Ryan Sprute dot com

So I’m just going to change these to “Updates” instead of “Weekly Updates” because clearly that’s not happening. So first thing’s first, The LAB show. It was really amazing from start to finish, it was definitely the best show we’ve been a part of. Big thanks to Teo Crider, Sadie Ava and Us On Roofs for making it so badass. And thanks to everyone who came to the show, some people said some really nice things and it means a lot that you guys enjoyed the show.

Speaking of shows, unfortunately we’re going to have to cancel the Ground Zero show. We are pretty squeezed for time with Sound Off coming up, as we’re practicing 4+ hours a day and we can’t afford to lose a week preparing for the show. Also, Elliot and David can’t make it so it would be a half-hearted show at best anyway; big apologies to Ground Zero and anyone in Bellevue who was psyched to see us. We’ll be playing there sometime after Sound Off I’m sure.

Like I said, we’re practicing like crazy and deep into songwriting mode. We’re in the process of writing 4 new songs to try and make our set the best it can be, and we don’t write songs that quickly so it’s a bit of a time crunch for Sound Off. Luckily we were put in the last semi-final, so I think it’s definitely do-able.

Speaking of Sound Off preparations, we have 4 shows planned in the last two weeks before Sound Off, three in Seattle and one in Bellingham! We’re excited to go there, Paul especially as he was attending Western before we all took the year off, and is a popular comedian there. Here are the shows:

- Thursday, Feb. 18th - The Den
- Friday, Feb 19th - WhAAM with A Cozy Kitchen and Candysound
- Thursday, February 25th - The Cake Room with Sea Fever, Us On Roofs and Brooklyn Pool
- Friday, February 26th - The Ballard Mine

and of course the big one - Saturday, February 27th is Sound Off! Tickets are on sale now and they WILL sell out - they’re not even selling them at the door so visit the EMP or call 206-770-2702. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for students or EMP|SFM members.

Oh! Big announcement! I am proud to say that we have our music now on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and many others. So if you haven’t bought our debut release Blue Blood EP go do so!

That’s pretty much it for now, I probably won’t be posting that much until late February but I might try to have some “Update”-unrelated posts, just general music industry stuff or maybe a little Great Waves FAQ. Got a question for Great Waves? Band history/gear/whatever send it to greatwavesband@gmail.com. Have a good one guys.

- Ryan

FIrst off, we have 4 shows this month:

- January 8th at Bop Street Records 8pm FREE
- January 15th at ACOUSTAX! at KTUB 8pm $6
- January 23rd at The LAB 7pm $5
- January 30th at Ground Zero 8pm $6/$5 with a can of food

They should be pretty good, we’ve got some new songs and these will be the debut shows with our full live band so it should be a good time.

Ashley and I also did an interview for QRO magazine, so check that out.

Not much other news, we’ve been busy writing new songs, we’re trying to have a pretty new set for Sound Off. Will’s been using Sibelius and writing out the parts, as we’re looking for a more dense orchestration for the next EP and it’ll be nice to give the strings players’ a write out of what they need to play instead of having to work it out in the studio and waste time doing that. This brings the added bonus that we may have chart music for the EP, which is cool.

We’ve also been working on our live show. It’s pretty funny, we’re practicing our stage moves (as lame as that sounds) in a room where it’s just us so we all feel pretty awkward at times. If you think about it, the stage is one of those places you can do things that would be pretty weird offstage - I mean c’mon look at Thom Yorke, he does the goofiest stuff on stage but it works for him - so when you don’t have the liberating presence of the stage it feels funny to pretend. We’re still trying to figure out what kind of band we want to be.

At the Grammy U songwriting contest, John Roderick talked about the 4th wall, how there are some bands that intentionally break that wall and make the audience  feel like they are not only spectators, but a part of the show - a good example of this would be Ben Folds, who often has the audience sing harmonies or horn parts, or a local example would be The Lonely Forest, with the charismatic leadership of frontman John Van Deusen. On the other hand, there are some bands that keep that wall completely intact - a good example of this would be Of Montreal, a band that has costumes and stage personas and everything, or the local band The Globes, who speak very little and simply put on a spectacular show. The audience isn’t a participant but simply a spectator. The problem that bands run into is when they are unable to choose what kind of band they want to be, when they initially try and keep a 4th wall but inadvertently break it and then try to erect it again. So I guess that’s where we are at the moment. We would ideally like to keep the 4th wall intact, but we have to make our transitions better if we want to be successful. Luckily, we have 2 months and 5 shows to get our live show where we want it to be for Sound Off.

So that’s it for now. January 10th we have our big Sound Off meeting, so I’m pretty excited to meet all the other bands and see what exactly is in store for us. It’s a huge opportunity to even be accepted into the final 12 so we’re incredibly honored. Hope to see you guys at some shows!

- Ryan