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Well it is Saturday morning and what a good time to begin our new band blog series. As we mentioned in earlier blogs we are going to diary the process of getting our second album out titled “Good Morning Midnight” which is expected to be released in 2012 (if all goes well).
For all of you just joining our blog page WELCOME! Union Soundtrack is a Canadian independent band who formed in 2007 and released a self titled debut album in 2010 (available on iTunes). Since then the band has been working on material for our follow up album. The group had some lucky streaks such as; radio play on local and national stations; the song Heaven Undone was featured in a local independent film titled Tumaini (2010); and they were selected to perform as part of Alberta Arts Days, Red Deer, Alberta 2010. Each of these successes have let to the success of Union Soundtrack (US).
Well that was a short summary that bring us up to speed, well almost. In October we had the fortune of recording the first two of ten tracks for our sophomore album “Good Morning Midnight” at Mark Troyer Music Studio in Three Hills, Alberta. We were first introduced to Mark at one of the many stellar events hosted by the Alberta Music Industry Association (AMIA) in Calgary, Alberta. After a few meetings with Mark we knew that he was going to deliver the quality and professionalism we were looking for in our second album. We had decided to record the songs Charlatan and Southern Belle which are streaming live on our website (Quickly goto www.unionsoundtrack.com and listen as you read along). Thanks Mark for being awesome!
The recordings are not cheap and let’s face it we are not made of money. This is where we go back in time again all the way back to 2010 when we came into contact with Jeff Woodward, the producer of the film Tumaini and his musical directors Cameron and Andrew Wiebe. We had just released our debut album and garnering some attention from local art community when we received an email from Jeff who was interested in using some of our music in his upcoming film. We jumped at the opportunity and the economical gain from that deal fueled the bank account and ultimately the beginning of our sophomore release. A big THANK YOU to Jeff, Andrew and Cameron and everyone else involved with the production of Tumaini! You are all the best!
Another force of behind our success is none other than the music producer at 106.7 FM the Drive music producer Peter Michaels. Peter has been a huge ongoing supporter of US and has gone well beyond the call of duty by not only spinning US on the radio waves but by writing letters of support for FACTOR and Alberta Foundation of the Arts musical grant applications. Peter you are giant supporter and you continually fuel the fire with in US! We cannot thank you enough for your time and advice. It really has meant allot to us and is truly a pleasure.
Wow we really have has a lot of support over the years and when you really think about it the list grows and grows. Some of the names of friends who we fell have played a significant role in our musical development are: Katherine Duncan, Luka Symons, Kerf Music, Kennedy Jenson, everyone at the Velvet Olive (Red Deer), Kathy Snyder, Jason Filiatrault, Rory Burnett, our collogues, and most importantly our friends and family who we thank daily! If we missed your name, remind US and we will be sure to capture it in another blog. This blog is one way that we can thank everyone for helping US, so don’t be shy, we truly are grateful for the role you play in our musical lives.
Now we are up to speed. We are now booked in to record another two songs January 7th and 8th, 2012 with Mark Troyer. We are pulling the funds out of our bank accounts for these two and hope to find a little help for the remaining six along the way. All and all things are looking good and we do have a few tricks up our sleeves that we hope to bring to light soon (wink).
So what is the point of all this? Well, the point is to begin documenting the journey of Union Soundtrack, a central Alberta independent folk/rock band, to the completion of the second album “Good Morning Midnight.” The blog will act as a diary of our achievements and obstacles along the way and we hope you will join us for the ride. We welcome your advice as well. We are always learning and it is our goal to use the blog as a learning tool for others who might be going through the same process.
Well let’s begin with basics.
Let’s have a look where we stand as of December 03, 2011 with Social Media:
Blogger Members: 3
FaceBook Likes: 189
Twitter Followers: 208
Newsletter subscribers: 48
CBC Radio 3 Fans: 10 Total Plays: 447 Playlists: 17
So its east to tell where we stand as a Band at the end of the four year mark. Honestly it scares us a little to see the numbers on paper. However, this is the first step and it will be interesting to see where we are when the album is released.
Lately we have been concentrating our time on song writing and haven’t played may gigs as a full band. Austin and Dan have been busy playing Union Soundtrack songs acoustically in small venues such as the Velvet Olive in Red Deer, Alberta. Both Dan and Austin have raised a good portion of the funds for the next album by playing acoustic shows and the crowd response has been great. We are looking to broaden our horizons and seeking out some acoustic venues in Edmonton and Calgary.
As some of you know, we are currently one member short when performing live shows as a full band. In the past we have hired the talents of Jason Filiatrault and Rory Burnett as bass players to fill in. We are currently looking for the services of a drummer to audition for some shows in the New Year. In the recording studio Peter has been both the bass player and the drummer. One of our biggest barriers to performing live other that scheduling is finding the fourth player to rock out our tunes. Our goal is to move Peter off the drum kit and get him up front on the bass.
We don’t have any plans at this time to hold open drummer auditions but we are keeping an open mind. If you are interested shoot US an email and we’ll chat. We can’t promise anything at this time but it is important to us that the talent be able to replicate the album as it is.
So in conclusion: we are finalizing lyrics for the next two songs and getting ready for the holidays. Dan and Austin will be in Calgary, Alberta next week to iron out some musical details and visit some venues.
See you next time,
Union Soundtrack
