New Wave Blues

It's official, our new album New Wave Blues is recorded, mixed, mastered and out for replication. The album will be available on itunes, our web site and stores December 9th. In the meantime some of the tracks are available on our myspace page. The physical CD will first be available at our CD release shows in Worcester, MA November 22nd at Ralph's and December 5th at Tommy Doyle's in Boston.

The album features 11 tracks which were produced and mixed by Patrick Krief and mastered by Ryan Morey. We're very proud of the album and can't wait to share it with everyone.

An Amazing 3 months for theWANDAS

Last July/August we settled down into Paper Cup studios with producer Patrick Krief and hammered out a full length album complete with our best work to date. The album is being mixed as we speak and will be mastered in early November. The album will first be available at our CD Release shows in Worcester MA, USA and Boston MA, USA in late November early December 2008.

We were anticipating a slow September and October in preparation for the album release. Well we were cetainly wrong. Fresh out of the studio session we took First Place out of 600 bands in our genre on the ourstage.com August 2008 song competition. Right after the competition we were chosen as the WBOS Radio 92.9 Best of Boston pick in September 2008. Coupled with a sold out show at Tommy Doyle's, September was a great month.

Just when we thought things couldn't get any better, we got an email from Natalia Yanchak of The Dears asking if we would open for them at their upcoming Boston show on October 21st, 2008. Obviously we said yes right away. Anyone who has followed us  knows how much we love and admire The Dears. This is absolutely a dream come true for us.

The Dears are touring in support of their new album Missiles. They are doing a range of intimate venues around the world, which makes it extra special. The show will be at Great Scott and will undoubtedly be packed. We are so excited to be a part of this.

Please check out the tour section on the web site to see all the shows we have coming up. We have some great ones which include a Nov 4th show in Boston with our producer's band, Black Diamond Bay. These guys are on tour from Montreal, CA and are absolutely phenomenal.

Thank you to all of our great fans who have been spreading WANDA mania around the world.

-theWANDAS

theWANDAS - "Trepidation" Wins 1st Place on Ourstage.com

Hey Guys,

We had a great showing in the ourstage.com August 2008 competition. Our song "Trepidation" won 1st place in the indie pop channel.

Trepidation, by the WANDAS on OurStage

There were about 600 entries in this category and we overwhelmingly took 1st place. Thanks for everyone who judged. We'll probably have more stuff up on ourstage.com soon too.

You can download Trepidation from the download music section or you can get it straight from itunes.

"Trepidation" Makes Our Stage Quarter Finals

Hey Guys,

We got an email yesterday saying that our song "Trepidation" has made it to the quarter finals of the OurStage.com monthly music competition. I actually forgot about the whole thing when I submitted the song, so I never told anyone to go to the site and judge us.

Anyway, right now we're ranked #7 out of about 600 entries in the indie/pop category. The way the competition works is that you are presented two songs to listen to and you decide which one you like more; you'll cycle through a bunch of songs, that way the calculation is fair.

You can access the competition by clicking the banner below.

Studio - Day 5

I ended up getting a good night sleep last night because I wasn't tracking any bass after midnight. Keith, Patrick and Joe (the lead engineer) had a late night (6:00am) tracking a ton of guitars. Keith and Brent got a bunch of stuff done for about 3-4 of the tracks

Today we're doing a bit more of the same. Keith an brent are plowing through guitar takes. Everything is sounding "amazing" as Patrick would say. This album is considerably more mellow, however the songs have great feel and soul. "Lose You" is shaping up to be an epic song. Patrick put together an unbelievable guitar tone for Brent, and Brent definitely delivered the goods on the performance

We've got a lot done, but there is a lot more to do. I'm definitely looking forward to turning the corner, when you can see all of the songs coming into their own.

In other news, I've gotten completely sidetracked with "Mike Tyson's Punch Out". It's really amazing to me that even after not playing this game for about 20 years, all of the players and idiosyncrasies come right back to me; like riding a bike. This game without a doubt brings back more childhood memories, than any other game.

Until Tomorrow


Ross

Studio - Day 4

We had originally planned to end "earlier" yesterday, but it seems like once you get into that cycle it's hard to break it. We ended up finishing at around 6am for the session. Pete laid down the drum tracks for three of the songs. One on the songs, "lose you" is a real slow laid back tune, with a bit of a swing. Pete's groove, feels great.

Today Pete is finishing the drum tracks for the rest of the album. After that, Brent and Pete will be doing guitar parts for about 2 or 3 of the songs tonight. They'll be a lot of bass to track for me tomorrow.

No monopoly yet today; but we've been preoccupied with "Excite Bike".

Until Tomorrow,

Ross

Studio - Day 3

We had another real late night last night. We didn't tracking until 7 a.m. Since we were making up for yesterday's snafu we had to essentially do double in one day. We were able to finish another song called "Please Come Home". It features a real piano which is a first for theWANDAS recording sessions. For those of you who made it to our last couple shows, we had played these first two songs live.

(Patrick jamming on the Piano, before Keith tracked  "Please Come Home")

Today, Pete is working on drum tracks for three more songs. Everything is sounding really awesome. Patrick is getting amazing sounds from the drums. Everything from a Stevie Wonder-esque pop  to Ringo's kit sound on "Let It Be".

I've won another game of monopoly against Brent, Keith and Josh (one of the engineers). Brent and I beat Bubble Bobble in it's entirety; which is 210 levels. I'll probably tracking bass for these 3 songs either tonight or early tomorrow.

Cheers,

Ross

Studio - Day 2

We finished up last night (this morning) at 6am. We tracked all of the parts for "Bending Over Backwards" Everything sounded great. We're using an array of classic guitars and amps which all have great sounds. We returned to the studio for around 1:30pm this afternoon.

Unfortunately we arrived to listen to last night's work only to find that the song sounded just a tad slow. When we investigated further we realized that we tracked the song 1 bpm (beat per minute) too slow. This is a very small difference, but the entire feel just didn't seem right. So, we decided to re-track the entire thing. Sigh...

After the initial depression, Patrick reminded us that it's better to get it right and feel good about everything when we're done. Rather than regretting it after it's too late. Nonetheless we moved ahead in good spirits. Now we're just about done with the song yet again, and will be tracking another one tonight. Since it's already midnight, we'll be having another late night.

On the non-music related news, we've played 2 games of monopoly. I won the first and Brent won the second. Brent and I are also on level 73 of "Bubble Bobble". Which we're determined to beat before the session's end

Cheers,

Ross

Studio - Day 1

Alright here we go:

Keith and Pete spent the last two days in Montreal with Patrick, working out the songs together. The 3 of them arrived back in Boston last night. The full band and Patrick then went over 3 of the "less finished" tracks and finalized their structure. After practice we headed out on the town for our inaugural drinks of the recording session.

Today we headed to the studio around 1pm. First on the docket will be Pete's drums for one of the more upbeat songs on the album "Bending Over Backwards". It takes some time to start a recording session because you have to get "sounds" for each instrument. This means you combine the instrument, amps, room, microphones, etc to create a good sound, that is consistent throughout the recording.

90% of recording is waiting. Which is what Brent, Keith and I will be doing while Pete records his track. 

We'll be back online later.

Cheers,

Ross

It's Studio Time

Hey WANDAland,

It's an exciting time for us. We're heading Into the studio this Friday, July 25th to record our 3rd full length album and 4th studio release. We haven't recorded a full length album since "Can't Say Danger On The Radio" back in 2005-2006. With the success of our most recent release "You Should Have Listened [EP]" We'll be recording at Paper Cup Studios in Boston MA, with producer Patrick Krief (The Dears) again.

We'll be in there for 2 solid weeks and won't be coming up for air until we have a kick-ass album. All of the songs are written and ready to be tracked. I'm hoping to keep daily updates going on the web site.

When we get out of the studio we'll be playing a couple shows in Worcester MA and Boston MA, so check the Tour Page for up to date info.

Cheers,

Ross

Music Video - We Need Your Help!

You may have noticed a new section added to the navigation of theWANDAS.com entitled thewandas.com/mvp. This section is dedicated to our latest music video production. Here's the gist, we're putting together (what we think will be) a really cool music video. One of things that will make it cool is that it will feature a ton of people.

MVP_girl.jpgThis is where you come in. Since we need a lot of people to make this happen, we are reaching out to our friends, families, fans, and asking everyone to reach out to their friends and family, etc etc. At this point we are simply creating a list of interested people. You don't need any experience with anything. We urge you to add your name to the list. It will be a huge help, and you'll get to be in a cool music video.

Click on the link theWANDAS.com/mvp to learn more and add your name to the list. Please don't be shy, just throw your name in the ring. You're not committing to anything at this point.

-WANDA 

It's Mixing Time

After our hefty 2 hours of sleep we set out to go to Clement's home/studio to finishing mixing our songs. Clement lives about 45 minutes outside of Montreal. His place is  completely in the boonies which makes it a very peaceful place to visit. The scenery on the way there was pretty impressive. 

quebec.jpgJust to give you some background on Clement. We were introduced to him through Patrick. He works with practically everyone in Montreal. He's also an accomplished vocalist and his been playing in bands, touring, recording, etc for over 20 years. He's been mixing our album with collaboration from us via phone and email. However, we haven't actually met him in person until today.

We pull up to his house and he meets us outside. "The Wandas are in the building he yells in a welcoming tone". He brings us inside, shows us his home, his studio, offers his home to us as if it was ours. A very nice guy.

He can tell we're pretty beat from last night as Brent says "yeah, we're a little hung over; we didn't sleep much". "No problem my friends, I have just the remedy for you" says Clement. He brings us into his kitchen pulls out 4 shot glasses and a bottle of 10 year old malt scotch whiskey. "You may not like the remedy at first, but I gurantee it will make you feel better". I can see Keith almost gagging from the sight and smell of the shots being poured. "Cheers!" we throw back the shots. 

whiskey.jpgKeith braces himself over the sink for support from feeling woozy and just in case the scotch didn't settle so well. I look at Brent and he has a giant smile on his face with tears coming out of his eys "I feel much better" he says. He puts is index finger pressed against his lips as if he was 'shushing' someone. His cheeks blow up like Dizzy Gillespie and he casually walks to the trash, opens the lid and pukes directly into it. Clement pulls out some gum and puts his arm around Brent and says "what a great first impression, I love this guy!"

I  must say I actually felt fine for the rest of the day. After that, we fired up "Thank You Note" (one of our new songs) and proceeded to work out some kinks in the mix. We really plowed through everything at a good clip. Some of Clement's friends came by chatted with us for a bit, listened to some of the mixes and just hung out. Clement has a great house for relaxing and working on music. They've recorded a bunch of albums in his house because it has great acoustics. 

There is a real sense of local music and strong support that follows it. Over the course of the day, about half a dozen friends came by to say hello, talk about new projects they're working on and just hang out. Martin (Bassist of The Dears) was among the people who popped in, as he's good friends with Clement. He's also been recording a side project at Clement's house  too.  We're hoping to play a couple shows with them in Boston and Montreal.

We're real happy with how everything came out. Clement did a great job and he even offered to mix one more song for us that we recorded after the initial 3 songs. Once we wrapped things up we headed back to the hotel for one more night on the town. All in all this has been a great trip. Lots of fun and lots of progress for the band.

Cheers,

Ross 

Northbound

Tomorrow morning we'll be heading up to visit our neighbors to the north. Canada here we come. We're going to Montreal Quebec to meet up with our Producer Patrick Krief and our mixer Clement Goulet. The plan is to meet up with Patrick and Clement in Montreal Friday night to catch up and have a few drinks. Both Patrick and Clement will be working on their own sessions during the day on Friday. Patrick is busy recording a new album with The Dears. It would be awesome to catch a glimpse of what they're working on, but that may be a long shot.

We'll be spending all day Saturday at the Clement Goulet Mansion, mixing the last bits of our EP. We'll pack everything in on Sunday and hopefully be heading back home to the good ole' U.S. of A. with a finished EP. We haven't committed to the final name of the EP, but we're 90% settled on an idea.

I'm going to be keeping a log of everything that happens during our trip. I plan on making at least one blog entry a day, if not more. So be on the look out for some news, updates, and hopefully some photos of our time over the border.

Cheers,
Ross

Last Song

We're in the studio right now, recording the final song of our new EP. This last track is going to be primarily acoustic with a real energetic feel. I'm listening to Brent and Keith hammer out some initial takes, and it sounds pretty good.

We're heading up to montreal next friday to get the final mixes of the other 3 songs we previously recorded. If all goes as planned, we should have the finished EP finished and packaged up by next sunday. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Ross

theWANDAS work with Patrick Krief (The Dears) on new EP

Hey Guys,

We've recently spent some time in the studio recording our new EP with Patrick Krief as our producer, better known as the lead guitarist of The Dears and the front man for his solo project Krief

We're super excited about how the songs came out. The EP will consist of either 3 or 4 new songs. Working with Patrick was a real pleasure and look forward to playing some shows together in the near future.

With Enthusiasm,
theWANDAS