A Sense Of Time

Evoss

[evoss]

New Chapter

Well, after almost three years as our bass player, Sean has unfortunately parted ways with Evoss. We’ve had some amazing gigs together but as he’s the only one of us that doesn’t live in Liverpool he can no longer commit the time needed to be an active member. It’s such a shame as the five of us get on so well, but we all respect his decision, and I wish him well in whatever he chooses to do next. He remains a great friend!

This feels like a new chapter for us and our search to replace him has been going on behind the scenes. We’ve had a few auditions but we wanted to find someone that we were sure will fit in to everything we’re doing in this band. We found him sooner than I thought we would. Andy Crawford joined us last week and we’re already well underway practicing for our first gig as soon as I get back from my two week holiday in Australia, a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long, long time.

In the mean time, the others will be very busy doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Our new EP featuring four tracks off our first album is all mixed, mastered and ready to go, compete with amazing new artwork and will be officially released on the 1st April. Our brand new website is currently being developed and will be ready to go live very soon. Plus, as we have a LOT of footage from the live shows we’ve played so far, I’ll be making a live music video for one of the other EP tracks in the next few months.

We’ll continue our promotion push for the band from all aspects of social media. Already, our Hourglass music video is doing very well, with over 700 views so far. So thank you to everyone who took the time to give it a watch.

On a completely separate note, Rob and I have spent the last year or so slowly making our very own short film. A thriller (hopefully) about the nature of human greed. It’s been a long process on and off as the band takes up a lot of our spare time, however, it’s very close to being finished, with just some small tweaks on the score to finalise, so lookout for it on my Facebook page very soon.

Carl

[evoss]

Tough Few Months

It’s been a strange and tough few months in the studio of late and this showed as the recording process started to grind to a holt. So, as nothing was happening, I decided to go visit the absolutely beautiful city of Prague for a few days and get some distance from it all. Which, for many reasons not just music related, turned out to be the best decision I’ve made in my life so far.

I think the reason being is that we were searching for perfection in everything, and to be honest, perfection doesn’t exist, especially when you’re recording and mixing an album yourselves on a minimum budget. That’s not to say these recordings don’t sound good. They do. Very good actually! And as soon as we’ve mastered it, the first EP containing 4 album tracks will soon be available to download, and you can all hear how good they sound for yourselves.

This EP should give everyone a taster of what to expect from the album when that finally gets released some time next year. On another note, this Sunday we’ll be shooting our first real music video. We’ve got some good strong ideas of how we want it to look and if all goes as expected, it should be a really cool video. Look out for some photos of the shoot on our Facebook page over the weekend.

Carl

[evoss]

Promo Shots

First of all, WE FINALLY HAVE SOME PROMO SHOTS. We’ve been trying to get these done for some months now but somehow things just kept getting in the way. We talked about getting a photographer, but in the end, as we’re producing this album ourselves, we decided we might as well do these ourselves too.

So bank holiday Monday we all met at Shaun’s Mums house in the beautiful English countryside and had a banter filled day taking photos/the piss out of each other, eating too much chocolate, drinking too much cider and generally just mucking around. We had a great laugh. The day even included a “jumping over the fence” competition (which i won, obviously) 

Last week it was back to work and recording of our debut album is starting to gain momentum. The first of the two EP’s that will precede it has all but been recorded and is now ready to receive the finishing touches before the mixing and mastering can begin. Tonight, Tony will start the process of writing some basic string and synth arrangements for them, before we all sit down together as a band to decide what works on which track.

On Sunday, Rob and Shaun were alone in the studio and demoed a new riff idea of Robs. What they come up with is probably the heaviest song Evoss have written to date.

It seems album two is already not too far from our minds.

Carl 

[evoss]

Busy Year Ahead

It looks set to be a very busy year for Evoss. Already we have a lot of gigs booked, including the world famous Cavern Club on February 26th, and there’s a lot more yet to be announced.

We’ve also finally decided on the title for our debut album, which will be released towards the end of the year. In the mean time though, we’ll soon be releasing two separate EPs each containing two album tracks plus one bonus none album track for a very small price. Both will be supported by music videos.

This should give you all a taster of what to expect when you finally get a chance to listen to this album that we’ve been working on for so, so long.

Some exciting times ahead.

Carl

[evoss]

First Video Shoot

Saturday we spent twelve hours shooting our first music video. At one point it involved us playing as a full band in someones kitchen. Weird!

It was a fun filled day were we got to mostly mess and joke about with each other, that’s not to say we didn’t get some good visuals. Shaun played the main character and done a brilliant job. I also got a taste of directing, something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. The experience will hopefully come in handy for a none music related project I’ll be doing early next year.

Sunday it was back to the day job. A day of album vocals. Shaun was on form and managed to record vocals for three songs in about four hours. One of which had a massive ending that he nailed in one take. I honestly believe we have one of the best singers in the country.

Carl

[evoss]

Music Videos

It’s been a very busy few months for us, relentlessly gigging as far and wide as Wigan, right across to Rhyl, in Wales.

We’re getting better and better as a live band with every show we play. The confidence seems to be growing, as now, when we’re on stage, the songs seem to flow a lot more easily, almost like they’re playing themselves.

We’re also underway with the planning for a couple of music videos that should be done for around the middle of next year. We had a meeting last night to discuss ideas and themes, and if we pull it off, they should look phenomenally good.

Carl

[evoss]

First Full Band Gig

Last night we played our first ever full band gig. Being on stage and playing these songs as they were intended to be heard is the accumulation of five years work.

Over the next few months we’ll be out there playing them a lot more, perfecting and tightening our live performance.

Being part of this band is getting very, very exciting, and I already can’t wait to get back on a stage and bash these songs out all over again.

Carl

[evoss]

Drummer

It’s been a long time since I posted an entry, as we put the album recording on hold for awhile.

We were concentrating on finding a full time drummer, as it was getting to the point where we could no longer continue to move forward as a band without one.

After an extensive internet search day after day, night after night we’ve finally found one. Tony Long. He joined us on Sunday, and already we’re up and running rehearsing a set list for a headline slot at the Wigan Live Festival at the end of this month.

Carl

[evoss]

Rhythm Guitars

We’ve finally started guitars. Today I managed to get through all the distorted parts relatively quickly. Only took three and a half hours.

It took us a while to get the guitar sound we wanted, but it was worth the wait as it sounds massive.

Rob will be starting his guitars on sunday. This album is gonna sound epic.

Carl

[evoss]

Bass

We spent both Monday and Tuesday recording bass. Sean was on fire! He’s already got most of the tracks done and all of them are sounding brilliant.

He only joined us around six months ago, but he’s already fitted in like a hand into a glove, and now I can’t imagine this band without him. He’s got great musical ideas that goes perfectly with our sound, but most of all, his sense of humour is exactly the same. I’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve all been in fits of laughter while making this album.

Only six bass tracks left to record, then it’ll be guitar time!

Carl

[evoss]

Drums

Drums can make or break your recording. Getting the sound we wanted would’ve cost us thousands of pounds, which we simply haven’t got.

Instead, we decided to go down the triggered drums route, as it gave us complete control over every aspect of the sound. And what an epic sound we’ve got. We worked fast and have already finished the drum recording, as of last week. In fact, Sean has already started tracking bass. Shouldn’t be to long before we start the rhythm guitars.

In other news, Shaun started writing lyrics for a song we’ve yet to work on, which is already sounding like it could be a good'n.

Carl

[evoss]

Drums...Day One

So we finally started drums today. Rob managed to put down three tracks in just two and a half hours, all of which sound massive. If we keep working like this, Sean should be ready to start tracking bass within the next few weeks.

We also got ourselves a whiteboard and filled it with a to-do list so we can easily see how far along we are with the recording progress. However, I’m wondering how long it’ll last before it’s just full of abusive messages to one another.

Band banter.

Carl

[evoss]

Album One...

It’s been a while since I posted an entry. Reason being, we took some time off to enjoy xmas, Shaun had a business trip at the start of the new year, and we had other family events that kept us from getting together. But now we’re back!

Last night we went through each individual song to finalise tempos, arrangements and song titles. We made some changes to a few of the songs, but nothing major. They all seemed pretty much ready to go, so tomorrow we’ll be making a start on the drums.

My excitement level and enthusiasm for these songs and this band has never been higher.

Carl

[evoss]

Productive Day

Productive day yesterday. We spent almost ten whole hours together, something we’ve not done for some time. We rearranged the studio to make it more user friendly. We now have a dedicated monitor, solely for mixing, which makes everything that little bit easier.

With the studio all ready, we had another go at writing the ending to the song that will close the album. It’s elude us for a long time but finally we got it. It now sounds like the ending we always had in mind. Brilliant.

Shaun also recorded vocals for the last two demos. Listening to him singing new songs always reminds me just how good he is, and how lucky we are to have him as our singer.

I can’t wait to record this album!

Carl

[evoss]

Tough Day Of Writing

Tough day of writing. We struggled to re-write the versus for a massive song called ‘Shades Of Grey’ nothing seemed to be working. Oh well, I guess not all sessions can be like last weeks. We’ll look at it again next time.

We moved on to an old acoustic demo that’s a bit more melodic and relaxed. Sounds good but doesn’t go anywhere, needs a bit of a change in the last third of the song. It took awhile but we got it. The ending now goes somewhere new rather than just repeating what already happens in the song.

Almost finished with pre-production now. Couple more sessions then we should be ready for this album recording.

Carl

[evoss]

Album Pre-Production

Yesterday was a late one. Didn’t get in till around 2am as we were glued to the iMac monitor, totally lost in putting down the final bits and pieces on the few remaining songs that aren’t quite up to demo standard yet.

It was a much needed change from the constant rehearsals we’ve been busy doing recently. Straight away it was clear that we’ve been building up to this for awhile as all the unfinished songs started to flow easily, reminding me just why I love the process of writing new music. One song in particular now has a brand new part, that takes it to a whole new level, far greater than I ever thought it could be.

While Rob was recording said song, Me and Shaun were chatting about how difficult it’ll be to pick just twelve songs for this first album….But that, surely, can only be a good thing.

Carl

[evoss]

Band Meeting

It’s always good to have days together were no one picks up their instrument, and instead, we just talk about all things Evoss. Today was one of those days.

We sat and listened to the many, many demos we’ve recorded over the last 12 months, trying to pick out the very best music that will eventually make up our first album. After about 3 hours of discussion, we finally got it down to 16 potential songs. It now just remains to be seen which ones make the final cut.

The next few months will be very busy finalising each one, in preparation for the album recording early next year.

Carl