Oooh.. the moonbeams tonight are diving deep into your 3rd eye so u cant deny the clean stream of energy making love with your enemies but she's running on empty & mildly violently too but two cans of goo from the interplanetary zoo & swallow the blue pill with a couple dollar bills too to get your fill & spill a bottle of plenty synthetic genetics to teletranslate into a pragmatic emphatic avenging the eventual revenge of a handful of vengeful fence fool schemes of diabolical schematics so i'm aborting all abortions to avoid all the bullshit so I remain unentangled in an evangelical game of snakes & ladders from Adam to the present God dammit I present to you the gift of the Now so stand up & shake like a mad cow, awaken inside to find yourself alive just to realize that the journeys the prize, look into my real eyes I drift because, this shift could cause a rift that could ripple deep into forever through the inter-dimensional broadway & right there you remember the way of the intellectual broadsword landlord reaching deep into your hand leaving it mauled like you're on the cross nailed to the new North Pole, your recurring role here is eminent your eminence and as this relevant evidence suggests let me point you straight to the point of this benevolent dilemma, this free triple bypass affair.. I've noticed you're still here.. Listening to this in the cool night air we stare deep into each other's eyes just to ripple deep into forever through the poetic never never-land dreaming of forever, so we take to the skies to endeavor to revel in the jewel of dual existence never severed from the seven-headed tribe so never fear your epicness is here ripe & ready to tear the air clear of potential snares so bring back the high hat so we can get high on that & jack that J so we can get the jam on in this holy temple of contemporary life...

|)(

The Body Rock Tour in development..

Things have been crazy, no word of a lie. In the last two months the drummer & lead guitarist. Damo & Dan quit PARKLANE & flew back to South Africa. It wasn't a pleasant experience & I obviously have my reservations about those two humans.. One thing is for certain, I'll miss Damo. Anyway, Ryan & I had to go somewhat underground & try recreate the band. After a long search & auditioning some not so awesome drummers, we eventually found the deadliest drummer this side of the Bermuda Triangle.. Graham Shaw. He was in a band called Spies previously, things had just come to a cul-de-sac for them so he was ripe & ready to step into the PARKLANE time-machine.. We have so far had about 5 rehearsals & one show which was in a little town called Bracebridge two weeks ago. We have not found a lead guitarist yet, aren't really looking too hard anyway as this 3-piece situation is actually quite rad. It's obviously a whole other ball game in the pyramid formation as opposed to the diamond.. but I'm down with the ancient Egyptians :)

Meanwhile, back at the Ranchero, our tour is developing into a 24 show extravaganza stretching from Ontario to Quebec.. I'm looking forward to it oh my goodness... We have been here over six months now & haven't been out of Ontario yet. This country is MASSIVE.

It's been too long, Self!

Mulling over this & that & why color in black & white & why others might jack one up in thy temple of divine bureaucracy; rather not you see, its just my sublime hypocrisy.. Inoculate me please! Take me to the sea Major, i'm not a minor scale Libra but like Lennon I make lemonade when life hands me lemons & turn to my imagination to imagine all the nations as one with no guns, no borders, no one world orders conjuring up what they taught us to fear; our sons & daughters will live right here where we stand together as one under the sun with clean water you hear!!

I'll drink to that, Cheers...

|)(

Northern Spring & The DC Show Demo.

As I roll around up North wandering through experience after experience I have to say, things are evolving. I'm still loving this country, a fact enforced this morning when I stumbled upon an awesome piece of art by one of my all-time graffiti artists in this fine world, Faith 47. I'm quite happy to leave my old world of hiding from tik-junkies in Woodstock, Cape Town behind.. although there are many friends I will be missing severely until I see them again of course..

Besides the glee & nostalgia, I have been quite busy here working on the music situation, with PARKLANE Ryan & I have been operating like voodoo ninjas getting the ball rolling there & it seems that pretty soon the mist will clear & we'll be on massive stages, to my absolute glee..

The band is still doing well, even though we're a bunch of zebras in the snow we're quickly finding our feet. We have been playing shows all over the greater Toronto area, and have been building up a team of bookers, managers & helpers.. pretty soon some dreams will be coming true. We had a still video camera rolling at our last show which was last week at the Tattoo Rock Parlour in Queen Street.. you can watch us jam out our track Angry Dragon here.

I have also been polishing up my own myspace, the Darin Collins Show; adding some new photos, designs & videos..

I have also made a little mp3 package of my solo album.. Hopefully someday soon I will get to chill with DJ Quake again & we can finish the acoustic electro album we started last year..

But for now.. behold:

 The Darin Collins Show

01. The Message was Carried on the Wind

(Flute by Joa Santaur)

Instrumental

02. Behind the Moon

(Keyboard by Dino von Chapman)

Looking around,
my babe nowhere found.
Finding myself at odds,
Stare me to the gods,

Vision centrepoint third eye,
I can't see but I can see you,
through my mind you flew,
Your look, cast in iron,
Your moon, cool felion,
My fiery solar beam drops a clouded tear,
Love pure my mirror, are you near?

Because you're hiding
Behind the moon

Looking around,
my babe nowhere found.
Finding myself at odds,
Stare me to the gods,
Vision centrepoint third eye,
I can't feel but I can feel you,
through my soul you blew,
Your eyes, lunar storm,
Your moon, cool form,
My fiery solar beam drops a clouded fear,
Love pure my mirror, are you near?

Because you're hiding
Behind the moon

03. Emergency 

(Co-written by Dino von Chapman, drums by Phil Hogsten)

Oh, what a jol,
but it's your call. . .
You got to stand tall if you want to break your fall. . .

Like the Silver Surfer in a snowstorm.
We gather all the surgeons to bring about an emergence
of clarity in destiny, the right to be free, see?
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!!

Pick up the phone off the cabin wall
I listen to you moan that you have it all.
You cruise with a tight crew all night bru
and you bruised your sight through the fight too

Tattooed angels rise above sad devils lost in love:

So fly, but whats that sound?
As I twist through the sky,
I crawl through the ground.
Insist that I'm high
as I fall to where I'm bound.

I'm just a filthy human
and I keep getting shown,
creeping out of the dirt-bin
and straight to the show.
But another blind robbery
and another free ride
through the exams copying
another clone's pride. . .
'cos knowledge is power and I'm in the bin,
born in sin to a cultureless king.

White punks drinking gin as I hear my doorbell ring:

So fly, but whats that sound?
As I twist through the sky,
I crawl through the ground.
Insist that I'm high
as I fall to where I'm bound.

A string of kings and you know it's a fact
that we stabbed each other in the back.
The product of a consumerist pack. . .
the Marlboro Man died with a knife in his back.

04. Babylon Dust

Who will be arriving next?
This cold solid station reeks of bullet holes, seems ready for a serving, a greedy platter of spirals. The ice cold chiming sounds the arrival of the following train... heed it's warning.
This is warning one, to these fallen guys sex is heaven mate, my zen depends on twelve.
A lingering scratch, the mobile leans against the black station wall, out of steam, out of breathe.
The doors wince open & what do I see?
Vampires everywhere. Consumers of blood money; cash, smoked with Afghan hash. Greedy fingers and snapping mouths, chasing themselves around the toxic city. The Corpor8 Ladder.

Damn me what a calamity
It's all deranged such insanity
Red red eyes make me drink more wine
A passport just to pass more time
And while we thinking we're drinking
And while we drinking we're thinking
What the hell is this shit all about
Oh my God get me the hell out
It's such a mission to find a good incentive
to find another way to keep yourself inventive

Because I drank your poison
the boys in the hood made noise
and I think its good cos now I'm robin hood

robbing the hood blind for that which I must. . .babylon dust.

As for me I'm fine these days, divine in fact
drink wine sometimes and smoke that
green bag of mooti, I might be, kinda mighty. . .
if some fellers want to fight me. . .
I'll bust out the peace pipe and shine bright all night.
It's quite a sight I have to say, amused to play all day.
But not always, like last May I had to pay
More than money to keep things funny
donated a piece of my soul for a bowl of cold gold
umquomboti, feeling kinda naughty called a big dude shorty
shortly after half the jol had a jol on my jaw
bust my bones and tore my hat

So I drank your poison
the boys in the hood made noise
and I think its good cos now I'm robin hood
robbing the hood blind for that which I must. . .babylon dust.

05. Portal Petals 

(Co-written & drums by Phil Hogsten)

Reasons keep popping out of the sky
more confused than clarity
I swallowed a cockroach
and it's hatched in my belly.
How long must I ride?
Around and around and around...
cos inside my dreaming I found
adventures of life
missions of love,
more real than reality.
I feel no bummers because I see
through this immergency
of dramatic political artistry,
no empty smiles from me.
Broke a cycle
I was found hating an old mirror. . .
SMASH!
too busy yawning
thinking how boring
found patience on a busy morning
found a new day dawning
found a reason to live
found myself on the road again.
with freedom in abundance
and a burst of emotion by my side,
dreaming on nice white sheets...

Where is the portal?

Tell me where I went wrong?
Where did I take a wrong turn now

Tell me baby please

Before I burn

06. Fly Away 

(Co-written by Phil Hogsten, guitars, beats & production by Jack Mantis)

Oh little pigeon
your institution, rings of religeon
it's a state of confusion
like it's not your decision
to follow your intuition
it's time to envision
the new world in creation
like it's genesis to exodus
like mantis in atlantis
like the many jews, who got executed
like the menopause, metamorphosised
like me... and you
sucking on a fine lumerian brew
I heard it on the news, it's what we choose
Jeez like it bruz, do you feel the noose?
Wake up fools, it's time to loose the rules that you use to confuse the abused...
Now what you gonna do, you been accused?
Now what you gonna do, you gonna have to pay your dues...

You're free to fly, fly fly away...

07. El Torro/Down & Out 

(Electronica & production by JDL Quake)

What happens when you look around?
The clowns in town make me frown like I'm hearing a bad sound:
From the present to the past and back for more,
to take me up & make me soar, through the almighty aurora.
But my feet are still on the ground,
and I'm strolling through town in my white gown,
my golden slippers look like flippers
as I flip through history's pages,
sages in cages throughout the ages.
Why did you kill Bob Marley?

I've been so down & out..

Out riding my Harley, got stung by two B's,
Unchained by B.B. Kings keys:
Fling open the doors, His Majesties Eyes.
His demise was a sad surprise.

I've been so down that I've wanted to die

Why are all our kings dead?
It's a mystery to me.
Chilling with my subtle friends and it's crowded in here.
Whose the killer?
TV? Hypocrisy? Adam & Eve's family tree wrapped in serpentine.
The crystal snake's mesmerizing lies, live on CNN.
Holy fk have I got news for you.
Jesus was like you and got killed by the same crew,
the ever fearful masses, me & you.

I've been so down that I've wanted to die

But I know that all of us have been here before
but I know that I'm laying here right down on the floor
because all of a sudden I feel like a
Matador in a Masquerade..

You will hear her call when your head hits the wall.
All your strangest dreams will fall on the screen in front of you all.
That sickly deja-vü you recall that makes you reach for the alcohol,
claustrophobic sensations in the mall that choke you and leave you feeling appalled..
All these things will teach us, will talk to us, will not defeat us but help us evolve.

08. Music Come & Save Me

Music come & save me,
won’t you please,
just pick me up & take me,
up off my knees,
oh won’t you please now..

Music come & save me,
won’t you please,
just pick me up & take me,
Overseas,
won’t you please now..

Music come & save me,
I’m begging on my knees,
just pick me up & take me,
Overseas,
won’t you please now..


Music came & saved me,
wouldn’t you believe,
it just picked me up & took me,
off me knees..

09. Riding Time

Electric miles live it up, back the day,
We wet behind the ear kids in the suntan,
Down Crossways jungle and breathing out cloud.
Pipe's on the pipe drink Goddess-God like,
Biggest blue friends and blood bud lovers.
We rode the barrel through bitter childrenhood,
Fighting our society's bluey-green delusions.
In the night strobe tatoos flash ourselves,
We love to be, to burn burn the feul.
The natural deul.

I'm in a daze, riding these waves
Trailing a blaze through these crystal caves...
Riding time.

This head under water silver bubbles all around.
Sunlight streams dancing in my dreams of you.
The Dolphin tongue I think I've found,
I think I talk Octopussy too.
With Neptune's mermaids I think I'm in love
Blue lagoon, I think we're in tune
Slept with you for days, I know I'm in love
It's too true, I swear it on the moon
like spring tides in the middle on June...

I'm in a daze, riding these waves
Trailing a blaze through these crystal caves...
Riding time.

Wicked ass sons of fun-
Dripping stoned ass son of a gun, sun soaked
* on the run, son choke
Mothersucker on the bong, son stoned
Boned & cloned, the road called Sloane
Known to the throne through the telephone
Like a crow told me so and now I know
The bro, the bow, the deadly * arrow...
Straight through you're * bone marrow.

I'm in a daze, riding these waves
Trailing a blaze through these crystal caves...
Riding time.

10. Out of my Mind

 (Co-written by Phil Hogsten)

do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?

Coming from inside the Earth Soul Live Wire
meshed up brother of the same higher vi-
brational milky one soul mother,
A strange light glowing in her eyes,
Speaking unspoken verbal fire-flies...
Twisting turning around the soul brother,
precious silver love creature universal,
Lemurian Atlantic Boom rehersal?

do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?

We grow, we feel, we know whats real

Oh Goddess, to make the musik, the food,
the deliciousensationalinguisticomminikational mood,
Moving through space into my black hole,
My soul, it melt into another dimension.
Wet sliding bubble nappy move me funny,
giggle boy ticklelick the secret girl.
We grin as the moon shines audible streams.
Happy wandereres wandering dreams of passion life juice,
the feul.

Feul be passion life juice, the fool. . .

do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?
do u think I'm out of my mind?

11. Crow's Cry

I'm a statue frozen still,
crows in the wind, blood on the snow;
no-one to be found, an empty window.
Zoom in on ant's trail, busy moving;
making a living grooving to their rhythm.
My sword is clean but I can't stab anymore,
my killing muscles weak from rust
but I must just try to bust a move but who can I trust?
Because I still hear the crows cry,
the wind in the trees,
my knees shiver;
a ripple on this frozen lake.

Trust no-one,
but do the opposite.
Stop being a source of light, just try it destroy it just try it destroy it,
my best friend became a digital scar,
I know you want to cry but I'm earning my guitar.
I'm burning my fire, my funeral pyre, the harder I try.
I'm blooming they said, how god damn amusing,
because I still hear the crows cry,
the wind in the trees,
my knees shiver;
a ripple on this frozen lake.

These pins holding me down in this butterfly cemetery
have my logo stamped into their heads,
whatever I choose, my blood trickles loose, my neck in the noose,
and all I ever chose to do was trust in you,
but I still hear the crows cry,
the wind in the trees,
my knees shiver;
A ripple on this frozen lake.

12. The Seer 

(Co-written & piano by Dino von Chapman)

Instrumental

13. Mother City 

(Co-written & drums by Phil Hogsten)

Your soul bubbles popped into my mind,
holographic projection from another side,
the lion & the devils battle treaty signed,
so that in the mother city we may just abide.
rise 'n shine you the kids of my kind,
time to fill the hole so wide,
you dont see it now because we been blind,
It's the time for change, high tide...

It's the time for change, conciousexband;
The lion was tamed and told he was bad,
that his seed had just simply gone bland,
and if he did the divine then he was all too mad,
original as a grain of sand,
conned and lied to, it's so damn sad,
but now it's time to listen to the pretty,
songs of the life we that we living in the city...

We're still living the good life
still living the life. . .
we're still living the good life
still living the life. . .
in the MOTHER CITY. . .

Cape Town summer city
slippy jizm street long
pills 'n thrills social ills
loud hip trance hop boogie
don't get me down deep inside the
cavernous cannibis carnivore carnival whore
spiral up your bloodlines - eternity
majaculational
experiential
torrential downpourings of the One Soul Mother
we living it digging it non-stop spilling it
land of the aia, burning da fire
Babylon gone mad we tripping bad vision!
the shady green eyes looking back at me
could it be could it be could it be could it be...
could it be... could it be...
COULD IT BE...

We're still living the good life
still living the life. . .
we're still living the good life
still living the life. . .
the MOTHER CITY. . .

14. Dub Juice 

(ambient jam by Love Juice - Darin Collins on bass, Phil Hogsten on drums & Dale Ontong on guitar)

Instrumental

15. The Leaning Towers of Babylon 

(ambient jam with Phil Hogsten & JDL Quake with samples by Garvies)

Instrumental

BRAND NEW PARKLANE MUSIC VIDEO!!

Our music video for the song GOODBYE has finally been released, we are really happy with it. It was shot in November last year and has been in production since, the video produced by Magic Hour Productions in South Africa...

Here it is:

Between you & I, London & Toronto..

We're sitting here in a house in a suburb called Wellington in London, Ontario; the band and I. The reason we are here is because we linked up with these people during the Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto two weeks ago who have access to one of the most amazing recording studios in the country which also happens to be one of the most prestigious sound production universities around called Fanshawe. During these two weeks here we have managed to record (in 5.1 surround sound) all the drums for our 11 songs, the bass for 3 of them, and we have one track which is completely recorded with guitars & vocals and has been mixed down quite beautifully, it just needs to be mastered. This track is called Hold On and is one of our harder songs, a short punchy, almost punk, rock anthem and from the version we heard last night, is sounding fantastic. This will be the first release, and as soon as it's been mastered will be sent around to various interested locations, companies & labels around the world. I'm sure it's going to open doors, just like the recordings we did back in South Africa did (which you can listen to on the side-bar of this blog, under PARKLANE).
Our live show at the moment is becoming an attraction, the energy released at each show seems to bring the people back to the following gigs, the power of momentum is revealing itself quite re-assuringly.

5 Days of interviews, shows & Easter chilling...

I'm back on the road with Ryan, Daniel & Mitch from our Easter chill-out with the Gangnons just outside London Ontario, now en-route in Mitch's Buick SUV to Toronto to meet with our friend Terry to organize a possible tour to Ottowa. Damo is meeting us there, hopefully, after having had his own chill session in Hamilton with his friends Rex & Zoe.. We all needed some time apart just to rediscover a sense of self, living in each other's faces for over two months now.. I hope everyone is ready for action. I believe I am.

Thank God for my mac & the headphones..
My favorite thing to do at the moment is when climbing into bed at night, to put the headphones on & listen to John Frusciante's new album, The Empyrean. It fills me with those necessary frequencies that bring back the soulful unconditional understandings I crave, to feel at peace with myself & my surroundings. Rediscovering Radiohead lately too, In Rainbows..

Thank God for music.
My other favorite thing is big stages...

Dream Sequence..

I am luminescentranslucent naked paralleloman, and with glowing electric blue eyes I see creativity as the driving source of existence. I see that my lungs drive my huge white wings. As I inhale I lift them high above me and lean into an exhalation which lifts me into the atmosphere and with gentle ease I breathe throughout the night sky, the cool air returning the favor. I lick patterns into the clouds. Far below a black ocean meets a soft pale beach, behind some steep dunes a twitching jungle begins and stretches back into the distance. I relax and fall towards the beach, I reach terminal velocity and hook a wing into the wall of wind and begin to arc into a parallel with the beach. I watch my shadow race along-speed, climbing & dropping up & over the wind-carved beach-scape below. The blur focuses as the centrifugal pace eases back into memory and I soon see the tall shadows of some people sitting around a fire, hand-gestures flickering on the moonlit sand tell stories of totem-poles & past-lives. I breathe around just above silently listening, silently recording.

At sunrise I change my frequency back to life as man on earth. I pack away my wings and wipe away the translucence to open my eyes. I am standing in the middle of a tarred road winding down one side of a mountain covered in tall pine-trees. I'm holding a long skateboard, tail on the tar and nose in my hand. No cars. I drop the nose to the ground and ease the collision of rubber & tar with my foot on the tail. The front wheels meet the ground and I stand on the wooden board and I lean into gravity. The wind against my face gathers strength as I engage with the downhill, the rubber wheels begin to purr. The road cuts through the trees & mountainside boulders down towards the ocean. Corner after corner I carve at a comfortable pace. After a certain while I reach a bend in the smooth road which is peppered with loose gravel. I skid through the sand & stones & lose control of my ride, and I roll into the roadside verge. I stand up & look around at where I am, which is about halfway down the mountain. Before me is an open flat area with no trees, just tall dry grass. It seems to come to a cliff on the other side so I decide to go explore the view. I walk through the grass and eventually come to an area where I imagined the cliff might be but as I get a bit closer I realize a patch of rocks & boulders block my view. After some closer inspection I discover there's a large crack in a little corner of the obstruction. I can see some light shining through the cracks from the inside which suggests it might have an opening with a spectacular view of the cliffs meeting the ocean.. I climb inside and navigate my way through the natural tunnel which after a short time begins to look weathered by years of footsteps. I follow the light and seek out my imagined prize view. I corner a few rocks and come to an open cave which pinholes a bright sky blue on the opposite side. As I approach the opening the darkness of the cave tracks backwards revealing a certain degree of majestic magnificence: towering rugged mountain cliffs crashing splendidly into a deep blue sea. Seagulls and rumbling surf caress my ears. I sit down and begin to embrace my surroundings..

I snap out of it and decide to continue exploring this path that seems to continue past this viewpoint.I follow the path through many such viewpoints. Eventually the path thins & leads up to an old wooden door which is slightly ajar. I push it open and find what looks like the inside of someone's house. I walk through the dark corridors on a maroon carpet with black & gold symbols sewn into the design. The house seems empty but lived in, however it's as if no one has lived there in a long time, I can smell old furniture & musty cabinets as I lightly walk past a number of dark entrances towards a particular doorway which has a beam of sunlight once again beckoning me in. I go inside and find an empty red wooden chair sitting in the middle of this stream of sunlight crashing through the middle of this room. I feel compelled to sit in this chair and take in the blinding ocean view before me, so I do just that. A bright afternoon sun reflecting off a smooth brittle ocean with steaming surf pounding against steep soaring rock cliff-faces on either side hits me square in the eyes. I close my eyes to relieve the stunning light, and as I do I begin to sense a presence on either side of me.

I open my eyes to find a brightly colored wooden mask lean forward out of the shadows of the room into the sunlight, I spin around to find the same thing happening behind me, I lift my arms to defend as hands appear and figures approach into the sunshine, walk slowly to me and lift me by my hands gently out of the chair, my eyes adjust to the light and I see the figures are the friendly faces of an unplaceable past. The shadows recede revealing a room consisting of a number of people all of whom seem quite familiar, but I can't figure if I know these people. They whisk me off to a bar in the deeper end of this house that I'm now realizing is carved into the side of this cliff-face. We drink and socialize like old friends, but I still can't place these faces; who are these people? Sunset time-lapses into night, a blur of drunken scenes: Smoking, laughing, hugging, kissing and loving.. Sunrise skies through merlot red stained-glass windows, deep purple & brown down blankets & gold satin pillows. The warmth of a sleeping lover. I implore sleep to soul music alone ..on fruit shandy & water for ten days.

I walk outside and there he is. He is an icon of supreme creativity, and somehow he is my friend. He confides in me and his latest project layout, a film. He describes the finer details of his design and sends me to investigate for myself. I walk up a dirt-road along the verge of a forest to find identical strips of artificially produced forest, intended as sets for this film I presume. Each strip has subtle differences, as frames in a strip of film. I continue up to the last strip and walk through it, investigating the craftsmanship. As I approach the end of the frame I hear her surprised voice, "Darin!"

One of my favorite creatures in the world stands before me and I melt with affection and hug her. I ask her what she is doing in this movie and she tells me she lives here and has her own scene a little further down the dirt-road. She takes my hand and we walk and talk. After a short while I see in the distance on a rocky outcrop, the silhouette of two cats. I know these cats and call them by their names and they walk towards us. As they reach closer I watch them change, they stay the same size but begin to look like baby tigers. They still come up to us and affectionately rub against our legs, as your cat would do. We stroke & play with them, she talks to them like they can speak English, as she does. After this brief indulgence we continue to walk towards her scene, the tigers join us and walk alongside, growing larger as we travel down the gravel road cutting through the scenes. We reach an open plain where more tigers are lazing about in-between trees and tall grass. We walk around the tiger scene and watch them closely. They notice our presence but continue to lie around grooming themselves. We eventually reach her scene where a white house stands alone in the tall grass just before another cliff overlooking the sea. As we approach the house I see that there are identical strips of land with a house each in a row behind the first. She opens the door and I watch as she disappears into the dark of the house, I follow her inside and we walk through a dark carpeted passage. She opens a door to a room that has a beam of sunlight streaming straight through, I walk in to find an empty red wooden chair casting a long shadow across the carpeted floor.

Canada, the first three weeks..

On the third of March Ryan, Daniel, Damo & I, being the South African rock band PARKLANE, crept up a tunneled stairway leading from South African tarmac to the belly of an iron pterodactyl headed for Canada. Since it was a Lufthansa flight everything was in German, not to mention the eight hour layover in Frankfurt. The flight took 28 hours in total & was a time-warp in itself. As we flew over Toronto in that last hour a sense of accomplishment mingled with a nervous excitement of some sort softly in my stomach. From above this city looked massive, but also dry & flat with little mounds of white stuff packed neatly into the corners of every car-park & road.. I believe that stuff is called snow. We were met at the airport by our prospective new manager, Lindsay, in a stretch hummer limousine & spent our first night in this new city in a deluxe hotel called The Grand. We were too cold to test out the jacuzzi on the roof..

After that first night we went to stay in Lindsay's friend Phil's basement to set our game plan in motion. We played a benefit festival in that first week at a venue called Rock & Roll Heaven which went really well. There was a massive lineup with bands playing from Friday through to Sunday. We rocked it so fantastically on that Friday that the event organizers asked us to end the festival off on the Sunday which was an honor, not to mention a good sign being our first show in Canada!

The next week the Canadian Music Week festival started, which is the reason we came to the country. We were the only South African band to be officially invited to play, we were invited as one of the 35 feature bands, showcasing with the Bunkrock Entertainment bands on Friday the 13th March at a nightclub in Queen Street called The Reverb. So our first week went by with us trying to get used to living with this guy Lindsay as our manager. He didn't have much experience in the field of band management but showed great enthusiasm towards the band so we chose to give him a chance to prove himself, unfortunately he didn't really come through with the shows & it seemed like he had no money, and we didn't come to Canada to support anyone so we had to end that relationship. This transpired in the middle of the Canadian Music Week festival which was a tad stressful as we had so much pressure on us at the time, now we had to deal with this too.

The week leading up to our showcase on Friday the 13th we spent at the Fairmont Hotel (the festival headquarters), networking ourselves inside-out, meeting all sorts of music industry heads, media & bands, and attending various seminars that were an amazing source of information on the music industry. It was fantastic, I loved every minute of it. We met so many people, even had a moment with Gene Simmons - the guitarist from KISS!! There was this one seminar we went to where we created a stir, it was a massive auditorium filled with hundreds of young people, mostly other bands that were playing at the festival.. with a panel of record label executives up front giving information on the ins & outs of the music industry.. anyway, we got in there just after it started found some chairs at the back & parked ourselves for the talk. We sucked in all the info as best we could but the whole time we were sitting there wondering how we could get our cd's into the hands of these record label people.. At the end of the seminar there came a time when the speaker announced that there was time for one question, out of the blue Damo (switching to present tense for effect) stands up. Now u must know this hall was PACKED and Damo, our soft-spoken drummer often battles getting his words out.. Ryan, Daniel & I are gobsmacked wondering how this is going to go.. Everyone turns around & stares at this short mohawked South African, he grins & starts mumbling his question from about 200m away but no-one can hear him so they tell him to go upfront & speak, so up he waddles through the crowd to the stage where these industry heads are luring down at him wondering what on earth he's going to ask. So he spits it out, "What happens, right, if you're a hardworking band from the other side of the world, done the gigs, done the tours, got the fans, got the songs".. he looks each one of them in the eye, then holds up a cd & says "Who do I give this to" then grins. A classic moment. By the time everyone had filtered out, each of those record label representatives had a PARKLANE CD in heir hands.

Eventually Friday came around and we played our showcase with the Bunkrock bands, we were to play at midnight, the last band of the evening. We absolutely ROCKED that show. We had 5 cameras rolling around us the entire duration of the show filming a live DVD.. by the end of the 2nd song we had all the people up front by the stage, by the end of the set everyone was jumping around singing our songs back at us clapping & grinning at us, it was amazing! Thanks to our efforts and all the heelpful people we met, there's now a lot of talking going on about Parklane in Toronto.... Things are seemingly positive in terms of achieving the goals we have set ourselves.

A few days after the show we left Lindsay's basement & moved to this friend's place closer to the city-centre (Dan's young friend, a lovely girl called Leigh), her parents made us some nice big meals & let us stay there for 2 days while we made some other plans.. During the festival we happened to meet this team of 2 guys and a girl who study music industry & production at Fanshaw University in a town 2hrs from Toronto called London & we met with them to check them out & see if they could be our management team... After a short while we all realized meeting them was a godsend as these people, Perry, Jef & Camille ended up being perfectly suited to the job. So we decided to go stay with them in London for a bit & record an album at their studios which is now where we're at. We have our own basement in this little house, the guys cook for us, organise gigs & are recording our album, we have so far laid down all the drums for our 11 songs, yesterday we laid down the bass, guitars & vocals for our first single which will be the song Hold On. It sounds amazing, Perry, Jeff & Camille are excellent in the studio. We may have the massive honor of having Kevin Doyle (of Allanah Myles, Black Velvet fame) work his magic on the mixing of all of the tracks.

So far we have a few paying gigs lined up for the next while, we're going to finish recording this album first so we have a complete product to sell when the ball starts rolling. Our accommodation is sorted for the moment & we have a fridge full of food as well as a bunch of record labels watching every move we make. People here LOVE our music, there's no bands making the kind of rock we're making, and they love the fact that we're from South Africa following our dreams. It's been the hugest roller-coaster ride of my life so far, the happiest ups & the most depressed downs I've ever been exposed to... Am so grateful that I'm here doing this with the band. I love it :)