Blog start, a reminder for the future perhaps?

260411
Welcome to my blog.
When i first started touring and playing gigs with my band At the gates back in 1991,  i never used to take down any notes or take any pictures. As the years went by i started to realize that the gigs, venues, cities and experiences were just blending in to one big blur. So in late 1995 i started taking notes about where i had been, what i had seen and experienced, what songs we played, what the gig was like etc.
I found these notes when me and my wife Amber recently moved and i thought that i should start doing it again. Mostly for myself and my own memory but also for anyone that wants to read and share some of the experiences that i have as a ´traveling drummer´.  And since At the gates has yet again reformed what better time to start writing and documenting right?

At the gates played together yesterday 250411, for the first time since our last Sept 2008 gig in Athens Greece, the end of our summer reunion in 2008. It was a instrumental rehearsal as our singer had to entertain his kids over the easter holidays.
We had arranged to borrow Dark Tranquility´s room and i got to play on Anders Jivarp´s Drumcraft kit.
(pics to follow in the next blog entry).
I had in the past week been preparing to play the songs again at home on my Vdrum kit, in between long hours of D.I.Y setting up mine and Amber´s new Murdermile photography studio in London.
But playing this stuff on a live kit is a whole different ball game, it´s actually easier.
This really surprised me as i had been prepared to stop out of exhaustion in most songs.
Having some tap water  really helped me through it.
Over the past week´s i had been freaking out at home wondering how i was going to find the time to fit practice in with the heavy move and the endless hours of painting.
I am a "half empty cup" kind of drummer, one that never takes anything for granted, even the simplest parts and when preparing for most projects or gigs i generally feel that i am underachieving and haven't practiced anywhere near enough, which can be a very frustrating situation.
However, i realized yesterday as i walked back from rehearsals to my hotel that it is this feeling of underachievement that keeps me on my toes, that keeps me putting the practice room hours in.
Nothing good comes from being too confident about your parts and thinking that you don't need to practice and i have always had the most humble approach to my playing. But perhaps i should start seeing it more as a self preservation as a drummer and player as opposed to a thinking that i am under achieving which comes with self doubt and hesitation which leads to feeling "the fear" which is bad.

Playing drum parts that i wrote 20 years ago, parts that were written at the absolute peak of what i could do at the time technically and physically is really interesting and fun and i am enjoying every moment of it. There is still one old song that i won't name now that we are practicing today so i better come of and go through the parts again as i really don't think i can remember it :)