Two Faced Serenade - I'm pretty proud of you

Hi Guys,

Today I am Going to focus my blogging attentions to a group of people who I am extremely proud of. If you hadn't guessed it by the title, that group of people is pop-punk band Two Faced Serenade.

Now here's a little background for those of you who don't already know; Two Faced Serenade are the band I manage, comprised of four very special, very talented people.

Two Faced Serenade went from a group of talented guys who rehearsed a lot and had some amazing, catchy tunes, to a band of talented guys who have a rapidly growing fan base, an EP, shows with bands that I've been following for years and more recently, an EP review in Hit The Floor magazine and airplay on AmazingRadio in what feels like the blink of an eye.

These guys have achieved so much in the past year, and I don't think my heart has ever been so ready to burst with pride in my life. Two Faced Serenade have worked their asses off to get to where they are and they are so incredibly dedicated, enthusiastic, open-minded and ridiculously talented. They have come so far since they started, rehearsing in a little studio and having some fun, to playing festive-all and releasing an EP that sold an incredible number of copies in the first instance.

When I started managing the band, I thought they'd probably get sick of me telling them what to do and tell me to fxck right off after a few weeks, but they didn't. I'm so grateful to be able to work (if that's what you want to call it ;)) with such incredible and talented guys who always make me feel like part of the team, even when I feel like I've done nothing to deserve it.

I'm so damn proud of everything they've done and how far they've come so far. It makes my heart fill up with stupid amounts of joy to see the number of people who support them and turn up at shows, buy the EP and the posters and watch the twitcams. To know that so many strangers are willing to take a chance on the guys because of their incredible music and talent (and yes probably their looks too) is a particularly weird, but also heart warming thought.

So, here comes the probably very soppy bit. A note to each of you:

Ryan: 
Oh dearest brother of mine, how far you have come. It seems like only yesterday you were going with dad to pick up that drum kit, bringing it home and playing it as if you'd been playing your whole life.. Okay well not quite. You're most definitely a natural drummer, but the very first time you played that kit was a terrifying moment (nah, just kidding). With that being said, you have worked your ass off over the past few years, honing and shaping your talent into something that is now a part of you. I still cannot quite believe (a bit like Mr Timn) how you have so much energy in you to be able to keep up with the pace of your own drumming for as long as you do. I'm so proud of you. I know I've said it a few times, but to see my little brother doing so incredibly well and making such a difference with his music is something incredible. I'm also so proud to see how you've grown as a person, how Past Ryan really is a thing of the past on most days, and how grown up you are now. Thank you for letting me be a part of this experience and for once actually listening to what I say.

Jack:
Well hey there pal. You may be the newest member of the band, and I may have only known you a few months (must feel like years to you by now ;D) but I have never seen someone walk into something and commit to it so fully in all my life. When you joined the band, it was obvious that you just fit in so well, and the four of you just clicked and gelled so well that it was like you'd been there all along. It was evident straight away that you belong with this band. Your musical skills are tremendous and it's obvious that you love what you do, and that makes me so happy to see, because whenever you have an instrument in your hand (lol) you just look so happy. I'm so glad to have met you through this band and I'm so grateful for all the times you've been there for me. You're a marvellous person and an incredible friend. I'm so proud to see how far you've come with the band so far, and I'm so excited to see what comes next.

Dylan:
Well, you're quite a funny soul young man. You never fail to make us all laugh with your sarcasm and your off-hand comments and that is something that I definitely value in another human being. I'm so proud of how far your vocal has come along since the band really started to kick off. It's obvious that you've worked at it, and to see how that pays off is incredible. You're an incredible guitarist and to be honest, I don't think I'll ever understand how guitar works, which is why I should probably leave it up to you professionals ;). I'm so glad that you've accepted me as part of the tfs family, thank you for making me feel welcome.

Ellis:
Bloody hell, right, here we go. ;)
You're last, but definitely not least. I figured I'd probably end up writing about four million pages for you so I should probably make sure there's room. I'm always going to be biased (wheyyy) when it comes to you, we all know that. It was probably a year and a half, nearly two years ago now probably that I met you one random day when Ryan introduced you as what was then Seeing Other Sides (lol) new guitarist. I've told you many a time that I was incredibly intimidated by you that day, but I still couldn't explain why. That's definitely not the case now, if it were I don't think we'd be where we are, would we? Anyway, you and your genius, talented little self were a godsend. Your songs brought the band to life and gave everyone a chance to really show their true potential. You know I'll always be your number one fan, but what you don't know is that I was your number one fan long before we really got to know each other. Every time I stopped by a rehearsal, every time I heard the band playing one of your songs, it would get stuck in my head for days at a time I just couldn't shake it. It was then that I knew you had something special. It's not just a talent, or dedication that makes you as amazing as you are. It's a gift. Your ability to write songs that are so catchy and so relatable whether they are fast or slow is something I've never seen in another person. Watching you sit and play guitar and come up with a new song there and then is something I have admired since we became close and something that still mesmerises me to date. To see how far you've come with the band, to see how far your enthusiasm and optimism stretches is a wonderful thing to witness and to hear your song on the radio, or see your songs being written about makes me insanely happy. I'm so proud of how hard you've worked on your vocal, and how far it's come, and I'm so proud of everything you've achieved so far, not just with the band, but as a person. We've had our ups and downs, both alone and together, but we've always come out of it maybe better. I am so grateful to know you, I am so grateful to have you in my life and to be able to share the things and experiences that I get to share with you. I'm grateful for all of our stupid, private jokes, I'm grateful for the songs we've written, the moments we've shared and I'm grateful for all the times you've pushed me to reach my full potential when I don't think I can. I'm so proud of everything you've done and everything you are. Thank you for everything.

Two Faced Serenade:

I love the bones of you boys, I'm so proud, I'm so grateful and I'm so looking forward to standing by you while you reach new heights, not only as a band, but as individuals too.

Thanks for reading.

(Un)happy go (un)lucky and the snoozer of the alarm.

Hello my loves,

I'm in class right now and it would probably benefit me to be doing something other than blogging, but anyone who knows me will know that when the writing bug strikes, I must bow down to the urge.

I have had the unluckiest morning.. You know the ones I'm talking about.. Where everything that can go wrong does? Well, let me begin by mentioning that I had a crappy nights sleep and I have no idea why but it does mean that I currently have more bags than Tesco's under my eyes.. Now I'd say that this lack of sleep was what caused me to over-snooze my alarm, but I'll be honest, and some of you know this already; I am an alarm snoozing fiend. I can snooze that alarm anywhere from twice to fourteen times in any given morning and it's quite a ridiculous and very bad habit to keep.

Due to my snoozing, I managed to get up approximately nineteen minutes late and discovered that the leggings I wanted to wear were still damp (cry) so I had to pick up an incredibly thin, worn pair that definitely would not keep me warm for the day. From here my bathroom routine went pretty well, I thought 'hallelujah! Things are looking up, I can brush my teeth without running into danger!', but then came the attempt to straighten my hair. I began to glide the tongs down the length of my glossy hair (thank you Alberto Balsam, you genius), only to realise (eventually) that I never actually turned my straighteners on. I corrected the mistake and was actually pretty proud of how straight I managed to get my unruly hair to go. By this point I realised I had ten minutes left before I had to leave and still had my Pj's on. I'll skip the next ten minutes as long story short, I had to skip breakfast and we all know how cranky I get when I don't eat.

I left the house only to be met with a cold shower from the heavens above and rushed to find shelter so that I could retrieve my umbrella, which is a pile of shit. The arm thingies (you know what I mean) on my umbrella bent out of shape as I opened it and I was definitely not impressed. I tried my best to hold that horrible piece of not-very-waterproof material over my head as I trudged to the train station, but the cars and buses that drove by me and watched as I struggled only wanted to add to my pain and torment by driving through the puddles at the side of the road to soak me in the muddy ice water that lurked there.

By the time I reached the station, I was cold, I was soaked through and I just wanted to cry, but the man in front of me at the ticket machine still decided that he wanted to fumble with his change and cancel his tickets four times before he actually managed to buy his tickets and leave me enough room under the shelter so that I could buy my tickets in the dry.

By this point I was fed up, and so I thought to myself 'what will make this day better?' and I took my luck into my own hands.

The day has lifted slightly now, owing mostly to my seemingly ever-present saviour and his ability to make me smile even if we only see each other for a few minutes, the promise that lunch time will be great and the fact that my one to one tutorial went well this morning although there was one pressing point I didn't get to mention which has worried me slightly, though I'm sure I can probably find a way to deal with that next week hopefully.

My first lecture is an hour and ten minutes away from ending and I've been tapping away at this blog surreptitiously for nearly two, so I suppose it's probably time for me to wrap it up. At least my lecturer has decided that my work is worthy of more than a few words now anyhow.

Thanks for reading you beautiful creatures.

Girls like hands.

Hello my loves,

Today's post is about a subject that is very dear to my heart; hands. Now bare with me while I explain that I'm not just completely mental and that the constant upbringing of the subject of good hands between me and my girl mates has encouraged me to write this blog trying to explain what it is about guys hands that we love so much.

Let me begin by mentioning that when it comes to hands, I'm sorry lads, but size does matter. Us girls, or at least me and my friends anyway, enjoy large hands. There's just something about them that makes us crazy. We love the way your long fingers wrap around the glass you're drinking out of or loosely hold your phone as you scroll your facebook feeds, and yes, musicians, we like the way your fingers move as you play guitar, hold a mic or drumsticks etc. We even like the way you hold the play station or Xbox controller as we pretend to understand the game you're playing. We really don't mean to be weird, and we certainly don't mean it in a dirty way (at least mostly), we just enjoy your hands. It's like our brains are wired to notice these little things and we really can't help it, we promise. All we ask is that you're careful how you use those weapons of mass soul melting, because quite frankly, if you're not careful we find ourselves suddenly jealous of inanimate objects, and don't pretend you didn't notice, because you then pick up those objects twice as much, making sure we're watching.. Or at least some of you do.

Maybe writing this post and alerting the male population to our cryptonite wasn't my best plan, but please bare in mind that this blog is subject to opinion of a small group of ladies and does not necessarily apply to all women. This blog was a lighthearted piece of fun, so please don't read too much into it (punny, right?) or get offended by my confession that some of us girls shamelessly ogle guys hands.

Thanks for reading ;)

Friendships to hold dear.

Hello my loves,

I'm really getting back into blog writing recently, but as usual, there is no continuity between my posts.

Today I was going to write about the summer, but after almost completely finishing the post, I decided to write more about the friendships that were formed over my summer instead of just that vague topic of 'summer'.

I recently said that this past summer was the best of my life, but it wasn't because the weather was good or because I did anything particularly life changing, it was because I somehow ended up forming one of the best and craziest friendship groups consisting of myself, my brother Ryan, his girlfriend Lily, and his best friend Ellis. At first, I'll be honest, I did think I might end up being a bit of a fourth wheel or the odd one out, but that didn't happen at all, in fact, I can safely say that I now proudly call Ellis my best (guy) friend and that I actually probably spend more time hanging out with him than I do with most other people. I don't know how or why it happened, but we just seemed to click, we get each other and now we even say the same things at the same time and probably finish each others sentences.

This summer taught me that you can form friendships in the most unlikely places and that those friendships can become the very thing that hold you together when you feel like your whole world is falling apart. We did a lot this summer, from bowling, to bathtub shots, to camping, to just hanging out and watching movies, and when the summer ended, that didn't end. Our bond as a group only gets stronger, and our bonds within our separate friendships only grow stronger too.

I'll keep this short and hopefully a little less sweet as I'm far too sentimental to begin with, but more than anything, I'm glad that this summer gave me the opportunity to experience such an overwhelming love for another person and for a group of people that will hopefully be in my life for a long, long time.

Thanks for reading,

Alie :) .xo

Lime Crime Velvetine: Red Velvet Review | HeyyItsAlie

Hello my loves!

I decided to do something a little different today as usually I just rant or fret or talk about music, but I thought why not post a review? Some of you may know that I post beauty videos amongst other things on my youtube channel (www.youtube.com/heyyitsalie - shameless plug) so I thought why not review a product that I've had sitting around for months and not had a chance to use?

I'll start with a little back story: I originally got the Lime Crime Velvetine Red Velvet lip stain for christmas last year (2013 for anyone reading this quite far into the future) and although I've worn it a couple of times, I haven't really had a chance to give it a full outing, until last night that is. I decided I wanted to at least try to impress someone, and so as I stared into the jumbled mess that is my lip box, my eyes fell upon Red Velvet, sitting not so innocently in it's gorgeous packaging, daring me to give it go, all for impressive purposes of course.

Outer Packaging.

Tube.

I started off by applying a cheap drug store lip pencil in a similar colour so that I could get the true outline of my lip shape. Next I went in with Nivea's hydrocare lip balm which is literally one of my favourite inventions on this earth, and then I finally began to apply Red Velvet. I'll add here that less is more with this product. From previous experience I knew to relieve the applicator of most of the product otherwise it just goes everywhere and you tend to just give up and go with a regular, boring and quite frankly less sexy lippie. Anyway, I followed the shape of my lips and filled in the blank space and after a few moments of tidying the edges, I was pretty much set.

Right before I left, I decided to add Nivea's hydrocare lip balm over the top as well as underneath as the product felt quite drying and I was paranoid about it flaking or cracking throughout the night.

Once dry, Red Velvet feels silky smooth to touch (I did a survey ;)) and looks gorgeous on. It is highly pigmented and shows no signs of shifting throughout the night, even after a cheeky maccies and a few nervous lip bites.

Over all, I actually adore this product. It's sexy, light and actually smells delicious too. I probably wouldn't chance it without some kind of lip hydrator either underneath or over the top, but the staying power is absolutely amazing, and if I gave it a rating it would be 9/10/

Life saving Nivea hydrocare lip balm.

Red Velvet with hydrocare underneath

Red Velvet with Hydrocare underneath and on top

Red Velvet with hydrocare underneath & on top + cheeky insta filter.

Thanks for reading!

Alie :) xo 

All is fair in love and war but really I can't take much more.

I don't know where to begin really. I haven't posted a rant or a personal blog on here in a long time, but I just feel as if getting back to blogging might be nice.

Recently I have been conflicted, once again. I really don't know what to do for the best. I have a situation, and like with all situations, it is a complicated one. I just don't know where my head is at or what I should be doing. I know deep down that what I want to do is get my brave on and just shout how I feel from the rooftops, but an unfortunate thing happened a few years ago and now I find myself terrified to utter the words. I don't personally think they'll do any good anyway, but then again, my apparently very low opinion of myself could possibly adding to the anxiety I feel when I contemplate biting the bullet and just going for it.

Now you've probably figured out what I'm talking about by now, so I'm not going to elaborate through fear of being found out, but I really needed to vent and get it out. Quite frankly, in my own head I feel as if I can't compete and that is another thing that is definitely getting in my way. To myself, I feel as if I am not good enough to even attempt what I want to attempt, and I find myself in a vicious circle where I constantly end up getting myself hurt because I was either too brave, or not brave enough. I wish things were easier. I wish that for once, the thing that I want would just come to me instead of me having to fight tooth and nail for it like I've had to my whole life. Deep down, I just want things to go the way I want them to go because if they do, I'll be the happiest girl alive.

Thanks for reading my ridiculous ramblings,

Alie. xo

Two Faced Serenade @ Chinnery's 12/09/14

Hey Everyone, 

I know it's been a while and I've completely neglected this blog as of late, but to be perfectly honest, I just didn't feel like I had anything much worth saying, but now I do, so here it goes. 

Please brace yourselves as the following blog may contain small traces of fangirl. 

So of course I would kick-start this old blog with a post about music, but this post is more than just a review of a band or a gig for me as the band it is about is one I am very heavily invested in (you kind of have to be if your little brother and best friend are actually in the band). 

Now, readers, if any of you still even follow this blog after I so rudely neglected it, this band I want to write about today is called Two Faced Serenade (there will be links below so please make sure you check those out). Two Faced Serenade have been described as many things, the most recent of which being 'energetic edgy punk' and I really think that term is probably the best I've heard so far. As someone who has the rare privilege of tagging along to rehearsals once in a while, it's easy to grow used to seeing the music played 'live' as such, but what rehearsals don't prepare you for is the sheer brilliance of a band when under the spotlight. 

Last night (12/09/14) Two Faced Serenade played at Chinnery's in Southend and my god was it good. The other bands on the bill were all brilliant which is a rare thing for me to say about a gig with more than a couple of artists, but I could hardly contain my excitement for the last band on; TFS. The night rushed by in mostly a blur for me as I hung out with my pals and waited for the big moment where I would see my friends up on stage. I'll admit, I went a little overboard getting them to sign pretty much anything that was sign-able and I'm sure the home-made T-shirts we made to support them went down an absolute treat, but no part of the night compared to the moment when the guys went up on stage to set up and the rest of the posse, including myself, went to stand at the very front so we could get the perfect view.

As they started playing the first song I could hardly contain myself and the fangirl squeals that were rising in my little throat. From that moment onwards, TFS's set was a whirlwind of energy, jumping and down-right brilliant music. The songs are catchy and completely unforgettable, sticking in your head like you wouldn't even believe, and the new songs also sounded freaking awesome, even if one of them was almost completely off-the-cuff. TFS managed to get every single person moving right from the get-go and were one hundred percent on form throughout their set. They interacted with the crowd, played their hearts out and it was completely obvious that they were having the time of their lives which is always lovely to see. Their songs are full of heart and life and sound incredible with a crowd clapping along and screaming for the band afterwards. 

I may be biased but I'm giving those guys a Freaking-Incredible-Out-Of-10 for their performance, energy, musical talent, charisma and of course, songs. 

Make sure you check out the links below to follow the band on twitter, like them on facebook, sub to them on youtube and whatever else, and definitely look out for their Acoustic EP which should be coming out soon. 

https://twitter.com/@Official_tfs_
https://www.facebook.com/TwoFacedSerenade/info
https://www.instagram.com/twofacedserenadeofficial
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4FZZZ_Zw3bjyp5SOQjG2w

Thanks for reading,

Alie xo.