Thursday 22 April 2010

I could have lost my life today...unlikely but possibly.

Yesterday I went to see the demonstration of people of Silom against "Red shirts" in Bangkok representing the political conflict that has been the biggest problem in Thailand for good several months now. Here are some photos...

















































And the very spot I was standing in the last photo yesterday had a grenade thrown in today, causing 10 serious injuries and 1 death. I saw some pictures of this place on news with broken glass and blood. We drove past this spot 30 - 40 min before the explosion on the way back home today.

More than anything, it is disappointing that this is happening. My girlfriend is Thai and so naturally I have visited Thailand many times. It is a lovely country - It is stupidly hot but people are nice, food is good, things are cheap and it has very interesting culture. I'd love to recommend you to visit here at least once in your life - But not now, and I will probably have to warn people always in the future. While it is not my original place of birth, it is for my girlfriend, and I want to be proud of this country. But recent events really makes me feel this country is not completely safe. One Japanese reporter was shot dead in previous crash, and now this - I can't say it's unreasonable for Japanese people to be scared of visiting here. And it is very sad that this thought comes from myself.

Secondly, These people claim that they do it for the country, but is violence really answer to any problem ever? Is it really a way to solve problem that we want to pass down to our children? I am not a hardcore hippy like John Lennon, I know there will always be conflicts and differences, but I don't believe that violence is ever a good way to solve problems.
I'd like to think we know ourselves enough to understand that every one of us live with love from our family and friends, and we are all the same. If you get hurt your family and friends will be hurt - If you hurt someone, you hurt their family and friends too. I don't think I can ever justify action that destroy a family's happiness by claiming that I do it for my country.

I'm sorry to bring totally non-music related topic but it's not so often that I experience things like this, and I wanted to keep my thought somewhere while it is still fresh.

Thursday 8 April 2010

Split EP pre-order! And rant on working attitude

So we are now taking pre-orders for Haunted Shores split EP! Considering that recording was done in January, it took a long time!
I guess this was partially because I needed to work with guys from Haunted Shores as well as myself.

As some of you who have been following Cyclamen would know, I am much better working on my own, and that was why Cyclamen stayed as solo project for so long.
Yes, it's hard working doing everything yourself, but you quickly find out that it's much faster than waiting for someone lazy to do the work for you.

Through past two years though, I have occasionally met people who are willing to work just as hard, like Tim from CultLovesYou, who always delivers amazing artwork without compromise. He is truly great guy - but that's so so rare. I almost always end up doing things myself faster.

I guess this will always be the problem for working with people. Different people have different priorities, and sometimes you simply don't agree with their decision. I take my work as musician pretty serious, I will put most things in lower priority to creating great music. But most people I have met, or worked with in the past had different view, and most cases I strongly disagreed with their decision. From their mouth, words like "Music is my life, it's everything" and then I see them wasting away times doing pointless things - watching TV, playing games, smoking weeds, getting drunk...Whatever. I have no objection to that, but DON'T say it's your life, don't say it's everything, because it's not. It is insulting to people who actually care about it. Some people DO dedicate their life into music.

I still have the same problem with the band at the moment. I feel they are making wrong decision and setting wrong priorities. And it annoys me. But you need to learn to work with people, accept the difference, and make the best out of it. It's just life.