We wanted to take some time to update some of our lovely fans about our progress as we write and record some tasty new tracks! Over the past few weeks we’ve been piecing together a lot of ideas into what will become our second album. We are taking time to refine themes and moods that we want to convey but a lot of other interesting and surprising things are popping into our heads with every recording session.
In a time when the future is uncertain, with warfare, police brutality and the threat of the economy tanking for good, we haven’t allowed those topics to dissuade us from writing, but quite the opposite, we’re using their influence to create a dark undertone to our new songs. The emotions associated with these topics are definitely universal, so it’s interesting to take real feelings of fear and uncertainty and tell a story that seemingly has nothing to do with events in the real world. This, paired with the fun and high-energy electropop that friends and fans have come to expect, reaches for something familiar with past recordings but also something fresh and refined.
Another change we are making during this process is that we are incorporating a lot of talent from friends and sweet local bands. We are but two and it is definitely helpful and encouraging to know so many other musicians who are willing to collaborate and make great music with us. We are trying to have as much fun with this as possible and friends make everything more fun. Expect to see a list of credits and thanks in our album jacket and website when this is complete.
If you are excited to hear our new songs be sure to check out our website or Facebook regularly as we may post updates, previews or other relevant information about this record. We are so lucky to have the kind of support we are getting from a lot of you and we deeply appreciate it. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
I hit the play button on an embedded music player on their Myspace page and I hear some pickup notes that seem to me a promise that the following music will be an adventure. The crash cymbal rings out and instantly I am overcome with a sense of nostalgia and wonder as I am eagerly listening to the busy drums and the waves of rhythmic synth. This leads me into a straight and simple, yet beautiful female vocalist singing a somber melody while the beats carry on in an intricate language. The drums pull back, as a harmony joins in and there are bells foreshadowing behind it. The song plunges back into the chorus when lead singer Austin Tofte’s vocal part take the lead.
This song, called Silhouettes, never gets old for me. I could listen to it for days.
Nick and I first stumbled onto Swimming With Dolphins back in our early days as a band. We instantly became captivated by the technical rhythms, synth lines and the compelling vocal style. We looked through some of pictures and saw vintage beach themed photos and shots of the band members playing synthesizers. More importantly, what we saw was another two-man band making electronic music just like us. We saw that it was possible and it motivated us to press forward.
When we lived in Chicago, we went to see Swimming With Dolphins when they came through with The Ready Set. We stood in the crowd amongst younger folks and listened as Austin played on his own. He told us that his former band mate Adam Young couldn’t make it that night. We were astonished to hear that his live set was incredibly close to his recordings. We couldn’t believe that he pulled it off by himself. Again we were encouraged and inspired. We approached him after the show and talked to him for a bit about his music. He was modest and incredibly nice. We walked away from that show with a sense of deep respect and appreciation for Austin and his music.
The other day Nick pulled up a new YouTube video of a live Swimming With Dolphins set and a short written interview. Below is the video.
It’s great to see how Austin has progressed with his act. His new songs are killer. I can’t wait to hear his next album. I can already tell I like the direction. He also has a live drummer. Nick and I have noticed that this makes a huge difference with electronic music played live. Sometimes recorded drum tracks lose some beef when they are played in a large room. We’ve seen other electronic bands like Playradioplay! and Ming and Ping use a live kit and the result is a bump that you can feel in your chest.
Swimming With Dolphins is coming to Portland on March 23rd at Backspace. If you are in the area and you like what you’ve heard, be sure to make it out. We will be there for sure. If you are not in Portland, check out their Myspace for tour info.
Austin, we love what you are doing and support you! If you ever want to play a show, give us a shout!
-trey
Also check out Swimming with Dolphin’s website HERE.
Halloween has always been a fun reason to celebrate ghouly ghasts and haunted houses, but on Sunday, October 31st, 2010 there is another reason to get out and celebrate. We’re playing our debut show in Portland, Oregon after a long transition from Chicago. Grab your sweetest costume and your dancing shoes and get down to the Hawthorne Theater at 1507 SE 39th Ave, Portland, Oregon. The doors open at 7pm, $8 and we’re playing with Andrew’s Ave, Times New Roman, and Sam Wegman.
Onto more news… More than 2 years after leaving our families and friends in Fort Collins, Colorado, we’re heading back for a homecoming show on Saturday, November 13th, 2010! It is going to be totally awesome and if you’re in the area, you don’t want to miss it. We’ll be playing songs from our album, From Satellites, a couple new songs, and a cover or two… so get ready. This show is going to be a “Sunglasses” show, so bring some cool shades to dance in. The show is at Everyday Joe’s at 144 S. Mason St, Fort Collins, Colorado. Doors open at 7pm, $5, and we’re playing with our GREAT friends, Delicious Penguins and Monsters And Fairytales. GET TO THIS SHOW!
We’re also booking for the late fall , winter, and early spring, so if you’ve got a house show, venue, coffee shop, or dance party, email us. We’re ALWAYS down for some fun: askyouingray@gmail.com.
It seems I might have unknowingly contributed to the latest internet meme. These pics look quite similar to this pic of me playing Crack-the-hWhip with some metal kids.
This song is a cover of our GREAT friend, Richard Ingersoll. He wrote this song quite a while ago and we just LOVED it. We actually played it at our LAST show in Fort Collins with Richard and it was awesome! We miss him and this is just for him!
I want to take some time to talk about our favorite game to play.
Those of you that have been fans for a while may have received a copy of our very first demo recording. We copied this recording on plain white discs so that we could customize each and every one. When we first had the idea to customize the discs, we had no idea what to do for a cover. We thought about designs and other random things we could do with a blank white space. Suddenly, it became obvious what we had to do. We had to play the Drawring Game.
The Drawring Game came about after numerous moments of boredem in the early years of AYIG. This game was often played by Nick, Mercy, Courtney, our good friends Ian and Joseph and I. Here’s how you play:
First, one person drawrs a shape. It can be any shape you can think of. Typically the shape is some form of amoeba shape with no real obvious form. . Once a shape has been drawrn, the drawrer passes the paper to the next person. Now it is this persons job to add features to the shape and turn it in to a unique character. Usually they end up becoming silly animals with ridiculous accessories. Nick tends to drawr his characters wearing black Italian-style pointy boots. I often add a belly button to my characters especially if it is a bird of some sort. The sky is the limit so it is necessary to let your imagination run wild. There is no rush, besides the anticipation of everyone playing but sometimes it helps to spend some time rotating the shape, looking at it from different angles, while trying to get some inspiration for your creation. We like to keep the shapes simple to enhance creativity but it isn’t a rule ( I once drew an arrow shape with two points on either side and regrettably Nick turned it into a woman giving birth… wearing Italian boots). This process continues until most of the space on the page is completely filled up. As the space gets filled the shapes and therefore the characters become more and more interesting.
Since the invention of the Drawring Game, we have incorporated on occasion some additional guidelines to make the game more challenging. For instance, Nick and I have played a version of the Drawring Game in which after the shape has been drawrn but before the second person begins to create a character, a third party will randomly select an animal which the shape will become and the creator has to drawr that animal. This results in some interesting outcomes. This is why creating custom rules is a way to make the game more fun for you and your friends.
I hope to have inspired you by sharing this game and we hope that you all will take joy in playing it as we have. If anyone creates an especially ridiculous creature we would love to see it! Maybe in the future we can hold AYIG’s first web contest.
So we’ve been really getting into this new music site we recently discovered. TheSixtyOne.com. From what we’ve found out, this is an online RPG but instead of fighting monsters or fighting creatures (like Pokemon!) and all that stuff, you listen to some really good music. Most of the music on the site seems to be emerging/indie bands but there is some more popular stuff on there also. We posted a few of our songs up there and over the course of the past week we have gotten a lot of positive feedback!
The way it works is simple. Once you’ve created a profile, you have access to a bunch of genres each with hundreds of songs from original artists (some covers too!) You are alerted to some quests which consist of listening to a certain number of new songs, marking songs as your favorites, listening to a favorite over and over again etc. The more quests you complete the more experience you gain and the higher your level gets and the more credibility you earn as a music enthusiast! Basically its like if Pandora mated with World of Warcraft.
We’ve found that it’s really good for bands because it’s like the social aspect of Myspace but for people interested in discovering new music (as opposed to posting obnoxious pictures of themselves and spamming their friends with aps) We’ve found new favorites such as Philip Ferrari, King Tut, Go Periscope, FM BELFAST which gets our blood pumpin to dance all night!
Check out this site ASAP if you want to shake your booty while hearing some great new music at the same time! Don’t forget to give us a heart or two!
We wanted to take some time to update some of our lovely fans about our progress as we write and record some tasty new tracks! Over the past few weeks we’ve been piecing together a lot of ideas into what will become our second album. We are taking time to refine themes and moods that we want to convey but a lot of other interesting and surprising things are popping into our heads with every recording session.
In a time when the future is uncertain, with warfare, police brutality and the threat of the economy tanking for good, we haven’t allowed those topics to dissuade us from writing, but quite the opposite, we’re using their influence to create a dark undertone to our new songs. The emotions associated with these topics are definitely universal, so it’s interesting to take real feelings of fear and uncertainty and tell a story that seemingly has nothing to do with events in the real world. This, paired with the fun and high-energy electropop that friends and fans have come to expect, reaches for something familiar with past recordings but also something fresh and refined.
Another change we are making during this process is that we are incorporating a lot of talent from friends and sweet local bands. We are but two and it is definitely helpful and encouraging to know so many other musicians who are willing to collaborate and make great music with us. We are trying to have as much fun with this as possible and friends make everything more fun. Expect to see a list of credits and thanks in our album jacket and website when this is complete.
