29th June 2009: Monday Mosh #8

29th June 2009: Monday Mosh #8
Welcome to Monday Mosh #8, which in reality should be called Tuesday Mosh #1. Yes, it was inevitable that one of these weeks I wouldn’t get a chance to do the Mosh on a Monday. Apologies to all for the delay. I’ve had a very busy couple of days, not to mention coming down with a bad cold on Thursday. Suffice to say this is the first time I’ve been on the computer for a number of days now. All is good however, and I have some interesting updates for you all.

I’ll start with this month’s Mosher Crew download. I was thinking during the week, “What can I make available?”, and then it hit me. I could put one of the songs from the old Katara EP up. My band before Grave Forsaken was called Katara, and in 2001 we recorded a 4 track EP called “Welcome To Katara”. Believe it or not, we actually did this with Daniel Holmes, our current producer. The song I’ve put up is called “Crux Of My Dreams”. Some keen listeners may even recognize some elements of the song that were used later in Grave Forsaken. The line up for this recording was me on vocals, Matt on bass, Ben Travia on guitar, Chris Connor on guitar and Luke Battistessa on drums. If you aren’t a member of the Mosher Crew and want to check out the song, simply join up for free through the Mosher Crew section of our website. The mp3 is available in the members area now.

We are having our “This Day Forth” album launch on Saturday July 11th at the Castle in Northbridge. The last gig there went really well and we’re hoping for 100 or more punters to come down to the album launch. We have a stellar line up booked - Archaic, Morghl and Psychonaut. It promises to be a huge night. Entry is $10, or $15 dollars with a copy of This Day Forth. If you are in Perth it would be great to see you there. We are in intense rehearsal, and will cranking out Holy Blood and Mother Of Harlots live for the first time. Can’t wait!

Elias and I have been quite busy on Monday nights lately. As I’ve mentioned in previous Moshes, we are constantly composing and demoing new material. This particular material we are working on is really exciting, and has an epic feel to it. We are actually considering doing an album project separate from Grave Forsaken some we can bring in some more diverse influences. We are still in the planning stage, but we think it would be a great idea to record tracks here at my home studio and then make them available to you all via download. The first song we are working on is called “In The Beginning”, and we intend to make it next month’s Mosher Crew download. As we talk more, I will keep everyone informed as to the progress of this project via the Monday Mosh. I mean who knows, maybe it will evolve into a Grave Forsaken album, or perhaps it will go on an entirely different tangent. It’s hard to know, but it is exciting waiting to find out.

Our Grave Forsaken work at Fattdog Studio continues to go well. We have arrangements for 5 new Grave Forsaken songs sorted out, with a few more in the pipeline. I’m currently working on vocal lines and lyrics for the songs that we’ve arranged. It is without doubt the most intensive songwriting process we’ve ever put ourselves through. There is a real emphasis and quality riffs and arrangements. It is fair to say that up until now most of our songs have developed in a fairly organic way, in that we build them up in the rehearsal room and then record them when the time comes. We know that the next Grave Forsaken needs to have killer song writing and production, and we are putting a lot of time and effort into getting the song development just right. I definitely feel we have improved with each album, and I really want the follow up to This Day Forth to be a further improvement. The new songs are 100% thrash in the Mother Of Harlots and No News vein. That is definitely where the band is headed over the next few years.

Thanks again for checking in, and once again, my apologies for the delay. I will endeavour to ensure that next week we are on schedule.

God Bless and MOSH ON!
Vaughan and Grave Forsaken