Who is Hollywood Assassyn?

The last 10 weeks of my life have been so awesome. I have been playing with a new band who I feel really suits a style of music I love to play. 80′s/90′s rock Seattle style. Think ‘Alice In Chains’ meets ‘Metallica’ and ‘STP’. It’s good music.

The circumstances under which I met this band were completely ridiculous and off chance. People were involved in the formation of this band as far back as Rigveda’s 3rd show where a friend introduced me to another friend who like our style and introduced me to the idea of an Alice In Chains style project.

Months went by with the idea never really dying but no true focus went into it…it was all into my own band Rigveda.

So things didn’t quite work out with that guy, and the other guy who was supposed to be the other singer happened to be at a show I was also at about month later. I had the opportunity to talk to him at The Band Ranch which I played a solo accoustic set at, but I couldn’t work up the nerve. For some reason I thought he might be a dick or something. I dunno.

I remember when I first moved to Edmonton, I actually saw that guys band online and listened to them and read all about them. A friend of mine Riley, at the Stonehouse Pub told me about them. I remember thinking it would be rad if I could play with a band like that, but they were touring and on an indie label and stuff. Way out of my league. Maybe that’s why I thought he’d have an attitude…cause he’d been to pretty cool places in music in my mind.

Well at the show, I just said whatever and I ended up shootin the shit with him and his buddy who he was there with. I introduced myself as the other player that was supposed to be in the Alice In Chains type project, and told him how bad I wanted to play and that it was frustrating not to be playin.

He asked what I did and I told him sing and play pretty tight rythm, but not great leads. He said that’s what they were looking for and invited me to try out. He introduced me to his friend he was there with who also happened to be the bass player for the new project which was less than 1 year old.

That guy was Jay Chamulke and his friend Sylvain Maltais. The name of the band was Hollywood Assassyn. They sent me on my way with a website address where I could hear some of their toons and decide if I wanted to move forward. Within one week we had our first jam. Pretty dam fast.

I met the drummer Troy that practice who had been playing with Jay for 5 years or something, so they were pretty tight when I got there and the music style was also real good…right up my alley. Right on, perfect. Learn your shit, don’t mess it up.

After my 2nd jam, they told me we had a show booked in two weeks and 1 more booked 2 more weeks after that for the full set. Presssure? Ya, I was a little worried, but loved the tunes so it’s a lot easier to learn em when you dig em.

The first show was the Bodog Battle of the Bands which is a Canada/USA/Europe wide battle with something like 5,000 bands entering. The eventual winner gets a $1,000,000 recording contract. So for our first show ever, we played a quick 4 songs set to see if we could make it to the next level.

54 bands in Edmonton entered to qualify for the live show through online voting and we finished #6 in Canada which also placed us #1 in Edmonton and Alberta. 30 bands were eliminated and the top 24 bands played the live show that night at Jet Night Club in Edmonton.

We freaking won that. After only 4 jams with the band, we came in 1st place and qualified for the city finals. wow…talk about awesome.

So I mean there was some pretty good stuff going on for us, but we hadn’t played live yet together, so I honestly didn’t put to much into the show. All I wanted to do was have a good show so the guys would want to keep me in the band…I liked it man! We’d finish where we finish and whatever right? But after realizing we won, I was in a new head space.

I know this band can do even better…it’s only our first show man. Shit…there might really be something here.

We played three more live shows with the next 6 weeks, 2 good shows and 1 kinda not so good show. I even introduced a new song that took to the band. We also managed to sneak into PowerSound Studios and record 2 the two tracks ‘Heed’ and ‘Pretty Shade of Blue’ with Phil Anderson who was also on my list of ‘people I want to work with in Edmonton.’

Those two tracks were the first two that I was on recording, but actually the 5th and 6th songs already recorded at PowerSound with Phil Anderson. The bands barely 10 months old and already have 6 songs recorded at one of Edmonton’s premier studios with one of Edmontons more respected producers. That’s more the speed I have been looking for all my life.

Everything tho for myself was all leading up to preparation for the Edmonton City finals. I wanted so badly to improve our performance and really truly impress the judges.

Finally it was time to play the Edmonton city finals for the Bodog Battle, a big show for me personally, the Edmonton finals. My goal was to leave Thunder Bay to come make an impact in the Edmonton music scene. That’s not really an easy thing to do unless your super fucking committed, or a retardedly great player. I’m the first one. So for me this show could play a pivitol role in me achieving one of my first major goals in music.

We were at home practicing our set 3 times over while the first bands were already playing their live sets. nice boys…nice.

The crowd responded quite well to our set and each time our name was called over the PA it was followed by tons of cheers. I finally brought out backing vocals for all 4 songs in the set. I had to learn the songs first on guitar so that I could play them by memory, then the words, then the harmonies, then get comfortable doing it all together. It’s kinda tuff but I knew by city finals that if we made it, I’d be ready. I remember telling that to Syl. It will come. I felt like we played and sounded pretty good.

Well…we won that round too! 1st place baby. I just found out today that after all the judging and voting we came out in the number 1 spot a-g-a-i-n. I’m blown away.

It’s not that I don’t think we are good, or that we don’t deserve it. It’s just to actually see us there at #1 among all those other bands in Edmonton, of which some are super good, is such a fucked up feeling of accomplishment. It’s pretty cool.

And not only did we finish #1 in online voting, #1 at the first live round, and #1 at the city finals, we were the only band to make that happen in Canada so far. A clean sweep…that’s cool. I’m stupified…I love it.

So we are headed down to Calgary, AB to play the Back Alley Night club on Jan 27th of 2008. I’ve watched some great bands play there and always had my mind on playing that bar. It’s THE bar that I wanted to play in Calgary, and now my first live show in Calgary, will be there. Unreal.

If we make it past that round, we are off to Toronto to play against the top bands in Canada. Whoa…one step at a time is what I have to tell myself now all the time. I’ve already gone father than I thought I would go at the start of this all. Now all that’s left to do is hang on and see how much farther this is actually going to take me. I’m in baby…

Yet Troy and Jay remain totally calm and collected about it all while I’m the rookie who’s finding it hard to contain my excitement. I feel Syl’s excitement too. I’m learning a lot from these guys and the success I’ve experienced in only 2 and a half months in the band far has been completely what I’ve always wanted. A whirlwind.

I love being the rookie, there so much more to learn as that person.

Hollywood Assassyn is the band I’m in, and I love it.

http://www.hollywoodassassyn.net

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