Victorious Combinations

  For the past two years we have been playing music with my long time friend Daniel Clement on guitar. Dan and I have been friends since highschool, and shared our first band together back in the 80's in White Rock, B.C.  After many decades of creating independently we have rejoined forces to enhance the sound of Combine the Victorious. Isabelle and I have been writing together since 2005. We've had several successful song licenses to television and film over the years but we have always remained primarily a studio project. With Dan's addition on guitar our sound is more complete and we feel better represented when we play live. His influence has helped up find faster songs for the repertoire and accelerated the writing and recording process; we already have our next single (Danser Tout le Temps) recorded and ready for mastering and three more tunes are waiting in the wings for us to finish off. It's very fun and exciting. This year we've played more live shows th...

 We have been recording a new single this past month. It is a funny one that emerged quite naturally right before a rehearsal. I had been sorting through my overly large and needlessly over complicated Ableton Live set and hit a wrong scene and a basic four on the floor kick and hi hat pattern played. The scene had been set at 130 bpm though, which is much faster than most of the songs we play, so it set me to playing a simple octave sequence on A. It had a Kraftwerk-like charm.  When Isabelle and Dan (Daniel Clement is our new guitarist) arrived I played them the core elements and Dan quickly came up with the arpeggio guitar part, which later came to define the chorus. Isabelle left the room momentarily but when she returned she was singing in French! Why? dunno, but it all felt right. Danser tout le Temps was born! We jammed on it for a few rehearsals and even tried a super loose version of it at our last Cascade Room gig.  It wasn't fully realized at that point though...

  We are excited to be performing with our pals Rat Silo on Friday December 29th at the Princeton. Rat Silo is hosting the night and will be performing two sets starting from around 9pm.   Combine the V will hit the stage likely at 11:30 or so.  Quite looking forward to this gig. We habitually meet on Fridays for a pre-rehearsal pint at the Princeton as its only two blocks away from my studio.  It will be fun to try our material out on that stage. I am planning on bringing a sub-woofer to ensure our sound has a chance to impress! The live set is progressing rapidly. With Dan Clement 's addition to the band we are more prolific and the new material is a lot more up tempo. We shall be making a formal introduction to our new single "Danser Tout le Temps" this night. It's quite a cool dance track that has all three of us excited and singing in French! More on that imminently. If you are in Vancouver and looking for a party on Friday come down to the Princeton. I don...

 Our latest single got a brilliant feature write up on Buzzslayers.com today!  In the new release from Combine the Victorious, the band delivers a lush set of textures and a ton of character for you to latch onto and get down with coupled with a colorful approach and an almost youthful energy that brings on a pop-rock undertone, but a reggae rhythm and those two attributes come together with such a smooth and seamless feel that this track is completely addicting from beginning to end. "I Really Like Your Style" will get you moving straight away and if you're driving along in the car listening to the tune, you'll start shaking your butt in your seat in no time because that groove is undeniable, and you can tell from listening to the song that the band had an amazing time playing it down. What's more, is that the energy that's delivered on this track has the vibe of a live performance to it, almost like the players are feeding off of each other's energie...

 It is really exciting to release this single today! This is the first song we've written with our new guitarist (and longtime friend) Daniel Clement . I Really Like Your Style is a slight departure from the trip-hop inspired songs of the past few years. We start out with a kind of homage to that sound but then quickly shift into a more uplifting reggae influenced sound that builds to a charming chorus filled with Isabelle's lifting melody.  This song has been brewing in the background for a while now but truly came to life when we shared it with Dan. The addition of the guitar changed everything about our approach and the song transformed into the shape we have today. During the past months one day in rehearsal Dan and I were jamming on a descending riff and then Isabelle popped into the studio and sang the line "Is this everything you wanted." I was so surprised by that melody and the lyric I knew we had to incorporate it into the song. I had been needlessly concern...

 We are excited to release our next song, " I Really Like Your Style ." This will be the first song we have written with our new guitarist Daniel Clement . It's been a bit of a journey getting this one together.    It started as a completely different song back in 2021 with now only the chorus line remaining the same. Originally I had written a completely different lyric for the verses but they were not working for me on review a year later. So early 2023 we abandoned the old arrangement and began the version we will be releasing. Isabelle took over writing the lyric for the entire song, and thanks to a lucky moment while we were rehearsing we unveiled a totally new intro for the song. I have been consciously attempting to keep our ideas in a certain tempo and mood in hopes of creating a unified collection of material for a full length release. Well " I Really Like Your Style " has turned into a happier song, with a strong lean into reggae for influence in the c...

 We are pleased to announce the completion of another video, Rushes Over Me. This video was born from an idea of Isabelle's, wherein we would look up headlines from the earlier parts of our lives and combine them with images of us. It seems to say these are the events that have rushed over us in the past decades. One of the interesting things about combining the two elements is how many historical events have transpired since we were born.  The performance elements were shot in the Boutique Empire studio in East Vancouver. I blacked out the walls to give us the infinite background and then had each of us "perform" our parts for the camera. Thank you once again to Daniel Clement for his guitar sync Felix Taylor for the trumpet (on record as well video), Greg Hanberry for the congas (and percussion on record) as well as Leigh Grant for the always powerful drumming.  Isabelle has done some of her best work this past year and this song is another great moment on tape, and now...

 First reviews are all positive so that's a good sign. Here's hoping we land a couple big playlists with this single. If you are into it please have a listen on which is your preferred streaming site and add the song to a playlist. Those couple of things help us get into the patterns of the algorithm and may even get us approved for an official Spotify editorial playlis. If you haven't yet please listen to Rushes Over Me!  Click hear to listen

 We are pleased to announce that our next single will be released worldwide on January 25th 2023. Rushes Over Me combines the dark moodiness of trip-hop with 90's inspired shoe-gaze and features the trumpet of Felix Taylor.  Words and Music: Combine the Victorious (Dunlop/Henning) Produced and recorded by Mark Henning Vocals - Isabelle Dunlop Bass, guitar, keyboards: Mark Henning Drums: Leigh Grant Percussion: Greg Hanberry Trumpet: Chad "Felix" Taylor