Hello everyone, dan here! so as i promised i am going to give a bit of a recapp of our times in Vancouver for the olympics. I got layed off from my job as an audiovisual tech about a week before the olympics started in order for our building to be turned into germany house. Its mildly amusing to think that the Olympics promised to bring lots of work for locals but instead many people were in a similar position to myself getting layed off while the companies that took over there spaces and so on outsourced to their own workforce. Nevertheless while i was hurting for cash especially weeks before leaving for tour and quitting my job forever, it did give me more of a chance to focus on our new recordings working with howard redekopp. In the past i’ve worked almost exclusively with Shawn Cole of Fader Master studios. I have always considered him a genious and would recommend any band to work with him, however this time around our label and team thought we should try someone new which i think is also a good idea. You never know what your going to get when you work with another artist or producer and I think learning and working with new people is very important to expand your artistic horizons. Anwyay we went to work the monday after the opening ceremonies which I watched up in whistler where my girlfriend has been working for NBC for the olympics. You could definitely feel the excitement all around vancouver and whistler, but we went to work at the Armory studios where i was most thrilled to see a YES song progress chart up on the wall in the tape room. We recording everything to tape and worked their for two days straight focusing on 3 new tracks. We had a bit of time too to record some live versions of 3 more new songs, however we have yet to mix them. Howard definitely payed close attention to performance as we worked takes of some songs up into 20-30.. however after every 5 takes we would listen to them while we transfered from tape to pro tools, and we’d also head upstairs to watch the olympics on the big screen tv until we were needed again. The following day we had off from recording to rehearse and head to surrey to play a show at the olympic site they had out there. It was a huge tent with around 3000 people watching and we fought hard to win them over as many were unfamiliar with our music. Halfway thru the set we busted into our version of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ which i dedicated to canadian atheletes competing in the games, and the place went crazy.. I think i saw about 500 cellphones turn on to start filming in the audience. you can check it out here
anyway. We got back to work on the new songs after that the following week and a half before we left town. First joseph and henry layed down any guitar overdubs we though were necessary, though howard wanted to keep as much of the live band from the initial session as possible so they didn’t put too much more on. Afterwords I layed down the lead vocals over 2 days and we had 3 days left to finish backup vocals and any other ‘colour’ parts. I spent one last weekend seeing my lady in whistler and then got back to Vancouver just in time to watch the USA vs CANADA hockey game at a friends house. Im not a sports person but i sure got into it, and everytime canada scored you could hear the roar of cheers across the city. After the game i rode my bike to pick up the van at henry’s place and every person or car i pasted wash honking or waving or cheering. Overall i didn’t really party to much downtown for the olympics cause we were focused on recording and i didn’t want to screw with my voice, but i walked around a few times downtown and the surge of crowds was ridiculous. I wanted to check out some stuff but you had to wait in line for an hour or two just to get in to any of the pavillions or see any shows so it was a bit of a write off. Only show i saw was USHER up in whistler cause abigail had complimentary passes. Usher rules.
So now im writing this on day 7 of our journey out to toronto but i will fill you in with that in a few days! heres a pic from my time in the olympics and studio!!
so we are off on the road now and playing broken city in calgary tonight. I am actually sitting there now before the rock and roll pizza party starts! Expect more updates soon, and a recapp of times in the studio and olympics in van. It has been such a whirlwind of activity i have been slow to update the site and for that i apologize, but i will be putting up some rad photos and stories from the road soon!! cheers
So just a few weeks ago we played our commodore show for the finally of the Peak Performance Project. It was definitely one of my favorite shows of the past year with a sold out crowd and the energy of the night was completely off the hook. To make our set even more special we were joined by Adaline, Jody Glenham, and Nat Jay to sing backups, and Ben Sigston and another Ben on sax made cameos as well. The show was amazing and after We are the City, the Left and our set the final announcement was made. To be perfectly honest we were a little surprised at being announced in 3rd place, after all, you are crossing your fingers and hoping so much to win that anything else seems slightly disappointing. Nevertheless I am very excited for We are the city cause I think they are amazing and regardless of the results, it was a great accomplishment to get into the top 3 and we still have 50,000$ to play with for the next year. So that leads me to the latest news update of whats next for the band. I speculated in my last blog about our plans, but now we have a pretty concrete plan to set in motion!
It was a bit of a whirlwind after the show on the 22nd as we decided to go into the studio as soon as possible to start work on a new album with Howard Redekopp. We made the plans to finish 3 songs before we are going to move to toronto temporarily for 3 months. It seems only suiting that we focus for a while on eastern Canada and set up camp in Canada’s biggest city. We will be playing shows all around Ontario and Quebec march thru may and heading down to the states as well to play new york. It will be an exciting time for the band, and especially for me, as it has always been a goal to quit the day job and focus on the band.. even if for only 3-4 months, It will be a refreshing change from the grind of working to save to go on tour and then coming home broke
So stay tuned for news from the studio and to hear these new tracks. I hope to go in and do a full album really soon, but due to timing we decided to focus on a few tracks to start with plans to return later in the spring! Thanks again to everyone who helped and supported us along the way with the PEAK PERFORMANCE PROJECT!
Hello everyone, dan here! It has been a while since my last blog as I took a breather from everything internet over the holidays. I left for a week or so in kelowna on dec 19th and spent some quality time with the family and the glories of cable television. As par normal I wrote a few new songs at the family piano and also learned about 10 Christmas carols to sing with the family. I also watched about 10 trashy movies which were available on the free movie channels on TV. On the 27th I left to go to Mexico with my lady and had a wonderful time in a haze of sun and margaritas. We spent our time on the mexican riviera mostly in a place called Tulum which had the raddest beach i’ve ever seen. I got back into town on the 5th of January and its taken almost til now to catch up and regroup for the new year. Its gonna be a big one for us starting with our first ever show at the commodore coming up on jan 22nd where we will hear whether we are 50,000 – 150,000$ dollars richer. What that money means for us is that we will be able to focus for the next year almost full time on the band and we will try to start touring much more in the states and maybe even in Europe. It is a very exciting time and we also hope to go in as soon as possible to work on a new record. I’ve got a good bunch of songs ready to go and we’ve started rehearsing doubletime to try to learn new material! For all you torontonians, you should get in touch as we are hoping to spend a couple months in toronto this spring to focus on eastern canada/us and to be closer to our manangement and label folks! So there is definitely a lot about to happen for bend sinister and it truly is a happy new year for us or a happy big year! Here are some photos from mexico to show you how much fun i have all the time, lol! Bye
thanks everyone for voting and supporting us along the way. We are now officially in the top 3 of the peak performance contest, which means we have 50,000$ at least waiting for us. We will be playing a show on JAN 22nd here in Vancouver at the Commodore and on that night they will announce the order of the top 3, which includes us, THE LEFT, and WE ARE THE CITY. First prize is 150,000 and Second is 75,000$. we are really excited we’ve come this far!! Thanks again, and come to the show if your in vancouver on jan 22nd!
So the results of this PEAK PERFORMANCE contest we’ve been a part of are going to be announced (on the radio 100.5fm in vancouver and online at www.thepeak.fm) at 3:30 pm this coming monday dec 14th. They aren’t announcing the winter but rather which of the 20 bands made it to the top 3 spots for a chance at 150,000$, 75,000$ and 50,000$ for 3rd place. If we place in the top 3 then the final results are announced jan 22nd and we’d play a special commodore show where all of the top 3 bands would perform. We spent a lot of time over the course of the contest working on all the challenges and we really have our fingers crossed for the results. Thanks to all of you who helped spread the word and who voted for us in the contest cause if we do win a spot in the top 3 its all because of your help!
we are so close to coming in TOP 3 in the Peak Performance we just need your help to spread the word a little more. If you’ve voted already vote from a new computer, or tell a couple friends to vote, or do a status update with the link on facebook/myspace/twitter. come on guys!!!!!
heres the link
http://www.peakperformanceproject.com/?page_id=1113
This was part of our pick covers contest. You can pick a cover for us to do too at our facebook street team group. Just do a group search for BEND SINISTER ONLINE STREET TEAM!
We’ll pick the top 3-5 and then let you guys vote on which one the whole band will do!
