NOCTS V - Western Canada's Best Heavy Metal Festival

Hi everyone, well I am now fully recovered from the Noctis 5 after party, I would like to share with you some of the very awesome bands I had the pleasure of working with last weekend. This year Scarab Productions held their annual Noctis festival, showcasing some of the worlds best heavy metal talent. I was brought on board as the FOH engineer for the Distillery shows. First off I would like to say that the Scarab staff was very well organized, behind the scenes the festival couldn't have ran as smoothly as it did. The first night we seen some great bands, Blood Ceremony and Speedwolf  were the highlight in my opinion, with Hoopsnake, Epi-Demic, and the Contortionist delivering solid sets as well . The second night the crowd was intense, as the show was sold out I believe. Vancouver's own Anciients started the show off with a killer set, Phantom Limb, Archspire and Kataplexis followed with no disappointment.  It was my first time seeing Psychostick and I highly recommend checking this band out, they bring a hilarious comedy act along with a tightly delivered music performance. As always Midnight ripped it up again with Manilla Road following with some classic power metal. Pig Destroyer closed the show and they were insane. What a great festival to work for! my personal highlight was mixing Pig Destroyer, Manilla Road, Psychostick and Speedwolf's first Canadian shows! Till next year! Thanks to Sarah Kitteringham for the photos!

 Pig Destroyer 

 Blood Ceremony 

 using every channel on the LS9!

 Pig Destroyer from the mixing desk!

 Psypchostick

 Manilla Road

2 Year Anniversary of Electric Park Studio

     Hi Everyone, this month Electric Park Studio celebrates 2 years of providing great productions for Calgary's independent music scene! It has been a great experience to work with so many awesome artists! Big thanks to Adverse Reaction, Bloated Pig, Lowell Van Carroll & Insufficient Funds, Lordosis, The Perfect Water Band, Turnbull, Closer To Breakdown, Cowpuncher, Blind Army, TAO, The Promethean Labyrinth, Ten Cent Pistols, Don Castro, AfterEarth, Faint Awakening, Oh Shit, Shrapnal, The Whorehouse Massacre, and The Electric Revival as well as the many talented individual artists, engineers, session players and techs that we have had the pleasure of working with. We are planning a great "Customer Appreciation" party very soon at a local club here in Calgary with plenty of great bands, keep posted for information very soon!

     Recently we have had the extremely talented engineer/producer Nate Reno at Electric Park, working with Calgary's own Oh Shit and Vile Insignia. Keep an eye out for these releases  from 2 great bands!

    August seen the release of 2 amazing albums produced by EPS house engineer Ian Dillon, Bloated Pig's "Made For Hell" and Lordosis's self titled debut album. If you haven't picked up a copy of either of these albums I highly encourage it, check out their show and support this great scene!

 Here are some pics of clients crushing it at E.P.S

    

    

The Electric Summer!

Hi everyone! Wow these blogs have really been getting away on us, we have been so busy this summer that we are very behind and we have lots of updates, releases and events to share with you all.
I am proud to share with you that the mixing is now complete on the debut Closer To Breakdown album, which should be available for download on iTunes in the coming weeks. This record was great to be apart of, once again big thanks to Shawn Oates, Russ G, Brett Duncan, RJ Killinger and every one else involved with casting, rentals and support.
We are also wrapping up the final overdubs for Turnbull and the early mixes are sounding great, we look forward to wrapping this record up by late June so they can unleash this heavy driving riff rock album onto the scene, you can catch these guys in Black Diamond on Canada Day.
The Bloated Pig Album release show is scheduled for Friday August 24th at The Distillery, with Thrones of Vengeance and guests, make sure you get out to this show, you will receive a copy of Bloated Pig's newest album with cover! Cheap drinks and a great party are guaranteed. The Album is currently being mastered at Electric Park after some awesome tracking sessions in early May. If you are a fan of Bloated Pig you will enjoy this latest release .
Another project I am very excited about is Lordosis's debut album, we are currently tracking guitars after solid drum tracking sessions. Ian Dillon is co producing the album with the group, using some very experimental studio techniques, taking this project "Into The Further". Catch these guys on tour in late August and pick up their album.
Also huge thanks to Big Nate for his Calgary Metal Fest last weekend! There is some truly amazing talent in this city that I believe to be one of the best underground hardcore/metal scenes in all of Canada. And don't forget that Noctis will be just around the corner bringing some great international bands to the city, I look forward to being apart of it again this year, and check out some of the bands on the bill!
Keep it real!
Electric Park Studio

Spring @ E.P.S

This week we had some very cool sessions at Electric Park, just this past weekend we had Blind Army in the house laying down the drum tracks for their next album. The band will be self producing their record mostly at home so keep an eye out for the release date, it was a pleasure to have them in, and they rocked it! I also got the chance to demo some new gear on this session, a 2 channel Crane Song Preamp and a Yahmaha sub kick. The crane song was truly amazing, definitely worth all the hype you hear about them, it also had some very cool source coloration options which I found very groovy in some applications, definitely worth checking this bad boy out. I also found the sub kick to be very useful as well, in small doses it can definitely save a step in drum sampling for the right project, I didn't really have the time to properly experiment with it but very impressive non the less, I think E.P.S will be picking one up very soon.
Also this past week Jason Turnbull was hard at work wrapping up the remaining overdubs on his upcoming album before we get down to vocals, This project is coming along very nicely as I look forward to this summers release.
The Electric Revival (who's release I am currently producing) will be releasing a single every Sunday, all summer long, the group has also decided that their 16+ track album will be a "Free Release" available online as a complementary download, this is something rarely unheard of but the group is trusting their fans will appreciate the gesture and share it with their friends. Here is the first single they put out just this week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mffiokvweM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hope you all enjoyed the update! As we look forward to a very exciting summer here in Calgary! Keep posted for all the latest news from Electric Park Studio and stay real!

Thanks
E.P.S
587 888 5453

Calgary Indie News! Contests and Music!

Hi everyone, this week I would like to focus on some upcoming opportunities available for independent bands this summer, online there are many contests offering great prizes and opportunities for local talent. This year X92.9 is having their 6th annual Exposure contest, you have 6 weeks from today to submit to win $25,000 at www.x929.ca There are also plenty of online battle of the band type contests that are worth looking into with prizes that could get you a spot on some of the hottest local festivals this summer including Boonstock, Summer Slaughter, and many more, a simple google search can have you competing for all this summers big events.
Electric Park has some great recording packages aimed at getting high quality product in your hands for such opportunities, we are currently offering a great 3 song package which allows for the proper mixing and mastering time to give your songs that extra advantage over the competition.
We are offering a 3 day session with mixing and mastering for $1,500! This package will be gone by May!
I would also like to give a shout out to The Electric Revival, this great local indie band has been working hard on a lengthy album scheduled to be released this summer, the group plans to release a track every week until the
The full release later in the summer, with upwards of 16 plus tracks you will have the opportunity to sample a wide selection of the great tunes this local band has to offer before the actual release.
Thanks to all the great local talent, venues and promoters that make this city a very exciting place to make music!

Electric Park Studio
www.electricparkstudio.com
587 888 5453

Great Guitar Shop right here in Calgary

Hi, things are hopping here at Electric Park Studio this year, and the local music scene around Calgary has really been something! This month We are mixing Closer To Breakdown and Turnbull as well as drum tracking for Blind Army, overdubs for The Electric Revival and beginning sessions for Oh Shit's next album.
I also want to share with you a cool find right here in this city. The Guitar O.R, located in Phillips park. 6020 2nd St SE, convieniently close to Long and Mquade and St Johns Music. Jarin was able to set up all the guitars for the "Turnbull" album, and he always returned them in great working condition for recording as well as the fastest turn around in the city. If your tired of waiting 2 to 4 weeks for your guitar from the other shops in Calgary I recommend the O.R! In most cases we had a greatly tuned up axe the next day. For more info check out their page at www.guitaror.ca


Thanks
Ian Dillon
E.P.S
587 888 5453

Original Canadian Metal Scene in Calgary!

For this weeks blog I would like to focus on Calgary's thriving independent metal scene, this Sunday I had the pleasure to work with Into Eternity as they passed through town on a small tour at The Distillery. For this tour the band picked up Order of Chaos lead singer Amanda Kiernan, and it was definitely one great show, these guys were a pleasure to mix on The Distillery's new LS9. Opening for Into Eternity was Calgary's own Stab.Twist.Pull, these guys always bring a great show! If you haven't checked out their show I highly recommend it. Morbid Child and Moosafix were 2 great bands on the bill as well.
Make sure you check out the Oh Shit CD release show at Desperados this Friday March 2nd!
This week in the Studio we are wrapping up the remaining over dubs on Turnbull's first release,I look forward to a summer release and make sure you check out this riff machining hard rocking bands album later this year, co produced by Ian Dillon and Jason Turnbull.