How overnight (and totally by accident) we had 7 major labels email us wanting to talk!

in music •  7 years ago 

I want to tell you about how we became a band and then overnight (and totally by accident) we had 7 major labels email us wanting to talk!

Alice and I (Jack) both played in bands previously and enjoyed some moderate success. We'd toured, built fan bases and had amazing fun. But all good things come to an end and both acts petered out.

With our projects over and more free time on our hands we were both going to more and more gigs. We'd never really met before but had a mutual friend who was also a regular gig goer. We kept bumping into each other watching some of our favourite acts like Hot Chip, Purity Ring etc. We talked about how both of us were in bands which are over and how bummed we were not to have a project to work on. For some reason It didn't occur to us to try writing together.

It took our mutual friend (who was fed up of hearing us moan) saying something like "stop being stupid and try collaborating."

So we did

We spent about a YEAR writing our first song. It wasn't that we were struggling to make music. We were struggling to make the right music. Our tastes were quite different. I come from a background of punk bands and the heavier end of drum n bass. Alice comes from a more indie and folk background. But slowly we started to find the right balance. Thinks were moving in the right direction. We music have put 50 or more songs on the scrap heap. It was a long tough slog but something was telling us it would be worth it.

One day we decided to really take ourselves out of our comfort zones in order to try and be creative. We set a goal of making an electronic pop song out of a Bon Iver track!

For some reason, that did the trick. We felt the electricity as we started writing this cover version. It felt like, suddenly, we were an actual band!

We spent a few weeks finishing and tweaking it - but we were finally there - after a year! And this is what we came up with:

When we were done we uploaded Perth to bandcamp so we had somewhere online to stream it and show friends. We had no intention of "putting it out there" as we only had 1 song. We wanted to have a bunch of finished music before we went public with the band.

Fate had other ideas

That very night a blogger from Crack In The Road was clicking around bandcamp looking for music. We didn't know there was a "recently uploaded" section to the site. He clicked play, loved what he heard and decided to blog about it.

Because he blogged about it, a couple other blogs picked up on it and posted about the cover.

Then a few more.

Then suddenly the online aggregator for music blogs (a sort of chart for music blogs) Hype Machine had us listed on their chart.

Holy crap we're in the top 10 on Hype Machine?!

What??!! We're number 1??

Well, that would have been our reaction if we were awake.

This whole scenario played out overnight. Totally by accident. At the time Hype Machine was where all of the A&R would go to find new bands to sign! So we woke up the next day with emails from major labels wanting to talk and wanting to hear more music.... which we didn't have!

We decided to leave them waiting. We ignored their emails, got a lawyer, got management and most importantly got writing more and more music!

Fast forward a couple years and we met them all in their NYC offices with a whole album's with of tracks:

What happened next is another story...

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I love your style. Great tune. Got me hoppin around the kitchen!

Interesting story, hard work paid off! Good luck guys.

What a lovely story! It was a very nice read, I'm hoping to find out what happened next now. But that song is such a jam! Epic stuff! Well done, Jack. Good luck with the rest of your career!

Very inspiring, can't wait to learn and hear more!!

Great post ❤

All that hard work paid off. And that's a great song, congrats!

Awesome!

congrats. looking forward to hearing the rest of your story.

just confused on one bit, you make it sound like "perth" was your first release but your wiki says you had 9 releases (+ 10 remixes) before that one?

and it says you were playing live in 2013 but "perth" came out in 2016 but it took a year to get there?

you do mention 50 songs in a "scrap heap", maybe some of those were released?

not saying those details really matter, and it's not like this is a congressional hearing, just interested in other artist's path and i think there is a dangerous misconception about overnight success that could discourage some great music from ever being made.

just wondering... like i said, congrats, best of luck, and looking forward to the rest.

I think they re-released it

that would make a lot of sense! thanks. i guess mentioning some dates in the post would helped.

When we first put it online it wasn't a release... it wasn't even supposed to be heard! lol. So when we made our album it got a remix and a proper release years later.

nice! re-reading my comment, i hope didn't come across as accusatory, just curious, thanks for taking the time.

Not at all! I did skip over a few things just to keep the story brief so understand it wasn't all totally clear.

Congrats guys! Excited to see what the future holds for y'all!

nice...upvote and resteem for u

I like the song! It's catchy and has an interesting beat.

Good things often happen by accident!

THANKS )

thanks for the inspiring story!

nice story, well done

Its always great to see true musical talent making headway. I know these days actually myself due to years of touring as a musician myself and knocking on so many doors to be heard. You guys keep at it. I just followed to see where the future leads for you.

Oh and I am the guy running Steemit Blogger Central, I got your comment this morning and just posted this article for you over there. Hope that grows you more here in some small way. Keep up the great work!!!!!

You can view your RESTEEM at the following pages:

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amazing story ! good things do happen to great people @avecsans
cheers and keep it up ! upvoted, resteem & followed

Cool tunes. Tag "boombox" for a resteem from us @vandalizmrecordz
(follow!)

This is really great, and congratulations on your success! Your sound is awesome! Thanks for sharing it with the world :) Upvoted and followed!

This is such an awesome and inspiring story! I really like the song as well:) super catchy. I can hear it playing in plenty of public places.

This is a very interesting story. I loved reading it. I have a daughter who is a singer, songwriter and producer @edenmichelle. She has just joined Steemit. She is busy recording a young artist @danshaw - also just joined Steemit. I will also be posting some very interesting collaborations. Have upvoted and followed you - look forward to more articles

Very nice. Now following you!

Hey @avecsans, great post, good luck with your music, I wish you all the best for the future!