Are you an artist or designer? Are one of your friends a ridiculous talent that's flying under the radar? Perhaps you have some existing art work that you feel would be a killer Band Shirt?
1st prize:
- Kuba Oms comes over to your house plays a private show in your living room for you and your friends. We will film it for prosterities sake and put it online.
- Your design is printed on T-shirts and Hoodies
- You receive signed CD's and Poster.
2nd Prize:
- Your design is printed on T-shirts and you receive a signed CD and Poster.
3rd Prize:
- Signed CD and Poster.
Contest closes Sept. 23rd.
*Merch to be unveiled at Kuba's concert Oct. 7th at The Red Room in Vancouver at Kuba's "Peak Performance Project" Showcase http://www.p3.fm
So if you are an artist or designer or one of your friends are, prepare something for us and email the jpeg to info@kubaoms.com
Our staff and street team at Digniti Records will select the winners and you'll be putting your whole crew together for an intimate party in your favourite living room with a couple bottles of wine and an intimate jam.
Show us your ART baby!!
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I've been at the Peak Performance Project band campfor a few days now and I'm very happy to say that I've made some fine new friends. To be honest, I'm a little surprised at the ridiculous amount of talent up here this year. Every single act is very, very good in their respective genre. The best emerging acts in the province are here and believe me, the talent pool in B.C. is off the charts.
Despite the fact this is a rock n roll camp, there are no ego-maniacs running amuck . The vibe up here is respectful, fun and most of all creative. Currently i'm at the Mac Station, a room equipped with over ten new iMac's with Logic Express and supported by Roland keyboards and converters. As i write this, we are on our lunch break and there are no less than four demo's being made in all corners of the room. Aiden Knight is singing sweet tenderness to my left while Said The Whale are buried in their headphones to my right. Acres of Lions are behind me screaming out a hit as is Behind Saphire who are dropping their quirky, original, coolness.
I've pretty much been the first one up and the last one to bed these first few days. I've been spending much of my twenty hour days in the studio, writing and recording with my colleagues and new friends. The other night I had the blessing to work with two legendary producers at the same time! Warne Livesay, who originally hails from the U.K, and has produced everyone from Midnight Oil to Matthew Good Band and GGGarth Richardson, who hails from the planet Pluto, and has worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine among many others. I expect they'll now put in their bio's that they've worked with Kuba Oms now. Haha! I figure I'll sleep after my show this Sunday at the Live At Squamish Festival. There are simply too many opportunities to create that sleeping is simply not a priority. Off to practice as I am playing my showcase tomorrow solo. Just me and my acoustic guitar.
CBC Radio 3' Grant Lawrence sat us down and spoke to us about live performance. Many people may not know this, but Grant fronted one of the Legendary touring garage bands in Vancouver's storied history, The Smugglers. He had many interesting things to say, none more relevant and pertinent than the issue of pounding alcohol before and during a show. You see, there have been several boys at band camp going through various phases of alcohol withdrawal after these first two days away from the city. I even had to pull a bottle of Listerine out of one chap's shaking hands;)
The forthcoming seminars have a lot to live up to after the 2 three hour lectures by The Smuggler. It's not unlike going on stage after his band circa '87:
Well, I woke bright and early at 5:30 am to catch the ferry from Victoria and head to beautiful Princeton, BC for my second Band Camp. It's quite a scene up here. So many creative folks and the setting is simply spectacular. The artists are about to square off against the faculty in a game of road hockey. Haha! Last year we wiped them out, but this year I see a lot more skinny indie kids... so we might have our hands full;)
We're making a point of promoting 100.5 The Peak FM as it's important that they become a more and more prominent radio station in Vancouver. You see, if The Peak is doing healthy business then they will well... stay in business This means The Peak Performance Project continues for 5 more years all the emerging acts in B.C should feel blessed to have this shining light in what can be a challenging music business.
If you're interested in what's going down up here, our team will be posting a series of video's beginning later this evening.
Are you an artist or designer? Are one of your friends a ridiculous talent that's flying under the radar? Perhaps you have some existing art work that you feel would be a killer Band Shirt?
1st prize:
- Kuba Oms comes over to your house plays a private show in your living room for you and your friends. We will film it for prosterities sake and put it online.
- Your design is printed on T-shirts and Hoodies
- You receive signed CD's and Poster.
2nd Prize:
- Your design is printed on T-shirts and you receive a signed CD and Poster.
3rd Prize:
- Signed CD and Poster.
Contest closes Sept. 23rd.
*Merch to be unveiled at Kuba's concert Oct. 7th at The Red Room in Vancouver at Kuba's "Peak Performance Project" Showcase http://www.p3.fm
So if you are an artist or designer or one of your friends are, prepare something for us and email the jpeg to info@kubaoms.com
Our staff and street team at Digniti Records will select the winners and you'll be putting your whole crew together for an intimate party in your favourite living room with a couple bottles of wine and an intimate jam.
Show us your ART baby!!
Share this on your Facebook wall or Tweet by clicking the icons below:
In March, 2010 I played a show in Montreal with Grammy winning rapper COMMON. He and his crew are amazing people. We raised a bucket load of much needed cash for the the Israel Cancer Research Fund.
I was hanging out at the hotel bar with COMMON after the show and he mentioned that his new album was being produced by Kanye West and No I.D. and was coming out soon, after the theatrical release of his new film, Just Wright.
Me and my producer colleague, Earl Lee Bird, proceeded to produce a track for consideration for the forthcoming album. It's called Summertime and well, it's pretty hooky I must say. Hopefully it suits the overall vibe and makes it on the new record.
My new friend, Nejeed Kasaam, is preparing to release his new book entitled High On Life: Stories of Hope, Change and Leadership.
We are very happy to support this important project. "Piece De Resistance" is being used as the song for this promotional Youtube video. Among other things, Nejeed started End Poverty Now. A massive movement with a global reach.
His High On Life book launch party: August 12th 7pm at The Coffee Shop - 2305 West 41st Avenue Vancouver. Buy a book baby!
I've been staying with my boy Mitchell, who owns Green Truck. It's an all organic catering truck that's even powered by bio diesel: vegetable oil. His warehouse is even solar powered. I rolled to work with him for a couple of days, talk about a walking reality show, this cat is a total character! We've found ourselves in some interesting predicaments. But one thing is constant, there's always an acoustic guitar nearby to get s out of a jam (no pun intended;)!
A former supermodel whose saving the world one meal at a time.
We'll be posting some behind the scenes footage soon...
Los Angeles has been a blast! We shot the video on Thursday with award winning director, Steven Goldmann at the helm. He's a total dude and directed us very well. We had several directors who provided excellent treatments, but when I went through Steven's reel and watched clips of his BBC documentary on Bruce Springsteen, I was sold. He shot, directed and cut the piece for BBC. He's also done music videos for several multi-platinum acts. We were in excellent hands to say the least.
It was a blast hitting several key L.A. area locations such as Venice beach, Hollywood and the beautiful bluffs of Point Dume, Mailbu.
We had an absolute ball at the inaugural Tall Tree Music Festival. Props and congrats to the organizers for selling out a peaceful groovy festival in their first year in!
Our set was in the glorious afternoon sunshine above a cliff overlooking the ocean. The night before I was walking to to my tent, I heard an angel singing in the darkness. I stumbled upon an acoustic jam at a campsite with some great players. After jamming for an hour with my new friends, I asked one of the stand-out players if she wanted get on stage to sing a song with us the following day. There was a pause and then said yes and everyone cheered. Her name is Laura Mitic and she's something else (see photo). Around 30 people were circled around for the jam... but, the coolest part was hearing all applause after each song from many tents surrounding the area where we thought people were sleeping.
A few songs later I felt that I had to also ask Pat to play. He he's such a cool dude and a hell of a singer/guitarist.
The two of them sat in with the band and blew the roof of the tent!
It was nice to meet many of the bands and hobnob with the industry folks that rolled down.
So many lovely and talented people. I was disappointed that I missed the entertainment that night as I dig the bands that played. One of my colleagues got kicked out for not having her ID with her, so I decided to go with her as she was there supporting the project.
Music BC flew in Tom Jackson, the world's only 'live music producer', to do some mentoring in a seminar setting.
Wow! What a passionate man! He delivered a 3 1/2 hour presentation with such gusto... it was very interesting. Check out the link to one of his videos below:
We're excited to participate in the Peak Performance Project this year. We're particularly excited to see such a large contingency of bands/artists from our home town of Victoria. Congrats to all the top 20. And to those who are disappointed that you didn't get in, next year comes around real fast, so keep writing, recording and playing live. This'll set you up for next year!
I played my first solo show on Wednesday in the Whistler Athletes Village, which incidentally has the highest security in the whole Olympics. It was a real treat to meander around the grounds with the athletes. In this crazy, unpredictable world we live in, this is probably the safest place on earth right now.
There are some very cool uniforms and tracksuits. My favourite thus far has to be the American teams’ white vests made by Ralph Lauren as seen by the American Luger Team above. France’s coats are pretty sick as well.
I have a few concerts specifically for the athletes where I hope to inspire them to perform at their best. This first concert, I was scheduled to play as the IOC and International Media toured the village. At around 2:30 pm, 160 of the Int’l media came swarming in like bumble bees. I‘ve got to confess that this was massive exposure. I’ve never seen so many TV cameras and journalists in one place at one time.
The IOC distributed 7000 condoms in the village and they’re already gone. I thought athletes were supposed to save their chi until after their event is over. It dawned on me, that after their events are finished, they’re all going to want to “share their chi.”
Our prayers go out to the family of the Georgian Luger who tragically passed away today.
I'm writing this from my room in The Standard Hotel in L.A right now reflecting on the past few months.
I returned from tour in June fresh off a showcase at Toronto's NXNE where we secured our distribution with Warner. I was very unhappy with my performance as I didn't prepare properly and my guitar was inadvertently left at the hotel! I was lucky as the cat from Mother Mother loaned me his acoustic and we did well enough to impress. I actually thought the guitar may have been stolen at the time, it threw my groove off. The band witnessed how hard on myself I can be over the proceeding 24 hours. I was ultra pissed. You bring the band all the way across Canada only to find yourself behaving in less than professional manner. It's not like me. Sometimes you need something like this to happen to really help you focus. I'm pleased to say we've been on our game ever since... big time;)
After this 'successful' trip, we returned to find out we had been selected as one of 20 emerging artists in The Peak Performance Project. The timing couldn't have been better. With the incentive of 150k to market and tour the new record, I dug in deep on this new and unprecedented initiative that is funded by the hip new Vancouver radio station 100.5 The Peak.
One of the rules of the PPP was that we had to attend a 1 week long 'boot camp' in the interior of B.C. I rebranded it through a series of video blogs as 'band camp', because quite simply that what it was. It was a bunch of musicians goofing around at a high end camp with bunk beds and the whole deal. The PPP brought in mentors to teach us the in's and out's of the game. This was good for me as the music industry has been in a state of flux for some time now, and it's gearing up to rise from the ashes.
The criteria for the contest judging placed the most emphasis on the live performance element. This was a good thing for us. It then challenged us to develop our online marketing and over presence. This is how the industry is making it's come back. The world has changed and the power of traditional print like newspapers and television are diminishing by the day. Everything is going online.
Whoops, I've got to go. Here's the point and mark my words!
The eyes of Canada will soon be on B.C and very possibly the eyes of the world. The PPP's faculty, in their inaugural first year, had the ability to adapt and any adaptations were always with the artists in mind. The guidance and friendly competition pushed the artists to build their respective brands exponentially over a mere 3 to 4 months. Guys like me are just warming up. The PPP is the best thing to EVER happen to the music community B.C.
The Commodore is the bomb! I love playing there. As a singer, you really appreciate a room like this. My voice fills the room and I can do whatever I'm feeling with non of the constraints that you often find in a small club. They have the best stage sound and front of house sound that you'll find anywhere in the world. This is testament to the crew. Awesome.
I played the first half of the set solo acoustic, beginning with "Beautiful Uncertainty" with all the lights down except for a spotlight on me. Troubadour stylings. The audience was exceptional. They were so into it and open to hearing a new artist. Check out these blogs, "Stomping on Eggshells", Malicious Mandy's Mind. I felt comfortable up there in my new suit... I recommend all you boys get a suit custom made for you;)
Half way through the set we to ripped it as a trio. It was a cool way to close. The light's came up just as the boys hit their first notes and we dropped into a disco version of This Heaven (Velvet Mix). We proceeded to sell out of our CD's and it was nice to meet so many lovely folks during the autograph session afterwards. I've never had so many compliments on my hair. I guess it's a good thing I stopped cutting it myself;)
I hung backstage with Sam Bradley, who came on next. Cool cat with a cool band. Really nice people. Over my years playing music, when you meet kind people you enjoy their music so much more. And if someone is a dick, you tend to hear their music in in a different light.
Justin is as cool as you get. He is that "special something" that is still discovering himself. Stay tuned. Justin Nozuka will eventually sell out Thundebird Stadium. His humility will guide him.
Shot some photo's yesterday at a sick loft/studio in Vancouver. Thanks to Gordan Dumka, the top photographer in the country for hooking a brother up. He's so good he can even make me look alright. We even had a stylist... I know, l know, I should be able to dress myself. I'm just not a shopper. I find it a little boring going through the racks and checking sizes. I'd rather be at the beach. Kelly, you're a sweetheart. She pulled clothes from Boys' Co. and I just chilled in the back with a coffee saying "nah", "too Euro" "sure, I'll try that", "oooh, that's cool", "are you crazy lady?!" Overall it's a great store with really helpful, friendly staff. Photo's will be posted tomorrow;)
Along my personal journey I've found several things that help me to stay in the present moment. None more profound than music. Playing and writing music is the closest thing I've found to to being totally present. When you're in the music, you're nowhere else. You're mind is off and you just are. Any surprise I'm a big fan of Eckhart Tolle? For me it's a place of bliss. I've played music for my whole adult life and and I feel very blessed to do this for a living. But you don't have to do this for a living in order to play! Just play. Don't play to be a rock star... just play man! I recommend to everyone to pick up a guitar, to sing and play that piano at your mom's house. Play the drums man, I know you want to;)
It doesn't matter if you sing out of key (although it's always good to know when you're out of key folks;) It's expressing yourself. So crank the tunes in your car and let it rip baby! Try to sing those harmonies. Have fun with it. After all, music is fun! It's international language of communication baby! AndI love it;)
I must say that these past few months have been quite a learning experience. It's been fun to learn so much in such a short period of time. I've been blessed to work with a lot of my friends and many new friends, particularly the interns who have gotten on board over the duration of The Peak Performance Project.Everyone has operated as professionals, following through with everything they say they're going to do... and then some. I'm pleased to say that every one of us is stepping up the plate as the buzz on record continues to grow. The press has been enormously supportive of us on our quest. It's nice to have our local radio stations, 100.3 The Q, playing us in addition to The Peak, The Shore, CBC Galaxie Rock, CBC Radio 2, Virgin 95.3 among others. Putting the package together has also been fun.
Monday is your last chance to vote for us. Please do so before midnight. xoxo
Since rock n roll and folk music's early beginnings it was common place for artists to do covers of their peers. Dylan, Hendrix, The Byrds, The Stones, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder.... Somewhere along the way it seems musicians just stopped doing it.
Pearl Jam or Jack Johnson will do a cover, but it's often something from a whole other era. So when we were asked to perform a classic Canadian cover and "make it our own" for the Peak Performance Project, the band and myself selected a k-os song. The first time I heard the track, I was taken aback. It was in my mind, an instant classic. The way Kheaven sings the chorus is so natural and soulful. The Lyric, "The Man I Used To Be" resonates deeply with me. We decided to take it into a dance-rock territory ~ Velvet style. Three part harmony, shots and a quasi disco-house beat. It's fun playing covers. I haven't done it for years as we were writing to build our repetoire. But now I'm excited to delve into great songs of the past. It's a great way to learn and further oneself as a musician and writer. Next up ~ Purple Rain.
We are excited to announce that we're playing with Justin Nozuka at Vancouver's legendary Commodore Ballroom on Saturday, December 5th (9pm Sharp).
He's a young cat but has the voice of old soul. He plays a blend of soul, blues and even a little pop. He kind reminds me of Paolo Nutini in that they're both so young and write cool songs with the ability to really tell a story. And of course the ladies dig them. He comes across as a cool and humble dude, even as he's blowing up in the U.K. I'm pumped to also play with Sam Bradley on the bill.gGet your tickets early for this one folks. elements of neo-soul, folk, old-time blues and pop, Justin has the guts of Ray LaMontagne and the soul of Lauryn Hill.
This guitar slinging aficionado has the street smarts of an urban swinger and the heart-bending soul of a gospel preacher, and is adept at blending a dark, bluesy Americana vibe with warm, acoustic soul where bits of old folk music and flamenco tunes swirl in and out of earshot.
Welcome to all the new fans from the Lights/Jets Overhead show at Kool Haus tonight. Thanks to our Toronto street team for flyering and postering the show. If anyone would like to join our street team, please email us at info@kubaoms.com
I hear the show was smoking hot! We dig those bands. We truly hope you enjoy this free download of the new "How Much Time" record. Please forward our website to everyone so all friends can enjoy the free album. The offer ends on Monday. Love you.
I just returned from the movie theatre and I'm feeling very smiley that my friend Maria has turned me on to yet another inspirational treasure. This was her third time to see this film, so I had to see what what the deal was.
Every musician and performer... in fact everyone should see this film. It's a behind the scenes look at Michael Jackson and his hand picked artistic team rehearsing for the big 50 date London extravaganza,This Is It.
They're a mere six days away from actual dress rehearsals. His game is on, but his strength is suspect. He knows that they're not quite ready, but he also knows the journey will take them home. He and long time confidante/director, Kenny Ortega work well together. Ortega acts as the trigger man to keep things moving forward while always ensuring that it's through Michaels eyes.
This is MJ as you've never seen him. He's vulnerable. Not the reclusive, weird vulnerability we've seen when he's faced the scrutiny of the media and or the flashing lights of the paparazzi, but a different kind of vulnerability. He's vulnerable as a singer and a dancer. He's obviously in poor physical health but his spirit is shining. He knows his voice won't hold up if he goes all out for weeks of rehearsal, so he goes half way for much of it. When in his element, he's the opposite of 'whacko". He's a musical genius.
What a dancer. What a singer. What a star.
He shows the humanity and imperfection that goes into the making of something great. He demands the very best from his collaborators while staying very humble and genuinely kind.
The musicians are totally connected to his groove and rhythm as they nail all the breaks and shots to accentuate his sick dance moves. The dancers are like little extensions of a young Michael. The "it factor" is everywhere.
After watching this film I realize that we're really going to miss the gloved one. I just wish Michaels concerts were as intimate and underproduced as these rehearsals. I think we all would have liked to have known him better.
Wow, we've had such brilliant Fall thus far, it was bound to come to a conclusion sometime... here comes the rain.
I find this time of year is my most productive as a writer. I lock down and woodshed with some tea, warm slippers, an acoustic guitar, a big pad of yellow loose leaf paper and some sort of recording device so as not to lose any stontaneous idea's.
It's so nice to be able to lock down in such a civilized manner (and healthy!), rather than my old technique of getting loaded and a little crazed.
Yes it is flu season and I'm far to busy to catch any bug. Here are some of my tricks to keep rockin' in clubs, planes and buses:
VEGA: In the morning. It's an unbelievably healthy whole food health optimizer stacked with vitamins and minerals that are all plant based.
Superfood.
Gen Mai Cha Green Tea: Japanese green tea of 'harmony'. Japanese peasants would add roasted brown rice so as to squeeze more cups out of the same amount of tea. A recipe born out of poverty, it's it's now become uptown chic. Super food.
Niacin: A lot of peeps freak out when they get the 'niacin rush' and they turn red for a few minutes. personally, I kind of like it. It converts Carbs, proteins and fats into energy.
Oil Of Oregano: Anything that tastes this bad is going kill all those bugs;)
A. Vogel Sore Throat Spray: These flu's have a tendency to begin in your throat and this echinacea based super spray seems to have instant benefits.
Maca Sure: Podered organic Maca, grown and sustainably harvested in the hight Andean plateaus of Peru. Super food.
Your classic supplements of Bomplex B's, Probiotic, Multi's, Ester C/Scorbate, D's...
...and you can't go wrong with copious amounts of garlic.
We were honored to be selected as the emerging artist to play the "100 Days To Go" festivities in Whistler, B.C. for the 2010 Olympics.
We have a few Olympic shows booked thus far, I'm interested to see if the city is going to be ready for them. Their definitely pushing everything pretty close. This video is part two of two.
We were honored to be selected as the emerging artist to play the "100 Days To Go" festivities in Whistler, B.C. for the 2010 Olympics.
We have a few Olympic shows booked thus far, I'm interested to see if the city is going to be ready for them. Their definitely pushing everything pretty close. This video is part one of two.
We had a ball in Barcelona, Spain. Right after "band camp", myself and a couple of team members headed to Barca to meet with MTV Spain. We found ourselves in some precarious situations. I also found myself playing ball with the kids on more than one occasion:
Thank you for all the support so far! Just to keep you posted, I’ve been busy performing and making appearances in support of my soon to be released full length album “How Much Time.”
I make music to share with my family and friends…yes that includes YOU! I really need your help…
I’m currently in the Peak Performance Project competition. Basically it’s a competition for the top bands in British Columbia with $150,000 at stake. Now you may be asking yourself how you can help us win. Simple…
Please either click the banner above or click this link:
http://www.kubaoms.com/vote and vote for “Kuba Oms.” It’s simple and it takes about 30 seconds to register your vote.
Help keep us going financially so we can continue to make and perform music for YOU! Thank you! Love you all!
The Peak Performance Project is an initiative by 100.5 The Peak and Music B.C. to take 20 B.C. acts through a boot camp on the music business. The artists competed in, among other things, a media challenge to win a spot in The Sun to share their memories from the camp. The judges chose Victoria singer Kuba Oms.
By Kuba Oms
I will forever have fond memories of this past week spent at the Peak Performance Project’s band camp at Rockridge Canyon in the Interior. I knew that something brilliant was going to happen at the camp, I just had no idea what it was going to be. When I found out I was bunking with Wassabi Collective, I admit I was a little concerned. But it was brilliant — I gotta say, folks, these are the cleanest hippies on the planet!
Playing music is the closest thing I’ve found to pure consciousness. To utter stillness. To the now.
When one is inside of the song, time seems to stand still. It’s healing. I’ve played shows where my glands where I was feeling ill, swollen glands ~ the whole deal. By the end of the concert, I’m fine. Total stillness is the remedy. I encourage everyone to pick up a guitar or sit at a piano and sing. Sing baby sing.
I LOVE how diverse the AAA format is at that The Peak. The bands selected for the Peak Performance Project are indeed diverse. Genres range from prog rock, to ethereal, to dubby dance, to new soul, to rock n roll-soul, to indie-emo to singer-songwriter all the way to power-pop rock.
The bottom line is it’s about the songs. Songs. The common thread has to be that sense of depth and meaning. The depth that a real songsmith is capable of creating.
The world is obviously a very diverse place and a radio should reflect this. I don’t eat the same food every meal, or watch same type of films every time I catch a flick. I don’t wear the same clothes everyday (uh, maybe sometimes on the road;) I may, however, listen to the same radio station a lot if it’s bringing the goods.
With music being the international language of communication, it’s important that we be exposed to diversity.
Tonight we showcased our 20 minute set here at band camp. The boys (Jeff, Dal and Jase) came up this morning all the way from Victoria. I feel as though we played really well. Represented ourselves. The judges really dug the show and the songs. They COULDN’T STAND my short shorts. In a perfect world, everyone would love short shorts and my short shorts would get a pass. However the world is not perfect and the shorts ended up throwing them way off. Luckily there’s a stylist here, maybe she can help a brother out? The Left and Ben Sigston also played good sets. We Are The City really lit it up tonight, the large reverb in the room really lent itself to their gentle and innocent vocal delivery. I really dug their set.
This afternoon Grant Lawrence from CBC Radio 3 did a great seminar on dealing with radio, television and print media. It was a trip seeing him in this environment as I am used to seeing him singing and dancing with his old band The Smugglers. A great frontman he was! He is an excellent communicator and very knowledgeable about the whole business, particularly new media. We will be implementing many of his ideas to enhance our new media presence.
We found out that the Vancouver Sun is going to give extra support to the band with the best online presence. I guess we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing and hope that all the hard work is being noticed.
I find it interesting as I reflect on these first few days of camp. In Thursdays orientation speech by Music BC’s Bob D’eith, he mentioned that we are not being judged here at camp. That we’re here to learn what our weaknesses are and thus work on them. One of my weaknesses I’ve learned has been our online marketing and overall internet presence. We’ve begun addressing this issue through blogging (and video blogging) daily, and I’m quite enjoying it:) I look forward to the new media component coming up in camp so as to implement what I learn into our release plans.
The other thing Bob mentioned was that he hoped that we develop some sort of “community” through this experience at band camp.
Well, as of last night the community feeling is in full effect! There were jams and writing collabs happening throughout the residences and on the grounds. Freeflow and Ben Sigston teamed up to write as did We Are the City and Adrian Glynn. I wrote with the brilliant Dan from Bend Sinister and Adaline rocked with a couple other Sinister members. In all there were seventeen songs written last night! The majority of these being co-writes with people who had just met one another here at camp. Simon volunteered to film many of the sessions. A community vibration indeed. Props to mentors Dane and Don for putting the songwriting challenge out and encouraging collaborations.
Why has the community vibration taken affect? Well, to start, a wise man named Gerry Siemens from the 100.5 The Peak decided to give everyone $3500 for being at camp. This simmered any potential competitive instincts amongst the bands. Everyone has already won.
Another contributing factor to the communal feeling is there is absolutely no authoritative presence. No security. Nobody telling us what to do. We take care of ourselves. We look out for one another.
Everyday in the mess hall, we sit at a different table with different people and bitch that there’s no booze on site ~ no cliques.
Overall, I would have to say that the most compelling argument to our new found community feeling at band camp is that we all shower together. Once in the morning and once before bed.
At band camp it’s more apparent than ever the parallels between athletes and musicians. When I began music as a kid it seemed like most musicians got into the game to fit in as often they weren’t popular in school. Maybe even pick up some chicks along the way. They were the antithesis of the “jocks”. Here at camp, as soon as lunch is over , folks are out on the ball court, the ball hockey rink, the disc golf course, the pool, throwing the football… yes there all these activities and more here at band camp. I saw two guys dunk, a goalie that would rival Luongo … a cat even drained a disc golf putt from 50 meters. Why this is? Is it the the life long commitment and discipline is requires to be both a great athlete and a great musician? The discipline to practice day in and day out? The desire to be noticed? Well, whatever it is, everyone here is a good sport. It’s as if you had to be a nice person to get into this program.
Well, I haven’t bunked with a bunch of stinky boys since I was a teenager. Lot’s of farting and snoring … good times being had by all. We were up at 7:30 am for some grub and then there was a keynote speech by a very cool cat by the name of “Chief”. He spoke of different tactics being implemented by the U.S. major labels, primarily Universal Republic. He spoke of how the market has become a predominantly “singles” market, no folks, he wasn’t talking about online dating. Basically, nobody is really buying full length albums anymore, just singles. This “new” singles dominated industry just like the days of Motown. The main reason the industry is reverting is because albums in mainstream popular music are 1-3 singles deep and the rest of the tracks are fillers! People download music freely now…they can sample the entire album…they can’t be tricked into buying an entire album if 80% is filler garbage. We believe that people still buy albums if they’re complete solid albums from the first track to last track! An album should tell a story. Our goal with the forthcoming “How Much Time” release was NO filler tracks… Hopefully we’ve achieved our objective;) Uh, gotta go, about to write a song with my new friend Garrett! Stay cool everyone,
Love.
Kuba
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Weekly residency at Darcy's Pub. Every Wednesday
Sun. September 5th
Live at Squamish Festival Squamish BC more info ▶
By Kuba Oms
