Fields of Green: Livin’ Sans Sleep

Last night we had the extreme pleasure of recording with the one and only, the grand, the gracious, G-G-G…arth Richardson. From 11Pm until 7:00AM we tracked and triumphed through a session that we can safely and surely say, we will never forget. What immediately struck us about Garth’s techniques were the efficiency and all-around professionalism surrounding his execution. We’ve never experienced such flow and comfort within a studio like we did under his vision. Simply put: Genius.

But now we’re running on no sleep and have class to go to. High School all over again, chuck. But much better… results are honest and useful… can’t get over how sweet a place this is.

- Connor

The Belle Game in the Studio…udio…udio…udio (echo)

It’s early morning here at RockRidge Canyon, in the Peak Performance Project Boot Camp. The Belle Game are weary travelers on the musical highway, threatening to fall asleep at the wheel after a night staying awake until 6AM. Look, it’s a deer! Yes, that’s Shawn Cole and his amazing Nimbus team, making sure you are alert and risking becoming roadkill in order to push you further along this musical highway. More music/road references. Something about rumble strips and roadsigns.

Before I talk more about the studio, I’ll start by describing Day 5 at Boot Camp. Day 5 was my favourite day as far as classes go. Today was all about publicity. Starting off the morning was Erin from Eek! and Ken from Killbeat who know a heck of a lot about the music industry. They set the stage for the day.

First, we attended Erin’s seminar. She has a wealth of knowledge, and delivers it poignantly with candid sarcasm that left me in awe of her brain. I just want to hug that brain. Next we chatted with Ken Beattie who is able to play with the big hitters in the Canadian music scene while coming across like the coolest, chillest guy that you’d ever want to have a beer with. He just… gets me.

Next, Scott from Warner Canada taught us that cows are branded, and that we should make a band logo and brand a cow. At first, I thought it was a silly ol’ idea, but then we tried it out and the cow’s friends were like “sweet tat, bro” so it was all ok. But in all seriousness, it was an interesting presentation about branding your band. This is how we branded Sex With Strangers: “a european fight club where school girl robots go to get empowered and deflowered.” Doesn’t that make you want to listen to their music?

Check out this photo of us. Check out my face (Andrew) – I’m like “wow you have really nice shoes – where did you get them?” Typical.

Finally, Jeff Rogers schooled us in the art of online media. He’s one of the key figures in AUX TV, which is awesome. Have you watched AUX TV? Do it.

So, back to the studio. Well, here’s a video that might explain the challenge better than these words could.

The Belle Game in the Peak Performance Project Boot Camp studio Usually, I would end a blog post with “Love you!!!! ^__^” but today, everything is noisy and the only thing keeping me going is Tamara Stanner’s chinjury and the fact that 100.5 The Peak’s own Cory Ashworth will soon be here. ~swoon~

-Andrew

Day 5 – We think….

The Peak Boot Camp Day #5.

Day #5 for us guys was one of the longest days we’ve ever had. After spending the entire night in the studio recording with our great friend Shawn Cole, we called it a night and finished recording our new song ‘The Sinking of The Greenhill Park’ at 6:30am. The recording process was an interesting one… setting up drums in the bathroom of one of our dorm rooms, and recording vocals in the hallway. But the end result was worth all of the yawning, and we’re super excited to hear the finished mix on Thursday.

At 7:30am the alarm went, and our hour long cat nap would have to see us through another full day of seminars and meetings. We dove head first into topics ranging from publicity to social networking, as well as branding and marketing. We managed to slip in a quick 20 minute nap by the pool, but by afternoon we were back on our feet and learning.

The night continued where the afternoon left off, and at 7:00pm we were treated to one of the best nights of music so far. Ashleigh Eymann kicked off the night in stunning fashion, and was followed by an incredible set by Jasper Sloan Yip. This is the first time that we were lucky enough to see each of these artists and they were both amazing. Redgy Blackout took the stage next and set the benchmark for all live shows (IMHO). They were energetic, their musicianship was top-notch, and above all there songs were infectious. Ending off the night was Acres of Lions, who picked up where Redgy Blackout left off, and wowed us all with an upbeat set of rock tunes. Definitely one of the most memorable nights of music that we have all witnessed lately.

So at 11:00pm, when all the shows were done and the crowds had dispersed, it seemed like a great time for us to get some shut-eye and catch up on some much needed rest. But no, we had booked our one and only rehearsal on the main stage since arriving, and at 11:30pm we took the stage for our last jam before our show tomorrow.

So here we are… at 1:00am… having managed to get a solid one hour of sleep in the past 40 hours. But what the hell… we wouldn’t rather be anywhere else doing anything else. So we aren’t complaining! Now to bed for a few hours rest before we rise tomorrow for another day of fun and excitement.

Till then…

The Matinee

PEAK BOOTCAMP day five already?

Yo yo yo. Aaron here. Day 846 of Peak boot camp.

It’s crazy how much we are learning. all those people who as a band you need to consider if you should hire… people who market, publicize, manage- or should I say ‘Mangan’age (does that count as a pun…? anyone?) – anyways, punctuation to sleep ratio aside, all those jobs I now know not only how they are done, albeit basically, but I know how they are basically done by the best in the biz. So we can take a bone-a-fied crack at doing those jobs b4 we fork over the dinero.

Today got us stoked on social media – Facebook has longed thrilled the very core of my soul but now I am excited by Twitter. And maybe I’m mistaking confusion for excitement because of distortion caused by too many luminous sound waves chasing my brain down my spine but who cares? Not me. The important thing is that I offing know what a HASH TAG is now bitches!

We’ve learned how to get publicity for ourselves… and really every single class is telling us the same hand full of key rules, which of course I can’t share with you here because they are secret. But wait, they’re not secret. It’s as if two handfuls of rules apply to every single situation, not just in music but in anything… 4 and 5th dimension thing, I’m just waiting to go to the woods for the shaman jam.

Dinner today was my fave. Don’t remember what it was but remember the feeling of utter satisfaction as it careened down my momentarily non vibrational pie-hole… oh yeah, there was pie.

Tonights showcases were Ashley Eymann, Jasper Sloan Yip, Redgy Blackout, and Acres of Lions.

Ashley’s sultry (officially first time I’ve ever used this word) and soulful rendition of Marley’s Soul Rebel made my blood go rummy.

A couple moments in Jasper’s set gave me the dagger of love.

Redgy came out and slashed my head clean off with that guitar riff in the first song and spent the rest of the set joyfully kicking it around the stage.

Acres of Lions put on school of rock, tambourine man style.

The energy is building every night, really stoked on tomorrows performances.

And all the sweethearts out here I am getting to know better.

Crumble on, fellow journeymen and women, crumble on.

-Aaron Boom Boom

Maurice at Peak Boot Camp: Catching Up With the No Sleep Club

So saying the last few days of Boot Camp have been hectic would be an understatement. As I write this I am on 45 minutes of sleep in the last 40 hours or so. I have basically been up for two days straight, but for the sake of this blog, I am going to try to keep this concise as my synapses aren’t firing like they should, and frankly I am not in my most loquacious state.

After the initial high of arriving in this wondrous paradise had truly set in, we were thrust right into the curriculum. It became quickly apparent to me how much I have to learn about the music industry, but also how appreciative I am to be in this position were I am gaining this truly valuable education and insight into my most cherished passion. Over the last couple days we have taken part in seminars and lessons from everything from branding, performance psychology, marketing, touring and legal advice, and so on and on. I have even learned something about how to blog! Thanks Christine! We have all been very diligent in twittering this week, and it was exciting to learn our hash tag #peakbootcamp is trending in Vancouver right now. Other hash tags have tried to been introduced from the hilarious to the romantic. Some of my favourites include #bootcampdrama #whatdoesnttmlove #bootcamplovetriangle and #campcrush. Yes, love is in the air here at rock ridge!

In the evenings we have seen some spectacular performances. In my mind I was trying to decide who my top 5 would be, but that has become increasingly difficult. On the second night of performances I had my mind blown by the Boom Booms. I have quickly fallen in love with them as people, their music, and I should also say I have a serious hard on for Aaron’s voice. So much soul. It breaks my heart and puts it back together in the best way possible. Tonight for me it was Jasper Sloan Yip. What a talented young man. Reminds me of a hybrid of Aidan Knight and Jeff Buckley. What a true pleasure and inspiration it is to be surrounded and embedded with so many talented and motivated artists, who I now consider to be my friends. I also cannot forget my island homies Current Swell, gotta love the swell, (although they haven’t performed yet), and my dear friend Lindsay Bryan. Really looking forward to Treelines, The Matinee, and Behind Sapphire. speaking of Behind Sapphire, I was just telling Matt about the four chord song. You should check it out too! pretty funny…

Last night I had the chance to perform, and I have to honestly say it was amongst the favourite performances of my life. I had been visualizing the performance for sometime, and I just felt so blessed to be performing for my friends in such an amazing location. The panel of judges were very kind to me, and so were my peers, post show. I was joined by Lindsay Bryan and Andrea and Katrina from The Belle game, as well Ted Gowans who was also performing with Lindsay and Rococode, who by the way kicked a lot of ass during their performance. I have had a number of their songs stuck in my head over the last few days, and I catch myself whistling the melodies to myself at verbatim. Immediately after our set, we were rushed up the hill to the dorm room recording studios to start work on our Vancouver 125 song. I shouldn’t even be complaining about my work load over this week, as I saw up there the engineers from Nimbus and the producers hard at work, GGGarth, Sean Cole, Warne Livesey, and Winston (who I have learned has developed somewhat of a man crush on me). They have been working into the wee hours every night, and I only had to do it once. Maurice drew Warne as our producer, and we couldn’t have been more pleased. What a fantastic treat that man is to work with. We had a blast and the song is sounding amazing! especially the drum and guitar sounds. The song is slowly morphing into a nu-age ACDC rock anthem. We are finishing the vocals and guitars tomorrow. I am very excited.

You can check out the pictures from my set and our recording session here: Thanks Christine again! You are beautiful!

We were also blessed with a visit from the man himself Mr. Jimmy Pattison who we owe so much to.

Ok, I think I need to go to bed now. That was the concise version.

Thanks for the Love

I’m not going to talk very much about food this time. Mostly because I didn’t eat dinner tonight. I can’t eat on days when I sing. I’m listening to ‘Kids’ by Maurice as I write. Follow this link and listen! I can’t get enough of it: http://soundcloud.com/wearemaurice/kids

We showcased tonight, finally. It went as well as it could have, I think. We played mostly new songs that have long, winding arrangements. Lot’s of parts. Far removed from the commercial verse-chorus-verse world of radio, but it was really well received. The judges gave us some great feedback, mostly directed at me. They unanimously agreed that I need to write more radio friendly songs. All of the artists have told me otherwise, but I see where the judges are coming from. This is a radio competition after all, and I want to get played on the radio, because one day I want to quit my day job once and for all. And who am I kidding; I love pop music.

I feel really good right now, I’ve been given a lot of love tonight, and I’m really grateful.

Here’s a quick little video of what I did today, goodnight.

DAY 5

DAY 5: LAURA SMITH — A DAY IN THE LIFE (BOOT CAMP EDITION)

DAY 4: SLEEPLESS PERFORMANCE PROJECT

We are a day behind on the blog here… so I will quickly recap the insanity of yesterday.

1.) We played (a “sensitive’) version of our Vancouver 125 song for the Honourable Mr. Jim Pattison. He said, “That’s not too bad.”

2.) We played our showcase. Judges said, “That’s not too bad.”

3.) We tracked with the legendary Garth Richardson until 5:30. We even recorded drums in the bathroom.
Check out the vid:

Not too bad.

The Oh Wells VLOG: Bootcamp #4!

Today, the Oh Wells learned about marketing, branding, and how to break into a car. We’d like to thank the Boom Booms for helping us out!

Redgy Blackout Showcase Night: Day 5

Today was our busiest day yet and it just flew by! We literally flew down one of the longest zip lines in North America this afternoon and it really got us jacked up for our showcase tonight at Boot Camp.  Take a look at our ride down the zip line!

I say Penticton in the video (just like I did on stage tonight) but I really mean Princeton. There are just too many P’s around this camp! In case you missed the show and might be wondering what we played… Here’s our set list from tonight.

1. Heartbeat
2. Peace of Mind
3. MGMT’s Time to Pretend
4. Midnight Lights
5. Alexandria
6. Bottom of the Sea

I need to take a second to say there are so many amazing bands here and we truly feel SO lucky to be here. I had a moment tonight during Jasper’s set… I think he was playing ‘shell’ (his second to last song) and the musicality of the moment just blew me away. All of the acoustic instruments playing together: guitar, banjo, violin and double bass… it was just perfect. I looked around at everyone else in the room and I felt so fortunate and happy to be here. Thank you everyone for your support.

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