My MAJU, How About You?

Good morning

Let's get right to it, shall we?

What the heck does Maju mean??

It's quite simple, really: It's an amalgamation of the months March and June - the months my wife and I were born in.

However, as a little bit of trivia, I wrote this song waaaaay before I'd even met my wife. In fact I was dating a different girl at the time this song was composed, and her birth month was May. However, as most girlfriends/wives of songwriters should know, not all love songs are about them (as much as we all would love it to be).
The Beatles are a prime example of this. They wrote love songs for everybody. They wrote love songs we can now sing to our wives or girlfriends because it was so accessible and tangible to the next bloke.

And I guess it's the same for Maju.

Although the title nickname 'Maju' pertains to a less generalised and more specific love interest - the song itself was written with nobody particular in mind - a song that can now be sung by any melodic Romeo to his Juliet.

The song was never recorded or performed until I joined a band called Tight Lucy - the rock 'n' roll aviation band. And for a brief period of time, this song was in fact called Mazu with a completely different set of lyrics.

The Mazu version, took away my clean, schoolboy lyrics and replaced them with darker, semi-philosophical words. The song was re-worked, re-written, recorded, rehearsed and finally performed. There is a video of Tight Lucy playing Mazu, which will be uploaded one day.

And then for another long time, the song sat on the shelf doing nothing but aging.

Until a recent gig kind of urged me to take it off the shelf and have another look at it.

The final result you hear is pretty much the Tight Lucy version except I have reverted back to my original set of lyrics, which by the way, make up the cover art for the Maju single.

More Info on the Album's new direction...

Okay, just to give some context on my previous post...

I'm about to reveal 'secrets' of an album that I was producing quite close to the chest. And once again, this is a massive unexpected leap for me.

The exciting direction this newer album is steering me in gives me enough peace and confidence to disclose certain facts about the previous album.

But because it's still a valuable ball of musical creativity, there are a few things I choose NOT to reveal also.

1st Secret: It's all about planes!
The concept of the album was about how small the world is - particularly that you can come and go anywhere in the world, hence the album title: 'Departures and Arrivals'
The opening track was a song about a man and a woman in love saying goodbye at the airport. And there was another song about a man whom prepares his lady the most amazing birthday surprise, only to discover she's flying away with someone else...the song ends with the plane never making it to it's destination.
The initial artwork was also very 'airportesque'. Long shiny walkways with high ceilings and glass walls - very modern architecture.

2nd Secret: It's all old ideas!
I must admit that this album concept was actually one of my first - ever. So when deciding on bringing out a newly recorded album, I kind of took the easy way out. I went back to my roots and starting arranging songs I wrote back in school that were overly familiar and didn't actually reflect my current musician/songwriting heart.

Anyway - now that that is out the way, I would like to raise the curtain on not just a collection of cool tunes, but a soundscape of thrills, smiles and gasps that are waiting to happen.

Some big change!

Yesterday I made a decision that I never thought I would make.

Whilst going about my daily work routine, I got a song idea. A song idea that was so relevant that I've decided to swap out the entire album.

Yes, that's right, I'm pretty much scrapping the album I was currently building thus far and starting another one in a completely new direction.
Just this song idea alone was enough for me to jump ship from familiar territory into an unexplored landscape.

This is quite a massive thing for me, I must add, due to the fact that I cling tightly to my own conceptual ideas and rarely let them go.

Within hours I tracked the first recorded snippets of the new track (for the entirely new album now) and it's aptly titled "The Beginning of the End"

MUSIC VIDEO IN THE MAKING...

Animation time! Yeah!

Probably even as you read this (unless it's the year 2099 - or you've time travelled back to 1884) there are some renders being rendered, which will basically amount to Modem's first fully-animated music video.

For those of you who don't know, lead singer Iain Behr is very much a film-lover and has come close to even being a film student. He applied to study cinematography in 2007 at the NFTS in London. The fees, however, were too steep for him at the time. The passion never took any strain though - in fact - it probably grew more determined just in other ways.

Also in 2007 (between 2007 - 2010), Iain was working as a graphic designer. One of the skills he aquired in his graphic design days was 3D Design. Specifically: 3D modelling and composition (hence the cinematography)

Over time, his work became a sort of passion and he spent long hours at home learning 3D animation.

For those of you not familiar with some of his 3D work, check out this "trailer" he made as an advert to market his own business at the time:

Here is a preview of what is to come...

Modem is excited to bring you something new and original, so keep watching, guys!

The Big Picture closes the door on the Crumple Zone Sessions

Well, well, well...

This wraps up the Crumple Zone Sessions.

The vehicle has gained momentum and purposefully smashed into a solid concrete wall, revealing the strengths and weaknesses.

And the results are a lot more surprising than anyone could have expected.

But we will get to that in another post.

For now, lets take a look at the final song of the CZ trio...
Around late July or early August 2007 Modem songwriter, Iain Behr felt a deep inspiration and stirring for the direction Modem should take in order to complete it's identity. After all identity = purpose. Even if we cannot figure out who we are, we still need to put a label onto things, because there must be a reason for them. They exist for a purpose and purposes must be fulfilled.

But Whom authorises that purpose? Whom gives us our identity? Some of you may or may not believe in God or even His Son, Jesus Christ, or even what He did for humanity.
Too religious? Not really, this is merely historical - but the ramifications imply a Creator who chooses to be personal with all of us on an individual level - that's what that historical event means.

A lyric that was not included in the song goes

"Someone's paid for you that price.
He made the world that you despise.
The Son of God, the Son of Man
personally made you His plan."

Written in one sitting, this song literally wrote itself just on the sheer truth of it.

During this time, Behr's mother had already been going through intense stages of cancer treatments. She had been going in and out of hospitals for years already and had developed a type of brain damage called 'Korsakoff's Psychosis' which was basically like induced alzheimer's disease. Not the best household to live in as a growing young lad. But we still laughed a lot more than a lot of people did.

A few hours after this song was written, mother Behr passed away.

Not from the cancer, however, her body was just greatly weakened by all the rigorous treatments.

And that is another reason why this song has such a deep root into Behr's heart. "I could record this song a thousand times and it will still be a reminder to me that we have no idea what is going to happen next, so therefore we must discover our purpose and fulfil it before it is too late. I think that that is the big picture."

Modem Attains New Look

Well, over the last few weeks as Modem has begun to awaken from years of dormancy, there has been a kind of metamorphosis concerning the look and branding of Modem.

Ever since around 1998, the classic oscilloscope logo has been the trademark look for Modem.

And now that same logo has been going through a refining process, finally to settle at something that the band can nod their heads and say, 'Yep, that's our identity right there!'

First Iteration: Crude and plain, perhaps consistent with the middle school scrawlings.

Second Iteration: Friendly, yes. But the futuristic not mixing so well with the archaic.

Third Iteration: On the right track now - even to the point where adding grit to counter the space-agey vibe was somewhat necessary.

Fourth Iteration: Finally the logo as it now stands: Modern with movement.

Now the roundel was kind of the main drive for the logo re-iteration, based closely on the Aero Blackout logo, also designed by Iain Behr:

Aero Blackout was one of the earlier names for the band before it became Modem, which Iain used as a name for his production studio between 2010 and 2012. The reason being because both manifestations of Aero Blackout became extremely significant turning points for Iain: In 1995, Brendan Clark and Iain sat in a garage on a rainy day and recorded an entire album onto a cassette tape simply because they could. Iain declares that it was this moment that propelled him to pursue music for the rest of his life.

So 15 years later, when he began his production studio under that same name, it carried him creatively through his most difficult financial times.

And with that as a vague foundation, the new Modem roundel came to be:

A little darker and a little sharper.

And of course, it all had to be brainstormed:

Captain's Daughter Revealed as 2nd CZS Single!

Well folks, as the song goes, "Here she is at last."

This marks the second single out of Modem's Crumple Zone Sessions. Foreshadowed by the anchor icon in the teaser video.

Captain's Daughter is an easy listening song, with a simple story to it. We are made aware that she is part of a family as we hear about her mother (or her culinary habits at least). We hear about her sister, and we all we hear about her father is that....well, that he's the captain.

Songwriter Iain Behr states, "When I wrote this song, I really enjoyed the child-like simplicity of the verses, which is why I never wrote a chorus. And the best part is that you don't even notice that there is no chorus - just two 'wilder bits' sequenced in between."

Another interesting thing to note about this tune is the key-change near the end. The song jumps an entire fifth from the E to the A - an unusual key-change, but not highly obvious in this case.

There is confirmation for a video shoot. Dates and casting are still to be verified, but stay tuned...it might be YOU!

1st Crumple Zone single released!

In the Crumple Zone teaser video we saw that the three singles represented by an icons - or clues.

The first icon, a stretch of road, has been revealed to be the foot-tapping 'Road Ahead'.

Modem chose this particular song (for the Crumple Zone Sessions) for several interesting reasons:

• It is quite vibrant and energetic
• There are no minor chords
• Iain wrote this song in high school, during an english lesson

The band is currently underway with the recording of the next single...

Modem begins the Crumple Zone Sessions

The creative machine which is Modem, has launched The Crumple Zone Sessions.

The band is currently recording three tracks, which will soon be released as singles. The selected tracks will then determine the band's next step for a follow-up album. 

Modem has been very careful in selecting which songs to record and publish for the three singles. Lead singer, Iain Behr says, "We have chosen one song to represent the sound of Modem. Another song to represent the fun and wider-appealing dimension of the band. And finally a song that displays our heart and 'seriousness of music'. These three songs will then go out and depending on how they are received will light up the direction we will go to make an album."

The band has also mentioned music videos and new merchandise to coincide with the sessions.

The Time Is Nigh...

Ever since 1992 I can remember wanting to start a band. Back then I was merely 7-years old, so I had no real-world concept of fame, financial gain and all the rest of it.

It was solely for the purpose of entertainment.

To put a smile on people's faces. To wow them. To make them involuntarily tap their feet to the music. To swoon their senses so richly they forget to breathe.

And this is why I believe it's going to work. This is also why I believe that God planted this dream inside of me and raised me up the way He did because He has a specific mission that only Iain Robert Behr can carry out. So He equipped me with the skills, the dreams, the people. He also pruned me, sanded me and painfully removed things from me.

All to mould me into who I am today.


And I have no regrets.


Surely the same has to apply to the rest of the band?! And I'm not talking just about the musical members either. The crew, the management, the business people, the techs - if this is to be the biggest band ever, surely I'm not the only one being built up with bricks of excitement and passion?

1992 ~ 2009...Rome wasn't built in a day...