Yesterday my tracking and recording came to a conclusion...its official, all the bass guitars and drums tracks are 100% finished!! (high fives Jay!) A huge thanks to Coma from Levelless Studios for his patience and intense production skills,,,I love the stinkeye he gives me when I think I just recorded the best take ever and he says ...."Come on Matty...I know you can do better, play it with some feeling this time!!"...so I sigh, shake my head in disbelief and presto ...out comes the best track ever...he knows us so well...thanks again Coma..you rock! So now Scott is going in to finish up his guitar parts on various songs, Shorre is getting close to having all the lead vocals done,,,,just need the harmonies recorded, then its mixing and mastering...WOOT!!! Can't wait!
Jay and I are meeting up with a very reputable photographer tomorrow night to discuss some photo shoot concepts/ideas/locations and set a date to do the new photo shoot. So this last weekend for me consisted of spending copious amounts of money on new wardrobe fashion...like they say, clothes make the man.
I have the official stage time for KEEP 6 now for BOONSTOCK 2011 (June 29th to July 2nd/2011). We hit the stage at precisely 2:45 PM on July 1st ...Canada Day!! Make sure you wear your red and whites and come cheer us on and listen to the great new tunes from the upcoming album. This will be an unforgettable 4 days of pure fun and great music. For more info, tickets, line-up etc go to www.boonstock.ca
Well it is always a good feeling to share the moments we have in Keep 6 and inform all of you as to what is going on with the band. There is much more behind the scenes good stuff but I can't share it all at once with you, now can I? LOL...have to keep you intrigued until next time...thank you everyone for your support and love, be well and peace out til next time....
We recently played a show on October 16th at Lyve on Whyte. We were scheduled to open up for Marcy Playground and were totally pumped and honoured to have a opportunity offered to us by Steve Derpack to share the stage with them. Then, the evening before the show, came the devastating punch to the balls. We were informed that John Wozniak, the singer and guitar player had broke his fingers and unfortunately the band had to cancel the rest of the tour until further notice. So, although we were bummed out we decided to go ahead and play the show with out them. After all we had two other great bands on the bill to play with us, The House band for Lyve " Give em Hell Boys" and The Shakedowns. So the stage was set, the evening was going to consist of The Shakedowns, Keep 6 and Give em Hell Boys...........NOT! We arrived at the venue, and I was greeted by Jay Sparrow. He opened the door and said, "Keep 6?" And I said, "Is it that obvious?". He gave me one of those looks.......You know the one with the smug grin on ones faces and you know they are about to give you some bad news........Then for the second Donkey Punch to the balls.........Turns out the drummer for The Shakedowns had his own set of problems to deal with that evening. His girlfriend ended up in a bad car accident and landed herself in hospital. She was alright, but shaken up none the less. So needless to say, we were down to our selves and Give em Hell Boy's. One never knows' what to expect at a show that is planned with only a couple of weeks notice, and this one was no different. We started by doing a sound check with no snare drum, (will spare you the details on that), which sounded surprisingly good considering. Long story short, we played pretty consistent for the entire evening and the show was very much the same as the last time we played there. People were digging it, as they were not leaving and we had their undivided attention. I think that it was one of those shows that every band has from time to time where if something could go wrong it did, and the cancellation of Marcy Playground and The Shakedowns for the evening kind of set the tone for us. We did video record our set and have viewed it (something we are going to be doing more often to improve our stage presence). All in all, I think we did very well despite all the things that went wrong for the evening and the cancellations that occurred. A special thank you to all the staff at Lyve who treat all their booked acts with class and respect, Steve Derpack (Talent Buyer/Entertainment Manager), Jay Sparrow (General Manager), Nathan Brown (University of Alberta) Promotions assistant, Makenna Hurst (Promotions Assistant), Shane Radioflyer Isley (Edmonton, AB) Promotions Assistant, as well as Pamela and Kelly the beautiful waitresses for the evening. It is always a pleasure to play at Lyve and we appreciate every opportunity we get to play there.
October was a busy month as we also played at SAIT in Calgary for a Halloween bash at the Gateway. Wow, what a nice venue to play at! We had trouble finding the correct building on campus initially, but once we found it we were very pleased with the room and set up. We were scheduled to play with Colin Decker Free Fall and Caught off Guard, town punk bands that were definitely punk. We were the outcasts at this show.......the black sheep if you will...... The only rock band on the bill. Being a Halloween bash we all dressed up. Matty was a vampire/count, Shorre was a wizard, Scotty was a zombie and I made a pretty damn good Beetlejuice if I do say so myself, so good I even had placed fake beetles in my pants and occasionally when being stared at I would stick my hand down my pants, pull one out and pretend to eat it (stay tuned for pictures). Speaking of pictures, Shannon the Hair Ninja, our biggest fan ever, took pictures for us while we were on stage and also helped run our merch booth for the evening. Damn that woman is amazing, she is a valuable team player in the Keep 6 Infantry and we have come to count on her for her endless support. If we ever make it rich and famous, she will be well taken care of. We have been working hard on our stage show and although it is not what we would like it to be yet, I think the pictures Shannon took of us that evening will reveal that we have been working on it none the less. I can safely say Avis the sound man was very pleased to mix us as he thanked us repeatedly after our set was finished for great song dynamics and NOT PLAYING TOO LOUD! Well Avis, it was our pleasure! Thank you for the great sound on and off stage! We really appreciate that! I would also like to thank Richard Coumont, my good friend and bassist from Colin Decker Free Fall for lining us up with this show as well as Isiac Creasy and Darren Ollinger. We really enjoyed ourselves at this show and would be honoured to play there again.
On the home front, We are wrapping up our last two shows at The Brixx on the 5th of October and The Tap House on the 27th of October and will be taking a hiatus from performing live in order to focus on our album which is more than half finished at the moment. We still have a lot to take care of despite the fact we have got the recording aspect of it well under way. We are pretty stoked about it as it is by far the best music we have written collectively to date.
Great night at Lyve!
September 3, 2010
The end of summer is here and Jack Frost is nipping at our heels. Another month gone by and another show under our belt. We played Lyve on Whyte (formerly known as the Urban Lounge) last night for the first time. I really like the face lift that took place there. Looking East started the night. They are a really solid band, singer Jadie had a very powerful set of pipes, and Fernando the guitar player was shredding that guitar man. And the drummer Mykie (who borrowed my drum key twice) needs to get a drum key:) Playing second was Action News Team. During their first song the bass player busted one of his strings. He was about to leave the stage to go home to get a replacement when Matty ran to the stage with his Cort 5 string bass. Matty took this guy's Fender 4 string back to his table and put a new string on for him. After their third song Matty ran back up to the stage to give him back his bass and took back his own. We went out for a quick cigarette and upon returning inside the venue found out that he had broke another string. Needless to say, these guys played loud and hard! We took the stage in a fury as usual. When it comes to tear down and set up, we don't fuck around!
I know I have mentioned my click track in the past. It is something I have never used in the past and I am now accustomed to using. Not only has it helped me to be more consistent but it has slowed our pace on stage down to a pulse that is a little easier to bob your head to. Once again it caused me a bit of grief last night. I had taped the machine to my leg as putting it beside me on a bucket didn't work at all in Calgary cause every time I stood up, it would unplug itself. Turns out taping it to my leg was not a good idea either as every time I would move my right hand from my snare to my ride cymbal, I would knock the beats per minute knob and it would throw the click right out to lunch. So anyway, long story short, half of every song was done with no click at all and our timing was a little up and down at times. After our last show in Calgary we were really hoping our Edmonton fans would out do our Calgary fans and come out and support their local music. Playing on a Thursday night didn't help when it came to getting people out. There were only about 30 - 40 people there while we played. 10 of which came specifically to see us. I figured 2-3 songs into our set, most of the other 20 would have left, but that didn't happen. No one left! They stayed! Although we didn't get the response from them that we got from our Calgary fans, they stuck around, bought disc's, shirts, and even asked us to sign some Merch. We would like to thank Jay Sparrow (bar manager) Steve Derpack (Entertainment manager) and Bryce (sound tech) for having us in their venue. They treated us really well and we would be honoured to play there again.........on a Weekend...........if they would allow that to happen;) I also want to thank Angela for taking photos and video footage as I know she will be reading this and she needs to know that I do appreciate her efforts despite what she may think otherwise.
On a separate note, we recently signed 9 television licensing agreements presented to us by Tinderbox. Out of those 9, three are for some MTV programs. I don't want to say to much more than that as even though the licensing agreements have been signed, nothing is written in stone as of yet. I will keep you all posted on that in the future. For those of you that don't know, we have entered ourselves into a contest to open up for Coheed and Cambria when they come to town on October 20th. Bands with the top 3 votes are contenders and one of the three will be chosen by Coheed and Cambria to be the opening act for them on the evening of October 20th at the Edmonton Events Center in West Edmonton Mall. So if you have not voted, get on it! We need your help!
I approached a friend of ours on myspace in regards to creating a piece of music we could use to play at our shows before we hit the stage. Costas, aka Holopain on myspace, from Greece, was happy to create an arrangement for us and he wasted no time doing it. We have some fine tuning we need him to do on it, but all in all it is a great piece of music he created.
We are also happy to let you know everything is going well with the recording of our 3rd album. Once again, we are working with Vail McColman of Leveless studios here in Edmonton. After all, he is our mentor and by all rights the 5th member of the band. One could say he is our secret weapon and the glue that holds this band together at times (That guy is stronger than super glue I tell ya!). We have also recently been approached by a friend of the band, Elisabeth Tilton from Indianapolis, Indiana to use Skull on the Wall and 8 O'clock at the Orphanarium for her website promoting her new book she just completed entitled "The Foretold". We are happy to be a small part of your success and wish you the best of luck Elisabeth! You can check out her book at http://www.freni-kyn.com.
To those of you that actually take the time to read these blogs I write THANK YOU! It is people like you that keep me motivated to continue writing these blogs! As long as you are reading, I will keep writing!
Until my next blog, take care all and stay tuned!
Jay May
Percussion
Coheed and Cambria Local Openers Contest
Friday, August 27, 2010
Hey guys, it looks like Coheed and Cambria are coming to town on October 20th and they are looking for a local opening act! An online voting process will determine who plays the opening spot and we need you guys to help us have the honor! This would be an amazing experience for all of us, Coheed has always been a large influence on the band.
All you have to do is follow this link to the facebook event page and click I'm attending at the top. Once the page has refreshed you just have to scroll down through the comments until you find The Keep 6 post and then you must "like" it. If you are having trouble finding us, there is a page with only the bands on it here. At the time of writing we are in second place so we could really use your support!!
On a side note, we really look forward to seeing many of you next Thursday at the new Lyve on Whyte! It's our first edmonton show in a long time so we have a lot to get out, even a few brand new songs.
Shorre McColman
Vocals
Last Night At Verns
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wow! Yet another amazing night at Verns in Calgary! I have to say, every time we play there we have a great response from the audience and last night was no exception! We started the day off by saving money in gas on our way down due to a much appreciated tail wind. We ended up at our biggest fans house (Shannon the Hair Ninja) before the show to enjoy the Gumbo dish her husband (Brady) prepared. I got to say, that was some damn good Gumbo! Wish I had seen the hot sauce before I ate all of mine as I would have added some more to my serving. I will blame that on Brady as I believe he was trying to keep it "not so spicy" to please every one there as not everyone likes their food spicy hot like us MEN! The entertainment consisted of sword fighting with nerf Swords in the back yard. I know one may think that would not be all that entertaining, but when you have added beer to the mix, things got pretty entertaining! This abruptly ended when Brady lost his battle weapon to Evan (Zen Master), and he ended up smashing the Zen Master's head into the fence causing a minor contusion to the top of his head. (LMAO) So after dinner, a few drinks and some entertainment, we headed down to Verns.
Even though we have played there several times, I always feel a little out of place at Verns when we first get there due to the fact that is is a hardcore metal bar and I definitely don't look like a hardcore metal guy! 15 yrs ago, yes. Today's present day and age, no. Clint (the owner and manager) was a gracious host as usual and he is one of the biggest reasons we keep going back there to play. The night started off with a young man named Luka, who's band name escapes me right now. Although his music was not my cup of tea, I got to give the guy kudos! This two man band was short a bass player for the night yet Luka stepped up to the plate and played all by himself, and for that I respect him......that takes balls! Following Luka was Ashes In The Fall, and Black Reign. Once again not really what I am into, but these two hard core metal bands that were excellent at what they do and they were definitely hard core! We took the stage and our first song was pretty rough to say the least as we were rushed to do the sound check which actually ended up being our first tune. Half way through our third song (Skull on the Wall) I stood up from behind my drums and immediately lost my click track as it unplugged itself. While standing, it was then that I noticed we had 80% of the patrons in the bar standing in front of us eating our tunes up like candy. I figured we had sold ourselves at that point as we had their undivided attention and made the decision to ditch the click track all together. Perhaps not the best decision I made that evening as the rest of the set was a little bit fast but by the time we hit our 7th song (Follow me Underground) it seemed like we could do no wrong! WOW, what a fucking night! I have not felt that alive in a long time!
I would like to thank Shannon and Brady Bundick, Richard and Mellisa Coumont, Rob and Karen Davies, Rebecca Sinnot, Eric Hopson, Nicole Tronsgard, Robyn Visser, and any other of our Calgary friends who came out specifically to see us (my apologies if I forgotten anyone), as well as John and Tannis May, John Burns, Brian Carreiro, for making the long drive from Edmonton to support us as well as my lovely woman Tara Hall for running our merch booth and Angella Scott for taking photos of the show. Stay tuned for updates to come!
Jay May
Percussion
An Update For All
Friday, July 23, 2010
Hello All,
Well here we are in the middle of summer 2010. I (Jay) am currently on vacation on the East Coast in New Brunswick. While I was down here, I had the opportunity to get myself a tour of the Sabian cymbal factory located in Meductic, New Brunswick. I had a great time and met some really great, hard working people while taking the tour. I would like to thank Tina Abbot for making the arrangements for me and Whitney Blaney my tour guide for the great tour. I brought my drums down east with me and have been rehearsing in my 5x10 trailer. I have to say though, I must be becoming a worse player as I get older.......NOT! I was shut down by Ontario's finest, the OPP one evening and given a warning for disturbing the public. He said, and I quote, "We received a noise complaint about someone playing some drums" I told him it didn't surprise me and he said, "Hey, if it makes you feel better they didn't say it was someone playing the drums badly":) Not sure if playing in the trailer is keeping my skills sharp or just making me thinner as it is always 27 degrees or hotter outside plus humidity and playing in the trailer is like playing in a sauna.
In Canterbury New Brunswick I ended up getting myself a small audience one Friday evening standing at the back of the trailer. I met the drunken John who's last name I won't mention, who has worked at the Sabian factory for the last 25 yrs. Although he was loud and obnoxiously drunk, he loved the fact all my brass was from Sabian and all of it is the HHX series. Every time his mouth was moving while looking at me I would stop playing and pull out my head phones as I thought he wanted to say something to me. When I did he would say, "What the hell are you doing, KEEP SWINGING STICKS MAN!" Even though most of the folks there as big country music fans, they ate up my rehearsal like candy. The town consists of approximately 50 houses and one general store that sells everything from booze, fireworks, junk food, plumbing parts, and tools as well as a canteen. Needless to say, me practicing drums in the back of the trailer is the most action that town has seen in ages.
Back home Scott and Matt have been laying down some ghost tracks for the new album yet to be named as well as writing a few more to be recorded in the near future. We are also looking to get some radio promotion in Europe and are currently doing some homework to make that happen sometime in the near future. I personally am looking forward to returning home in August and performing with the boys at Verns Pub in Calgary on the 21st of August.
Until then, Rock out with your Cocks out!
Jay May
Hey Guys!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Well summer of 2010 is here! The band has been busy writing new music for our third full length album. We are excited to be playing Boonstock in Gibbons Alberta for the third time. It is an honor to be involved with this festival as it is one of the biggest music festivals in Western Canada. Recently we have been working closely with Tinderbox Music Productions based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota over the last few weeks.
We would like to give a big thank you to Jon, Jade, Brandon, Kieth, Grant and the rest of the staff from Tinderbox as they have been a huge force involved in helping us promote and push Four Fangs. Over the last couple of months they have submitted Four Fangs to over 200 radio stations though out North America getting us some much needed and very appreciated air play over the last 2 months. We even got voted for "Indie Song of the Week" during the week of April 18th to April the 24th on Radiorockcafe.com in Montreal, a special thanks to their program director BeN for that!
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the radio stations that embraced Four Fangs and gave is some serious airplay such as KASF in Alamosa Colorado, KBVR in Corvallis Oregon, KCSS in Turlock California, WCVM in Morrisville New York, WCWP in Brookville New York, WKWZ in Syosset New York, WMCO in New Concord Ohio, WSUP in Platteville Wisconson, WUMF in Farmington Maine, and last but not least WZMB in Greenville North Carolina. Keep 6 has also had quite a few positive reviews in Vue Weekly, YouThink Magazine, The Edmonton Journal, The Leduc Rep, The Monthly A&R Critique ANRGIRL from SoundHere.com. We are currently working on writing and the pre-production of our third full length album. For album number 3 we will once again we will be working with the amazing recording god and guru Vail McColman. He will record, produce and master the album as he has done an amazing job for us in the past on both Humanifesto and Four Fangs.
We are staying as busy as we can while trying to write, record and do shows at the same time averaging out about one show a month. We would love to do more, however with all of us working full time to pay our individual bills and being part time musicians, we have a long road ahead of us to reach the "Rock Star" status. With your help and support we will one day achieve that status. Until then we will continue to work hard to please our loyal fans who have thus far supported us through thick and thin.
Jay May
Percussion
New Radio Addition!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Attention all fans and friends of KEEP 6. I have exciting news regarding the band and want to share with all of you that KEEP 6 has been added to regular radio rotation on RockRadioCafe based in Montreal, Quebec. The program director has encouraged all of you to register and request our songs from either or both albums "Humanifesto" and "Four Fangs" Please go to http://www.radiorockcafe.com and register, then send them a request for KEEP 6 songs. A huge thank to BeN and staff at RockRadioCafe for your hospitality and addition of KEEP 6 to your radio station. We love ya!!! Talk soon everyone as there will be more interesting developments to follow....I cannot say yet what it consist of until all confirmations are made. Stayed tuned and take care. Please support the indie music scene and artists.
Matt W.
Bassist
A HUGE Thank You from KEEP 6
Monday, February 22, 2010
On behalf of KEEP 6, I want to extend a huge thank you to all our fans, friends and family that came to the CD release show on Saturday at the Starlite Room. We also want to send a thank you to Art Szabo and staff from the Starlite Room, Mike Noga, Mike for the recording audio, Angus for the filming, Lynn and Darleen for running the merch booth, and the two opening bands for the great music and performances, Atlas Shrug and Promatheus. Another big thank to Vail for your heart and soul and unbelieveable support and dedication you have shown for us. Already projecting towards the future, the band is currently writing new songs and we are excited to get into the recording studio very soon to lay more tracks. Take care everyone and we will see you at our next show.
Matt Wispinski
KEEP 6 Bassist
Video shoot for the FOUR FANGS show!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
HEY ALL! Happy Valentines Day. Hope you're all spending time with someone you love today or at least a few minutes alone in the bathroom pretending.
So things are gearing up for the big CD release party. Less than a week away now and the latest sordid rumor is da da DA... We're going to shoot a full length DVD of the FOUR FANGS release show. So git yer best drawers on and polish up your own fangs cause we'll be pointing the cameras at you. SO SMILE and SHOW US YOUR FOUR FANGS and you just may end up immortalized on video. We'll be taking presale orders for the finished DVD at the show for anyone interested.
Speaking of drawers, the new FOUR FANGS swag is in and it looks pretty sweet. The zip hoodies are especially cool so grab one at the show or visit THE KEEP 6 WEB STORE for Ts, hoodies and more.
To all of our homies in Alberta have a great long weekend and to everyone else na na na na na... have fun at work tomorrow. We hope to see you all in 6 days at the show or at another one of our upcoming dates soon. Can't wait for you all to hear the whole record.
Peace and Valentines
01/07/2011 Gibbons 