Songwriting (How it Almost Happens)

We have a secret to tell you.  Our first record featured every song we had written as a band.  Pretty crazy.  Many musicians spend a lifetime writing songs that they hone and craft until a tenth of them are selected, carefully ordered and then produced over months and months of recording.  Why did we choose to lay down all of our material?  At the core of it, we suppose we really did not know if we would ever get the chance to make a "real" record again.  We were so fortunate to meet the people we met and make the connections we made, that we just were not sure we would ever have the opportunity to do it again. What if we never wrote another song?

Writing music is hard work, nerve-wracking and exhausting, but it can also be fun, exciting and a personal psychology lesson.  Often times writing music can be as simple as writing down a simple melody and adding some meaningful lyrics.  Other times songs sweep into your mind while you are walking to work, or eating a sandwich or hanging out with someone you love.  But, turning music you wrote into a record is a whole different beast.  There are plenty of songs out in the world that are amazing songs, written by songwriters or bands, that will never become a record.  The reason is, creating a record is like creating a piece of art.  Do you think Monet would have finished one of his paintings if the first lily he painted was lopsided and looked more like a pancreas?  What would Bob Ross have been without "happy clouds"? A record is a musician's chance to let you into their mind and to tell you what they are and who they want to be.  We believe our record did the first, but probably not the second.

We went into the studio armed with a collection of songs that we really wanted on a record ... NOT a collection of songs that WERE a record.  The distinction is key.  Don't get us wrong, we are so proud of the product.  We still get huge grins every time one of our songs is played on the radio or comes up on our ipod.  But as we head into writing material for our next album, we want to grow and learn about ourselves, our band, our sound and about what we want to be.

In Mat Kearney's song "In the Middle" he rap-sings about making records when he says "one life to write one, two years to repeat."  In his own capricious way Mat describes the labor of love that is a band's first album, and the stress and pressure to repeat a process that may have taken literally, as Mat says, a lifetime to produce, within a year or two.


What we hope you hear, as we begin to foster these songs by playing them live and sharing them with all of you, is that we are growing.  We hope that you can see the development of our songwriting and we hope that eventually we will find a solid group of tunes that we will take to the studio as a record.  The result, we believe, will be a leaner, meaner, tighter group of songs that will come to define Vintage Blue.  Look out.

All Worth It

This band, in one form or another, has existed for about 3 years.  The things that we have learned as a group about social media, marketing and publicity are pretty insane.  When we had our first show we played Silvie's in North Chicago and didn't even have a Facebook page or Facebook invite.  We printed little flyers and handed them out at the door ... yes, at the door.

Today if we want to book a show, we go through our promoter Paul Farahvar from Shoeshine Boy Productions, we create a Facebook invite, update Reverbnation, update Myspace, tweet, re-tweet, find the other bands on the bill and follow them, like them, etc.

As we move towards February 14, 2012 ... our band finds itself taking yet another enormous leap forward in our marketing efforts.  In order to prepare for our first full-length record release we have employed Krista Mettler of Skye Media and Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity.  These two agencies have us lean, mean and focused on building our brand in an effective, fun and meaningful way.

The reason we do all of this work?  Because when we step up on stage, or close the door to the recording booth, we think about YOU GUYS!!!  When the curtains open and we see all of you yelling, pointing and getting excited we realize that all of our efforts to practice, market and promote our music culminates in getting to play for you ... and that time on stage is all worth it.

The Tale of An Independent Chicago Band

Welcome:

We are Vintage Blue, a Chicago band rock band that is currently gearing up to finish our most successful year as a band (2011) and launch what will be a 2012 to never forget.  We want to use this blog as a way for fans, old friends, and L.A. Reid to keep track of our band.

The Short:


We are a five-piece band that officially started in 2008 as the band Tanglewood.  We started as a cover band banging out classic tunes at Wise Fools Pub, Lilly's and Silvie's in Chicago.  Fast forward to 2011 and we have completed work on our second album, due out in 2012 ("Strike The Mics") that will soon be followed by a regional tour and national press.

What to Look For:


This blog will be about telling the story of an independent rock band and the behind-the-scenes work that it takes to book, promote, market, manage and phsychotherapize a band of dudes.