@stoneatlasband
#STONEATLAS
@stoneatlasband
#STONEATLAS
Everywhere with You - Album Now Available!
Stone Atlas - What Covid:19 has Meant for Us
Canceled shows, more free time to create new content, and socially distant rehearsals.
Like many, if not every musician worldwide, we were faced with those heartbreaking phone calls that abruptly canceled prebooked shows and foreshadowed a gig-less summer 2020.
We had concerts arranged for a showcase at the Williwaw in Anchorage and a Friday Album Release Party to debut Stone Atlas at the Sitzmark one day before the infamous STRFKR took that very same stage. There was also prospects for Salmonfest and Girdwood Forest Fair along with many great venues to fill nearly every weekend all across Alaska.
As a new group with a soon-to-be-released album this news was devastating to our hearts, yes, but not the momentum. We have a good thing going so it was easy to adapt and be patient for our time. In this unique opportunity that swept us from both our main jobs and the focus of live shows, we were each able to focus on individual skills and instruments while in the initial lockdown.
Cam played on Social Distant Fest (a Facebook page that artists can live stream and keep our sanity) almost every day, and hearing his killer solo drum beats without the band was truly a treat.
David utilized his extra time to focus on an array of different styles from becoming one with his bass, sharpening recording and mixing skills, and making hip hop and electronic beats under the alias DeeEl.
Meanwhile BAKER was found more often than not with a notebook in hand and wrote over 12 new songs that will likely comprise our sophomore album while he worked both on lyrics and tasty lead guitar skills.
Aside from some of the hard decisions made this summer, the Everywhere with You album was still scheduled for release, and with that much energy put into such an epic first project we stayed true to the April 25th digital release. The album was a smashing success given the cirmstsnces and having only the local support from two shows before dropping such a funky record. For the future we will use Everywhere with You and the content that is online to market ourselves and get shows when the time is right. We will also have an in-person album release party and CD’s available once we feel it is safe to put all of our friends, family, and fans, into one space.
We were offered a few options to play around Alaska this summer and even reached out to see who was still paying performers, but the general decision from all of us was to put safety first and we sadly declined any shows until further notice.
We have been aired on local public radio from Fairbanks to Kenai, and been active in perusing online opportunities.
Lastly, is the challenge of this new thing called social distancing. If we don’t want all of you in one space, same goes for us. It has been difficult to find places big enough to be separated as we have tried to play outside, over Zoom, and borrow garage spaces when possible. The end result is that we are safe and respecting the boundaries of each other and the people that we live with. The challenges to practice together have been abundant but even after weeks apart the old set is still very strong and we strive to learn, compose, and give structure to the new material from BAKERS notebook turning them into songs for the next album.
This time away has been both sad yet refreshing and we aren’t that easily discouraged. We believe everything will play out as it should in good time, so for a new band with an unforeseen opportunity to be introspective and have a summer off to make big plans and new songs is an absolute gift in disguise.
We wanted to make sure everyone who has supported us from day one knows that we aren’t out of the scene just because you haven’t heard from us. We are stronger than ever with a longer and more rounded set list that we cannot wait to share with you.
Thanks for tuning in.
A link to purchase Everywhere With You, our debut album, if you haven’t yet!
Apple/iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/everywhere-with-you/1510195423
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