That’s me in the green and white top walking the mean streets of Camden.

Enjoy!

=)

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Expect relevant news soon!

Robx

This post isn’t by me, it’s by Terra, whom you may have noticed plays bass and screams in the I Have Clones live setup, so he’s kinda I Have Clones in a roundabout way.

Anyway, I thought I’d take the liberty of posting it verbatim here, but you can check out his blog here – it makes me laugh.

I believe this was posted in response to seeing Bring Me The Horizon on Monday, (who were awesome) and it refers to Birmingham, but if you’re from somewhere else it’s probably relevant to you too.

So, enough from me – enjoy.

=)

Mini rant first.

Why is it that when you say to someone (this is in birmingham exclusively) ‘Do you fancy going to the pub on the xth?’, they will say yes. But if you ask the same person, ‘Do you fancy coming to see my band (or my friends band, or this band that are really fucking good) on the xth?’ they’ll say ‘Yeah, maybe.’ and then not show up.

Is it because everyone in Birmingham is a twat? No, but there really is a serious lack of music scene here, and a serious lack of support for what might actually make the scene less lacking! So next time my friend says, hey man, my band are playing on the xth, I’m going to go, and I hope you all do too! Support your friends, Hell, they might even be good!

Rant over.

Scene

ScenexScenexScene

What the fuck is scene? Is it only liking the bands which are scene? Is it dressing scene? Is it acting scene?

Well, yes and no to all of the above. But unfortunately it seems to me that most scene kids (and believe me I saw enough tonight!) don’t really have a fucking clue about their actual music scene! Instead of ’scene’ being a word to describe a certain area or cities musical subculture it is now a term that is an extension on emo. Like emo, there are certain defining styles both in music and appearance, but also like emo it is possible to dress in many scene clothes without being scene, and to not dress scene at all but still be scene as fuck. I guess a lot of it is attitude, and clothing combinations but looking scene is fine. I look scene I guess, people say I do certainly, but I only look this way so people think I am scene, and then when I tell them about Allucinere or I Have Clones, they might actually listen. See my post on marketing for more on this theory!

For some reason scene is cooler than emo, mostly because you can’t be 14 and scene, there’s an age thing going on. But by being scene you’re credability is rated higher than if you’re emo and therefore people supposedly are more likely to believe your recomendations (I may have done a post about credability too, go find that and read it too)

But (and this is the big one!)

As far as I can tell, with only a few exceptions, every scene kid in Birmingham likes the same bands. Nothing local, nothing that’s not scene. So when at Bring Me The Horizon tonight I found myself surrounded by hundreds of incredably similar, yet subtly different fringes, and I found them all hating The Secret Handshake (who were fucking shit to be honest) but loving Deez Nutz (who were also fucking shit) it became clear. A band has too look uber-fucking scene, and play brutal. A band that does not do this are either too wussy and emo, too poppy and wussy, to metal and hairy or some other shitty reason. It doesn’t even really matter if the band are very good, so long as all your scene mates like them too, they’re scene. But, if like so many bands in Birmingham, there isn’t enough scene cred flying around your band, well, then you’re fucked. The Scene kids don’t know and don’t care, you’re nothing to them till you’ve toured with xallxIxwantxisxtoxdiex the ubercore band from the US.

Well, fuck you scene kids, maybe you should start listening to music in Birmingham for a change – it may not be perfect but it’s at least as good as some of the shite you’re listening to.

Go listen to

The Archer Home
Random Conflict
Blakfish
Kneale Brown
and of course Allucinere
I Have Clones

and then go to some fucking gigs, you pieces of shit!

God, I hate this city sometimes.

Rant 2 over.

…please?

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First and only political post from me.

=)

Robx

I’ll be attending Hello Digital this Thursday and Friday at Millenium point, Birmingham; if you’re in the area I think you should too.

The digital space fascinates me, which is probably why I have this blog, have worked in digital advertising and make music with computers – it’s not geeky, I think it’s just about the coolest thing you can do.

=)

So it’s free to get in and I’m booked on to the following talks:

Doing Business in a Digital World

Digital Content Creation and Distribution

4iP Regional Launch

Digital Debate: Do or Die? Coping With Convergence in the Digital Age

I would go to more but I have other lectures to be attending at my far less exciting university.

Also I’d twitter from the conference as apparently it’s the thing to do nowadays but Created In Birmingham seem to have it covered. Incidentally, they briefly covered me the other week which led to a BBC reporter getting in touch – so cheers!

One of my favourite bloggers, Andrew Dubber is speaking on the Friday, and he’s ace – but anyway if this doesn’t interest you then perhaps the imminent release of my EP will…

That’s all.

=)

Robx

So, before I spend the entire day in lectures and recording vocals…

Introducing my new favourite blog:

THE BROKERS WITH HANDS ON THEIR FACES BLOG

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Genius.

=)

Robx

I am.

You may not be.

Apple will be holding a special media event Today – Tuesday, October 14th at 10AM Pacific in Cupertino, California – which is incidentally where I lived for a short while.

“Apple has made it clear that the event will focus on notebook computers. In addition, a leaked Apple support document confirms that “late 2008″ MacBooks and MacBook Pros will be amongst the products announced. While there’s been no definite word about MacBook Air updates, it seems reasonable to expect that MacBook Airs could also be updated to latest Intel processors” (via Macrumours)

Anyway, I’m hoping this updates going to be good as I’m planning on buying a new Macbook and using it for I Have Clones live performances – amongst other things.

If like me, you’re a bit of a mac evangelist you can follow all the action as it happens on twitter here.

If not, you suck.

=)

Robx

I’ve just relocated from leafy Berkhamsted up to not-so-sunny Birmingham.

Music wise, I’ve got together a live set, which I will be practicing heavily and putting on some shows in the coming weeks.

I’m mixing and recording some final vocals for the EP.

In other news I:

Met the from From First To Last frontman – he was not very friendly.

Wore an ‘I Have Clones’ t-shirt out (on sale soon) and met this awesome guy called Frank from Derby who seemed really into my music and took a picture of me and him, so tag me if you’re reading this Frank!

Drank lots of snakebite, and thought I was dying when red stuff came out of my mouth; clearly I wasn’t.

Found a fully working 32″ TV which now serves as a wii only TV in my flat.

Slammed my hand in a soundproof door and thought my fingers were broken, went to hospital, and they were not. They’re still fat though.

Got heckled by tramps on virtually every journey to and from my flat.

Spent £200 on an internet connection and £100 on gym membership on my first day here.

Had several chlamydia tests in return for free sunglasses.

Thought that the re-branding of ‘Pizza Hut’ to ‘Pasta Hut’ was a bad idea.

I start lectures today, but if I were to say that now I don’t have time to do anything else, well that’d be a blatant lie wouldn’t it?

=)

Robx

You may be aware that I’ve been working since January for the Digital Advertising Agency, Digitas London; it’s pretty cool, and I’ve learned so much that has certainly helped with making ‘I Have Clones’ what it is today.

The Digitas site currently looks a bit dry and corporate, but rest assured I’ve had loads of fun and worked with some really awesome, talented people. I did have another job before, but I hated it, and quit..

=)

Today’s my last day and on Saturday I return to complete my final year at Aston University, Birmingham in Marketing. I’m living in a flat with three ginger people and two normals and I’ve already got a few gigs lined up in the Birmingham area, with more on the way; with any luck I’ll be playing the rest of the West Midlands and beyond before long!

The EP should be finished by now but I got a cold due to wandering the streets of London at 4am and sleeping under my desk, so I’m slightly behind on the vocals. It’ll be ready in about 2 weeks.

Now that I have so much more ‘free time’ be prepared for an onslaught of gigs and more and more new tunes – if you haven’t already checked out my latest; ‘Long Days, Late Nights’ – do so here.

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This is too funny:

Spread the word.

I Have Clones.

(click to read)

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It’s going to be an expensive month!

This list is was compiled mostly for my own reference as I begin to prepare for moving back up to Birmingham and playing shows but I thought maybe it could be of interest to others…

So, in no particular order;

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Macbook – £650

I’ve already got an iMac – but if I’m going to play on a stage I’ll need something more portable; it should also come in handy for any uni work I need to be getting on with and according to Macrumours the next update to the range is due mid September – so I’ll try and hold off until then.

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4 Gig RAM – £60

If you’re running music apps and plugins you need all the RAM you can get your hands on.

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Condensor Mic – £130

At the moment I’m ‘borrowing’ my Dads live mic to do vocals, but I really need to get my own proper condensor mic.

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500 Gig Hard Disk – £50

I already have 500 gig but all my songs/music/films take up space so I’m running low – hopefully this will do the trick!

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Merch – £282

Oh yes, Merch is coming, and with any luck this £282 will be recouped!

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Stands – £30

Not the biggest expense, but I do need them!

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Stack Amp – Circa £350

I’m too broke to buy one right now, but it’s on the to-buy list.

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So in total I’m looking at splashing out £1202 (not including amp), which for folks across the pond is equivalent to $2210.12 or for my neighboring isles 1,507.58 Euro.

Ouch.