as it were.  And of course just as fitness has become a passion, the website also will have pages that link to my ultimate passion, music. I've also taken up pole dancing and I LOVE IT :D

Tracking the album vocals

On the band front things are going well.  The album is being mixed  and put into it's final form.  Hopefully we'll have more news on that very soon.  We took a bit of a rest on the run up to Christmas 2011 as we didn't stop writing/gigging/demo recording until we got to the studio, so we took a bit of a break to just regroup, and concentrate on some back room bits and bobs.  Since then we've done a UK tour with our pals in Elimination and we've been booking gigs for over the summer period, mainly smaller festivals.  It's all go at the moment.

We've had our first foray into an acoustic set as well as we were asked to support the awesome Breed77.  Doing an acoustic set was interesting and we had great feedback from that with very favourable reviews.  It's all been going really well.  And to top off an exciting 6 months since 2012 dawned, we've also had our first booking in Europe confirmed for 2013.  To say we're all very excited at the moment would be an understatement.  There is so much happening at Triaxis Towers at the moment and I really can't wait to share it all with you.

So I'll try and keep this up to date.... yes I know you've all heard that before... so more news as it comes in.

Hugs

K
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At the Studio

Morning my lovelies.

Well it's day 6 and we're up in the wilds of Mid Wales recording the follow up to Key to The Kingdom. Giles has been an absolute legend and put all his drums down in pretty much 2 days.  The man is a drumming machine.

So we're up at Foel Studios where the likes of Napalm Death, Primordial, Electric Wizard, Dub War, My Bloody Valentine and many other have recorded. We've entrusted our baby into the very capable hands of Chris Fielding and we're all relaxing and kicking back between sessions.  Fair dues to Chris, he works tirelessly at getting everything just right. We're just waiting for the drum edits to be completed and then it's guitars and bass interspersed with vocals.  It's all going well so far :)

Here are a few snaps of the studio and where we are staying to tickle your taste buds.  I promise to blog a bit more from the studio and keep you all updated.  The studio has five cats, of which we've met 3, Troubles (pictured here) Mr Cuddles and Bungle (i think is the other one, one the most forlorn looking cat I've ever seen).

The view from the front of the house is stunning, and we've all be taking walks/or are intending to take walks in the surrounding area.  Unfortunately the weather is against us most days and the breaks in the rain and wind are few.  But we are getting out and about between recording sessions.

 The accommodation is lovely, a farming cottage that is cosy and has plenty of rooms for all of us.  We've brought our computers and the Wii so that we have plenty of entertainment while tracks are recorded in the studio and there is a pool table too.

The studio is separate and housed in the converted barn.  It has two recording rooms and the control room is up a stairs overlooking both rooms.

 Chris at work on recording the drum tracks.  Glyn and Owen have been geeking out over the desk and all the paraphernalia that comes with a fully working studio.  I believe they are in geek heaven at the moment, bless 'em.

There will be more pictures I'm sure but for now I'll leave you with our very hard working drummer taking a well earned rest after being a demon on the drums.  Great work G!

I Race for Life for.....

Yep it's that time of year again where I come cap in hand to family and friends and run/walk a 5K course in my beloved neighbouring city, Swansea, with the hope that the few pounds I raise will be the vital few extra that find a cure for cancer.

This year is my fifth Race for Life and while I tend to grin like a cheshire cat when on the course, I also take the time before the race to reflect on those who I Race for Life for and in memory of. The sad fact is I race in memory for more than I do for those still with us, but I suppose that's part and parcel of getting older.

This year the pink back patch (I'll add a picture here later) has a list too long for my liking. I'd like to reflect here on a few of the names - not all or I'll start crying - but a few that are important to me. There are two on the list who I never met but the had a great influence on my life. Ronnie James Dio being the one who had an impact on my music and who we lost a year ago on Monday. Needless to say Rainbow and Dio make up a lot of the playlist I'll be running to tonight. His voice is possibly the greatest metal voice the world has and will ever know (no offence Bruce). For such a small man, his voice was enormous and his vocal has been a huge influence on my own style. Thank you Ronnie.

And Gwen, who had a profund impact on me through her work, and through that work I met some of the most amazing people and have made some lifelong friends. Thank you Gwen.

Rhian, I knew this woman as a teenager. We attended Air Cadets together and we formed a close friendship that like so many we didn't continue through to adulthood and that makes me sad. However, she was a a genuinly lovely person and we shared a love of musical theatre and dance. Alas ovarian cancer took her at the very young age of 31. She was too young.

Jane. Jane passed in August 2010. And for the short period that I knew her she was a warm and wonderful person with a free spirit and a heart as big as an ocean. She was a big fan of the band (slightly biased too being Giles' mum) but her support was immense. I am sad that I didn't get to have more time with her but I am so grateful that I did know her.

Uncle Alan. We didn't know until after the investigation into his passing what had caused it. He passed in December 2010. As a child my sister and I were close to Auntie 'Lizbeth' and Uncle Al. They lived not far from us and we would often go to their house for tea and cake and just to escape Mum and Dad if we'd got in trouble for anything (the benefit of a LARGE family when you argue with your parents is that you have lots of places you can escape to in safety). He and my Grandfather were close friends - well they had married sisters so it was inevitable. His ashes were scattered with my Grampa's.

Grampa. Seven years and I still miss him every day. I idolised my Grandfather, he taught me to play piano, always new what buttons to press to wind me up to the point that I would have to prove him wrong (I know now that he wound me up because he knew I could do whatever I put my mind to but sometimes I lacked motivation. He was a skilled carpenter. I hope he and Alan are up to mischeif where ever they are.

I missed two names off the list this year - Dad Phillips (my Great Grandfather) and Gareth Jones (my former boss when I worked at UWIC). They are also in my thoughts.

Something I mused on the other day was how grief affects us in different ways.  By no means what I'm about write is meant to belittle the person who is going through the horror of suffereing cancer but I can only write from my perspective as someone who's been on the support side of the fence.  More often than not grief is usually those left behind being damned angry at the person who has passed for leaving them, and then that anger disapates to sadness tinged with anger. Grief is also a very selfish emotion. But it's also made more prominent by feelings of hope. And that's why cancer is such a horrible disease. Treatments can force the cancer to go into remission and give those of us who care for that person hope that that they will live a long and full life. But sometimes that hope is short lived and that's the crushing reality of cancer for those of us left behind. We, the support network and onlookers, are (just as the patient is) fed hope for a year or two that the treatment will work and that the person we love, who is going through the horror of cancer, will come out the otherside. That's why the grief of losing a loved one through cancer is so hard to come to terms with and why the anger stays for a long time, because we dared to hope.  But damn it I'm going to carry on hoping.

I also Race for Life for two people who are still with us. Uncle Robin, who has been in the clear for ten years. And Sue, a work colleague who I admire and respect greatly, who was also in remission but alas we've had the very sad news that it's returned with vengeance. Sue will be in my thoughts very much as I do the course.

So, with my quads screaming at me due to cramp, even if I have to hobble around the course tonight I'll still be doing it.  It's too damned important to me for me to say I 'm not!

I Race for Life.... I race for us.

Please sponsor me if you can -http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/KrissieKirby2011

Thank you

x

It's a small world eh?

Hello there

It's been a strange old week of highs and lows. Have realised that I am actually missing my parents being down the road and within easy dropping in for a cuppa distance, after all. Shhh don't tell them I said that or I'll never hear the end of it ;)

Writing blogs has been a serious cathartic experience for me and something I honestly thought I wouldn't embrace. I've found that through this very impersonal medium I can express various things hidden behind my screen that I once before would have locked in some darkened cast iron safe box in my mind, and thrown away the key. Through this medium I have discovered things about myself that for years I didn't want to face. By sharing some of my darker thoughts, I've made my world a little brighter. I've also been able to say goodbye to those we've lost recently and that has been an amazing source of strength that I wasn't expecting.

And I think that is the crux of blogging, tweeting, facebooking (ugh, what an abomination of a word). As a species we desire contact with our fellow kind, we crave that interaction on a daily basis and what better way to widen that net and cast your thoughts further than through this wondrous medium called the internet.

Through Twitter and Facebook, I have made some amazing life long friends. For these simple pixilated pieces of text have opened up a whole world of opportunity and a whole world of fun and laughter. It also does come with a price, you tend to find more idiots exist in the world than you first thought but you learn to ignore them. After all, every village must have an idiot.

So a massive thank you to all those I've met through the wonderful world of the web. It's a community I'm quite proud to be a part of :)

Hugs

K
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Something is a changing!

So after a fantastic weekend at Hammeredfest, I came away feeling uplifted and happy with everything. Then the post festival blues hit on Sunday and I had a sudden moment of 'oh, I'm sad now'. It happens after you spend a weekend enjoying yourself with fantastic people. But you soon realise that it won't be long until the next fantastic weekend and you get to see some, if not most of those people again soon, so no need to be sad.

However, when the sadness hit it didn't come alone. Oh no, it brought post festival lurgi with it too, or actually in my case, a form of tonsillitis. Now the daft thing here is, technically it's not tonsillitis but the Doc said that it's the closest approximation he can make for self inflicted swollen tonsils with vocal strain and the remnants of a cold I thought had past! I don't do things by half, eh?

Upshot is, I got horrendously drunk on the Friday of the festival. Not something I'm proud of as I always make a complete tit of myself when drunk. We had attended a friends chalet for their 'Power Ballads Party' and once the songs started I, in my inebriated state, simply had to outdo everyone in earshot and across the Dee in vocal loudness. Needless to say that will be how I got the vocal strain. The hangover the next morning was not nice in the slightest, and probably aided in swelling the tonsils. But it was all my own doing, so I'm not looking for sympathy, far from it. In fact please do tell me off as it was very stupid.

So I am banned from singing until no earlier than this Sunday and then only quietly so I can write lyrics. Otherwise I have to rest until Monday and then ease myself back in to ensure the chords have had adequate recuperation... I'm such a div! So the long, and short of it is, I can't be doing that to my voice and it is probable that if I get tipsy/drunk/gazeeboed (thanks Michael McIntyre for the last one) again I'll end up doing the same thing as I'm a competitive sod and stupid to boot.

So, dearest reader, I'm going teetotal. Yep, that's right, you read it correctly I'm giving up alcohol completely. And it scares the bejesus out of me, but here we go. The way I see it is this, most musicians don't throw their instruments around and soak the in mildly acidic fermented products that strip them of things they need, rendering them useless for a week. So why am I doing that to my instrument? In fact to sing the whole body needs to be looked after as it's the casing the instrument is carted around in. I really should look after it a bit better, don't you think?


So there we have it, I'll let you know how I get on :)

K
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HammeredFest

Well that was fun! No, seriously. We had the most fun this past weekend at Pontins Prestatyn for the third installment of Hammerfest.... Roma victa. I was tempted to start talking to those in Roman atire in Latin, but I don't think they would have got the joke ;)

So we all rocked up around about two in the afternoon, unpacked, got ourselves some food and then headed to the third stage to check in with Peter, our stage manager, and the event crew. I have to say we had the nicest people again crewing for us, very helpful, very chatty and always stopped for a chin wag through the rest of the weekend. We got ourselves set up and ready to roll, but first a DJ and Dirty Rose. In the meantime various friendly faces and twitter pals had started to turn up and much screaming of 'oh my god, hello lovely, hello darling' was heard, mainly from Owen.

6:10pm came very quickly and we were all set up to take the stage and kick things off a little early. The set went well apart from a few minor hiccoughs.

Glyn lost all power to his amp and when the power returned it set it back to clean. So after a little jiggery pokery he got it back to distortion and blistered his way through the Lies solo. My mic receiver got knocked and it decided to change channel... thankfully at the end of a song. So reverted to a lead mic for the remainder of the set. How I didn't trip over the lead, or trip anyone else up I'll never know.

As it turned out, the band that were headlining stage 3 that night didn't turn up, so we were asked to pad out and extend our set if we could. So, in true Triaxis style, that's exactly what we did. We threw in a cover of The Wickerman which had the entire crowd singing the chorus back to us, and we finished with Aurora (which as it turned out was the favourite of a number of people). The pub area was absolutely heaving and the feedback that we had after our set was very positive. All in all, we were very happy with how the set had gone.

The rest of the weekend was a hoot. Catching up with old friends and making new ones, seeing bands that we enjoy and spending time with some of them. Yep I think Hammerfest was a good weekend overall.

Now to shift this thick throat that I have developed (touch wood it's not tonsillitis) and time to carry on writing and preparing for the next gig... April 9th in Liecester.

K
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