Well one down and many more to go.  Jay and I have finished our first new song titled "Pray" and this by far is our best song to date.  It will be available to hear online very soon.  Look for new material coming soon  aswell.  And oh yeah!  Happy New Year!

 

Peace

Derek

So here we are just a couple days away from Xmas already.  Years go by to fast now.  Anyways, here's whats going on in the 55 camp. 

 

We have decided to take the rest of December off.  Well from rehearsing and shit anyways.  However, Jay and I are currently working on some new and better shit so we will be in the studio over the holidays. Look for some new stuff coming our very soon.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that other shit!

 

Love From 55 Stitches!

So lots of people have been asking me whats up with us.  So here it is.  We have just written two new songs which i think are our best to date.  They will be posted on our website and www.garagebands.com when they are fully recorded.  Our set list is up to about 45 minutes now so we will be taken on any gigs, well almost any gigs in the new year.  Maybe a few by Xmas.  Also, for those that are interested, we will play parties for next to nothing, maybe free in the Barrie area.  The catch...your party must have an audience that is suited for our music.  Basically any goth, fetish are hardcore parties, plus funerals, divorices, I hate my parents parties and with the right twisted fuckers...maybe even weddings.

 

Peace all for now and I'll keep you posted

Derek

Okay, so I'm home from another year of deer hunting in Ontario's beautiful north.  Now, before I go into the whole debate on hunting I will say this; I hunt because I believe it's a heritage and I enjoy it.  Therefore, I do it.  I spent a week in the bush in some pretty shitty weather, and I didn't even see a deer nevermind get a shot at one.  Whats more important to me is that I wasn't in the city.

 

One thing I learned, or should I say was reminded is that the bush is a true place to collect your thoughts.  It's quiet, peaceful and for me a state of nirvana.  But most importantly, the bush doesn't have George Bush and his war machine, Paul Martin and his scamming Liberal Party, Stephen Harper and the Conserveratives, Jack Layton and his NDP "I don't know what wing politics I represent!" or Gil Dicieppe (or whatever) and his separatist bullshit party.  It's doesn't have hate, or racism, or gangs shooting each other up at funerals in a church.  It doesn't have rapists, drug pushers, child molesters, religion or politics.  It doesn't have road rage, air rage, or any other "diagniosed" rages.  It's doesn't get jealous, angry or whinny.  The bush doesn't charge you 90/ litre to enjoy it.  It doesn't charge interest, demand payments by the 15th of every month, and it never cares if your mortage is over due.  It doesn't brake down and require a mechanic telling you that you need headlight fluid.  There's no taxes, income or otherwise.  It doesn't have ratings, morals or principals.  The bush is just that.  A bush.  A place thats 100% unbiased.  It doesn't care about your problems, but it won't burden you with it's.  It's just there.  Peacefully, quiet and my state of nirvana!  And all that bullshit I didn't have to deal with this week, I had to return home to.  Oh well, 363 more days to go until next years deer season.

 

Derek

SO there seems to be some people that don't know us that are starting to look at my space.  Well that's good, since it is the reason I started this thing.  At this point I would like to take sometime to give you an intro to the band.  By the way, we love to be interactive with our fans so if you would like to contact the band you can get our email addy at www.55stitches.com or you can email me personally at Derek_55stitches@hotmail.com.

 

On vocals and guitar, Jaysun Bernath from Brampton Ontario.  Jay was the founding member of 55 Stitches and the writer of all original material.  His music history goes way to he's childhood dreams of rock star success.  Jay has taken life experiences and turned them into the Monster we like to call 55 Stitches.

 

On Bass, Derek McLean (me) from Barrie Ontario.  I can go more into detail with this part since I'm speaking for myself right now. About 13 years ago I was the vocalist in a high school band.  While our "band" was jamming I always getting stuck sitting around watching everyone else since I couldn't play any instruments.  Frustrated, I went a bought a book called "The Metal Method" and whined to my dad that I just had to have a guitar.  I came from a split family so he pretty much gave me whatever I wanted.  My mom couldn't afford lessons for me so I just plugged away and tried to teach myself how to play.  Years later, while the band was well forgotten about, I realized that all my favourite musicians were bass players.  The Late Cliff Burton, Flea, Les Claypool, Fieldy, Jason Newstead etc. etc.  So being the genius that I was, I thought "Hey, maybe I should try playing bass!"  So I went out and purchased my first bass and amp.  I'll add that at the time I had just bought a house and lost my job, so needless to say, my wife was pissed at the added expense on our Visa.  Don't worry, she got over it!  After plugging in and hitting my first string, I knew I was in heaven.  The walls shook, pictures fell of the wall and my heart pounded.  While I knew I would never be in the spotlight as a bass player, I instantly fell in love!  After a couple days my finger tips had hurt but the new calleses (or however you spell it) had formed.  7 months later I posted an add on kickinthehead.com stated that I was a bass player looking for a new band.  Jay was one of many who had emailed me.  At the time he lived in Barrie so we arranged to meet for the first time at my work.  Side note...I work at a bar so it wasn't very hard to meet there.  We shot the shit for awhile and he gave me his cd to check out.  My first impression of Jay was that he was a great guy, one of the first bad judgment calls I ever made!  HAHAHA  Just kidding.  However, I was impressed by his drive and confidence.  After hearing the cd, I knew this was the project I wanted to work on.  While I had received several offers with several bands, I didn't even reply to any other emails.  I knew what I wanted right there.  This was the band I was looking for.  After getting to know each other, Jay and I started looking for the other members we needed to fill the bands needs.  We went through a couple guitarists and drummers but didn't have much luck.  In June of 05, we remembered a guy we talked to outside the Foundation a few months before.  A tall lanky bastard into death metal that Jay and I had even heard of before.  We gave him a call and he seemed to be interested, so we thought what the fuck why not....

 

And enter our drummer also from Barrie.  Dan Smethurst.  This guys quick, tight and has the skills to come through everytime.  His influences range for Lamb of God to Gwar and to...well to be frank I can't remember half the bands names he tells us about.  However, the bastard can play drums!

 

So maybe you want to know what all this "3 Piece" shit is all about.  Well now you'll know.  To any of you reading this that saw us play at the Kee to Bala, you probably remember seeing 4 members on stage.  For those of you who remember seeing us at the Foundy, you'll remember seeing 4 of us, but only 3 were into it.  Unfortuatly, our guitarist didn't see the project the same as the rest of us did.  So naturally things didn't work out.  C'est la vie right!  I wish him good luck in his ventures post 55 Stitches.  After the dust had settled, Jay and I decided that this just wasn't going to work out unless we found another guitarist that doesn't have an ego monster that needs to be filled.  The simple solution?  Put Jay on vocals and guitar.  We wrote all the riffs for our cd, so it's only natural that his guitar playing fits what we're looking for.  And since he gets to feed his ego while being the "frontman"  he doesn't need it to fill it on guitar.  Ok, actually while I raze him about being the all mighty "frontman" Jay is actually very modest and professional.  The complete opposite of an ego maniac.

 

So thats a bit of our story.  Hopefully you're all caught up on the last year.  If you like our music which I hope you have or will check on our website, www.55stitches.com, then look for us touring and writing new material.  Jay is full of ideas and the good shit just keeps rolling out.

 

Peace all

Derek

I don't have a lot to say about today!  So what?  It's Halloween.  I spend it watching the Leafs game and the Steelers game.  I remember a time when things like Halloween had some meaning to us.  Those wonderful years they like to call childhood.  Oh well, bills to pay, taxes to pay, child costs to pay.  So much for that.  So here I am writing about shit just for the sake of saying I did something today.

 

I've decided to make a list of songs that I think are the best halloween shit around.

 

First Songs:

10.  The Monster Mash:  Brings back memories of those early pre pubicent grade 6 dances.  You remember guys.  When girls didn't have cooties anymore, but boys still did.  Frustrating teases!

 

9. Black Sabbath by of course Black Sabbath.  Haunting intro that makes you think horror movie soundtrack.

 

8. Thriller by MJ:  When MJ turns into a zombie all of a sudden you get to see what he'd look like 25 years down the road.  He must have been a profit.

 

7. Depache Mode's New songs:  Now thats just scary.  How can Dimebag be dead cause of some asshole and his trigger finger, yet Depeche Mode is aloud to continue.

 

6. Black Sabbath (the satanic verses) by Type O Negative:  Just flat out horror

 

5. Freddy's Theme:  You know 1, 2 Freddy's soming for you, 3,4 better lock your doors.  5,6 grap your crucifix, 7,8 don't stay up late. 9,10 never sleep again.  Kids singing...thats just evil.

 

4. Welcome to my Nightmare by Alice Cooper:  What can I say?  He's the king of theatrical live shows.

 

3. Cementary Gates:  One word!  PANTERA

 

2. The music played just before Jaws attacks:  True story here.  For years after that movie came out, my grandmother of all people would swam after me and hum that song while we swam in some swamp lake in Bancroft.  Thanks for the therapy Nana I'll send you the bill!

 

1.  Anything by us!  Being 55 Stitches of course.  If haven't checked us out yet, then you should do so now.  We have began kickin' the worlds ass and yours could be next.

 

Peace All

Derek

Well, last night we had our first full rehearsal since the Foundation fuck up.  Also, it was our first practise as a 3 piece.  And I must say, things are looking good for 55 Stitches.  I will admit that things were a little intense the last couple weeks but things seemed to be smoothed out now.  Jay sounded amazing on guitars and vocals, Dan sounded tight as usual and I assume I was tight since no one was saying "you suck asshole!"  55 has had a new life of breath and we're getting ready to once again go out and kick some ass.  Look for us in the future along with some new material we've been working on.

 

Peace

Derek