Sunday, November 20, 2016

Ice Haus - 11/2016

We had a great show at Ice Haus this weekend. A new local band, The Harvest was playing an hour
of their original content, and the Ice Haus contacted us and asked us to play after The Harvest.

The Harvest is a two man band, and they take turns drumming, playing guitar, and singing. It takes serious guts to perform with only two people. All of the stuff that I write, I try to fill it all up with as many instruments as I can, while these guys were minimalists and were still able to convey their music in an excellent way. You can hear your stuff below.


This time we had a sound guy, and he was an expert. It was nice to have monitors, and level sounds. While the place wasn't packed, there was an awesome energy with the people that we brought and some of the new unfamiliar faces. The crowd was very responsive by cheering after every song, and singing and clapping along. We were able to feed into that energy. We danced like we've never danced, and Nate went to the front of the stage during his solos and played like an 80's shredder.

The audience were very generous by leaving tips on the stage. We almost made more money in tips than the money we made at the door. We were very humbled by such an awesome audience! We also had many people shake our hand afterward, and take our business cards.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Leatherhead's

We had a show last weekend at Leatherhead's. Overall it was a positive experience. It was a full house, and we had lots of friends and family come. We were stoked to see our old bassist Ryan Clark come cheer us on.  The crowd was responsive and very fun. We sang Happy Birthday to a man, which pleased him and his family so much, they wanted to take pictures with us after the show. The lighting was pretty cool, it was probably the coolest light setup I've had at a show. I personally didn't have any food, but the food looked really good, and everybody said it was delicious. People had burgers, wings, fries, nachos, it all looked really good!
We had a person who works for Gallivan's Plaza come scope us out to possibly have us gig there.

It was a little hectic and stressful at first. Just like our last restaurant/bar gig, the sound guy didn't come. At least this time he let the manager know ahead of time. We didn't know how their sound system worked, and nobody at the place knew either. Aaron had to run home and quickly pack his PA system. (We didn't want to mess with their system and not have it work)

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Featured as Top Performer for Salt Lake City on Gig Salad!

We've been featured as the Top Performer for Salt Lake City on the website, GigSalad.com! We get awarded this honor if we get a lot of leads and book lots of shows. I'm surprised that we were able to get this award, while only maintaining a free account. Monthly fees for a paid subscription are $30.

https://www.gigsalad.com/Music-Groups/Rock-Band/UT/Salt+Lake+City

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Halloween Party Gig 2016


We had show on October 28, the Saturday night before Halloween. This is the second biggest night for bands to be performing.
We were contacted on GigSalad about this gig. Our client asked how we were different than some of the other bands for hire on the website. We expressed that while we have only been actively gigging for 6 months, we have 30+ years of accumulative experience and that we had an awesome set list of about 50 songs, and we showed our new live videos, which are on par with the best acts in the local scene. We were excited when we got the gig.


We were impressed, the client's house was very large and beautiful. I was at first ataken back that we were going to be playing outside. Luckily, it wasn't cold at all, and we could play as loud as we wanted. At other parties, we tried to play as quiet as we could. As in amps were turned down to 3, the drummer was using brushes. This time, my tube amp was cranked to 8 on it's 30W setting, the drummer was playing as hard as he could just to keep up with us.

It was a costume party. The guests had some pretty spectacular costumes. We also dressed up. Allison couldn't decide, she came dressed as a devil, changed into a witch costume, and changed back into a devil. I was Shrek, Nate was a zombie, Aaron was cow poo, and Mark had a spectacular Jared Leto Joker costume. He went all out with the clothes, make-up, and teeth.

The crowd was very responsive, and this was one of the most enjoyable shows that we've played. People were dancing on the back patio, and on the deck above. Everyone was very complimentary. Our host was so pleased that he asked us to stay an extra hour. During the extra hour, the police were called. So we took a small break and then finished our set list, playing a little softer.

Our host asked us to be his party band, and we would happily play again! We're very pleased with the review that he left us! That makes 5 reviews on our Gig Salad! One of the best in the SLC Valley.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Live Cover Session Videos officially published on YouTube and Facebook



We are pleased to announce that we have released our live cover session videos to the world!  You can view them on Facebook or YouTube. Give us a like, thumbs up, and some love!
/>

We're grateful to have worked with the talented staff at Full Fidelity Studios, and Unknown Prophet Pictures. We are very pleased with the final product. 

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Show at Ice Haus



We had a show, Sept. 23, at a local venue called Ice Haus. We opened for another local band named Eminence Front. We all arrived early so that we could have a thorough sound check. Unfortunately, the sound guy hired by the venue never showed up. Luckily, one of the bartenders was able to help a little bit. He showed Aaron our drummer where the mixing board was and how to use it. We had the drummer of the other band play drums while Aaron mixed our levels. While it was upsetting that the sound guy didn't show up, we did our best and the show went on. I was particularly excited to try out my new Gibson Les Paul and my restored 88' Kramer Strat. Mark was also excited to try out his new Orange amp!

.

It was a good friendly crowd, and we had a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I had a sick wife at home and wasn't able to stay for Eminence Front. But, Mark the bassist did and he said that they did an awesome job. It was Aaron's Mom's birthday, and we sang the Beatles Birthday song to her.

While I wasn't able to video tape them, you can stream their music on Spotify!



Thanks to Aaron's mom, she was able to take some awesome shots of us while we played! Check out more of the photos on our Instagram!

A photo posted by Eighth Day (@eighth_day_slc) on

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Live Session Music Video Recordings

Having videos of live performances is essential for any musician to add to their electronic press kit (EPK). While we've taken videos of live performances using iPads and cameras, we thought it would be awesome to have some professional videos. We've been recording our full length album at Full Fidelity Studios. They've recorded live music in the studio before, and it sounds fantastic. The instruments are mixed, and some post-production can be applied (reverb, chorus, etc...), all benefits that you can't do with a simple iPad recording. We also decided to have Brian of Unknown Prophet Picture do the video. They've worked in tandem with Full Fidelity Studios a number of times, and they've created some great results. We recorded:

1. Rolling in the Deep - Adele
2. Ex's and Oh's - Elle King
3. Don't Stop Believing - Journey
4. Sweet Child O Mine - Guns n' Roses
5. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

We were worried that the studio would be too small. While it was a tight fit, it worked out perfectly. All the extra equipment and instrument cases were cleared out of the studio. The studio was pretty much a sauna all night. We'd frequently step out into the hall in between takes to cool off. While we were confident with the songs that we chose to record, there was still a lot of pressure when trying to play a song perfectly. We did about 3 - 6 takes on each song.

Steve, the sound engineer and producer would tweak guitar sounds, tune drums, or talk to us about speeding up or slowing down the tempo. We even experimented with dropping the key of "Don't Stop Believing" a full step, and then a half step.

Brian was always giving us helpful suggestions like where we should stand, adjusting the lights. and was just a professional and fun guy to work with. He had 3 cameras at different angles, and he'd zoom in at different people throughout our songs.

We heard some of the unmixed songs that Steve recorded, and they sounded awesome! We cannot wait to get the final products!  All in all, we had a great time, and we enjoyed working with Steve and Brian and we'd recommend their services to anybody! Check out their pages!

Meet Steve the Sound Engineering Wizard

Allison replaced Mark after she wowwed Aaron with her mad bass skills.


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Last Song Recorded In The Studio!

We've been working on our CD for the past year at Full Fidelity Studios. We've almost laid down all the instruments and vocals on most of our 10 tracks. We have been holding of on one last song, "Blowing Up Everything." The great thing about working with the staff at the studio is that they give great suggestions about song composition. Steve and Curtis, prepared a short demo of a few minor changes that added a lot to the song. Afterward, we laid down a rhythm base track inspired by the short demo. Now we will go into the studio to lay down individual tracks to the song, and then we're pretty much done. They'll mix the songs, and we'll critique them, decide if we want more cowbell or if we to add another guitar harmony. We're really excited to release it! It sounds awesome thus far!

Everyone did an excellent job last night, I love working with these guys!



Sunday, August 7, 2016

Website Revamp

We've made several changes to our website, to make it easier for potential clients to navigate.

  •  Before, there was a lot of info condensed into a few pages. Now, there are many simple pages that make it easier for a client to get to the info that they need. For example, there was a music page, where the setlist, original music, and live session videos were located. Now we have three separate pages.
  • Added a Videos page. We'll add music videos, and live session videos once we've filmed them. 
  • On the shows page, I added links to each of the 'Past Shows' portraits, that link to their corresponding Facebook album. While this part was easy, it was very time consuming to reorganize all of our Facebook photos.
  • Added a photos tab
  • The link to this blog is more visible.

Give it a look let us know what you think!

www.8thDay.rocks

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Prestman Auto Grand Opening Gig

We were asked by Prestman Auto to play this gig 4 days ago (Wednesday). Even though it was last minute, we had our 4 hour set list prepared, practiced, and ready to go. I was thrilled that everybody had the availability to do it. Aaron had a military training on Saturday, but they were ahead of schedule, and were looking to give the students a day off. When Aaron talked to them, they decided to make the day off today (Saturday). This is our 4th gig in the past month. We've made enough money to almost cover all the expenses of our various projects, such as our album recording, and our live session recordings. I'm truly grateful for all the opportunities that have come our way!

This event was really cool. It was to celebrate the grand opening of a new car dealership. They had the official ribbon cutting on Thursday, and today they had a carnival. They had bouncy houses, a car show, free food trucks, free drinks, golf, prizes, free swag, and of course, a live band (us). We played in the parking lot. It was a mighty hot day, reaching triple digits at it's peak. We were glad that we came prepared with canopies. Even with the canopies, I still got a pretty good sun burn! We feel like we did an excellent job. The mix was awesome and we were the appropriate volume for playing outdoors. We got a lot of good vibes from the people there, and lots of people were dancing, and we received lots of compliments.

 Towards the middle, we got an unexpected gust of wind. All the canopies of all the vendors almost flew away. We fastened ours with bricks after that incident. One of Aaron's mic stands got bent. At the very end, when we were taking all of our stuff down, a flash downpour erupted. We had to scramble to protect all of our precious gear from drowning.

Overall, it was an excellent gig, and we are excited to play there again. Here's some photos, thanks to Aaron's mom!

Our setup in the front

They had lots of cool cars as part of the car show

Aaron liked this one

Renato couldn't decide between the Audi and the Ferrari

After much deliberation, he decided on the Audi. Unfortunately, they wouldn't accept our band swag as payment.

This delicious BBQ Sandwich was one of the many delicious items from the food trucks.


Aaron had a good time on the bouncy houses until his mom told him that he was too old to be playing on them.










Thursday, August 4, 2016

Wedding Reception

We were contacted last week to play at a Wedding Reception last week. The groom is the one who contacted us, we were a surprise for his bride-to-be. She loves the genre that we play. After we played, a DJ came on and played Latino Dance Music. The crowd was awesome, people were dancing, singing along, and cheering us on. The colors were Navy Blue and Pink. The food was delicious.  We played in the front yard, which was unusual, but it was huge, and the neighbors were far apart. We wish the best to Hyrum and Anna!

Hopefully we'll get more photos from the wedding photographers! Here's some photos that we took: (Tried to get more of Mark and Aaron this time)














Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Make a Wish Foundation Charity Gig

We played an awesome gig last Independence Day. Our host Howard was pleased with our work that he invited us to perform at a Make A Wish Foundation Charity Gig that he was hosting at his house. We played for about an hour and then they had some speakers from the Make A Wish Foundation speak. Then there was a powerful testimonial from a father whose son had a head tumour and about how the organization made that child's wish come true; to meet his favorite baseball team. (Red Sox I think). Then we played for another hour and a half. They had some yummy Venezuelan food catered. Overall it was a fantastic gig. We look forward to playing for Howard again.

Here's a few snapshots from the event, and some videos:



Allison's Guitar Solo


Nate and I making Power Chords Fun Again




 

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Independence Day Gig 2016

We were contacted in late May to play a gig for an Independence Day party up in Park City. While we were expanding our set list to be 32 songs long, about 3 hours, this gig required us to prepare 4 hours of music. While it was a lot of work, we were up to the challenge and now have a setlist of 44 songs. It was especially challenging, because summer is a busy time. Aaron had National Guard Drill, I was still recovering from brain surgery and couldn't do much for a while, and others had vacation. The secret was to practice individually, A LOT, and to make in-person practice really count. We played up at a house in Park City, that was perched on top of a mountain, that had a glorious view of the whole city, and of the beautiful natural landscape that surrounded it. The house was yuuuge and it had many windows to enjoy the view. There was a drink bar, a chef who made BBQ food and crepes, and two Sushi chefs who made some of the best Sushi that I've ever eaten. The host was very hospitable towards us, he let us eat when we had breaks, and bring a spouse or significant other. The ambiance of the party was very positive; people were socializing, having fun, and dancing. The best part was watching the city fireworks show down below. The bottle rockets bursted at our eye level. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. We did our very best at this gig, and we nailed it! Our sound tight, we had charisma, and our levels were well mixed, and at an appropriate volume for the event. (Sometimes we like to really crank it during band practice!) Needless to say, the only thing better than showing up to a gig prepared, is having a great execution. Our host was very pleased with our performance. He flattered us by saying that he has hired 10 rock bands previously to his house parties, and we were his favorite. He gave us a great review on our GigSalad page.
I hired Eight Day without hearing them for a fourth of July party. They were perfect. Great sound , great songs and right on with volume Etc. In fact so good I will hire them again. I highly recommend you use them for your adult party!!!
So we can't wait to play at his next event. View more photos on our Facebook.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Additional Domain Name: www.8thDay.rocks

When we were originally shopping for a domain name, we were sad to find out that eighthday.com and 8thday.com were taken. We settled with eighthDaySlc.com. Which is hard to remember. Many people had a hard time typing it because they spelled eighth wrong. Luckily with the .rocks domain extension, we purchased a new extension!

www.8thDay.rocks

We didn't even have to do any special configurations for our current website. We kept the old URL, and we simply redirected traffic from the new URL to eighthDaySlc.com. In fact, many businesses and organizations buy many domain names to point to a single URL.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

How Music is Helping My Brain Surgery Recovery

This is Daryl Bennett, the guitar player. The rhythm of my life was completely thrown off beat this month when I had a ruptured cavernous malformation. A cavernous malformation is a cluster of additional blood vessels in the brain, and some people have this and they'll never know about it. But, it's common to rupture between ages 20 - 30. It hit me all of a sudden. One day, I wasn't able to say what I was thinking. It was like my brain was disconnected from my mouth. I went to band practice with this condition, and I was trying to teach Mark our bassist the root notes of a particular song. I knew that it was Em C G D, but I wasn't able to say it. I had a bad stutter. Long story short, I had to have brain surgery. The brain bleeding affected the expressive side of my brain, the ability to speak and compose. A common question was if I was still able to play music. Fortunately, yes! That part of my brain wasn't affected at all. The operation was a success, and I'm expected to make a full recovery. Unfortunately, the recovery is long, 1 to 2 months at best.

Staples after my operation
I can't work, I can't drive, I can't go to school, my wife took a long leave from work because I can't be alone, because I'm considered high risk of seizure for the first 6 months. I have 5 tasks each day: take my anti-seizure medication, don't get constipated, take short walks, don't strain myself and take many naps. The rest of the day is "free time".

I'm the type of person that would go crazy if I just watched TV and played video games all day. The sheer amount of unproductivity would drive me bonkers. I enjoy TV and video games, but only in small amounts. I can't do it all day, everyday for 1 - 2 months. Luckily I have music. The past 5 years, I haven't been able to practice music as much as I'd like. I've had religious service (LDS mission), job, family, and the biggest time consumer, my Computer Science University degree. Now I finally have a breather, and I can play several hours a day again. Even though it makes me tired and I have to take a nap in between practice. It really does keep me sane to have music, and to steadily progress every day. It gives me something to look forward to.

Recording with Eighth Day

I'm also taking a break from band practice, until the doctor clears me next month to go back to work. My goal is to have all of the songs super tight. I'm just grateful that everything went well and that I have the coolest hobby in the world, and that I still do it. I'd be devastated if I lost my ability to play music. Music is my therapy.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

New Revamped Electronic Press Kit! (EPK) New website, new releases coming up!



We've been making a big push towards our new Electronic Press Kit (EPK). We have two main goals with it:

1. Help us book shows. Make a great first impression towards potential clients. Show them that we have experience, that we sound professional and that we act professional. (Courteous, great communication, punctual, etc...)

2. Connect with fans. We want fans to engage with band, and to follow us on social media.

Initially, we treated these two goals as mutually exclusive. We thought that most of our shows that we book would be for cover songs, and that connecting with fans would be for our original content. So we created two websites.


We have just decided to consolidate to one website that focused on our EPK. We created this blog to help keep fans engaged with the latest news, and we featured lots of links on our website to help direct fans to our social media.

While a lot of my work in my Computer Science degree has been involved in complicated algorithms, complex code, probability, and statistics, part of it has been simple HTML coding. I've been blessed to have the analytical and creative side of my brain working, and I was able to create a simple but attractive and intuitive website. (The joke is that many coders make awful interfaces.) We've pretty much finished our website.

We are now working to make professional content to showcase our skills. We have a studio date later this Summer to video record 4 of our cover songs live. We wanted to pick 4 songs that show that we can do classic rock, and modern pop hits. Allison, our female lead singer has a great voice, and we feel that these songs will really make her voice shine. We'll be singing:


  1. Sweet Child O Mine - Guns N Roses
  2. Don't Stop Believing - Journey
  3. Ex's & Oh's - Elle King
  4. Rolling in the Deep - Adele

We chose to record live in the studio opposed to going into the garage and video taping us raw with a video camera. In the studio, we will have access to an experienced sound engineer who can make sure the mix sounds good, and really give us a distinguished quality recording. We'll be recording at Full Fidelity Studios, working with Steve. We've been working with Steve with our full length album. Steve has been a pleasure to work with, and his work is amazing. He's worked on similar projects with other bands, and the live recordings almost sound like professional studio tracks.

We'll also be taking some professional pictures, in part to get some group photos with our new bassist Mark.

We're almost done with our full length CD, and we're very excited to release it! It sounds so good! We can't wait for the finished product. Here's a teaser one of the tracks:


Cover band or an original band?

Eighth Day splits their efforts between supporting their own original music playing shows and recording, and they also focus on playing popular covers at parties and special events. While there are other bands that do this, many choose one or the other, and there are advantages to each. Eighth Day tries to get the best of both worlds.

Eighth Day playing at a Birthday Party
Being a "cover band" means that you play covers of popular songs. Eighth Day focuses on Classic Rock, Modern Rock, and Pop hits. Right now they have 42+ songs which is about 3 hours of music. Playing covers means getting more frequent gigs, playing in front of wider audiences, getting paid better (Money isn't everything, but it sure is nice to get paid for your hobbies!), and listeners instantly connecting with the music easier because they recognize the songs. Generally you play at weddings and parties, which is cool because you get treated like VIP at somebody else's party, and you get fed!

While there's a lot of perks to being in a cover band, there's also a few challenges in my opinion. It can take a lot of time to learn all the songs and build your set list at first, especially if you only practice once a week. It can feel a little repetitive playing the same songs over and over again. Sometimes you feel like you're riding other artist's coattails.

Being in an original band is really rewarding. I love songwriting. There's no better feeling than see all the different stages of development of a song, and to see the finished product. It's exhilarating to hear the band play it, to play it live in front of an audience, to see people sing along to the words of your song, and to record it in a studio. It's like breathing life into a living entity. Even though it may not reach many ears, and it's a small droplet of art in an ocean of digital media, there's pride knowing that your song is YOUR song. Promoting your originals can be fun in the sense that you're promoting YOUR work. It exciting to see your brand grow.


Eighth Day playing Acoustic set list at outdoor Farmer's Market

Being in an original band also has it's challenges. It's a whole different ball game to be promoting your music. I think of the AC/DC song "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)"

Gettin' ripped off
Under-paid
Gettin' sold
Second hand

Eighth Day for the most part has been lucky and has had great opportunities to play some awesome shows to promote their original music. Also all the members of the band have been fortunate to not be in it for the money, and have jobs. That said, it's nice to make a little bit of money to justify buying new gear.
Not all experiences have to be negative. I'll mention some negative things so that you can avoid them. If you work hard, you can "make it", and live the dream.
Many venues or outdoor festivals know that young bands are trying to "make it." They offer to let bands play for free, as if "exposure" was compensation, or they make bands "pay-to-play" where bands have to buy x amount of tickets and try to sell them to their shows. 
Playing at clubs and bars are way better, and are a great option if the members of your band is 21+. They don't pay as much as private parties, but they do pay. It's a long way to the top to get a following. 

Eighth Day enjoys the perks of playing in a cover band and an original band. Sometimes it can be challenging to decide what takes priority. Last month, the band was working really hard to working on their press kit, which will include some professional live videos. When they got booked for a July 4th party gig, and they switched focus on tightening up their set list and adding some more covers. The press kit will have to wait until after the gig. 

What do you prefer? Being in a cover band or an original band? Do you do both as well? How has your experience differed? Leave a comment below!

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Hello World. The First Post

'Hello World' is a tradition among Computer Science people. When learning a new programming language, or coding in a new environment, you create a 'Hello World' program. Since this is the first blog post that's related to the band, 'Hello World' seems fitting.

We'll post exciting news and announcements about the band in this blog. We might also talk more about us, and our views on music, etc...

(Battle of the Bands competition 2016)