Today my wife returned home after flying down to Wellington to be with her family and attend the funeral of her nana Mary Harmer who passed away just last Saturday night.

Mary was a lovely nan and the couple of times that I had the privilege of meeting her she showed me so much love and kindness, it’s easy to say that she will be greatly missed.

Rest In Peace.

I can’t believe how lonely I was by myself in our home and it was only 2 nights… 
This was the first time that I have been in our house without Helen, and I guess now I know how she feels when I go away on tour, it sucks!

My body didn’t even know what to do with all of the spare room in the bed and somehow I also kept sleeping through all of my alarms, even though I am normally the one who wakes her up each morning.

So glad to have her home with me, I’m such a wuss.

She even bought home Wholly Bagels, a huge bag full, sooooo good!
(5 slices of bread in every bagel… <—- this one’s for you xhaydenhorrorx)

Tonight we also went to a great little show in a small cafe/bar/venue in the city called ‘The Winemaker’s Daughters’.

It was an acoustic tealight show that drew little under 30 payers, an intimate vibe albeit one I am not used to with weird ‘in-between song banter’ from solo artists and a bunch of hipsters and indie scenesters gathered around drinking coffee and wine.

Helen and I had been planning to attend this show for a few weeks now, not only because our good friend Ben was in charge of helping out with the local show (part of a national tour of small venues and house shows) , but because it was headlined by none other than Arkansas, USA’s Bradley Hathaway.

I first discovered Bradley through the spirit-filled hardcore scene in the USA which I was following closely when he published his book entitled ‘All The Hits So Far, But Don’t Expect Too Much” which following it’s release saw him tour stateside alongside many Solid State Records bands such as The Chariot, As Cities Burn, He is Legend and Blindside among others.

He is recognised mainly for his poetry and spoken-word performances, but as of the last few years, also for his song-writing, in an eclectic folk-style mixed with many of his poems.

Although I am certainly no authority on the genre, nor do I even like this kind of stuff 99% of the time, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed his performance and look forward to seeing him again at this year’s Parachute Festival in Auckland which we will be playing at the end of this month.

He had a great personality and was a fun guy to chat with after the show, very down to earth and humble, also has great taste in hardcore (Bradley mentioned that he is a huge fan of the new Advent record… yes, you need to get that record).

Bradley Hathaway’s new record “A Mouth Full of Dust” is available now from his online store along with some sweet merch.

If you get the opportunity to see this gentleman perform, I suggest you go.

You are almost here and once again I have achieved only half of my year’s resolutions.

This year I promise you nothing.

Facedown Records premiered our brand new music video a couple of days ago on their official YouTube channel.

Pretty exciting to see so much great feedback .
Logan Swinkels did a great job editing ‘Unbreakable’ and we are please to say that he will once again be working with us alongside Anthony Plant on a new video for the album in 2010.

Looking forward to seeing this on TV in the next couple of weeks!

Last weekend my best friend Nick got married to his fiance Amy.
I was in the honorable position of best man (as was Nick at my wedding two summers ago).

It’s scary to think about how time flies and one second you are kids growing up discovering what life is all about, drinking the summer nights away and then the next minute you both have families and you’re in your mid-twenties.

The wedding was very awesome and a lot of great friends and family members of the bride and groom were there to make the special day just that little bit more amazing.

The service was held at Holy Trinity Church in Devonport followed by a reception at one of the most amazing penthouse cribs I have ever been at in Silverstream… It was Nick’s father in law’s sisters house and her bathroom was seriously the size of my house… like they even had one of those separate basins that washes your anus, euro steez.

Anyway, we had a great day and the bridesmaids looked beautiful as of course did Nick’s amazing wife Amy.

Here are a few shots of the boys getting ready in the morning whilst trying to keep the nerves under control…

There will be decent photos up courtesy of Ben Clement in the following few days.

Currently Nicholas and Amy Tautuhi are enjoying the fruits and roots of marriage at Hamner Springs in the South Island, it’s a beautiful place.

My band’s new album ‘Unbreakable’ is officially up for pre-order now from Strike First Records on the Facedown/Merchnow online store.

We have put a lot of work into this record and can’t wait for you all to hear it!We will be touring this album in the summer time here in New Zealand before making our way back to USA to see all of our extended family on tour in March.

Ordering a copy of the CD will automatically put you in the draw to win a one of a kind skateboard deck with amazing album artwork from the one and only Dave Quiggle.

I am really excited for everyone to see the art and layout on the CD. 
Dave has done an amazing job as always and we couldn’t be more happy with how the illustrations for the record turned out! Bringin’ back the original Facedown style in 2010!

There are numerous pre-order options available with a great chance to pick up some sweet new tee shirts also designed by Dave.

Thank you to everyone who support us and we hope that you are all as excited about the new album as we are.

There is so much exciting stuff happening with Saving Grace this summer.

We have a new record coming out in a few weeks on a label that we have looked up to, admired and listened to since we were kids growing up and getting into hardcore, we get to go on tour again all summer and play some of the biggest shows we have every played, we get to minster the truth and testimony of The Lord’s power, Grace and Authority in places and situations that a lot people are not be able to… the list goes on and on.

God constantly keeps blowing me away with how good He is to us, far beyond anything we could have imagined or dreamed of when we first started out.

This year with the new album we have been able to take everything to a new level, from the music and the production right through to everything associated with promoting the record and it’s release.

One thing that we have always wanted to do in the past, but never really could, due to time constraints and financial support was a video.

This time around we are fortunate to be in a better place with finances and opportunities.

On the 14th of November we shot the first video for the new album with Director Logan Swinkels and D.O.P. Ben O’Hanlen.

We were blessed to be able to shoot the video in our hometown of Gisborne City on a beautiful summer’s day and to have some of our best friends involved in the the shoot.

A huge thanks to all involved for making this an enjoyable process, even though it was a painstakingly long one… I don’t think any of us have ever been so physically and mentally exhausted after one day (or two if you like, considering we filmed the final take at 3:30am on Sunday morning).

You can expect to see the video premiere of ‘Unbreakable’ online via Strike First and Facedown Records in early December.

Below are a bunch of stills from both the day and night shoots taken by our great friend and amazing photographer Ben Clement at Some Hero Photography.

It’s simple.

Every day… no matter what tests I go through, no matter how “unintelligent” it makes me, no matter how much this makes you sick.

I am completely and utterly in love with my saviour.

24/7 365

Sometimes I can feel it calling my name… I have a problem.

Seriously I am so glad that there is no casino in Gisborne, because I would have gambled everything away.

Pray for me. Seriously.