Sound Off Finals This Saturday!

Hey everyone,

So I have no idea how it happened, but we won our Sound Off semi-final! It was by far the most fun we’ve ever had playing a show, and certainly the best performance we have put on as a band. It wasn’t looking good, as the night before we had played a terrible show and we hadn’t once gone through our set perfect, but it all came together when it mattered.

A big part of that was the crowd, and the credit goes to all of you. Thanks so much for coming out to see us, I can’t emphasize enough how much of a difference it makes to have such supportive fans. Maybe it’s our fault as a band for not being able to be “on” in any type of crowd, but it really made a huge difference in our performance to have such a great audience. Thanks again guys, because of you we went on to the finals, of that there’s no doubt in my mind.

The finals is this Saturday at 8pm, and since every band is so good the crowd response is going to most likely be the decision maker, so I hope you guys can make it! You can buy tickets at the door, but it sells out pretty much every year so I’d buy them in advance by calling 206-770-2702.

Hope to see you guys there!

- Ryan

Interview with Apache Chief

So unfortunately I didn’t get many responses, but I’ll be posting the ones I did get up until this Saturday. This one was from the band with undoubtedly the craziest/coolest fans, Apache Chief. Although they did not make it into the finals, they definitely killed it onstage. Without further ado:

How did you all meet?
5th grade in NERD CLASS.
How long have you been a band?
A few months with this lineup.
What are your biggest influences?
Pizza, slabs of meat, milkshakes, porn
How do you write your songs? What do you find important when writing a song?
Is it heavy? Is it fun? Is it loud? Is it evil?
How do you record?
With our friend Sam.
What’s your favorite record right now? Of all time?
Dubside of the Moon
Who’s your favorite local artist?
Red Hex or Sugar Beats and Durango95
What’s the weirdest/craziest/best live show you’ve played?
We played in an antique store with a jazz and spoken word band opening for us.
What are your practices usually like?
Unstructured and upstairs
Any plans for the future?
Yes.

Short, but awesome nonetheless. What I wouldn’t have given to be at that antique store show. Thanks to Apache Chief and good luck with your future endeavors.

thisiswhyyourefat: Mountain Harbor Inn Brownie Stack Three balls of vanilla ice cream atop a 4 inch thick chocolate brownie, covered in hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and topped with a cherry. (submitted by Geni Mermoud via The Mountain Harbor Inn) WANT

thisiswhyyourefat:

Mountain Harbor Inn Brownie Stack

Three balls of vanilla ice cream atop a 4 inch thick chocolate brownie, covered in hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and topped with a cherry.

(submitted by Geni Mermoud via The Mountain Harbor Inn)

WANT

Press!

A very flattering review from the Weekly Volcano:

“Reflecting the grandiose name, Great Waves give titles to their songs like “The Moon and the Gutter” and “Konza Plains.” In turn, the epic titles are reflected in the band’s, truly, quite awe-inspiring music- songs that are as impossibly huge as the images the titles conjure up.”

Read the rest of the article

Interview with Candysound!

So I thought it might be fun to interview all the Sound Off! bands this year, asking them 10 questions. I’ll usually be posting them days leading up to the semi-final they are in, but I sent the questions out a little late for the first one. I’ll be posting them as they come in, and one of the first ones I got was from our friend Teo from Candysound.

1. How did you all meet?
2. How long have you been a band?
Tom and I played in bands in high school/college and knew each other through those shows/parties, and about six months ago we realized that we really wanted to do music much more seriously than we had been.

3. What are your biggest influences?
Jazz, punk, lo-fi music… hip hop, gospel, and indie… we play a lot of sounds off our ipods because the van rides are long…

4. How do you write your songs? What do you find important when writing a song?
Though they usually start off as an acoustic demo, the songs are taken apart and reconstucted to work for two people with Tom and I discussing what we like/don’t like, and then rewriting. A lot of songs still seem to be in progress.

5. How do you record?
Wherever, whenever we can. At home on laptops individually, and we’ve gone into the studio twice - once w/ Bob Biknell at Bikbilt Studios, and once with James Moffitt (of Mouseheart Factor) at The Rattle Room.

6. What’s your favorite record right now? Of all time?
I can’t answer for Tom, but know he’s been listening to a lot of A Tribe Called Quest, and I’ve been listening to this Portland band called Woods. We also really like Mazzy Star’s first album (hoping to start a Mazzy Star cover band soon).

7. Who’s your favorite local artist?
The Oregon Donor, The Cat From Hue, The Ronz, The Masques, Maple Nightingale, Great Waves, Lonely Forest, The Globes, Council of Lions, Cumulus… this list goes on, we’re surrounded by a lot of incredibly talented people!

8. What’s the weirdest/craziest/best live show you’ve played?
Night’s at The Hell House are always epic.

9. What are your practices usually like?
Intro Jam / Drink Newcastle / Run Through Set / Drink Newcastle / Work on set or new songs / Drink Newcastle / Finish with me destroying Tom at Call of Duty, though he may deny this.

10. Any plans for the future?
West Coast Tour, March 19th - 28th!

Update #6 - Show Recap, Cancelled Show, Sound Off, New Shows

So I’m just going to change these to “Updates” instead of “Weekly Updates” because clearly that’s not happening. So first thing’s first, The LAB show. It was really amazing from start to finish, it was definitely the best show we’ve been a part of. Big thanks to Teo Crider, Sadie Ava and Us On Roofs for making it so badass. And thanks to everyone who came to the show, some people said some really nice things and it means a lot that you guys enjoyed the show.

Speaking of shows, unfortunately we’re going to have to cancel the Ground Zero show. We are pretty squeezed for time with Sound Off coming up, as we’re practicing 4+ hours a day and we can’t afford to lose a week preparing for the show. Also, Elliot and David can’t make it so it would be a half-hearted show at best anyway; big apologies to Ground Zero and anyone in Bellevue who was psyched to see us. We’ll be playing there sometime after Sound Off I’m sure.

Like I said, we’re practicing like crazy and deep into songwriting mode. We’re in the process of writing 4 new songs to try and make our set the best it can be, and we don’t write songs that quickly so it’s a bit of a time crunch for Sound Off. Luckily we were put in the last semi-final, so I think it’s definitely do-able.

Speaking of Sound Off preparations, we have 4 shows planned in the last two weeks before Sound Off, three in Seattle and one in Bellingham! We’re excited to go there, Paul especially as he was attending Western before we all took the year off, and is a popular comedian there. Here are the shows:

- Thursday, Feb. 18th - The Den
- Friday, Feb 19th - WhAAM with A Cozy Kitchen and Candysound
- Thursday, February 25th - The Cake Room with Sea Fever, Us On Roofs and Brooklyn Pool
- Friday, February 26th - The Ballard Mine

and of course the big one - Saturday, February 27th is Sound Off! Tickets are on sale now and they WILL sell out - they’re not even selling them at the door so visit the EMP or call 206-770-2702. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for students or EMP|SFM members.

Oh! Big announcement! I am proud to say that we have our music now on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and many others. So if you haven’t bought our debut release Blue Blood EP go do so!

That’s pretty much it for now, I probably won’t be posting that much until late February but I might try to have some “Update”-unrelated posts, just general music industry stuff or maybe a little Great Waves FAQ. Got a question for Great Waves? Band history/gear/whatever send it to greatwavesband@gmail.com. Have a good one guys.

- Ryan

Show Update!

OK so we have some changes for tomorrow’s show at The LAB, but I think you guys will like them so hoooorayyyy!

Anywho, unfortunately A Cozy Kitchen had to cancel the show but we lucked out and got not one but TWO replacements! We were lucky enough to know the nicest people on earth, Us On Roofs, so they’ll be playing with us and they’re awesome so we’re excited to have them aboard. I am also really excited for our other replacement act, Sadie and The Crooked Road. I discovered her myspace when she was just Sadie Ava and she is crazy talented so I’m pretty psyched to play a show with her as well.

Alright guys, so try and be there if you can, I really do think it’s the best bill we’ve ever been on and I’m pretty excited for it. Show starts at 7pm with Sadie and The Crooked Road so be there right at the beginning!

Excited to see you guys there!

Weekly Update #5 - Sound Off! Meeting, KTUB Show

So last Sunday we had our big Sound Off! meeting with the other bands participating, and it was definitely a good learning experience. There was a panel of EMP employees working on Sound Off who briefed us on what to expect, and then a panel of Jason Finn (drummer, Presidents of The USA), Kerri Harrop (manager of Mad Rad), and Michael Jaworski (Virgin Islands, founder of Mt. Fuji Records) moderated by Ben London of Grammy U filled us in on what it takes to make it in the industry today. They talked a lot about how important having a community around you is, touring (“you’re going to be sleeping on a lot floors” - Jason Finn), and their personal histories.

During the break we had a meet and greet, and good god am I horrible at meet and greets. Fortunately for me (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I was with a bunch of musicians, and musicians aren’t really known for their social graces. Don’t get me wrong, everyone was very nice (especially Us on Roofs, possibly the nicest people I’ve met in my life), but this is how the average conversation went:

Me: “Hey guys I’m Ryan from Great Waves, what band are you guys from?”
Them: “We’re from (band name) we really like/love/dig your music”
Me: “Thanks man, you guys are great as well!”
Them: “Thanks a lot”
(Awkward silence)
Me: “Soooooo…”
Them: “…Yeah”
Me: “OK” (smiles awkwardly, slowly backs away)

God I’m awkward. Whatever, at least I wasn’t as bad as some of my bandmates, who conveniently all had to go to the bathroom right as we were encouraged to meet the other bands cough cough PAUL WILL ELLIOT cough cough. Nice one guys.

We also had a show last night, the ACOUSTAX show at KTUB, and well…it wasn’t our best show in the world. That’s ok though, I’d rather be working out the kinks over a month before Sound Off instead of a week before, and Chris the guy in charge of booking was very gracious and nice so it’s always worth it to meet guys like that.

Anyway, we have a really awesome show next week with Sound Off bands Candysound and A Cozy Kitchen so you should really try to make it out. It’s this Saturday, January 23rd at 7pm at The LAB.

That’s it for this week guys, have a good one.

- Ryan

Show Recap: Bop Street Records 1/8/10

So yesterday we had our first show as Great Waves, and I have to say that I’m pretty pleased as to how it went. Don’t misunderstand, we were RUSTY! It definitely was less put-together than I would like our live show to be, but it wasn’t bad for our first show in 6 months, and it was a good learning experience.

I guess I learned that I need to prepare for gigs better - I was stressed and scrambling 4 hours before the show to burn the CDs we needed, and then at the show I didn’t bring a table to put the merch on so it was a little difficult to get our stuff anyway! Oh well, I guess that’s stuff you just learn by doing. I was reading an article by The Last Psychiatrist and he talked about the necessity of actually DOING the creative act instead of simply preparing for it. Although he uses a rather crude example (masturbation vs. actual sex), his point was that you can prepare all you want for something, but doing it causes you to deal with things you could not or simply didn’t know to prepare for - that’s why we’re doing so many shows up to Sound Off! If we just worked our live show in a room for 2 months, we wouldn’t be nearly as good because we’re too inexperienced to know what exactly to prepare for - we have to learn by doing.

Anyway, the show was looking pretty grim at even 7:45, with 15 minutes before showtime the only people there were 3 of Ashley’s friends and a man who I can only conclude had some sort of mental illness by the eerie moans and strange noises he was making mere feet away from us - awkward to say the least.

However, people started to pile in one by one and by the time our set ended I would say there was 30-40 people in there, which was pretty damn cool. Which brings me to a thank you: thank you to all our friends and fans who have come to so many of The Matirns’ shows and that showed up for this one. It was pretty disheartening when we thought we were only going to place to 3 people, when everyone started to show up it really made a huge difference in the band morale. You guys really have been there for us and I can’t tell you how much it means to be able to count on your fans to show up and cheer you on.

Have a good weekend everyone.

- Ryan

Weekly Update #4 - Shows, Interview, Honing our Live Show

FIrst off, we have 4 shows this month:

- January 8th at Bop Street Records 8pm FREE
- January 15th at ACOUSTAX! at KTUB 8pm $6
- January 23rd at The LAB 7pm $5
- January 30th at Ground Zero 8pm $6/$5 with a can of food

They should be pretty good, we’ve got some new songs and these will be the debut shows with our full live band so it should be a good time.

Ashley and I also did an interview for QRO magazine, so check that out.

Not much other news, we’ve been busy writing new songs, we’re trying to have a pretty new set for Sound Off. Will’s been using Sibelius and writing out the parts, as we’re looking for a more dense orchestration for the next EP and it’ll be nice to give the strings players’ a write out of what they need to play instead of having to work it out in the studio and waste time doing that. This brings the added bonus that we may have chart music for the EP, which is cool.

We’ve also been working on our live show. It’s pretty funny, we’re practicing our stage moves (as lame as that sounds) in a room where it’s just us so we all feel pretty awkward at times. If you think about it, the stage is one of those places you can do things that would be pretty weird offstage - I mean c’mon look at Thom Yorke, he does the goofiest stuff on stage but it works for him - so when you don’t have the liberating presence of the stage it feels funny to pretend. We’re still trying to figure out what kind of band we want to be.

At the Grammy U songwriting contest, John Roderick talked about the 4th wall, how there are some bands that intentionally break that wall and make the audience feel like they are not only spectators, but a part of the show - a good example of this would be Ben Folds, who often has the audience sing harmonies or horn parts, or a local example would be The Lonely Forest, with the charismatic leadership of frontman John Van Deusen. On the other hand, there are some bands that keep that wall completely intact - a good example of this would be Of Montreal, a band that has costumes and stage personas and everything, or the local band The Globes, who speak very little and simply put on a spectacular show. The audience isn’t a participant but simply a spectator. The problem that bands run into is when they are unable to choose what kind of band they want to be, when they initially try and keep a 4th wall but inadvertently break it and then try to erect it again. So I guess that’s where we are at the moment. We would ideally like to keep the 4th wall intact, but we have to make our transitions better if we want to be successful. Luckily, we have 2 months and 5 shows to get our live show where we want it to be for Sound Off.

So that’s it for now. January 10th we have our big Sound Off meeting, so I’m pretty excited to meet all the other bands and see what exactly is in store for us. It’s a huge opportunity to even be accepted into the final 12 so we’re incredibly honored. Hope to see you guys at some shows!

- Ryan

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Themed by: Hunson