Countdown to Recording: 8 Days

So it’s REALLY coming down to the wire at this point, but I think we’ll pull through. We’ve revised “Castle Rock” (again, not the real title), and we’ve got a good first draft of our last song for the EP, which we’ve named “Howl”. We also have a tentative name for the EP: Heartthrob. Since Ashley named the song “Hours”, Paul named the song “Howl”, and Will named the EP “Heartthrob”, I guess the retitling of “Castle Rock” is now up to me. I suppose I should make it something that starts with an “H”. Hellion? Harbinger? Hambone? OK probably not the last one.

We’ve also been talking about the overdubs we want to do after basic tracking is done, admittedly putting the cart before the horse but that’s ok. We’ve been thinking a lot about strings, and perhaps some piano but nothing’s certain at this point. I’m very excited to work on “Howl”, as it’s going to have some very lush orchestration, even multiple percussion overdubs - although I haven’t completely figured out what I’m going to do yet.

We’re starting to think about what composers and what influences we want in our brain when thinking about the arrangements. Jonny Greenwood has mentioned Olivier Messiaen and Krzysztof Penderecki as huge influences in his string arrangements on Kid A and OK Computer, so we’re going to use that as a jumping off point. However, I can’t say I have much to contribute to the discussion when it comes to tonal instrumentation, that’s going to be mostly Will and Paul in tandem with Jupiter’s go-to string arranger.

Though I am excited for the recording to begin, I’m also very excited for it to end - the basic tracking at least. We’re all running on empty at this point, and everyone was particularly haggard tonight. We’ve been practicing several hours a day, every day for nearly two months now - it’s going to be nice to have a break. Speaking for myself, I really only have to worry about the first 2-3 days for all the drum tracks to be completely finished, then I’m home free for a while. Take that, rest of the band!

My next update probably won’t be for another week or so, but there will be a lot of posts once we get into the studio and I’ve finished my tracking. There’s a ton of downtime when you’re in the studio, so I’ll be walking through our process of recording, summaries of each day, and just a general overview of our experiences in the studio. Stay tuned, and have a good week everyone.

- Ryan

azizisbored:

Beach House - Walk in the Park (Live)

I listen to this album all the time because it is amazing.

We’re all huge fans of the new Beach House record, and it had a pretty big influence on our next EP. This is awesome.

Great Waves Seeks Additional Songwriter

We’re looking to add another songwriter full time, someone who can share the songwriting load and make it less stressful for both Will and Ashley, and who can contribute ideas for our songs as well. We are looking for an experienced electric/acoustic guitarist, someone with at least several years of playing under their belt (we’ve all been playing 5-15 years) and well-versed in theory. We like to write collaboratively, especially with Ashley getting input on vocals, but we are open to all avenues. If you are interested in joining a band that has a future in the industry and are ready to get serious with your music, please contact us. There’s only so much I can say publicly, but there are some things in the works besides Bumbershoot and playing on The End.

We’re looking for someone who is influenced by the same bands we like: Radiohead, Portishead, Beach House, Grizzly Bear, and other bands along that vein.

I don’t expect this to come easily, so I’m going to be reposting this once a month. Again I encourage you all to pass this information along to anyone you think would qualify and/or be interested.

WE DID IT!!

Well, it was certainly a shock, but we won Sound Off! All the bands that performed were amazing, so it was truly an honor to be named the winner of Sound Off. I will be honest, I didn’t think we were going to win at all after our performance - we all felt like we botched it, and we felt like the other acts really killed it. On that note, I would like to applaud all of the bands/artists that shared the stage with us that night, especially Candysound. It was the best show I’ve seen them play and I know the crowd was loving it - I was one of them! Kudos as well to Hooves and Beak, Whitney Flinn clearly has a future ahead of her and I am crazy about her songwriting, and Seacats are truly one of the most fun bands I’ve ever seen play - stage presence for days!

It was truly a surreal experience to be there, and we are all still digesting the fact that we won. We’ve applied more than once to even get in, so to follow in the footsteps of bands like The Lonely Forest and The Globes is a little intimidating, but it’s an honor that Seattle’s music scene has such faith in us. I can’t emphasize enough how excited we are to play Bumbershoot and to do a live performance on The End, it’s just a dream come true in so many ways. We’ve said it a few times on stage, but thanks to everyone who has made this possible: Jessi Reed, Kristin Hersh, Whitney Ford-Terry, Brady Harvey, Rich Hobby, everyone on the Youth Advisory Board, and everyone else at the EMP|SFM involved with Sound Off! It has been a life-changing experience, and we can’t thank everyone enough. Thanks also to sponsors Bumbershoot, The End, KORG, Epiphone, Orbit Audio, The Stranger and everyone else who sponsored Sound Off. The prize package was pretty mind-blowing, and it’s definitely opened doors for us that would have been closed without people who truly care about Seattle’s local scene. I hope to be involved in next year’s Sound Off in any way I can, I think it’s one of the coolest things about Seattle’s music scene.

So what are our plans for the future? Right now we’re hard at work finishing our next EP, which we haven’t titled yet but I’m sure we’ll be announcing sometime within this next month. We’ve basically finished two of the three songs - “Hours” and one we jokingly titled “Castle Rock” at Sound Off but rest assured that is a working title - so this next couple of weeks will be spent finishing our last song and rehearsing the songs so they’ll be ready to record, as well as working with our producer Joe LaRosee in making sure we’re ready for the studio.

We already had one meeting with Joe Monday night and he’s already been a great help. Joe is an extremely competent producer and having him on board is a guarantee that our vision of the songs will be completed to perfection and even improved beyond what we originally envisioned. There’s a reason we have no desire to record anywhere but Jupiter Studios and with anyone but Joe. I would recommend working with him to anyone, as he’s a talented producer and a great guy to work with.

Although I’ll be working some days during recording, I’ll be blogging about the entire recording experience and perhaps making some videos as well. Thanks to all of our friends and family that came and supported us at the show, I can’t emphasize enough how much a positive crowd makes a difference. Stay tuned for more updates about recording, and be sure to catch our next show April 30th at Piecora’s! Thanks for the support everyone.

- Ryan & Great Waves

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

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Themed by: Hunson