Great Waves Blog

Countdown to Recording: 8 Days

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:24:33 -0400

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...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:01:54 -0500

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

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:30:00 -0500

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!!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:30:00 -0500

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!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:09:00 -0500

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

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:25:42 -0500

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...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:24:03 -0500

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!

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:10:24 -0500

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!

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:02:00 -0500

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

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:06:16 -0500

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!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:00:44 -0500

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

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:36:00 -0500

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

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:57:00 -0500

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

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:16:00 -0500

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

Weekly Update #3: New members & Lessons Learned

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:55:00 -0500

So first I want to let you guys know we’ve got all the shows until Sound Off set up, and they look like this:

- Jan. 8th - 8pm at Bop Street Records - FREE
- Jan. 15th - 8pm at KTUB - $5
- Jan. 23rd - 7pm at The LAB with Teo Crider of Candysound and A Cozy Kitchen - $5 If you’re at all interested in Sound Off, be sure not to miss this one because it has a band from each semi-final and should be a solid show all-around.
- Jan. 30th - 8pm at Ground Zero - $6/$5 with a can of food

As I talked about last week, the initial reaction of us getting into Sound Off was “HELL YEAH!!!”, but there was another reaction we had, one that was more oh less “oh crap…we got into Sound Off. What are we gonna do?” We have been a 4-piece band for so long, but we didn’t want to limit ourselves in the studio things we could perform live, so it was an uneasy realization that we simply couldn’t play some of our songs by ourselves. Also, we are recording two weeks after Sound Off ends so it’s hectic trying to look forward and figure out how we’re going to accomplish it all.

Luckily, Ashley has some really talented friends so we’re proud to announce two new members to the live band: David Bahr and Elliot Gray. You may recognize David from our “Flume” video and he played violin on Konza Plains as well as sung backing on TMATG, Untitled, and Konza Plains. He’s a great player and singer and we’re happy to have him aboard.

Elliot was a real diamond in the rough. We posted something on the EMP Soundboard trying to find someone who could play piano and/or guitar, sing, and write, but we didn’t really get a lot of responses so it was looking bleak. But as luck would have it, Ashley had been taking piano lessons from Elliot and he seemed enthusiastic about playing some shows and Sound Off with us. We had him come jam with us last night, and well…it was quite impressive. The parts we taught him (so far) haven’t been too difficult but the real kicker was when I tried to film a video for our YouTube page - more on that later - and Ashley selected “Sail to The Moon” by Radiohead.

“Do you know the song?” Ashley said.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it a few times, but hold on let me listen to it and then we can do it” he replied.

Now, I admit I scoffed a little at that. One listen and you’re good? OK buddy. Elliot then proceeds to take out a pen and paper, turn on the song, and transcribe it perfectly the first time through. It was pretty legit, even Will and Paul were impressed and sometimes I think another musician has to walk on water to impress those two. Definitely a great addition to the band.

Unfortunately, Ashley wasn’t really ready to run through the song (not her fault, it was spur of the moment) so we bagged it. Now this is where I got a little frustrated, as we had agreed to do weekly videos and we haven’t been as consistent as I would like. We tried to knock out another one the next night with just Paul and Ashley and again we were unsatisfied with the results, and through a band vote it was decided to put a hold on videos until after Sound Off. Now, I wasn’t pleased (to say the least) at this outcome and so I kinda blew up and in retrospect, overreacted.

To understand why I overreacted, it’s probably best to do a little history on myself. I’ve spent essentially the last two years reading and researching what it takes to make it as a band in this new era of the music industry, and I believe that the best way you can be a successful band is to have a expansive online presence and update that content regularly - in terms of strategy of course, obviously making good music is the best thing you can do to be successful (which brings up another thing: I’ve gone to a few conferences and read about 20-30 music and industry blogs daily, and it INFURIATES me every time some keyboard jockey says something like “either be great or get out” or something along those lines. Yes it’s true, the only surefire way to make it in the music industry is to be exceptional both in the studio and on stage, but guess what? Everyone knows that! Everyone is trying their best. No one is going “hmm, should I make the best music I can this time? Or just half-ass it like I have been?” NO ONE DOES THAT! Everyone’s working their asses off to make the best music they can, to berate those who are coming up short despite their best efforts is cruel and unhelpful. Music is such a personal and emotional thing for those who make it, what’s the point of shitting on them? If you go to a music industry “expert” and the only they advice they can give you is “be great”, then they didn’t have any advice to give in the first place. But I digress.) is to connect with fans the best you can, and that is going to be through blogs, Twitter, and video content.

So I was getting frustrated at the fact that I was doing all those things - we have a Twitter, we have a blog, we have video - and it wasn’t really making a difference. I know it’s a slow process, but I couldn’t really refute Will when he said that “no one watches [our videos] anyways”, because he was right! I guess I got caught up in the stories of YouTube sensations that I forgot for every Julia Nunes there are literally millions of nobodies whose videos stay unwatched. There’s so much content being made now, it’s harder than ever to break through the white noise of tweets, blogs, and YouTube ukulele covers. The only thing you can do is put your head down, work hard, and try to take care of the fans you have, because they are the ones who will carry you to success. I keep expecting magic to happen simply because we’re doing what’s required for bands these days, but it doesn’t happen that easy kids. Another lesson learned (cue inspirational music).

That’s about it for this week. We got our shots back from the photoshoot so we’ll be posting some of those later today. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

- Ryan

Weekly Update #2: SOUND OFF!!!!!!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:38:00 -0500

OMG OMG SOUND OFF!!!!

Yes, by a great stroke of luck the EMP decided they wanted us to play in the premier Seattle battle of the bands, so we’re extremely excited and grateful to have such an awesome opportunity. This is how it pretty much went:

(Phone rings)
Will: Hey dude, we’re in!
Ryan: What?
Will: We got into Sound Off!
Ryan: WHAT??? REALLY??!?
Will: Yeah they just called
Ryan: Wait really? You’re not messing with me? Will had said earlier he was going to mess with us when/if we found out either way
Will: No man, seriously! We’re in!
Ryan: YEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! WHOOO HOO!!!

(Phone rings)
Ryan: Hey dude we got into Sound Off!
Paul: WHAT? REALLY? YEEEEAH!!!!!!!!

We later celebrated with some champagne (not Will of course, that would be illegal! He drank apple juice) and a late-night jam session that may have bothered some neighbors but what the hell man! We are now searching for another band member to help fill out our live sound so if you know anyone have them email us at greatwavesband@gmail.com, and you can see what we’re looking for on our Soundboard post here.

In other news, we didn’t win the Grammy U Songwriting contest, but that’s ok because there was some great advice in that room, and the panel of John Roderick, Sue Ennis, Jason Finn, and Ben London was incredibly insightful and entertaining, so it was a good learning experience.

Sorry about the drag on the videos guys, Ashley was gone for a week in Paris and we’ve been busy writing some new songs for our live show. We’ll have one up tomorrow though, I promise.

SHOWS

We’ve got quite a few shows lined up:

- January 15th at KTUB in Kirkland
- January 23rd at The LAB with Sound Off! bands Candysound and A Cozy Kitchen
- January 30th at Ground Zero in Bellevue

and…

- February 27th - EMP SOUND OFF! With SEACATS, Subtle Like A T-Rex, and Us On Roofs

That’s it for now, have a good weekend everyone!

Weekly Update #1 + New Video

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:39:00 -0500

Hey guys, so it’s been about a week since we released the EP and we are getting some great responses, but also some questions so I thought I would address them here.

However, some news first - we are proud to say we were selected as a finalist in the PNW Grammy U songwriting contest! The contest is going to be this Wednesday, December 9th at the Art Institute of Seattle from 6pm-9pm. Here’s the link to the Facebook event page for more info. We also have a new video up, a song called “Oh My Lord” that Ashley and Will did acoustically. View it here or here, or right below:

Onto a few popular questions:

What happened to “The Matirns”? I liked that name so much better!

Yes, we changed our name from The Matirns to Great Waves a few months ago, and I apologize if you’re disappointed. We all were fond of The Matirns but it was simply impractical to deal with the constant mispronunciations and misspellings - not that I blame them, it’s not a real word! We actually only kept The Matirns for so long because we were never unanimous in selecting a new name.

Is your stuff on iTunes/Rhapsody/etc?

Not yet, but it will be. Stay tuned in the next week or so and we’ll have more info about this particular subject.

I really like your stuff! What can I do to help?

Thank you! There are tons of things you can do to help us. For the more dedicated people who would like to help us promote shows you can sign up for our street team by sending an email with the subject “Street Team” to greatwavesband@gmail.com. We’ll have a separate mailing list for our street teamers which will include exclusive songs, videos, photos and perhaps a secret show every once in a while.

If you’re not up for that dedication, please just tell your friends! We are a very young band and believe me, every new fan counts. You can go to our site and use the share function to share it on Facebook or MySpace, and that is very helpful as well. Or you can follow us on Twitter and share the content you like

Any shows coming up?

Again, stay tuned. Sign up for our mailing list, become a fan on Facebook or friend on MySpace. We will probably have at least one show come January, but the details are still being hammered out so I don’t want to officially announce it yet. We’ll be doing weekly videos, so subscribe to our YouTube channel if you want to have an easy way to get those.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who has contacted me or anyone else in the band about this EP. We worked on it for quite a while, so it’s awesome to hear that people enjoy it.

Well, that’s it for now. Subscribe to this blog’s feed or sign up for our email list to get updates as they happen. Have a great week everybody!

- Ryan

Blue Blood EP Out Now!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:44:00 -0500

Well, the day is finally here. This record has been roughly 6 months in the making, and we’ve gone through a lot to try and pull it together. On behalf of the band I want to thank Joe LaRosee for being such a stellar producer and everyone else at Jupiter Studios for making recording as smooth of a process as it could be. Thanks to our friends and family for all the support you’ve given us. We’re very proud of this record and we hope that you enjoy it. Download it on our Band Camp site (http://great-waves.com) or stream it on our MySpace (http://myspace.com/greatwavesband).

- Ryan

Our First Photo Shoot

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:48:00 -0500

So yesterday we had our first photo shoot, and it was an interesting experience to be sure. I’d like to thank Ken and Pat for their help, they were great at picking cool locations and great to work with (full disclosure: to Paul they’re “Uncle Ken” and “Aunt Pat”).

Anyway, it’s definitely an odd experience being photographed with the endgame being “How cool do we look in this?” Trust me, there are very few things I am worse at than looking cool, and as we did our solo shots Paul and Ashley heaped on the helpful advice by simply saying “serious face” over and over again. Honestly, they just kept going “Ryan, serious face! Serious face!” When they shouted it at Will it made sense, and then when I was up there I realized that “serious face” doesn’t really mean anything, it’s just unhelpful nonsense, and there’s nothing better than people shouting at you when you’re trying to maintain a serious pose. This is pretty much what my thoughts were during the shoot:

- Don’t look at the camera
- Don’t smile
- Wait, should I smile? Are they smiling?
- OK they’re not smiling so I won’t smile
- Maybe I’ll smile like halfway? Wait NO do not do that you look like a child molester.
- Does this look weird? I feel so awkward right now
- Is this what other bands do? Just make stoic faces while feeling like tools? Such a glamorous life we lead…
- It is COLD.
- Serious face??? I have no fucking clue what a “serious face” even is.
- Alright Sprute, come on now, get it together. OK look off in the distance. Look thoughtful and shit. Fuck this is good, I’m sure I look cool.
- Did the photographer just smirk at me? I swear he just smirked.
- This is not going well. I am a failure.

However, all in all I think it went pretty well. It was kind of sketchy at first because we were going through Chinatown alleys after dark (one of our locations was where the Wah Mee massacre occured, which was spooky yet morbidly fascinating to be at a spot where something so horrible occurred without any visible evidence left), but nothing awful happened. One notable highlight was a homeless woman first “woof”-ing at us like a dog would, then moving on to making the “AH-OOOOOOOOGAH” sound as we walked away. We finished our shoot in the Kobe Terrace, and afterwards went to Kau Kau’s to have their delicious BBQ pork that I highly recommend you try out.

Anyways, the pics will be up in a week or so after getting them developed, and get excited because our EP comes out in just a few days, which will be available as a download or as a CD to order. We just put a couple of videos up and I’ll be posting some photos from the recording session soon. Have a good week ya’ll.