{ ECHO.AND.DRAKE | Winter Update }

HI Folks!  We had a busy year in 2010 and we’ve got lots of exciting things on the horizon in 2011, so it’s about time that we gave you a recap of last year and preview of what’s in store this spring and summer.

We’ve got 3 shows coming up in the next week:  Friday @ The Hungry Tiger (Manchester, CT), Saturday @ Sully’s Pub (Hartford, CT), and Monday @ Stella Blues (New Haven, CT).  The band has also been invited to play two big festivals this year in Meriden (April 30th) and Hartford (July 9th) — the details are top secret for now but we’ll be posting them when we get permission from the concert organizers.  We’re hoping we’ll see some familiar faces among the big crowds (hint, hint)!  We’re also being featured on WESU 88.1 FM’s Homegrown this Thursday from 5-6pm.  The host, Robert DeRosa, has been kindly playing our music almost every week for months now and he puts on a great show — be sure to tune in if you’re within range.

Recording the New Album: “Sundrenched Elsewhere”

[Thanks to photographer Andrew Wallach for documenting the whole experience -- the photos are truly amazing.]

As you may know, we began recording our first full-length album entitled “Sundrenched Elsewheres” back in June, at Telefunken Elektroakoustik Studios.  It was quite an experience:  their microphones start out at around $15,000 and we had an arsenal of them aimed at Alex’s drums.  They recently had Michael Buble, Green Day, and Gnarls Barkley do some recording there, and Coldplay purchased a “Fleet” of their mics shortly before we arrived.  Needless to say, it felt like we’d officially entered the big leagues.

The engineers were floored by our performance (which is a rare accomplishment for any band, as engineers tend to be a rather jaded bunch) and we managed to lay down the basic tracks for 15 songs in a single day (well done, Alex!).  Thanks to head engineer Joe Masters, we walked away with some extremely high quality tracks, and we’ve been working on sculpting the rest of the guitars, percussion, and vocals at our home studio (which we’ve affectionately dubbed “Two Stone Studios”) in Wethersfield, CT.  Thanks to Mark and Eileen for being so generous with their home over the past year!

We’re in the final stages of recording now — Jon is busy finishing up all of the main and background vocals in Providence, RI, as we speak.  After that, we’re shipping all of the tracks off to several mixing engineers who will be putting the final touches on all the songs, including Juno Award winning producer, Joseph Donovan.

Echo & Drake Sweeps the Grand Band Slam

Thanks again to everyone who voted for us in the Hartford Advocate’s Grand Band Slam back in August!  Thanks to you, we’ve been invited to play more high-profile shows and we’ve garnered additional attention from the press.  We really rely on your support and you’re the reason that we keep making music, so thanks for being there over the past several years.  We’ve got a lot of exciting things on the horizon and we look forward to taking you with us.

Here’s what the Advocate had to say about us:  “While it’s not unheard of for a band to thoroughly sweep the Band Slam [Best Band, Best New Band, Best Rock Band, Best Singer/Songwriter (Jon Ericson), Best Instrumentalist (Rich DeVito)], it is unusual for a new local band to garner such buzz right out of the gates. But Echo & Drake is the right band at the right time. Their ‘80s-tinged indie pop is unique among Connecticut acts. They recently released a video for their song “Lights Out,” featuring a prominent cameo by Alexander Calder’s Stegosaurus statue in downtown Hartford.”

Supporting the High Dials this past October

We’re honored to have supported one of our favorite bands of all time, The High Dials, this past October at Arch Street Tavern.  It’s becoming a bit of a tradition, so if you missed the show, you can probably catch them again with us in Hartford next fall.  They put on an amazing show and just released a new album that we highly recommend to all of you — check out their main site to order it.

Dan Barry of the Hartford Advocate had this to say about the show:

“If you saw the results of this year’s Grand Band Slam, you might’ve noticed that indie rockers Echo & Drake basically won everything. What’s more, if you looked them up online, you probably found that their recordings were a really neat combination of pop accessibility and crafty details. After their Friday gig at Hartford’s Arch Street Tavern, I can attest that the quartet can pull it off live as well. Beautiful singing, cool drum fills, jangling guitar — the band creates music that draws upon the ‘80s without being enslaved by them. There’s urgency, there’s rocking out, there’s relaxed beauty, there are danceable grooves. If you like rock music, you can find something you’ll dig in their songs. The crowd at Arch Street certainly did, especially considering that the place was crushed with bodies. Echo & Drake brought in more fans than the higher-billed group the High Dials, who traveled all the way from Montreal for the gig. I was blown away by their song “No Manners,” which kicks off with a rapid-fire, cymbal-based groove, and then overlays a spacious, ringing guitar lick. The contrast between the busy beat and the relaxed guitar creates an awesome push-pull effect.”

Download “Lights Out” and get new Echo & Drake Merchandise

In the meantime, tell all of your friends that they can download our single “Lights Out” at our ReverbNation Page (click on the “Visit Store” button, then “Music”), or sign up for our mailing list through our main website and get the track for free! And if you haven’t already purchased some Echo & Drake apparel and accessories, head over to our ReverbNation store via the links in this newsletter.

Stay tuned for album updates, downloadable singles, previews, a main website makeover, and CD release show details in the coming weeks and months… things are in motion.

Best,
Jon, Rich, Alex, and Chris