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5th Day of May

By Rob Drabble

5th of May5th Day Of May are old hands at Smokefreerockquest. The band, with different line ups, are on to their third Smokefreerockquest. The band currently consists of four members:

Adam and Lorenzo were in the original band line up.

The band played in the heats at the University ballroom on Sunday 16 May. In all, over Saturday and Sunday, there were 120 bands competing.

Bands were alllowed five minutes to play an original piece. 5th Day played their creation called Reality Wing and were the only band from Unlimited that got through. I sat down with three members of the band, all from Unlimited and we had a discussion where I asked random questions as I had left all my notes at home!:

What’s it like to play at Smokefreerockquest?
They said it's really scary and if you don’t get through you feel like you’re not good enough. In our heat there were 28 bands and to think they might be better than you. If you perform well though, you feel you might get through. It’s a great feeling after putting in lots of practice to make it through the heats.
Your band has an interesting name—why did you choose it?
We always tell people that it was the day in 1492 that Christopher Colombus landed in Jamaica. This is true but in actual fact they are lyrics in a Bob Dylan song. The lyrics are “I married Isis on the 5th day of May” and she is an Egyptian princess so we thought yeah that phrase sounds pretty cool and would be a great name for a band.
What would you call your style of music?
We would be Indie Alternative with some rock thrown in.
How long has 5th Day been together?
We’ve been together in total 2.5 years. Adam and Lorenzo have been in it from the start. Over that time there have been 13 members. Emma who is Adam’s sister has been playing with them for 1 year and Jamie has been a member for 5 months.
How often do you practice?
Adam: Since me and Emma live at home we practice every day. We practice with Jamie twice a week and Lorenzo about once a week.
Who writes the songs for the band?
Emma: Adam writes the songs and everyone contributes to them. Although we think in the future that we will all have a go at writing them.
Have you recorded anything?
Adam said Yes, but it was for CPIT to do a media project for MAINZ. So it wasn’t our own stuff.
Emma said yeah we cant wait to do our own stuff. That will be really cool.
Have you played anywhere else?
Yes—we have played at Zebedees (an all ages no alcohol club in Central Christchurch) and we played at the New Zealand Hot Rodders Convention at Rangiora in January.
What are your future goals for the band?
We want to win Smokefreerockquest and we hope to record some stuff sometime soon.

About 5th of May

Lorenzo, who is tall and lean, plays violin in the band. There aren’t a lot of Indie rock bands that have Violin players so I asked Lorenzo what it is like to play Violin for 5th Day of May.

He replied that “It's fun and not so strict like if I was playing more classical music. I can be much more expressive and put more energy in to it while playing live gigs”. Lorenzo has been playing for 10 years and is also a member of The Christchurch Youth Orchestra. When the band are playing Lorenzo really gets in to it and enjoys being able to add his flavour to the band.

I thought it would be interesting to get some insight from the band members about each other, so I asked them to comment on each other, about whatever they liked and give us a bit of a Bio.

Emma

Emma is 14 has been playing bass for two years. She played her first gig when she was 12 years old when she filled in for 5th Day of May who needed a bass player. Emma said she would really like to play on a roof like U2 did. Adam said that Emma is quiet and has really good ideas and is easy to work with. That’s some good praise from her brother! Emma said that she would like to play in a tree. That sounds tricky.

Adam

Adam is 16 and has been playing guitar for four years. He has been singing all his life and this year is taking lessons to improve his voice. Emma said he’s good looking and he can be crazy. Lorenzo said he’s absolutely mental and is very spontaneous. They both said he’s a good organiser and is great to play with.

Lorenzo

Emma said he’s good looking (spotting a pattern there) and has a nice deep voice. Adam said he’s very creative, friendly, funny and adventurous as he does lots of tramping and climbing. Lorenzo said he would like to travel with the band and go to Venice and hire a massive party yacht and play on that.

Jamie

Adam said that Jamie loved playing and wanted everyone to take more of a part in writing songs. He also likes to expose his tattoos and chest temples whenever he can. If you don’t know what chest temples are they start with N and end in e!

5th Day of May in action

I have seen 5th Day play on several occasions and they always put on a great performance and each member has their own individual style.

Adam as the frontman likes to leap around all over the stage and is very expressive in his singing and playing. Lorenzo has immense fun and gives the violin a real workout. Emma as the bass player stands back a bit but plays with confidence and seems to be serene. James the drummer, being a drummer, is full of energy and sometimes looks like he’s sparking.

Good luck in the Smokefreerockquest regional finals guys!!

June 2010