PEAK Performance Boot Camp, Day 4, Monday, August 30th

It’s official, everyone here is capable of creating music, arranging parts in such an order that they eventually form something strong and beautiful, and the words and melodies just flow, inspired by the people and surroundings. It is truly incredible to witness,=. In an atmosphere like this, how can we not feel at ease? We can’t wait to fully share this experience with you all, through our upcoming videos and photo blogs and of course, our showcase at the Red Room in Vancouver on September 9th… we assure you, we have been working hard at becoming the band we feel you deserve. Kevin Pauls has helped us out with many tips for our performance, and we cannot thank him enough.

We’ve also been working on our songwriting challenge, long into the nights and between our classes, outside of our comfort zone, an “unapologetic pop anthem” if you will… it should be finished soon as we are hitting the studio after the showcases tonight. We can’t wait to show you what our years of secretly listening to Top 40 pop has done to our minds, nor can we wait to see the amazing bands tonight!

Talk soon! Love, Acres…

Peak Performance Project Boot Camp, Day 3, Sunday, August 29th

It’s probably a little too early to tell, but it would appear that we have set out to average about 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night while we are here. We’d like to think it’s not our fault, with all the late-night jams and activities that have taken place, but it really is. There’s just too much fun to be had here, too many things to experience with so many great people, and so much work to be done, that we couldn’t bear to fall behind. At any rate, we are keeping up and are praying we don’t burn out. If this should ever happen, I would imagine we could turn to our bunk-mates Christopher Arruda, for his antics and positivity, and Vince Vaccaro, for the medicine he may or may not have collected from the mountains, during his travels in the Arctic.

It was our turn to showcase tonight, and oh boy, we were nervous. We found it very strange how something we have done hundreds of times, the life we live through our music, can suddenly be set on edge by the thought of having to perform in front of our peers, incredible musicians, and of course, a judge-panel of trained professionals. It took us most of the day to calm down, but we pulled through it. There was a lot to do beforehand, a seminar by Warne Livesey, a friend and colleague, a live sound workshop from engineer Shawn Cole, followed by a songwriting seminar by two brilliant men, Don McLeod and Dane Devillier. We were then subjected to a songwriting challenge, the full course, and they even gave us a title to the song, “Last Night.” We definitely had our work ahead of us, and were thinking of writing a tune a little our of our comfort zone, which would be a melodic, and extremely gloomy, dance-party remix, in the key of Lady Gaga (??) Whatever that means.

We had the privilege of sharing the stage tonight with our good friends Christopher Arruda, who’s set was absolutely stunning and brilliant, Steph Macpherson, a gal we’ve known for some time now and who’s set was heartfelt and beautiful, and a new friend by the name of Bodhi Jones, a folk and pop singer songwriter who has refreshing and magical sound. We hit the stage last, the butterflies still in tow, but we worked through it and had probably one of the most exciting experiences we’ve ever had on a stage, in a rather large wooden room, a hall really, but it was still so intimate. Everyone here was our friend, and there to support us, and they had as much fun as we did. The 4 songs we chose to showcase went by so quickly, and before we knew it, the night was over and the judges said their part, and they certainly were kind. There was a lot of love in the room, and we definitely felt it.

See you tomorrow, friends!

PEAK Performance Project Boot Camp, Day 2, August 28th

Well I must say, it’s just like We Are The City described it, the food here is amazing! The fact that we get breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks, and it rocks, is more then we could ever ask for, and are in fact, healthier meals than we make for ourselves back home.We would like to take this time and thank the R-Ridge Canyon staff, for making us feel welcome and making the food do said rocking. Stoked to be nourished, finally.

Like we said in the previous blog about the busy schedules, it wasn’t a lie. Many workshops, involving industry professionals, teaching us how the music bizz works. I do believe subjects such as music law, radio and tv interviews, songwriting, live sound and performances, production and many more, we assure you. Also, Apple computers has provided a full “Mac Lab” for us to brush up our social networking skillz whilst simultaneously recording demos on Logic, way too cool. A wonderful man named Grant Lawrence also showed us how to use Twitter properly, so you may be hearing a lot more from us on there, loooollll. He also told us that we did a great job at the radio and tv interview sessions, but that Jeff used too many unnecessary hand gestures, who knew? This is awesome.

We met a lot of people today, fellow bands and artists, and the camp was literally alive with music. Every space, corner and stairway, there was someone perched, writing a song, or rehearsing. It was magical, and with so many new and old friends here, it is quite the environment to be keep up the creative flow. We were also introduced to many producers and technicians, people we will gladly be consorting, and hopefully not getting into too much trouble with (LIES) Kuba Ohms told Lewis at one point, that he was beautiful and it got his confidence way up, it was a nice comment.

Later that evening, we experienced the first of many nightly showcases, 4 of the top 20 bands, playing a 20 minute set for everyone in the dining hall, on an elaborately decorated stage (Disco ball and everything) with some equipment provided by Long and McQuade, a place I think we are all familiar with, and sound run by Shawn Cole, an amazing engineer, who we will get to know more as this story goes on. Tonight, we had the pleasure of watching sets by Vancouver based artists “Adaline,” “41st and Home,” “Debra Jean” and an immensely mouth-dropping set by a man we’ve shared the stage with before, “Greg Sczebel.” It was a creative and constructive night and we look forward to more, and to our showcase tomorrow night.

Stay tuned! Another yet to come!