Kai Viti

"Kai Viti"? What the &^%$# is that? That's the name of the new musical duo I'm now involved with! Yay!

Eddie came around and spent the night here on Saturday. We ended-up recording 10 of his solo-set songs on my new digital recorder "Thing", for a demo album for him. Actual recording all the different parts of the tracks only took us about four hours, in between drink breaks, naturally! He's got over 200 backing tracks already, and chose a varied selection for a CD he can hand out to people.

Because we were recording just a single song at a time, it was quick, clean, and painless! From recording to mixing to burning CD... all done within 36-hours, basically! Much better!

So... I've 'technically' produced my very first CD album, using "The Thing"! hahahahaa. "Kai Viti" by Eddie Waqavesi.

Half-way thru, he asked me if I wanted to join with him, to play as a duo. I immediately said yes!

Why? 1). Eddie sings like an angel, and plays guitar almost as well. 2). I know how to play all of the 200+ plus songs in his repertoire already (just basic club MOR standards). Rehearsal and practice together will be ridiculously easy. 3). Eddie is a dream to work with. Our playing styles and voices blend well together. 4). It's a sure-fire-way to get me out playing in front of people again, even tho it's not exactly the style of music I would choose to play. But - there would be some $ in it, playing clubs around the region.

Let's face it - I love playing! I just haven't done enough of it over the past 12 months, since Box of Sox has got together. Playing with Eddie would be sheer joy. I'd learn soooo much as well.


Listen here to Eddie singing a Neil Diamond song, "Play Me"... his voice is like wow... I was speechless sitting watching and listening to him recording it, all in one take too.


www.divshare.com/download/4749810-684


This song below is Eddie singing the old Doobie Bros classic, "Long Train Running", with me funking along on rhythm guitar.


www.divshare.com/download/4749889-f60

Two songs off the demo CD album "Kai Viti" by Eddie Waqavesi. wOOt!

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I'm NOT leaving or disbanding the Box of Sox band. Not at all. Playing in a Club Duo will just a side-gig for a while, to help me "keep my hand in" playing and performing-wise. I need that. That's how Julian (our drummer) met Eddie, playing similar stuff together. So it's not going to be a problem.

It was the first time Eddie and myself had really just hung out together on Saturday night. Shared a few quiet beers, swapped funny old band stories... he spent the night too (it was blinkin' freezing that night, so it was just as well, as the road home for him would have been icy) - it was nice having a playfriend come over! hahahaa.

I was astounded when he gave me a copy of all his backing tracks (all 208 of 'em!!!), so I had my own copy to play along with. That's months' worth of work on his behalf in those files, believe me. The beauty of USB ports and file sharing between laptops.

208 songs is about 10+ hours worth of playing, you realise! Good gosh! I had no idea I knew so many songs, without actually having played about 50% of them before. As always, I just learn stuff by 'osmosis'... stuff I hear around the traps and/or on the radio just seeps into my subconscious, I guess.

I'm not trying to brag (not at all). I just astounded myself going thru all those different and varied titles and thinking "Yup, yup, yup, I know how to play to that, and that, and that...!"

It makes it all so easy. All I need take is my guitar and amp, as he has everything else we'll need to play anywhere. Weddings, functions, clubs.

Oh, by the way... "Kai Viti" is the Fijian way of saying 'Fiji'! Eddie's a Fijian, obviously! heh heh.

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For the rest of this week, I'll be trying to finish those "Box of Sox" ruff rehearsal recordings... it's just taking so much longer than I anticipated, simply because each "take" goes for upwards of an hour at a time. There's different versions and takes of the same song... so it's hard figuring out which is the better one to use. Then actually editing and mixing it all, as well as I can (because the original recordings are pretty spartan, really)... then converting each session takes about an hour just to simply convert it to a sound file that's playable... it's all good fun, just very time-consuming. I'm fully aware of how very lucky I am that I've got the time to be able to do all this at the moment.

And yes, I'm making sure I'm giving my ears a good rest every hour or so! I'd go nuts otherwise! lol.

Peas be with ewe

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