Endless Blue
756 plays
6,726 views
6,726 views
Strongly influenced by the fruits of the downtempo Bristol sound of the early nineties, Endless Blue's music spins the trip-hop style in a new direction while staying true to their roots. They infuse trip-hop's "signature" lo-fi beats, vintage synths, and jazzy bass with guitar and songwriting that leans toward the indie-rock vibe of their original home of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sprinkled into these grooves are eclectic snippets of other genres, from synth-pop to industrial to loungecore to staright-up rock. Finally, bringing it all together is a female voice that is a blend of numerous eras, from the torch singers of the '40s to the classic female rockers to the modern trip-hop singers.
Trashy beats, jazzy keys, sultry vocals -- this is Endless Blue.Band/artist history
comes as the next step of a project that has been evolving from almost a decade now. The first glimmers of can be seen in Belen, New Mexico, in 1994. Nick Mitchell, unable to find any musicians to work with in his hometown, started programming drums and bass lines into his computer using archaic tracker programs. Most of this music was inspired by his instrumental guitar rock heroes and . Using a tape recorder and his PC, Nick recorded a few tracks, including a version of the hit from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.
In mid 1995, heavily influenced by soundtrack by and a renewed interest in , Nick would write the first song for , the direct pre-cursor project to . The song did not see the light of day immediately, though, as Nick found several collaborators in his new home of Socorro, New Mexico. Taking advantage of the college atmosphere and the non-existent nightlife, he was able to get an industrial metal project rolling, drawing from the influences of , , and . The project, called , performed a few times around Socorro. Nick dragged his PC on stage, hit play, and jammed along on guitar, while Scott Salvas took on vocals.
After about a year and a half and with the experience of under his belt, Nick decided that he did not want to continue on the heavy route. The song he wrote in the summer of 1995 still nagged at him, so he disbanded in favor of something new. (Scott went on to sing for the metal band , a sort of guitar rock meets industrial sound. came into reality in mid 1997 as Nick started recording his first album in the back room of his trailer. Using a simple multitrack editor on his PC and a lot of elbow grease, Nick recorded and released on tape that fall. He backed it up with a few solo performances.
In early 1998, Nick moved to Madison, Wisconsin as a change of scenery and to pursue his music with more readily. Inspired by the difficulty of meeting people in a new place, Nick wrote another EP worth of music, which he released under the title at the end of 1998. This time the sound was much more moody and electronic, but it was still obviously rooted in instrumental guitar. Picking up steam through his success on mp3.com, Nick continued to push . He released his first "true" CD in July of 1999, the self-titled "white album". The 70-minute CD was a culmination of all his work up to that point, including a number of ambient works. He garnered moderate success around Madison, getting the CD several positive reviews.
Around the time the white album was released, Nick met Andy Davies, a fellow electronic musician in the Madison scene. Soon the two were collaborating, and Andy joined to perform some of his own music and run multimedia. By the fall, the duo became a trio as they met a drummer who sat in on an electronic kit. , now more than a one-man show, performed a few shows around town, but had trouble getting a positive response to instrumental-only music. By the spring of 2000, added vocalist Erin Joyner. With Erin came a very definitive change in style for - the songs became much less rock based and much more audience friendly, but still remained fast and heavy on beats. began to draw more on their more techno and pop influences - , , and became very common descriptions of their music, but they still held fast to the rock roots.
In the summer of 2000, Jerry "Fizz" Nevaiser joined the band to replace the current drummer, and with this line-up, played around Madison for the rest of the year, including an opening show for at the . In this time, the band recorded their next EP worth of music, called . Consisting of half vocal and half instrumental tracks, the EP saw very limited success and release, as it was primarily used as a promotional tool to shop new venues.
By early 2001, 's ambition had outgrown Erin, and she left the band. The remaining members started auditioning new singers. After almost four months of looking, found Laura Hillman. With Laura, the band found a fabulous singer and a newfound energy and ambition. quickly began to see a considerable number of shows, and by December the band had played every venue in Madison, including the very prestigious . Around this time the preliminary work on 's next (and final) release was done. Andy wrote several excellent pop singles which, combined with Laura's strong voice and Nick's strong production, became the framework of the album .
Madison soon grew too small for the band, and in early 2002 STATE4 decided to move to Minneapolis, Minnesota to continue their music. Unfortunately, Fizz was unable to make the move, so moved on to another drummer. quickly grew in the new city, and around the time was released, the band had several decent shows lined up. By the end of August, had played the , , , and , but were still not drawing many to their shows. Around this time, met , who helped the band promote shows and distributed their album.
After lost their drummer, helped them shape their image, which was in flux. The band's sound was too electronic to appeal to the rock crowd, and too rock to appeal to the electronic crowd. decided to move in a more electronic route, causing Nick to tone down the guitar considerably and causing the music to slow down. The band began to draw heavily from its trip-hop and downtempo influences, namely , , , and , resulting in a new level for the music.
Unfortunately, this change did not bode well for the band. Tensions grew as the ambitions and goals of the band began to separate. The music was moving away from something that could be performed by a band per se, yet there was resistance to the idea of opening up to new session musicians. Also, with the new sound, the talents of the members were not all represented, and the writing became very one sided. By the summer of 2003, it had become apparent that could not move on as it was. After eight years of hard work, had reached its peak and passed its prime, so the members walked away from it.
Out of the ashes rose , the project that had tried to be. Laura and Nick chose to continue on with a select few songs from their previous work and all the knowledge they had gained from running a band in the long term. The pair spent the summer of 2003 rebuilding and refining their sound, which they quickly named: . Many new songs grew out of the newfound energy Nick and Laura felt for the project, and soon Endless Blue had enough of a repitiore to play out again.
One of the tenents that Laura and Nick decided to build the project on was one of openness to working with other musicians. They exercised this belief very early on, picking up the guitarist Nicho9las, a musician studying at St. Thomas whom Laura and Nick had worked with in their stint with . He was quickly brought up to speed and played with several times through the summer and the fall.
Before was relocated to Chicago in the fall of 2003, Nicho9las worked with a singer who was brought on to front the band. Her name was Amanda Oechsle. Laura and Amanda were introduced shortly thereafter, and quickly became good friends. After singing a ton of jazz and show tunes together during tear down at a winery gig, Laura invited Amanda to sing a few songs with , and she was at rehearsal the next week.
In only a few weeks, it became very apparent that Amanda would be an invaluable asset to the project. There was also a growing excitement and strong feeling of chemistry between the three. Amanda was formally invited to become the second lead vocalist of late in the fall of 2003. After a string of marathon rehearsals, Amanda played her first few shows with the group very early in 2004. It was unanimous among the attendees -- the dynamic Amanda brought to the project took it to another level. The duo had become a trio with the strongest lineup yet.Your musical influences
The music draws from and combines a wide array of influences, old and new. Downtempo beats pay homage to both the Bristol sound and modern R&B, while the warm, vintage sounding instrumentation conjures images of Air and Moby. Hillman draws from a long line of rock divas combined with modern pop vocalists, giving her a style and timbre similar to Kelli Dayton of the Sneaker Pimps.What equipment do you use?
Software: ACID, Vegas, Waves plug-ins, izotope plug-ins, ohmForce plug-ins, NI Absynth, NI B4, fxPansion DRR-005; Keyboards: Korg Triton, Korg MS2000, Korg X5, Korg PolyEnsamble, Korg PolySix; Drum Modules: Alesis DM-Pro; Guitars: Jackson Fusion, Fernandes Sustainer; Amps: Line6 Vetta
756 plays
6,726 views
6,726 views
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