x t r m n t r . c o . u k

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my first forays into the music world were in 1998 when i was invited to join a band featuring jon and dan, as a vocalist. thankfully no recordings were made of this shortlived venture, though 3 lyrics were written, one by myself, ussr, and 2 by dan, christmas stolen from the church, and another which was untitled.

my first attempt at learning the guitar was in 1999 when, through a college friend, i acquired a battered acoustic guitar from my old school. i was taught the basics and despite progressing to buying an electric washburn guitar, my frustration coupled with needing money meant the guitar was sold. i was also briefly in a 5 piece band, again featuring dan and jon, but this venture was shortlived as the frontman, an accomplished guitarist, vocalist and meglomaniac, was only interested in doing oasis style songs, and oasis covers, and not the good ones. the band, tentatively named the audiopoets, split in very early 2000, with no recordings being made.

in the of summer 2001, for a brief period of around 4 weeks, i was in possession of electro acoustic guitar, and recorded a 4-chord 40 second acoustic instrumental track called met acoustica, which thankfully, to my knowledge anyway, is no longer in existence.

in 2004 when after seeing an ordinary band support the cooper temple clause, i spontaneously ordered a westfield guitar from the internet auction site ebay. this time i was determined to learn the guitar properly and even purchased a book on the subject, the book remains unread but i persevered nonetheless. after learning some basic chords, and purchasing a distortion pedal, das spastik was formed by myself and jon. we were joined first by max on guitar, and sometime later by simon, also on guitar. in a short period of time we recorded 4 tracks, though i only appear on 3, which are as yet unreleased. max recorded a remix of the lead track, and provided a solo track to the band, with jon recorded a number of drum and bass tracks for the band to work on. these songs remain unfinished.

in autumn 2007, having seen the coming and going of another acoustic guitar, and 2 westfield telecasters and the purchase of yet more pedals, i recorded a 2 track download solo ep under the name xtrmntr, which was released in october 2007 through this website. since that time i have acquired an ibanez electric guitar, and a (borrowed) legend bass guitar and am working on songs for a solo album and a follow up ep. to date i have demoed about 15 tracks which are leaning towards a heavy style than the first ep, yet none have progressed beyond the demo stage.

on new years eve 2007, simon released a 1 track download single, entitled next to you, which features the only vocal performance on a das spastik related track. in august 2008, das spastik had its first proper session in 2 years, and a number of new instruments were introduced including a korg sythensiser and yamaha keyboard, which has added new layers to the sound. whilst there is no set plan, several interesting ideas were born, and further new recordings are in the pipeline.

after much deliberation i opened the recording session to my solo album on the 8th of sepetember 2008 and began work on a new track tentatively entitled synthetik. the instrumental song is based around a keyboard effect, and after many takes was nailed on the same day.

2 further songs have been written since the above, an untitled eletronica track, and the possible album closer, currently titled endsong. they have both been demoed, though the untitled track is releasable in its current form, endsong may require some reworking. the estimated completion date of the album was autumn 2009.

march 2009 has brought about a new change with my moving house and studio. i am still working on the album, though with lots currently going on, the scheduled date of release has been pushed back to the end of 2010. i am currently working on a number of ideas, and hope to release a second 2 track ep by the end of the summer.

das spastik band members

jon - bass guitar, guitar
max - guitar, synthesiser, programming
pete - guitar, keyboards, synthesiser
simon - guitar, vocals, drums

discography

ep1 - xtrmntr ep

equipment

guitars - ibanez grx70, westfield telecaster copy, legend fender copy bass guitar (borrowed)
keyboard - yamaha psr-75 (borrowed)
synthesiser - korg kaossilator
effects - zoom g2.1u effects pedal, zoom effects pedal, behringer tremelo pedal, behringer ultra flanger pedal, behringer ultra distortion pedal, behringer compressor sustainer pedal, behringer ultra chorus pedal
amplifier - marshall mg30dfx, laney hc258 bass amplifier (borrowed)
software - cubase, fruity loops