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Sean Vora - Guitar
Paul Klopping - Vocals
Nick Arora - Drums
Thomas Hsu - Guitar
Leedah Wong - Bass
Icenine formed, in whole as it is now (or was before we stopped playing together) in May of 2000.
We played at Mission San Jose High School (where we randomly attended class) three times during our Senior year
at the Charity Fashion Show, the Talent Show, and once as a lunchtime activity in our little auditorium.
Back in the day, what became icenine started with just Nick and Thomas playing guitar and drums in Nick's garage.
Sometime during sophomore year or so, I (Sean) started jamming with them for fun, and we eventually became a 3 piece
"band," playing for fun, and only wishing we could actually write lyrics to our "songs." We also managed to play with
anyone that wanted to. Eventually we somehow got Paul to play with us near the halfway point of our Junior year, and
were close to being a real band. Our friend Brian played bass with us for a little while, but schoolwork proved to be
time consuming, so he was unable to play with us for long (unfortunately). Luckily for us, Brian did manage to leave his
bass amp at Nick's house, and since Leedah lived about 100 feet away, Leedah quickly became our "bassist," that is to say
that whenever Leedah would remember his bass parts (or have us remind him what they were), and when he wasn't playing pool
or Nick's drumset, he was our bassist. Seriously though, he did do this. I'm not lying about this since it sometime took HOURS
to get Leedah back to his bass, but that's a different story. So, basically that was us through our Junior year in High School.
Once the summer before our Senior year came, we actually became a sort of a real band. Previously to this, we had basically been
a cover band, playing whatever songs we thought we could perform (with our own personal touches included, of course), which mainly
seemed to consist of Weezer (Blue album stuff). However, that summer seemed to change things since I think we finally got into
actual songwriting at that point. The rest is really a blur, however, caused mainly by hours of practicing incessantly combined
with random "Razor Scooter Jousting" sessions. However, when we actually managed to focus (which was usually obtained through me
either screaming at the guys, or using physical force to threaten them into playing) we came up with some fun, catchy stuff.
Once songs started getting made up, our creativity and songwriting ability seemed unstoppable, and we cranked out 5 songs in about 3
3 months of actual playing. Come March of 2001, we were able to record in Leedah's church, all 5 of us playing "live" in the same room
at the same time. This recording was....well, so-so, but most of us knew we sounded a LOT better than that. From then on is another
blur since that we all became decently busy, and quite involved in that whole Graduation thing that seems to happen to Seniors.
Well, once summer came we were all ready to play some more, and I was even looking into re-recording, but due to unforeseen
we were unable to play or record, since Paul had fallen ill. Luckily for Paul, and all of his friends too, he was OK, and is still
doing great today. This did dampen the recording aspects some, but we all somehow agreed to try recording over Winter Break.
During winter Break of our Freshman year in college, the guys in Icenine tried to do a decent recording of their stuff. Sean
(especially) had felt that their March recording didn't accurately represent what they truly sounded like, so he proposed they
record at his house. Sean actually managed to round up the gang to record, and in 2 gruelling days of recording and re-recording,
they had managed to record guitars and drums to all 5 of their songs onto Sean's 4-track. Now, Sean's plan was to take the individual
tracks from each song, and put them into his computer using his SONAR recording program that one of his Berkeley friends had given
him. However, through an error in recording onto the 4-track, all 3 of the instrument tracks were merged into one, so he was unable
to accurately adjust each song. Also, with the 4-track being as much of a punk as it is, Paul had a hard time recording vocals since
that it was hard to get timing down correctly due to delays, and also because each song had to be one perfect vocal take (tiring!).
Between conflicts in schedules, what with it being the month back home from college during winter break and all, and a difference in
when each member went back to school, recording efforts were abandoned, to be left (if at all) for summer break).
Once summer 2002 rolled around, Sean and Paul were really anxious to re-record, since they were both still unsatisfied with previous
recording efforts. Unfortunately, since Sean was planning on recording all of the material at his house directly to his computer
(bypassing the 4-track this time), recording was postponed due to a month and a half of travel on Sean's behalf. However, once
Sean got back from his travels, he decided that the one thing he wanted to get out of the remainder of his summer was a CD from
Icenine. Truth be told, Sean knew what had to be done, and due to the lazy/spacy/A.D.D. aspect of some of the band members, he
took it upon himself to spend the time to learn, and record, all non-drum and vocal parts. Well, he did it in about 2 weeks of
solid recording, day in and day out. He basically had everything down (except for the solo from Crutch, which Thomas happily
recorded), and once he was done, he called Nick over on several occassions to lay down the drum tracks. By this point, Paul
had become available, and was also very passionate about recording, so he came over and did vocal tracks. When all the recording
was done at home (Sean had to move into Berkeley), the songs were not complete - most songs still lacked vocal parts since sudden
illness had kept paul from finishing recording. Shortly after Sean was moved in to his place in Berkeley, Paul came up, and for a
gruelling 11 hours, he recorded (and re-recorded, and re-recorded) the vocals, and Sean did all the mixing. Paul went home with a
copy of the first mix of Icenine's debut album, I Want My Two Dollars. However, unhappy with the mixing, Sean went through about 5-10
more mixes before you have the low-level MP3 versions of their songs before you today.
Overall, Sean spent about 100-150 hours in total working on anything relating to the album, and all within the 3 weeks of summer before
classes started (and also including some remixing during the first week).
All music was written and performed by Icenine. All recording, production, mixing, mastering, and general mucking around was done at
Hairless Wonder Studios (aka, Sean's bedroom and dormroom) by that fun-loving bald guy himself, Sean (aka...me). Oh yeah, Sean also
put together this artfully masterful webpage, as the glorius interpretation of all that is holy and sacred to the band. Or, in other
words, Sean was bored one night, looked around for free webspace, and spent a good 3 hours doing this (instead of reading Dante's
Inferno for his Italian class), finishing at roughly 4am. So, you can credit me with this piece of crap of a webpage.
Back to the main page (where da music at)
email Sean for more info about Icenine, buying their CD, etc.