It’s fun to get the message that the recording you did in the cold and dark on a Friday night in February is now out, and you go back to that and listen to that fun time in and out of a van, next to a fire pit, just playing music and getting interviewed at the up and coming Monarch. It makes us feel like a real Ogden band.
Check it out here, and subscribe to Banyan Collective, especially their #VanSessions for more local music. Thanks to Brandon and Todd for the fun night and the recording!
We keep a digital recorder on hand during rehearsals. Documenting new tracks is useful for future practice or just to remember what we invented on the spot. But sometimes it’s a 30-second blooper reel of failure and comedy.
Caryn thought it would be fun to post this for Valentine’s Day. Seemed perfectly appropriate, actually.
It’s not as though this has been a secret, but we’ve been keeping it to ourselves until everything was ready.
And now, it’s ready.
We spent an afternoon in the studio and recorded stuff worthy of your favorite speakers or headphones. Either way, turn it up to 11 and listen.
You can go to the dedicated samples page (substandards.band/samples) where there’s a description of each track (plus one bonus demo track!), or push the play button on the player in the side bar (often pushed to the bottom if you’re reading this on a smaller device), or let us know if you’d like these in another format and we’ll be delighted to share them with you.
While you’re listening, here’s a few snapshots from The Proper Way studios on a Saturday afternoon. When we look back on this, we were clearly having a good time playing through the live takes to get each track just like we wanted it. It was also intimidating and stressful. But you’d never know now. We’re proud of these, and grateful that we got to do this. We hope you enjoy it, too.
Remember that time we got to play Jazz at the Station? We’re still tickled about that. Being up on a stage in that giant hall where the sound hangs in space, all in front of old friends and new friends — this all makes for a really fun gig.
Since then, we’ve been keeping to ourselves but busy working. In the next couple of days we should have something new to share!
Edit: A few days later in the studio, we’d record a demo of the same song while we were checking microphones. It’s fun to play with the variation the song affords.
Standards & Substandards 