SOUNDMONSTER BLOG

Men at Work

2012-02-11T12:24:00.001-08:00

The guys have been busy getting ready for more shows, the Year of the Monster Tour was a blast in 2010/2011. Now the guys have been in the recording studio working on their new CD Planet. The release date has not been set yet, keep checking on soundmonstermusic.com for new updates. SoundMonster loves the stage so expect new Canadian Dates to be launched in March April and May when they return. The new CD is coming along great, expect lots of new material and bigger hits.

The band has been working with "Jordy" a bassist that loves to play live shows, so the band is happy to be sharing the stage with such an experienced and fun performer. SoundMonster is working together look forward to a new year, they will let you all know when the Planet Tour starts, for now the guys are doing shows to experiment lots of the new material in the upcoming months.

Best of SoundMonster in 2011

2011-12-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

The band has been thinking of their best moments of 2011, most of the year SoundMonster was focusing on the Year of the Monster Tour 2010/2011. In that time the boys in black had some good moments, they'd like to share with you. There's a lot of stuff that happened in 2011, this blog could be ten pages long, but instead the band will give a glimpse of the year in a couple paragraphs.

One moment the band all shares is their last show of the tour, they wanted to go out with a bang, and the crowd made all the difference. Steve Versus sang with a cold, but SoundMonster came together united to give the best show they could. The venue was an all-ages facility called the Olympia. Nice stage, good atmosphere, we did a show just SoundMonster, so for the night the band played lots of tunes including songs never played before live. The crowd wouldn't let us off the stage, they were dancing and demanding encores, the guys did five that night.

Tom Lee Music Hall is in the heartland of Vancouver on Granville Street. There SoundMonster performed in Summer Meltdown, a music show that had about eight to twelve bands performing. The band has two memories that show, first the performance was electric besides a costume malfunction that had Steve's underwear making an appearance, SoundMonster was on fire. T-String showed his passion through his guitar licks, and Scott was tight on drums. After the show fans threw male underwear at T-String, you had to be there, but it was a hilarious sight.

The second memory at the same show, was to be acknowledged. The show had three awards, two were given by the music promoters, one was by the fans. SoundMonster's performance that night won them two of the three awards. One was second place for best show of the evening, that was awarded by the promoters, the fans choice was SoundMonster and we received a people's choice award. Due to the band's performance the guys received recording time, and a front page interview on the biggest music site in the world Supernova.

There have been moments for the band in 2011, may it be when the band was busted by the cops for playing too loud, or getting security for a show because of a crazy fans threats. In the end the guys feel the biggest moment they all appreciate is the kind comments fans have had after shows, and in the comments sections online of facebook and supernova. SoundMonster values all the fans that have been there and look forward to the new release of the next CD Planet. Keep coming to www.soundmonstermusic.com, supernova, and facebook for updates.

SoundMonster wishes you all Happy New Year 2012!!!

SoundMonster Honored and Interviewed

2011-12-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

December has just started but already the band is appreciating all the support from fans and friends as the year starts to come to a close. The guys were surprisingly touched and honored to be awarded 2011 Year of Achievement Awards for their contribution to Year of the Monster in 2011. Lots of memories and we will share some of them at years end in a special blog in a couple of weeks.

Along with a new single release we just recorded at 403 studios, the boys are also back in SoundMonster Studios working on the upcoming CD Planet. Just to make mention the new single Kingdom of Whispers is also a free download on the bands Facebook site. Feel free to use it as a ringtone, burn it on a CD, or put it on your ipod.

After winning two out of three awards for their performance on Summer Meltdown 2011 back in August the band was interviewed by SuperNova the largest music site in the world. Currently the interview is on the front page of their website www.supernova.com. It can also be viewed on SoundMonster Facebook page as a link on our wall, or visiting on www.soundmonstermusic.com and clicking the link Interviews located on the left side of the screen. That version is an edited version mostly to the liking of the band, it gets to the heart of our story rather than focusing on the music industry garble that pollutes most decent interviews.

We hope you check out the interview of us, as it says in the song Good Year, it's been a good year and 2011 has for SoundMonster, thank you to all our fans friends and family for all the support, and we hope to continue in 2012.

12 Hours of partying in 5 cities

2011-11-26T21:23:00.001-08:00

The band since the YOTM tour ended have been a busy bunch, mostly been in SoundMonster Studios recording and getting the song of Planet ready. There is no release date for the album but we expect to launch a time later in 2012, so we expect all our SM fans old and new to be just as supportive. We appreciate everyone that has been there for us during this journey, in August we were in a musical show called Summer Meltdown 2011, bands were chosen by the musical committee and fans for prizes out of 3 possible awards SoundMonster took home two.

One of the awards was time in 403 recording studios, for the last month and some we have been deciding which song to do. By band and fan choice it was Kingdom of Whispers, also found on the Year of the Monster CD. A song that is popular among SM fans. The YOTM CD version well received wasn't the vision of the current SoundMonster line-up, and getting tired of hearing how our live version we do now rocks more, we went to 403 studios and gave that version.

Its been a fun week the guys got back together on Thursday November 24th took time off recording to jam again and work on songs that will be on the new CD Planet, and other music that will be set for another later CD release, we were pretty happy with the results, we had some of our most loyal fans at our jam giving them a seek peek of our new material, it was received well.

Beyond that the guys have been partying it up today besides recording have been all over soaking up the Vancouver scene going from place to place checking out sites and sounds, we realized in 12 hours we stopped in 5 different cities. The night is still young and plan on enjoying the time into the next day, so keep it real, support your local music scene, and keep checking back on our website www.soundmonstermusic.com for details and on here. We are always posting something!

Year of the Monster Tour ends with a bang

2011-10-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

October 14th at the Olympia was the venue where the boys were back in black to finish the YOTM tour. It was a good turn out and the show was full of energy, the guys had a blast playing our personal favorites and fans favs as well. Started off the night playing the song Hello, and it went from there. The guys took a break within the mid part of the set just to get a drink, Steve Versus was getting over a cold so water helps when your giving it yer all. As the show was coming to an end with the song Good Year, the fans wanted an encore so the guys came together and played a couple songs like Betrayal, and I Met a Girl. The crowd was electric I will say I have never seen girls line dance the Macarena to Motionless, but it rocked. The band had our Manager come on stage and sing a second round of Waiting for Tonight, and ended it all performing a song SoundMonster has never done live before a song called Song one, it was the very first tune the band ever made together. The funny part was the guys haven't even played that tune in two years.

The story behind the song is when it was made the guys didn't quite know how to finish it so it was made as part of a medley with the tune Better than Fiction, so we played it as it was originally done. SoundMonster sang Song One, then went right into Better than Fiction. Usually when Steve sings the last chorus he says one more time, but tonight it was this is the last song. SoundMonster thanks the Olympia for allowing us to use their venue, we thank fans who came out to see us it was a blast and a great finish to a fun tour. The band is now one hundred percent back in the studio recording the CD Planet, and hope to see many of the same faces and new ones on our next tour. If the band does make a special show we will announce it, but for now we are planning to stay in the studio.

To see pictures of our show to go www.soundmonstermusic.com and look under the photo gallery, you can click the link to the website its on the right hand side of this blog.

Year of the Monster Tour finishes October 14th

2011-10-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

The Tour has been a fun ride the guys started this journey December 30th 2010 at Bankshots in Surrey a 19+ venue where we brought in the new year, from there the band has visited in many cities and places sharing our sounds.

Now working on our second CD Planet,the band wants to dedicate their time in the studio and will be working in SoundMonster Studios, as well as 430 Studios to get this mission accomplished.

So this Friday October 14th the band will be ending the YOTM tour in the city where it started Surrey at the Olympia an all-ages venue. To commemorate this event the band has decided to make the show free. No charge all friends and fans can see us just like when we did our pre-YOTM shows in selected warehouses back in October of 2010.

The Olympia is a venue so you will be required to buy food and drinks, since it is an all-ages establishment, but what better to do on a friday night then to party with Monster fans ending our tour into the twilight hours. The band will be celebrating the memories and fun we have had doing the YOTM tour, and also celebrating the marriage of drummer Scott Nexus with his lovely bride Marianne.

There will be some surprises and hopefully more memories to make, the band will be playing fan faves so expect Good Year, Motionless, Waiting for Tonight and others.

Come early the boys in black should be on stage by 9:00pm and end the tour on a high!! Thanks to all our Monster fans, friends, families, loved ones for giving all the support we can handle, it means so much and this show is dedicated to you.

SoundMonster Invades the East Side

2011-10-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster was back at the Princeton our second visit on our YOTM Tour 2011, and we had lots of lasting memories. We had a strong performance gave 100 percent, the big highlight of the night was that we were played the Vibe live for the very first time. The crowd was really behind the song got a lot of great responses from the sold-out crowd.

We got caught for time as does happen when a band is having a good show sometimes, and we didn't play Motionless, I heard a lot of flak for not playing it, we have lots of fans that came out to hear the tune, and the band will make up for it next show we won't play it twice but we will play it closer to the beginning of our show, rather than later.

We are looking at doing an all ages show back in our old stomping grounds in the city of Surrey. Our Manager is working on it now so we expect a October or November date to be posted soon.

We want to thank the band Fuse Breaker for being a class act, and Dirt Metal Productions for making the show possible, and of course the good people of the Princeton. And kudos to our manager for bitch slapping that lady she was an ass.

The band is going to be going back to the studio working on some tunes that will be appearing in our third CD, and also working on our upcoming release Planet. It sounds confusing but it will all make sense in due time. Thanks to all our Monster fans that came out, and hope to see some of you again soon.

SOUNDMONSTER WINS PEOPLES CHOICE

2011-09-14T23:23:00.001-07:00

It's not easy being in a band the dream is for the music to speak for itself, and have people appreciate what you do. Music is an art and not everyone will like what you contribute, it's the nature of life everyone has an opinion.

We as a band have been through the mill, Steve Versus has been through the mill, it's not easy being a frontman your always the target, the face of the band, if someone doesn't like the lead singer, or the group, they can be quite cruel.

Along our journey as SoundMonster we have had the highest compliments, and the rudest as well, but if you let people tell you who you are, you never accomplish a thing. Our music isn't what you hear on the radio we have our own style. We are passionate about our sound, and try not to sound like anybody. We are all influenced by artists, at the same time, we don't try to be anything, but who we are.

We want to thank all our fans especially in Canada, and in the USA where a huge part of our fanbase resides. We want to thank all our Canadian fans across our nation who voted to make us the People's Choice winning as best band of Summer Meltdown 2011 Vancouver. SoundMonster doubled the amount of votes, of the band who finished 2nd, SoundMonster also won 2nd place in the judges votes, and it means alot to be recognized for all our hard work. We play for the people so to win an award from fans voting for us, means so much

SOUNDMONSTER thanks you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have won some very nice prizes and they will all be to help make better music, and get our sound out more to the people.

Stay Tuned it just started...

SoundMonster Studios

2011-09-10T00:42:00.001-07:00

Hello Cloverdale!!!

SOUNDMONSTER HAS ARRIVED!!!! The band has launched into their new studio practicing for their next show in the lovely city of Vancouver on Friday September 30th at the Princeton Pub. The new studio has full recording equipment, two drum kits one acoustic one electric, of course mics, and amps for guitars. There is a sound proof room for vocals in recording, and the band has a bar set up for fans or friends who drop by to watch us practice. The size of the studio is the largest yet so we can finally practice giving us a big stage.

Our first jam was lots of socializing friends checking out the new place, we had some fun changing roles and playing other instruments and others joined in, it was a fun night.

Lots of work has gone into the building of this studio and the band thanks everyone who took the time to work on it especially Scott, and Joe who spend a lot of their own time getting it ready. If we missed anybody all apologies cause the work was amazing!!!

For more pics there are some on our Facebook page and the full set on soundmonstermusic.com

The Monster Rocks Tom Lee Music Hall

2011-08-27T01:26:00.001-07:00

SoundMonster rocked Tom Lee tonight, its a concert hall located on the most busiest entertainment strip in Vancouver, British Columbia. At night the streets are closed for the public to party and enjoy dancing to whatever music rocks there boat. Tonight at Tom Lee was the 2011 Summer Meltdown Show a music celebration that is being held in cities across the country.

There were some good bands that hit the floor, for a great crowd interaction and musical styles the band Almost Christmas really did a good job. We played a short but powerful set of songs from our latest CD Year of the Monster, and other material as well. Mostly favorites like Kingdom of Whispers and Waiting for Tonight. My highlight of the show was having male underwear thrown at the stage, not sure if they were used but they were in the direction of T-String, not sure what kind of following he is getting, but we gave him a good razzing about it.

We wanted to thank all the support from our Monster fans that came out, and to continue even those that couldn't make the show if you could go to

http://www.supernova.com/events/12143/wildcardvoting

and sign up and vote for us everyday up until September 2nd then they will announce the wildcard winner from the show and we would like to be on top for it. This is for all Canadian fans only though, anyone else won't count sadly. This would mean a lot to the band, if you could take two minutes out of the next six days it helps soo much!

and if you supercharge the vote it triples it, so SUPERCHARGE IT

We will be coming back to the Vancouver area in September on the 30th hope to see you out as we will be returning to the Princeton

SoundMonster busted during last night at old studio

2011-08-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Since SoundMonster was formed the band has practiced in Surrey, British Columbia. The first couple practices were at a temporary studio,then it was relocated for the majority of the bands existence at a place called Infinite Studios. It was there the band added former members Ivan, Tomas, Sean and Nick to the group. After the CD YOTM was made and before the European tour the band was planning on moving to a new location for 2011.

Weeks before the Princeton show in March 2011, the band all back in Canada relocated to a new studio that would be used as a temporary pad as the group was going to get their own studio called SoundMonster Studios. In this time the group changed from a six to a three piece, and then back to a four piece with the arrival of the Gentleman to the band.

The funny part about this location was anywhere we played the neighbours by the studio loved listening to our music. Unfortunately in the newest studio there were problems, surprisingly it took six months before these issues of noise complaints started.

The band will be at Tom Lee Music Hall on August 26th, so SoundMonster got together on the 25th to go over the set list for the show. They did the list three times in a row, and were going to play the set list one more time when there was a knock at the door. It's common to have fans stop by and say hi so they didn't take the knock too seriously, it is our last night at this location. Scott comes to the door and there is the police shutting them down.

The group got a good laugh out of it hey that's Rock and Roll, and its the end of an era to the studio room anyways, no point staying in a place you can't use to the maximum.

Now, the band will be playing Tom Lee Music Hall in Vancouver on Granville Street on August 26th Friday, and the band will be relocating to the city of Cloverdale, British Columbia.

Good-bye Surrey, Hello Cloverdale SoundMonster has come to town

SoundMonster at Tom Lee Music in August

2011-07-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

As part of our YOTM tour SoundMonster will be a part of a summer festival that will be doing a performance at the biggest music store in the lower mainland at Tom lee Music in Vancouver.

Come out and check out some of our rock sounds, not sure if we will be playing any of our new material but we will play some favorites from YOTM and other popular songs.

The band has been working on alot of new sounds and new concepts for the band, stay tuned for further info.

The appearance at Tom Lee will be on Friday August 26th 2011

Tom Lee on Granville

Year of the Monster Tour starts the 2nd Leg

2011-07-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Since we finished our first leg of our YOTM tour at Burnaby Lake, and we have been working on new material, getting our newest member of the SoundMonster family "The Gentleman" more comfortable with our sound. Even though he did an admirable job finishing off the first part of our tour on such a short notice.

The band has been not only working on music, but revamping and working on changes within the band, with a new mindset in the new year the group has been working on reworking our image and presentation on stage. There has been a lot of lessons the band has experienced as a group and we are better for it. This will be discussed more in the next blog.

The goal was to get back out on the road and start touring again for the month of July, and management surprisingly had a lot to deal with, sounds simple contact an available venue set up a show and go on, but the decision where we would be performing was changing on a week to week basis to the point it became a joke!

Originally we were supposed to do a big show in Vancouver at a very established and popular venue in the second week of June. With so much on going on in the personal lives of some of the members of the band, and the busy schedule we have had playing for the month of April and May the show was cancelled until a later date. We had a make up show set up for July 7th, though it wasn't set in stone at the time so management had the choice to still say yes or no. A week later the chance to play in a popular music festival in New Westminster crept up out of the blue so it was decided that would become the first show for the group instead. This was to be on July 23rd. In late June the band was informed they had a huge amount of groups performing and because we were a white band, (though The Gentleman is a bit on the tan side)we had to be taken off the list. This was very disappointing as we were on the short list for this event, then reverse racism took us out.

We still had some options we were looking at starting our tour in Surrey, Vancouver at two different places or Maple Ridge. Management spoke with the venue we were supposed to play on June 7th originally, and the date was still open, the group wasn't comfortable playing with such a short notice, there was no ticket price option made, it was such a short time period. Business wise it made no sense and the venue was not prompt getting back to us giving any answers. The funny part was even without agreeing the venue promoted our show as Monster Sound, and no ticket price, just a time we were to play. How amateur can you get? The venue didn't get our name right, promoted a show online we never agreed to do, with no ticket price? Too funny.

So its official we will make it known on our networking sites and main page in a couple days we will be playing at a Venue called Jolly Mac in Surrey, British Columbia Located on 108th ave & 148th st, near highway #1 in the Birdland / Guildford area. We will be on a very nice stage I am told and hope we can get some of our SoundMonster fans to come out and join us as we will be performing some of our music maybe even some new material, we will see. That's on July 26th time I am guessing would be around 8pm.

I will blog again with some new things to expect from the band as we will be making more changes.

CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-01T01:27:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster celebrates Canada Day by sharing with fans friends and others some of what we have been working on, for seven days starting July 1st, 2011 the band has agreed to put up a song that is in the process of being worked on. The song is called Vibe, we have been trying different ideas and came up with a tune we are pretty proud of. Again the song isn't complete we still are working out ideas for it, but thought we would post the song to give an idea what we do in the studio when creating music.

The song is mostly improv by the whole band, each time we would play it we would go on sharing each of our talents with the goal to create the best song we can do. The version you will hear is a second take, done all together live during the "Planet" sessions for our new album scheduled for release sometime in 2012.

We were going to post a song from Year of the Monster that we performed live, but hearing this new song, and getting feedback from former SoundMonster guitarist Tomas, that we should post something new. We decided to do just that hope you visit our band page SoundMonster on Facebook to hear it, and if you like it to click the LIKE button and leave us a comment. The link to the Facebook page is located to the right of this blog.

HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM SOUNDMONSTER!!!

We will be announcing our next show in a couple days!!! Keep checking out our web sites for further details

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SOUNDMONSTER

2011-06-08T08:55:00.001-07:00

June 8th 2009 three formers members of the band Pious would get together on a stinking hot spring night out in Scott's old studio in Surrey, British Columbia with the goal to create what would become today known as SoundMonster. Three and soon to be four studios later the band is still together making music.

The band has evolved trying different styles and with different players who have at one time been in the SoundMonster family, it's been a road of many memories. Many of the songs have gone through the mill, and even to this day continue to improve. From fans the special part about us is our live show, its alive and full of sound.

There have been many stories in the band like when we auditioned a new keyboardist she was a pretty girl, that really was in Vancouver to party and snowboard. T-String talked with her, and since we had a keyboard she could play on, she decided to jam with us. Well in a couple hours she got intoxicated, and sat down on the couch. The band continued to jam, and when we checked up on her she was gone. I knew she text someone to pick her up, but the band went on a search for her never to be heard from again. We all had a laugh from it, besides she wasn't SoundMonster material anyways.

We have had some crazy fans threaten members of the band, one time Steve Capital G had a fan that had so much rage because that he wouldn't drive an hour to see her (as a friend) she started to threaten him and then eventually other members of the band. We ended up having security at the next show, just in case.

The band itself has had tons of fun, in the Year of the Monster sessions our drummer Greybeard has this crazy talent he can make these crazy burps on command. I guess he got into a bike accident at a young age and since this miraculous talent came to be. In studio everytime he had to belch he would run up to the mic and just give it all he had, in the end he complied a long track of himself, he is very proud of it.

We have had fans leave gifts at the studio and found them sitting there, we have had really nice people make comments on our Facebook page, and have met some really cool people all over the world. SoundMonster as a band does thank all the fans for their support, it has helped us.

Last just the other day the band got a story from a fan about our CD Year of the Monster, she was driving and was pulled over for speeding. She was listening to our CD, and when the officer came to her window it was still playing. I guess he was asking about it and the conversation went from her speeding to us, the good news she never got a ticket. Thats Awesome!!!!!

SoundMonster thanks all their fans

2011-05-30T18:57:00.001-07:00

SoundMonster wants to thank everyone who voted for us to go on in the Fox Seeds 2011, we kinda slept at the wheel on that one. We have had a very busy month of May, adding our kick ass new bassist The Gentleman to the team, and playing a number of shows on our YOTM tour. Getting ready every week we lost track we were up in competition for Fox Seeds, while all the bands had 2 weeks to get as many fans to vote for them, we didn't realize until less than 2 days to go.

We didn't advance, but from the grapevine we heard many people were voting into the wee hours of night trying to do what they could to help us out and the band really appreciates it. You live and you learn and we hope if we decide to reenter the competition in 2012 we will have the same support from all you guys.

SoundMonster thanks you all, and to those who haven't yet we want you to join our Facebook page SoundMonster and LIKE the band page, we just added a new music player and want you all check it out. Pass on and spread the word the power of music is with the people not corporations.

SoundMonster for Cancer Awareness

2011-05-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

On May 29th SoundMonster brought the Year of the Monster Tour to Burnaby Lake, and performed as the main showcase to thousands of people, who came down to show support for Brain Cancer Awareness. Everyone's life has been affected by someone dealing with this disease. Steve Capital G has had two members of his family who had to fight cancer, unfortunately his father lost his battle. So, SoundMonster was more than happy to answer the bell, and play to help do their part in fighting for this important cause. The weather was sunny, and the band was welcomed by many observers and fans, as many came out wearing SoundMonster black and with SM T-Shirts.

The band did a two hour show with some speeches done in-between with special guests speaking and handing out prizes. That day I believe over 9,000 dollars was raised to help Brain Cancer Research. Organizers were overwhelmed by the support, they had many more out then expected, M&M Meats sponsored food for the festival and overall it was a great day for music.

Highlights from the fans that show were songs like Waiting for Tonight, and Motionless. SoundMonster is preparing a schedule for the summer right now there is talks in works for television and more concert dates. With the addition of our bassist "The Gentleman" to the band the guys are going to take the month of June to work on some new material we need to finish up on, and get the rest of our catalog ready to play.

We want to thank everybody again for having the band come out to support this cause, and for all our fans coming out to watch us.

Playing at the Hamilton

2011-05-21T13:16:00.001-07:00

As a last minute squeeze before our show at Burnaby Lake the guys did a short performance at the Hamilton. The venue is a bit more cozier then most places we have played, but it was a nice change. It felt like we were on a late night talk show with couches so close to the stage. The guys were greeted by a friendly staff and performed for fans and friends alike, we did a small set as we introduced our newest member to the band The Gentleman.

Overall the show was a good one, I think everyone in the band agrees. We had a lot of compliments from the crowd, and are looking to perform there again in July just after Canada Day I think tentatively on the 7th, so it will be like a post Canada Day party.

Highlights we all thought The Gentleman kicked ass, and the tunes were really coming together for our big concert gig for the 29th. On May 29th SoundMonster will be performing for a good cause we will be out bright and early for a show at Burnaby Lake for thousands of people. This whole show is about Brain Cancer Awareness, and we hope if your in the area to come out and so support for such a important issue, the guys will be on stage approximately around 10:30am, we will be playing all the songs from the Year of the Monster CD, this has not happened since the New Years Eve show, when we started the tour. Plus a number of new songs and some covers we enjoy playing, so hope to see you there.

Rockin in Burnaby

2011-05-09T12:35:00.001-07:00

On May 6th the band SoundMonster was back in the city of Burnaby with the YOTM tour, the band members originally met in this beautiful city around 13 years ago, when we played in the band Pious together, lots of stories there.

Now times have changed the city is bigger and we were happy to come out to an all-ages show at the Diamond Banquet Hall and play to a large group from kids to adults. We had all our effects for the show so we gave everyone a good line-up of material. Everyone was dancing and getting into the show, it is true when the crowd gets involved as a performer we get involved.

We started off the show playing the song "Just One Day" from the CD YOTM. The song was fitting cause its a story that happened in Burnaby, the band has never played in Burnaby before so to get the chance was very special. We played a number of our big songs, fans were into it, overall this show was a blast. With the venue as electric as it was we did an encore of a couple songs at the end, then with time passing into the twilight hours we finished the night on a high. Thank-you Burnaby for the opportunity to bring the YOTM show to your beautiful city.

Live at the Rio

2011-04-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster wants to thank everyone who came out to the Rio Theater to see us on April 29th. The show was a blast and had a lot of memories we will be talking about for sometime.

When we arrived it was a bit of chaos cause we had to get through the front doors and we showed up when fans were already standing in line to get in, so it was a bit of a process to finally get the gear inside and get situated. Greybeard and Steve Capital G arrived first, T-String came in about a half hour later.

The show started with a bra on the stage which Steve hung up on the mic stand for the remainder of the concert. The band pulled all SoundMonster tunes tonight, with the limitations of gear we were able to use there. All the songs had virtually no effects, vocally, for guitar, or drums so instead we played all all raw rock show. We wanted to play some of our signature songs but without the necessary toys we just played a set of material that didn't require the extras.

Next on the list the band goes into Burnaby for a show that will be at 7845 Edmonds, at the venue Diamond Banquet Hall on Friday May 7th, around 9pm.

The band is about to get back into the studio to begin the start of the Planet sessions, we will still be doing shows but with making new material, and recording our new CD the Monster will have its hands full.

to see pictures from our show at the Rio go to www.soundmonstermusic.com theres a link to the page on this blog site, and go into the photo gallery and follow the prompts

SoundMonster donates to the SPCA

2011-04-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all the fans that supported us on April 14th at the Wheelhouse in Surrey, British Columbia. A portion of all ticket sales was donated to the Surrey SPCA, to help animals that really need it.

Steve Capital G and Scott Miller from the band presented the cheque to the organization. The band wants to thank all the fans who support us and it's because of you guys we were able to do this charitable donation. We arrived just as the place was to close, but the friendly staff were happy to have us visit. We spoke with several of the staff and were excited to make a donation from our fans support, to help animals with food, shelter, with the hope to find a better place to live.

In other news ts less than a week until we are at the Rio in Vancouver, we will give updates when we find out more information from management.

To see all the pictures taken at the SPCA go to www.soundmonstermusic.com under Photo Gallery as well as other pictures from SoundMonster history

SoundMonster plays the Wheelhouse

2011-04-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

The April 14, 2011 show was not only a great show because we got to play a lot of new material, it was awesome cause of the fans. We had fans drive hundreds of miles through the snowy rocky mountains, and from several locations around the lower mainland, and outside to see us in concert. The band got to hang out with some pretty cool people and we appreciate all their support.

The band played two sets some songs we haven't played live for a long time, some songs for the first, and of course our regular material. Would say for me the highlights were playing Kingdom of Whispers, Good Year and Motionless those songs really get me going in a performance.

The Year of the Monster tour will have the band back in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 29th we will at the Rio Theatre to play a short set, we will be with a number of bands that night. We haven't got our time we will be on stage but if you want to see us best hurry cause Tickets are $10, but $15 at the door, so best deal is through us.

To see more pictures of the band at the Wheelhouse go to www.soundmonstermusic.com, go to the Photo Gallery and click at the top "Most Recent Photos" we have a couple pictures up from that rocking night!

Countdown to Surrey

2011-04-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

April 14th SoundMonster plays in the band's hometown of Surrey, British Columbia at the Wheelhouse 12867 - 96 Avenue Surrey, British Columbia at 9pm. The band will go on as the entertainment for the night we will play 20 songs, we will play the regular material, some new tunes that will be released on the upcoming CD Planet, and some songs never heard before. With every ticket purchased (from the band price $10) you will be donating $1 to the SPCA, and with the ticket you can get one free drink of your choice at the bar.

If your in Vancouver SoundMonster is coming back on the 29th to play in the Band on the Run to the UK with sixteen other great acts show starts at 5pm at the Rio Theatre 1660 East Broadway, Vancouver. We will be selling tickets at $10 a piece, the price at the door will be more. We will give more information on this show in the coming days.

Princeton Show

2011-03-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster finally got to invade Vancouver and it was done at a sold out show at the Princeton. The band wants to thank the crowd for all their support, hopefully if any read this we can get you guys back to see us in April as we will be invading your city again on April 29th at the Rio Theatre in an all-ages show.

The guys we playing with rock and metal bands so we flt to keep with the genre to play our heaviest songs we got. We picked a selection of mid heavy to heavy material and did a rock concert.

Overall the show had a lot of energy the guys didn't want the concert to end it was so much fun, and spent the remainder of the night listening to live acts and hanging out with musicians and fans. To see a selection of pics from the show go to www.soundmonstermusic.com in the Photo Gallery and use the link CLICK HERE TO SEE MOST RECENT PHOTOS

Our next show is in the hometown of SoundMonster in the city of Surrey. We will be doing an all SoundMonster show just us and fans, tickets are on sale now for $10, $1 from each ticket goes to charity (SPCA) and everyone with a ticket gets one free drink on the band. Show starts at 9pm and we look forward to giving all you guys a full concert of SoundMonster material old and new.

ROCK VANCOUVER

2011-03-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster brings the Year of the Monster tour to Vancouver British Columbia on Saturday March 19th, the forecast from sales and word of mouth is the show will be a sell-out. The band plans to do an all rock show playing songs from YOTM and upcoming CD Planet, with some surprises.

The show starts at 8pm come on out the show is by the waterside of downtown Vancouver

for more information check out listings for the show

we look forward to playing with the bands

Fusebreaker, My Own Chaos, and , Cry of Silence
should be a good diversity of sounds

will make a blog after about the show

Downsizing

2011-03-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

The band SoundMonster has evolved as a band, sometimes more is less. As a group of three we set out to fill in roles within the band which led the band to eventually put us as a six piece unit. As seen above for the promotional picture for the CD Year of the Monster. As a six piece there is a lot of compromise and artistic differences.

In the end after the CD was made and the tour was beginning we had to look at the long term for the band, the commitment levels and what people were prepared to do, there were a lot of unanswered questions, so we downsized the band to four. With the next member in school and unable to practice we mutually agreed to take a break which turned into the line-up going from four to three.

Sometimes you realize in the end things were already good as they were to an extent, and the music was fine as is. I won't disagree that some material requires multiple instruments and will not be performed. A good potion of the material though is made to be guitar based and the sound of the music is powerful and we are excited to turn around our show as we will for the next show be going all rock.

SoundMonster will be poking around the lower mainland of Vancouver for the next while doing some shows and secret ones, performing music from our CD and upcoming one as well. We hope to see ya there.

Evolution of SoundMonster

2011-02-27T15:57:00.000-08:00

The band SoundMonster has gone through line-up changes for the last year and a half, and there have been some good times, the best part about the band regardless who is in the band the music has rocked. In the new year the band has gone through some line-up changes and the best part the sound is still there, people are liking the songs, and the band is ready to do some shows in Canada with our new look.

March 19th is the first show at Princeton Hotel 1901 Powell St Vancouver, BC

tickets are for $10 its a small intimate stage so it will have lots of atmosphere
to get tickets you can contact soundmonster@hotmail.ca

other bands playing that night will be Cry of Silence, My Own Chaos and Fuse Breaker

we are on stage at 8:45pm

Italy needs SoundMonster

2011-02-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

Italy is beautiful, it was one of the most amazing places to visit, and so far on my travels in this great historic land I have paid attention to the music that is popular. Like any country radio is king, whatever the radio plays is what the people will listen to. What has surprised me is the lack of rock music in this country, seems dance and latino music is the popular sound.

For the youth of the world rock is the rebellion agaist the establishment, its the voice of the youth. I find it hard to believe that is not being told in music. SoundMonster is needed even more here than I realized, its been my mission to talk and share our sound, in the hopes one or two will get it and pass it on.

VIVA ITALIA

2011-01-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

SoundMonster has gone through some changes in the last couple weeks, the band decided to drop from six members to four. The band has parted ways with Tom Blomqvist backup guitarist and Nick the troll Trulsen bassist.

Some fans were concerned the band was on the verge of breaking up with a part of the group going ways this is not true. The band has downsized for several reasons but the reasons were done for more unity and consistant direction.

A number of new shows are slated for the Lower Mainland in British Columbia for March and April of 2011. SoundMonster will be releasing T-Shirts to this area exclusively by January 25th. They will be available for fans all over online by late February/early March.

Year of the Monster will be promoted for most of the month of February in the beautiful country of Italy. I hope will be a big step for new fans to hear our sound, and a great experience to see what is out there.

Its 2011 its the Year of the Monster

two big shows coming up is on March 19th in Vancouver, British Columbia
at the Princeton Hotel its a small venue very intimate, great place to hear live acts and we will be second on the bill to get tickets feel free to inquire on Facebook.

and date tentative April 14th in Surrey this is a larger venue the catch is buy a ticket get a free drink on the band and one dollar goes towards charity.

check for all show dates on MySpace and on
www.soundmonstermusic.com in the following weeks ahead

New Years Eve: Year of the Monster Tour Begins

2011-01-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve was the beginning of the Year of the Monster Tour it was held in the city of Surrey, British Columbia Canada, the same city SoundMonster calls its hometown. The show started a bit later then expected, a bit closer to 10pm. There were sound system issues, the band ended up doing some warm ups for the audience prior to playing. Usually in our set Steve Captial G freely moves from side to side on the stage. This evening the stage was not as wide to move in and with feedback issues happening with the monitors during the soundcheck, he didn't want to cause a problem.

The band did the setlist and overall would say the show was much better than expected. There were things that could have been improved but music isn't about perfection its about emotion, and that we had a lot of that evening.

We weren't sure how the turnout would be, but the crowd numbers were great,. Everybody came partied and had fun, so mission accomplished.

Year of the Monster: Good Year

2011-01-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

The song good year is the anthem song for the CD Year of the Monster, the whole idea of the album circulates on the idea of a year. In a year many things happen, good and bad, but we go on and the stories in the CD talk about the good and bad.

The song is about my father, he passed away just over two years now, a world without your parent is an odd one, it feels strange to walk the earth, when your parent does not. I wanted to write a song about my father and like any song it needed the write sound. I thought of the idea for a couple weeks. Then on one practice Ivan a former bassist couldn't make it out, so Trevor started to jam with Scott on new ideas. Trevor suddenly played what would be the opening to the song it was so moving I said, we need to keep that, I have lyrics for it! By the next jam we worked on what would become the song good year.

The song went through a couple changes at first the song was fairly short, in fact just two minutes long, then we added a bridge that was very different from the song, I sang in it. It never seemed to sound right, and I suggested to scrap it, and Trevor would add an amazing bridge. Tom suggested it be played by the bass, rather than guitar, but the chords are so moving I agree with Trevor it was his to showcase.

verse

MOMENTS I REFLECT WHAT IT WAS LIKE A YEAR AGO
I LOOK BACK TO THOSE DAYS
REMEMBERING THE TIMES THE SORROW

chorus

LOOKING BACK IN PERSPECTIVE
THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN MY LIFE
BETTER DAYS ARE NOW SO NEAR
LIFE EVOLVES FAST ITS BEEN A GOOD YEAR GOOD YEAR
JOY REPLACED WHAT WAS SO DREARY AND SAD
IN A BLINK OF AN EYE ITS BEEN A GOOD YEAR GOOD YEAR

verse

NOT SO FAR BACK FEELS LIKE A DAY
SEARCHING FOR HOPE WANTING IT TO STAY

Year of the Monster: Time Running Out

2011-01-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

The song time running out was a song I wrote about myself back in the fall of 2009. I was about to go back to school and take a course at University of Fraser Valley, it would take up a majority of my time for the next six months. I was a bit nervous, going into a fresh unknown world can do that. I was anticipating this change in my life and to deal with it I wrote a song about waiting for this change to happen, thats where the song time running out started. Musically I had a bunch of jams Scott and Trevor had worked on together and in that CD a couple songs came to existence, this would be one of them. When I introduced the song to the group after restructuring it, by the help of Scott, everyone just into the tune very quick. So, quick it would be recorded into a demo days before I started university. It would be my last jam with SoundMonster for a month.

verse

I'M SO PREPARING FOR MYSELF
NOW I'M HOPING IT ALL COMES TRUE
SO VERY NERVOUS ITS COMING NEW
ITS ALL SOMETHING ITS SOMETHING I GOTTA DO
I GOTTA DO

chorus

I'M WAITING JUST WAITING SITTIN ON MY HANDS GOING ABOUT
I'M STRESSING IMPATIENT LOTS TO GET DONE
TIME RUNNING OUT TIME RUNNING OUT

verse

IT'S BEEN SO LONG FOR SO LONG
IT JUST STARTED ITS BEEN MONTHS
SO MANY MONTHS NOW IT'S WEEKS AWAY
TIME TICKS MADLY UNTIL COMES THAT DAY
UNTIL COMES THAT DAY

verse

SO TENSE AND NERVOUS IT CONSUMES MY MIND
CHIN UP AND BREATHE THIS IS WHAT I CHOOSE
GETTING IT DONE NO TIME TO WAIT
UNTIL THAT MOMENT I WON'T REFUSE I WON'T REFUSE

Year of the Monster: Just One Day

2011-01-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

Of all things the song just one day was an idea that my mother gave me. When I became of age I lived in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia Canada on the south side. It was there I really grew into the person I am today, it's were I met my friend where we would both go down the path of getting into the music industry. Our paths would split years later for many different reasons, but the main point is when I was going through Burnaby I wanted to see the places that had a huge impact in my life. One of those was at the street corner of Burke and Barker. It was a meeting place we would get together because it was pretty much halfway point from both of our houses. The meeting point was a symbol in our friendship and anyone that was close to me and my friend at this period of our lives knew of this place. Revisiting the locations that had an impact on me, I started to tell stories and I made the comment to my mother, I wish I could go back for just one day. She replied, "I think you have a song there." She was right.

I like to work with music and it takes the right sound for something to release the words I want to say, so in the back of my mind I thought when Trevor pulls out something i'll know. That special sound would happen at the very next practice. Trevor was working on a new sound and presented it to us, right away I said, "this is it!" In a matter of weeks just one day was made.

verse

THERE'S NOTHING NO WRITTEN WORDS
JUST MEMORIES THAT ARE A PART OF ME A PART OF ME
IT WAS A PLACE A PLACE WE WOULD GROW
TRYING TO FIND OUR WAY TO FIND OUR WAY ON OUR JOURNEY

verse

WE MET ON A STREET HALFWAY FROM OUR HOMES
LIGHT OR DARKER A CROSSROADS
TWO STREETS CALLED BURKE AND BARKER
A TIME PERIOD UNLIKE NO OTHER AND WE DID IT
WE DID IT ON THAT CORNER

chorus

WHEN I WALK THOSE STREETS TODAY
IF I COULD I WOULD GO BACK FOR JUST ONE DAY
WHEN I WALK THOSE STREETS TODAY
IF I COULD I WOULD GO BACK FOR JUST ONE DAY

verse

THE SUN ALWAYS RISES IN THE MORNING
AND A BRAND NEW DAY HAS BEGUN
AND THEN WE ALL GO ON TO LEAD OUR DIFFERENT LIVES
WE STILL LOOK FOR THOSE MOMENTS IN OUR LIVES
THAT SHAPED WHO WE ARE AND AS A RESULT
WHO WE'VE BECOME

verse

I'VE MADE MISTAKES AND THERE'S TOO MANY TO TELL
BUT I LEARNED FROM THEM TODAY SO MANY THINGS
HAVE SHAPED WHO I AM
BUT A LOT CAME FROM THOSE TIMES
A LOT CAME FROM THOSE TIMES ANS WE DID IT ON THAT CORNER

Year of the Monster: Full Circle

2010-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

The tune full circle was the first real challenge SoundMonster worked on in trying new sounds. The idea is from a jam and the parts that were taken were about 12 to 14 seconds long. Working on a song that is repetitive was a challenge in itself, but as a band we could see where the final results would lead us. My original idea was a techno/dance tune, with a band of guitars and drums this led the song in a different direction more ska/dance. If Sean had been in the band at this time who knows where full circle would be today.

Once the band recorded the tune as a demo, and I did my vocals, I noticed how repetitive the song was and suggested to come up with new ideas for every second verse to change it up. Scott and Trevor would experiment ideas with the song, adding different parts Scott would play keys, and in the end the crappy demo sounded good. The demo was even put on ourstage.com to see what musicians and fans of music would vote it. It was put on the POP charts the most competitve genre on the site against good recorded songs, out of 500 or 600 bands the tune full circle finished 21st, just out of the final top 20.

The song is about my music history mostly in a humourous story, I left the music scene never to look back but in the end I walk in a full circle and end up right where I said I wouldn't. The message isn't strong in the song, but it's a tune that is very easy to like

chorus

NOW WE'VE GONE OUR WAY
DIDN'T LOOK BACK DIDN'T LOOK BACK
NOW WE'VE GONE OUR WAY
DIDN'T LOOK BACK DIDN'T LOOK BACK

verse

THE SUN SETS AS WE FOLLOW
WE DIDN'T LOOK BACK TO YESTERDAY
SITTING IN FRONT OF TOMMORROW
WE DIDN'T LOOK BACK NOW WE'VE GONE OUR WAY

verse

THE PARTY STARTS NOW NOT TOMMORROW
WE DIDN'T LOOK BACK TO YESTERDAY
PLAY THE MUSIC WE WILL FOLLOW
WE DIDN'T LOOK BACK NOW WE'VE GONE OUR WAY

Year of the Monster: Kingdom of Whispers

2010-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

The tune kingdom of whispers all started from hearing some older jams that were sent to me by Scott. Trevor and Scott had made a number of jams together over the years and nothing ever cam of them. Since most songs from SoundMonster started from recorded jams or pieces of material Trevor had been working on his own, Scott gave me a number of CD's with jams done over the last couple years. Not everything in those CD's screamed amazing material but there were a few, and the jam that would later become kingdom of whispers was one of them.

The story of kingdom of whispers came from a real story. My ex girlfriend's brother was dating her best-friend. The brother had commitment issues and the best-friend was very impulsive and when the relationship crumbled to the ground, all the whispers and murmuring began. It looked very juvenile and wouldn't trade spaces to be in that situation for the world! I wrote the song, originally as kingdom of secrets, but the name sounded too Harry Potter, so I renamed it as you see today.

As we worked on the song Trevor to add more grit changed the tuning from E to drop D, which gives the song a more heavy in your face power that we were looking for. We originally recorded the song as a demo and had it on facebook for half a year while the CD was being made. We polled the song over the world except for Canada and USA the song didn't really pull much interest, but in the USA about 50% percent of the people polled picked this song as their favorite. The song would even be hacked and teens in Ohio were playing it on there cellphones, we'll see what happens with our CD.

chorus

HE SAID SHE SAID SHE TOLD HE KNOWS
HE SAID SHE SAID THEY KNOW I KNOW

verse

GOING TO FAR DEEPER BY THE DAY
TWO FACED ACTIONS TRUTH LOST ITS WAY
NOT SO COMFORTABLE AS I USED TO BE
WANT THINGS RIGHT WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME

verse

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS TOO MUCH GOING ON
SMILES TO MY FACE NO ONE'S GETTING ALONG
WHISPERS ALL AROUND LOUDER THAN CAN BE
WANT THINGS RIGHT WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME

bridge

MAKES ME WANT TO STAY AWAY MAKES ME WANT TO FLY SO HIGH
MAKES ME WANT TO RUN AWAY MAKES ME WANT TO GO AND HIDE

Year of the Monster: Irreversible

2010-12-20T07:24:00.000-08:00

In Year of the Monster I admit almost half the albums songs are inspired by love and deceit. When my relationship ended ugly three songs came from it. The first being the catch, this song dealt with the cheating. The next song in your head was about focusing on the insanity, I was wondering what was going on in her head to rationalize the lies she had made. The last of the three songs is called irreversible, in this tune tells the story of the relationship from my own perception and a lie that was said that bothered me.

The idea for irreversible came maybe a week or two after I wrote in your head. I was taking a course in university on the value of communication. This was a class I actually enjoyed and to this day still think about. Two songs came from the teachings in this class, and one was irreversible. Perceptions are everything to ourselves, but really they only matter to us. How we see something is unique and individual, just like one persons treasure is another persons garbage. It made me think a lot about my last relationship, because it ended so harshly.

I was coming home for lunch I didn't live far away from school, and going home I had a cd of jams and songs we had done. What was weird is I heard all the jams on this CD for several months, but on this particular day one jam grabbed my attention. I found the instrumentation very moving like it was a cry of feelings. When I came back to school I had the melody in my head and began to write what would be the tune on the CD. The song is about how I struggled to make the relationship work, it was a real documentary what happened in the relationship, my cry. Each verse is a detailed account what I felt, but really it's my own perception, she wouldn't see it that way. Nothing I can say will make anything better, but in the end I felt I sacrificed a lot and felt like the chorus says "don't tell me I'm the one if you didn't mean it." Time of course passes and the feelings fade away, but you always learn from your mistakes.

The song to me is equally powerful lyrically as it is musically, it's a real stretch from what I usually do and really went out of my element to do it. The band spent months trying to work out the best structure and eventually got it together in the summer. In the recording I never heard the piano parts Sean did until the CD was released. I know he had a couple of ideas but I don't think he knew even which way he was going to go with the song until he recorded it. In the end his addition really sealed what was a great song.

verse

DON'T BELIEVE YOU THAT I WAS THE ONE
WHEN I TOOK A STEP BACK BEFORE WE BEGUN
AND YOU NEED ANOTHER PERSON TO MAKE YOUR DECISIONS

verse

DID MY BEST TO MAKE US COMPLETE
YOUR PAST CREPT UPON YOU IT HAD ME BEAT
AND YOU AVOIDED COMMUNICATING WITHOUT REASONS

verse

DON'T FEEL BAD NOW THAT IT'S DONE
JUST QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR SHORT RUN

chorus

DON'T TELL ME I'M THE ONE IF YOU DIDN'T MEAN IT

verse

TOLD YOU I WAS PATIENT CAUSE I WAITED BY YOUR SIDE
YOU FLEW BACK AND FORTH EMOTIONS SO HIGH
AND I FELT CONFUSED WITHOUT EXPLANATION

verse

BAGGAGE FILLED YOUR ROOM IT BLOCKED YOUR WAY
THEN YOU TRIPPED OVER YOUR FEET AND YOU DIDN'T STAY
AND YOU WOULDN'T GIVE ME MUCH INFORMATION

verse

DID NOT EXPECT THE WORLD JUST HOPED FOR YOUR HEART
MIND WAS ELSEWHERE WE WERE CLEARLY APART

chorus

DON'T TELL ME I'M THE ONE IF YOU DIDN'T MEAN IT

verse

STILL PONDER THE TIME IT GOT OUT OF HAND
NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD BUT HERE I STAND
AND IN OUR MOMENT IT WENT OH SO FAST

verse

TIME MOVES ALONG JUST MEMORIES REMAIN
NOT BITTER AT ALL I'M STILL THE SAME
AND THERE'S NO REASON TO LIVE IN THE PAST

verse

CHOICES WERE MADE DON'T PUT ME ON TRIAL
TOOK THE HITS WHILE YOU DODGED WITH DENIAL

chorus

DON'T TELL ME I'M THE ONE IF YOU DIDN'T MEAN IT

Year of the Monster: Too Cool for the Funk

2010-12-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

I had this idea of making a medley playing around with different sounds, the medley ended up being three tunes. The ideas came from jams that Trevor and Scott did together.The first was called back to the grind a blues song, then it turned into a funk tune called too cool for the funk (originally named too cold for the funk), and the last tune was a metal/reggae style song called into the unknown. The song too cool for the funk was a story that has several meanings. The original concept was to sing about being cold, because the blues have made things cool down. It was a play on words because the first song of the medley was a blues tune. Hence, in the lyrics "so move to get out of the blues". The message in the song was to get warm sing funk music, which was really words for saying to warm up and make love.

In the song I tried to be personal the line "I lived where it snows in spring" is true. I was referring to the city of Calgary, Alberta Canada. I lived there before I came back to Vancouver to play for SoundMonster. Spring is my favorite time of year and living in Calgary during this time period it went from a nice sunny day to snow weekly, it wasn't fun.

The medley challenged the band to play songs that were very different in style and merging them together. When the CD came out we decided we weren't going to do any medley's so each song was played as an individual tune. Too cool for the funk was the best song of the bunch and made the grade placing as the sixth song on the CD.

verse

TOO COOL FOR THE FUNK WISHING THE BLUES WOULD MELT AWAY I NEED THE SUN TO FUNK THE SOUL TO WARM US UP TODAY TOO COOL FOR THE FUNK TEMPERATURES DOWN WHAT TO SAY TEETH CHATTERING SO MUCH SHIVERING IS NOT MY WAY

chorus

SO MOVE TO GET OUT OF THE BLUES
LETS HEAT UP THIS PLACE AND BOIL THE TUNES

verse

TOO COOL FOR THE FUNK I LIVED WERE IT SNOWS IN SPRING NO EXCUSES HERE WE NEED TO WARM UP AND SING TOO COL FOR THE FUNK THE TIDE HAS CHANGED AND FROZE HAVE TO GET THE FIRE STARTED BEFORE WE FREEZE AND WE DOZE

verse

TOO COOL FOR THE FUNK NOW WERE PICKING UP THE PACE TO SIMMER DOWN THE ICE AND TAN OUR BACKS AND OUR FACE TOO COOL FOR THE FUNK IT'S PICKING UP FOR OUR SHOW GOTTA KEEP THE HEAT ON RISE GET LOVIN WITH WHO WE KNOW

Year of the Monster: I Met a Girl

2010-12-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

In my music career I wasn't the guy that sang love songs, if you ever hear the songs I did before SoundMonster, I usually sang lyrics about a destructive and cruel world. I wanted to change and grow as a songwriter, singing about love was my challenge. Early in the band I had a number of jams to go through, there were several that I liked I wanted to turn into songs.

At the time I liked this girl, and thought by making a song telling her I had feelings would be a romantic way of expressing that. It was an awkward experience writing the song, but I was truthful. I had a friend I was over at her house I liked her, we kissed and I didn't know what to do, thats the song I met a girl, total true story.

I told her I wrote a song about her, she wasn't extremely happy with the idea, she thought I might say something mean, when she heard it though she gave her approval, but it didn't totally win her heart, hence I then wrote what would be a part two of the song called waiting for tonight.

The song was well received by the band it took me awhile to get used to singing about love, but it was breaking ground to make me a better artist.

chorus

I MET A GIRL AND I LIKE HER
I MET A GIRL AND WE'RE JUST FRIENDS
I MET A GIRL THEN WE KISSED
I MET A GIRL WHERE DO WE GO

verse

WALK MY OWN WAY NOBODY HOLDS MY HEART
THEN THE OTHER DAY A GIRL SWEPT ME APART
IS THERE ANOTHER WAY

verse

WHAT DO I DO FEELINGS THAT I MISS CENTER AROUND YOU ITS ITS THAT KISS A FEELING THAT GREW

verse

I'M INSIDE MY MIND IS THIS ALL REAL AND
I HAVE TO SAY TO EVERYTHING HOW I FEEL
I'LL TRY ANOTHER DAY

Year of the Monster: Better than Fiction

2010-12-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

This song was the second the band ever made together, originally it was the second part of a medley. When Trevor was playing it and working on the verses I thought it was going to be a party song, I kept hearing the words "just a guy" at the beginning of each verse. I kept that idea, but where the song went was in a whole other direction.

I struggled on what to write about, for over a week. Then I had a good discussion with Scott, we were hanging out outside his place, and I told him the whole crazy story of my last band how we started, right up to the dark end. The music industry is very evil in my mind and it basically ripped my band apart. After hearing my story Scott said I should write a tune about it.

I took his words to heart and the next day did just that and found summarizing my music history was what the song needed. By the next jam it was done with the title better than fiction, meaning the story is better because it's a true story about me.

The song has gone through the mill the chorus instrumentally has changed at least twice, vocally it has about four or five times. So, the tune has always seemed to change for the better. Live better than fiction has done very well for us, would say its a highlight of the night for many fans to hear it.

When the band was choosing which songs to put on the CD, the debate was does better than fiction go on as a medley, as it was first created or do we present it as a single tune. In the end we went with the single song idea, no medley's were done on the CD.

LYRICS

verse

JUST A GUY NEW TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD JUST A GUY BETTER THAN I EVER SHOULD
STARTED A BAND PLAYERS ALL COME AND GO TOO FAST TODAY BECOMES TOMMORROW
JUST A GUY IT ALL BEGAN TO SEEM SO HIGH JUST A GUY WANTED TO TOUCH THE SKY
PLAYED AROUND WE ALL MISSED OUR CUES SOME HOT OTHERS HAD COLD REVIEWS

chorus

NOW NOW YOU KNOW THAT'S HOW IT GOES HOW IT GOES
NOW NOW YOU KNOW THAT'S HOW IT GOES HOW IT GOES

verse

JUST A GUY NEW TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD JUST A GUY BETTER THAN I EVER SHOULD
DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE WITHOUT A BREAK WE'RE A TEAM GAVE WHAT WE COULD TAKE
JUST A GUY NOBODY UNDERSTOOD JUST A GUY THOUGHT WE HAD BROTHERHOOD
DREAMS AND LIES COMING FROM SIDE TO SIDE IT CAM UNDONE AND THEN THE MUSIC DIED

bridge

I DIDN'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING BUT SING
INSTEAD IT WASN'T WHAT I THOUGHT I'S BE
JUST STAND AND MOVE AND ACT THIS WAY
FELT OUT OF PLACE I WANTED JUST TO RUN AWAY
JUST RUN AWAY THIS IS BETTER THAN FICTION

Year of the Monster: In Your Head

2010-12-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

The creation of in your head was done during a night jam including Trevor and Scott. It was around a time period when I was making a blog about our metal influences, since we all had deep roots in this genre. Not sure if that discussion got the guys into jamming out some hard riffs, but I ended getting a text that they worked on some new heavy material, and Scott sent me some of the best cuts. The first jam was a complete song, as a vocalist there was limitations what I could do with it, so I spent more time focusing on the second song. Right away I found it appealing, Trevor broke new ground in his experimenting with sounds, that lead to new ideas of song structure.

The song in your head is a real story, it is a part two from the song the catch. In this chapter I was really confused why everything happened the way it did. I was wondering a lot what was going on in her head, how she could defend the things she did by hiding behind a wall of lies. Nobody is perfect but it made me wonder a lot what it was like to think like that, and the song in your head describes my thoughts of the situation at the time.

When the song was done, I came down to the studio to sing to some demos the guys were working on, and Trevor came down and wanted to hear the new song. Right away he liked it and we added the tune to the playlist. Playing it we knew the song needed a lot of keyboard influence. When Sean our keyboardist joined the band we challenged him to take this to the next level, he did a great job.

LYRICS

verse

PLAYING GAMES MOVING ON LOOK AWAY NOW I'M GONE

chorus

WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING IN YOUR HEAD
IT'S ALL SLIPPING AWAY ANYHOW

verse

ACTING STRANGE FEELS WRONG MAKES NO SENSE NOW I'M GONE

chorus

WHAT'S TURNING ON IN YOUR HEAD
WHAT'S SHAKING AROUND IN YOUR HEAD

verse

WON'T TALK WON'T EXPLAIN

chorus

WHAT'S JUMPING AROUND IN YOUR HEAD
WHAT'S BREAKING DOWN IN YOUR HEAD

bridge

TRIED TO TALK WORK IT OUT SPEAK MY MIND TURN YOUR BACK
IT WAS COLD IT WAS DONE SILENCE IS YOUR GUN

verse

WEIGHT HEAVY EMOTIONS WRONG CAN'T AGREE NOW I'M GONE

chorus

WHAT'S LURKING ABOUT IN YOUR HEAD
WHAT SCREAMING SOUNDS ARE IN YOUR HEAD
IT'S ALL SLIPPING AWAY ANYHOW

verse

SET ME FREE WHERE I BELONG ON MY WAY NOW I'M GONE

chorus

WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING IN YOUR HEAD

Year of the Monster:The Catch

2010-12-02T00:20:00.000-08:00

The Catch is a song that was a real change for the band musically. Up until this point we had always made songs of different sounds may it be pop, punk, blues, metal, rock we really did it all, even play around with country music. This was new ground, we had never taken different styles and created something that was our own, I always believe the song The Catch helped the band find itself on many levels.

I wasn't in studio when the members worked on this tune I was in university, but on a winter's night the guys just jammed and came up with it. I remember Trevor texting me saying, "Steve you have to listen to a jam we did it's like Time Running Out, but different!"

During this time I was suspecting a girl I was dating was cheating and seeing or at least attempting to see someone else, I wasn't born yesterday the signs were all there. She had a lack of interest in me, wasn't talking, no affection, it was really a crappy time. So, I searched and found out she was making herself available, so instead of approaching her and freaking out, I calmed down and waiting to see what was going to happen.

It looked like I was in the drivers seat, but a girl I talked to for a couple days as friends, had a crush on me. She was once married and her husband cheated on her and was very bitter about it. When she found out I was dating someone she went off the handle and told the girl I was dating that I wasn't being faithful, when I never cheated. I didn't do anything.

So, the girl I was dating smeared my name in blogs and facebook, it was nasty. It got worse the next day I dislocated my knee and was hobbling like an idiot. It wasn't a fun twenty-four hours, so I sat down that night listened to the jam, and the music blew me away. With a fresh new sound I could see our band coming together, and in minutes I wrote my cry called The Catch.

The song says I make mistakes but regardless that I caught you cheating, it doesn't matter, instead she hides behind friends playing the victim when I ever cheated, she did. In the big picture though, is it worth it who really cares!

The band loved the song I loved it, and it was the only song we made a demo out of that went straight to recording before we even played it together as a band. In fact after we recorded it as a demo, we never played it together for almost three months.

LYRICS

verse

I MAKE MISTAKES AND I KNOW HOW I FELT
WHEN I TOLD YOU I WAS INNOCENT MY PALMS STARTED TO SWEAT
I MAKE MISTAKES AND YOU
YOU KNOW YOU MAKE THEM TOO
BUT IT GETS SO CRAZY WHEN THIS VENDETTA'S ON YOU

prechorus

MY MOUTH DID LIE WHILE MY HEART STAYED TRUE (ooh ho ho)
MY INTENTIONS LOOKED DEVIANT BUT IT WASN'T WHAT I WANTED TO DO

chorus

NOW ITS ALL OVER IF IM A CHEATER YOUR A CHEATER TOO WHO CARES!!!!

bridge

I WASN'T TRYING TO HURT ANYONE BUT WE ENDED UP DOING IT TO
I' M HAUNTED BY THE WORDS THAT I WROTE NOTHING WILL EXPLAIN THE TRUTH
I SPOKE LEFT WHEN I FELT RIGHT AND THEN I SAW YOU DO IT TOO
IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT I CAUGHT YOU FIRST ITS YOUR CATCH THAT WILL DO

Year of the Monster: Waiting for Tonight

2010-11-29T07:18:00.001-08:00

Every song has a story, the song Waiting for Tonight was about my summer of 2009, and falling for a girl. It was a very hot summer and every Thursday night I would she her. I spent the summer looking forward to Thursday night, hence the title "waiting for tonight".

The song talks how regardless how hot it was during the day and trust me I was living in front of a fan daily, she was always on my mind, and I would think about seeing her, always looking forward to Thursday nights. Later in the story I talk about how the summer goes to fast, this reference was to my summer of love. A summer of love is always a magical time, and its a moment you don't want to end. Like a lot of things when the magic is over so is the moment, and this was no different.

When I made the song with SoundMonster I was living in the moment, so the magic in the whole song for me is there, because it wasn't made after the fact, but in the heat of the times. Trevor our lead guitarist for a couple weeks kept telling me he was working on a song, he finally showed it to me, and right away I was thinking how powerful the hooks in the chorus were.

For me they were hooks that stayed in your brain, and you would find yourself singing the tune just out of the blue. That night I had the chorus done I knew the song would be called "waiting for tonight". By the following week it was made, and ready to go. I still remember when the tune was finished Trevor says to me, "you know when I made the song originally it wasn't supposed to sound anything like that". Hey it worked and it ended up being the first song on the CD.

LYRICS

chorus

WAITING FOR TONIGHT
SO I CAN SEE YOU
I'M WAITING FOR TONIGHT
YOU'RE THE ONE THAT MAKES ME FEEL SO ALIVE
FOR TONIGHT
SO I CAN SEE YOU
I'M WAITING FOR TONIGHT
AND I FEEL SO ALIVE

verse

ITS SO HOT OUTSIDE ITS BEEN WEEKS (ooooh) SINCE RAIN
THE SUN IS STARING MAKING THIS HEAT FEEL LIKE PAIN
I'M SWEATING ALL OVER SKIN STICKING TO MY CLOTHES
AND ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IS THAT

LIVING EACH DAY LIKE IT'S GOING TO BE MY LAST
I WANT THE SUMMER TO STAY FOREVER GOES TO FAST
SO MUCH TO DO NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY
AND ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT AND THAT

SoundMonster CD RELEASE

2010-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

SoundMonster wants to thank all our fans for the loyal support especially in the last year as we have been making the CD Year of the Monster.

It feels good to get something we are so passionate accomplished and it took every member to give 110 percent to get it to where we are now.

THE CD RELEASE WILL BE ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 30th 2010

to pick up your copy

visit www.soundmonster.ca

SoundMonster Week!!!

2010-11-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

From November 22nd 2010, to November 26th has been declared SoundMonster week, Im sure most people aren't aware of this, nonetheless it is.

Starting November 22nd if you visit our fan page on facebook and our newly open band page www.soundmonster.ca you can listen to the upcoming songs on our CD "Year of the Monster".

No release date has been set as of yet, but keep your eyes open because that announcement is not long away, for fans that have been waiting patiently the pre sale to the CD has started for online sales on November 22nd.

Sales have begun and SoundMonster is happy to delver CD's by mail to your choice of delivery if you don't live in the Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada.

stay tuned as we will be releasing three songs from the CD

so far in your head has been released today (November 22nd)
and two more will be appearing November 24th and 26th.

we appreciate all our fans around the world and look forward to playing LIVE all year in 2011.

Stay Tuned for more blogs

SoundMonster LIVE

2010-11-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

Part of being in a band is a visual, I admit we aren’t the prettiest boys on the block, we are more like a motley crew then what some bands look like, we all come in different lengths and shapes, in a way we are like the sounds that we make, which is everything. So, doing an image of the band we focus more of the ideas of space then our cute selves, and we are fine with that.

We still though have to present our band in pictures, since the band has formed all the pictures were from times when the band was a foursome. Since the last pictures were taken one member was removed, and three new members have joined the band. Even though Nick wasn’t an official member of the band when the pictures were taken, later that same night he would be officially be welcomed to the SoundMonster family. He showed the drive and eagerness to do what it took to be a member. Now it’s his turn to continue and learn our songs with the same drive.

So we kinda did a two in one night, we were having our first pre-show concert at an unannounced location. I know some fans were a bit taken back we didn’t announce the show publicly but we wanted to have our first show to a limited audience. We wanted to hear what was working and what wasn’t, so the first show was supposed to be short and sweet. Before the concert we had a part one of photos, we did what was more creative shots for a future artistic picture. The n for a limited audience we performed the songs that would be on the CD. With flood lights, cameras, and video recorders in our faces we gave our show. There were parts we all were a bit off on, but like professionals we covered them up and gave the show of our lives. Lots of energy we flew from song to song giving it all.

After the first set we were greeted by lots of feedback, they liked the songs, thought the show from the beginning to end was full of energy and every tune was good. The band knew where the improvements were, but there was a lot of good to take out of the show. I was just looking for good energy, I was expecting mistakes but in the long run I have to say we did good, always room to improve but for a pre-show we gave it all.

After taking a short break the band was involved in a long process of pictures being taken. These pictures were for our upcoming CD Year of the Monster, some may even make the CD. Most were individual shots, and with six members it took over an hour of poses and retakes, first black and white, then color, it was a long time. The next photo shoot for the CD Year of the Monster won’t be during our concerts it’s too grueling to wait, to be honest. It was fun though.

We did a second concert doing the songs again so everyone could get a feel of the CD, and though I’d say we were pretty tired and worn out, we gave it all, I personally think for quality in the second set I really had a better show, not a ton better, but a little. The energy was there we really worked our show that night and overall had a good night performing.

Since the show we have talked about doing another one before the tour begins in late October, and this one will be open to a lot more fans.

Challenging the Monster

2010-11-09T13:22:00.001-08:00

After finally getting my (Steve) lead vocal parts down for our upcoming CD SoundMonster: Year of the Monster, the guys were in studio doing a practice for our upcoming tour slated to start here in Surrey, British Columbia on December 31st. The last jam with Trevor, Scott, Tomas, Sean and auditioning for bass Nick, the six of us had a real energy, the energy we were wanting for our live performance.

The sounds were there, it was full and very ear appealing and the whole room was electric. It was the first time I felt we were on the verge of being ready for the upcoming tour. The guys afterwards were alive and lots of compliments going around, and continuing to challenge one another.

This practice was going to be even a bigger challenge, because our lead guitarist Trevor who is a huge part in the sound of SoundMonster would not be available, Nick was also caught by family obligations, so this jam was going to be Scott, Tomas Sean and myself. As a band we wouldn’t be relying on Trevor’s sound to follow parts, so we all put our feet forward to get the job done.

Things we worked on was playing songs that were missing key elements of guitar parts, but it also gave Tomas and myself a chance to work on vocals to get them on time and tighter. I thought in songs we were off a bit on vocals Tom and I got them down, and of course on songs like I met a girl, and waiting for tonight we were able to really give our all and do some real harmonies.

It wasn’t a perfect jam not having a major instrument involved with the songs at time is hard to follow because we rely on other instruments that we don’t always listen to, but overall the songs went well. What I liked about the performance was the energy, we were able to really have a live sound happening and that was something key I was looking to hear. Not us performing the song, but expressing the song with power and energy, and it was there again that night even two men short. That’s when I realize the guys are all giving passion and whether we play as a foursome or six piece group we give a good show. We made a challenge to the rest of the guys we did some good things, and the band continues to get excited to get the songs out to Canada, America and the rest the world.

Last day in studio PART TWO

2010-10-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

With Irreversible done, it was getting on close to the evening, and Sean hadn’t called yet to announce if he was still coming to the studio, so we took it that he was tired and felt asleep, or was too drained to do his parts. So, this gave me the chance to continue, feeling good with doing a challenging song like irreversible, I was going to finish my vocal parts for the CD Year of the Monster doing our song in your head.

Originally when we made this song, it was supposed to be a metal tune, if you read the blog In your head the history how the song was made is talked about there. Adding keys to this tune gave the right ingredient and it became a techno metal song. Very fresh new and cool, just listening to the style sounds awesome very in your face but with a sweet blend of sounds of all different genres coming together with a powerful punch.

I wanted to give a good performance to compliment what the band has created, so like irreversible I just kept on doing takes over and over I think I did like five tracks in total singing the song. I may have done a couple more tracks for certain parts I still wasn’t happy with.

The cool part about our recording studio is if a part is repeated, I can take the best version, and have that part repeated over and over again to get the right sound. In the song in your head, if you guess the words I repeat the most is, in your head. So, we took the best version of it and going through each track I caught the one I wanted right away.
Scott was able top reuse it for every chorus and it sounds balanced and right just like what the professionals do.

So, as we finished the last track and got the parts all but in the right spots, it was an amazing feeling to know after four months of hard work I was able to get all my parts down. So, Scott just finished up the tracks, and we sat listening to the songs one by one going over what sounds good what needs to be fixed or redone. Overall I am very happy with the album, everybody has done there very best to get their parts down as professionally as possible, as the weeks pass everyone should get their parts completed. We are looking at getting all the tracks finished by the last week of September; then it will take the month of October to get the songs mixed down properly, and get the CD’s packaged and ready for a November release.

With my parts done on the CD I can focus more on the tour, our first New Years eve show to start off the tour. Work on the process of distribution for Canadian fans and fans in the USA and other countries, and getting the CD pressed and ready to be packaged.

We have made a lot of new fans south of the border, and we love our American fans and hope once the CD is released they will give SoundMonster a chance to come into many homes playing our sound. As the clock ticks the CD slowly starts to come to an end, and ready for release.

Last day in studio PART ONE

2010-10-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

In our last practice, the energy was strong, in fact it was the best yet the sounds from six guys was incredible and the passion in every song made me feel like we were getting ready for our tour. The songs were sounding right, the levels of pride and strength reflected off every line. It felt right, it felt good, and there was a lot of pride in the room that night.

After we played our songs and everyone was chatting feeling good about the performance, Tomas starting to play tracks in the studio from our CD, the song he played was irreversible. I admit the song is personal, what I love about this song is what it can be, I admit I am not the best singer in the world, so there is always room to improve. I love the lyrics they are very powerful to me, and really I think speak for a lot of broken relationships out there.

When I originally did the lyrics I played it safe, and at the end I wasn’t sold on my performance. If you read the blog Irreversible which isn’t too far back in the blog library, I talked about how I didn’t finish the song believing it was my best work. The song is challenging vocally for me, so it will take a lot to be completely happy with the song.

Hearing my role in the song after having a powerful practice full of energy, the song sounded vocally lifeless, it didn’t have any punch, it sounded like I didn’t believe in what I was saying. That song needs to be said in emotion and power, and after hearing the vocal track it haunted me. I couldn’t handle having a song on the CD where I felt I could have done better, that’s not how I roll. So, the following day I was back in the studio originally to do my last song in your head, a techno based metal tune.

It felt good; I knew this would be my last song to do, so realistically this would be my last full day at the studio, doing my vocals on Year of the Monster. Four months of work was about to be finished for me that day. Originally I was to come in the studio in the afternoon, and Sean was to come in that evening and do key parts, but he had an expected show to perform in and was too beat to come to the studio. It really worked out though cause on my last day, it took several works to finish up, cause when I arrived I told Scott I’m doing irreversible over again.

He understood, so I sang the song differently instead of going over every part individually like I usually do I just sang the song I think five or six times giving every ounce of myself. We listened to every line from every track and found the best parts and put them together, I redid maybe two lines and did a couple more tracks to compare, and we redid those cause Scott suggested some wording changes to make more sense of my point, or to work better with the rhythm of the song, and it did.

Comparing the new version just done to the old one was like night and day, and I can say it is a great performance that I am very proud of now. The version is a bit slower then what we would perform live, but its still a good sound’, and maybe it is better that it’s a bit slower in the recording version. Since Michelle a friend of the band plays some drumming parts in the end using bongos, and Trevor has redone his ending of the song with a latin style guitar solo, still a taste of his own in it, but it is different and a nice blend to the album. The goal was to have a flamenco flavour to the sound, adding keys is the last to complete this challenging song, and look forward to what Sean can do with it.

New Blood

2010-10-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

The band has gone through some cycles and it was time to make a change, that was in the end better for both parties. If you read the blog Changes within then you already know that the band SoundMonster explained to Ivan that we were going to bring in a new bassist. When Ivan joined the band as he said in his own words he never expected to do more than jam and play live. As time passed he saw where and what was happening with SoundMonster and as the momentum of the band is growing and more players and coming in the group and filling their roles. With a CD months away from release and a tour scheduled, he knew as he said in his own words he was holding us back.

With a photo shoot set in weeks it was decided this was the time to make a change, and Soundmonster had the audition sign up. There were a couple interested players, but one stood out the most and Trevor who has brought everyone into the band, brought in a bassist named Nick.

I give credit to the guy he came into a situation where the band was established with song list and he has a list to learn and make his own in a short period of time. He was listening to the music on the facebook site so his experience hearing our sound was limited to four songs, and even then those songs are demos done by a four-piece group. Since then the songs have evolved and with six members are full, and more dynamic.

In the jam this is where Nick got his real first taste of playing with SoundMonster as an act. We as a group had not really performed together for a bit of awhile, so I admit we were a bit rusty. I don’t think our performance was bad, there’s always room for improvement, but even if I or someone in the band made an error we played through it and kept the song together it was very professional.

We played through most of our set list in good timing, we did go over some songs more than once, to show Nick and to give ourselves some practice. The biggest memory was playing Full Circle, the live version is a lot more alive and powerful, the recorded version is more dance style. It’s hard to explain in the end both versions have the same result it’s a fun time. We played the song four times in a row, and everytime I thought whether we had to patch up a mistake or not, it sounded not too bad.

For a band that had not practiced for a couple weeks we pulled off a half decent show, way better than I thought we would. Overall there was a lot of improvement necessary, I thought as many did Nick did a pretty good day for his first day on the job. Overall the guys had fun, which is the number one ingredient for a good show. The thing that stood out to me the most was the energy. We had an energy in that jam I can say I have never seen before, I don’t know why and can’t put a finger on it but with that energy I felt like the music came alive for me in a way I never felt before.

To be honest with that kind of energy I could have pulled off at least another hour and we were at it for three. It was awesome! We played the whole set list and then we hung out during breaks, Nick was really happy felt good about the music. From talking to a couple members the next day they were pretty happy with Nick’s performance for a first time.

The guys ended the night doing a small jam session, and we all called it a night. So far Nick has done a good job we all agreed to make it the next jam and continue on improving our sound, and live show. I felt we made a step in the right direction that night.

Changes Within

2010-10-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

So, I am about to sing what is to be the most challenging song we have called irreversible, a flamenco style tune. To me this song can either be an amazing sound for the album, or just be awkward and off. To me it all depends on how I am able to work the vocals. When I sang it live in a recording I loved my work found it dynamic and showed it to many people who praised it, since then I have recorded my vocals to the song twice on a demo and hated it.

Now I am in front of the recording mike about to try to do what will be our official version of this song. So, I must have sung the tune a couple times first to get into it, then piece by piece I would go over tracks and do other tracks, Scott and I would compare the vocal styles. Time would pass, and going piece, by piece, line, by line word, by word the song was done. I will admit once I got through the song, I tried to sing more tracks to compare but what we kept what was to be the song were the best takes.

Still being super sensitive to the vocal parts, Scott said to leave it for the night, and since I am in studio tomorrow before we jam I would just go back and listen the next day. It is true once you give it a day and some coming in with a fresh mind helps to perceive the music in a new way.

After the recording session getting my tracks done on the song irreversible, I hadn’t had anything to eat yet, and it was already 6pm in the evening. So, Scott and I took a break to eat, after our meal we were back in the studio finishing up and putting together full circle.

To completely turn the blog around at the same time besides all the progress that is going on with the band, the old saying is with progress comes change, and that is exactly what has happened. It isn’t a huge surprise it was eventually going to happen, Ivan our bass player was asked to step down from his post as a bassist with the band.

Ivan joined SoundMonster very early in its creation, just weeks after Scott, Trevor and I (Steve) formed what was then called the project. We called the band the project because we didn’t have a name yet, and looked at forming our group more like a project at the time. Ivan was brought into the band by Trevor after a friend of mine who played keyboard and bass wasn’t able to join our group due to work and distance. Ivan though completely different in music tastes some how found a home in our motley crew. While we were all about the beat and wanted to increase speed on songs, he wanted to play slow and more melodic jazz.

Ivan was a lover of jamming and helped our band become more creative with exploring parts of our sessions working on jams. This formula would help create songs such as the catch, in your head, and irreversible. He became a friend and a part of the SoundMonster family. In a way he always will be connected to the band as he will be credited for doing bass on six of the songs on the album Year of the Monster.

Getting to know Ivan he was more comfortable as a performer then a studio artist, so Trevor was taking more of a role completing bass parts on the album. Plus with Ivan being a committed father and husband in his family his role in the band would never be more than a show week to week, he wouldn’t be able to tour which is a huge goal for the band in 2011. So, before the album is to be completed finding a bassist that could tour and do more shows was something that was necessary.

Ivan always said if we needed to get a new bassist he would step down his role in the band, because he knew his limitations. So, SoundMonster wants to celebrate Ivan for his contributions to the band, he will always be a part of SoundMonster history.

Fixing the Damage

2010-10-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

For fans that have gone to facebook and realized the fan page is gone its gone because Facebook made an error and destroyed the page. Its not the ftrst time this has happened to people on facebook, but it's an unfortunate situation for us, we lost over 500 fans and hope in time we will make new fans and re-fan the ones that have supported us in the past.

Our Cd will be released soon and in the coming weeks more information will be given how to get the CD into your home

Irreversible

2010-10-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

So, I’m in the studio just finished the song full circle Trevor went home and we realized there was lots of time left to do more songs. I only had to sing six lines and the rest were cut and paste so we decided to carry on. Last week Trevor and Scott laid down the basic tracks for the song irreversible, and since added more parts, so it was a bit more full. Now I was going to sing and do my role. This isn’t an easy song for me to sing, it’s more of a flamenco sound, so the goal is when all parts are done it will be rich in sound and have a great beat.

Still the way I sing this song is not my usual style, so I admit I am a bit self conscious and hoping it works out ok. If I am self conscious I tend to be more picky and look to do every part over and over until somehow deep inside I know that’s what I was hoping to do.

To turn back the clock the song was originally created in February the same year, my relationship with my ex ended in January, and though I admit I was happy it was over, I was hurt inside how that last month transpired. I had a lot of questions about why things happened, in a way I knew, but at the same time there were some things I always and still will wonder about. When the relationship ended the very next day I wrote the song the catch. In that song it explains how we broke up, it was a lot of emotions and the song was written in mere minutes. Since then we had not spoken, and I was accused of a lot of stuff I didn’t do, and though my ex was far from innocent, she portrayed herself as that, basically living a lie. I moved on, and the band SoundMonster were there for me and stood by me, to me the guys are my best friends, I care about them all from the core members, right to the newest additions.

A month later I was in my jeep coming home for lunch from university and I had a CD of our pre-recordings otherwise our demos. Between some songs Scott would add some little jam parts and this one somehow at that very moment grabbed my attention, and I started to sing. It was then I knew this mix of music had to become a song, and that afternoon with the gingle of that jam in my head I wrote the lyrics in class to what would become the song irreversible. The song is my questions about our relationship, what she did, and wishing for answers.

I never got them, I knew I never would, we did about a month later talk again and she did apologize for her behaviour and we mended things enough to have a friendship that was awkward and eventually turned into nothing. Still her apology meant a lot and helped me have closure that she admitted she was wrong for what she did.

Maybe a week or two later I presented the song to the guys, back then the band was still four guys. Scott, Trevor, Ivan and me. Trevor played the song and before long all the guys were into it I sang to it, and on our second take without me knowing Scott recorded it, and afterwords I was amazed how well we sounded. I was so impressed to this day I share the live performance with a lot of people only two out the many numbers who have listened weren’t into the sound. Many raved about it, and for some became one of there favourites, or the favourite.

I felt pretty confident in the song, but when we did the demo a month later, my vocals were garbage, I redid them and went the safe route but still was not happy. Month later and now I am in the studio to do the song for good to last the ages, so I felt a little bit of pressure, but a challenge is a challenge

Full Circle

2010-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

It’s a new week and into a new month, it’s the last month of summer, it feels pretty exciting we can feel in the band the magic starting to happen within the group. It’s just months before the release of Year of the Monster, I’ve seen preliminary work for the CD art and it’s amazing, the band is using the art work that was donated by a great artist Leon Lapointe from Taiwan for the album cover. We are looking at distribution companies, work is being done on Soundmonster.ca the official web page for our band, to get it ready for the album release. We are talking about merchandise for the band getting quotes and working those ideas. We are starting the beginning steps of talking about our tour circuit and talks of shows, and where they will be. A photo shoot is being set for late September we maybe also shooting a rock video in the same area, unsure if the video and shoot will happen on the same day or not.

So, a lot is going on, and most importantly the CD is quickly starting to come together, all the basic guitar and drum tracks are laid for all the songs, I believe eight songs have bass parts, keys are going to be redone for the two songs Sean did because he bought a new keyboard and wants the new sound to be laid for kingdom of whispers, and in your head. Tomas has songs he needs to do back up roles, plus he was thinking of adding some guitar pieces on songs. Me (Steve) singing lead has done at this point eight of the twelve songs, and today I arrived at the studio to continue and do my parts to full circle.

Recording wise it’s a song I don’t have to do a lot of work on, the song repeats itself lyrically, so really I just have to get one good track of two verses and a chorus and from there the lines are just cut and paste in the song. The thing is when you have such a small role you tend to be a perfectionist, I must have sang each part over twenty times, even then I was unsure. Scott says all the parts sound good and come back tomorrow to hear them again so I have a fresh look on it, I agree.

It was funny though Trevor came over as I just finished getting the second verse and chorus parts done, all I needed was a perfect first verse take, so I sang the song as normal just instead of singing it first verse, chorus, second verse, chorus, and then back to first verse, I sang it first verse, chorus, first verse, chorus and so forth. The goal was to get the best possible take of a first verse, and singing the chorus was just for fun. He sat behind the drum kit reading the song from the lyric sheet.

Scott wanted to make sure the song was in the right order so after we finish the song, he asks me is the song structure wise ok, just making sure all the verses and choruses were in order, I said yes, Trevor looks at us and says no, I wasn’t singing the song right I was missing the second verse. I had a good laugh and took two separate times to explain I wasn’t singing the song, just trying to sing the first verse over and over to get the best cut.

We had some fun I sang full circle making up lines and stuff we had a good laugh, Trevor then said he was being too much of a distraction and left the room. Have to admit though Trevor was joking around, it’s a great example of the relationship we have as a band, we are serious, but we do joke around a lot.

So, I’m doing tracks and while I am singing Scott lets out this huge belch. I don’t mean a loud one, when he lets his throat rip one it shakes the room. It’s something to do with a childhood accident, so he can just give them. Scott’s laughing as usual feeling pretty proud of his accomplishment, and takes the recorded burp to his burping file. Yes, Scott has a burping file, everytime he burps in the studio he keeps the recording and puts it with the rest of them, and then proudly plays them all back to back. It’s sad its sick its Scott, so I listened to his burp file as he was laughing his head off, that’s what it’s like being in the studio with SoundMonster.

After that the song was cut and paste Trevor went home and suddenly I realized we had time to do another tune.

All basic tracks done

2010-10-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

Recording Year of the Monster so far has gone overall very smooth, having the ability to do pre-recordings all through the first half of the year for all our tunes. Most of our material has helped us improve and to work out what we feel were the kinks making the songs now better. Some songs have had vocal changes, more instrumental additions, changes in song structure, even some words and lines have evolved. For the twelve songs that were chosen to be on the album meat tracks meaning basic guitar, and drum tracks were on eleven of the twelve songs to date. The only song left to do is a powerful but still an undecided song called Irreversible.

When I say undecided I understand as a reader it sounds odd, so ill explain When Irreversible was first performed it was done by at that time the band which was four members. It was a basic structure, in fact its just verses, the chorus is the third line of every third verse. The idea is very original and the melody is powerful, the drum beat and based on the snare drum, for that consistent beat. The sound the song has is very flamenco, and has a taste of Latin style sounds in it.

Overall the song has real sweet sounds, and fits our style, the issue is, is it enough? We played it live as a recording and it sounded great I must have let shown it to almost everyone I knew I was so proud of it. Overall the comments were very positive, very few weren’t into it, and in fact even had a fan in Ukraine that claimed it was her favourite song.

Still at times it felt like we should do more with it, we recorded it as a demo, and will say epic fail for me, my vocals are not that strong in it, and overall didn’t have the sound to carry this to the next level, but we felt we could. The lyrics in this song are powerful, and will be a powerful song on this album.

So Trevor, Scott and I agreed we would take this reminder of this night and get the song Irreversible down, so after that evening all the twelve songs will have drums and basic guitar. The song has had many changes and structure ideas, but once we got to the studio to do our roles Trevor and Scott wanted to go back to the songs roots and do the whole song as we originally did it, and then add the bridge idea as an outro.

So if you hear this song now you know why the song is how it is, because we haven’t performed the song as much like I did for in your head, I was a vocal guide for the guys and sang my part for them. So we got ready and did our parts, even with just two instruments to date it was powerful!!!!

The drums were all over the place but still had that hard beat on the snare drum. Trevor did a couple takes and really hit it down, we were pretty happy with the work. So, we finished up the night as usual playing hockey on the Xbox, I am not a gamer but I do enjoy hanging with the guys playing hockey it’s always a fun time.

Pop love song

2010-09-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Finishing good year felt great! It is a song that I like a lot, there still lots of tracks that need to be done. The tune needs more guitar, , back-up vocals, and keyboards. I was singing to a meat track which is basic guitar and drums, but I think because I was singing to basic tracks I had so many memories how the song was made, cause it was created that very way. I will admit when I am with others when the song is played I pay attention to my vocals, but if I am alone even then I at times remember what the song is about, and even think how the song was created.

Coming out of the recording session I felt so released it is a cool feeling when you know you’ve finished your parts. I always have a habit if I am separated from my cell, the first thing I do when I am reunited with it is check for texts. I didn’t bring by cell into the studio when recorded for obvious reasons, so checking texts I got one from Trevor. He wanted to know if we were interested in jamming. This was strange because he was just over here, and the jam was scheduled for tomorrow which was friday. Scott wasn’t going to be there cause he had Joan Jett concert tickets, and I was working, but Tomas, Ivan, Sean and Trev were going to work on songs and probably mostly jam new ideas.

Since we had finished good year the idea sounded good because I had a new song idea I wanted to work on, so Trev called the guys but being late in the evening and unprepared for the call, no one answered. So we had another jam night just Scott, Trev and myself, which was how SoundMonster started.

Weeks earlier Scott gave us a jam cd which had all the jams from this year compiled together, there was some real good material on there. I’ve been looking to get the pop side out of me because I tend to get into pop and dance more in the summer. At the moment for our second CD songs that are made for it are much more heavier, I am not saying all the songs slated for it are loud and heavy, there are some pop and other styles, but not like our first, so I felt for a balance we did need to make some lighter material.
So far we had a dance song called all I want is you, and groove beat song called don’t say don’t say. This song didn’t have lyrics yet, but I wanted it to be a pop love tune, and in the jam they had a verse and pre-chorus, but no chorus to take the song to the next level.

Trevor knew the parts well so he started to jam it out with Scott and at first came up with a rockabilly kind of tune that was pretty cool, the stuff done may end up being another song altogether, but it didn’t solve the issues of getting that pop song chorus to carry the tune. Then Trevor had an idea he said was from his very first recording he ever did, and surprising the idea fit, so we jammed it out a couple times. It was exciting nothing like hammering out some ideas that had the right hooks.

It was a good night I felt like this new idea could be the pop love song I was looking to write, we’ll see what happens in the next couple weeks. Since there was no replies back from the rest of the band to show up for a quick unannounced jam, Trev Scott and I thought it would be a good idea to take the rest of the time and get irreversible recorded down for the CD. This is a powerful song for me, we have played the song in way different ways since its inception, but really the original version seems to always sound the best. Lately the band has added two bridges in the song, but though it works by theory, it takes away from the original flow, so the idea was to go back to the original format but add a longer instrumental ending using the bridge idea there. So we talked about and thought tonight would be the night to get all the songs basic tracks down.

Good year

2010-09-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

There are several blogs on recording demos, and songs for the new CD, and if you have read those installments then you see how each experience can be so different from the next. During the recording of this CD I have been in the studio and seen every band member work on material. Up to this point I had sung all my parts for seven out of the twelve songs. Today I was going to work on the eighth tune called good year.

It is now getting late in the month of August, this would be my last visit to the studio this month. I arrived around 4:30pm Scott had some friends over and Trevor was there as well, I went into the recording room and not long after Trevor came in and we talked about the band business, and music. So much is going on at this time we are getting prices for CD jewel boxes, CD wrap, estimates to get the CD’s themselves printed. We are also talking about the tour and doing maybe one or two shows before we begin our tour for the Year of the Monster album on December 31st. There’s always something to talk about, as the months come closer to the fall and the release of our album it is getting pretty exciting. The way Trevor saw it he said in the end the most important thing to remember is to be satisfied that we came with the goal to make this album and now its starting to become a reality. We are doing it and getting it done should be the most satisfying feeling. After Scott’s friends left Trevor didn’t stay long, we listened to waiting for tonight, and overall Trevor was pretty happy with our work to date.

Once Trevor left Scott and I started to play the song good year and I practiced my vocals singing the song maybe five times. Once we started recording I did maybe seven or eight versions, and of course for certain isolated parts I would do some parts over.

When I was singing the song as I do for most I get the memory of how it was made, and the root of it came from memories of my dad. In 2008 early like in January I got a call from my mom she was in tears telling me my dad had a terminal cancer, and most likely had a year to live. They tried to operate and take out the cancer, and though it was removed, it had spread to other parts of the body, and with heavy doses of cemo, my dad couldn’t deal with it, and ended up being bed ridden and had a hard death. It wasn’t easy to watch or deal with, but through it my family did their best. My dad died in January of 2009, only days later following this was when Trevor and I reconnected, and the idea that would become SoundMonster would form.

That year I was part of a new band I never thought I would do again, got to work with my favorite guitarist in Trevor, and good friend Scott who has really improved as a drummer. I would of course be back in beautiful British Columbia and got to enjoy a great summer of self discovery, fall in love and start a new relationship which the songs I met a girl, and waiting for tonight are based from. So in a year it when from darkness to light, though you never forget, you do heal and learn to move on and embrace the good and happiness that surrounds you. This was the idea I wanted when I thought of making this song. I remember being at my girlfriends and telling her about this idea that I wanted to do. In a way its writing about my dad and me, that next jam Ivan our bassist had to work and couldn’t make the practice back when they were called Monster Mondays. So Trevor, Scott and I used the jam mostly for working on new material, and Trevor just started to play what would become the beginning verse of the song. It was powerful chords, they moved him right away I knew this would be that song. In a week we worked on it again and with my lyrics it became good year.

Good year and waiting for tonight stand out in my mind the most for our new material on this album because of how the songs were made. Once the song was recorded and finished I was so happy it isn’t the hardest, but certainly not the easiest to sing, takes a lot of emotion and power to get it across. After we finished the tune we still had time to work on another song, but I got a text from Trevor wanting to jam tonight, and asked if we were interested.

Don't say Don't say

2010-09-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

It was the first jam that the six of us were supposed to all play together, Sean our keyboardist was added to the act when Ivan the bassist was on vacation. A month had past and Ivan had returned from Serbia back to Canada. That Friday we were all to meet, to get all six of us there the band made sacrifices. I (Steve) was called into work, I needed the hours so I had to accept the problem was I wouldn’t get off work until 9:30pm, and the jam started at 8pm. To accommodate the guys were going to stay late past midnight, to make my one hour trip to the studio worth the drive.

Tomas had other commitments but somehow worked things out to get to the studio later that night as well. So I arrive expecting to see all six of us jamming and working on our set list. Unfortunately that didn’t happen Ivan ended up having too much fun and passed out by the time I arrived to the studio, so it was just the five of us there to jam. After I arrived the band did the set list, it was late not our best performance but with two new members and being tired we did the best we could for that moment. I think we didn’t jam at night to sound the best it was more to all be together, and we were. After the set list it was getting on midnight, and Ivan came out to say good-bye he wasn’t feeling all that great, and Scott, Trevor, Sean, Tomas, and myself (Steve) took a break and talked over the new song.

The new song was a week old, but the idea was from a jam done a couple of weeks earlier. After we played our set list the guys just started to jam out, right away I could hear the hooks and pointed to Scott on drums and gave a thumbs up, because this jam was special it was making a song. After the jam I asked if I could get a copy of it all, with everything going on between recording a request like that can take awhile.

Scott ended up giving me a CD of all the jams up to date to help make new material, I noticed that jam was not on it. After I asked Scott he sent it to me in my email, and just listening to it I could hear the song.

The idea for the song was the first thing that came to my mind during that jam, in fact afterwards I told Scott that I was going to write the song about his experience with a date that went wrong. The part that stuck with me was that he won’t settle to be second place, and the comment you’re good enough.

The story started when Scott went on a couple of dates with this woman, he liked her enough as a friend, but she blew any chance of being the one when she made the comment, that Scott was good enough. I agree with Scott if a woman said I was good enough that would send big sirens that I wouldn’t feel like I was very special. The way Scott said it, he wants to be number one with the woman in his life, and I can’t blame him. The funny part is after he told her it wouldn’t work out she left popcorn and a letter at the studio when Tomas and I were doing parts, then left a subway gift card when we were jamming, and then left a Superstore ( this is a grocery store) gift card during another jam. Scott was shocked I was shocked, but a relationship wasn’t in the mix and they instead became friends, in the end in a way it all worked out.

When I listened to the jam this whole story kept going through my mind and I ended up writing the song eventually called Don’t Say Don’t Say. That night when all of us were jamming past midnight we all got back into the studio to record this new song as a live demo.

The band liked the song but were really tired, the guys didn’t have enough gas to pull off the demo, so I did a SoundMonster karaoke to the jam, it worked and we will work on it another day. The goal was to record the song down so we have it in our library and it worked. I was so impressed how dedicated the guys were that they came out late cause we all wanted to work together. I felt really good how much the guys cared.

The return of Ivan (Bassicuss)

2010-09-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

It was Friday night and since late in the month of May the jams have shifted from Mondays to the Friday. It was an exciting night Ivan who has been the bassist for SoundMonster for sometime had returned from Europe and was going to re-join the band to jam and meet Sean our new keyboardist for the first time.

The guys for the last month have been working on playing together and redeveloping our sound with new additions to enhance what we already have. What we have been able to do and grow our sound which has helped us with making new ideas and sounds for the future. This was also a week that Sean got a keyboard he was looking for, a Korg. For the last month Sean has been playing a keyboard in the studio, but it doesn’t have everything the band nor Sean was looking for. Sean and Scott went down to Long and Mcquade and picked up exactly what will as Sean says bring SoundMonster to the next generation.

I was excited to jam and finally with the return of Ivan play as a six piece finally. The downside is I also need to work, my hours will become drop most likely in the fall and will need to work as much as I can right now. So, when I got a call to work Friday night I couldn’t say no. The problem was we jam at 8pm I am working until 9:30pm, the guys usually jam until 11-11:30pm. I work and live almost an hour away. So realistically if I am to show up to rehearse with the band they would have to stay until 1am.

What shocked me was Trev rounded the troops and they all agreed to stay longer, Tomas unfortunately wasn’t going to be able to make it out either. Still Trev was going to set up a longer jam so I could come, and reading all the comments from all the band members on our inbox on Facebook supporting the longer jam was really cool. All I saw was committed guys wanting to make the band better and work together it was really awesome.

So, Friday arrives I do my best to get to the jam space in good timing, get there and on a busy street I had to run a block uphill and I am huffing and puffing. If anyone knows me personally they know I am no runner! So, I arrive it’s dark outside and Scott’s out front smoking a cigarette, he looks all shocked says, “dude where’s you car?” I replied, “ it’s down the hill, there was no parking.” As I say that I ‘m huffing, and puffing the whole time! Scott informs me that Ivan has partied it up too much tonight and has crashed, and wouldn’t be jamming anymore tonight. So, there went the big chance to jam all together. I say that because Tomas ended up makes ends meet and was at the jam tonight. His Mustang was parked out front, so though the band was all there we didn’t all perform.

I arrived when the guys were having a break , Tomas, Sean and Trevor were playing video games, I saw Ivan lying face first down on a bed out of it, and then Scott came walking in. I just wanted to play, so Scott and I went into the studio and started to play the catch, then full circle half way through the song the rest of the guys got their instruments and joined in.

Overall the jam wasn’t good, don’t think it was our worst, but we were all messing up structure and I was forgetting lines galore. It was late at night, and admit I was far from the jam of jams, but we were together and we needed to, and most of all we wanted to. We had some songs that we hit the mark for the most, and Good Year ended up sounding pretty good.

It was awesome seeing the guys together and we had fun, we knew it wasn’t our best performance, it was late and we all had cobwebs in the head but there was some cool stuff that came out of that night together.

Finishing up little parts

2010-09-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

I have been having some weird experiences in the studio, and it is only me this is happening. The last three attempts at recording my vocals eventually something has gone wrong with the equipment. So, this time I was crossing my fingers everything would work out alright. Tonight would be a night of finishing up all my small parts for a number of songs. There has been a real heat wave here for the last week and today would be the last day of it, so I put on my air-conditioner got in my jeep and drove into a huge traffic jam. I guess someone drove off a bridge and plunged to their death in the river below, and sure enough after an hour crawling and stopping I past the bridge where I saw the side of it being replaced. All the fenced area was gone, for there it was just getting to the studio, an hour late Scott and I (Steve) got to work right away.

Since my last recording I had to work on parts that are not easy, I did some back-up vocals on too cool for the funk. I spent a whole hour redoing parts until they were done, at least in my mind for now, I wasn’t totally happy. Days past and I came up with different ideas, so in the studio Scott played me my parts. When I let things sit sometimes when I come back I have a different outlook. Sometimes I think I did a great job, then I come back and it isn’t the same. I suddenly have to do it over it doesn’t measure to what I wanted. Or, the opposite, I have to say hearing the back up tracks they weren’t as bad as I thought.

Originally when we were doing the official recording because the vocal style isn’t my strength I was going to give Tomas a shot at it. We sing different styles, he is good at some styles I am not, and visa versa. When Tomas was doing back-up vocals one night we got him to try out the parts, but his vocal style didn’t give the sound the song needed, so I took one for the team and did the best job I could do. When it is done right the back-up vocal idea sounds good. Coming back to the plate to take another round I realized the back-up vocals were what I was looking for. They still needed to be highlighted with a harmony. I tried to put a harmony behind it, but it sounded like painting red on red, it blended too much with the vocals and really did nothing for them, so Scott and I will leave keyboards to do that role. I did redo the vocal harmonies for the vocal solo, after that I felt my vocal contributions were complete.

Another song I finished up my vocals on was time running out, the problem here is I don’t always listen to the demos. When I did the official vocals for this I didn’t add the back up vocal behind when I say “I’m stressing”. It once a quick fix and time running out was done.

One song I love that sounds wicked vocally is waiting for tonight. Tomas and I totally have a good harmony in the chorus, I love it. There was a third vocal track I needed to do where I sing the word “see you”. Just as quick as it was to sing it, it was done Scott did his magic and the song vocally was also done.

Scott wanted to work on just one day, this is a song that is personal to me. It is a song about my youth and growing up becoming a man. Last year I visited my old stomping grounds and walked the streets and went to a place a friend and I always would meet on Burke Street and Barker Avenue. We listened to Tomas’ vocals they worked, and we loved my vocal arrangement, but I didn’t like the high end vocals I thought they were distracting. Scott loved them and thought they should be there, once he lowered the volume they did work and were kept in the song. I had three words to redo in the verse that Tomas requested to be changed. I was cool with it and it was done, just one day was now complete.

Last, I did the vocal harmonies for the verses and finally got the chorus I’ve wanted to finish done for the song better than fiction. The best news no technical difficulties!!!!!! It was a long and very productive night half the set list is almost ready to go Tomas’ studio to be mixed. Ivan is coming back from Europe, this week and the guys are all excited to get back together to get to the basics.

Kingdom of whispers

2010-09-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

It had been a busy Friday the 13th so far, I (Steve) got some back up tracks done in the song too cool for the funk, then Scott and I got Sean and went down to visit a venue that the band may start there Year of the Monster tour inside. After a couple games of pool, we all headed back to the studio and Sean laid down a couple parts to the song in your head. I have to say after Sean got the keys down for the song it was like bringing color over something black and white, it was exactly what the song needed.

After in your head was recorded, we went outside for a breather, by now the evening had cool air replacing what was a hot day. In the studio with all the equipment, and adding on the summer heat, the room is a hot house. So, the cool air was a nice change Scott had a smoke and the three of us just talked music and the band. Couldn’t say how long we were out there but we had good talks and it is always fun to share stories.

After a good conversation, we all got back inside and Scott started to show some of our other songs. We just finished a live demo version of the new song all I want is you. I admit I sing this song in my head everyday, it has real appeal to me very catchy. Though I sing it I’ve yet to hear what we did, so this would be the first time I’d actually hear what it sounds like with vocals, guitar and a drummer live. How the story went Scott starts talking about what we did, I say, “are you going to play it?” Scott says yeah and plays the second track, I admit the third track ends better, but vocally and the way the song starts, the second track is the best version in my mind. There is a lot of instrumental experimentation in the third track that’s cool especially one part I love with a fat guitar sound that I think will be perfect for when the song speeds up for the first time. Still, the second track is a great version for song structure.

Listening to the song that night I knew this tune was so amazing, it is for sure a song I’ll vote for once we draft songs for the second album, and if it is true and Trevor wants to incorporate the song on the Year of the Monster tour that would be fun to play live.

Then Scott and I talk about the second CD and mention some of the music. Sean has heard some songs that are already really slated to be on the second album because there were songs we like but didn’t make the first cut. The goal for Year of the Monster was to have a balance of all our good songs, even though two band favourites never made the list. One of those is a metal song called headache with headlights. On the demo version my vocals are not the best, but it gets the idea across, Sean was surprised how many heavy tunes SoundMonster has, because the album is really balanced and really only two songs have a metal style. The second album will be heavier, but for fans that like our other sounds, there will be some great songs on there.

After our talk Sean got his keyboards going and he did his parts for the song kingdom of whispers a metal song of ours. The demo version is at the moment up on facebook, this version is twice as good. I’ve yet to do my vocal tracks on there and will get Tomas to try and harmonize the chorus.

The song was written in the fall of 2009, it was about my ex-girlfriends brother, it was a bit of a spider-web. My ex-girlfriends friend and brother started to date, but there was a little bit of commitment issues happening, in the end the relationship wasn’t working out so that’s when the back talking and gossip started. It got really sticky and out of hand. So, bad well hey I had to write a song about it, nothing more crappy then dealing with gossip in a circle of friends.

In the recording Sean was helping out with the thunder and lightning effects to complete the sounds, and before long the night had dawned kingdom of whispers would be ready finished on keyboards and we called it a night.

In your head

2010-09-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

It is a hot summer night on a Friday 13th in August 2010, Scott and I (Steve) were sitting in his car waiting for Sean. The CD player was playing a really old Judas Priest song, from the seventies. After a couple minutes Sean walked over got into the back seat and we drove off to what maybe the first stop for our tour of 2010/2011 Year of the Monster. It’s a venue that we have been given the opportunity to play for a New Years Eve show.
It is not completely finished and guaranteed the band still has to agree, and Scott who has been doing the talks will have to make the final call we will do it, but it would be a cool way to start the year off right, finished this one doing the first show.

Scott parked his car and we arrived at a place that looked from the outside it could be a small little intimate room, but with our sound, it maybe too small. We don’t want to break anybody’s ear drums! Once we got in we entered a small cozy room with televisions and a bar, then we turned left and were in this huge room, very big. There were pool tables, and a huge stage in the corner for us to play, it must be 15 feet high. There’s a big screen if we want to have cameras to put us up on there screen, so there’s tons of possibilities. They have a small P.A system but for what we want we would need to get a better one and a light show. We have everything else to do our concert, so talking it over playing a couple games of pool we started our way back to the studio.

Once we arrived Sean announced he was going to get a better keyboard and wanted some band members to be there when he did. Scott and I agreed in a couple days to go with him, as Sean was getting himself ready to record. Once everything was set up I sat behind the drums to listen, this would be Sean’s first contributions to the CD.

Scott asked if there were any songs he felt he was ready for, Sean hasn’t been in the band long so we really didn’t know if or what we felt he was ready to do. Sean mentioned the songs he is most prepared for would be kingdom of whispers, and in your head. So, the tracks were set up and in your head would be the first tune that would be worked on. When the song was first created it was a simple metal tune, but later we saw more with the song, and felt it could be much bigger with keyboards. Sean seemed to have found something in the song that moved him, I remember hearing how fond he was of the song, after hearing that I was curious what plans he had in his role.

When the guys would jam together and we would play in your head, every time it would become something better. Now with keys heard in our jams, the song started to come to life. The song had become a metal, techno, industrial song very unique and cool from the rest of our tunes.

The song is about an ex girlfriend, and so much what she did in our short relationship made no sense to be, and was a terrible communicator. Not her friends, just in relationships, it made no sense to me. If you’re in a relationship I would think that would be an area communication would be important? This really confused me so a month after our break up I was really thinking about this, I would say, “what’s going on in her head?” I think I was doing that because the break-up was still new and I was taking a course on communication in university. That would also lead me to write the song irreversible. Scott and Trev around this time period were jamming a lot of metal material, on this particular jam they made two metal tunes and both would end up becoming songs. The one they were all over would become journey to dragonmount an instrumental tune, and the song I loved would end up becoming in your head.

Since then the song has been waiting for a keyboardist that had a love for metal to lead it to where it needed to be. That night in the studio Sean accomplished this coming up with really cool parts, totally bringing the song out. We listened to it gave thumbs up, and then it was time to lay down the keyboard tracks to the tune kingdom of whispers.

Friday the 13th

2010-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

To be honest in the last couple recording sessions I’ve had doing my vocals I have had nothing but bad luck. Everytime I have done a session there has been an issue with the recording equipment. If you read the blog Too cursed for the funk, which was in the time period from this point maybe a week or two ago. I was in studio doing work for a second day, in our first session I got half the song completed, on this second day I came in to finish it up. I had only a chorus left to do, when suddenly the recording track just shut off, and all my work wasn’t saved, so I had to start over. The good news was I still had my first half that was recorded from the previous day on there, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

The upside I think the second time around sounded maybe even better, but still was an uncanny experience. Days later when I came to the studio to see Trevor this was talked about in the last blog called Trio for a night, what I didn’t say was I did some vocal work to patch up some previous vocals on the chorus of a song called Better than fiction. Trevor hadn’t arrived yet, so I thought I’d do some of my own work. I have to admit it sounded pretty good, then out of the blue the same thing happened the recording equipment just reset itself and that was it the chorus was deleted and the work I did didn’t exist anymore.

I seriously was having bad luck, there was no point redoing the work cause not long after Trevor arrived and we worked on our new song and he finished recording In your head. Even though my recording session didn’t pan out it was fun to be at the studio with the guys, I helped out Trevor by singing the song to keep the guys on track with the structure. I had a good night, one thing I can say on this album at different times I have been to the studio, and watched every member of the band record their parts for the CD Year of the Monster.

So, it is Friday the 13th, for some it is an unlucky day, for me it is another recording session. I will be going into the studio to work on some back-up recordings. I have attempted to do this a couple times only to find myself with the recording equipment having issues. I had to move fast, because later that evening Sean would be coming over to do some recordings for keyboard. Good news is because the equipment has reset twice (and this has only happened to me), the recordings are now going straight into new recording equipment. The program is done through a computer so the issue of the program resetting is solved.

I decided to finish up my role for the song Too cool for the funk, the vocal arrangements are not easy for me, so I took my time going over and over the parts. I can be very picky and critical but when I like something I am very hard to change, because to get to that point took lots of work. So, I got through the vocal parts after an hour, I wasn’t totally sold on them but that’s just me. So, once finished that for the moment I decided to finish up another part in a song called Time running out. Then it happened again another error! No the equipment didn’t reset, rather this loud static sound pounded as I started to shout, and the computer program had to be shut-down, and re-boot. This was the third time a recording glitch had happened during my session. It is funny in retrospect, at the time it is a bit frustrating though.

It was all cool, so we packed up my parts for the night and we went over to Sean’s to pick him up and hang out for the night. We had lots to look and check out that night, and it all started waiting in the parking lot by Sean’s place with the radio blasting a Judas Priest song.

Trio for a night

2010-09-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

The beginning of January 2009 was really when the idea of SoundMonster was created, it wasn’t until we were finally able to meet up on a hot sunny spring in June the same year when the band became a reality. Back then we were a trio Trevor, Scott and myself (me), since then three other members have joined the band Ivan, Tomas and Sean. When we jam now it’s a pretty full sound, the sound we first imagined back in the beginning. A real musical mantra of bliss, and with a full band we want to grow and create new music.

At the moment the set list is the heart of our sound because that’s the songs for our first CD Year of the Monster. So, we are playing the same songs to perfect them, teach them and record them. I understood the need for the set list but I needed to make some new music. The band has spent time jamming out cool riffs, and we have a library of material that I haven’t been able to work on. As I stated in my last blog All I want is you, Scott made me a CD of all our jams from February to present, and I was able to work on a new song which became a pop dance song called All I want is you.

I instantly loved this tune, and I needed to somehow meet up with Trevor and Scott to lay down a live demo track. So the song is on record, and we can go back to it when we want to show it to the rest of the band. We were going to do it Friday night after the band session would be over, then Trevor had a change of plans and announced he couldn’t make it. I am thinking shit I need this sound down because I believe in it so much.

The good news was Trevor was going to make two trips to the studio the next day, and lay down the meat tracks for two songs. The second session he was going to arrive at 8pm, so I got there at around 7:30pm. Not long after Trevor arrived the plan he wanted to work on the new song first, then do the recording for “In your head”. I said do the recording first then we will go into my new one, the funny part was we somehow ended up listening to my new song anyways and Trevor and Scott started to play it. We had to alter some parts cause of the timing, but it took no time before we had it.

It is very catchy like our pop song Waiting for tonight, and both Trevor and Scott who were a bit skeptical said during this meeting and after wards the tune is cool and they like it. It made me feel good cause it is a song that’s around four to five and a half minutes long, that can go for eight to ten minutes live, and really showcase the bands musical abilities which is something Trevor has wanted for sometime.

I do try to do ideas band mates like, I remember Scott telling me he liked the idea of having a chorus that always lyrically changed, hence I did that half a year later in the song In your head. I am always trying to explore new ideas and in this new song All I want is you, I feel like I have done that again. We played the song once, then recorded it and then Trevor was ready for recording. Once he was done that we played the new song again two more times both were recorded down, and I think overall the second recording is the best. Days later when I was back in the studio I got to hear the track, and it was great I loved it very catchy. Both Trevor and Scott are thinking of incorporating the song into our live play-list even though the song would not be on the first album.

That made me feel good, because they could see the same vision I did, and as we are continuing to evolve our music, and expand our sound it felt good that night that we all were on the same page. It was weird playing as a trio again it had been a long time but it was cool we were all in unity.

All I want is you

2010-09-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love making new songs, its an expression of art that is like nothing else. When the band is able to make a good song something that really moves us it is the best feeling. The funny part is the feeling is always there but there is also a part of you then after a awhile wants to do something better, and continue on making better songs, always challenging oneself to do something different and more interesting.

The band since its inception was working on making music without borders, meaning we focused on the beat and played with different sounds. So, we could never be labled one song would be dance, then funk, then metal, our sound was sounds, making the perfect name for our band SoundMonster. In the end each one of us makes up the monster, the monster of sound. Since the beginning we have made many songs, if you read through the blogs this is well documented. Over thirty songs were made only about twenty-four were eventually recorded and out of those songs twelve will be re-recorded for our CD Year of the Monster.

New songs is usually a fun process, and for the most part has been in SoundMonster, once the set list was made the focus rightfully has been on the chosen twelve songs. Still the band needs to have a creative process, and have been doing jams. I have been asking for the recordings of those jams to work on new material. I finally was able to get the jams all the way back from February to now, and on a first time listen heard a lot of sounds that impressed me, lots of hooks and potential song material.

I ended up writing a song called All I want is you, love, and love lost always makes good dance and pop songs. I seem to want to write about love in the summer and the only way I really can is by experiencing it, so the song was written to reflect that.

So, will this new song written and going through my brain consistently I had to get the song recorded down, at first I thought I’d work on it with Trevor. The problem was in the jam the style is played slower, which is good because that’s how the song starts, but after two verses it speeds up. I wanted to give Trevor a try at it. I kept trying to get a meeting with him, but he was on call all week, and I understand that cause in my line of work it is the same.

So, we set up after the Friday jam Trevor, Scott and I would work on it and record it down like a live demo, so it would be on record we could go back to. We have done this with songs before, songs like Irreversible, Kingdom of Whispers, and others that will be on the second CD. It seemed like everything was set but then Trevor announced he would not be able to attend the next jam, so I had to think fast and somehow meet up with the guys.

The opportunity came that Monday, when I got a text from Trevor he was going to the studio to record the song In Your Head with Scott.

New updates and new music

2010-09-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

The guys have been working to improve our sound, and last week without me (Steve) present SoundMonster worked on songs. Every week the band has been working to make them better and focus on parts and roles. Heard lots of feed back and overall our songs are slowly moving ahead, once Ivan returns in another week we will be a complete band again, and in no time we will get everything sounding just right.

Lots is going on in the group we are expanding our fan base and continue to grow support locally, in the United States, and in Europe. Besides having a fan site on Facebook, and a blog on Blogger.com, we are also working on a new band web page called Soundmonster.ca. The bands name is SoundMonster with a capital M, its just the way the band name appears on the webpage link.

So, far the page is under construction, and there are a lot of ideas floating around how the band wants to be presented, our image, visuals and of course how to add our CD that’s at the moment being made to the page as well. We still need new band photos taken to show us as a six piece group. So far all pictures taken from November of 2009, and May 2010 are shots of us as a four piece band. I would like our Facebook and blogger blog to be linked to the site, if not then I’ll keep the blogger attached to Facebook, and we will link Facebook to the web page.

Of course a big focus since May has been recording for the CD Year of the Monster the twelve song CD has been a focus every week. Somebody in the band has done a role on a track at some level may it be singing, play an instrument, or working on extras. Recording is always the most difficult time sometimes being in a band. Guys have different ideas on what sounds good, some can be very strong willed, others flexible, the goal in the end is to make the best sounding CD as possible.

I will admit though since May when we created the set list it has been our greatest focus and it makes sense, the set list is the songs on the CD, we practice the set list, listen consistently to the demos used for the set list, we show Tomas and Sean the set list. Still for me it was getting a bit mundane and I needed to work on new music.

I kept asking Scott to send me jams the guys have done, but because recording was taking up so much time, the jams were always shelved for the moment. Then Scott tells me that he has created a CD with jams going back to February of this year. So, meeting up with Scott I was able to get the CD and I admit right from the get go the jams the guys had done sounded very good, there were hooks, and good styles going on. The goal for me was to make a pop/dance song, in the summer I seem to want to make one or a few, and I felt if any this was the time to do it.

Listening to the new CD on the car ride home it didn’t take me long to find the tracks that I would to attempt to make new songs out of. It wouldn’t take long to sit down and make a song that would be so catchy I would end up singing it three days straight. I haven’t done that since I wrote the lyrics to the song Waiting for Tonight.

Hearing the Monster live

2010-09-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster has always wanted to be a great live act but with four members we were limited with what we could do. We always had the vision to have a complete sound, we would experiment those ideas on our demo recordings. Some worked, some helped to restructure and make our songs better. The hard part would be what worked in our recordings we couldn’t duplicate live. We would do our best to compensate but some songs compared to the recordings didn’t sound as good.

That would change when SoundMonster would go from a four piece band to a six. Suddenly what wasn’t possible before now was, it was exciting. Adding new members did mean we would now be spending more time working on completing our sound. Every week the goal would be to improve and have our songs sounding better. At first we just played our set list, then be began to focus on particular songs. We would record our progress, and I admit at first things didn’t go all so rosie.

I remember we were working on two songs good year, and better than fiction. We kept playing the songs then when we recorded them they went through without a structure error, we played the songs straight through. In fact we thought those recordings kicked ass, we were pretty impressed with the performance.

In a couple days the recording for both songs were sent to us, and what we heard was crap. The songs both vocally and instrumentally were not what we wanted, all week it bugged us. Then the next jam we focused on other songs this time full circle, and irreversible. Before we worked solely on those two songs we played our set list. We recorded all of them this time, and I thought from the jam we did a good job. Once the recordings were shown to us, yes there’s still areas to improve on we have only been a six piece band for a month now. What I heard was our sound coming together, vocals rocked, and the over all sound of the band was full and amazing. The songs that stood out to me were good year, waiting for tonight, and in your head.

I didn’t hear all the songs but what I heard was the band improving week to week. The new guys were taking the time to practice and learn the material, and the overall sound was getting better. New ideas were coming out in songs like good year, and in your head, and old ideas were coming to life filling up ideas we created on demos that could now be done live on songs like full circle, and too cool for the funk.

I wouldn’t be able to make the next jam, work had be doing an evening shift but it did give extra time for the guys to work on songs to bring out the details of structure and sound. I look forward to our next jam to hear the results, its awesome working with dedicated guys, nothing is sweeter than to listen to progress. From what I heard there was some great ideas worked out on some songs and hopefully in our next jam it all goes together a little closer.

Better than fiction

2010-09-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

In June 2009 when SoundMonster was just Trevor, Scott, and me (Steve) after we wrote our first song called song one. There was a lot of time spent on creating new material, so Trevor would jam out ideas, and we would record the sessions. With all the work that was done. By early July around the same time Ivan joined the SoundMonster cast, those jam ideas would become four new songs. I met a girl, full circle, endless highway and a song called better than fiction.

Better than fiction would be the second song SoundMonster would create and I believe it was played the first jam that Ivan played with the band, or the last jam before he auditioned. I remember the first time I heard the hooks for the song I was sitting in Scott’s old place, I think it was the last jam before he moved to his current spot in Surrey. Trevor was playing the part for the verse and I said that’s so cool you should work on that. Right away I kept hearing in my head just a guy, just a guy. I thought it may turn into some happy summer party song, but instead I had a terrible time finding what to write about.

I think it was at the first jam in Scott’s new place, I remember it was still Scott, Trevor and me then, and I told the story what happened to Pious our last band and how it ended. Scott said Steve you have a story there you should write a song about it, so I went home and did it, that song became better than fiction. The song is about me (Steve) and how I entered the world of music formed a band, had different players play in it, we would go far only to see what the music industry was, which is lies and it killed my love for the band and it died.

Since the song was created the chorus has changed three times, and the bridge has changed twice. I never thought it would be on the CD, or ever played live. What do I know though, since then parts have changed, new sounds added, and with Tomas doing back-up vocals singing the song better than fiction has become a great live tune.

So good in my mind I have become very interested in making sure I do my parts as good as possible, maybe even better than I am possible to do. It isn’t an easy song to sing, so I was very critical on making sure I did the song as good as I could. Now it is July of 2010 and it’s passed over one year since the song was originally constructed, and now I would start the process of doing my vocals to finalize my role.

When I do my vocals I don’t sing it like I do live, I go verse by verse to make sure I’ve done everything possible to catch every emotion and intensity I can possibly deliver. I’ll give an A for patience with Scott because I know for this song I was so picky and difficult cause I really want this tune to be above anything I could dream. I truly believe and hope this song could be the song that Trevor always believed it could be, since Tomas and Sean joined the band, and Trev added a new sound to the chorus he made me a believer in the tune.

The song is not easy to sing so Scott and I took our time we had a meal, played some video games then tackled the song. Verse by verse the song was slowly coming together, I liked some of the chorus ideas, some could improve and I know ill redo those areas in another session, but I thought overall the song is coming together nicely. The verses are done, and I will work on the choruses again, still think they can be better, as other parts as well. It’s a on going project and will keep you up to date with the progress.

Evolving with the Monster

2010-09-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

So I am in the studio it’s another day with clear blue skies, the month of July here has been more than I ever expected. In the month of June it felt more like March cool skies and cloudy rainy days. I didn’t know because we were spoiled with a mild winter if we would pay for it in the summer. Instead in the month of July we have had days and weeks straight with clear blue skies and beautiful hot weather. This has also meant when the guys jam or do studio recordings it has been a one hot room!!!

July has almost come and gone and are days away from entering into August the last full month of summer. We have the meat tracks down for six of the twelve songs on for our CD Year of the Monster. We started the recording process for the CD back on May 10th when we recorded the song time running out, it was followed by the song the catch, then just one day, and I met a girl, then finally too cool for the funk and waiting for tonight. It’s almost been three months since the final recording process for the songs have begun.
It has been a huge learning process for all of us, since the inception of the band we have been taking time trying to craft our live presentation and creating new material, we started the road towards our CD by recording all of our works as pre-recordings or demos that started in November and took probably around six to eight months to record around twenty-five songs I believe.

Hearing the final product we realized what we could do to improve the songs on every aspect, and when we started that process in May of 2010, we have been to this point pretty much satisfied. Once we passed the one year point of our group that’s when our live show really hit new heights adding Tomas on guitar and vocals, and Sean on keyboards. Adding these two members has incredibly helped out our sound.

When one adds new members there is always a growing and learning period, for me if you read back in the early blogs and go as far back as the second one I posted called “How to make a band 101” it was about how I started in a group with a guitarist named John, he was the last musician I ever sang with. That was thirteen years ago, since then everybody I ever played with never sang, I always did the shows and recordings solo. Did I like it, well I didn’t hate it but I always liked the idea of harmonies, and making the song sound better. Sometimes I really like my solo work, other times if I had a singer to work with especially live I know the music would sound better, vocals with harmonies are nice to hear.

So while sometimes I get nervous that a song may not sound as good if we harmonize it because at points I think my vocals rock. I admit when Tomas and I have sang together we have done some pretty good harmonies. So for me giving up and sharing in areas has been a growing and learning period, but if it makes the songs sound better that’s the goal. Whether it be Tomas’ idea or mine SoundMonster is a team and the goal is to make good music.

In our jams we are starting to do what we used to do last year record our sessions to hear our mistakes and what we are doing right. With new members to the team we are in a period we want the guys to get comfortable with the twelve song set list. To be honest the second CD has about eight songs already set for the album so they haven’t heard all our material. At this time period we are just giving pre-recordings of the twelve songs that will be on our album, and will be our set list when we play live. Sean and Tomas are passionate to learn the songs, they like them they are taking ownership of them and week by week we are getting better. Live shows are just around the corner, just have to get the CD done, it will be one busy summer and fall.

Recording and performance

2010-09-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

The band has grown from four to six members in over a month, while that makes for a better sound, SoundMonster is taking a step back to get the band on the same page musically. As a four and playing the same songs for a year, changing them trying to improve on every angle to make them sound better, we were on the verge to get them down on our first CD.

The problem was what we wanted to do on the CD we could not incorporate live because the instruments we were adding to the songs we didn’t have the players to do them, four guys only have so many hands. When Tomas and Sean joined SoundMonster this gave the band a chance to get the live show sounding the way we wanted to, and in just a month we are a better band for it. Now with keys in the mix our sound is complete and can only improve. The newest members are still learning there parts, so having the other four already a year ahead, it will take a bit of awhile for them to catch up, which is why we always ask them to learn the songs on their own time. Just listening to the demos we have made though they aren’t perfect or identical to how they are performed now they can still get the picture.

Just a couples jam we see how the live show will be going and are working on the sound and performance to make it top notch, it makes time and until the guys have the full set list down, it will be a learning process with them. So, that’s where the guys in SoundMonster have taken a step back to get everyone in the band on the same page.

The guys besides working on learning the songs and at the same time getting our live performance up to speed, we are still working on the CD. The original plans were to get it done by September, but if you’re a reader of the band blog many plans we made consistently change. Having new players in the group to add to our sound we are mostly getting down the basic tracks and working on live sessions to work out new parts and added instrumentation. I think if we all pull our weight a November date could be reasonable I’d still like to see a fall release. I’ll be off in Italy for a month in the winter meeting SoundMonster fans and would like to have CD’s to bring with me. It’s still July and so much is happening I still have to think about the now and enjoy what is taking place at the moment.

So that’s where things stand in a couple weeks Ivan will be back from Europe and with the bass added to the mix the songs will take off live and I hope by then we have at least half the set list sounding professional. It takes time to make a good sound and all the guys look forward to the coming months to bring SoundMonster to the stage.

SoundMonster six

2010-09-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last week we had Sean come out and play with SoundMonster, he was auditioning to be the keyboard player within the group, it is a position we have wanted filled since the beginning of the band. The keyboard player position has been mostly handled by our drummer Scott who was a keyboard prodigy as a child, but moved from keys to skins as a teenager, so though he can play it isn’t his love or choice of instrument. To have a full time member who could take SoundMonster into new dimensions of sound has always been the center focus.

We have auditioned the position once and it was one experience to forget, if you can’t handle drugs don’t take them!!! Anyways for further info on that crazy experience if you read the blog SoundMonster auditions Part one, and two, it tells all. When Tomas joined the band which is merely a month ago, he was approached on doing some keys, but he wasn’t all that keen so the keyboard position still had a help wanted sign.

That was until a week ago when Trevor told me that he was in contact with a keyboardist named Sean who’s background is music has been mostly metal, which is the same for me Scott, and Trev, but is open to many sounds. That is just what we wanted to hear, he had a chance to listen to our songs and though we were making progressive music, and the idea of making concept albums with sounds always changing appeals to him. So, we met and with his bag of jelly beans played and it was all good. For me the best songs that night listening to the keys was on “too cool for the funk”. Still think at the moment it is our best live song.

After the jam nothing was really said or anything formal on the idea of joining SoundMonster, just a lot of talk of everyone being happy with everything. So, we made plans for next Friday and again we all showed up, I just finished recording down most of the vocal tracks for the song “waiting for tonight”. The guys took a listen to it, then got ready to do the whole set list.

In a hour or so we went through the entire list some songs had to be shown, cause there were songs the prior week Sean never played to. So we did the set list, some songs sound better than others, we recorded two songs “better than fiction” and “good year”. It’s always good to hear what a band is doing in “good year” I liked it, there are still many things we can do better, but as a song we just played and worked on for an hour it came off pretty good. The song “better than fiction” was a bit rough in the chorus but nothing that can’t be fixed. For an hour’s work we did pretty good as a group, teaching the songs over does suck cause we’ve been working on these songs for over a year, but at the same time they are getting better and have the chance to take them places we couldn’t before.

The night went pretty good again I think the songs that sounded the best was “waiting for tonight” and “too cool for the funk”. I find the song “in your head” a bit bland because it is so repetitive, but with keys that will be changing as this song is our industrial sound, and will work itself out in the studio, more or less. Surprisingly “in your head” was Sean’s favourite maybe cause it is a keys centered song he has ideas.

The night came and went and it sucks be cause I wish we could jam more, but we aren’t paid professionals we are lucky to jam as much as we do. With recording we do pop in more, but it would be nice to practice more. Sean loved what we were doing and he joined the club, so we are now SoundMonster 6. The band is complete and we look forward to getting our sound down so we can start performing, we will see where it all goes soon enough.

Recording with the Monster

2010-09-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Working on the CD Year of the Monster, there are still many parts to be filled instrumentally, out of the six songs so far recorded mostly the meat tracks have been laid down. When I say meat tracks I mean guitar, drums and bass, all the other tracks that bring out the song still need to be added. Regardless up to this point the songs are sounding great. I have sung the vocal and tracks and most of the secondary vocal tracks to all of the six songs.

Last week I was in studio to finish what took two days to do, with problems on the technical side I was finally able to complete the song “too cool for the funk”. Adding Tomas to the band the guys are still working out guitar parts and vocal parts for him to do. There’s so much to do when adding a new member to the band, on the song “I met a girl” parts were set and Tomas has added both vocal and guitar parts, though we will probably do over his vocal parts. The songs are fairly new and he didn’t have time to go over the vocal harmonies and if your singing the song all the time it will sound better then your first try.

Jamming together I can hear Tomas starting to harmonize the chorus of that song so rerecording it would be better, so in all add more components to our music Year of the Monster will take a bit longer to release then originally scheduled. Still when it does come out it will seriously kick ass. Adding a fifth member the band will sound better live more sounds and variations are always welcome.

We jammed with a new guy named Sean, which really adds a new style to our sound, it was a positive and fun jam. We scheduled to meet again it is looking very good at this point that we could become a six piece band. Of course we will keep you updated, if this happens then the release of Year of the Monster will be pulled back a bit cause adding two new members will take time to have the entire band sounding the way we need to.

This week I was back in the studio to do my vocals on the song “waiting for tonight”. If you have been a fan for awhile then you would remember this song being up on the fan page on Facebook. It was one of the more popular songs a pop song with catchy lyrics.
Since the original recording the guys have given a jazzy flair to the song so it has a similar style to “the catch”. Overall this song sounds sweet, there are still parts for Tomas and keys will be put into the mix, plus Trevor needs to add a solo.

With a busy week I came down to the recording studio a couple hours before we were going to jam as a band, so on a hot sunny afternoon I arrived. Scott and I always talk shop and what we are thinking about the music and ideas. So, we always warm up with conversation, its odd I know but it gets us into the song, it helps me focus. Then I saw time was starting to move along so we got into positions and I started to sing a couple takes to get myself warmed up. After the third take I started and went verse by verse, chorus by chorus. I am very articulate on vocals. I want every note and sentence to sound as perfect as they can sound. With the luxury of having a studio I can always hear what I am doing may it be a demo, or a live recording. I don’t just sing all the parts and move on I sing making sure every line sounds right, and I am using proper breathing techniques so I am not compromising the quality of phrasing the words. So every song takes a while to record. I haven’t heard the song “waiting for tonight” since the recording but after we were done I listened to it a couple times, and when the guys arrived Scott played it for them, not one had anything bad to say so I gather it was accepted. I still have another track to sing on, and Tomas has his parts but hopefully next week I can get this song down, I also want to listen to the other songs cause I do have parts on “time running out” and a track of vocals to sing on “too cool for the funk” as well.

Jellybeans

2010-09-07T01:12:00.000-07:00

A lot of friends and fans ask me how the band is doing, I always try to sway them to read the blogs cause what is going on, is shared in these weekly segments, and if the blogs are on reruns, ok I understand wanted the updated current info but reading the blogs helps understand what we are doing. To summarize if we had more time, the CD would be done, or live performance would be at the level, and we would be working on shows and a tour. The realities are though, lots of things consume our lives and we do our best to have a happy medium, and that means it takes a bit longer to get everything done to make SoundMonster work.

We have just added a fifth member in Tomas to take up the role as our rhythm guitarist, this decision has improved our sound, given the space Trevor needs to work on his lead guitar role. Some songs still need tweaking like “Irreversible” and “In your head”. “In your head:, and “Full Circle” also need help with a keyboardist to bring out the life in them live. So, while the band is recording, and still playing together live to practice, Trevor invited a keyboardist named Sean to jam with us, and see how we all sound together. Ivan was just about to leave for Europe so he wouldn’t be there but the rest of the band was. With a 2nd guitarist, and keyboards in the room, we could easily do our songs minus bass, cause both instruments could fill the void.

So the guys show up, it’s always a party atmosphere when the band gets together I arrived and Scott is smoking and rolling, Tomas shows up and a bunch of beers, everyone is laughing, talking a real positive vibe. When I arrived Trevor and Sean were already there. Sean is 6”7 in height he is a tall guy, everytime I see someone blessed with height I ask, “did you play basketball?” He did, and had a good conversation, because I had an early morning for work the jam would be just at a normal time frame of three hours, so we all got ready. This is when I saw a bag of jellybeans by our soundboard. Sean says he loved them and brought them for the guys to enjoy. Im not a huge jellybean fan but I do like candy, and when I was told they were sour jellybeans know I had to try them. They rocked, already Sean had bonus points from me, Scott didn’t set up a second mike yet, so instead Tomas and me shared one.

We started the set list with “Waiting for Tonight” and from there went on to different songs, some were good, some were great. It was a first time but I’d have to say overall the jam was fun, it was nice to have keys in the sound. Unlike the last time SoundMonster had a keyboardist join in a jam, it was a good night. We joked ate lots of jellybeans, in fact after every song I swear guys were grabbing them by the handfuls. We were starting to praise our night of music because of the jellybeans, it was fun times. We worked on our material, and saw great potential to what we were doing. The night ended with a jam session that sounded sweet I reminded me a bit of Black Sabbath.

So 11pm came and went pretty quick, Sean had a great time, the band was impressed with his work, and the overall sound. We said our good-byes and will meet again next week and see where it goes. Hope the jelly beans are there too!

Too cursed for the funk

2010-09-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

In the recording studio at the moment six of the twelve songs for the album Year of the Monster have the basic tracks pretty much laid down. In the last recording session it was for vocals, at this time two of the six songs had yet been worked on. I (Steve) was supposed to sing the lyrics to the songs “Too cool for the funk” and Waiting for Tonight”, because Tomas was at the studio and I had yet to work with him in recordings I used the opportunity to get his vocals doing back up for a couple songs. The songs that were worked on were “Just one day” and “I met a girl”, both sounded good and added a good style to our sound.

After Tomas had done his role, and left, it was my job to lay down the vocals tracks for two songs. The problem was it was hot, the studio felt like an oven, I wasn’t really in the mood. Still it needed to be done, so I got my butt behind the mike, and did the best I could do on vocals. The song I chose was “Too cool for the funk” it is an easy song to sing, unlike “Waiting for Tonight” which is one of the more difficult ones.

So, like we did on the demo version I sang verse, then chorus, then verse, and went through the song step by step. It wasn’t sounding too bad, usually I like to take a week then hear the work it gives me time to reflect and have a good take on the work being away from it, so for the moment I just did the best I could. The problem was when I was singing parts words were being erased because we were using one track. If we started and stopped the song using one track sometimes words would be erased, at the end or beginning due to re-recording so, we had to start over and record the verse and chorus on two separate tracks. I was tired, sleepy, hot and wasn’t ready to start again, so we called it a night and set to work on the song in a couple days.

Time passes by and I’m back in the studio, it was hot, stuffy on a hot summer night, but regardless it’s fun cause we were recording for the CD. Scott mentions that we won’t have to rerecord the song from the beginning, rather we would start from the point we ended last session. I listened to exactly what I sang the prior recording and it was good, I was pleased with my work.

So, we continue and the song was sounding sweet, then the most oddest thing happened, after I finished the vocal solo part the recording track reset. I don’t mean power off, I mean erase everything we did for the second session. That means everything we did since we separated the verse, and chorus into two tracks was gone. All we had to do was record the last chorus, and I could have started my meat vocal tracks for “Waiting for Tonight”. Instead I was now going to have to start over, it was a little frustrating but I was warmed up, and I knew I had the inspiration to get it done. It just seemed like the song was cursed from getting finished! After each verse, and chorus the song was saved so if the system reset itself I wouldn’t have to do it over again.

We got through it all, I think it sounded sweet, I added a small part to the vocal solo, and left the rest for Tomas to tackle, and see if he can do the part, if not I’ll finish the background vocal, cause it needs a high end vocal arrangement as a back-up vocal. It took two sessions with some crazy stumbling hurdles to climb, I swear through the experience I was wondering if the song was cursed, but so for it’s getting done.

Meet the band

2010-07-16T11:26:00.001-07:00

To continue to talk about the band, it’s serious we do work hard at making the best possible music we can make but as SoundMonster the band we do have lots of fun and joke around. Whether it be jamming, recording or hanging out there’s always stories that make me laugh when we are together to new people who haven’t read our blogs I’ll introduce the guys

Trevor I’ve known for a long time and I am openly a huge fan of his work. It was Trevor that got me singing in a band again, he’s the only guy that I would want to play in a band with, I love his musical style. In essence at this point he truly is the core of the sound we call SoundMonster. He likes to joke around, and bug members in the band, loves telling the dirty jokes, and comments. Trevor is a good guy and making songs with him is a blast.

Scott, is another guy I’ve known for a long time, very laid back guy, he doesn’t get ruffled too much. I can say I’ve never seen him blow up, I’ve seen him talk direct and roll his eyes but never get to the point of no return. He’s to me the funniest guy in the band, always ready to lighten the mood and he’s good at it. Scott loves music, he loves SoundMonster, and he loves recording.

Ivan is an interesting guy, as a musician he is very different in style and music taste. He has passion for his bass and loves to just jam to slow music. I think Ivan’s dream would be to play slow jazz in a jam on a stage. He loves to have creative space in songs, and always wants to do experiment his ideas. I remember our first jam with Ivan, he loved playing with Scott. He said he has to enjoy playing with the drummer in order to have fun, and right away he loved Scott’s style.

Tomas is a new member to the group I am still getting to know him, I can tell he is passionate about music, and seems to like a lot of our songs. He’s always working on getting his thumb into the music. So far he’s been an extravert and very involved with the band, he’s also passionate about recording and has a good knowledge of sound. He’s easy to get along with and the guys are excited he is part of the team.

Me (I am Steve) I do my best to be laid back , I love the passion the guys have for the group, and always striving to be better. I always just want the best possible song to be made, and I believe it takes everyone to do that.

At our last recording session which was with Tomas, me (Steve) and Scott it was a good time. Even though we are working on making music we always have a time to laugh. To explain Scott’s humor we were working on the song “I Met a Girl”. This song is on the CD, it is a cool song with a beat and a feel of New Wave, Pop Rock, and a slight Punk edge, it’s a very unique song. It was cool to hear it was one of Tomas’ favourites cause I haven’t heard a lot of feedback about the tune. My tracks were already laid down, we were going over the song cause I wanted Tomas to sing the part “I met a girl” in the chorus he has the right vocal range to hit it. So he does his part, but just before he sings, Scott presses record and he lets out this huge belch. If there was a sound that described the feeling of wet and stinky, that would be it!

Tomas’ had the worst time trying to sing because as soon as we would hear the burping sound both of us were in tears laughing. It was so difficult to keep a straight face. Eventually Tomas would do his vocal parts, and by the way Tomas it was an awesome job! I was at the studio again and listened to your work it’s good stuff. By the way the belch is still on there! Once the song is done it won’t be on the CD, but man it’s those little things Scott does that totally makes the band laugh.

Vocal Tracks

2010-07-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

Now that SoundMonster is a five man show, we have been jamming together to rework parts, trying to fill up areas for a full sound. The summer has started to become a very busy time of year for the band. The last two jams the guys have been working out new ideas with the music some songs have come together nicely, others are still being worked on. Now our jams are starting to go longer into the night, the guys are working hard and with the practices there are jokes and everything we usually do. For example in one of the blogs where we introduce Tomas to the band it was either on the blog SoundMonster 5 or Five Alive, I mention we worked on a song called “Irreversible” and played it flamingo style when the proper spelling is flamenco. So, yeah I got a razzing for the error, guess it’s good at least the guys are reading the blogs.

Ivan will be in Europe for the next couple weeks so it has given an opportunity to get Tomas’ sound more integrated into the sound. As a band we have started to try and communicate more on what we want to record and what to do on what days. The band is working at being more tight with sound, and being in the summer season we also like to have fun and hang out. Tomas had a barbeque at his place, unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend because of work, but Scott and Trevor came over bringing their partners and family. It was a fun night heard all about it guess Tomas is quite the cook he gave me a run down what they had and of course it made my mouth water, so hopefully next month they have another one and I can get enough time to schedule the day off to attend, hint hint Tomas?

Recording has been flowing well with the band at this time the guys have got at least the meat tracks down for six songs, four of them had vocals done. The CD has twelve songs, so at the moment we are in good place to get the album done in good timing. With new equipment though added, I will have to redo my vocal tracks for at least a couple or if necessary all the songs done. It’s a bit of a pain but to make the perfect sound, I am in complete support of the idea. I am a huge believer in the best sound because that’s all we can control, if people like it or hate it, that’s all choices.

So the guys have been recording a lot this week I went into the studio on the weekend after the barbecue and Scott , me (Steve) and Tomas went into the studio to lay down vocal tracks, at this time I still had to sing to “Too Cool for the Funk”, and “Waiting for Tonight”. With Tomas there I decided it would be better time used if we got him to sing back-up roles. Scott and I already had ideas for two songs “I Met a Girl, and “Just One Day”, so we worked on those. It was the first time Tomas really sang to our songs as a group. Most off the time he’s been singing playing our CD in his car, so I didn’t expect a lot. It was cool we got to talk and work on ideas, the ideas we worked on some really sounded good. I liked Tomas’ job on “I Met a Girl” a lot. Working on vocals there’s still a lot to do, so in the coming months I’ll keep you updated what is going on.

The part of the session I liked the most was Tomas’ idea on “The Catch” I say a line that is hard to sing with the beat. I used the phrase “this vendetta’s against you”, Tomas had the idea “this vendetta’s on you” which sounds so sweet.

Time as usual went by fast, and Tomas did some stuff on some songs, some we may use, some may change, it’s all experimental for now.

After Tomas left I did half of the song “Too Cool for the Funk”, and it sounded good, but I admit I was tired not as much into it, and with the style of recording we were doing I needed to put my verse, chorus and background vocals on separate tracks, and it had to be done over, so we called it a day, and will tackle the vocals again the following week.

SoundMonster meets the World Revisited

2010-07-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Revisiting the whole experience of SoundMonster meets the world has been a fun idea that really helped the band, and myself see the impact of music and how different people see it. In my journeys I got to see a lot of similarities and differences that exist in music today. What I did learn overall people liked our music, I am not saying they all just fell in love with our sound and are SoundMonster junkies, though that would be nice haha. Still we made fans and some really loyal ones.

In South East Asia the fans were so nice if I asked them to listen to four songs they did, they really got into the idea of hearing new music. On our Facebook page we do have fans out in this area, and though we got about just as many people liking our material then not, overall I was very happy with the results. The Catch and Too Cool for the Funk overall seemed to be the songs that were liked the most. Comments I heard was our band is really professional, we are tight, we have an amazing beat, lots of compliments on our sound. From the comments that weren`t so nice, it`s all a matter of perception, but I was told from a fan that a lot of people in this area prefer music in their own language. I can understand that, but to me the basis of music is the sound, and if it`s there it shouldn`t matter what is being played, and though language was a barrier we were still able to make new fans.

In the Middle East as I wrote in the official blog this is a region the only things that are news worthy that we hear about are the countries unrest and wars with one another. Instead I wanted to go in to this area and meet friends and hope to make new fans, sharing the love of music through SoundMonster. I will say for the amount of people I spoke with the ratio of people that were vocal on liking compared to really liking our sound was very positive. I can only go by what is said. For the majority of people I spoke with they loved our music. The songs that seemed to win most hearts was Full Circle, and in second The Catch. I was very flattered with the comments the band received. Most of the compliments were on our beat, our song choices, my vocals, overall sound of the band, and that the members were good players. The biggest compliment I heard was from a lady who was learning to drive, and she said when she drives in her car the CD she would put in her car would be from SoundMonster.

In Europe I have to say we have great fans that live in this region. Outside of Canada any fan that has got their friends and family to join, to become SoundMonster fans themselves has been in Europe. Some of the band members have spoken with our European fans and appreciate there support and friendships. Overall, Europe has been very good to the band, and some of our biggest supporters live out there. The songs that were the most popular with European fans were again The Catch and Full Circle. When I went to make this blog I thought I`d have to turn it into maybe a two part series, because of all our support. Unfortunately though I and the band have spoken with many fans, when I tried to get this poll done, I was only able to get a handful of responses. Still the comments I did receive about the SoundMonster were great, the comments about our sound is they like the vocals, the beat, other comments I had from several fans is they like the guitar, lots of our fans here are guitar fans. My biggest compliment was a fan and now very close friend took our songs on a ipod and share it at a campfire and had our songs played and everyone sat around talking about our sound. This fan loved the song The Catch so much she asked me to write the lyrics so she could learn the song.

In Latin America, I admit at first I really had a difficult time getting fans to participate in this experiment, but then everything changed. The fans in Latin countries were great, they listened to our sound gave input some good, some not so good, but again its all in what are perceptions are. Everyone is an individual and has there own points of view. Overall most people that listened to our sound had positive things to say. My favourite comment was how much she enjoyed my vocals and the beat to music. The beat was something that was brought up a lot in this area, the song that really had the biggest response was Too Cool for the Funk. The musical arrangement is really good in this song and it got a lot of praise from this part of the world.

Back home in Canada all our songs have been praised and enjoyed. I have fans who have a favourite of each song on the Facebook page. The one song that has lately been brought up a lot is our Metal tune Kingdom of Whispers. It’s a song that was liked by some around the world, but in Canada this song really has won many hearts. I guess Canada likes its rock and Metal. The biggest compliment Ive heard from a Canadian fan would be how she enjoys hearing our new material because the best thing about SoundMonster to her is all the different sounds it never gets boring.

SoundMonster in Canada Part Two

2010-07-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

In this final instalment SoundMonster continues to get feedback in our home country of Canada. In the last blog we visited Alberta and from fans I spoke with The Catch and Kingdom of Whispers were the popular tunes. I will say in our own province of British Columbia Kingdom of Whispers has been the tune most would have said is our best work up on the fan site. Maybe British Columbia likes their Metal, not to sure but fans on Facebook or not, and with friends of other band members this has been a popular song. When up on the fan page we had a huge response to this sound, one fan living in Surrey where our band plays admits he isn`t a fan of pop or dance music so that part of our sound doesn`t appeal to him, but was very quick praising us for our work on our Metal tune. Our band has a fan who lives in Merritt a little town about an hour and some from Kelowna, and Kamloops. Her reply to our music was very positive and the song that stood out for her again was Kingdom of Whispers. Our heavy sound has been appreciated a lot when we released earlier a Heavy Metal song called Headache with Headlights, the response was very similar, great feedback, and even on our poll for fans favourite song it got a lot of support.

Still there are other songs people in British Columbia enjoyed besides our Metal sound. We have a fan in Maple Ridge that enjoyed our song called Waiting for Tonight, a pop song that used to be up on the fan page. She says she liked the song because of the lyrical message and the sound. Messages are important, and she finds the messages we say in our music powerful. Since I do the majority of the songwriting I take that as a huge compliment. From the song list we have up she says her favourite is The Catch because its what the title says, it is a very catchy song and one finds themselves singing along to it. When we had a poll up for fans to vote which was the favourite song, and The Catch was the winner. Her response was I am not surprised that`s the song that I thought would win. The Catch has also made a fan for a lady out in Abbotsford, at first the song she liked the most was Kingdom of Whispers, but after spending time listening to our songs for a day, as she explained The Catch just has a sound that won her over. I have a friend in Chilliwack she`s into more techno style music, and being into dance music I found it flattering that she loved our dance song Full Circle, and was raving about how good it was. She said she fell in love with it immediately right from the intro.

SoundMonster has fans in almost every province in Canada so the opinion of our music is different, and at times can be very similar. In the province of Saskatchewan we made some new fans just this year, one of the responses I received was a fans favourite song being Full Circle. Again, the part of that song that won her heart was the sound of our beat, and the vocals.

In Ontario the most populated province in Canada, we have a number of Canadian fans some family to members of the band, some fans through association, or however. One fan was American that had lived in Canada for a number of years I think close to ten maybe, she was about to move back to the States, so maybe she can also represent the American side, but she did have a profound comment that made sense, and I have heard similar comments from fans that have made comments on the fan page as well. Our band is a good hard rock band, and it makes sense Trevor, Scott and I used to be in a rock, metal act, but regardless if it’s a style of music that comes natural we want to challenge ourselves with new sounds. Her favourite song was Kingdom of Whispers, as well.

In Canada SoundMonster`s song of choice to date has been Kingdom of Whispers, that’s not to say it’s the only song. Still heavy loud music seems to be either on the rise in these parts or just appreciated. Other songs of mention would be The Catch, this song did win top song from a poll done in the past and it is still making inroads with the fans now.

SoundMonster in Canada

2010-07-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

This last blog is dedicated to feedback on selected songs from the soon to be released album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The four songs chosen are currently on the facebook page for fans called Soundmonster. Yes the M isn’t capitalized but that is an error that Facebook is unable to correct. On the journey the goal was to see if SoundMonster would be liked by individuals in different countries. There wasn’t a massive poll done by thousands so in no scientific way can I say the views that are represented are the same views of others within their country. Still these are people that have a point of view.

Ending this trip around the world I finish this blog in SoundMonster’s home country of Canada. Originally this blog was supposed to be about North America (Canada and the United States). On our fan site most SoundMonster fans are Canadian, but in second place are Americans. Though we have fans that stretch from Los Angeles to New York I wasn’t able to get any feedback from our songs, and opinions of the four songs currently up on the Facebook page. So, instead I will focus on SoundMonster’s homeland here in Canada.

Though SoundMonster is an Canadian act currently working in Surrey, British Columbia Canada, three members are Canadian, one is Serbian and the other Swedish. Since the existence of the group many people here in Canada have heard our sound. After our band put prerecorded demos of songs up on the Facebook fan page, we have had all kinds of responses to our music. It makes sense out of any country the most feedback the band has received have been from Canadians, so when I decided to do finish this blog of fans around the world, I thought doing Canadians would be easy. Then I realized most of the opinions I could remember were for earlier songs up on our site. When we first put up songs we had plenty of feedback because we had a number of people wanting to hear our sound. Since the songs have changed on the page, I haven’t collected as much feedback. So, in the month and some I have done my best to contact and chat with as many fans from the country as I could.

So, I`ll start my walk across Canada in Calgary located in the province of Alberta, a province beside ours. This is a city I used to live in and having support from family and friends the band has a good number of fans here. Unfortunately not everyone I was able to get feedback from, but many of these fans have been supporting us since the beginning, throughout different times have given great feed back on our music. One of my friends took part in the poll, she personally has been a supporter of local band talent and what she likes in us and the variety in our sounds. Everytime we release a song she`s always curious what we are going to do with it. That`s what I like about our act, we do that, we always try to challenge ourselves to make something interesting and different. The one song that stood out to her as a favourite would be The Catch. When I asked why she said it’s in the beat, it’s a song you want to play over and over.

A couple months ago I met a new fan she also was located in Calgary thought I never knew her when I lived there, its always cool to make new fans everywhere. She had heard a lot of our music and the funny part was with the earlier material that was up she would always change her mind which song she liked the most. That was until we released a song that to this day she holds as her favourite, and that’s our metal tune Kingdom of Whispers. In the next blog we will continue to get feedback in Canada and visit our home province in British Columbia, then Saskatchewan and finish out east in Ontario.

SoundMonster meets Latin America

2010-07-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

The next two blogs are dedicated to feedback on selected songs from the soon to be released album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The four songs chosen are currently on the facebook page for fans called Soundmonster. Yes the M isn’t capitalized but that is an error that Facebook is unable to correct. On the journey the goal was to see if SoundMonster would be liked by individuals in different countries. There wasn’t a massive poll done by thousands so in no scientific way can I say the views that are represented are the same views of others within their country. Still these are people that have a point of view.

Moving along we hop over the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in Latin America, SoundMonster is fortunate to have a good number of fans that surround this area. I admit at first it wasn’t easy to get many people to take part in the poll, and I didn’t know if I would be able to add a blog talking with our Latin fans. Though we have a good number of people that are part of our Facebook page, getting input wasn’t going as smoothly as I hoped. I was even talking about this with a friend I have in Brazil, then the floodgates opened and I was able to get many responses, and hence a blog was born.

The area that I perceive as Latin America starts from Mexico to Argentina. We have fans in Mexico but unfortunately was unable to get any responses to add to this blog. I was able to speak to friend and fan who was really supportive and brought new fans to SoundMonster, but she was a Mexican living in England, and had only heard Kingdom of Whispers which she was a big fan of.

I’ll start my adventure chatting with friends and fans in Central and South America in El Salvador. This fan isn’t on the Facebook fan site, but has been a good supporter. When I asked her if she would be willing to do this poll, she was front and center ready to give her opinion. For her it was no contest the song that one her heart was ”The Catch”.

SoundMonster has a number of fans in Brazil many have commented to me they like our music, unfortunately I wasn’t able to do this poll to get a better reflection exactly what that means, and why. I do have one friend who has been very supportive who has listened to a number of our material. Though her favorite song “One’s Perception” isn’t part of the playlist did does like a couple of the songs. While heavier material like “Kingdom of Whispers” doesn’t appeal to her, it was between “Too Cool for the Funk” and “Full Circle”, and “Full Circle” ended up being her favorite.

Next I spoke with a lady from Trinidad and Tobago she lives in an area that is English speaking so I admit at first when we talked I was surprised how well her English was. Getting into conversation I didn’t quite feel like she was a good candidate for the poll cause I didn’t think SoundMonster would have a real impression on someone who mainly listens to romantic soft music. I thought to myself the goal of this wasn’t to invest my time talking to yes people, I wanted a good reflection on each person’s perception. After she screened the four songs, I was told our band was good, and she liked the vocals. If she had to pick the song she liked the most it would be “The Catch”.

From there I started to chat with several different people from Latin America all not on our fan page. In Venezuela I was able to talk to a couple people some fans some not so much. The song that seemed to appeal to most was “Too Cool for the Funk”. In Argentina I spoke with a really nice lady she loved our sound and after hearing the music was stuck between “Too Cool for the Funk’ and “Full Circle” eventually taking “Full Circle” as the favorite for her

SoundMonster meets Europe

2010-07-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

The next three blogs are dedicated to feedback on selected songs from the soon to be released album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The four songs chosen are currently on the Facebook page for fans called Soundmonster. Yes the M isn’t capitalized but that is an error that Facebook is unable to correct. On the journey the goal was to see if SoundMonster would be liked by individuals in different countries. There wasn’t a massive poll done by thousands so in no scientific way can I say the views that are represented are the same views of others within their country. Still these are people that have a point of view

The journey around the world stops in Europe, and though there are many countries in this region that we are thankful to have as fans, I wasn’t able to speak or get feedback from all. While Europe would be the number one area for fans sharing our music, and bringing new fans to the Monster, getting feedback on what songs seem to move them isn’t as easy. I was thankful to have several fans participate and give me good feedback what they liked, with the amount of countries that exist in this area I was hoping to get more information. At the moment besides Canada and the USA SoundMonster’s biggest fan base comes out of Turkey. This is a place I’d love to visit, and through our music I have talked to some great fans. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get feedback from any in the country for this assignment.

I was however able to get feedback from a friend I’ve had for awhile in Albania, she’s in college and has been a supporter of SoundMonster since the page started, and I think the first international fan outside of North America to join. She’s heard a number of our songs and the one that she enjoyed the most our metal song called “Kingdom of Whispers”. I asked why because so many have picked others, her response was she likes the vocals and heavy sound. I admit I think it’s cool to see girls like the metal, so yeah it impressed me.

I’ve had some fans that have really been great sharing the Monster with their friends in Portugal, Romania and Italy. A fan of ours in Portugal has been amazing she has brought a lot of new people to our site, in fact more than anyone. I have nothing but great things to say about the support some new friends of SoundMonster.

One of our fans in Romania I came across through another fan by fate. She is an avid fan of music, and our sound ready appealed to her. She has heard our music and has on many occasions spread the word of our band. I asked her about our songs and which one appealed to her the most. The song that caught her attention the most was “The Catch”, this has been a popular song, I did ask why? Her reason and no pun intended it’s catchy. The song is a sing-a-long and easy to like, she was also a fan of “Kingdom of Whispers”.

Another fan that came from the girl Romania, is also Romanian but lives in Italy, I have become very close to this girl, and we continue to talk. She has been a great supporter of the band, probably to date our biggest. She listens to our music all the time, and shares with family and friends our sound, even brought some fans to the page. This lovely lady has even on trips out with friends brought songs from SoundMonster to share with others. She has been amazing, and a sweetheart, when I asked her what was her favorite song she also liked “The Catch”. When I asked her she replied that it’s the beat and vocals, it’s addictive, her second favorite is “Full Circle”.

In Ukraine I also have a friend who’s favorite SoundMonster song is a live song I gave her a long time ago called “Irreversible” only a small portion of people have ever heard this song. Overall it did very well, everyone has their opinions, but for this girl it was her favorite, and still is. When I asked her about the four songs on the fansite her choice was “Full Circle”.

SoundMonster appreciates our European fans, and having two European born members in the band, and the remaining three with European roots we have close ties to this area. The support has been great are forever grateful to all our supporters. From the select group I was able to get feedback from “The Catch” was the song having “Kingdom of Whispers” and “Full Circle” just behind.

SoundMonster meets the Middle East

2010-07-07T00:11:00.000-07:00

These next four blogs are dedicated to feedback on selected songs from the soon to be released album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The four songs chosen are currently on the facebook page for fans called Soundmonster. Yes the M isn’t capitalized but that is an error that Facebook is unable to correct. On the journey the goal was to see if SoundMonster would be liked by individuals in different countries. There wasn’t a massive poll done by thousands so in no scientific way can I say the views that are represented are the same views of others within their country. Still these are people that have a point of view.

From Asia, now I spoke with people who lived in the Middle East, most stories that the news covers from this region is war and destruction. I think it was time to share some news on the love of music. This journey starts in Iran, a country that has no access to Facebook, so to help I sent a new friend our music by email. She agreed to listen, and I found this part of the poll most interesting. Iran is a country that is censored from western civilization and really has very little knowledge of what music and entertainment we do have. We have many conversations and I was enlightened a lot what is going on in her side of the world, but this blog is about our music, so ill stay on topic. After a couple days we had a conversation, a lot was to do with music structure and sound. She was mostly exposed to Iranian music where structure and music styles are very different according to her. She said she found western style music very hard to hear and understand. She then suggested to make our music easier to understand, and gave an example of a movie she recently watched called Alvin and the Chipmunks. She said the musical arrangements were easy to hear, I then explained that music arrangements in that movie were simplified for the audience which is made for children. I didn’t make a Monster fan out of her, but we did have a good conversation and learned a lot. She did find out of the four songs “The Catch” to be her favorite, saying it’s the one song that’s closest to music styles played in Iran.

The next person I spoke with became a good friend of mine. A really cool girl from Kuwait, she is full of spirit and a good positive attitude. This girl right away was a fan of our sound. She especially enjoyed our song “Full Circle”. It seems our dance song really had a place in the hearts as a first listen for several people in the Middle East. Spoke to a girl in Saudi Arabia, and Dubai and another from Kuwait and they all thought the same ‘Full Circle” was their favorite. They said what they loved was the vocals and the beat, I was quite flattered I admit it felt good many of the Middle Easterners I was fortunate to chat with were into the vocal styles of SoundMonster. I don’t usually look at myself as anything but an average singer, but it’s nice to get compliments.

I came across a lady from the country of Israel when we chatted about music she wasn’t into anything but soft, slow melodies and love songs, so I didn’t really want to do the poll with her. She was a little opinionated on certain things, and I didn’t really think she would be too kind to our sounds. As our conversation continued she really wanted to do it. After listening to the four songs when I expected to hear the same old you guys are good but not for me speech, instead she had the biggest compliment for SoundMonster. She said she was learning how to drive, and if she was listening to a CD she’d put ours on in a second. She said she doesn’t usually listen to the sounds we play, but because of the variety of music we perform, and she was a fan of the beat and my vocals, it worked for her. I thought that was awesome! When I asked what was her favorite song she had to think a bit then picked “The Catch” she said she liked all of them but that song just stood out for a reason. “The Catch” was also a hit for a girl I had a short conversation with that lived on an island out in a place called Bahrain. It is always cool to chat and find out what about our sounds people in this side of the world liked.

In conclusion from the individuals I spoke with overall SoundMonster music was appreciated here, and the people are really fun and good natured about different sounds. Like the people who live in South East Asia they were really kind and easy to chat, and were very willing to answer questions and give opinions what they liked, or what they didn’t. The song that won the hearts of the select individuals I talked to was “Full Circle” what won them was the beat, vocals and total sound, in second was “The Catch”.

SoundMonster meets South East Asia

2010-07-06T01:26:00.000-07:00

The next five blogs are dedicated to feedback on selected songs from the soon to be released album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The four songs chosen are currently on the facebook page for fans called Soundmonster. Yes the M isn’t capitalized but that is an error that Facebook is unable to correct. On the journey the goal was to see if SoundMonster would be liked by individuals in different countries. There wasn’t a massive poll done by thousands so in no scientific way can I say the views that are represented are the same views of others within their country. Still these are people that have a point of view.

To start off the journey around the world we start in South East Asia, Indonesia has the most fans on the SoundMonster fan site within this region, sadly I wasn’t able to get any feedback from them. So, I will start in China, now China does not have facebook, the government bans this site, unless residents live in Hong Kong. I will say from the views of the Chinese I spoke with, it at first it wasn’t a very positive experience. The people I spoke with were blunt and were very certain our sound was not for them. The words they used were at some points tough to swallow. I was a bit disillusioned, and kinda made these individuals opinions represent a whole country of billions. I was sure the Monster was not welcome in China, and was a bit down about it.

Then I spoke with a girl and she wanted to hear our stuff, at this point I took enough hits from people in China about our sound. Eventually I did show her our music and she was very positive about it, she liked our style, our choices. She took the time gave good constructive feedback and for her “The Catch” was her song. I will say this person made me realize everyone is different and nobody represents their country they represent themselves.

From there I spoke with someone from Malaysia and I got the same old treatment, she wasn’t into our sound, and some pretty brutal comments. I took it as one’s opinion and from there it got a bit better. I spoke to someone else in the country and though it wasn’t completely her thing she did enjoy “Too Cool for the Funk”.

In Papua New Guinea I spoke with two fans but only one could give me feedback about our music, and it was refreshing to hear the lady loved all our songs. I am thinking sweet! Again the song she liked the most was “The Catch”.

Spoke to a couple people in Australia and New Zealand and though this is not apart of South East Asia we do have fans in the region. Unfortunately I didn’t get to speak with them. Most people I did talk to didn’t have the time or interest to take my poll, one girl in New Zealand did though. Our music style wasn’t for her, out of all the songs the one that stood out to her as our best song was “Too Cool for the Funk”.

Another country I spoke to a number of fans was in Thailand, I have to say some of the nicest fans in South East Asia I have spoken too come from there. Both fans really liked our sound and “The Catch” and “Too Cool for the Funk” were their favorites. One fan gave me some good insight if it is true, she said that a lot of East Asians like to listen to music in their own language, and boy bands were big in these parts.

Lastly, I ventured to speak with people in India, I will say not easy to do. Most really weren’t interested or knew enough English to do a poll. Then I talked to probably the coolest Indian I have ever spoken to. I forget she’s Indian because she acts so Canadian, sarcastic, funny, and she loves music. Her tastes go from classic rock to country so I was curious what she thought of SoundMonster. She listened and loved our music, and being a fan, she shares our sound to her friends. So far I haven’t heard much feedback on what they think. Still she has and still is a big supporter and would say our biggest in this region. People are people and while “The Catch” has been a popular tune, for her the song was last on her list. She liked our Metal song “Kingdom of Whispers” and she isn’t even a huge Metal fan. Still she liked the heaviest song we currently have to be heard, so I admit being a guy I was impressed!

So in conclusion, we have a good number of fans that my band has never been able to talk to from these parts. From the people I was able to talk to will say some were more receptive then others. Overall SoundMonster made the right sound to move most of the people I spoke to in this region, and that’s good. Through it we have made some fans and really appreciate there passion and support for our sound. Overall the song that had the biggest response with the people I did talk to was “Too Cool for the Funk”, then right behind it “The Catch”.

SoundMonster meets the World

2010-07-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

In 2010 SoundMonster has made serious efforts not only to continue breaking down borders of sound, but to break down the borders and share with others around the world. In the last couple months I (Steve) have made an effort and talked to many of our fans and personal friends from around the globe to find out what they have to say about some of our songs.

SoundMonster has recorded many songs in 2009 and a limited amount of people had heard them. Once the band got the music on demos, we added some of those works on Facebook, many fans in Canada were very supportive. During that period only a handful of fans outside Canada had even heard of our band.

Now SoundMonster through networking and sharing music to new friends have grown the fan base to all six continents around the world. Not all of our fans are on Facebook so the numbers do not completely speak of the fan volumes we really have. Regardless if we have 10 fans or 500 on a site, SoundMonster appreciates everyone.

So far in 2010 SoundMonster has made fans in the following known countries: Canada, United States, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Portugal, Mexico, Australia, Macedonia, Thailand, Germany, Italy, Venezuela, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, El Salvador, Sweden, Ukraine, Japan, Kuwait, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Bahrain, Dubai, Romania, Ireland, China, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Spain, Venezuela, Peru, Samoa, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Kenya, and Ethiopia that’s about 45 countries, and I am sure there maybe more but that’s so far what we have been able to find out.

It’s not like millions of fans are screaming SoundMonster around the world but it is really flattering to see fans of all languages enjoying our music. Most days our songs on Facebook are listened to by someone around the world. Our band values everyone that made the choice to join our fan page, and hope that in the coming months and years we can continue to have fans enjoy our sounds and SoundMonster continues to expand to more people.

At first the focus of our music squarely centered only in the greater Vancouver area, and this is an area that is a festering pool of music. Then with support from family and friends new fans emerged across the country in almost every province. From there we gained some fans in other countries like United States and in Europe. With my eagerness to share our music with a global view I was curious what people thought of our sound. The amazing part about music that I love is the differences how it is expressed. That is the power of SoundMonster as our music does that it’s a sound of sounds and in that is a unique feel, the album concept goes everywhere.

With the four songs on Facebook “The Catch”, “Full Circle”, “Kingdom of Whispers” and “Too Cool for the Funk” many fans on Facebook or not participated in this little poll because there was a curiosity what people around the world would say. The poll was for fans of SoundMonster and others who were willing to listen to the four songs and give their point of view. Some of these people became fans, others did not. Some liked our sound, some not so much, just like in life it’s all variety what is one’s persons treasure, is another persons trash. After all the findings were done the votes were put into five blogs one on East South Asia which deals with India, China, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and though it is not part of Asia, I also added New Zealand to the list. The next blog is Middle East and the countries involved are Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The next blog will be about Europe and we have a lot of support from fans more than any continent including our own here in North America. The next blog will be Latin America at first had a hard time getting any input but then the flood gates opened and I received feedback in the following countries Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, Argentina, El Salvador, and Peru. Last, I will talk about feedback in SoundMonster’s own backyard and deal with Canada.

SoundMonster 5

2010-07-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster has been on the search for new members since its inception, and still is looking for particular people to do certain roles within the group. We were happy as a foursome, but are always on the look out for more talent to join and make the sound better. During our last jam also mentioned in the blog “Five Alive” the guys had the chance to work with another musician named Tomas. SoundMonster has had other musicians sit in and join the group either to audition or play for the night. Some experiences like in the two blogs SoundMonster auditions part one and two, they haven’t gone very well. In this last jam the guys played some really beautiful music together, we all felt it, and the jams really had an amazing sound. To see where it was all going the guys wanted to come together again and see what was happening, because after that first jam all the members including Tomas had so much fun.

So, we all kept in contact days past in the hourglass, and before we knew it SoundMonster got together and began to play again. Scott had reorganized the studio, because it fits four people easily, but with five it starts to invade personal space. So the guys moved into positions and all I could think of was if we add the sixth member this room is going to be tight fitting, it is doable but we will be almost rubbing shoulders haha, in reality it wouldn’t be that bad, but personal space would be affected.

So the guys tune up and we start to perform giving our best effort, and regardless if the songs work or not, we would go over them a couple times. It was like we were continuing from last week our sound was nice and full. My personal favorites I thought sounded great was Better than Fiction, and Good Year. When your jamming time passes pretty fast and the night was moving like race cars, and when there is five guys in a room with hot equipment lots of heat from it all, including us heats up the room pretty quick, also being summer the weather is naturally hotter as well. Being in the band all the members are used to this so we all come prepared wearing shorts and tees, poor Tomas didn’t learn from his mistakes the prior week and was stuffed up wearing jeans, and the poor guy was feeling it.

We took a couple breaks so we could all get some fresh air, and were discussing our music pros and cons, what needs to be done, and what is working. Tomas seemed to be very involved and as a group all got along having similar goals. It was at that time we discussed roles of guitar parts and vocal additions, and I realized we were about to become something bigger, the group was about to become five members. We planned on working on the twelve songs that will be on the CD, but with all the redos and little things that go on in sessions, we finished the night about two songs short of accomplishing the goal.

It was getting late, and the guys felt good about the night, Ivan left first. Then for awhile Trev, Tomas, Scott and I stayed together for a short while going over plans for a website that’s currently under construction, and talking about adding Tomas to the four songs that are already in the works for the new CD, and extending jams to last longer. Lots going on in SoundMonster and we officially welcome Tomas to the team and are looking forward to seeing our sound grow and become better.

Five Alive

2010-07-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

When the guys get together to jam we have set hopes and goals we want to achieve, and that’s to sound good. Just like any band you have good jams and bad, as long as there are better days then bad, I think your going to be o.k. I wouldn’t say in the last couple months we have been spectacular, but with me (Steve) in school and everyone else working with there own personal commitments to meet. It could be a lot worse. Since the guys got together a few months back we have since created a set list, and been focusing on the same twelve songs and are working to perfect them.

Since our mission ever jam has been a bit better, with commitments the band was spending more time recording then performing, so this jam was the first in three weeks. Trevor gave some news that we were going to have a special guest join the band this particular evening. The band in the past has had other musicians join a night with SoundMonster, then night a guy named Tomas. He is originally from Sweden and had been involved in the music scene there and now has come to Canada to continue that.

Trevor introduced Tomas to the band and we set up to play our set list for the night. At first meaning the first two songs we were a bit rusty, being away from performing will do that. The songs were played right just with no passion. We repeated them a couple times to try, and warm up our souls. The night though would just start to take off, we would continue into our set list and suddenly with Tomas’ electric acoustic playing a distinct groove it was an unbelievable sound that added the right touch that night. Songs like “Better than Fiction” and “Good Year” came alive like never before. It was a beautiful display of sound that evening, everyone could feel it.

The moment for me was when we were performing “Better than Fiction”. The guys were on a break and Trevor and I talked and decided to work on the song. If you read the blog “SoundMonster goes to Prison” then you would remember Trevor and I met at his place and created the missing link to the song “Better than Fiction”. So Trev wanted to practice it before the band reassembled. It took a couple times it was new and a bit confusing at first. Then Ivan seeing us practice jumped in and got his bass on, and started to play. We kept going over the part, not before long Scott and Tomas were in the room and we started to play. We kept playing the song to practice the changes, then we had it, and with this new complete sound I realized then we were making something bigger than we ever had done before. It was really beautiful, I didn’t want the song to end because it felt so good to hear it.

That jam lasted longer then any SoundMonster jam ever lasted it was so amazing, the guys just wanted to keep playing and playing and playing. I must have left Scott’s after everyone left close to midnight, it was a real cool night to play. We talked about what happened and Tomas really gave some interesting sound to compliment our work. When we performed “Irreversible” my favorite song, I knew the song had to grow more, and when I said lets try to turn it into a flamingo tune, Tomas just took charge and inspired everyone in the room. It was a cool time, so we talked everyone had fun, and so if we can all make it we set to meet again and see what we can do.

SoundMonster goes to Prison

2010-06-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

I (Steve) came over to Trevor’s place and work on some new music, and in a couple hours both of us were in a prison around New Westminster I believe. It was a strange night, but I had a lot of fun regardless. The title maybe a bit deceiving because the idea makes it look like we got up to no good and spent some time in the slammer. Still the night for me anyways was a memory I had to write as a blog entry.

If you had read the earlier blogs, and I mean the blogs that go way back in the beginning of my music career, or the blogs that were done a couple months back of Trevor’s music history. Both will bring up that Trevor the guitarist and me (Steve) the vocalist for SoundMonster were in a hard rock/metal act called Pious. Back in the beginnings we didn’t have a drummer, and Bill our bassist went to Ontario to spend time with his family for the Christmas season. So for at last two to three weeks Trevor and I spend a lot of time and hours working only on new material. I think a big portion of the bands early music and some of the best work came out of that period. We really gelled as a songwriting team and came up with I think about six songs. By the time Bill got back he was amazed how much work we got done. From a songwriting perspective those memories are still in my mind. Since then whenever I’ve been apart of making new music it’s been a band together working on sound. So, that memory has stuck out in my mind ever since.

Now it is over ten years later, and here I am once again working with a guy I am a big fan of Trevor Sergius on guitar with SoundMonster. It is a big reason why I am with this band, I love the guitar sound Trevor does, I always have. So, since the formation of SoundMonster, as a band we have worked on music, now sometimes it’s a band collaboration in the studio and at home I’ll cut and paste the work for Scott to rearrange the work to fit a song better. Or Trevor will just show up in studio and say o.k guys I’ve been working on something and play it. That’s how “Good Year” and “Waiting for Tonight” were made. Now the band has made a good number of songs, have broken then down to the big twelve, and are focusing a lot of playing the songs live in a set list, and going into the studio to record in good the final versions of the songs for our CD “The Year of the Monster”. Still we have songs we need to do some rearranging on structure for these songs, for at least three of them. So, Trevor and I decided to do something we haven’t done since that Christmas season years and years ago. We were going to get together and work on songs just the both of us.

We met on a Friday night, I went into Surrey it was kinda cloudy and rainy, I get into the door and Trevor says hi, and lets me know that he has good news and bad, the good news was we could work on music the bad was he was on call with work that night, and he just got a call to fix a refrigeration system. Which is exactly what he does for a living when he’s not giving his soul to rock, so I said it was o.k I could come along and then after jam some more. So Trevor and I worked on a musical pre-chorus between the verse and chorus for a song called Better than Fiction. It didn’t take long and it seems to work hopefully in the next jam it works then as well. From there we decided to answer the call and I got into Trevor’s van and off we went. We ended up taking a break from jamming, so Trevor could fix a refrigeration system in a maximum security prison.

We had a lot of clearances to go through to get his work equipment from the van to the kitchen, if I wasn’t there that night it would have taken him a lot longer to get the job done. After it was all done it took an hour and a half of our lives, still it was fun. We had the chance to talk shop and go over our plans for 2011. The whole year of 2009 was talking about the goal for 2010, but goals for the following year really hadn’t been brought up. It was nice to clear the airwaves. When we got back we worked a bit on new material had some great ideas, curious to see how they unfold, we tried some ideas on a reggae/grunge tune. Overall it was a fun time. Once the goals are set I’ll make a blog about those goals and go over what goals were made for 2010 and so far how they are going.

Recording for the CD: Year of the Monster

2010-06-29T11:43:00.001-07:00

May has been a positive month for the band SoundMonster, as brought up earlier I graduated from university, so my time with the band will increase. We worked out what twelve songs will be on the album. We set September or October as a goal for the month of release, and began work on the official recordings. This all started days ago, when Trevor and Scott did both flat tracks for “The Catch” and “Time Running Out”. The official version of “The Catch” is slightly different then the official version, for one it is slower, I will admit I am not as fond of the style. It does sound great, with technology we are able to speed up the tune and we will be doing different versions when mixing the song “The Catch” to find the best one.

On day one of my vocal work was on Friday May 21, 2010, it was the day I went to my graduation party at university and said my good-byes to the class. I layed down two vocal tracks for “The Catch” and when I attempted to sing to “Time Running Out” I just didn’t seem to have it, I did do a full run of the song but it sounded like crap. After taking a break Ivan showed up and I decided I would continue my vocal contributions to the songs the following week. So on Monday May 24, 2010 I cam back to the studio and worked on “Time Running Out” this time my vocal job was on it, and completed two tracks for the song. After reviewing it and doing touch ups, I completed the song by doing my third track. It is funny how far we have come in recording. The third track has a huge memory for me when I think of the song “Time Running Out”. Back when we started doing demos for the songs I wanted to add an effect on the third track, Scott didn’t have any distortion effects in the equipment so we used mega phones, I touched on this story in the blog “Prerecording”. The problem was when we used the megaphones the battery life was crap, so we had to do another session to charge the batteries the mega phones, so I could shout “waiting!” “waiting!” in the background of the tune. When we tried the first megaphone the battery died in like minutes fortunately the second held up enough to get the job done. This time around with new equipment we had top brass studio effects and doing the third track was no big deal. With that song done, I then did the third vocal track for “The Catch”. I like this song a lot and it is a much better version and I know in the end it will be a good single for us. In the third track, I did add more harmonies then before and it works.

After my parts were done Ivan came over, unfortunately for Trevor he was busy that night so he wasn’t able to stop by. I don’t really hang out when other members do their recordings but for support I hung out and watched Ivan do his tracks. Scott would challenge him to be better, and Ivan came to the challenge pulling off both songs in good time. We chatted for awhile Ivan thanked me for coming out and showing support for him while he did his parts. Overall the recording session for the CD went pretty good, Trevor still has a guitar track or two to finish on each song and of course the mixing process will be done, but so far the CD is coming to a good start.

We left with a positive vibe and Trevor stopped by the next day to work on some tracks. I am not sure if he completed his work for the two official songs for the CD. I know he said he laid down the bare tracks for another song on the CD called “I Met a Girl” this is a tune that has elements of pop, punk, and new wave, if your interested in the story behind the song read blog “Hot Summer Day”. Plus he finished up his parts for a demo called “Hello” which is a hard rock tune that has a lot of punch and possibly could be on our second CD release tentative for 2011. There are still come stuff the band has to fix on the structure of two songs. “Good Year” has a bridge that is a bit awkward and we are looking to change, it remove it or not have a bridge, and Irreversible. This is my favorite song but it is missing elements, and needs to be retooled, or at least tweaked. So Trev and I agreed to meet at his house on Friday with the goal to get it done, so here’s to crossing fingers we can do some magic.

Session Work

2010-06-28T00:07:00.001-07:00

Its late May and the guys spent the month working out the set list for our live performances, plus the list to go on our very first CD. Out of the blue we did an audition for a possible fifth member to the band that turned into a circus, but after it was all done we would all have a good laugh. For the last seven months I’ve (Steve) been in university finishing up my program, the great news was I was finishing up my last practice and ready to graduate. The date May 21st was slated on my calendar for sometime and suddenly that Friday the day have arrived.

May 21st is the date I go to University see my graduating class and have a graduation party. So I show up say hi to all the classmates some more than others. Then go through presentations, got a free meal and photos are taken. After that was all said and done I just watched the clock until it was time to drive out to Surrey and celebrate with the guys, my band SoundMonster. I show up to Scott’s go into his studio and start recording, Trevor and Scott had started on the session work on two of the official songs slated to be on the album SoundMonster: Year of the Monster. The goal has been for a September release, but with Ivan going to Europe for four weeks in July/August it maybe pushed back a month or two we will have to see. One of the songs is a sing-a-long tune called “The Catch” the other is a punk/rock style song called “Time Running Out”.

With anything changes are made to songs to make them sound better, and “The Catch” does have some alterations, it is a bit slower, it is an adjustment for me, but I did like the work they did. The incorporation of keyboard into the song gives a real flair to the tune, and a new introduction adds a new element to the whole song itself. I sang on two tracks for the song so far, then decided to move on. Time was a bit of an ordeal because we are also slated to do sessions on our song list, to hear our live performance, plus we have a photo shoot later, and of course we were having a party celebrating my graduation.

I did a dry run singing Time Running Out on one track it didn’t sound too great, and not long after Ivan showed up so I decided to leave the vocal recordings until Monday. We hung out pretty much just had a lot of small talk and the same old conversations until Trevor showed up. Then we hung out for awhile talked had a couple laughs then set up to play our set list. I will admit our live sound is getting better, it’s not exactly there yet but comparing what we did four to five weeks ago, we have come a long way.

Michelle Alviar a photographer came over did some band shots, and I admit they aren’t in the best locations. We had slim pickings because we were doing a photo shoot for the session as well. So, we planned on doing the pictures of a band shot when on a break. So, close to the studio location we had about ten to thirteen pictures taken. In the session Michelle is small which worked to her advantage, she pretty much was running around the room getting every angle. Next time she says she will bring a better camera to get better shots.

I think she did pretty a good job, I tried taking pictures of the guys before she came and I really couldn’t get the facial expressions or feelings out of the moment. After our session I saw she did, so later that night I added them to the SoundMonster Facebook fan page since we barely have any photos up but one picture done in November. So, the night went well after it was done we played a couple four player games of XBOX NHL Hockey and ended the night. It’s nice to be able to contribute to the band more now I feel so free and hope this feeling stays forever. Plans are for Monday to continue my own recordings on “The Catch” and “Time Running Out” so I should be busy. Trevor and Ivan are going to try and come out, if not another day in the week will be slated to jam. We will have to wait and find out.

SoundMonster Auditions Part Two

2010-06-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

To review the last blog “The fifth member” Trevor was in contact with a female, she had a French Canadian name, really pretty lady and she was auditioning for backup vocals and keyboards to play in SoundMonster. So we met got into the studio and before we jammed together, the guys share some green medicine in the form of a cigarette around. I don’t smoke anything but the other guys like to, and this female says she doesn’t play well if she is under the influence, yet still smokes with the band. So the cigarette is put out and we all go into the studio and start to play our songs. Will admit for the first half of our jam it wasn’t all that great, it seemed like we were going through the motions, it wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t good either.

So we go through our set list one by one, and this girl on some songs did some cool stuff, on others not so much. She seemed a bit out of her element, and wasn’t all there. We played Full Circle and though she didn’t play to the song the way I like it, she seemed to find her way, she even said she really liked the tune. Something was wrong though, she was very social but since she took a couple hoots from a herbal cigarette she was really looking paranoid and getting more and more quiet. I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t know if she was not into our tunes, or just really messed up in the head from smoking up. So after we played the song Good Year I think, we went outside for a break. The room was getting a bit hot and the nice cool evening air was a nice change. So we go outside and she just sat there, so I chatted with her. We both lived in Calgary, Alberta when we graduated from high school, and I found out she in fact grad from the same high school as me.

I realized she came from a very well off family and she was in university like me, but saw we were very different people. I wasn’t sold on her, or against her, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, just that she was stoned, and paranoid. She kept saying over and over sorry guys, sorry guys and I shouldn’t have ever taken that smoke. So, she was asked if she wanted just to sit on the couch and relax, it’s normal I remember last fall Ivan was at a jam and he was really sick and for the second half just lied on a couch in the other room. So, that’s what this girl did, after each song was played Ivan would take a peek to see if she was ok, then after one song the room was empty. At first we let it go, then after awhile. the guys went on a search around the neighbourhood to see if they could find her. They were a bit concerned this girl was acting really bonkers and now was gone, and no one really knew why. Yes, this girl out of nowhere was gone. At first we just thought maybe she went outside for a breather or to talk on the phone. I quickly realized no she text someone and split. In the end the guys continued with our set list and came to the conclusion in the end she left. I have to say it was weird, I never had quite an interview like that one, I have had people as to borrow the bathroom to take a shower, and can you pick me up cause I lost my license due to drunk driving, or I can come if you have a drum set because I have to ride my bike there. So, I guess I have had odd encounters but in an actual audition jam yeah that was the weirdest experience for me.

In the end we talked about it, and a fifth member if it does happen does have to be the right person, anybody that joins this group will change the dynamics. The change has to be positive, I ve seen members kill bands, and if you ever read my history in music with John from Acid Clown, and JP from Pious the wrong guy can do a lot of damage. Damage to the point where a band will break up, bands don’t last forever but I’d rather the ending of SoundMonster be a better conclusion then adding the wrong member.

It was funny getting back into the studio as the five of us was kinda weird at first. What does one think, you look over at an empty keyboard and realize what we were doing, and what happened, and we can either get down, or play and do what we love. That’s what we did, and the music changed, for the remainder of that night the music was much better and we played with passion and excitement, after the jam we left smiling with our heads high.

SoundMonster Auditions Part One

2010-06-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

SoundMonster finally in voting process talked it out and turned our library of thirty-four songs into a twelve album LP set for the fall of 2010. The song order and CD art now has to be determined. With the song list the guys decided the best thing to do is to keep practicing these tunes as they will be our list to play live, and yes we will still work on other tunes, but these twelve have to be golden when we perform.

So, the guys for two weeks perform the list, I wouldn’t say the songs are perfect, we still want to tinker with them to make them better. Still it is a work in progress, and know with goals we have to set long and short term ones in hopes to improve as artists.

One goal that the band had was to add a fifth member, it wasn’t the ultimate goal, we could stay as a foursome, but for the betterment of sound a fifth member was something we always talked about. The fifth member would do two tasks, back up vocals and play keyboards. Sounds easy? Nope!

The guys well, to be honest since a friend of mine who was to be the bassist/keyboardist was in then out when the band first started, the only person still active on finding the fifth member was Trevor who really is the founder of SoundMonster.

Well, one day I was I think working in my practice and I got a text, yes I am not suppose to read texts on the job, but I do. Trevor sent me a message saying we are interviewing a lady who plays piano, and will play keyboards, and can sing. Now I was happy but having a lot of experience in the interview process most often, it doesn’t work out very well. Still it is progress and the guys were feeling good about it and we set up an interview during one of our jams, but due to a concert she was attending the interview would be pushed one week ahead. So, we all arrived and to save her gas Ivan our bassist gave her a ride. She didn’t have a keyboard, so Scott set up his and in time we all arrived. The girl was very attractive and seemed nice, now the guys before a jam share a smoke from mother nature, if you know what I mean. I don’t smoke any kind of cigarettes, but the guys like to and offered her a drag or two. She said she can’t play well under any substance but for reasons unknown she took a drag or two. So we walked into the studio tuned up and began to play. I will say this, the jam started pretty raw and sounding somewhat ok, nothing great. It wasn’t bad but not at the level we should be. The keyboardist did some interesting stuff and at times not so much. The guys seemed to like her, not sure if it was her ass or her style ha ha but they seemed to be impressed.

I admit she was easy on the eyes, but personalities in a band are the chemistry get the wrong one in and it falls apart. Just read my blog from the days I played with Acid Clown, or had Giulian as a drummer in Pious, these were players that gave bad chemistry to the band. So, what may sound right doesn’t mean it is. At this time I wasn’t against her or for her, I just wanted to play and as we got through more and more songs she looked weird. She made comments she shouldn’t have smoked up and that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I can understand this because I had the same problems when I smoked back in the day. She seemed to look paranoid and really out of it, by this time we were playing I think Good Year and then we took a break. Then things got really weird!

So, we went outside and chatted a bit.

Songs for the album

2010-06-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

May 1st, 2010 was a very rememberable night for the band, it was the night they came together, and created the song list for the first CD called “Year of the Monster”.
I was surprised to see songs like “Headache with Headlights”, and “One’s Perception” be placed for the second album, just because I know those are favorites in the band. Guess in times like these always expect the unexpected. The songs that made the cut are “too cool for the funk”, “full circle”, “good year”, “the catch”, “time running out”, “irreversible”, “in your head”, “kingdom of whispers”, “better than fiction”, “just one day”, “”waiting for tonight”, and “I met a girl”. The order of the songs in the album will be determined once we get a feel for them. Ivan thought it would be cool to end the album with “Time Running Out”, so you never know.

With the set list down the guys now had a hold new focus, we could concentrate on a select number of songs rather then this whole ocean of material. The guys decided to take the rest of the night and do the set list twice. Unlike our last jam weeks ago, this one really worked. I am not sure if it was the bright and excited mood, or what but it seemed when we got all our songs down and decided the guys were really on it. The sound was there it was bright, happy, lots of stuff going on and doing the list was a lot of fun. I will be honest and say not playing together on a consistent basis definitely was evident. Still the emotion of the music was there and it wasn’t bad, just not up to our standards.

We did the second set list and it was a lot better, Ivan was having a great time he was just beaming and laughing giving me high fives. Scott was all smiles singing along with me on parts, he was goofing off and at times making it really hard for me to sing without laughing.

We worked on some songs trying new ideas like on the song “Irreversible” we wanted to add a solo spot, and Trevor had something he was working on, the group had yet to see it, so we got to the part where the solo was to be and Trevor showed us his tentative piece, which really did sound good. It is a work in progress but it did compliment the tune a lot.

We played through the set list and to be honest we all made mistakes, we all shone as well. Overall most of the material I think sounded good the second time around, but there were some highlights in the first run.

We went outside for a break the studio with us in it all night playing got pretty hot, cooling off outside it felt really good playing with the guys. I said to Trevor, “wow you know I’ve heard these songs so much I only listen to the newer material because I’m sick of hearing the old stuff, but when we play them it’s so different, it’s really fun isn’t it.” Trevor agreed, everyone had a great time and the jam was so much better compared to the last time.

After our last jam we pretty much came to terms we really needed to practice more because our jam wasn’t even close to being decent, we had good moments but not at the level we should be doing. Tonight was a complete different experience, not sure if it’s because of having a true set list we were more focus, it’s not something I could explain, but whatever it was it worked and it made such a difference. After the jam the guys felt great and that’s what we want, it’s all about having fun. The night finished playing a song not from the set list “one’s perception”. Then everyone packed their gear and went back to their separate lives. I will say this album will challenge me cause the two songs I find most difficult to sing are both on it, so guess I’ll have to really work extra hard.

Democratic decisions

2010-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

When SoundMonster makes decisions we strive to do things either in total agreement or we compromise. The band is not one person, and we all want every member to feel they have a voice within the group. Some people have strengths in particular areas so at times one band member will just agree cause it’s not something that they may do well at, others will want their voice and opinion heard so we do our best to make everyone feel they are apart of the decision making.

The bands name was a decision we all agreed to, the CD art is something we are all working on as a group we may not all get what we want but we are contributing to what will be the final idea. Then there comes to what will be the hardest part choosing the songs we will add to the bands first LP.

Now I admit there are a lot of blogs on here to read, if anybody has taken the time, and I admit I would be impressed if someone out there actually did read from the beginning of this blog about the ideas and goals this band SoundMonster had. They would see those goals have changed quite a bit, the original idea was to start out our first CD with the song, “song one”, because it was our very first song we ever made. Then after it was to medley into the song “better than fiction”, we were also going to take every song we made which was to be capped at twenty and make a full double album. So through the blog of our band we have evolved as a group and changed a lot of our choices. The idea of making of “song one” as our first song on the CD wasn’t popular among the guys in the band anymore. The reason was because we had better songs to showcase. We were going to make a double LP, then make a single LP for hopefully fans and radio play, and for ourselves the double LP, but that was going to take us into late 2011 if we did that. So, we decided to just stick with the single CD idea.

We were ready to make our first CD, the CD art was being made for us, we had more than enough material for the album and now it’s time to do this. Back in my Pious days we didn’t have nearly as many songs to pick from, there wasn’t as much creativity going on like SoundMonster has. The band was moving so fast we didn’t even discuss the LP name or CD art, it was given to a professional and we got the CD back as a self titled debut. I admit the CD art was sweet, and the band poster pretty cool, but it wasn’t a band getting together and making decisions, with SoundMonster we all wanted to make sure everybody has a voice.

So the guys sat at a table everybody pulled out their list, we were all supposed to have twelve songs chosen and the goal was to get a twelve song CD, if necessary we would add two more to make it fourteen. I admit there’s a lot of songs we like and in the end I was stunned to see what made the list and what didn’t.

Some songs I think need twinking but will make great second album songs, or even third. As a band we have a lot of material and choosing the final twelve wasn’t easy. So, we read of the choices and the one’s we all agreed on would be guaranteed songs so there were five we all put down. One was a fun funk tune called “too cool for the funk”, the next was our song that hit 27th on the pop charts “full circle”, the next is a deep passionate ballad with a rock edge called “good year”, the next is a sing-a-long tune that really stands out called “the catch”, and a song that finished 50th spot in the punk charts “time running out”. From there any songs that were chosen by three of us were next those songs were a lyrically power ballad called “irreversible”, and two metal tunes one called “in your head”, and “kingdom of whispers”. There were four spots left to make twelve so we each picked one, at this time there were songs I thought for sure were going to be chosen. They weren’t and because of that the second album I think will be just as amazing or better. We rolled dice to see who would go in order and Ivan would go first. t Ivan thought the “song one” idea would still be a good concept, and it would, the song is catchy and fun but to me there’s better to choose. Ivan must have agreed because he would go with the song “better than fiction”, Trevor would be next, I thought he was going to pick his favorite tune “one’s perception” he instead went with Ivan’s favorite “just one day”. Then it was my turn I am thinking in my head that “I met a girl would be different sound for the album, but “waiting for tonight” is a crowd pleaser so I went with “waiting for tonight”. It was Scott’s turn last and when I thought he was going to pick “headache with headlights” he did a 180 and picked “I met a girl”. All I said was, “wow!”

Singing in the studio

2010-06-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

As a band SoundMonster so far in 2010, hasn’t had the same amount of time to practice our songs as they did in 2009, because there has been so many things to do. Most of our time has been working to improve our sound in recordings and new material. With me going back to school my involvement with the band really hit a wall for the winter, now in the spring I’ve been in my practice and the school part has been completed I have been able to show up more times then less. Ivan with his work has had to meet on different days, so he mostly has been involved in recording songs. Trevor living the closest to Scott, has been able to spend multiple days recording new material, and spruce up current songs.

On this day I got off work and due to the change over from me going from mornings to evening shift, I could come down to the studio to sing my parts on two new pre-recorded songs. The songs I was to sing were “Hello”, and “What do we do now” The guitar and drum parts were up to this point finished and it was my turn to put a voice to the music. Hello went pretty fast, the song was originally made back in November of 2009, so though it’s a new recording I’ve sang the song many times in practice and very comfortable with the song.

I am usually pretty anal on my parts, and like to redo areas because I am never satisfied with my results. Yet, when I sang “Hello” I really liked the job I did, so I am a bit nervous, I usually say that and then listen to the tune and find tons of parts that need fixing. Guess time will tell.

The next song I sang to “What do we do now” is a cute tune, not sure what will become of it, it does expand on our sound and it’s an example of trying new things. I like the vocal ending I do in each chorus, Scott and I experimented on it and I think we came up with some cool ideas.

So I think after getting those two tunes done, songs with vocals that are pre-recorded now stand at twenty-six. In total there are thirty-four songs we have done, so there is still a small amount of songs to get down and it never stops growing on the side I have around four to six songs I haven’t even shown all the guys yet. I know Trevor has some material he’s been working on, and there’s a bunch of new jam material I haven’t even heard yet. So in total there’s probably about at least ten songs that we haven’t even shown each other. It’s cool though we all want to improve our sound and of course making more music will always do that.

So it’s getting closer to May, and in the month of May I graduate from school and get back to the working world. So, I won’t be available like I was last summer, but I’ll still be more available then I was this winter with classes five days a week. So, things will be changing up again in the band hopefully for the better, having four people with lives outside the band it’s not always easy to get together to get things done, even though it’s for fun we also want to progress with it.

Watching other guys I know in bands pushing out CD’s having websites, and touring, I felt we were holding ourselves unnecessarily back. At this point the guys have been together close to a year and to show for it we have tons and I mean tons of recordings live and in studio of songs. We have come along way, a lot of the early material has been through the mill and really sound a lot better, and the new material is expanding our sound to new complex styles, it’s good times to be in the band. Still, I felt why are we waiting to finish up the thirty-four songs in recording when most of our music if not all that will be on the first album is done. I admit some songs still need tweaking but that can still be done in practice and recording. I spoke to Scott about this after our recording session and he agreed, so the next task in our next meeting which was in three days, try and get the song list for our first album officially done.

New music on the page

2010-06-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

To measure the response from SoundMonster’s new song, the band puts up the tune “Full Circle”, and finishes at 27th spot, out of 800 bands from around the world. It felt pretty good the guys really saw with effort and work we are able to make small achievements matter. The question was adding Full Circle to the fan page on facebook there were already a number of songs up. At this time “Time Running Out”, “Waiting for Tonight”, “The Catch”, and “Headache with Headlights” were the songs up for anyone to listen to. It was time to change up what we had on the page, the guys for the last five month had been working mostly in the studio and there were a number of songs recorded and the popular thought was get music up and show what we have been doing all this time.

So, I came up with the idea to make a poll to see out of the four songs up on the page which one is the majority favorite. The new would pull all of the songs down except for the poll winner, and we would add “”Full Circle” to the song list so there would be two songs up for people to hear.

Like anything unless you promote it, it doesn’t work and after the poll was done people weren’t doing it, it took some informing and coaching, but after awhile a group did fill out the poll to give the band a little insight with what we had which songs were liked more than others. In the end the poll went

WINNER: The Catch
2nd place: Tied with Headache with Headlights
and Waiting for Tonight
Last place: Time Running Out

Again its all one’s perception Time Running Out before “Full Circle” was the bands most successful song on an international website finishing in the Top 50, yet in this poll finished dead last. I did kinda think though that “The Catch” would win the poll because it’s a sing-a-long tune that’s easy to listen to.

With the poll making “The Catch” the clear winner all the other songs were taken down and “Full Circle” would be added to the page. It was nice to have a clear new slate of sound to start to be added to the page. The goal was to expose new music having a ton of songs on a fan page can be overwhelming, so we wanted to make it as simple as possible.

In a couple weeks members in the band then wanted to add another song to the fan page called “Our Love is Alive” I admit I wasn’t too keen on adding this tune to the page. Not because I didn’t like it. It’s a cute little country, pop, rock song, but it’s by far our best work. The guys felt it would give another side of our sound, and show people the different styles of sound we play. So, I set up the song and put it up on the page as requested.

In retrospect the song isn’t strong enough to make it to the album, but nonetheless the guys are right it does show whoever chooses to listen to it, a cute short song. The tune won’t move mountains but it does give something you don’t hear very often.

So the fan page has new music up, the band is also at the same time getting some of our newer tunes recorded as demos, and the guys start to talk about the plans for the summer, and how we are going to start the recording process for our CD.

Measuring Music

2010-06-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

How does one measure music, there’s so much out there, it’s not hard to find a solo artist, or a band out trying to get people to pay attention to their music. I admit some of the bands out there are really good, some sound like existing million dollar acts, and others well not so much. I certainly don’t put us on a pedestal, we have our good points and bad. When I and others in the band look at our tunes I admit we see it different because its personal to us. We understand the road we took to get to this tune, the work involved, and as Ivan told us once our songs are our children. It is true you treat them this a lot of care, so how does one truly measure one’s own music? It makes sense others would have to hear it and see how they react to it.

This process can be at times a very good measuring stick, and I admit not always friends and family can be supportive to the point they support the person behind the sounds and like the music do to who’s playing it. Then again the music industry is full of artists that have great following because of their look appeal. That’s not a problem for our act, we aren’t going exactly the eye candy that will drive people to follow our sound. Still we have music I believe has an appeal, and we are doing it for fun so there’s really nothing to lose.

At this time in our band we were still getting songs pre-recorded and the song “Full Circle” was finished we got all the parts done and had been mixed at least four or five times. When I heard it, it was amazing, the beat, groove, sound, everything to me kept my attention. When we first recorded it because it’s a dance tune and so repetitive I mentioned we are really going to have to change up the song consistently every couple bars or the viewer will get bored pretty quick. That mission was accomplished Trevor and Scott pulled off some amazing ideas with guitar and keys.

Now that we had this song we agreed as a band to put it up on the fan page, I also thought to get the best measuring stick on how the song is received we need a panel of some sort to grade the tune. We aren’t playing live yet so we don’t have a lot of feedback expect for what friends and family are saying about the song. At the time it was well received, so it dawned on me put it on OurStage.com. We had used this website before on several tunes, some did ok others not do hot, our best song to date on that site would have been “Time Running Out” a song we put on the Punk Charts and out of around 260 songs we finished for the month at 50th spot. The Catch out of around 250 songs finished for the month at 51st spot just outside of the Top 50. A lot of the voters are musicians which are a tough group to impress because they make songs themselves and have a certain style they enjoy.

So I put the song “Full Circle” in one of the most competitive categories on the site the Pop Charts. The band agreed to put one of our songs on the Pop Charts before, it was the song “Waiting for Tonight”. Though we had a really good response from this tune, it did nothing on OurStage.com. So, I wasn’t sure how “Full Circle” would compare. This popular Chart usually has a lot more entries, when we put “Waiting for Tonight”” in this competition there were around 350 songs, this time there were 800. I was surprised to see so many songs competing but its one way to see how the song does, when it’s put head to head with other artists work from around the world.

So, the song was entered, and in a week the song rose from the bottom to around the 300 position and then by week two hit 32nd spot, finishing at 35th. I was pretty stunned the band was really taken back as well, there were a lot of good songs and bands who had been signed or on the verge that we were rubbing shoulders with. By week three the song moved up and down but stayed around the 31st to 35th mark, then by week four moved up to 27th spot. So out of 800 bands SoundMonster’s song Full Circle missed the Top 20 by 7 songs finishing at 27th place.

Its not the end to be all, but to see the song have some sort of success on a international music site, really helped the band measure the songs we are creating, and we hope to further our success in songwriting.

Rock videos Part two

2010-06-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Rock Videos are technically used to promote the music in a different medium to gain a larger audience, then just going on a stage somewhere. What would just be seen in a local theater is now shown on television sets around the world, in different countries, it’s a powerful tool to promote a music group. The question becomes what is the rock video really promoting?

Music touches the human senses more than any other kind of stimulant, it uses more parts of the brain at the same time then talking, or seeing. So if you have a hit song you’re really moving something powerful into someone’s soul. The video is supposed to be the blueprint of what the music is trying to say, to give a visual feeling. The debate is how much influence does the video have over the music. I would have to say it’s taken a leap too far, I say that cause in many videos they have nothing to do with the intention of the song itself. A person can sing about walking on a tightrope, which can be a metaphor for fear of losing control and falling, yet the video is more focused on cleavage and thighs, while the singer and seducing the camera. What does the viewer think about? Is the message of the song really being advertised, no.

I think in these situations why sing about substance just keep repeating the same words in a harmony cause in the end what’s going on in the video is more appealing then anything the song has to offer.

I’m not saying image never has mattered because that’s wrong, rock bands since the beginning have had attractive musicians. Still there are artists that have left their legacy in the rock world, who wouldn't have never got off the seedy bar stage in this day and age, because they didn't have the right good look. It makes you think. The popular phrase rock video has killed the radio star is true. To perform in the music world one must look like an actor.

Then we have to go a stage further did the video kill the rock star, this is a more complex debate, but I believe it has. I’m not saying the rock video doesn’t hold value, the rock video is a cool medium to use, as long as it doesn’t compromise the point of the song. When the video changes how a band should dress, or it starts to make every band look the same, its just as bad as having every band sound the same. I say what’s the point?

The rock star was a voice, it was more than an image it was a revolution, like a politician that said vote for us we are worth it, and he or she would cheer lead the audience to vote for them and celebrate with the music. I see the video taking that image and flushing it down the toilet cause its become old hat now. That voice exists but not as many listen, it seems the visuals of sex and image with dance and seduction is what moves the masses, the camera has become the rock star.

My hope is for rock bands to take the lens and use it to get the point across in new ways, everything has been done, there’s no more new rock sounds to make. There are always new ways to express what songs mean, if the lens of a camera is the new rock star then I hope in the future that bands use the Rock Video to take back what is the most important part of the video, the sound. My dream is to see the music video not become the most important medium, but act as a powerful tool to promote the sound, like the radio. I’d love to see bands push the boundaries of film and use pictures of life, news stories, images of reality, and get the messages out there. I still believe the rock video can be used to promote the sound and not the image, maybe one day it will happen.

Rock Videos

2010-06-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

The rock video has become a powerful force within the world of music in the last thirty years, and what was once considered a new expression of sound has in many ways taken over that role, and while for others its been a powerful tool, for some its also been the kiss of death. In this blog I am not so much as talking about SoundMonster cause at the moment we have no videos, though it has been discussed, its more of my private views what I think of the rock video in general. My views may not be necessarily agreed upon within the entire band, so I’m not exactly speaking for SoundMonster, but I know in several conversations with the group on rock videos we have come to many agreements on this topic.

Some think the rock video concept started with new emerging bands in the late seventies and early eighties as a new medium to promote music visually, and with old and new acts all embracing this new form of sound, eventually programs started mostly on access channels, until the channels MTV was formed in the USA and MuchMusic in Canada to give twenty-four exposure to western culture youth of visual music. The truth is since the 1960’s groups like The Beatles, The Who, and The Beach Boys have used the rock video concept to promote their music, mostly to avoid long travels to countries to promote their music live. Bands in those days had to perform live on television programs, and play live, on a continual basis. Prime time programming was very popular around the world and live performances was part of that package. To get a break from consistent performing, bands would submit a video of footage of themselves playing the song. In many cases the band would do some sort of acting, and role playing nothing major, but enough to give the viewer something to view and enjoy. This would continue into the seventies with groups like ABBA who only toured the United States and Canada once in their careers.

When the rock video gained momentum in the eighties, it changed music, how it was marketed and how the public viewed the performer. Look at the rock bands of the seventies compared to the eighties for example. In the pop world sex and looks mattered because that kind of music was still just as important visually, there wasn’t a video to promote the image, but photos still did. Magazines would be covered promoting the latest pop craze. In the rock world it was different rock bands weren’t the images you saw on Teen Beat magazine it was a different expression of sound. Many fans of the bands didn’t even know what the group members looked like. When you see the members most just had long hair with beards and moustaches, personally I think that’s a real cool rock look. These guys weren’t pretty boys they just had a look that expressed their devotion to sound. In the eighties the rock bands image is very much like the pop groups that paraded the teen magazine shelves in the seventies. Good looking guys that are very photogenic, cause in order for the rock video to work, its like a movie you need good looking people to promote it.

Many artists like Christopher Cross a bigger guy who had great success in the late seventies with several songs had no hope in the new eighties generation, the rock video killed his career. Most people have never heard of his music, yet if he had come out ten years earlier most likely he would have been a household name.

Does the rock video really hold any value? I do. I know my introduction I gave of this visual medium was less than appealing, but any exposure in music has value. Still a video is a video, and if used too much the value of the song becomes less important that the video itself. I’ll go over that in the next blog tomorrow.

The set list

2010-06-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

So there we were all together for the first time in three and a half months playing a set list of material we all constructed together as a group. Some were songs that Ivan didn’t know so he had to be shown, some we played a couple times, others we knew pretty good and performed just in one shot. So, it wasn’t like we played fourteen straight like a concert, there was a lot of teaching and ideas going around to improve on parts. Personally I thought some our best songs of the night were our harder rock tunes like “Hello”, “In Your Head” and “Headache with Headlights”. We have been evolving songs and I loved “Just One Day” it is starting to rock out, and become more interesting, not saying it wasn’t before, just that it’s starting to really fill up.

Other songs I thought did pretty good that aren’t as heavy were “One’s Perception”, “Miss You”, and “Good Year”. So, half of our set list I thought really stood out to me, that’s not to say the other songs were poorly played or sounded terrible, just these songs I think had the most energy, and appealing to me.

The night was a lot of fun and for a group that hasn’t played together as a live act since late December I admit it sounded like it. We weren’t tight by a long shot, Ivan doesn’t know most of the songs in his head by memory, and was writing down a lot of the chords on paper. It had been awhile and I expected a lot of what was happening to happen. It wasn’t like a motley crew out there, we knew what we were doing, and we played some pretty cool stuff, but there was also a lot of rust on all our parts.

It was a good measuring stick for the guys to realize on their own time as they used to, it’s important to practice the material. Right after the jam Trevor and Ivan were taking home their equipment to work on our songs. With so much going on, to me the live show isn’t as necessary because we don’t have a proper set list, we have a giant amount of material and we need to weed out the twelve or possible fourteen songs, depends on what we agree on. From there we can then concentrate on those songs and get them tight. After our jam which lasted close to about three hours Trev went home, and after Ivan and I had a good talk. We don’t see much of each other, so we tend after a jam to shoot the shit for a good half hour or longer about the music, what we are going to do, and all that stuff.

Ivan is a good guy, he has a lot of passion for music and has a great ear for sound. He’s a pretty modest and humble guy that always takes the stance there’s always somebody better so he never gets cocky as a player. We talked about the game plan for the summer, he told me what he wants to do, and seems pretty committed to getting the songs down. He seemed to take the idea he had to learn like thirty one songs and counting and it was overwhelming for him. I told him that was pointless because only twelve to fourteen of those tunes will even be on the album or played live, so best to just focus on the prerecording then worry about the songs once we have decided them. The quicker the songs are all down, the quicker we move ahead with choosing our songs.

Ivan then seemed pretty dedicated to doing just that, as the rest of the group, it was good to play together, and spend some time getting the music out there again. We got to feel the energy see where we were, and make goals to get things done. I think in the set list a good portion of the tunes would be on the upcoming CD, only a couple I think won’t make the cut, so from what I heard I think we will for sure have some really cool energetic material to share out there, we’ll have to see what happens next. For a band that’s just about ten months old, I think we are way ahead of schedule, and since we altered our goals due to our progress I think we are right on pace where we wanted to be.

It's SoundMonster Monday

2010-06-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

It’s funny when people hear the band having a SoundMonster Monday, it probably means nothing, or they are a bit happy for us, but nothing like oh wow!! I wouldn’t expect it, but for the four of us it is something big. I’ve always seen SoundMonster as more of a live act, then a recording group. Yes we do enjoy recording music, but I don’t think the recording studio is able to grab what we do live as well. That’s always been the struggle, to make sure the energy we bring to our performance is captivated in a recorded song. With the extra hard work I think in several songs we have achieved that, and hope once we choose the twelve or fourteen tunes that it happens for the all the material.

The recording studio has taken up most of the bands time, and since I can’t be there to jam, recording has been pretty much what the guys have done. They have met up a couple times to jam or play material without me, but mostly they have been doing their parts in recorded songs. So, on this SoundMonster Monday me showing up was a big deal, cause it would be the first SoundMonster Monday since December 21st. It had been a long time since the guys got together and jammed out our songs like a live show.

The guys had been talking about doing a live show this summer maybe, it had always been in the windmill, but with all the recording being done, and focus towards the album, for awhile that talk had pretty much gone away. So, in a way this jam was to measure how well we would do. I didn’t have high expectations, because even back when we jammed every Monday not everybody knew their parts, or remembered the structure to songs. Trevor didn’t really have solo parts down, though I admit sometimes the songs were rocking there was a lot of miscues and mistakes happening all the time.

Before we got started I had to talk a bit of business with the guys, Scott just got a SoundMonster poster printed up and man does it does professional. If you go to the SoundMonster fan page on Facebook, the poster is right on there. I admit that poster is made for promoting shows, the one we did was made just for pleasure so the box where we write information was taken out. With the CD getting almost to a start, we needed to get the name of the album settled. I haven’t yet but I was going to ask Leon if he would do the artwork for our CD as well. So to do so I would need a title for the CD, I didn’t want to go with the self titled SoundMonster idea. So, for the past two months the guys well mostly Scott and Trevor, because that’s who I primarily see have talked it over. Ivan is an equal member of our act, and we needed to talk to him about it. So I told him we as a three like the title “Year of the Monster”. It originally was a title Scott came up with cause of the Chinese New Year concept of “Year of the Dragon”. We came up with other names like Uncaged, or Unleashed, but I think this name was the best one.

Ivan’s first language isn’t English so sometimes he doesn’t grasp what we are talking about as quick, and I think he had some difficulty understanding what we were trying to sell to him. At first he thought we were saying your, not year, then he thought we should name the title “Year of the SoundMonster”. We explained that in english that’s not a cool name, and then explained the reason behind the title, he seemed to grasp the concept of the Chinese new year idea right away, and agreed to the name. So the album will be “Year of the Monster”.

The guys started to get their gear set up, got our levels all done, and suddenly after three and a half months in the waiting the guys got together to pull out a set list, and performed fourteen songs

Mondays have meaning again

2010-06-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Every week the guys usually show up on their own time met with Scott at the studio, to do their parts in the recording process. Generally it starts by Scott laying down his tracks with Trevor there playing as a guide. Then Trevor gets down his parts when they are satisfied, then I come in generally to do my vocal parts, then last Ivan will finish it up. From there we add parts, or do retakes and then go on to the next song. So, the guys don’t always see each other as much, I definitely see Scott more than anybody else since the studio is Scott’s domain, Trevor usually will pop in to say hi when I’m there for a couple minutes to see how it’s all going. I don’t usually see Ivan unless we are doing something as a band like work on new material, because he generally comes on off days to do his bass parts.

As mentioned in the last blog “Into a new month” Ivan came down to record his bass parts on two songs, in that time listening to our material he mentioned how he missed playing live. Then Scott and Ivan got into a conversation about how they would love to just get on stage and do a show. Trevor jumped all over the idea, and it makes sense. I can remember back in the day with Pious, being in a band is all about the show. Why been in a band if you don’t play live. I always had that concept, the show is the greatest expression a band can do, it’s more meaningful then any recording cause it’s the experience of performance with others, and having an audience to listen.

There are good shows and bad, and you always hope the good always outweigh those poor performances. Still playing live is fun, and just the mentioning of it got the band all talking about getting together to play a set list of our material just to get the feeling of playing together again. All summer, and in most of the fall the guys weekly would meet up and perform our material, we call it SoundMonster Mondays. I wouldn’t say they were always productive, or showed our best performances. I will say sometimes they did, and he had at times really good sessions.

With pre-production the guys spend most of their time recording there efforts to songs, but as individuals not as a band, so getting together would be very exciting. The band talking about meeting up, sucked for me because though my classes in University are pretty much done, I still had seven more weeks of doing my practice. The good news was my instructor said don’t come to work on Tuesday you get an extra day off, so suddenly I had an extra day in the long weekend allowing me to join up and we could do another SoundMonster Monday as a full band.

So, I gave the news to the guys they got all excited and the date was set, I will admit I enjoyed the weekend I worked on new music ideas, rewrote an untitled song I did back in February, and yes it is still untitled, and restructured a song I made called Lost in Hope, and plan on redoing those vocals this upcoming weekend.

Before I knew it Monday had arrived, and it’s weird when I wasn’t with the guys Mondays just seemed to be what they, the crappiest day of the week, because it would mean another full week of work. Now it was the best day because I got to jam with the guys, and that magic feeling I would get every Monday in the summer was back. I got up and seriously I was like a little kid at Christmas time, it’s in these moments I realize how much I really enjoy working with those three guys. I wanted to hang with Scott and talk shop, so I text him if I could come by around 2pm, he responded by 12 noon saying sure. So, I hopped into my Jeep and drove down the endless highway to Surrey, and Scott and I hung out listened to music talked about new ideas, and waiting for 8pm to arrive.