hype machine

Ryan:
As part of an ongoing rant, I must sit back and reflect upon the years we've been working on this "music" of ours. It's been a wild ride, and it never truly is how it appears. The mass media, with all it's hype and dumpings of "new" has lost it's grip. Independent bands are compelled to release as fast as possible, with quantity always taking precedence over quality. "Being Relevant", "Genre Defining", and "Top Tier Sellers" seem to be the most important attributes to releases these days, and albums don't matter. These "releases" are purely singles.

And what is lost? The hardcore fan. The music lover who listens end to end. The person who collects all the hidden treasures they can find on their favorite band. Because who is their favorite band? Can they even answer that? There are far too many new ones to pay attention to next. Week after week. Day after day.

Well, as we prep our final recordings for the third full length album all of this starts compelling me even more. It becomes more important to me to really spend the time to make this album an album worth loving. I'm a fan of great LP's, by great bands. And while we are still little guys in the eyes of the media, we do have fans we love. Fans we want to give our best efforts to. Forget all the hype. Forget all the prestige. We just love music, and we hope our fans feel like the wait was worth it. That our fine tuning was better suited than just releasing at record pace.

Music is good! The album is just around the bend... and we hope you stay tuned!

a video recollection of SXSW

SXSW 2010 - a shoreline dream from Latenight Weeknight on Vimeo.

SXSW Kickoff show at Hi-Dive - March 4, 2010

Pics from the show as taken by Eddie Breidenbach.

2010 - Full steam ahead

Ryan:

As I sit and recollect the previous year, it's indeed nothing short of a roller coaster ride. On one hand the band stepped up a few rungs of the enormous ladder we've been on since 2006. Releasing "Recollections of Memory", guest appearing with Ulrich Schnauss at SXSW, playing live on KEXP and East Village Radio, playing Monolith, and releasing the side project known as Brim Liski were big highlights.

But on the other hand it was a battle and many things were lost. Enoc and the band split ways, countless nights of sleep were lost from the ever present death of my friend Michelle, and we had to hold back on touring till 2010. Of course we're all aware of the increasing pressure of the economy, a very unstable war, and the consequences avoided which have resulted in an unstable climate. But with the new year comes new hope. That's really all we can have at this point in time as we all know the future is completely black until we turn on the lights with each passing day. We look forward to new experiences, new music and a step out of the secure pasts we lived. I vow to make change for myself, the band and for the fans we have so graciously found through our music.

Starting with day one of twenty ten I promise to devote more energy to the one thing I love most of all, that being music, and I surely hope to share it all with you and with those new ears who stumble upon it. Some risks indeed will have to be taken to make this possible and I look forward to giving some new ideas a try. This coming decade is all about not standing back, but standing up and taking a chance. Every person should and does have this right as with every passing year it's remembered how short of a lifespan we all really have. I feel grateful to be alive and to be able to experience all of this. It's indeed amazing how possible it is for us to consciously act on our own in this existence. Might as well take full advantage of it...

I very much look forward to SXSW, a new album and an overall focus of present. I'm proud to have the guys in A Shoreline Dream there every step of the way and couldn't imagine it otherwise. Here's a toast to 2010 from A Shoreline Dream to you!

Westword 2009 albums of the year list

Thanks to Westword for their "favorite release of the year for 2009" mention!
http://bit.ly/4wurVf

2009 MONOLITH FESTIVAL

Very happy to announce that we will be performing on Sunday, September 13th at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado! Check out our myspace page or the offical Monolith site for the full lineup. monolithfestival.com

CD RELEASE PARTY - FEB. 26

FILTER MAGAZINE PRESENTS:
A SHORELINE DREAM CD RELEASE PARTY!
Bluebird Theater
with Moonspeed & Sonnenblume
935 E. Colfax Ave, Denver, Colorado 80218

Pre-Release Show on January 23, 2009

the number one flaw

Ryan:
Time for a bit o' ranting and raving if you will. Don't mean to offend, but I for sure am using this to speak some mind. Taking some time out from mixing "manhattan beach" to do this as my ears need the rest. The issue is this. . . I want to see a day where musicians and artists as a whole are all paid what they're worth. Instead I'm starting to see independent artists lose faith and lose money, forcing them to hault their creativity while they figure out how they can actually afford to make it happen.

Why is it that artists starve while the artistically defunct gain enormous amounts of power? Well it's very easy to figure out if you can see that it's almost entirely based on genetic lifestyle decisions developed by previous generations. Some grow up learning that winning the race of financial success is number one priority, while others learn to create and develop new concepts and visions. Problem is most of the time these "creatives" can't think beyond their lifestyle boundaries. They put up a wall when they are put in a situation outside of their norm. And yes, most people do this cause it takes quite a great deal of energy to think outside of your everyday. Artists don't want to deal with money, and business people don't think they can create. But it's when these two simple elements join forces that we can finally realize the full "idea" without any explanation.

I often times see the best creative ideas in music, movies & video games lose all their steam due to the guy with cash and his disciples climbing the same ladder, pouring water down to a seed, which was sadly already burned by the sun. Other times I have taken witness to the best idea finally finding it's way out there, eventually down the road getting destroyed by something copied and distributed in higher quantities.

The true passion of whatever "it" is needs to get out there, and people need to learn to understand each other a bit more. Closing any door, for whatever reason does nothing but hinder the evolution of art. The music and movie industries need to wake up and stop feeding copied art done poorly to the masses. It's destroying art as a whole, and tearing apart the artists trying to do what comes naturally. Only till both sides can talk will it happen.

It's sad, but if you can't operate on both sides of the fence (creative & business) then you're gonna find yourself burned. And it's not that you have to do both, but you need to understand and talk to both in a logical manner. This is the number one flaw of the creative industry as a whole. Communication. Without it, it's nearly impossible to let the best ideas show their full strength.

We seriously as a whole need to start communicating again. And I'm not saying everyone cause there are key people out there making it happen (I for sure know quite a few!). I just think more of us need to do the same, or be doomed with some very lonely futures. The family lives on and spreads itself out there. Why not teach it the right thing to do. Maybe then we won't need to build more jails like the one above.

Yes, it was random, but random is good. Thanks for listening!

LIVE Review :: FILTER :: THE FALCON

Originally published at the following site:
http://www.uptheantics.com/blog/entry/a_shoreline_dream_denver_july_9

July 14, 2008
A Shoreline Dream. Denver. July 9

Text & photo by Robert Castro

Last night I had the opportunity to witness a transformational night of music, compliments of Denver’s own A Shoreline Dream and German import Ulrich Schnauss. A Shoreline Dream opened their set with an awe-inspiring dream-rock sound that is often compared to Sigur Rós and Vast (lead singer Ryan Policky even going as far as to wearing a Vast t-shirt during their set). The intimate crowd seemed to be riding a tidal wave of musical bliss that was coming from this four-piece outfit. With atmospheric guitar riffs and sonic bass lines, in addition to Policky’s chiseled vocals, it’s no wonder the band has received various accolades from the press, even recording with master producer Schnauss, who took the stage with them for the song “neverChanger” off the EP of the same name.

If I could describe Ulrich Schnauss’ music, I would say it is Herbie Hancock meets Hans Zimmer. At times during his set I, like many others in the crowd, found myself in a euphoric state enjoying the masterpiece of sound he was creating. With complementing visuals, Ulrich conducted his one-man orchestra to the tune of electronic bleeps and beats mixed in with a touch of ambient techno. It was a rare opportunity to catch these two performances in a single night; nonetheless the crowd absorbed every square-inch of musical mastery served to them.

meadowlark - friday, february 15, 2008

Co-Producing with Ulrich, continued. . .

Ryan:
So have been talking with Ulrich and also passed "NeverChanger" over to him to preview and all is now solid. We will be co-producing the track with him! Very excited to say the least. Personally, my next step is to get some solid vocal lines put in place before sending him files to work with. Keeping the whole thing very loose and open. More details to come. . .

"NeverChanger"

Today is the first posting of what's sure to become a barrage of postings of us, a shoreline dream, recording our new album. We've basically decided to document it all not only for our future enjoyment, but also to show our fans the process behind what goes on while we record our layers of sound. Hope you enjoy, and we for sure can't wait to explain more as it all goes down.

Ryan:
Since it's only days after "pilgrim day", and only one day after "Black Friday" (Isn't it funny how we name something that has been setup to be the day we are lured into spending all our money on xmas gifts as something dark and ominous?!), we have jumped into a new track titled "NeverChanger". I basically started it up as an experiment. I wanted to try some new approaches to recording with our new 16 track setup. Since most don't know, we recorded with 8 tracks here at "shoreline studios" for "avoiding the consequences", which was cool for sure, but limiting on the drums. We basically had to track all that separate to get the right sound, but now we don't have to anymore. We can record everyone all at once if we want to. This is a huge breakthrough, and for sure a dream I've had for years. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

Technology was a big hurdle to overcome getting it all setup, and I for sure had to invest quite a bit to make it happen, but it's worth it. The house/barn which contains this new "studio" is basically just that. I have a bed upstairs, a kitchen, a bath, and nearly every other room has been setup to either record in, or control the recordings.

The day before taking a trip up to my brothers cabin I started up the idea of what was to come with the song. I figured out some sounds on my micron and with my new tube tape echo, and started producing some shyt. It wasn't perfect, but for sure an inspiration point. And speaking of inspiration points, the cabin is just that. The mountains always have a tendency to get my musical mind prepped and ready for whatever happens next.

The day I came back, I sat down and started up what I felt was one of my best melody lines in over a year. Starting like I used to in Pure Drama, first came the synth, and then came the analog instruments. What was key for me was arranging not only based on the synth line, but also the drums I programmed. I always miss the days when I composed entirely on the Roland 303 and 505, which forced me to concentrate entirely on structure and timing. So this for sure brought me back to that feeling, which I love having. I dropped it all down in a few hours, recorded a few vocal ideas, starting with the second verse to leave the beginning open for now, and left it alone till the morning when Erik and Enoc came over to jam/record.

We all seemed way into it and started immediately working on it. Erik came up with a cool sound to compliment it all, and Enoc had some really good lines to work in for bass. I really feel it's coming together nicely! The best stuff generally flows out fast, as is the case here.

Now, if we could only get Ulrich Schnauss to sprinkle in some love and collaborate on it. I emailed him today to see if he'd be interested. Fingers crossed. . .