DragonNinjaDotCom

been busy in t’studio innit.
t’is all going hunky dory!
Don’t worry yurselves about pictures of my new blondness, I’m sure when kerrang comes out y’all have plenty to rip into me about, that I am sure of. It was my decision to enter into the world of public property so feel free to tell me how shit it looks as I have no real feelings of my own. (ooooh meeow, check me out! claw trimming time me thinks)kidding.
msannieannie:”is that where you come from? why is this one big building in the middle the center of interest in the painting? what is that? because besides this and the street next to it, all the other buildings create a chaos..”
That’s my primary school. I think it started on Aug 15th 1887 (the school of course not my painting of it). It was literally across the road from where I grew up. The reason I painted it the way I did was because as a child the building seemed huge and ominous. The exterior was very dark (maybe due to coal dust) and the windows always reflected the grey clouds above. I tried to give the buildings and streets that I painted personality and character. Ive never really separated my approach to painting portraits and landscapes, and for the most part I have always considered the environment as an equal to the people, as I believe they are one in the same.

ritchie:”PLEASE ANSWER!i know your over turntables but will we ever hear you scratching again????? (on future albums)”
Its not cos I’m over turntables. I was never really into scratching so much, I always wanted to find new more creative ways to use vinyl. I went forward more with sampling off of records and using sounds to compliment the music, and it turned out to be more effective and flexible to play the sounds through a cdj and an akai sampler. Ive basically moved from hardware to software but essentially I do the same thing in the band. I’m not a keyboard player as some imagine. my keyboard is a midi controller that plays the samples which I have made. I had to move up from a 16 pad akai to a 66 key midi because I was participating way more in the songs and I am playing way more than I used to, also that’s why I’m pretty much anchored to the ground because unlike before I’m always adding to the sound scape in most songs. I still use vinyl loads when recording but more as samples and less as scritchy scratch. make sense? If it were my band I’d scratch over everything and have no vocalist! ha ha.
Hikari yamino:”And i have been meaning to ask,are all the Lost Prophets album cover designed by you and Ian?” yes..pretty much.
anonymous German:”But honestly, why do Lostprophets booklets, designs and all suck that much? Your pictures and paintings have class, so why not the visual side of your band. Anyway. Just some well-meant criticism.”
aaaaah…mmmm. this is awkward….yeah well kinda answered that already….I guess that when I try and do stuff for the band it sucks. Maybe because I’m not used to having to run my images through the filtering machine and have everyone else rip it to shreds. Maybe its because I like to take my time over my art and produce quality, however in the world of design things have to be now!now!now! and for that reason people change their minds every few seconds and its impossible to commit to a painting that could take weeks when people I work with have Attention Deficit Disorder! Maybe. or Maybe what I do in my art doesn’t suit the personality of the band. Maybe your wrong. Or as Shania Twain once said “Maybe, just maybe, he’ll want to be my baby”. Maybe not.
Beth said…:”your blonde hair actually looks ok, I heard about it and was a bit unsure”
Jamie said…. thanks a bunch. I have heard about your hair too but I haven’t seen it. I’m sure it actually looks ****, but what does my opinion matter anyway! lol!
x.jay:”Whats the latest TV show you cried at?Random question brought on by me bawling my eyes out at Doctor Who tonight.” golden compass…crying because it was sooo shit.
Supertwigg:” am impatiently awaiting your next blog, come on even Ian is doing better than you haha” Ian’s doing 3 word blogs. Ian isn’t funny. Ian said he’d do them everyday and then went back on his word. I doubt very much that He’s doing better than me. Ian gets more comments because he’s a hunky dory front man. that’s all he has on me!!! everything else is mine! MINE I TELL YOU!
ha.
As you can see I have replied to comments this time. It’s not because I haven’t anything of my own to be writing. It’s because I’m nice.
now piss off!
x

You may be experiencing some hiccups (such as our curiously missing logo up there and the gallery seeming a bit…empty) but I can assure you it will be fixed up soon. We are in the process of moving servers so things will seem a little screwy! Hopefully have it all back and healthy and happy soon!

to photoshop me as Dolph Lundgren in Masters of the Universe. I wish! Msannieannie, ITS NOT REAL!!! Chill your boots! I’m still the old pudgy me.
yeah, though the blonde hair is real. I was thinking more along the lines of Patrick Swayze-Point Break.
Its so cool that this blog reaches people all across the globe, makes the world a small place doesn’t it? Lee’s hair is its natural colour, suits him. I’m afraid we don’t have any plans to to visit Sweden this summer. Thanks to Angie for your kind comments on my mural I did up at the Rhondda Heritage park. It was an interesting period of my life. I was pretty broke and had long, long hours on a scaffolding in the freezing cold painting that Mural. It was also hard because the viewer has to be so close to the painting so it had to cater for that. I’m not overly pleased with how it turned out, and neither was the Park I don’t think. Basically, I think they were hoping for some bright uplifting image like the rest of my work, but I was so moved by the mining disaster it portrayed, that I was forced to express the pain and loss that it caused. The irony is that, my own village suffered one of the worst mining disasters in Britain on the 23 June 1894 which killed 281 men and boys. The Albion Colliery disaster in Cilfynydd. A young man named Timothy Jones who was 26 when he died in the accident lived at the very house I was born in. My village was a little pissed that I painted a mural about another disaster at Tynewydd where 5 men died, but I stand by it because of the heroism of the rescue involved needed to be recognised. Had I been asked to paint about the Albion I would have.
History lesson over…back to hair……..not.
I hope we will come to Australia on this next touring cycle. I’m determined to surf in Brisbane, some of the sharkiest water in the world. The first time I ever surfed was in Australia, little known and pointless fact. Me, Mike and Stu if my memory serves me.
Thomas, yes I have been to Cork many times. I am an avid fly fisherman (catch and release whenever possible) and have fished the South West of Ireland on a number of occasions. For your information the air speed velocity of a swallow, a European swallow (since I am Welsh) I have determined to be in the region of roughly 16 meters per second (15 beats per second * 1.1 meters per beat). The cruising speed, that is. Come over to England cos I don’t know when we are going to be back in Ireland as a band and normal toast.
If it were down to me to book lostprophets shows, I’d for sure want to tour Argentina and Mexico. In fact, there’s very few places I wouldn’t want to visit and play. I hear the weather is good in Afghanistan and Somalia this time of year. And our cd’s are flying of the shelves in the western region of Darfur (Sudan). Scary!
Juditta, I haven’t forgot Italy. I love Italy. Probably my favourite place on earth that I have visited is Venice. Of course, My love for Venetian art draws me back there time and time again.
Thank you Jessica, Its awesome that you lean on our art to help you through Grad school. It always makes me smile to hear that our music can influence people in a positive way.
I am making an effort to reply to comments now and again, since you guys thought it was cool that I did it in the last blog. I’m sorry in advance if I don’t reply to all of your comments. My excuse is that if I did, there wouldn’t be enough room for me to talk my usual non cohesive nonsense talk, which is why I started doing this in the first place.
(IDEA!) what I may do is different types of blogs…ones that respond to comments and others that are just me talking balls….Nah, that’s way too organised. Lets just keep it fun.
Note to self..”Today is a good day”.
Tracks are shaping up nicely here in the studio. Very nicely indeed. today so far has been a day of unkempt excitement and enthusiasm. and a flurry of inspiration and creativity. A brilliant ray of sunshine in and overcast few months. (no storms or rain, just a bit dull). Hopefully more sunshine and warm weather on its way……
That was by far one of the shittiest metaphors I have come up with. And that’s saying something from a guy renowned for shit ass metaphors. For those that know me, I’m the king of crap metaphors…Yeah..I know….stick to the day job!
out.

Long over due and no real point putting them up now since it was last weeks news but hey, a promise is a promise. I should take this opportunity to address some of the question some of you guys have posted as comments. In order of comments, top to bottom… “thanks, drunk is good..I agree. I thought Ironman was awesome but have yet to decide if it is better than Batman begins. As for exams..I’m afraid I’ve already done my fair share of exams so no real sympathy, in fact I am on permanent hiatus with my Masters degree so I’ve still got exams to look forward too. Ciao. I truly doubt your beans on toast could top mine, I’ve made it at every given opportunity for the past 25 years, at times more than once a day. I tried to change Donington to Derbyshire on myspace, but the powers that be over ruled, not seeing the fun in it. ah well. Your welcome to Ilan where ever whenever. It is a real machine gun. Ilan discovery of radiohead is a recent thing and in his usual obsessive compulsive way, he bought and listened to the whole back catalogue religiously. so gay. Thanks for the tips on adjusting the border..I’m over it already though. but cheers nevertheless. My camera is a Canon rebel xti, and a variety of lenses depending.” Thank you all for commenting, a big shout out to my new friends in Chile, Argentina, Derbyshire, Scotland, Japan. I love reading your comments, and I will promise to respond accordingly.
Thanks Guys.

In the studio right now battling with technological issues. Lots of waiting around. Not the start I had hoped. 1 single cable brings the whole ship to a grinding halt. What was going to be a day to remember is swiftly working its way into one to forget. Ilan has played every radio head song to death for the past 8 hours….my brain is fried, and the conversation is into its 3 phase of repeat. Our biggest mission right now is finding tickets to Ironman…..that’s as good as it gets.
well here’s a couple of pictures of what a today looks like. Add to this, the smell of dust, constant tinkering of 30 second clips of every song by Ilan, and Ian talking in his sleep….wowzers!
roll on school bell and straight to the pub me thinks. zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

(4 hours later)
typical…..the photo’s i sent to myself from my phone, as described about, never arrived…balls. I’ll put them up when they do.

this qualifies as the worlds most boring and pointless blog.

shit aSS!

p.s. does it piss anyone else off as it does me…the photo of me with a big machine gun doesn’t fit within the thin grey lined border. obsessive compulsive…maybe..but its just fricking annoying. grumpy having a knobend of a day. arse off!

Ian faces the random question generator in Kerrang magazine, on sale tomorrow (30th April).

Ians also joining in on the blogging act, click here to view.

I edited the last blog so that I could link to the Grenade website, but didn’t for some reason, bother to publish it. “waa waa waa!”
So as you can see its back up now.
I was reading some amazing stuff last night about Entropy (It is a measure of the randomness of molecules in a system and is central to the second law of thermodynamics), and the arrow of time and that in theory an egg can not only splatter but given the exact right circumstances it can Un-splatter! How cool is that? the chances are so low that its not even worth considering but by the laws of Physics it is theoretically possible. For the most part, I struggle to get my head around such grand concepts..and when I do manage a moment of amazing insight…I am so blown away by what I learn, that I immediately forget it. Or try and tell someone and fuck it up completely and look like a dithering stuttering knob. So, these days I resign myself to just enjoying those moments of amazement and leave the explaining to the pro’s. People generally take me for some try hard wannabe spoff who regurgitates nonsense that I read…and that’s ok. I just want to share my amazement with them and fail more often than not. But one day maybe I’ll pick the right words and the way to share my newly acquired (or adopted) perspectives, and bring a little light to someone else for a brief moment, before we both crash back to the grind of everyday social reality and its bullshit pointless jostling, though I doubt it.
I had hoped that I would be able to inspire Ian. but he just thinks I’m a hippy ponce. I have also tried writing lyrics about this kinda stuff, but I think I sound like a hippy ponce too, so best leave it to the experts ha ha. Well, enough of this drivel, I’m boring myself. off to try and draw out some T-shirt designs for Download. If I leave it all up to Ian to do we’d all be looking like Kings of Leon. THAT of course is not a bad thing! Just kidding bro..you’ve got a rad sense of design that I fall short on every time. That’s why we are a team!..I’ll draw the crazy space egg shit and you make it look good by sprinkling your design magic..sweet.
Actually..you guys got any ideas what sort of T-Designs I/we should do for Download and the next few months? don’t need art or nothing just rad ideas and inspiration. post links to stuff and I’ll check it out. And of course I won’t publish the posts for the whole world to see where I ripped of the ideas from, so if there’s anything you want to comment on…chuck it into a separate post.
Tidy, see you later!

Scorcher! shorts weather.
I can’t remember if I mentioned anything about the Grenade games that I went to last weekend. Well I did, and it was amazing. Getting wasted on the slopes with half pipe contests, free beer and bands. The sun was out, the snow was cold, and we had a blast riding big park benches all the way down the mountain. Good times.Its the 4th year they’ve done it. Hell of an experience, only wish I had worn appropriate clothing..I looked like a doosh on the snow in a pair of dunks and jeans. Ah well, live and learn eh?. In case your wondering, Grenadegloves is a snowboard company by Danny Kass, and The Dingo is involved too…youtube ‘em. Dingo’s awesome..complete nutter of course but a sound aussie fella. I went up with a few friends and Tal who’s one of the faces of DCMA clothing company, which has finally got up and running. Used to hang out with Tal loads when we were writing Start Something, now he’s become a celeb in his own right. Tal did a little vid
We are back in the studio jamming on some new stuff and re-arranging. It’s cool to be all back together in one place. There’s something that feels right about spending our days laughing and making music, its like as though its what we are suppose to do. duh!
I have finally gotten ridden of that silly car of mine in the UK. You can see it featured in the Burn Burn video at the end. A white Japanese rocket that is totally impractical. Well, someone taken it away to sell it for me. I did put alot of love into that car back in the day when I was crazy, but its been sitting doing nothing for years now and a shame to let something like that go to waste. If anyone in the UK is looking for a super crazy sports car, lemme know, and I let the dude know. I’m happy with my scoot and my old mini. less strain on the environment and all that.
I need to get back in shape too. was feeling quite fit when I was training with me wife for the LA marathon which she completed. I got a dodgy knee from boarding so I held off on running and did a Cycle marathon instead. But my routine is all out because of all the times I’ve gone away to the mountains, so I’m all pudgy again. And I haven’t been in the sea surfing for like 3 weeks..! how bad am i?
I got a bit tired of all the Dave Grohl comments I was getting recently so I opted for a little change, shaved off me moustache and popped a little dye in my hair. well alot of bleach I should say. ALOT of bleach!, burned the shit out of my scalp…all in the name of vanity. What an arse I am. Ian says I look like Andy Warhol, can’t tell if that was a compliment or not, but I was ok with it.
Gotta ride my pushbike to and from the studio this week, from the beach up into Hollywood. Probably take me and hour each way, at least I’ll get a workout. Best go now get some beauty sleep and rest my napalmed skull. I’ll try and keep you posted on the studio stuff.
Pester the rest of the guys to write some blogs. Just hammer into them on the myspace page. Its always fun to see Ian lose his shit over something unimportant and cause a shit storm with the fans. haha.
later

lots of sweet news in the coming weeks of all sorts, keep checking back regular like.

Thats it for now, but more sooooooon, be prepared….

Also, Jamie updated his blog, read here.

The guys are set to play Festimad Sur Festival, Leganes, Spain on 7th June, along with The Blackout. Tickets and info can be found here.