Gigs are done, what’s next?

So, in a 48 hour time frame, I played 2 shows in the Triangle. Thursday at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh and Saturday at The Cave in Chapel Hill. Two very different places indeed. One is a dare I say an American sized bar which is meant to be an Irish bar (the name gives it away, right?) owned by a lady from Northern Ireland like myself. The other, a small, cosy, cavernous like bar steeped in Chapel Hill history as the oldest bar on Franklin St. Both rooms are totally different. And both shows were totally different too.

On the one hand, one bar had a professional enough sound setup, monitors for everyone, great PA system and mixing desk, plenty of stage room and space to leave your gear. The other had only front monitors, and a poorer PA system, and barely enough room to store all the bands equipment (and that was even with us gear sharing). Which gig went better? The one at the smaller venue!

It’s pretty crazy that despite the sound not being as clear at least for me, we still played better. It’s like we had to really focus and concentrate on what the others were doing in order to keep it together. And we of course rocked out a lot too. It was one of those nights were everyone was on form: having fun, going crazy but keeping it solid and tight.

After our show at Tir Na Nog, which didn’t go as well but still pretty good nonetheless, the guitarist from the band Mayday Parade, who were in town that evening, came up and praised our set a lot. Well damn, if only he was at the next show! It was cool though to be recognized by a band that have “made it” and are touring internationally. It’s the little things like that that make me more motivated to be as successful as I can be. Sometimes when we hit the road and there’s maybe 5 people and a dog there at a venue, it depresses me and makes me frustrated. It’s a long way to the top though, but we’re slowly getting there.

And with that said, the big question is: what’s next for Minor Stars?

Well, big things. We are hitting the recording studio next month to record with legendary producer Mitch Easter, who has amongst other things produced R.E.M.’s early albums. We’re recording at his place, Fidelitorium Recordings, arguably one of the finest studios in America right now. We were going to record in late February, but Joe Walsh from The Eagles fame took our spot instead. That’s the kind of demand this studio has.

We debuted a song from our upcoming album last night and it got a great reception from the crowd. We’re still fine-tuning some songs, but have a majority of them demo’ed and are now looking at adding keyboard parts and other experimental effects to these songs. This album is not going to be taken lightly, we will be taking our time recording it and making sure everything sounds just how we want it to sound.

There is one big BIG thing that will come with this album that not many local bands have done lately, and I’m obviously not going to reveal it yet, but it’s making me really excited! I genuinely do believe that the album will have something that people can at least appreciate, if not enjoy.

After the recording? We’re planning to release the record in late summer or early fall. If we’re lucky (!) we will get a slot at Hopscotch Festival to promote the album, then we will hit the road sometime in mid-late September…probably to visit our north-east friends again! It’s our favourite spots to play so why not?

We’re also looking for a permanent bass player right now who can tour and be a full time, committed band member. But that’s not quite as important right now as getting our new album into shape.

So there you have it! No idea when our next show will be, may not be until the summer. Scary thought…

Iain

2 months ago  /  0 notes