Hey! This is Eric, bassist from Bravesoul. Boy, what a year it has been! I'd like to update you on a few key events from this very young 2013. Bravesoul has been hard at work completing it's very first album effort. Generously funded by it's amazing family, friends, and fans through Indiegogo.com, this album has been something we've been brewing since, well, since we started playing music many years ago. Well, that's how it feels, at least, to some degree. Perhaps it's just me, but every work of art I contribute to as an artist has a little bit of that initial, raw excitement of playing music for the first time. That excitement of playing something that sounds like you, even if it's just a few notes on a piano or a couple of chords on a guitar, a phrase or tone that is expressive of something deep inside, something deep within your subconsciousness, beyond any human concepts like age, talent, language, maturity, wisdom.
Sideways Guide To Love definitely came out of that place. Since it's release, we've had the absolutely incredible experience of sharing our music, again and again, with people we've known for years, people we've just met, and people who we hadn't met before who found us through the music. I'd like to relate to yall the most amazing example of the latter. A family was riding in a recently purchased used BMW in Lompoc, California, enjoying their first ride. They turn on the radio, and, 'lo and behold, Sideways starts playing. Now, for those of you who don't know California, or for those of you who live in California but don't know where Lompoc is on the map, Lompox is a substantial distance from Los Angeles, where we live. This family enjoyed our music so much that they contacted us on Facebook and drove all the way down to Los Angeles on a Thursday night to hear us play at Hotel Cafe. I see this as the product of two things: this family's own bountiful generosity and amazingness as human beings; and also the power of music. Music is a primordial whisper in our bones that brings us together, no matter the distance, no matter the paucity of the likelihood that our CD would end up in a BMW many miles from where we live and do our thang.
That single experience was and still is, enormously influential. I brought some of that into the studio, when I was recording bass at Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood, locked in with drummer Maxwell Breaux as we threw down the rhythm tracks for the new album, all six freaking tracks in one 10 hour session. It was a beast of a recording session. But from what we've been hearing in listening to early  mixes of the album, the groove was there and, and it is HUGE. I absolutely can't wait for yall to hear the album. One interesting fact about that late January session: the engineer running the studio was so true to his schedule that he turned down a request from Trent Reznor (NIN) to use his studio for the day! Not that that says anything about our status in the industry, mind you, but it's a great story no doubt!
It's April and we are currently working with artists on the visual aspect of the album. This has been an interesting experience for sure. I know for myself, trying to express myself visually is a challenge. I am most comfortable with an instrument or a pen, but put a pallet or Photoshop in front of me and I'm a gorilla fumbling around in a pitch-dark Bed Bath and Beyond, I don't even know where to start! It is particularly difficult when you try to communicate something you've always expressed through music in a different medium. Therefore we are extremely fortunate to have some talented visual artists working with us, like Collin Cates, the mind behind "Keyhole", currently pushing 300,000 views on Youtube.
Stay tuned! We are planning our shows for the summer, including our CD Release party! It's going to be banging, to go 90's hip hop on ya frame.
Please, stay in touch with us at https://www.facebook.com/bravesoulofficial. We know people generally don't use facebook to msg bands they like, but believe me, we LOVE it when you guys leave us msgs on facebook. We are extremely curious to hear what everyone will think about the new album (which is currently Untitled....no, it's not called Untitled, we haven't quite found the perfect name for it at the moment ;).
Till next time...

What's good people! This is E, bassist for Bravesoul, writer, movie-lover, beat-maker, food-enthusiast, Rolling Stones fan...I go by E for short. Wishing all you beautiful people surfing the web a massively happy mid-March happy time!

Bravesoul is currently writing, writing, writing...also promoting The Sideways Guide To Love (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-sideways-guide-to-love-ep/id489786344), which is worth picking up in physical copy (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bravesoul, or from one of us if you live in LA, send me a line on FB) if only for the graphic art; Maggie Greene (http://www.designgreene.com/#/content/aintro/) put together one of the coolest CD packages I've ever seen, styling the CD as one of those 50+ year old books with that wonderful aged musty smell...hmmmmmm. It's suggestive of memories I have walking around academic libraries, squeezing between thin, old laboratory-like shelves in near darkness, picking through texts wrapped in spellbinding cloth cover: scholarly tomes, literary worlds, poems, novels, medical books. Classy.

A recent development: Bravesoul just got selected to play at Yale University in Hollywood's First Annual Singer-Songwriter Showcase! We will be playing alongside some very talented artists in an industry-focused event at Hotel Cafe, where we had our CD-release a couple of months ago. Pretty dope opportunity. Many of you may not know this, but Yale, like a number of other Ivy League/east-coast universities, has been developing a strong networking presence in Hollywood; they actually support a group of students interning in the LA film/music/tv world every summer! Great job Yale! This should be a fun show; our CD-release at Hotel was a blast. Hotel Cafe is one of the best sounding rooms in LA, if not the country.

Stay tune for many more developments this summer; looking to play some more shows, record some of the new music we've been putting together, maybe even wander of of LA to meet some of you out-of-towner folks, lol! Please, if you can, drop us a line on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/bravesoulofficial. We love hearing from yall!

Thanks,

E

What's up people! This is Eric, the man behind the bass. Bravesoul is ON for Saturday, February 18th, at the Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach!!!!! Get your tickets at http://saintrocke.com/show.cfm?id=71873, and please, please, please, be polite and RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/events/233947736687656/. You know what Emily Post says about RSVP-ing ;). Don't be late to the dinner party, ol' chap ;). If you don't know who Emily Post is...I didn't know either till about a year ago. I still don't know which side of the plate to put my fork on! Can someone tell me? http://www.facebook.com/bravesoulofficial post it if you know it!

Real excited for this show. Hotel Cafe was a BLAST....real great energy from the crowd, great sound...we all found love that night ( ;) can't go wrong with a Rihanna cover). We're going to keep that energy going and bring it on down to the Southbay! We're sharing that night with one of the most popular and fun-nest (I know that's not a word, but stay with me!) cover bands in the whole damn country, The Spazmatics!!! You can never have too much fun, so if you're in LA-extended area, and you need a party, come down and check us out on the 18th. We love you.

In other news: our recently released music video, KEYHOLE, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKg-CADH8ls, just got over 15,000 views...steadily climbing that ladder. I'd like to take a moment to thank you everyone who has helped us getting the word out: we deeply appreciate it. Yall are all part of this crazy experience that began when I met a certain Mr. Collin Cates at a party up in No-Ho...little did I know was meeting the greatest film artist since Orson Welles (he'd humbly say I was exaggerating). The dude really is a beast, a wizard, and a wonder to work with. And all the crew who worked that day; magicians, movie ninjas!

Just a reminder, our EP, THE SIDEWAYS GUIDE TO LOVE, is still available for purchase on ITUNES, CD Baby (physical)...we will also selling CDs on the 18th as well. The responses I've been getting from folks on the CD have been real rewarding. We're VERY proud of how it came out. Those songs went through mass changes over the months, in some cases years, we were working on them; like watching a living being go through mutations and evolve...the wonder of life (sorry for the cheese ;) 

Keep in touch with us! Send us facebook messages, twitter messages, email, call us, poke us, keep us informed! And if you can, come through for Saturday, February 18th...should be some surprising levels of fun that night!

E

Happy New Year!! This is Eric from Bravesoul...I hope everyone had an amazing New Year. 2011 was...interesting. I'm getting a good vibe from 2012 though.
Everybody's making moves in 2012. We're looking to start it off right with our CD Release Party at the Hotel Cafe on Friday, January 13th!! And by party, we mean PARTY. Ely Rise, keyboardist for The Last Goodnight, is hosting his "Creepshow" party that night as well...here's what happened a couple of years ago: http://www.mjsbigblog.com/adam-lambert-attends-creep-show-at-the-hotel-cafe-in-los-angeles.htm. (And if 2010 was off the hook....) Tickets are 10 bucks, and you can pre-order here: https://www.hotelcafe.com/tickets/?s=events_view&id=1351.) This venue is one of if not THE premiere spots in H-Wood...great sound, great vibe, great people. Hope to see yall there!
We've had many great responses to THE SIDEWAYS GUIDE TO LOVE (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-sideways-guide-to-love-ep/id489786344). Thank you to everyone who has given this EP a listen!!! This music has been a journey for us. The writing process, the recording, the development...we're happy to have the opportunity to share it with everybody. This music really takes on a life of its own after you put it out there...the songs, which have come to have a certain meaning for us (and continue to evolve each time we perform them), take off on their own wings and come to mean something else for you, fit into the intricate chemistry of each individual's experience...we are grateful for the opportunity to share this experience with everybody. For real. 
Thank you and Happy New Year!!!! Let's make it BIG!

What's good! Hope all is well with everybody out there, this is Eric, bassist for Bravesoul. Announcing: THE SIDEWAYS GUIDE TO LOVE, EP, release date, this upcoming Tuesday. Extremely excited for this one. There's nothing quite like your first official release: it's your first shot into the great big world. Something we're very proud of; myself, Marty, and Jason have been working on this, going into the basement on this, going deep into our souls and our creative wells to put something new into the world. The way we work is just real: writing without any limitations, bringing in all types of influences, writing about the song above all else. A band's first album can be many things: an attempt to emulate the greats and what's worked for everybody else, a statement of bold originality, a love letter, a battle call, what have you. Honestly there's something of everything in this release: giving respect to all the great artists before us, every single musician out there who has dared to put their heart and soul on a record, showing their vulnerability, making themselves open to criticism, misunderstanding, but also connection, love, acceptance. Sometimes it can seem like the top artists today can churn out hit records almost without feeling, like it's just another day at the office. I dare say that, despite whatever they say, even the most confident and seemingly shameless artist out there suffers a little when people don't accept their music, or even when people love it. It's all part of becoming one with the universe; coming out of the ego's safe space and becoming one with a universe that threatens to engulf you, snuff you out.

This album comes out of many months, years, of creative experimentation, failed attempts, jamming, re-working...some of the songs we've been playing for a while, whole songs were created out of fragments abandoned months ago. An artist has to isolate himself in a room with his muses and his creative forces, and always make new out of what seems barren, deplete.

Coming out of LA, you end up listening to everything. It's just an extremely diverse city with alot of different types of cultural styles, each one in full profile mode trying to express what they are about, influencing others, flowing. It's becoming like that everywhere, which is a great thing to watch, but in LA you got a certain type of freedom of experimentation, of racial and cultural exchange. You'll hear that in this EP: inspiration from everybody, from Sam Cooke to Train to Franz Ferdinand. And we're still growing as artists and as people.

Give us a holler at you listen to the EP: we like to think of music as a two-way conversation! We're working on expanding our web presence; but you can find us on twitter, facebook, name a social media platform and we're either on it or planning to be! Shout out to Mikal Blue and Peter Distefano and Co. for all your guidance on this record, you guys really helped us put our ideas together into a complete package on this one! And to our families and friends for all your loving support, we love you and none of this would be possible without you.


DECEMBER 20th: THE SIDEWAYS GUIDE TO LOVE