Donovan Banks

Playing with Swell band has taught me a lot about music performance. I have learned about bad gigs, good gigs, playing outdoors, dealing with some very strange people, being ignored, being harassed, and playing on some tiny stages as well as some big ones.

What stood out for me this weekend was that, when playing covers, you have to believe in the song to really communicate it well. There are some songs we do that the whole band believes in and we really pump those out. We have a lot like that and it is such an amazing feeling to play.

But there are the songs that I battle to get behind. Blue Eyes, by Elton John is one of them. Every time I play that song I feel like I die a little inside. We play it EVERY TIME. I don't believe in it, so I can't follow it, and I have to bury my nose in sheet music to guess what is going on and my performance suffers for it.

So how do I get around this? I dunno. I don't think I can force myself to like certain songs. I guess I must try keep to songs I believe in. Unfortunately in this case the band likes this song. I may be dead by 2015 if I carry on playing it.

That is why it is so much easier to play your own songs, because you automatically believe in them. If you didn't, you wouldn't have written them, or you would have made them somethign you can work with.

Thats just the way the world works. but if you figure out how to pay music you hate, let me know how..

I was in the studio last night again with my mate Brett Robertson and Bevan Lynch finishing off the recording of what will be our first single "Ode to Innocence."

This was my first time working with a producer. Many South African bands are left up to their own devices and come out with takes in the recording that are good enough, but not the best. Marciano Monjane, who incedentally also works at Andiamo Sound, helped us out at Siyabonga Media with the track.

It started out at first like an ordinary pop rock song, simple intro to verse, chorus, verse, basic solo chorus then end. With Marciano's guidance we added little treasuers (as Bevan called them) into the mix. A little bit of guitar here, a change in bass there, some synth that you can hear, but not quite and the harmonies are so subtle yet amazingly effective.

Bevan performed the vocals amazingly well and again, we could have had a take that was good enough but we went for the best and I think we got it.

Keep an ear out for it. Soon enough we'll be hitting your airwaves...

I am starting to think it is easier to get a great tonewith a les paul than it is a strat.

Go to my myspace page and listen to Leap to life (done with the Les paul) and War in the back alley (done with the strat) and tell me what you think.

If you want to hear what I do, you can find my Myspace, or my Facebook page

I uploaded a small tune, Leap to Life, which is an instrumental I did to play around with the tone of my Epiphone Zakk Wylde Bullseye Les Paul.  Go along and take a listen to it, I think I got a fairly good tone this time around.

It is an awesome guitar...

2 Years ago I had a 70's Fender Bassman in fair condition but it was looking tatty. I undertook to re-cover it in white vinyl. It was a wonderful sounding amp but it was too big for me to haul around so I sold it.

This is how it looked before. That speaker was from another old valve amp that died.




It was quite old looking and had a fair amount of damage to the tolex



I set about removing the old tolex from the head

and cleaned off the remaining glue


I used the pieces I took off to cut the new vinyl and used contact glue to stick it on.


I covered the front face with the only black fabric I could find at the time using staples

After cleaning up the metal trimming I assembled it again when the glue was good and dry



The Cabinet had water damage (have no idea from where) and it was made out of chipboard. When I tried to remove the tolex it just disintegrated. I bought some pine and made a new cabinet using the same face and back board but I put castors on it this time to make transport easier....

I also covered the cabinet in the same vinyl and black face cloth


It turned out much better and even made my guitar look cooler....


I had a good time with this project and I intend to do it again some time, although not with a new amp, I'll find another old one.

Someone at GT Central has created software to edit the GT8 via MIDI cable from the PC. I have been trying it out and made this short vid so you can see the interface. I do love it as it has taken me from confusing multi effect to having knobs and buttons like using single pedals....

I've loaded it on my netbook so I can use it in the band room....