7:30 am, Similkameen Lodge (aka DUDE-BRAH LODGE)

I wake up after sleeping for 2 hours. I take a 15 minute shower and stare blankly at the water going down the drain. There is a line-up for the showers in our cabin, recently named “DUDE-BRAH LODGE, considering we share it with our friends JP Maurice, Treelines, Jason Cook, Adam Sutherland, Mark Lavoie, Mike Edel and Evan (Sorry dude-brah, I don’t know your last name!) It is great, and when you think about it, like really think, our cabin must really look and smell amazing by now. Like, really, it does. I wander into the mess hall in a haze and finally order an espresso for the first time while being here. It is delicious, and following a series of moans and grunts which Dan and I are calling a conversation, we attend Bob D’ieth’s seminar entitled “Top Ten Mistakes,” which you can imagine is him telling us what not to do ever. As always, it is informative and I am convinced once again that this man knows everything. We adjourn upstairs with a smaller group where Bob then reveals how music law works. I retain as much information as I can while fighting sleep (I kid around, but this one actually taught us alot) Shortly after that, we meet up with Lynn Ross, a representative of SOCAN, and we are happy to know that, once again, we have made her forever sought-after, “sh*t-list” of bands who aren’t making any money when they obviously could be.

1:00 pm, Mess Hall, RockRidge Canyon

There are burgers for lunch and it makes me happy. I grow large with food while having, again, a “conversation” (series of grunts and moans) with the boys and they decide they want to jump in a lake with the sun shining dosn on a beach in the summer. I retire to Dude-Brah Lodge and work on our song for the Peak Performance Project, a song we have been given the task to write about Vancouver’s upcoming 125th Birthday, which I find very exciting. We begin pre-production with the famed and wonderful Garth Richardson in his studio and I fear that I may have already cursed myself by complaining how tired I am. We work through the song for a bit, which I will not describe as of yet, but what I will say is, yes, it is in fact, a pop song.

Side-Note: When we arrived to camp, each band was assigned to a different producer to produce and record a song about Vancouver’s birthday, including the illustrious Shawn Cole, the ever-so charming “British Hammer” Warne Livesey, and of course Garth Richardson and a few others)

We make our way up to the staff lodgings where Natasha Duprey, one of the few music supervisors and coolest people in Canada, teaches us about licensing our song for Television, Film and Video Games. Again, Cody and I begin to nod off and see colours out of the corners of our eyes, but we stay strong. We make our way upstairs where Brent Bain gives us one of the best seminars yet, regarding FACTOR, and I immediately wake up and shove as much of the knowledge he drops into my head. Dinner commences, which consists of pork loin, baked potatoes, salad and the best bread I’ve had in awhile, followed by a delicious, what seems to be, s’more pie.

7:30 pm, Mess Hall, Evening Showcase

Tonight’s entertainment is, “The Oh-Wells” a cute and quirky pop ensemble who have ridiculously catchy songs, “Avairis” a 70’s style rock band from Victoria that blow me away, “41st and Home” a lovely band who write some sincerely epic songs, and finally, “The Boom Booms” who just might be the next winner of this years’ Peak Performance Project. They absolutely kill it and I develop a pretty serious man-crush on Tom, their guitar player (seriously, the guy’s incredible) We head up to Garth’s studio following the performances, where we jam and finish our pre-production. We get along so great with Garth by this time of the night and he takes us on an incredible musical journey involving Rage Against the Machine and endearing studio stories. By 1:00 am Dan and Cody finish drums and bass. By 3:00 am my guitar is finished and I eat a sandwich. By 4:00 am Tyson finishes his guitar and piano. By 4:30 I am down in the computer lab in the dark by myself writing this and can’t help but wonder what the “Special Event” is on the schedule for tomorrow evening? I guess we’ll find out.

Goodnight everyone! See you in a couple hours!

– ACRES