Victorious Combinations

We have eight songs almost ready for mixing now: the new album has started to really take a sound.  Over have the songs have a definitely disco feel to them: three were written in one days last month!  There are a few that we've written from scratch with Juice and Misty that sound a little more 90's but still all related to dance music.  I guess our next album is going to be quite a party record! Stay tuned, we are going to start sharing songs very soon! M

A couple weeks ago Isabelle and I started writing another new song, titled Overtime .  This one came from a late night jam, where we were just messing around looking for new sounds and ideas.  Isabelle started singing "overtime, on my mind" and we both thought it was a funny thing to sing about.  (Juice has the week before been doing a lot of driving for his work and mentioned how at least he was getting overtime for the hours wasted in traffic etc).  However, when we came back to the idea a few nights later I think we both recognized there was something more to it. Two night ago we were working on it more and Juice came into the studio and offered to track live drums overtop of the programmed beats.  The addition of his playing gave the track a lot more energy, and then he recorded a few passes on guitar to expand the sound even more. We're getting close with a few other ideas simultaneously.  I think September will be a very productive month to finali...

We're taking a bit of time off writing and recording the new album so Isabelle can run her first ever Gastown Pop Up store.  She's taken over the Tait store at 330 W. Cordova St from Sept 1st thru Sept 5th.  We set up the shop on Saturday night and had a fun night with friends trying on her designs and rearranging the shop.  Check out Isabelle's blog to see her creations:   isabelledunlopblgospot.ca As an added spot of fun we are also going to be performing an in-store show, where we'll debut one new song and reinterpret a couple favorites off Crumbing Heart s .  It's been a unique learning experience to reduce the arrangements down to just an acoustic guitar, and even more fun to explore the sounds you can create using an iPhone for accompaniment.  Might be our most succinct sound yet!   If you are downtown Vancouver on Thursday night cram in with us (it's a nice cute little place) and share a glass of wine, look at the rema...

A few weeks back we had the pleasure of seeing the Polyphonic Spree perform live here in Vancouver.  That was the second time we've witnessed the spectacle of that massive band performing in our city.  This show, though a little smaller than the previous one we caught on their Fragile Army tour (I think they had 21 people on stage then, this tour had 17) was just as enjoyable, maybe even more so as we were closer to them all in Venue than we'd been at the Commodore. I kinda admire and love The Polyphonic Spree .  They have good songs, a wonderful live show and an inherently positive feel and message to their music.  Tim DeLaughter is a great frontman for the band, conducting them with passion and humour.  If you haven't seen The Polyphonic Spree yet, do so, they are more that worth whatever the ticket price may be, and will reward you with energy for days to come. The weekend we saw the band I decided that buying their latest album ( Yes, It's True) wasn't...

Isabelle and I will be down at Save on Meats (43 West Hastings) this coming weekend spinning vinyl for their Common Courtesy night.  It's a casual place, serves good deli food, drink specials, and has a couple turntables set up right in the front so we can get the place hoppin'! In preparation, this past Saturday night we took several hours to go thru our vinyl collection and pull out some old favourites from the 60's, 70's and 80's. We have a few good ideas of what we'll play and quite looking forward to sharing a few hidden gems with everybody!  Come on down. We also want to add that Isabelle will be having an Autumn Fashion Pop Up starting on September 1st at 330 Cordova (we're taking over  Tait until Sept 5th).   Combine the Victorious will be performing an acoustic set down there to celebrate the sale on the Thursday night.  More info to follow! In the mean time, if you want to socialize and have a dance with up please come by Common Co...

It's been probably the best summer I can remember here in Vancouver.  With all this sunshine it's been hard to really settle down and get work done in the studio.  However that is just what we've done these past two weekends. We've been writing new songs and it seems as though we now have two new tracks we're excited by.  One of them is a co-write with our good friend and Crumbling Hearts co-producer Stefan Sigerson .  In a burst of inspiration we came up with an entirely new song in a matter of an hour.  It's still very loosely arranged and we haven't finished the lyrics yet, but the chorus is a good one and I expect we'll enjoy completing this track together. The weekend before Isabelle and I started writing another one as well.  We had a hook and a melody but not much else after the first day of work.  Juice dropped into the studio to offer some fresh ideas and give us the chord progression for the chorus (which thru subsequent manipulation see...

Isabelle and I were rehearsing in the living room yesterday and decided to record our version of Glasgow acoustically.  With the beautiful summer sun shining in the background we ran through our song with an more intimate version  than the Crumbling Hearts recording. It's interesting to translate our songs from full on productions to something so stripped back.  Makes a challenge for my limited guitar playing but really helps bring focus to the singing! Have a look.