Yup, I am definitely burning the candle on both ends, DJing, Working, Rehearsing, etc… But as Ronnie Johns would say “You need to harden the fuck up!” haha. In the last 6 days the band has had 5 rehearsals, got our set list together for the Ashes Divide show (with 4 new tracks from our upcoming album), and have been rehearsing in what feels like the heat of Hell (our new jam space is above a convenience store in downtown Edmonton and this plus thirty heat is a bitch when you don’t have an air conditioner). All of our focus has been going into getting ready for the show next week, which if I haven’t already mentioned is going to be fucking awesome.

After this it looks like we will be planning on playing some more gigs this summer and taking a quick break to finish recording the new album. Things are looking very good for the band and the momentum is building for something huge. Also, our new jam space is pretty sweet; it even has an extra room in it for us to move in all of my pre-production recording gear. Special thanks to my friend for hooking us up, finding cheap space is not an easy feat in Edmonton and I’m damn happy that we were able to get this spot.

Well that’s pretty much it. We have 3 or 4 more rehearsals scheduled in the next couple days then we’ll be hitting the stage at the Starlite Room on Monday the 7th of July opening for ASHES dIVIDE! You best be there…

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

It’s official, Monday July 7th 2008 at the Starlite Room in Edmonton, Living Illusion will be hitting the stage opening for aSHES dIVIDE! For those of you who don’t know, aSHES dIVIDE is an American rock band formed by guitarist Billy Howerdel, who is the founding member, guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the band A Perfect Circle. This show is going to fucking ROCK, if you don’t already have tickets I suggest you go to Ticketmaster and get them now!

I am freaking extactic and honored that we are going to be sharing the stage with aSHES dIVIDE, and I can’t wait to get up their and rock the place down. I better see every one out there with fists in the air!

I’ll keep you posted, but in the mean time go buy tickets!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since my last post. Time is just flying by this summer; of course it’s probably due to the fact that I have been working 4 jobs, haha. Right now I have my Full Time Job, an eMarketing Consulting Project, a Website Development Project for a friend, and I’m DJing every weekend (Weddings, High School Dances, etc).

At least DJing doesn’t really feel like work, cause I love doing it, especially when the bride and groom are trying to get me drunk. Needless to say, all the Weddings I have DJ’d this year have been awesome! And still, in all of that I have somehow found time to work on music at least twice a week with Jay, which is damn good if you ask me.

Anyway, I guess another reason I haven’t really posted anything is because well… I don’t have anything to post… about the band and music that is. I wish I did. I wish I had something cool and exciting to write about, but I don’t.

On a side note Jay and I will probably be down at The Warehouse (14220 Yellowhead Trail) on the occasional Sunday Night throughout this summer Jamming with all the people there so feel free to come down.

Beyond that, I guess one of these days I’m gonna start my random blogging on the site but we will see when that starts.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

Oddly enough at the rate its going I will have an electronic album done before the new LI album comes out, haha. So last night at about 3:30am I finished a new electronic track that my buddy DJ Terminal and I worked on. It’s sort of a heavy bass melodic down tempo chill music type song… to get the full effect it needs to be heard through good speakers Take a listen and tell me what you think: http://www.livingillusion.com/Inspire.mp3.  I have been listening to it on repeat for the last couple of hours and am listening to it as I type this.

All it takes is a little Cubase and Absynth and you’re good to go… my midi keyboard does help too. I wonder how/if some one could ever perform this live? Maybe just trigger a bunch of sounds on computers, I can’t really see any other way of doing it. I’ve heard stories of electronic musicians who do shows on the Europass Train in Europe. They play their tracks at night and the “show’ is nothing more than the view out the window. The stars, the lights, the atmosphere. Now that would be totally killer, just sink right in to your seat and take it all in.

I would love to do something like that. Of course, if I did that I would make sure my set was during the trip through Amsterdam, that way every one could get good and stoned before the ride, haha.

Hope you enjoy the new song as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

It’s been over a week since my last post, and I guess I just haven’t really had the drive to write, even though I do actually have some cool things to write about. What’s cool you ask? Well, Jay and I got to hang out and drink with GGGarth Richardson (Famed Producer of Rage Against the Machine, Chevelle, RHCP, etc), the boys from Ten Second Epic (Signed to Universal), and two of the guys from Portal (a kick ass local Edmonton band)… and it was fucking killer! The last few weeks has been a wild ride meeting so many amazing people, it’s truly awesome how this last month has panned out.

Lately with the band we have been spending a lot of time trying to find a proper jam space as opposed to some ones basement, but as anyone in Edmonton knows, finding a place to rent is a rather difficult task these days. I think we will either find something in the next week or else… it will be back to the basement, lame. Also, things on the recording end seem to be going pretty good. Jay and I are going to be scheduling a meeting with Kevin Hoskin, (Engineer / Producer / Member of Portal) who works with Bill Kennedy, in the next couple weeks to figure out details for cutting an album and or EP… we may actually have some new tunes out there in the next few months!

That’s pretty much it for an update, hopefully everything keeps moving forward at the rate it’s going cause that would be a very good thing. You should also go check out Portals new album at http://www.bloodredtape.com/ it sounds freaking amazing and I can’t wait until their CD Release Party at Jet in September.

And… that’s all folks.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

P.S. If you know of any Jam Spaces available in Edmonton drop me an email, thanks.

The May long weekend this year rocked! I’m still amazed that I was able to have such a good time and didn’t have to leave Edmonton to do it. It was practically a perfect weekend, I played acoustic guitar in the sun while chilling with friends, worked on a new electronic song with DJ Terminal, rocked out on stage at an open jam at The Warehouse (Metal Bar in Edmonton) and last but not least, Jay and I got to meet and hang out with Bill Kennedy (Producer/Engineer of NIN, Megadeth, Motley Crue). Needless to say there was copious amounts of drinking and Barbeque’s involved. It was awesome. Hahaha.

So even though we had a wicked weekend, things are still moving rather slowly in the world of Living Illusion. I titled this blog the way I did cause well, we have been getting requests for gigs but due to a lack of a place to rehearse, and musicians to play with, it is making it difficult to get back into the scene and do anything. Hopefully the new connections made in the last week will change that though… this year has been very up and down for our project that’s for fucking sure.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to write today about the band.

I hope your long weekend was as good as mine.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

When I heard that Dream Theater was coming to Calgary on May 9th 2008, there was no hesitation in buying the tickets the moment they went on sale. A band that I have been listening to for years (even more so after their newer album Train of Thought came out, which I suggest everyone takes a listen to), it was surreal to finally see the amazing musicianship of DT rocking out less than 10 feet in front of my face. That’s right, I pushed my way through the masses up to the front of the pit… and it was freaking awesome.

The drive from Edmonton to Calgary was a breeze as always, pretty much a B-line, and the concert venue was super easy to find as it was at the University of Calgary Campus. I was pretty surprised at how small of a venue they chose to play considering Dream Theater has been around for so long and have garnered quite the following. Although, who am I to complain, this is like the first time they have ever played in a Canada city other than Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal.

The show itself was amazing and the guys in the band are insane when it comes to talent, I only dream of being as good as John Petrucci on guitar. The place was pretty packed and everyone at the front (including me) were literally crushed against each other, it was kind of nasty (haha). Closer to the end of the show I made it to the very front of the stage, I was stuck about 2 people back for the earlier part. Just as I got to the front they played “As I Am” off of Train of Thought. It fucking rocked.

After that I was pretty much exhausted and moved out of the sweat infested mess of people… I had to take my shirt off that’s how soaked it was. I guess the only complaint about the show I have is that I wish they would’ve played more of their heavy songs. They played a lot of their material from the 80’s that I’m really not all that into. Next time they come, they should let me pick their set list for the night, that would be sweet!

In closing, it was well worth the trip and I have now seen another band that I have been dying to see. Next up, Buckethead! Haha.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

Plans… well more like “Hopes for the Future”. Haha. Well… on a positive note we’re basically done writing the new album, and now it’s just a matter of getting out there and hitting the music scene again. I think Jay and I are going to pick up some guitars and start performing acoustic live sets around Edmonton; it would be a good start to a slow and shaky year. From traveling to multiple cities in North America to getting in car accidents and living the mundane life of the day job worker, this has definitely been a slow year for LI.

This year there has been far too many days that feel like we should just say fuck it all and go teach English overseas. Haha. You ever feel like that? Where you just wanna say piss on it all and go do something else? Cause it can be hard at times to stay motivated and committed to something that doesn’t have a lot of “perks” along the way… but I guess with music, it boils down to the fact that none of the “perks” really matters. The music is enjoyment in itself. I personally think I would be miserable without a guitar and a means to share my creativity… Yup.

So where does this leave us? Well hopefully were going to be performing some where some time soon. Of which I will obviously be posting online. I wish I had more definitive information, but that’s all I got. One cool thing that is happening (kinda unrelated) is the fact that we’re going to go see Dream Theater in Calgary this weekend coming up. They are an awesome band that I have been dying to see play live for years! Not a huge fan of the “Vocal Style” but with musicians as good as the guys in Dream Theater you can see past the 80’s metal singer.

On a side note, I am going to start blogging on a semi-daily basis. It won’t always be about the band or even music for that matter, but it will be insightful and entertaining…. maybe. Haha. Keep in touch and feel free to email me anytime.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

I just finished reading the book Hardcore Zen, and it was quite an enjoyable read. It’s the first book I’ve read in quite some time that I wasn’t able to put down. Albeit I was on planes a lot so there wasn’t much else to do, but it really has re-invigorated my desire to practice meditation. It’s always nice to read a book on Zen which discusses the modern aspects of life and how Zen practice can be integrated. Most books written on the subject that I have read we’re written hundreds of years ago, and even though the practical application of Zen still applies (the fundamentals of Zen Buddhism are still the same), it can be difficult at times to relate my experience of life to the authors (seeing as it was written so long ago). This, of course, was not the case in Hardcore Zen.

Written by an old school punk rocker this book was definitely up my ally. From growing up in a small town, to making Japanese monster movies, this book has it all. It’s like reading a light autobiography with gems of Zen scattered through out. From thoughts on Gene Simmons to rants about Ken Wilber (which I think was my favorite part of the book, not so much that he was ranting about Ken, but just my own internal realization of how it was pushing me out of my comfort zone to read it). Honestly, out of all the books I saw in the Zen section of Chapters this was the only one that truly stood out for me, and for good reason.

One other section worth mentioning is the chapter on drugs and spirituality, and I must admit, I don’t think I could agree with Brad (the author) more on the subject… It comes down to this. If you’re gonna do drugs, do them and have a good time, but be honest with yourself in as far as the fact that you are doing them to get fucked up. Don’t go running around using mushrooms or acid as an excuse to experience being one with the universe. I remember a group of friends of mine that would all drop “XTC” and run around talking about how they were experiencing “God” when they did drugs. I personally think that’s a crock a shit. So if you’re gonna do drugs, then do them for the real reason, don’t use the lie of spirituality and experiencing god as an excuse to have a good trip.

In a nutshell thats Hardcore Zen. Go pick up a copy of and take a read, its great for people just getting interested in Zen and for those who have been practicing and want a fresh outlook on modern day aspects of the tradition. If you really enjoy it you can join me in reading the follow up book called “Sit Down and Shut Up”. It takes off right where the last book finished (in as far as the autobiographical aspects) and it also includes a translation/editorial on the Shobogenzo (google it) through out the book.

Hope you enjoyed my little review.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

Have you ever been to Venice Beach in LA? It’s like being at a Hippy Crafts Festival with thousands upon thousands of people walking along the street buying and selling crap that no one really needs… and oh yah, did I forget to mention all the Psychics and Tarot card readers? Haha, it was awesome! I must admit the beach itself was pretty damn sweet and all in all it was a fun experience. Los Angeles is a really cool place to visit but I doubt I could ever see myself living somewhere like that. The 16 lane highways are a little insane, and there are more people living in California than the entire country of Canada… I’ll pass on living in the population overload.

One cool thing while I was away was that I had an opportunity to take an entire day and write a new song on a George Benson acoustic guitar (Google it, it’s pretty sweet). The wonderful lady I stayed with for a couple days designed the pearl logo on the head the guitar so she got it for free and never really plays it, the axe just sits in the corner collecting dust all year… it’s sad when beautiful guitars never get played. I made up for lost time with the axe and now I too have a song that I can say I wrote in California, haha… lame.

Now that I’m back from Cali and Jay is back from Mexico we have a lot to finish up on, and more new stuff to record. We have made a decision about recording and writing though, and have set our self a time line to get the band back together. After these last few new songs are done we won’t be working on writing material any more, and we will be focusing on getting out there and playing our new material live. Even though it may take a little longer to have the new album out, that just means if you want to hear it, you’ll have to come see us play. Don’t worry though, we still plan on having a new album out this year… you may just have to see us live first before it is released.

And with that I’m crashing.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/