ElectRICK Enlightenment

Im Moving to TUMBLR

2009-09-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

TO keep up with the times my Blog is moving to

www.RickySans.Tumblr.com

I will keep my blogspot up, seeing as theres a bunch of past posts, with lots of stories and pictures from the past couple years of my life....so feel free to go back and look around and get caught up to date, but for new stuff www.RickySans.Tumblr.com

Love
Rick

For The Best ?

2009-09-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

Tonite, my friend asked me if I personally believe that, in life, do things happen for the best? Meaning, even if at the time something seems like a let down, rejection, fail or disapointment - THAT moment actually ends up leading to a better place and that place couldn't have happened without "let down".

Just something interesting to think about. I immediately think, how can I believe things happen for the best, when in Darfur, some poor child, is far from ever going to experience a "for the best" moment. And I believe humans are all created equal, so I that if ONE person in this world isn't born into a life of the opportunities for a "for the best" moment, then maybe it just doesn't even exist. I also think thats something that can't be determined until later years in my life. When you can look back on everything and see how the dots connected. Because what if it goes from worse to BEST but then back to another worse! So For The Bests COULD actually be FOR the Worsts haha....

But at this point, do things just happen? How DO you explain those moments. SO what I think it comes down to is, humanity and compassion. My friend brought up the point that, yes, while someone is suffering in another country, and someone like Brad Pitt is only having a more and more fortunate life, may seem to put this whole thing to bed, people like Brad Pitt make ridiculous amounts of contributions in all sorts of ways to people that need it. So someone elses For The Best, is now someones Best moment.

I guess it all just comes down to perspective and sharing. This world runs on a universal balance.... which is sad. EDIT - its not sad... haha its just the way it is...I guess what i meant by saying its sad, is i wish everything could be perfect and happy for everyone....

Which leads me to a whole new question to wonder - Can Good only exist because of Bad? Can fortune only exist without unfortune? Can Life only exist if there is Death? Is perfect harmony capable of ever being just that?

What do YOU believe.... do you believe things happen for the best?

LOVE
rickY

Strangers

2009-09-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

I’m a dreamer, I’m a spiritualist, I’m a believer of the unbelievable, I would like to think that in this world we are provided with little quiet moments to remind us that we are not the only beings in this world and we should not take any creation for granted. We are only a small part of this greater world and we have to remember that we can find meaning and life anywhere and in anything.

With that being said -
Take a moment and look into the eyes of someone next to you – whether you know him or her or not. Look deeply into their eyes ... Go ahead, don’t be shy, look....
This can be a very emotional moment full of power to look into the eyes of another person, especially if you do not know him or her. After all, as the proverb says, "The eyes are the window to the soul". Yet sometimes, when we are forced into such an exceptional moment with such strong emotions, we try to laugh it off or make a joke to return ourselves to a comfortable and easy place.

Maybe strangers are taken for granted. Maybe we're all best friends and lovers and just don't know it. Maybe theres a greater meaning in the eyes of a stranger.

hmmm just thinking out loud

RIcK

Death

2009-09-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

Throughout my life, I've always been a thinker (overly at times haha)...always wanting to understand, to know, to figure out whats underneath the rocks of life when you turn them over.

I dealt with death in my early teen years, with the loss of my grandparents, both of whom I was very close with. I remember, being in the hospital the nite my grandfather passed away, watching him hold my grandmothers hand. And just kinda knowing. The evening was spent outside, by myself crying - not being able to grasp what it was, what it all meant, and why it happened. All I knew was it hurt, and I guess in a way, made me mad at life. A lot of other things were going on that will remain private, but it all revolves around loss. Which throws you for a loop in life. And when you experience loss you can sometime become spiteful of life, which I had felt.

That was the last time I had felt death - until recently. Human life is tricky - we get sressed, we get consumed, we worry, we do the wrong things, we make mistakes - of course balanced by doing all the right things and being the best person we can be. But recent events which will remain private, really shook me back into that mode of trying to understand death and how it relates to life. (I am disregarding any sort of after life, religious affiliation, etc, though I do have faith, I am just talking about the gift of living, breathing life, and the moment our heart stops)

This also comes from the economic turmoil that our country is going through, a sense of unity, and a hard slap in the face, to force many people what is really important in life (not money, not material - but family, friends, love)

The Little me that was outside crying in shock the nite my grandfather passed away, is now matured and an adult - full of life experience and worldly perspective. I can feel what it must be like to be dying - have become empathetic in the most spiritual way of others that suffer and are sick as well. Now day by day, in the back of my head there is an old me that is dying, reminding the fully alive me, to take advantage of every little detail that I have the ability to enjoy - because I never know when it could just be taken away from me in a blink of an eye.

But as human nature, its difficult for us to keep that perspective at all times. I know that I go in and out of this new perspective all the time - I just want to encourage myself and others to do all that you want, to help all you can, to love, picture yourself in your last moments - are the trivial fights with friends worth it, was stressing out over something silly worth it - most importantly, was being sidetracked, in any sense, from actually LIVING worth it.

At this point in life, I will strive for dying with no regrets. Again, we are humans, we arent perfect and all the challenges, all the hardships, are a part of living, they help us grow, help us understand, and for me, my struggles have gotten me to a point where I can LOVE life. It's the consumption one must steer from. You never know when life could come to an end, and thats something we need to remember - there is death and sickness all around - For those who are healthy, as entities with souls and hearts are there to help out the less fortunate than ourselves - in all aspects just not health. This is humanity. SO we must go all out - Embrace life for all that it has to offer and live it the best you can...

That is what I wittnessd - that nite, letting go, an understanding that he did the absolute best he could in his life. So much so, that here I am now, still learning from him and I know that makes him so happy.

Love
Rick!

Understanding yourself and others better....

2009-08-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

So my friend's Sara and Sheena turned me onto this. Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs Typology test. Try it out and see what type you are. read all the qualities of the others, and it'll help you understand why the people you know do the things they do, and maybe better relationships and understand them. And you can understand why you do the crazy things you do!

Go here to take the test! - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Plus its fun to call yourself and others out on other moments when you do a typlical "ENFP" thing etc. haha. slight dorky, but interesting!

I'm an ENFP - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
(Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Feeling) - Read here if you want to understand me more - http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFP.html

HAHA i sound like a new age hippie, but seriously its fun!!!

Comment your type to this blog! I'm interested in knowing what others are!

Rick

Back to the Blog Future

2009-08-13T04:20:00.000-07:00

So besides the fact that I've been meaning to start blogging again, my friend Janelle really helped motivate me to start again. It's so weird and difficult with so many social and voyeuristic websites out there, to choose which one to pay the most attention too, so then you end up getting spread thin and pay no attention to any of them!

But now with Myspace on the downhill (sadly) it seems Facebook is good for networking and Twitter consolidates everything in to a much more efficient site. Which makes my life easier, and there fore able to blog!

Mostly, we've been so deep, deep into creating songs, I lost sense of reality for a second, and am finally finding my grasp. I know it sounds weird, but a mentor of ours told us that to really create art that will matter, one needs to reach that breaking point and search into our deepest, darkest, most hurtful part of our souls to get out the songs that need to be written. I went back and like a Rolodex relived every memory I had lived - from the most happy to the most sad, and was able to somehow start to make sense of how all those little moments growing up factored into who I am today. And that was a lot to swallow. It's full of regrets, happiness, failure, success, loss, pure bliss, sadness, personal interaction defining moments, Best friendship, life altering advice, innocence, Death, guilt, anger, growing up too fast, disbandment, brain imprinted childhood visuals, unconditional love, fear, confusion, pride, true love for family,friends and lovers, Over heard words - every little thing that built the me into who I am right now. I reached that point, and on top of plenty other on goings in my personal life, worldly turmoil and economic downfall, which EVERYONE is experiencing, has made this a bit of a climb (not to quote Miss. Cyrus haha...but kinda). This is not me complaining but rather me understanding, finally, that there are always others worse off than the next, and always others better off than the next - for me, I just feel that I reached an empathetic state of truly understanding everyone and everything around me, those in the most suffering, painful places to the blissfully, worry free and all the in between - I now strive to consistantly, learn, grow and improve myself so I too can fit somewhere in at least one persons understanding of how we are all connected in this crazy world. Oh, and for my own sanity as well haha. But then again, this is just how I feel right now, it might change in a few hours haha. It's really hard trying to figure out every little detail to life, and I dont know why I insist on doing so. Oh well!

Anyways, I'm wide awake at 5 am, which is unfortunate, seeing as I was almost fast asleep several hours ago. I suppose its the jet lag, or maybe excitement/nerves for finally starting on a new Melee album. All I know is neither of those options will matter in the morning when I'm super tired haha.

I must say though after being on tour for even only a week, with constant stimulation (which I had the time of my life in Jakarta and Bali) it's really nice to just lay in bed in the wee hours of the morning in peace and solitude.

Ok, this was a good first post back I feel. Better stop now before I wake up in the morning and reread this and feel like I made absolutely no sense. haha

Nite Nite world
Rick

Hey Gabe!

2009-03-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT OUR NEW SONGS! DAMN DAMN DAMN!

And I miss Gabe! My bday was this week, thanks for all the messages on my Facebook. SO NICE! I had a fun day/nite with family and friends.

But I found out my favorite Pho restaurant had burnt down, which I believed, they might have done themselves so they could collect the insurance, since business has been declining. BUT I found a new place, that's even better!

My Family and Friend's had a fashion show on Sunday, which me and Chris attended. Good times, it's always nice to see people live out their creative dreams. Any dreams for that matter. Li Cari. Is the name of the fashion line. Check it out.

I'm also, insanely jealous of, which seems to be ALL my friends who are at SXSW.

Chris and I have just, again, been insanely busy writing.

So here's the new songs we have -

"The World Keeps Turning"

"Before Too Late"

"Blow Up Your Heart"

"Get Outta That Wedding Dress"

"Sing Me A Song"

"Through Forever"

-All tentative titles of course.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter! www.twitter.com/meleerocks

PEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
rick

tired

2009-03-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hangin out at my freinds house with Chris. She's baby sitting a dog named Billie, whom Chris and I have given the nick name "bill". So not a pet name. Pretty funny. Chris and I put in a 12 hour work day writing and recording. Good stuff. Really enjoying collaborating with Mike Daly.

Went to eat Mexican food for dinner at "el compadre", but I didn't make it to the entree. Chips and salsa got in the way. Such good food. I've definitely come to the conclusion that if there is red leather, stained glass lamps, and plastic, textured cups, then most likely the restaurant is amazing! Got a hand made stuffed lemur named Thomas for my bday from my fellow twinlets! Then the lady trying to push roses on guys on first dates, chewed us out.

fmylife.com is pretty funny.

Peace
rick

YO!

2009-03-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

I made a melee Twitter page. Add it. www.Twitter.com/meleerocks

Sadly, I forgot the password, and username, but once I retreive that info, we'll be updating it haha.

This week was super busy again.

worked on a track with Stacy Jones and Bill Lefler, A new Melee song called "Before Too Late"

It's been so much fun working with those guys.

Also, wrote with Jimmy Messer, on a new Melee song called "Blow Up Your Heart". Getting together with him tomorrow to finish the demo. He's also going to teach us how to surf! woo!

Met up with Mike Daly as well, jammed with him, an untitled song so far.

I think we're nearing 30 songs now. SO SO excited for this album. We're doing everything in our power to make it FLAWLESS.

Going to jam with Mitch Alan and David Hodges this week, REALLY looking forward to that.

Hopefully I can go see Raphael Saadiq tomorrow at House of Blues Sunset!

OK IM TIRED. TIME FOR BED

RICK

hola mundo!

2009-02-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

This week has been fun.

Chris and I met up with some cool people this week. Producer Josh Abraham, who we will be spending some time with pre recording of album. And we had a good jam sesh with Stacy Jones and Bill Lefler. We're actually going to be cutting a track of a new song with them on Monday. Looking Very forward to it.

Ryan and I went to go see As Tall as Lions the other nite. If you haven't checked them out yet, they're AMAAZING.

Ok well thats it for now

peace
rick

Hello World.

2009-02-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

We have been writing and writing and writing like mad men.

Here are the song titles we are playing with:

What Good Is Love (Without You)
The Amazingness of Heart
Falling Out Of Love
Addiction
Casting Spells
Ice Princess
White Roses
Far From Gone
Cali Son
The Leiden Road
Strangers In The Rain
El Dorado
Last Hurrah
The Best Has Yet To Come
All The Same
Love Remains On Holiday
Betty
Femme Fetale
Dirty Dogs
Down To Sea
Los Angeles
Sea Song
Sun Down (We've Come A Long Way)
Hotel Room

MY BEST FRIEND RYAN MALLOY GOT ENGAGED. Thats the best news of all.

The Watchmen is A CRAZY MOVIE. Still can't decide whether I liked it or not. Think Natural Born Killers meets The Dark Knight. Slumdog Millionaire was of course the BEST movie of the year. And I still want to see Paul Blart, but no one who is willing to dumb down and see it with me.

Let's see, new music I like:
Raphael Saadiq
The new Kelly Clarkson
The new Eminem
MGMT
The new T.I.
Kings of Leon
Kevin Rudlph
Kardinal Offishall

OK Happy Valentines day!

Rick

a thought

2008-12-24T02:12:00.000-08:00

Thats what I experienced...
It was infinite nothingness for a brief moment
-It was really really weird....
I was there but I wasnt...
It was like I didnt exist but I did.....
but everything was beautiful and there was nothing to worry about or be afraid of...
I still have no idea what that was....
maybe home is love...

I dont share it with many people cause its hard to explain without sounding a little bit crazy or like im on drugs.
but I came to a point where I realized that who I am-
is what ive experienced.
we leave imprints on peoples lives.
I started having flashbacks of how others thoughts and opinions became my own without me even realizing it-
and it went all the way back to before I could even talk-
then all of a sudden it just happened...
and after that my mind completely opened up and I understood things I had never been taught...

seperated from the rest because I just watch the world around me and realize that its an illusion in a way.
I can tell so much about people-
Ive just become an observer most of the time...

hello.

2008-12-22T23:45:00.000-08:00

so. tonite was the second nite of hanukkah.

And, if you haven't yet checked out Melee's new Hanukkah song "When is Hanukkah This Year"...then do so, soon at -

www.MySpace.com/MeleeRocks

And, Stereogum.com has posted the song I played guitar on with Rivers from Weezer and Jermaine Dupri

check it out here -

http://stereogum.com/decomposed/performance/rivers_cuomo_cant_stop_partyin.php

lets see what else is going on...hmm....I watched a movie the other nite called "Slumdog Millionaire". Very Very uplifting. It definitely gives you an amazingly warm feeling, much like the one you get at the end of "Love Actually"...Maybe even more...

Alot of my friends left socal to go back home for the holidays..and alot came back to socal for the holidays as well. I've been enjoying time with those friends, and going to holiday parties, and spending time with family as well.

Today the band got together and started demos on two more new songs. So we're definitely getting closing in on 20 new songs.

Ok, and whats up with the freeezing cold weather in Southern California!??!?!

ok!

Happy holidays!
love
rick

The world has turned and left me here...

2008-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

So today was a pretty amazing day....made the insane rainstorm not so bad.

I was fortunate to be able to go into the studio today and play guitar on a song for Rivers Cuomo and Jermaine Dupri. A cover of his song "Can't Stop the Partying". It was a session for a Rivers special feature on the website, StereoGum.com

Also, along for the jam was Ryan from Yellowcard, Derek from Alkaline Trio, Sean from Reeve Oliver and Jose from Ozma . Definitely one of the most surreal/crazy days of my life...

Heres a little video I made from the day, along with some pics.

Time to go work on demos with Chris!

Peace and Love
Ricky

the holidays

2008-12-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

Hello.

I spent a long weekend, at several holiday parties and events in LA. Also, spent some quality time with a couple friends who were going back home for the holidays. Oh, and also battling a bad cold. I ran five miles on Saturday. I got my hair cut too short as well. Words are short today for some reason. hmmm.

We started recording two new songs today - "Ice Princess" and "Far From Gone"

Love
Rick

Chris' make shift mic stand

Chris and Ryan talking about important issues

Ryan working on beats

Our new influence. those are my toes

Mike recording drums

View of the sunset - wb holiday party

went to a party at an adventure park, open bar, food, go karts, laser tag, video games. adult disneyland, pretty much. haha.

Enlightenment

2008-12-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

So. Around the holiday times, everyone becomes a bit more thoughtful, and reflective of the year, and of life. This year has been an interesting one. Maybe times prove to be hard and challenging recently, for me and everyone else in the world, considering economic issues and what not.... Anyways, its always nice to experience little moments, where the sky clears, youre laying on your friends couch, at ease for a moment in time, and a song starts to play, that speaks out to you, nurtures thoughts, and helps make sense and bring you to a higher level of understanding, continuing you on a path, progressing you further, on understanding yourself, and those that you share the world with.

"wake up" by arcade fire

love
ricky!

demos

2008-12-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

hello!

here are some pics via my awesome new blackberry bold. I'm totally addicted. It's terrible.

We've been working on songs, like previously mentioned. We are at 15 new songs. Lovely.

:)
ricky

Our backyard

Chris is a cutie

me and malloy

Ryan nap time

Taiwan

2008-12-07T20:53:00.000-08:00

sorry we have been MIA.

we spent a week in Taiwan. Then were scheduled to play a festival in Thailand, but unfortunately it got canceled, due to the citizens of Thailand forcing their Prime Minister to step down, resulting in a protest and all the airports being closed.

we are now back at home writing and recording demos for a new album!

heres some pictures from Taiwan

enjoy
ricky

Fried cricket!

back home! ( I added more pics!!!)

2008-10-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

heyyy!!

So we're back home, and currently enjoying the effects of jet lag once again.

Lets see....when I last left off, we were about to play our show in Glasgow. The show was fantastic, definitely one of the most enthusiastic crowds on the tour. After the show, we all went to a club, called ABC or something...tons and tons of people. All of Lights and Sounds (the opening band on all our UK dates), Meg and Dia and band and Melee went. So many people there, it was slightly overwhelming, but we danced alot as usual. A bit went by, and I finally couldn't take anymore...too loud of music and too many people, I was on sensory over load haha. So I tried to make my way out but couldn't find it! the club was three stories, and it was impossible to find the exit! As I was trying to find my way out, I ran into Jon (bassist from Meg and Dia) and he was in the same situation I was...So we teamed up to try and make out way out. After about 15 minutes we finally found the exit!
Jon and I decided we wanted some kebaabs, so we went to a place across the street, and when we walked in, a chef was yelling at a customer, and threw some french fries at him, they looked like they were about to fight, which me and Jon were hoping for, we wanted some entertainment, but alas, the customer just ran away. Not quite sure what the dispute was over though. Anyways, a bit later, the customer comes back in to antogonize the chef, and the chef jumps over the counter and slaps him across the face! then some people broke up the fight, but hey, at least we got to see some action!

The next show, was sadly the last show of the tour. It was great to be back in Manchester, we all woke up, and walked down to try and find the city center, because Dia really wanted to do some shopping. We all got split up, and gabe decided it was too far to keep going, so Meg and I kept the journey going, while Mike, Nick (meg and dia drummer) and Ryan, went another way. Meg and I finally found it, and couldnt believe how big the Manchester mall was. We tried to meet up with everyone else, but couldnt find anyone. Finally we made our way back, and missed load in, making everyone else quite upset haha. oh well.

Then, later the day, one of the funniest things in my life happened. So Gabe was taking us to do a meet and greet, and it was in a stairwell. As we were waiting for Gabe to bring fans down...Mike thought it would be funny, if we hid in the bathrooms and jumped out to surprise them. So Mike and Chris go in the guys bathroom, and Me and Ryan go in the girls bathroom. Which we could't believe how clean and how lovely it smelled in there! Anyways, Mike yells through the vent that they were coming, so Ryan jumps out of the girls bathroom....as he yelled suprrise and jumped, we realized, it wasnt the fans, but two random girls who had the most terrifed looks on their faces! We couldnt stop laughing. I just can't even imagine what went through those girls minds, when some random guy jumps out of the bathroom and yells surprise hahaha.

Well the show was so much fun that, though everyone was quite sad. It was really nice when everyone on the tour came on stage during our cover of "Shut up and let me go". I'm really going to miss everyone. This was one of the most fun tours ever, and I dont think we've ever connected with a band as much as we did with the Meg and Dias.

Well the rest of the nite was spent at a bar down the street, and everyone saying good byes. We made it to the airport, and off we went back home.

Now, enjoy some pics....also some more to come in the next couple days!

love
ricky

City center in Amsterdam

Canals in Amsterdam

our sold out show in Amsterdam!

The Amsterdam letters

Cafe in Brussels

Chris on the Ferry

I dont know what Chris is doing

Chris at the show in London

Chris reeanacting the poster

Playing around and doing Chris' hair

Brussels

gabe bowling in Berlin

Dia and Gabe

Ryan and Gabe arguing

Glasgow

Inside the Bavarian statues Head!!!

Bar in London! Thats libby in the center, our merch girl!

Meg and Dias and Melee outside in london

Me and Chris in Brussels

Vienna

me and Tony staring contest

Okotber fest

me hangin out in Holland

Libby taking care of me at Okotberfest hah

London show

bowling in berlin

ryan and chris playing video games on the ferry

Ryan and Mike twins

Me, Meg and Gabe, sea sick on the ferry

Meg and Dias, and Melee at a bar in london

Tony on the Ferry

Tony at oktober fest

Dias Bday

Me, Gabe and Meg backstage in Vienna

Me and Carlo (guitarist for Meg and Dia)

me and gabe at Oktober fest

Me and Ryan...loooove!

Me and Tony eating in reallky tiny chairs at our hotel in Amsterdam

the view of Oktober fest from the statue

Ryan and Tony in a beer house at Oktoberfest

Tony pushing Ryan off the ferry

Ryan and Gabe...looove!

Sharing a donut

Our broken bus window!

Tony and Ryan...looovve!

The last show group shout!

zurich!

Its too late to apologize

2008-10-04T12:27:00.002-07:00

Well, I suppose I brought this upon myself. I know its been a very long time since my last update..and after numerous people coming up to me and shows on this tour and emails asking me to update, I still never found the time, or mood for it. Also the more time that went by the more it seemed like any overwhelming task to catch up! Aaahhhh im a mess I know, but we all have our moments... So here is the update!!

So let me explain, this tour has been a bit different than others in the past, we're on a bus so we don't really get Internet as frequently as we would doing a van/hotel style tour. Also many venues did not have Internet, and, considering all that and being exhausted, it just never happened. But I do deeply apologize!

I will try to sum up the tour to the best of my capability!

We flew into Zurich Switzerland a couple weeks ago...got to our hotel really early, before check in, so we walked around for awhile. Zurich is absolutely beautiful, definitely reminded me of fantasy land/small world at Disneyland haha. We tried our best to beat jet lag, and made it any easy day. The day after Meg and Dia and band, flew in. It was great seeing them again after so long!

They're all great amazing people and we all go way back, so it was great to be in another part of the world playing music together. We all hung out that nite and went out in the town.

The next day was our first show of the tour. The venue was really cool, and the people were great. Although I had some technical difficulties, it was a great start to the tour.

The next show was Vienna Austria, which we were all looking very forward to since the last time we were there. The whole time I preached to everyone about how gooood the ice cream is. The show again was really goood, and there was a club dance party that we all enjoyed after the set. After that i finally got my chance to get some ice cream. So me, Meg and Dia, walked quite on on distance to find any open ice cream shop, and did at last! So so gooood. I miss it already haha.

The next few shows were spent in Germany. Which were all very fun, and we were excited bout being in Germany for Oktoberfest. We got a chance to go when we were in Munich. It was definitely amazing, and on much more of a grand scale than we could have ever imagined! After enjoying lots of bratwurst and beer, we went to the Bavaria statue, and actually got a chance to climb up inside it and got a great view of Oktoberfest from the top.

During the Germany stops on the tour everyone got sick. It was like a crazy outbreak! Once one person got sick we all got sick!

After the Germany run, we had a day off in Amsterdam! We spent the first part of the day doing laundry...and then me and Ryan, sat outside our hotel for 4 hours, relaxing, catching up and talking about life, and Gabe joined us as well. After that we went to the city center, enjoyed an amazing dinner, went to some bars, and later me Ryan and Gabe met with some friends of mine and nite caped at a bar.

The next day everyone kinda split up, some went to a museum some slept, some, like me, walked around town for a couple hours! I find its always nice to have some time to myself to reflect and mentally cleanse. The show that nite was amazing and completely sold out! Definitely one of the highlights of the tour. We all hung out running around the city and partying till late, enjoying every last drop of Amsterdam before we had to go

The next day was Brussels. I woke up late on the bus, and Mike was the only one still around. So we waked around the old center city. We found a really nice french bistro and had ourselves a little "date" haha. Complete with our own private accordion player serenading our meal haha. The show that nite was really fun, and afterwards we went out into the city, this time free from being mugged, and got some waffles and Belgian fries!! Which we learned, french fries are actually from Belgium but the french stole it from the Belgians!!!

The next show was in Nijmegen, back in Holland! It started with a day off, and Melee, and the Meg and Dias, all had a family dinner in the hotel dining room, treating ourselves to Dominos haha. After that, Me, Gabe, Nick and Jon from Meg and Dia, went walking into the city to explore. We hung out at some bars for awhile, and found the city center, which was so beautiful. There was an old cathedral that was all lit up on the tower, it was one of the most amazing sights I'd ever seen. It turned out to be another relaxing evening. When we made it back to the hotel, we went through a side entrance, and some how all got locked in the stairwell. We were stuck there for an hour or so, despretaly trying to get intouch with someone to come save us haha. Finally Chris and Ryan came and we were freeeee!

The day of the show it was pouring rain, and we got to hang out in a big backstage. Fortunately it was one of the few days that there was wireless backstage, so it was very quiet, no one talking to one another, just absorbed in the Internet haha. The show was awesome, and went to France to head to the Ferry to to go the UK. At about 4 am we all got woken up to the sound of a bashing noise! Someone had broke our bus window with crowbar, because our driver had found French immigrants hiding in our trailer to so they could get smuggled into the uk! When we kicked them off one of them came and smashed our window! After dealing with the cops and settling down, we made it to the Ferry.

None of us were expecting the ferry to be so big! it was a big mall, and lots to do. Sadly, we all got sea sick, especially Me, Meg and Gabe. We spent the majority of the trip with the three of our heads face down sharing a table!

We got in to London early, and enjoyed a nice day off. We walked around, and went to dinner for Dia's bday and a nice Italian restaurant. After that we all went out for drinks to keep the celebration going. The London show was alot of fun, and after wards the BEST moment of my life happened. Me, Mike and Chris went out to a bar with our booking agent. As we were actually leaving the bar, the Black Eyed Peas walked in! And if any of you know, they're one of my favorite groups, and Will.I.Am is a big inspiration to me! Luckily, one of my friends I was with, knew one of their friends, so I was able to be introduced. Definitely an amazing amazing nite. Minus the part when I almost got hit by a bus though with my friend walking back haha. Meanwhile, Lights and Sounds, the band that is opening up for the UK dates, and the rest of Melee and the Meg and Dias, went out to Lester square, where I was told by Gabe they asked someone if they could drink in public. Gabe was the only one who threw out his drink, but a cop came up and gave everyone else tix! The odd part was, after that, the cop was still nice enough to guide them to a bar. Which Anthony described as really ghetto, and Gabe claims that they ruled the bar, and Gabe tore up the dance floor haha.

And last nite, was the Sheffield show! It was a much more cooler city than I had imagined it would be. I spent the day walking around with Gabe, searching for a Topman store. But after a couple hours we never found it! The show was alot of fun, and again, it was followed by a dance party in the venue. We all hung out late, and somehow, I ended up at Spearmint Rhino, with some random person I met on the street. I have no clue how that happened. Anyways haha... I woke up this morning feeling a little sick, so I decided to sleep in, while everyone else went to explore Glassgow.

And this brings us up to date, sitting back stage, waiting to play!

Pics coming very soon!!!!

peace and love!
Ricky

Celebrate!

2008-08-21T11:32:00.001-07:00

Ok, so my computer is finally back in full swing, but sadly, I'm missing a couple weeks of updates, which will be slightly complicated, racking my brain to remember, but here I go!

So after Japan, we flew to Singapore, this time complete with all our luggage and gear! We were greeted at the airport by the LOVELY Singfest staff, who all became great friends. They took us to our hotel, which was insane. The Mandarin Orient, wow, definitely spoiled us, just a tad. But when you're a band that toured the whole Warped tour in a van, you feel like moments like these are well deserved :)
Had a great nites sleep, and woke up the next day to go soundcheck for the festival. WOW. We thought Japan was hot, but this was a whole new level in humidity. Not the easiest task, standing on a black stage for a couple hours trying not to pass out during soundcheck, but maybe it was worth it, considering the embarrassing farmers tan I got.
Later that nite, we went to dinner with Simple Plan and our label, super nice guys by the way. Then we all went the pre show party, at some crazy nite club, which seemed straight out of the scene in Pinochio where they go to that bad boy island or whatever. Also, Singapore seriously reminded me of Adventure Land at Disney land. So surreal. But so so beautiful, and all the people couldnt have been nicer. I think we all fell in love with Singapore. Anyways, at the club, we made friends with New found glory, which was awesome, since theyre a band we've admired for several years, and they turned out to be pretty rad. So rad, that we all left the club and geeked out over videos on funnyordie.com the whole rest of the nite. Good times.

The next day was the show... so much fun, must admit, we were a bit nervous going on after NFG and all their insane amounts of energy. But the show ended up being great, complete with an improvised version I came up with of Singapores new national anthem. After the show Me and Mike were pretty exhausted, so we went back to the hotel to pass out, and the rest of the guys stayed to catch Travis' set.

We had pretty much the full next day off in Singapore, just running around and doing random stuff. Me, Ryan and Mike, decided to indulge in a Yoga class at the hotel, which kicked our asses. I swear i thought the lady was going to snap my spine in half.

Anyways, we flew back to london that nite, and enjoyed a day off, feeling back to the closest thing at home. We all just chilled and got rested, and the next morning we did our tv debut on "This Morning" in the UK. Pretty exciting to finally do a tv appearance. It went really well, and then we flew to Scotland that nite. We had the day off when we got there, Mike and Ryan went to go do radio interviews and me, Chris and Tony went to do a bit of sightseeing in Edingburgh. The castle there was breathtaking, and we even found the best Marks and Spencers in all of the UK! haha. Tony also bought tons of whiskey, which he said was for his family, but I think it just was a cover up. We played our show at a cool little club, and the crowd was fantastic, full of energy.

The next morning, we flew to Belgium, and again enjoyed a day off. We walked around with some friends, to the downtown area and got to embrace the beautiful cathedrals and old govt buildings, while listening to a crappy coldplay cover band. Then of course, the next day was the show, it was great to be playing back in Belgium, and the concert was really fun. We all just partied and hung out backstage that nite, because we had a 6 am flight to Portugal the next day.

So soon came the morning, and again we were another flight, this time to Portugal. The festival was the day we flew in, so we checked into our hotel, and made the 3 hour drive to the festival grounds. Portugal was absolutely beautiful, alot of it reminded me of the beach cities at home,so that was nice. Anyways, the show was really fun, and it was the last one of a crazy two month tour. It did SUCK alot, when we got cut off in the middle of The War. The stage hands said we were like 30 seconds over, which is bullshit, and all the crew just started grabbing our gear, while we were playing and took it off stage. Not the best note to end the tour on but whatever. We went around that nite and actually enjoyed a festival, going on the ferris wheel, playing stupid games, it was a great nite. We then all passed out in the van and went back to the hotel.

The next day, Ryan and Mike flew home, and the rest of us stayed to enjoy a day off in Portugal. It was great to finally relax, we went down to the beach, Cascais and me, gabe and tony made fools of our selves riding segweys around the beach haha. The next day, Chris , Tony and Gabe left...and I decided to take advantage of being in Portugal and stayed there for holiday for four more days. Went sightseeing, saw a castle, got my ear pierced again, and got tan. It was beautiful.

Now we're back home getting ready for our show at the Roxy, and our headlining tour in the UK and Europe, be sure to check out our website for all our tour dates!!!

love you
ricky

something in Belgium

Melee playing the festival in Belgium

Festival in Portugal

Goofing around backstage in Singapore

Ryan and Chris in Japan

Chris catching up on sleep on the way to Singapore

I dont even know...

us with Jessica Michibata

"This Morning" tv show for UK

On stage in Singapore

Portugal

Singapore Night club

too much fun backstage in Singapore

Ryan, convinced he could get internet through his head

Me and Ryan

Ryan on stage in Belgium

Ryan sleeping on the plane on the way to Singapore

Ryan and Tony (our sound guy)

Ryan on set for "This Morning"

Singapore pre party

Singapore

Chillin in the hotel lobby in Singapore

Me, catchign some sleep with my guitar on the plane flight to Singapore

Steve from NFG puking on stage in Singapore

Tony and Gabes awesome tattooss from Japan

Me and Tony in loving embrace

the guys with Michael Buble

no bueno

2008-08-17T11:04:00.001-07:00

ok, so I'll update the journal very very soon. I got back home and my laptop with all my photos is on the fritz.

my apologies

love
ricky

yay photobucket!

2008-07-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, photobucket is now functional....pictures as promised -

Tony (our sound guy, in Fuji

the last day of our UK tour

the crowd during our set at Fuji Rock

Gabe setting up at Fuji Rock

Ryan and Gabe in London

Ryan in Fuji

Ryan and Chris in East London at the Shortage House

Rolling Stone Photo Shoot

and again

at the Shortage House

There was a dragon fly on my microphone the whole time during sound check at fuji Rock

Me and Tony, during the rain at Fuji Rock

On stage at Fuji Rock

radio interview

Interview in Japan

Gabe on stage at Fuji Rock

uhhh

Japan

Chris and Gabe backstage at Fuji Rock

acoustic show

crowd during acoustic show

Ryan flexing

Japan

Jet Lagged

2008-07-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm just going to highlight the rest of our UK trip...and then throw up some photos...keep it simple, right?

-Hung out at Amika in Kensington
-hung out at the Shortage House in East London
-watched Toms (our driver) band play at Mcbeths on Hoxton street
-Got my ear pierced
-Chris, Ryan and Gabe saw the Dark Knight
-Chris, Ryan, Mike hung out with Michael Buble
-New favorite restaurant in Shephards Bush - Armandos - Five pound pasta!

Japan -
- we played an amazing acoustic set at the Rolling Stone cafe
-Interview and photoshoot with Rolling Stone
-Me and Chris have spent the past two days song writing with Japanese artists. (4 songs in two days!)
-Gabe and Anthony got beautiful tattoos!

uuhhh ok...so photobucket decided not to work....pics coming very soon

peace
ricky

Japan!

2008-07-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Im missing a big chunk of a week, where we stayed in London the whole time, but I will definitely go back and recap that with photos as well.

But since im up at 530 am in Japan, I figured I might as well get straight into our Japananese experience.

So we left London early Friday morning, and enjoyed a long 12 hour flight to Tokyo, which went by surprisingly quick. It was surreal to see Melee on the inflight radio program and the airflight crew were all Melee fans. They even took Ryan and Chris up to check out the cockpit at one point. Pretty exciting flight. So we land, already feeling the jet lag, and we wait for our luggage to come. We wait...and wait...and wait. Turns out our baggage was left behind in Amsterdam and it wouldnt be delivered until the next day AFTER our set at Fuji Rock. This posed a couple problems, we were missing ALOT of musical gear, and we were missing stage clothes, leaving us in shorts and sandals and smelly shirts haha. So gabe quickly brainstormed and we went running around Shibuya, restocking in the gear we needed to play, and picking up an outfit wed each be able to swing by on for the day.

Finally, after a three our drive up to Fuji, we made it to our hotel, beyond exhausted and all passed out. We woke up prety early yesterday, to set up and soundcheck and see what we could make the best of with our gear situation. Luckily everything turned out well and we were set to play. It was so so so beautiful up here in the mountains, simply breathaking. We played on the main stage which looks out onto the forrests in the mountains. The show was defniitely a Melee highlight, with a amazing fans singing along and dancing. Ive never felt so much energy in my life. One great moment was when Chris asked the whole crowd to turn around and on the count of three to scream as loud as they could, and then listen for the echo, he did that twice and it sounded completely magical, and to their surprise, when they turned back to face us, we immediately began playing Built To Last and every freaked out! Sooooo much fun!

Afterwards we did some interviews, and got to meet Ben Folds and his band and get excited about our upcoming tour with them in December. We then had a live on air interview with J-wave, which we had to trek two miles back and forth in the pouring rain to go do. But again it was great....we played Rhythm of Rain in the rain, making for quite the euphoric moment. Our day was done and we went back for dinner and hung out for awhile, which including arguments between all of us over the Dark Knight, and trying to prevent Gabe from ruining the movie for me. haha

Ok so lots of pics coming soon!!

love
ricky

Best Beds on the Tour go to....GLASGOW!

2008-07-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hello!!

So we just heard pretty exciting news, Built To Last hit the Top 20 UK radio charts at #20!! This is a couple weeks before our album even comes out...which is JULY 28th!!!

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting Melee in the UK, and please, keep requesting Built To Last to your radio stations and help us reach # 1!!!

So the past couple days have been pretty relaxed for the most part. We had a nite off in Manchester, where once again, I chose to stay behind and mentally cleanse, while everyone went out to dinner and bars in the city. It was funny though, that movie, Red Eye was on, and a poster for our first album, Everyday Behavior was in the background, in Rachel Mcadams room. Pretty good movie, kinda ridiculous towards the end though.

The next day we had a show in York, which was fun because we were headlining, giving us a longer set than we have been playing. It was great to be able to bust out some songs we haven't played for awhile. After the show we all enjoyed a nice nite cap in our hotel courtyard, that had a nice, quaint, Italian vibe to it.

We woke up a bit early the next day, which was another day off, to indulge in some much needed sightseeing in York. Being from America, we were definitely all blown away by our surroundings. I know this sounds naive, but wow, everything was so old...you just cant help but have your breath taken away by everything and imagine what went down hundreds of years ago.

Anyways, we traveled to Glasgow, which is where we are now, getting ready for our show tonite! Last two shows with the Rocket Summer!

Enjoy some pics! Big thanks to Tony for taking so many great pics

and for some reason, while I'm typing this..Gabe wants me to tell the world, that he is in his underwear and is single...emphasis on single. Oh Gabe.

Ricky

Birth place of the inspiration for V for Vendetta

Thats a REALLY big church

Crowd during our set in Manchester

only part of the line for the London show

Chris getting some rest before the show

conductor Chris

City wall in York

priceless

Gabe (tour manager) and Toney (sound guy) in Manchester

bored..pumping gas

see if you can spot what Melee and the lady boys have in common

laundry day!

Manchester

City wall in York

Me and Ryan

me and mike having a moment

uhhh thanks gabe

Me and Chris in the castle!

Ryan stoked about laundry!

in manchester

on the phone

yeaaa.. i have no clue either

York

This country is REALLY olde!!!

2008-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ok... So as the days pass since my last entry, I've been trying to update it before my memory gets too hazy. Hopefully it hasn't reached that point yet, so here I go!

Last week we started our UK tour with The Rocket Summer and The Outline! First show was in Portsmouth, and it was so great being reunited with everyone from TRS. We did a two month tour with them last year, so it was definitely like a family reunion.

The first couple shows were fantastic as we got back into the swing of playing full out as a band, not just acoustic performances.

Next nite was Newport, We all decided to grab some kabobs before the show and as we were ordering heard screaming and shouting from outside. Turned out two girls were fighting eachother over the others on going heroin addiction, quite sad to have witnessed, seemed right out of Reqiuem For a Dream.. But honestly it wasn't our place to get involved.

On a much brighter note, the next show was in Brighton, which is an amazingly beautiful beach side city that looks like an oil painting from the 1920's come to life. Chris and I went for a run in the morning along the beach and did some sight seeing by foot. Definitely a good way to absorb a new city. We had a radio interview later that day, where I made my "Rumble in Brighton - Stray Cats" joke but to my dismay no one understood it, but I didn't give up! I definitely repeated the joke but no locals knew of the song, leaving me look utterly lame... Nice. Haha. After the show we went out with some new friends we made and hit up the clubs total euro style haha. I'm sure we looked greatly out of place, but damn, do we know how to dance haha

The next show was London which was just unbelievably sold out and so full of energy and fun! We had a bit of an issue getting to the venue due to blocked off streets. Took us about an hour to finally find a street that was open that led us to the venue. Definitely a spinal tap moment. Afterwards we enjoyed a great dinner at an indian restaurant with the lovely reps from WB.

The next day was the Wireless festival! Another fun show, and it was great to be back in the outdoor festival setting. Sadly though, Chris had woken up in the morning super sick , only to discover he had Tonsilitis. He made it through the show the and went back to the hotel to get some rest. We enjoyed a fun day though running around with bowling for soup (who also played at wireless) and watching counting crows (who performed Anna Begins, one of my all time favorite songs!)

Later in the day we did a fun secret surprise acoustic show for Mtv and about 50 fans.

The next couple days we sadly had to cancel the shows while Chris rested and got better. Which brings us to yesterday, when we did some more radio promo and Chris was finally back to full strength. We even did a cool cover of the Ting Tings "Shut up and let me go"

The other nite after being bad tourists and eating at T.G.I.F's for dinner, we went to go check out Nottingham castle which was an amazing sight to see and which I swear, Robin Hood was real, but no one believes me! Then, next door was the oldest pub in england, at a thousand years old. We enjoyed a nice nite cap in awe, and made it back to our hotel.

The show in Leeds was great,and it felt so good to get back into the swing of playing shows again, plus Chris is a million times healthier now, so its all good!

Finally last nite, such another great show in Manchester, definitely one of my top 5 Melee shows of all time! So much energy! We also met up with Lauren who is red riding hood in our new music video for Imitation, grabbed some good Chinese food with her and her friends and made it a fairly early nite. Which brings us to today! A much deserved day off! Everyone slept in, and then we made it a group laundry day, which was definitely a sight to see...it was like watching chickens with their heads cut off. Melee needs their moms. haha.

Also, for those family members of mine... You know who you are, I definitely used spell check this time!! Haha. Oh the stress of having a family full of teachers.

peace and love
ricky

Hanging out in Brighton

Big Ben

Chris at the train station

Ryan, Tony, Tom (our driver) and Chris in Brighton

doing an interview

Me and gabe working

this picture just might sum me up completely

Me and Ryan in da club

Trippy

Trying to get sleep whenever I can get it

Ryan and Chris in Brighton

Ryan and Gabe

No Caption needed

Ryan during soundcheck at the Astoria

Tony hard at work

Radio Promo and pictures!

2008-07-01T06:45:00.001-07:00

So this has definitely been a long/busy week! Last monday we met up with our uk radio rep in the morning and headed over to the hotel which we would be performing an acoustic set for various uk radio stations. It went really well, even though it was quite an intimidating setting, we def made the best of it! Afterwards was a dinner and drinks with everyone. Light was also shed that ryan looks like Ant from a famous UK comedy pair, ant and deck! So now ryan looks like a famous UK comedian and a famous japanese comedian!

Tuesday was a similar day! Another acoustic performance for radio and dinner/drinks.. Afterwards we went back to our hotel for mor drinks and enjoyed a nice nitecap till 4 am chattin about international politics with our new friends.

On wednesday, we left Manchester and flew to Glasgow, scotland! We checked into our hotel and marveled that I was still light outside at 10 pm! For dinner we stumbled upon a great bar called moskito! After making some new friends there we found ourselves beiing referd to a cool club called bamboo and spent awhile just chattin with random people, who all seem to be way too excited by people from "the oc" haha. Anyways, it was def good times and finally made it back to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning as the sun was coming up.

The next day was more radio promo in edinburg. We got to do a bit of sightseeing! Checked out an old castle which was a pretty spectacular sight to see. We also heard great news that Built to Last entered the top 40 UK radio charts at number 28! so exciting!

In melee we have an obsession with puppies and were slightly tricked by our warner rep who managed to not tell us that "puppies" in scotland is slang for "breasts" so pretty much we went around all day sounding way too obssessed with breasts... And I might have accidentally mentioned it on radio haha.

Later that nite we did another acoustic showcase and dinner for radio reps. After that we went out to a club called 29 in glasgow. Another goodnight and I know the other guys enjoyed the karoake room very much!

Ok so trying to recap all this, I somehow lost track and don't remember what day we went to holland, but we did and played an amazing festival called "rockin park"! It was a bit rainy but it was definitely a fun set and the audience was a lot fun! The best part was watching the counting crows play after us on the same stage we had just been on. They're def a big influence on melee and sharing a stage with them and being able to watch them from the side of the stage was surreal! A definite highlight was talking with adam durwitz who was an amazingly nice guy! Other highlights were Live, Anouk and Ben folds!

The next day we flew to the UK and got to enjoy a nice relaxing day off. I stayed in and excercised while the other guys went to a pub that was 500 years odld! Yesterday we did some promotion for radio and some interviews early in the morning and then were spoiled by a stylist with a fitting and some clothes. Waaay too good to be true! After a long day of shopping, we went to dinner at a cool italian place and made it back to our hotel for sleep.

Which brings me to right now! At our hotel in portsmouth getting ready for the first show of our tour with rocket summer tonite!

Hopefully ill see you at one of the shows and enjoy some photos from this past week!

OH and the New alkaline trio album is AMAZING. AS is the new john legend song with andre 3000!

Peaaace

Ricky

Gabe, our tour manager

anthony, our sound guy!

Melee on stage at Rockin Park

RYan during sound check

Manchester!

2008-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

hello!!!!

So we just (5 hours ago) got all settled into our hotel in manchester! An awesome hotel, wich a contemporary asian motif.

This past week was an interesting one. We spent it practicing and getting ready for this trip, along with getting over our jet lag from the Vienna trip.

We all met up today, did the whole LAX thing, and had a nice flight into Frankfurter, then connected over to Manchester, where it is VERY windy and VERY cold, a quite noticeable difference from the 100 degree heat we were just in, in OC.

As I'm writing this, Gabe is making sure that I write about our conference call. All melee's and gabe on conference call from our hotel rooms. For some reason this was amusing to everyone, probably due to the jet lag and lack of sleep. Chris also went in the steam room, and is very refreshed!

Well, thats it for now, time for dinner....

Enjoy some more photos from last week in austria!

peace
ricky

vienna!

2008-06-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

ok so here's how it went down....

so thursday nite, gabe (our tour manager) came over to my house, we then went to in n out and listened to the new coldplay record which is AMAZING. The next morning, we went to ryans house, and a shuttle took us, including Chris to LAX, which surprisingly had little in the way of security check in. We took, which, seemed like much longer than a 4 hour flight to atlanta, and then met up with Anthony (our sound guy) and flew to Vienna, Austria!

We got into Austria in the morning, and checked into our hotel, which was a nice quaint, beautiful place and rested for a second. We took the opportunity of having some time, and rented bikes and rode around the city. We found a great restaurant on a peir on the lake, and all relaxed, caught up and enjoyed a late lunch. After we tried to ride our bikes in the skate park, we took a stroll downtown, and were harrassed by the local police who warned us not to ride our bikes on the sidewalk. After feeling like stupid Americans, we found a great little ice cream shop and discovered the glory which is Austrian ice cream. WOW. I really cant say more except WOW, their ice cream was amazing. After our indulgence, we went back to our hotel, trying to stay awake, and beat jet lag, Chris and Mike went to eat in the hotel, and Me, Ryan and Anthony went to go eat at a chinese restaurant downtown. Gabe met up with us as we were finishing, and then finally met chris and mike at another ice cream shop, which was also a bar and watched soccer with locals. I even somehow, managed to convince one of the workers to give me an extra ice cream cone haha. Then it was definitely time for bed.

We woke up the next day, and enjoyed a nice breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed off to the Nova Rock Festival. It was such a fun day. The concert was amazing, including an encore, and a great signing session afterwards. Then after about three hours of interviews, we chowed down on dinner and enjoyed a nice after party. It's defintely a surreal experience hanging out backstage and seeing Gavin Rossdale a few feet from you at all times. So weird. So after a long nite, we made it back to our hotel and totally crashed. We woke up the next morning preparing to depart, we were even on our flight, when the pilot announces they are having engine issues and have to cancel the flight. Which in most circumstances would be a bum out, but we were so excited. It meant we got to spend an extra day sight seeing in Vienna, which in our case, sightseeing is usually a rare occurance. Luckily, our product manager from WB was there with his family, and we met up with him at a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Vienna. It seriously seemed like out of a scene of a movie. So beautiful. We then were taken on a little tour of the city, whcih included a thousand year old cathedral, the old opera house where mozart used to perform, and the main grounds for Euro 08. We never realized how much Europeans loved soccer until this moment. A 2 mile square radius covered with booze, food, big screen tv's and tons of people enjoying the game. It was definitely a great moment we were appreciative to have experienced. At the end of the nite, we made our way back, of course, picking up some ice cream on the way, and passed out at the hotel.

The next day the flight was in order and we made it back to OC in one piece, complete with jet lag....ready for our trip to the UK this saturday

enjoy some pictures!

love
ricky

Pictures from "Imitation" Video Shoot!

2008-05-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Shih (director) and me

Mike

Ryan and Gabe

Me...I have no clue what I'm doing

Me and Ryan

Red Riding Hood

Ryan chillin in between shots

Ryan and Chris

The video was so much fun to shoot...Can't wait to show you, probably around mid June! But, until then, enjoy our NEW video for Frequently Baby!

Imitation Music Video!

2008-05-22T22:54:00.001-07:00

Hello!!!

I'm on the set for our music video of "Imitation"! It's 11pm and we're finishing up rehearsal for the day. Tomorrow is the big day of shooting, and we're so excited! Shih-Ting is an amazing director and the final product will have you in shock. Therefore I'm not going to reveal anything about the video. But its been a fun and creative week getting everything together. I'm starting to understand how actors feel when they do special effects in front of green screens - its haaaarddd! haha.

more tomorrow

peace
ricky

Life updated!

2008-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, well it's been a little over two months since I've updated the Road Journal, which again, like in every post, I apologize for the lack of updates. But it's with good reason. Alot has been going on over seas, and there hasn't been too much action to update with other than we've been home and practicing alot. BUT that doesn't mean nothing is going on with Melee, which I'll explain now, and then I'll write in detail to the best of my capability our week in Holland.

So, things have been going extremely well for Melee. After pretty much conquering Asia with our single Built To Last, we are about ready to release our next single, Frequently Baby, which Ryan and I made a music video for (from live concert footage and random Melee silliness from our travels in Japan, much in the vein of the Built To Last video, we home made) So keep an eye out for that, and if you life in Japan, PLEASE be sure to start requesting Frequently Baby to your local radio stations, especially J Wave in Tokyo!

Now, on the other side of the world, we have begun expanding the Melee Nation in Europe. We hit top 5 radio charts in Belgium, Holland AND Germany (which is the second biggest market in Europe!!!!) We actually got all the way up to number 2 in Germany, which was an amazing email to receive, seeing our single charted higher than Madonna's newest single! I'm pretty sure my mom printed that out and put it up on the fridge next to my SAT score. haha.

I also know in Denmark we are about one spot away from breaking top 40 there, so if you live in any of these countries, please keep requesting Built To Last to your local radio station!

Our album "Devils and Angels" has been released in all the above mentioned countries, so go out and grab it and rock it out all summer long!

With the success we're building in Europe, we managed to grab an amazing opportunity with MTV Europe. A priority push, where, to my understanding, they play our video for Built to Last so much, you will probably get sick of it haha.

All this leading us up to our UK release of our album and single in June!

And this following week, we are making a music video for our second single in Europe, Imitation! We're really excited, and Me, Chris and Ryan wrote a treatment for the video , that we're very proud of, and found a great director, Shih-ting Hung, who we know will bring the video properly to life!

Ok, so last week, we got invited to play at the Queensday festival in Amsterdam for radio 538, which was a big honor, considering we were the only American band, AND considering bands like Linkin Park and Greenday have been turned down in the past to play it. So we grabbed Gabe (our fearless tour manager, who I'm sure many of you reading this are familiar with, and if you're not, make it a point when you come to see us in concert to find Gabe, because he is definitely apart of the Melee experience) our Sound guy Anthony (who many of you have also met, and is also very much part of the Melee experience) and our Manager Adam, who we believe used this as a great excuse to get out of the office and party with the band. haha. Anyways, it was so exciting that after years and years of touring in a van all over America with these guys to bring them over seas with us and experience a whole new world together.

So we got to LAX very early, anticipating a long security check in, which ended up being a fast security check in and we sat around forever, spotting various members of the pussy cat dolls while we waited. The flight was good, and we were full of excitment, until my Ambien kicked in haha. With my blanket over my head I passed out for a good portion of the flight. One point I woke up as Chris was walking towards me, and a lady a couple seats ahead of me stopped Chris and pointed to a magazine she was reading. Turns out, it was like a German magazine, much like Cosmo, and there was a nice little article about Melee and she had recognized Chris. I think we were just as excited as she was haha. Anyways, it got a little awkward when I realized she was standing in front of me in line to check in and I had accidentally dropped my guitar on her foot haha. Oh well...

So several hours later and a lay over in Germany, we finally landed in Amsterdam! We were definitely tired and jet lagged already, but we had to rush to our hotel and get ready for an MTV interview for Holland and for MTV Europe (what I was talking about earlier in this post) So we all rushed into our rooms, got showered, dressed and went down for MTV. It was a really cool interview, and very much a dream come true for us. Though considering the hours we just traveled we were all a bit loopy, but that made for a genuine Melee interview, complete with goofiness, which I'm sure many of you our now familiar with if you've spent any time on our youtube page. The only moment when things got a bit "awkward" when was the VJ asked us if we were a put together pop band. Which I obviously don't hold against her, and I understood why she would ask that, or why anyone would think that, but we were quick and happy to explain WE ARE NOT A PUT TOGETHER POP BAND.

Let quickly take this moment to recap a brief history of Melee for any of those not familiar. I met Ryan when I was 5. We met Chris when we were 14 and have been playing music pretty much since that point. We started Melee and played and learned how to be a band all throughout college, where we finally met Mike and he completed the band, and in complete Pinocchio style, we became a real band! We played a relentless amount of local gigs in LA and OC and signed to the indie label Hopeless Records, where we put out our first album "Everyday Behavior" we then toured for two years non stop, in a small van, sleeping on friends floors and the shadies hotel rooms imageinable, definitely good times. We then got signed to Warner Brothers, wrote and recorded and released "Devils and Angels" and then toured for a year non stop, in the same way we had toured in support of our previous release. Then like a dream come true, we started to break in Japan, and that leads us to where we are today. Very excited, dorky, kids in Amsterdam haha.

So after our MTV interview, we hung out with them for a little bit in the hotel bar and then met up with our Holland label reps and went out to dinner and at amazing steak house where we were able to eat on our laps haha. They gave us little mats you put on your lap and you get a little cutting board, with tons of meat, and go to town. It was great to be able to relax a bit and catch up with our label people and party with the gang. Another surreal moment was when a little girl came up to me and Mike with her mom, and asked us for our autograph! She said she recognized me from my hair, which I took as a compliment, but the other guys took it as a joke, which I am constantly teased for by them, but its ok haha. It's just so crazy to us that we get to travel all these great places and people know our music. Like I was talking with Mike about, it feels like our van is right around the corner and we're about to get back in it and the dream is all over haha. We're definitely all more than grateful for every ounce of success that comes our way.

So after dinner we made it an early nite and all retired to our rooms to pass out. I woke up early the next day and took a stroll around town with Gabe and picked up some Orange souveniers for the family...for Queens day, EVERYONE wears Orange. We also made a quick stop in H & M, but nothing cool. We then met up with Ryan, Chris and Anthony and contuined our little tour of the city and grabbed some lunch. Some really good hot dog stand lunch! Anyways we met back up with everyone and made our way down to the festival grounds. SO for those of you not familiar with the holiday, its pretty much like Mardi Gras times 10000. It's a day off from school/work and EVERYONE is out, hundreds of thousands of people filling up every inch of the city, drinking and celebrating life. Definitely something I was thankful to experience in my life time. So we go to the festival to find out we'd be playing in front of about 150,000 people, a big sea of Orange. We were all very, very veeeeryyy nervous, and spent the time before we played calming eachothers nerves, and cuddling one another haha. Everything was going smoothly until Gabe and ANthony came running up to me, to let me know my pedal board was broken. The connection from USA voltage to European had blown out the board. SO under alot of stress, and Ryan filming it all non stop, we all got it fixed.

Finally it was time to go on stage. My hands were literally shaking out of control I was so nervous. Well, we made our way on stage like the family we are and played our little hears out. It was surreal, it was amazing, and it was beautiful to hear so many people sing Built To Last along with us. So that ended and went by way to quickly and we hugged and celebrated, and made our way back to the hotel, managing our way through a crowd of people all who were jumping on the van and stickering it haha.

We all chilled back at the hotel for a while and unwinded and went to dinner with a band called Voicst. It was a really cool restaurant right on the ocean front, which Gabe described as "Artsy Fartsy" Oh Gabe. We then made our way back to the city to enjoy the rest of the Queens Day festivities, and found ourselves at a really cool, loungey bar. And hung out the way we do at home. It was such a nice nite. After that at about 3 am, it was time for McDonalds, which made for one of my funniest obsverations. It was closing at 3 am and they had tons of McDonalds security because people were storming and practically rioting to get in (for obvious reasons, which if you know anything about Amsterdam, you can figure out) Definitely a hilarious moment.

So the nite ended and we all went to bed with big goofy Melee smiles on our faces. We woke up early the next, hit up the airport, and made our way back home concluding our whirlwind trip. Definitely beyond amazing times. Which lead us to where I am now, sitting back in Orange County, in my room typing this up. Cant wait for this week.

We have TONS of concert and festival dates that we're about to announce for this summer so keep an eye out!

AND check our Santo Gold, she's an amazing singer.

AAAANNNND please join our newly created buzznet page

http://meleelist.buzznet.com/user/profile/

Ok well have a good day!

and thanks for becoming a part of the Melee Nation

Peace and love and all that funky stuff
ricky sans

Ryan can kick Chuck Norris' Ass

2008-03-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

Hello!

So we're back home in OC suffering from Jet lag (wide awake at 6 30 am, after only going to bed 3 hours prior) . The past week was simply one of the best in Melee history. We spent three days in Germany since my last post. The days were filled with lots and lots of promotion.

On Monday we went and filmed a commercial for Kabel Eins, cable one, a commercial tv channel in germany. (more info on Kabel Eins, check out wikipedia!). This was our first of hopefully many commercials we get to be in, but it was defintiely a fun experience, full of lots of laughter and us trying to speak in our best pseudo German. We have a clip of the commercial, which we'll post on here soon. The rest of the day was filled with tons and tons of promo. Magazine interviews, radio interviews and acoustic performances for radio stations.. I won't go into detail, because we literally did all this for hours upon hours everyday, leaving us with little to no time to go sightseeing. Which is all good, cuz we still found time to go out and have fun. When we in Baten Baten in Germany, we went out for traditional Bavarian food. Such a cool restaurant, felt like we were back in the 1800's in Germany. Big glasses of Beer, big pretzels, lots of duck, pork, potatoes and amazing dessert.

After our day of promotion while in Hamburg, we went out on the town, taken out by our Warner reps, so we asked to be shown the local places. Actually we first started out at a Smashing Pumpkins concert. I used to be the BIGGEST SP fan growing up, and I have to admit this concert was pretty disapointing. Just didn't seem like their hearts were in it anymore. And of course it was sad to only see Billy and Jimmy as part of the SP reunion.

After, we went to a Metal bar called Lunacy, which we were slightly out of place, but everyone was nice, and had a great time. We then were taken some more places which I will leave up to your imagination haha. All around it was so great to be surrounded by such old architecture. On our drive from studio to studio, we would excitedly see tons castles and old churches. Our last day in Germany was spent at the Warner offices doing more interviews, one I recognized was OK magazine, which is where i first discovered Amy Winehouse over a year ago.

We left for the airport that nite, already so tired, from jet lag, and we had one previous flight to that week, and had driven to five different cities. The airport was pretty cool actually, there's not as much security as in the states, so its a little relieving not having to take my belt off haha.

We've been pretty faithful to only eating whatever city we're in, local traditional food, but when I found a sushi bar at the airport, I had to have some. Oddly enough, as I was sipping on some Miso soup, I got a phone call from our manager, that we got added to Fuji Rock Festival in Japan!! We're so excited to be apart of this after hearing so much the past several years of being a band. It's definitely a dream come true.

We got into Amsterdam in the evening and went and dropped off our stuff at our hotel, which was so cool and had a nice home - esque vibe to it, where the lobby felt like a living room. It was a nice change of pace, since we're in and out of hotels on a daily basis, to be in one that felt like a home gave such a warm feeling. We then went out for dinner in the Light district, for traditional Dutch food, including Bitter Balls, which is the sports watching, snacking equivelent to Buffalo wings. We were then explained the difference between cafe's and coffee shops haha.

Amsterdam wasn't what I was expecting, from all the stories you hear...I had expected it to be kinda dirty and shady, but it was such a beautiful place, again surrounded by beautiful architeture and amazing canals. Everyone was so nice and happy, our in the streets people would be hanging out and kickin around soccer balls. We headed on our way back to the hotel, making a few stops on the way - for some of us - and had a great nites sleep. Although, just a few days ago, we had stumbled upon the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck skits on Jimmy Kimmell and were obsessed with watching them and showing then to everyone we met haha. We got back to our hotel and had to show our friend the videos and of course led to a long nite of looking up funny videos on youtube.

It's such a dream come true to be doing what we're doing, our album isn't even out yet and Built To Last is climbing the radio charts in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Right before bed that nite, Chris ran out of his room, excitedly letting us know, he was watching Mtv Holland's top video countdown and we were Number 1! He even took a picture of it. We all jumped around like big dorks. It's such a weird feeling, but it feels so nice, we have been working so so hard at melee the past several years, that things like this make us feel like kids in a candy store. But it does slightly goes over our heads. Even our Warner rep from Holland said, it's funny, that Melee is the hottest band in Holland, and we don't even realize it. I have to agree because everything feels like a dream and any second I'm going to wake up in the back of our van pulling up to a gas stop on a 12 hour drive over nite to a venue.

We had early lobby call the next morning at 6 30 am and went to 3FM a big radio station in Holland, hosted by a guy named Giel, who is a shock jock similar to Howard Stern.
We then went back to our hotel for many more interviews, and left for the airport to go to Belgium.

Brussels was simply amazing. It was late at nite when we got in and had to do one last radio interview and performance, and then went for a nice, long, relaxing dinner at our hotel. We all went upstairs to pass out, and I laid in bed for awhile just embracing where I was, with the windows open so I could hear the sounds of the city. I had Regina Spektors cd on and fell asleep. (I had never really listened to it before, its so good, definitely check it out if you haven't yet. )

The Next day, was of course full of promotion, and finally our day ended leaving us with our first real nite off to go out and have fun! We went downtown and were in complete shock of everything we saw. It was like we were in medival times. The buildings were so massive and beautiful, it was like a history book had come to life. We picked a local restaurant and enjoyed a lengthy dinner. We then met up with some friends we had made, and went out and bought chocolate to bring back home, which seriously, the chocolate in Belgium is insanely the best ever. I somehow also walked away buying a Belgium flag which is hanging up in my room haha. We next hit up the waffles! So good, unlike anythign here in the states.

Finally ended up at a bar that had over 200 beers. It was such a good time, everyone was hanging out, singing loudly, group chants. We hung out till 4 am, which is completely unlike anything we're used to, because once it hits 2 am, its time to leave the bar.

Anyways, as we were walking down the street, someone came up to me and started speaking spanish, which was really shady, so yelled up to Gabe to come talk to him, and the guy looked surprised that we had someone who spoke spanish, and he ran off. I looked back and saw Ryan struggling with some guy. Ryan said he was holding him down and he could feel him reach into his back pocket and steal his wallet. Ryan then stepping up to the guy and got in his face, which we were all in shock cuz Ryan is the most peaceful dude we know. So he practically pushed the guy to the ground and the wallet fell out and Ryan was still in his face which was pretty bad ass. Chris ran up as well and started getting in the other guys face and thats when Gabe and I saw the guy pull out a knife and we got everyone out of there, and the guys ran off. It was definitely a pretty intense night cap, but we felt pretty alive. And learned that Ryan can probably kick Chuck Norris' ass if he needed to.

We decided to stay up all the way until our plane flight which was at 9 am, but unfortunately our flight was delayed for over 7 hours and we were stuck at the airport. There was a bad storm in Munich , and we even had to go in for a landing twice, because the first time didn't work. So after 28 hours of travel we got back to OC and all passed out.

Here are the release dates for our album in Europe :

March 7th - Holland and Belgium
March 24th - Norway and Denmark
March 26th - Sweden and Finland
April 18th - Germany, Switzerland, and Austria

Germany!

2008-02-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

I'm currently - inconveniently - wide awake at midnite in Munich, Germany.

Which is AWESOME...but I realized I don't know the other guys room numbers, only Ryans, (to see if anyone else is awake) and he was awake, with the same issue. What do you do, in a foreign country for the first nite, not knowing the language, anywhere to go or do, and its midnite and you're wide awake.... hmmmmm.....

- Recap the past day on the Road Journal!! - Thats what you do!

So, on Saturday, it was about 75 degrees in OC, when we arrived at LAX - it started raining, and we were in the longest line (which began outside) to check in at the Lufthansa Airlines ticketing counter. We finally got our tickets, convinced them the sit us all next to each other (for some reason whenever we fly, we're all seated far from one another, and ya know, even though we see each other 24/7 - we just cant go a second NOT next to the other)

After a bit of a delay due to the weather, we boarded the plane, and I was pleasently surprised to see how nice it was! It seems most foreign airlines are much nicer than domestic American ones...a bit more leg room, personal tv's and MUCH better food. (which makes for a nice cozy 11 hour flight) So after Chris and I watched a German movie called "Special Escort", I passed out for a couple hours (might've happened 30 min. in to the movie haha). After my short nap, I hung out with Gabe and Mike, in the downstairs restroom lounge (yes, theres a downstairs restroom lounge - loose emphasis on lounge - but a lot of space, where the restrooms happen to be haha) Then it was back to my seat and sleep until we landed.

We got picked up by reps from WB Germany, checked into our hotel, and headed to the Beer Garden, that was within five minute walking distance! So everything that we had imagined Germany to be, came true in a matter of minutes. BIG glasses of beer, tons of people all just hanging out, enjoying the day, sitting next to strangers on a big spread of benches - loving life. So we got right to it. Grabbed some beers and Bratwurst and had an amazing lunch. We walked around the park for awhile, then headed back to the hotel, and all passed out. Big mistake, considering it was only 8pm. Which leads us to the current situation.

Hmmm well, I'm going back to watching CNN and try to get back to sleep, so I can be on schedule tomorrow (By the way, international travel for me, is always an educational experience, because CNN ends up being the only English speaking channel on the TV. Works out nicely haha)

gooodnite!
ricky

The (Red) iPod www.joinred.com

2007-12-02T23:42:00.000-08:00

Ok so, over the years, I have given myself the reputaton of being known for never losing stuff, and if anything, I "misplace" things for an undisclosed amount of time. Sad to say, during this last tour, I finally lost something, my iPod. Which is surprising because, it's my ipod AND I have my nike + running gear all hooked up to it, so its practically always attached to me. After some time went by and denial disapeared, I accepted the fact that it was lost and took a trip down to the Apple Store to go get a new one.

I was looking at all the cool new ipods, which keep getting smaller and smaller; cooler and cooler, so I was actually stoked to be getting a new one anyways. As I was deciding which color to get, I stumbled across the Red nanos, and read the literature that was alongside it. And then it clicked in my head, "Why am I even considering any other color besides the red one?!" The red ones donate $ 10 to the Global Fund (which helps financially support health and community programs in Africa). I am fortunate enough to live where I do, fortunate to live somewhere were iPods are even available and can be such a luxury, and fortunate to have my health amongst the plethora of other fortunes, me and millions of other people are blessed with daily.

So I grabbed the red ipod, excited cuz I always look out for oppportunities and ideas to help out, and was stoked to have been given this opportunity when buying an ipod! And if you're reading this, and wanting to get a new ipod, or know someone who does, then check out this website for more ways to get involved and help.... read, learn and become aware!!

http://www.joinred.com

This holiday season, if you're giving someone an Apple iTunes gift certificate, consider giving them the (red) one.

Moral of the story is, there's alot of opportunities all over the place to help out people less fortunate than ourselves, just gotta keep your eyes peeled. Because sometimes it can be just as easy as choosing the right color. And if everyone chose the right color, it could make a big difference in someones life.

Ok, so some Melee news! We had an exciting weekend, after some time off for Thanksgiving. We all met up at LAX, including Gabe, to take a red eye to Fort Myer Florida for WINK Fm's Xmas show with Emerson Hart and Mat Kearney!

So I don't know if anyone reading this has ever flown out of LAX, but it's always a fun time looking out for celebrities at the airport! As we were going through security, we spotted Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Which was awesome, and couldn't have made it more obvious haha. Then as I was exiting security and stumbling around trying to put my shoes and belt back on, I noticed several paparazzi taking pictures, directed right by me. I kept looking around and around and didn't see any famous people. I looked back and forth at the rest of the guys to see if they saw anyone, but we couldn't spot them. Then I realized, the girl right next to me was who they were taking pictures of, but I didn't recognize her, so I thought maybe she's an international celebrity. As I was about to ask her why they're taking pictures of her and if she's famous, I unfortunately realized who she was, and lost my courage of what I was about to do. It was Rachel Bilson from the OC! So I got all nervous and shy'd away haha. SO if anyone see's me looking aloof in a tabloid picture with her in it, you now know why haha.

Anyways! The flight was great, and we were quick to learn the true meaning of a red eye flight, which included me and Ryan watching alot of South Park episodes on my new red ipod nano, which is so small it hurts our eyes haha. Well, we finally got into Florida around 11 am and with a broken gps (misguiding us many miles north of our hotel), got to our hotel. We took a couple hour nap, and went to the venue to play the show! It was at a cool restaurant/bar right on the beach. It was a beautiful view while we played our set, to be able to look out at the ocean as the sun was setting. And we're big Mat Kearney fans, so it was great to play a show with him and listen to his set, as well as Emerson Hart. It was a fun nite since the 5 of us hadn't hung out in about a month, so it was great to get back to the vibe again. It's always a great reminder that what makes this band, and what we do, so much fun, is the friend ship we all share. Moments like this weekend defiinitely proved that.

Well, we left Florida at 11 am on Sunday, and after a 4 hour lay over in Dallas, just got back home. We relax for a bit more, and get ready for some more Melee adventures.

Until then....

peace
love
ricky

PS Here are some pics from the Wink FM xmas event ( From this event they raised 3k dollars to donate to struggling families in the Ft. Myers area)

*I'll be putting some more pictures up here in the next couple of days too!

Chris and Ryan jammin
Acoustic Melee

Playing from here gave us the great view of the next photo!

Beautiful sunset!

Me and Ryan with fans!

The band with fans!

Rock the boat...err...vote!!!!

2007-11-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hello readers of the "blog"!

It's funny, I was watching "Best Week Ever" and they went on a rant of "Quarter life", that new show on myspace tv and it's excessive use of the word "blog" and it made me laugh. It's cool to see the generation I'm apart of begin to be the archetype for entertainment and social standard legitimacy. I definitely feel the lyrics on our album touches on the whole "Quarterlife" peoples, especially "For A Lifetime". Give it another listen when you get a chance. . .

This all leads seemlesly into what we (Melee) have been up to. So recently we were asked to be involved in the Rock the Vote program, which is very exciting for us, and we got the chance to record a PSA (which will be up on our myspace in a week or so) today in LA ! And honestly, we've been so deeply immersed in Melee world, that it was refreshing to talk and reflect on something other than that. With that being said it was a little rough getting the brain going on what we wanted to convey haha, but it was great to get the opportunity to talk about an issue important to us.

This election is so vibrant and so exciting, that if you are not already registered to vote, hopefully it encourages you to do so. Theres so much diversity in the candidates running, from cultural to gender to religious affiliations. I really feel like there's someone for everyone. And at least at this point, its such an equal level, its hard to tell who will win.

In this election we all have a voice more than ever in history!! I feel that THIS, this, is our election! Look all around, these candidates want to hear what we have to say, they're practically begging for it. All over the internet....myspace..... youtube...so many more...they've teamed up with websites and means that we've defined! You dont need to be a lobbyist, or a wealthy supporter or a politican or have connections to be heard. We have the means to do so at our fingertips! We need to take advantage of all this, and become involved, and research, and figure out whats important to each of us, because there are issues that are important to all of us, from health care, to global warming to education costs, to war and foreign policy, that are all going to be things WE have to deal with. It's not about political affiliation, it's about who represents our human needs and rights, it's about getting involved, its about being heard. Our generation already controls advertising and marketing, video games, movies, the music industry, so why can't we control politics! We definitely can, and this time it's different.

For more info and to register to vote visit www.RockTheVote.com

We will soon be having a widget up on our website and myspace page that can register you to vote directly, so keep an eye out for that.

So back in Melee world!!! We just announced a little headlining tour, so check out our tour dates for more info on that. Everyone here in our camp has just been relaxing. We've been working on a Melee Movie Monday, featuring Chris' cover song idea, and I know he's been working on editing that, so keep an eye out for it! We also finished recording an original Christmas song called "Christmas This Year" which is actually going to be used exclusively for Japan's top radio station, J-Wave. So thats pretty exciting, and there is a strong possibility of it making an appearance on our myspace before the years over. And other than all that, we're just getting ready to enjoy some time off at home for the holiday and eat some shtuffing.

AND since I've shamelessly plugged Melee at times, I'm going to even the karma out by plugging another band. Check out this band called "Until June" www.myspace.com/untiljune. So so good. I'm currently loving the song "Sleepless". AND check out the band, Venus Infers www.myspace.com/venusinfers. They're cool, we went to go see them this past Thursday at the Distrcit Lounge. Good stuff. So ya, there you go, all is right in the world.

Peace
Love
Ricky

Back Home

2007-11-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

Back Home!

Well, I always find myself updating the journal too late, having to summarize what we've been doing in big chunks. I'm definitely going to get better at this and update more frequently, avoiding the big long blog updates haha. Until that happens, enjoy the following:

We're finally back home after a long year of touring! I slept about 16 hours straight yesterday catching up on missing sleep haha. Anyways, I'm chilling at our friend, Elliot's studio right now, where we are currently recording the first ever original Melee X-mas song! Chris is doing his vocals (we did background vocals with headphones through a tin bucket, a trick Chris learned from a Queen DVD), and Ryan's playing with a vocoder making everyone laugh doing Imogen Heap impressions and writing hit songs like "Cooler Than A Robot"...More details on that later.

The Matt Nathanson tour was so much fun! A great tour to end 2007 on. Everyone in his posse and band were amazing and Ingrid Michaelson and Allie Moss were so great and nice! Too bad it wasn't longer!

We also had some new additions to our crew, Anthony, doing our sound; Quinn, doing our merch (who we realized, and many others did as well, looks exactly like the singer from Cute Is What We Aim For, or the singer from The Almost, or the bassist from Maroon 5 AND many others....haha),. And I'm sure most of you already know Gabe our tour manager...hopefully you had a chance to say "hi!" to all of them at a show, if not, definitely find them at the next Melee show. They'll definitely add to your Melee experience.

So on this tour we tried to actually enjoy what our amazing country has to offer, by stopping at as many roadside attractions as possible. Unfortunately, we only ended up checking out a couple. One day, Quinn and I were motivated on getting some Chinese food, so we entered in a random Chinese restaurant into our GPS only to be misguided to a Civil War era plantation. This ended up being pretty rad, cuz they were setting up for a Civil War reenactment. So we took some time to explore the plantation, even though they closed the tour on us. We then found some chinese food, which we should have probably just avoided ( My stomach is still trying to digest it haha). Then there was the day we stopped by Casey Jones' Train Museum and Home. Sadly, mother nature decided to drop some rain and most of it was closed haha. But it was fun to just see something so historical and where Casey Jones lived. Anyways, I say we get an A for effort, for at least trying to be good tourists.

The Fort Collins show was a memorable one. It was practically a college show, so everyone was very much in the spirit of halloween and very much under the influence haha. It was definitely one of those shows where you couldn't take yourself seriously while having a bunch of American Gladiators and The Ultimate Warrior rockin out in the crowd.

Then there was the memorable Halloween show. The past couple years we've missed halloween and decided we were going to embrace to the best of our capabilities. Chris and Mike found their costumes in Denver. I found a rad Shamu costume that one of the workers at the store in Denver was wearing, and she said I could buy it off of her and drop it off at the show. But sadly there was no follow up... I was stood up by Shamu. Needless to say everything turned out great anways. Chris dressed up as a Spartan, Mike was a Starbucks worker (earlier that day, we went into a starbucks with Mike in his "uniform" and tried to get some free drinks. It worked for the most part until she asked him for his discount employee number haha.), Ryan was Lady Liberty and I was Leonardo the Ninja Turtle (which I found in the big sized little kids section. So it fit...kinda haha...Hopefully there were no sad big sized little boys in Seattle on halloween wishing that they were Leonardo for halloween!) (p.s., I think I definitely blurred the line that nite between "being laughed at" and "being laughed with" haha) So the Halloween show turned out to be one of the most fun we've played in a long time! How could it be anything else, nothing like playing a show in silly costumes with your best friends.

We then drove over nite to San Francisco. We were supposed to go on a tour of Lucasfilm, which we were all very excited about (yes, we're dorks) but it got cancelled due to an emergency meeting (which we hoped had to do with indiana jones)

Our day in SF was jampacked, starting with an acoustic performance for Alice 97.3 FM radio listeners who called in and won. Then rushing over to Virgin Megastore for an in-store performance and signing, and finally ending the nite with an awesome show at The Filmore. Seriously The Filmore is so amazing, full of spirit and vibe. If you ever get a chance to see a show there, please do. Or make it a goal in life, its such a great experience to be in that room.

Finally the tour ended back home in LA at The Troubadour. It's always so hard to say goodbye, especially because we were starting to really vibe with everybody, but it definitely wont be the last time we see everyone. I know we have a show in december with Ingrid, so it's all good! The show was awesome, and during Matt's set Mike went out and played tambourine on "Car Crash"

Before we went on stage to play, Ryan was telling me about how he saw the producer guy from Borat at the restaurant he was eating at. Thought that was pretty cool. What made it even funnier, was the next morning Ryan emailed me a TMZ link to check out. Low and behold it was a video from that nite before with the dude from Borat and then all of a sudden George Clooney walks out of the restaurant creating a bit of a frenzy. Best part was seeing Melee's van and trailer in the background haha. Ryan later told me he he saw George Clooney but thought it didn't really look like him. If you search tmz under "Watch Clooney vs. Davitian: No Contest " you'll be able to find it.

Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. Enjoy some pictures...

talk soon!

love
ricky

We did an acoustic hour long performance for "The Loft" on XM radio

Chris and I outside of our new favorite Curry place in Charlottesville, VA
Chris, Gabe and Mike at the late nite check in process at a hotel.

Chris posing with a very interesting pirate mobile

Ryan at the venue in Charllottesville, VA

posing at the plantation mansion footsteps in Virginia

Casy Jones Museum!

Backstage at the 9:30 club in D.C.

An intimate photo that Ingrid captured of Chris and Ryan jammin backstage in Atlanta GA

Me, Chris and Ryan discussing something important backstage in Atlanta GA

Me and Mike in Austin TX
Chris warming up backstage in Austin TX, photo by Ingrid!

Ok, so Ingrid takes really awesome photos, this is an awesome one of Ryan...

outside of the Ft. Collins show. Our dreams came true. Jurassic Park was our favorite movie growing up!

Chris backstage in Austin with Matt

Another awesome photo by Ingrid of us during soundcheck in Austin

Backstage at the 9:30 club with Allie Moss

Radio lounge!

setting up for the radio lounge at Alice FM in SF

Virgin in store appearance in SF

Signing after the performance at Virgin in SF

Our awesome crew for the tour, Anthony, Quinn and Gabe

long time no see!!

2007-10-29T18:43:00.001-07:00

wow!

I am pretty damn sorry for not updating the road journal for such a long time!

SO much has been going on in Melee land, I kinda got sideswiped, and haven't had a chance or a clear mind to really sit down and put the time and effort into this that it deserves. Not that this is that exact moment, but its pretty close! Currently we are on my favorite tour ever, with Matt Nathanson and band, and Ingrid Michaelson and Allie Moss...which I will talk a bit more about in the soon to come next blog post! (ps.....this is our recent favorite funny amazing youtube-ing that Matt brought to our attention....ch-ch-check it out....http://youtube.com/watch?v=fNoZg9kl-zE)

I'm going to quickly summarize September, and then talk about Japan, and make it easy by putting up lots of pictures with "trying to be funny and witty" captions, and then catch us up to speed and promise to update more regularly!

September was a fun month! Not as busy as usual, but definitely productive! We played some great shows with the likes of Colbie Calait, Paulo Nutini and Lifehouse! A change of pace of the type of crowds and bands we usually play for/with. We got to play at the legendary Filmore in SF! That was really the first place where you could feel the presence of all the great musicans who have inhabited the building...such great vibes in there.

Then October came and we went to Japan for the first time, where this past summer we had a number one single with "Built To Last and a our soon to be first gold record". So not only was it a culture shock but it was also a lifestyle shock. Easily one of the best times of my life. Ok, so to help this summary a bit easier for myself (as I'm slightly, maybe, kinda, rushing to do this before we go on stage to play in Spokane WA) I'm going to just copy and paste a column I was asked to write for INROCK magazine in Japan about our trip over there! It could only be 700 words AND write it in a clear way so it could be easy to translate to Japanese.... which ended up being a challenge to talk about such an amazing time in such little space....but the pictures will make up for it. (And if you life in Japan, that issue of INROCK should be the November issue).

"My trip to Japan really started when I was about 5 years old and
my mother took me to eat sushi for the first time. Since then, I have
felt a connection to all things Japanese. I've found myself writing
songs using koto and shamisen, taking Japanese language classes in
high school, reading Kawabata, taking part in Tea Ceremony and even
attempting to prepare sushi dinners. So when I found out that Melee
was becoming successful in Japan and we were asked to do a promotional
tour, I was very excited! I soon discovered that nothing was as
amazing as actually getting the chance to spend a couple of
weeks in Japan with my best friends and band Melee.

The plane flight went by quickly thanks to all the adrenaline going
through my body. When we arrived and had exited the terminal, a group
of fans was there to greet us and got our trip off to an exciting
start. It was such a heartfelt welcome to Japan! On our way to the
hotel, we ate all the different kinds of candies given to
us by fans and were immediately addicted to Poki. By the time we got
to our hotel, we were on a sugar high and had stomach aches.

I feel one of the best ways to experience a culture is to eat the
food. Learning to understand the variety of ingredients, preparation
styles and environments is a great way to begin. I ate everywhere from
udon restaurants,
pubs, sushi bars, and Korean BBQ to snacks at am/pm. Osaka was
definitely where I ate the most. Katsudon and okonomiyaki were great
and I really enjoyed the street food, especially tako yaki. For candy,
the various types of wagashi were great and I enjoyed anything made
with red bean or green tea. The only food that was a little hard to
establish a liking for was Nato, but quickly followed by hot sake made
the taste go away!

Besides all the great eating, another way I absorbed my
surroundings was by running. I am currently training to run a marathon
and would get up very early every morning and run around whichever
city I was in, from Tokyo, to Nagoya to Osaka. One of my favorite
moments was when I ran a path around the Imperial Palace. I was in
such awe of all the architecture and landscape. It was a great
feeling, physically adapting to the ground, breathing the air and
taking everything in, one step at a time.

We took full advantage of our only day off and went to Asakusa Kannon
Temple. It was so beautiful! We had a chance to see and partake in
what worshipers were doing, from waving incense smoke on injured body
parts to tossing a coin and choosing a stick with a fortune
on it. The fortune I received was a good one and I didn't have to hang
it up. Karaoke in Shibuya completed the day. The highlight was
finding our song, "Built To Last" in the catalog! In America, Karaoke
is more public, done in a big room with lots of strangers watching.
Singing with friends, old and new, in a private room is definitely the
best way to enjoy Karaoke! It was relaxing and carefree, joking,
laughing and singing loudly to our favorite songs.

And, of course, the best moments were playing live and meeting Melee
fans! The concerts we played were among the best we've had. There was
so much energy from all the fans that it really came into our music
and made playing incredibly enjoyable. It's amazing that everyone is
so respectful
at concerts. It was great to see people dancing and moving to our
music and singing along to our songs! I never would have thought, when
writing our album, that people thousands of miles away would know and
enjoy the lyrics and music we wrote in our bedrooms! It was great to
experience the power of music connecting us all together.

I have so many more stories to share but will save them for another
time. But I can safely say October in Japan was one of the best times
of my life!"

Walking through the airport in Narita!!

Meeting some fans at the airport!

Buddha statue in Asakusa

Kanon Temple in Asakusa

Inter FM on air acoustic performance in Tokyo

eating Katsudon in Osaka

food market in Kyoto!

Backstage at Zip FM's radio festival in Nagoya!

eating..again...okinomiyaki in Osaka! This was at our dinner after our Osaka show!

on stage, during our Tokyo Show! The venue we played was owned by Jay Kay from Jamariquai....i have no clue how spelll the bands name...freakin complicated haha....

so we met "Pretty Ricky" and we did an impromptu photo shoot together...probably one of the most pivotal moments in music history

We went to Karaoke in Shibuya and loook at what we found....and no, of course we were not big dorks and sang to our own song... .... .....
Chris and myself in Asakusa

Me and Mike about to get on the bullet train...and ya, its pretty prettyyyy fast

uhhhh....ryan on the bullet train...ya....
Me and shiho (from WB) eating chinese, the chef of the restaurant is behind us!

Melee and friends, backstage...after our last show, in Osaka

Chris in Osaka, with fire....

we ate alot on this trip!

Ryan, Kaz(from WB) and Chris at "Ninja" after our show in Tokyo!

Me and Mike doing a radio interview!

cabbing it up in Osaka

Me and Mike and the toy bear George, who was the mascot for the Kyoto FM in kyoto!

Me and Mike, in love, at a fertility temple in Kyoto

out front of a restaurant in Osaka!

I met a sumo wrestler!!!

taking part in worship rituals in Asakusa

me and Chris in front of an Udon restaurant

these mushrooms cost 50 dollars a package!!! daaaammmnnnn....

Osaka..

Me and MIke in the food market in Kyoto

Me Chris Ryan and ME...just finished eating..of course

Mike putting his shoes on!!

Ryan on the subway in Tokyo....they CRAM people in them.....like PACKED...like Sardines

Me, Chris, Ryan and Rory (tour manager sound guy) in Asakusa

Me and Chris...under an octupus.....

Me , Ryan and Yaz (WB rep) eating chinese food...

Peace.. love...melee

Backstage tv show

we did alot of interviews

Korean bbq!!!

Going out in Osaka with our frien from WB and interpreter

crabs....

ooohhh the symbolism

Acoustic performance for Tokyo FM

Chris warming up before doing TV

Ryan before tv

Chris doing Karaoke!!

and finally....supposedly Ryan looks like a super famous comedian over there whos name is Arita...judge for yourself....

and wow..theres alot more pictures and alot more stories, but this is probably a good amount!

Take It easy!

More journal blog posts soon to come!!

Peace
LOVE
RickySANS

Melee Postcard from Salt Lake City!!

2007-08-26T10:21:00.001-07:00

So I'm posting this postcard a little late, seeing as the Utah show was now a couple weeks ago, but better late than never!

As far as the tour is concerned, we are currently getting ready to leave out hotel in Houston TX and go to the show in Austin! We enjoyed a much needed two weeks off at home and hit the road again. The shows have been great, though no amazing or crazy stories materialized to report. We did see Superbad, which Ryan and I both agreed was amazing. It's a really funny, well written movie. The characters are developed and full of depth, which puts it on a higher level, than its peers, such as American Pie, making immature, silly jokes, more witty and and smart. Which in my oppinion is difficult to do. Anyways, definitely go see it if you haven't had a chance.

Lets see, what else is going on....We released "Devils & Angels" in Taiwan and Japan. And "Built To Last" is currently at #1 on the radio charts in Japan, which is just completely mind boggling/amazing. So we go over to Japan for two weeks in October to do Tv shows/showcases/promo, and then in January do a full concert tour. The Japanese version also has two bonus tracks, "New Heart" and "Sick". So if you can get your hands on that as an import, or visit/live in Japan, you will be able to enjoy new Melee songs! (hopefully enjoy haha...) As far as America, we have some radio shows throughout September...such as, September 15 with Colbie Colait at the Filmore in SF, sponsered by Alice FM, who is AWESOME for playing Built to Last so much, and giving us love. And we're being added to more stations across the country, just check out our website or myspace for more info on that and how to help us get more spins! AND then we do a tour with Matt Nathanson, who we are all big fans of, so definitely check him out, if you don't know him already at myspace.com/mattnathanson

AND now for the long awaited, much anticipated, postcard from Salt Lake CIIIITTTYYY!!!!

Peace
rickysans

Postcard from Lawrence Kansas!

2007-08-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hey! So after a two week break we hit the ground running. There was a nice storm in Kansas following a wonderful day of temperature's in the 100 degrees. Watch and learn how california folk react to this strange earth bound enigma that some know as "weather"

peace
ricky

Rush Hour 3 Review by Rick and Ryan

2007-08-12T00:27:00.001-07:00

We just saw Rush Hour 3...Here is what we thought. (remember, in cinema critic there is no agree to disagree)

Ryan - This movie was entertaining and funny and had some good action scenes ( phone rings, he goes to pick it up, It's Gabe, our tour manager, he has Ryan's phone charger, there seems to be some conflict as he hangs up the phone in a huff. ) (The phone rings again, Ryan says Hello in a non chalant tone of voice. It's Gabe again, wanting to know if Ryan wants to watch 300 with him. They seemed to have reconciled. Ryan explains he can"t because hes trying to do a movie review with Rick. Ryan hangs up. Ryan's cell phone rings, its a woman, he explains he has to go, to write a movie review. It turns out to be Michelle. Now he is saying everything that i am doing, which in turn is what I am doing. They continue to talk as Ryan pours a bottle of water into a glass. he takes a sip. He explains that once hes done with the movie review hes going to sleep. he hangs up.) BUT it wasn't as good as the first two.

Rick - I think that is a ridiculous statement. Much like proud parents children, each installment of the rush hour series is unique and special in its own way. bringing something fun to the table. In this case, being non stop action, comedy, awesome bad guys and great musical scenes.

Ryan - I disagree. I feel that the action wasn't non stop. In the first two when there wasn't action, the chemistry between Chris tucker and Jackie Chan was entertaining in itself. but i didn't feel that way, there were boring gaps in between the great action scenes.

Rick - I respect that you acknowledged the action scenes to be great. But what more could you want from your hard earned cash then to see fight scenes, and comedy. who needs talking. preach what you say,, in this case just go rent the other two if you want talking. the third is for the true rush hour fan. the magic about these movies is the language barrier that is broken between two cultures. American and Chinese though comedy and fighting. so who needs talking!!!

Ryan - The comedy is in the talking and they didn't say anything funny in the movie, well sometimes they did. but not enough. basically the funny parts we rent as funny as the first two and the action parts weren't as cool, well ok maybe not. the action parts weren't as cool and there were too many boring gaps and Jackie Chan and Chris tucker parachuting down the Eiffel tower on a french flag was stupid.

Rick - wow. wow. that was the best scene in the movie. I'm going to bed.

Home

2007-07-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

So for the first time since the begining of the year, we have more than 3 days off at home. But only two weeks, then back out on the road starting August 8 in Kansas City. It's so crazy to think about how many times we've been around the US in just half a year, and the UK twice. So much travel and different time zones definitely has its effect on your brain haha. It's definitely an adjustment back to home life, a challenge to sit still for more than 5 minutes haha. And oddly enough even though I spend 24/7 surrounded by Chris, Ryan and MIke AND Gabe, the minute they're gone is the minute that I already miss them. We are definitely a family. Ok, well enough gooshiness haha....The tour has been going well. During the time off, we will be doing alot of meetings, press and promotion for Japan. It's so strange to have music and the band out in another country, and have it be well recieved. We release the record over there on August 22 I believe and head over there for two weeks in October for a promotional tour (a real concert tour will be in January). We will also be releasing the album in many Scandonavian countries around the same time and then the UK in January!! I also just found out we are playing a free show at the Irvine Spectrum at Tillys on August 18. This is rad for a couple of reasons. It'll be cool to be playing a free show in our hometown. And it'll be really cool to be playing at a place I used to hang out during highschool with Ryan and Chris haha...full circle. I don't know what Mike and Chris are up to at the moment, but I got an email from Ryan that he's in Mexico so thats cool. I am relaxing and currently training to run a half marathon with our manager haha. So far I'm up to like 4 miles on an exaggerated day ;) SO realisticly 3 miles. haha...10 more to go.

Ok, back to jammin with AC/DC

Peace
ricky

Postcard from Columbus Ohio!!

2007-07-24T16:06:00.001-07:00

Melee Postcards from the Road!

2007-07-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

yo!

So we got this Nokia phone called a Shozu and it allows me to film and upload videos directly to youtube. So starting now, every once and a while You will see these pop up on my road blog. Enjoy the first installmanet:

Hotlanta!

2007-06-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

HELLO!!!

So I'm chillin back stage in Atlanta and figured what better way to spend my time hiding away from the heat, than to post in the Blog!

We've been on tour for about a week now, and went head on into heat and humidity in the South. Other than that, the tour has been great. We are preparing to go to radio in the middle of July, so we have been visiting radio stations in each city we've been playing in. The day usually consists of waking up at 5 am driving to the radio station, then to the venue, then playing the show, then sleep, then it repeats all over. And I seriously couldnt be happier. I love being busy. The more time I have on my hands, the more time I have to think about stuff and drive myself crazy haha. Anyway, the radio stuff is really fun for us! A visit usually consists of an interview, acousitc performance and meet and greet kinda style. It's just a nice variety to the touring lifestyle and breaks up the routine a bit.

We also released our new music video for Built To Last this week! We were fortunate enough to have myspace premiere it. I feel inclined to clear up some confusion as to why we have 3 videos for Built To Last. Well, here ya go...We made the first one cuz as many of you know we like to make movies, and thought it'd be fun to have a video for Built To Last until we made a real one. Then we got into some legal debate over ( which I suppose I can't say exactly) So we and WB decided to make another one in it's spirit. But it didn't come out as well. So whatever. haha. Which by the way, the Devil in the second video is our friend, who has gone to school with Ryan and I since kidnegarten. Well, that leads us to the third and final installment of the Built To Last Trilogy. We hope you enjoy the saga.

Ok, now, a little rant about how I want the iPhone but I dont know when to get it. Already everyone is talking about how the second version is ready to come out, so to just wait for that, but its so damn tempting to just give in. It already seems like my Sidekick is a dinosaur compared to the iphone. I dont want to be the person who got the very first iPod and then all his friends got the later one and wishes they were as cool as his friends with new ones, cuz he has an old piece of junk, even though its only months old. haha So if anyone waited in line for hours for it, let me know if you have it and your thoughts. I need some first hand oppinions.

Oh, I just got a great new cd. Sharon Jones and the Dap - Kings. She sings great neo soul and the Dap - Kings are an amazingly talented band ( who are also Amy Winehouse's band). The Albums called "Naturally". Check it out, you'll love it.

Peaaace
ricky

Wanna get some Schnitzel??

2007-06-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

WOW...that was definitely a whirlwind of a trip! I've been back at home in OC for a couple days now and am finally recovering from our UK trip. But just as I'm starting to adjust back to Cali time, we leave for Nebraska tomorrow morning to start our summer tour with Bowling for Soup.

Well, the O2 Wireless shows were great. Leeds was the first one and it definitely was a bit of an adjustment for us. We were all very nervous for some reason, definitely a fish out of water complex going on. But its ok cuz we got it out of our system. It was just an intimidating, overwhelming experience...maybe bit of a culture shock...(not to mention we were afraid to reveal we're from America haha) It's defiinitely an eye opening experience to see how the rest of the world views America. Anyways that brings us to the next day, in London, Hyde Park which WAS Amazinggggg! Definitely 110% Melee back in full swing. It was so surreal to be playing the same place as so many legendary artists before us. The vibe was great, crowd was great, weather was great...just everything in the universe lined up. See, the way Melee works is off of some weird unexplainable vibe. For us to have a great "Melee" show, the "vibe" needs to be there, between the four of us. If its not there then its either a bad show, or JUST a good show. We could play flawlessly or the crowd could be super enthusiastic but if "the vibe" isn't there between the four us then its not a "Melee" show. I know it sounds like I'm talking about some weird hippie new age crap, but its true haha....

So after the set we were fortunate enough to do a photo shoot for Ray Ban by Mick Rock (google it) ... He was such a cool guy, you could definitely tell what generation was his prime , and the people he hung out with/drugs he did haha. Then Chris and I did an interview with BBC 4. After that, we hung out the rest of the day checking out bands and running around. We came back to our hotel, napped for a second, then went out for Chinese food in Picadelly Circus, went to O'neils bar (which appearantly is as cool as TGIF's, but to us foreigners it was the coolest place haha.) We then somehow ended up at Muse's after party and nite caped with a sing along with Chris daughtery and the dude from Fuel. YA... WEIRD SURREAL NITE.

Oh some where in between it all Chris and I made a LATE nite run for Schnitzel. I'm not even sure if thats the word for the snack or just a word Mike made up haha. Either way, its like the equivelent to late nite Del Taco runs ya know?

Well, below I posted some pictures from the UK, and you can find more photos up at www.MySpace.com/RickySans.

Peace
Rickysans

ps. in the up coming days, we will be posting video postcards from Melee on the road, on the blog, so make sure you keep checking back!

On stage at Hyde Park, before doors.

Melee and our UK Tour Manager, Phil

TV interview for BBC 4!
Chris on the big screen at Hyde Park

In front of Harewood House in Leeds!

Too early

2007-06-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

Good morning!

Well, at least for people in London...I have completely lost my sense of time haha.

So I just woke up from our first nite in London, waiting for Mike in the lobby so we can go get breakfast! The flight was long as expected but I experienced the miracle of Ambien for the first time, and 7 hours later woke up at the end of the flight! That certainly makes things go by quickly. Which is good because Chris was kept well awake by the kid next to us who was talking and throwing up alot (long story haha). We then went through customs, got settled into our hotel and went out for the evening, which consisted of: Amazing Chinese food; some of the worst jokes ever told; hanging out at Shepard's Bush Empire (where I met KT Tunstall, which I only mention since I'm a big fan of hers and was completely star struck/goobery, and for some reason found myself babbling to her about Grey's Anatomy...Theres only been one other time that I've been star struck and that was when I was on a flight with Pauly Shore. Encino Man is an old time favorite, but I never worked up the courage to say hi to him.....anyyyyywaaaays, long tangent haha); and finally, hung out at our hotel bar all nite with the guys. Which brings us to the current situation, sleeping for a couple hours and getting ready to go to our gig in Leeds!! Totally, definitely, beyond a doubt excited!!

more on that later!

Peace + Love
Ricky

UK Round Two ! !

2007-06-13T12:46:00.001-07:00

So in all the years that Melee has been a band, we have always dreamed about playing shows in Europe. It's now June 2007 and we're getting ready to go to the UK for the second time this year! Damnn...when did that happen?! It's one of those things that no matter what happens in life, personally or collectively, we will always have this amazing memory and moment between four best friends, who somehow managed to make it across the sea to play some songs we wrote in our bedrooms.

I personally haven't gotten any of my stuff ready for the trip, but I work well under pressure haha. So we leave tomorrow and arrive in the UK on friday. We're playing a festival called the "O2 Wireless". We play earlier in the day on the Mainstage with The Kaiser Chief's headlining. I feel a bit more prepared and less anxious about traveling over seas than previously. When we went in February I had never been, so I had no idea what to expect and felt slightly overwhelmed. This time I have a good grasp of what is to come and am only feeling excitement! Especially excited about the food! Everyone always says the food sucks, but that's not true. That's been left said too vaguely. What they're referring to is "English" food, which I suppose is a bit of an acquired taste, but everything else there...wow...!!

I'm also stoked to see what bands are big over there. Obviously the UK is a bit ahead of the game when it comes to music than most places in the world. When we were there earlier, Amy Winehouse was all over the place. She's amazing and now all over America, which is great!

Anyways, we've been home for a week or so, played an intensely great sold out - first ever - headlining show at The Roxy (which felt like Melee's Bar Mitzvah). Chris had a birthday yesterday, Mike grew some more chest hair and Ryan remains the funniest dude I know. I have been catching up on movies that I've missed while on tour. I finally got a chance to see "Pans Labyrinth"! Very visually stimulating and mentally compelling. And underneath the fantasy and story I found it to be an interesting social commentary dealing with how the world has changed drastically since the events of 9/11. Definitely worth checking out.

Well, time to get my day started....

Have a good summer ;)

Peace + Love
RickySANS

ps. Ill be writing in this frequently, so keep checking back