Six-word Stories

This post is inspired by the tale that Ernest Hemingway supposedly won a bet by writing a six word story: For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.
Whether or not the tale is true, I’ve always loved this story. So here is a collection of six word stories, in many different genres. It’s a very liberating format to write in, despite (and because of) the constraints.

He’s never really been the same.

A prisoner, I see many things.

I have never regretted anything more.

It would have been better not to.

They never warned me of danger.

That bird stole my glass eye.

Things soured, so I left everything.

Stop him! He’s sure to re-offend!

Stay far away from such evil.

I watched life leave his eyes.

Again I’m in the wrong room.

He never spoke those words aloud.

It is behind me. Someone please–

I’ve never known so much power.

Breathlessly I opened the musty tome.

My transformation is very nearly complete.

It’s there, hiding in her eyes.

Closed his eyes, pulled the trigger.

It’s too much. So I left.

I speak; the room grows quiet.

Fire burnt the man he was.

Everything seemed smaller when I returned.

Finally, I’ll see the sky again.

It came from the other direction.

No one lives in that house.

Something cold just brushed my neck.

Best not to awaken him.

Hopefully that’s the last of them.

We had only two hours left.

I’ve never seen so much blood.

Made bad wish; It came true.

Why do I have three legs?

He hasn’t noticed anything strange yet.

Earthling, take me to your leader.

Six-word Stories

This post is inspired by the tale that Ernest Hemingway supposedly won a bet by writing a six word story: For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.
Whether or not the tale is true, I’ve always loved this story. So here is a collection of six word stories, in many different genres. It’s a very liberating format to write in, despite (and because of) the constraints.

He’s never really been the same.

A prisoner, I see many things.

I have never regretted anything more.

It would have been better not to.

They never warned me of danger.

That bird stole my glass eye.

Things soured, so I left everything.

Stop him! He’s sure to re-offend!

Stay far away from such evil.

I watched life leave his eyes.

Again I’m in the wrong room.

He never spoke those words aloud.

It is behind me. Someone please–

I’ve never known so much power.

Breathlessly I opened the musty tome.

My transformation is very nearly complete.

It’s there, hiding in her eyes.

Closed his eyes, pulled the trigger.

It’s too much. So I left.

I speak; the room grows quiet.

Fire burnt the man he was.

Everything seemed smaller when I returned.

Finally, I’ll see the sky again.

It came from the other direction.

No one lives in that house.

Something cold just brushed my neck.

Best not to awaken him.

Hopefully that’s the last of them.

We had only two hours left.

I’ve never seen so much blood.

Made bad wish; It came true.

Why do I have three legs?

He hasn’t noticed anything strange yet.

Earthling, take me to your leader.

GUNMETAL GREY TEAMS UP WITH GLORY AND HONOUR

Well, here it is: the inevitable news post.
I’ll get right to the point here, and that is that Gunmetal Grey has recently begun working with Glory & Honour Promotions
Essentially what this means right now is that I’m being promoted across their various sites (of which they have many). In fact, it is entirely possible that you are reading this right now after being linked here from one of their sites.
So far it has been a fantastic experience working with the G&H team, and I could not ask for a more dedicated and easy-going group of people.
Gunmetal Grey music can be heard periodically on their radio station, and all the bands (now including me of course) can be found here

I expect you will be seeing more and more about this in the future. Already I have been working with a couple of the other artists on the label for remixes and such. Actually, you can listen to the first one on Gunmetal Grey’s new Soundcloud page. Yeah, we got one of those.
Also on that page is a sneak preview of one of the songs that will be on the next album, something you’ll have heard already if you went to the show OR watched the video of it on facebook.
Well, that’s about all the news I can think of right now, and about all the blogging I’m willing to do anyway.
There are actually numerous things still in the works, but I’d rather not run my big mouth off about that quite yet, lest things change.
Which is likely.

Aviary. No longer just for birds

So I was working on editing all the video of the recent concert, and stumbled upon this website (do not ask how those two things were related). It so inspired me that I am now blogging about it whilst sitting on the floor.
The long and the short of it is that this site is incredibly awesome. It is a web-based audio sequencer with a vast library of pre-recorded loops. I do not know of all it’s capabilities, as I have only known of it’s existence for 7 short minutes. Those 7 minutes have been filled with my constant gleeful laughter. The compositions you can sling together on this site are something I might describe as ‘epic’, had not the adjective been overused and consequently destroyed by a crowd of internet…..ers.
In all seriousness though: check out this site. It seems like the perfect source for quick video soundtracking and the like.
I fully intend to spend long bouts of time with this site. I will link any creations I come up with.

Edit: They also have a totally bangin’ drum sequencer. Seriously.

On playing live

I’ve been promising myself that this post would be coming soon, and have exhausted all my conceivable excuses. Now, save a nuclear holocaust, alien abduction, or the thought of something more productive to do, nothing is going to stop THIS revision of THIS post rolling out.
So if it seems rough and incoherent, you have only myself to blame.
I think one of the larger problems I’ve had with getting this post out was that I was simply trying to cover too much information in one go. A feeling akin to stuffing as many marshmallows as possible in one’s moth and then trying to swallow. I have now decided that the main purpose of THIS post is to discuss my feelings about Gunmetal Grey’s recent debut into the world of live music.
There’s a news post coming at some point in the future, but I am doing my best to forget about that so that I may focus more fully on the matter at hand.

The crux of the matter is that I have now had the opportunity to perform my music on a stage in front of people.
The notion of which, if you had mentioned it to me 3 months earlier, would have sent my head reeling. Looking back, it is a kind of incredible to me that such an event was able to happen, and happen so soon. Far before the time frame I had originally projected for myself.
This is also somewhat of a dream realized for me. I can’t say that this is something I’ve wanted my entire life, as that is most decidedly untrue. It is, however, something I have dreamed about doing for a significant portion of my life. Yearned for, even. It is something that made me want to go into music in the first place. I have watched concert videos, attended concerts, all with an intense fascination at the effects of and emotions surrounding live music.

Thus, I can truly state my satisfaction when I claim that this concert was a huge success.
The concert was a triumph in multiple ways, not the least of which was the technological ability to do what I wanted. You would not believe the amount of time I have spent thinking of the best way to play Gunmetal Grey live. It was a challenge which haunted my thoughts even before I had recorded any songs.
In case you were horrendously misinformed, or for some reason are not aware of the fact yet: Gunmetal Grey is one person. As such, the amount of music I can produce in multiple tracks in a studio setting and the amount possible when on a stage with only two hands is vastly different. I have never allowed this discrepancy to restrict what I do in the studio, however, nor will I ever. The point is that being able to produce any music whatsoever on stage was an accomplishment in my eyes.

Aside from just overcoming technical barriers, though, this concert marks a personal milestone. Though I have long dreamed of performing live music, there has always been that small anti-spark of doubt that I would not be able to accomplish such a feat because of my own reservations when it comes to essentially existing in such a public and vulnerable setting. Nerves. And the ability to open up so completely in front of strangers, and potentially hostile ones at that. Despite any impressions this blog or anything else gives to the contrary, I am quite an introvert, and the possibility that I wound up holed up in a studio, producing music 24/7 but never seeing the light of day was all too real. Did I have what it would take to do this, what I wanted to so much?
Well. ‘Yes’ is the answer, as I have now proven unequivicobaly to myself.

This blog post was a little on the personal and introspective side, but thank you for taking the time to read it.
News post…..sometime later.

An interesting note

It seems I go through more drafts and revisions of blog updates than I do for GMG songs. Currently trying to push out a big long update post. Please stay tuned.

SPECTRUM ASSAULT AND SOUNDTRACK RELEASED

Salutations fans and countrymen,
If you are an avid follower of this band you already know that Gunmetal Grey has been working with Strikerr Games to develop the soundtrack to an upcoming iPod/iPhone game. Well upcoming it is no longer! In other words, it’s been released.
In direct correlation with this piece of news, the soundtrack has also been released on bandcamp. Funny how these things happen like that.

I strongly recommend all of you to download the full soundtrack because (more than two songs were originally written for this game WINK WINK)
 

Also it is my obligation, nay, duty to remind you of Gunmetal Grey’s upcoming LIVE SHOW in case this is your first visit to this blog or in case of retrograde amnesia.
Remember, Smokey The Bear used to say that “only you can prevent forest fires” but there was an alternate take that people often forget where he proclaimed that “only you can buy tickets to go see Gunmetal Grey and save the band from a slow starving death of artistry and body.” However, the marketing chaps didn’t take well to it and the originals have since been destroyed.

Stop burning trees,
GMG

TICKETS FOR GUNMETAL GREY’S LIVE PERFORMANCE

Greetings fans.
This blog post is quick and to-the-point.
Gunmetal Grey. Performing. Studio 7, Seattle. July 7. 7:00PM
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207758125928022
YOU CAN NOW BUY TICKETS ONLINE HERE: https://tickets.aftonshows.com/GunmetalGrey
Oh, and here’s a promo code to get $2 off. Expires on June 18th
PROMO CODE: GUNMETAL524

Please come, please invite friends, and PLEASE BUY THE TICKETS ONLINE. It is of dire importance that you do that especially.

Thank you for all your continuing support. Let’s knock a building down. With sound.

Finally the blog update

Greetings all.
It has been a long time since updating the blog, which I feel somewhat bad about, since there has been a lot of news to inform you about. I don’t feel too bad though because what I was doing instead of updating the blog has been making all sorts of news happen.
So finally here is your update. If you’ve been following Gunmetal Grey through other means (facebook in particular) then some of this you’ve already heard. Let that be a lesson to those who do not check the facebook page.

First off: SOB Netzine has been kind enough to feature an exclusive Gunmetal Grey interview! This was a lot of fun to do, and they were great to work with. The observant among you may have noticed that article includes the first photos of Gunmetal Grey, and they do look quite professional. The pictures featured in the article are also on the blog and I think most have worked their way to facebook, but eventually more will be released.

Second off: Gunmetal Grey has also had the good fortune of working with Strikerr Games to develop the soundtrack for the upcoming iPod/iPhone game Spectrum Assault. Keep your eyes out for it in the App Store within the month. The soundtrack will be released soon as a free downloadable EP.

THIRD OFF: GUNMETAL GREY WILL BE PERFORMING LIVE. Yes, you read that correctly. Gunmetal Grey will be performing live at Studio 7 in Seattle WA on July 7th at 7:00pm. Easy to remember. Here is the facebook event so you can remember and invite friends. I implore all fans that are able to please come out to see this. The tickets are cheap, only $10 if you buy through me. Just write on the facebook event to do so, or comment on this blog post.

Now. I would like to take this time to acknowledge a couple individuals who made this avalanche of progress possible:

Kyle Gatti, for his fantastic photography and support
Jennifer Mauk, for everything
Shane Park, for being an excellent collaborator at Strikerr
and ALL THE GMG FANS. THAT’S RIGHT, YOU.
Thank you all for supporting this band and making things happen.

See you at the show,
Vlad

Sneak previews

Notice anything different about the blog?