The road to success continues for the alternative rock band One Day Remains also in 2012. In November last year, they came in second in two important contests: First at the MyCoke Soundcheck Contest and then at an international music competition of German telecommunication giant T-Mobile. Now the Swiss took all the glory at the restorm.com band-of-the-month voting. Leadsinger Pedro Rodrigues talks about the coming debut album, the reward of live performing and the remaining goals of One Day Remains.

restorm.com: 2011 has been very successful for you. What are your hopes and plans for the new year?

One Day Remains: That is right! We are glad that our songs were able to convince listeners and win us several prizes. This year we finally want to release our debut album, get a record deal if possible and may be shoot a video clip. For everything else we’ll just wait and see.

restorm.com: When will you release the new album?

ODR: The recording should be finished by the end of spring. After that, we’ll have to do the mixing and mastering and the complete graphic design. We stopped talking about a date, since we can’t keep it anyway. But we’re very optimistic that the release will happen this year!

restorm.com: What is your approach to your first full length album?

ODR: Our approach may be a bit unorthodox, but so far it worked out fine for us. We collect our ideas and head to the studio, to record the songs with our producer and invisible member of the band, Matthias Hillebrand-Gonzales. We don’t go into the studio and record 30 songs and then throw away 18. Right from the start we only take the most promising ideas. So every song we record, is our baby somehow!

restorm.com: What is important for you on stage? Would you consider yourself as a studio- or a live band?

ODR: We just want to rock and present our songs in the best possible way. Being in the studio is the working part and the live performing on stage is the reward. We are relatively unexperienced on stage, so we want to play as many concerts as possible, to reach a level that satisfies ourselves. Since we’re all perfectionists this could take quite a while!

restorm.com: You are accredited to have international potential by various media outlets. Is it your big goal to reach international success, even though the world is hardly waiting for an alternative rock band from Switzerland?

ODR: Our big goal is to be able to live from our music. We want to write and play the music that we love and possibly remain true to ourselves. Nobody knows what will happen. But we are proud about what we have achieved so far and are looking forward to the future. We doubt we’ll get the international breakthrough before the world ends on 21.12.12. May be we should release our debut album on 20.12.12, in terms of marketing that would certainly not be a bad decision.

In the beginning was a clip contest, and the clip contest was with restorm.com, and restorm.com was a clip contest. Wait, that doesn’t quite add up, but there is a story to tell, a story about praise, glory, uniforms and chalets.

Four brothers in uniforms, four Swiss on the way to international success; the songs of 77 Bombay Street are being played up and down the country and their concerts are sold out in no time. In the summer of 2010 hardly anyone knew them outside of the Swiss Alps. They moved to the chalet of their grandparents to make music. Sounds romantic? It is. Summer 2010 was also when the big clip contest organised by restorm.com and 20 Minuten took place. The boys used their combined creativity and the inspiring serenity of the mountains to make a clip that would change the course of their musical future. It also was the first time that they wore their uniforms and they did not only convince us, but also the renowned jury consisting of Jubaira Bachmann, Stefanie Heizmann, Roman Camenzind and Laurent Lavergne. They finally won a professional video shoot worth of 20’000 CHF. This victory was the “best feeling ever”.

Today, they take everything a lot easier: “Back then we were in our musical infancy we applied for every contest we saw. The clip contest on restorm.com had a cool prize and we knew how important a professional music video would be to promote our music.” Now, their clips are shown on MTV Switzerland and even in Italy, where some of the most beautiful women come from. But who needs beautiful women when they have beautiful music? The greatest thing for the brothers is making music and being able to share it with others. “It’s amazing, when you’re standing on stage and you realize the audience is enjoying it, while you are having a blast performing.” To fulfil their dreams the clip contest came at just the right moment: “It was a great experience that brought us to the next level. For the first time we were able to make a professional music video that luckily was timed exactly to the release of our debut album “Up In The Sky”.” Now their dreams are much more humble: “Our goal for the future is to keep our creativity and passion for music.” Actually there is nothing more to add to that. Except maybe that we want to restorm.com to remain a starting point for many more wonderful bands. With that we would like to wish 77 Bombay Street all the best for the future. But wait, we had glory, uniforms and a chalet, but where is the praise hiding?

Since last spring Listen to Polo are continuing their expedition through the extensive fields of experimental indie rock in a new formation. The spherical sound layers from their recently released second EP „Options“ give a nice preview to the eagerly awaited debut album. restorm.com talked to songwriter, keyboarder and singer Michael Rückert about the just ended Options-tour, the debut album and their approach when it comes to create new songs.

restorm.com: You are just coming back from an extensive club-tour through 18 cities. Are you pleased with how the tour turned out?

LTP: Generally I was very pleased with the tour. From the responses we got from the audience up to the musical aspects, all in all it was a clear evolution compared to the last one. You have to know, that we have a new drummer since last April. I wasn’t so pleased with the musical aspect before. With the new drummer we reworked the whole program, all in all about 20 songs. It worked very well and musically it was an interesting and exciting tour.  We all feel comfortable within the band. It is important that everything fits well, musically and socially.

restorm.com: You released two EPs this year. When will you release your debut album?

LTP: I think we finish the recording process by fall 2012. But we won’t release it before Christmas, since there are so many releases around this time of the year. Presumably February 2013 seems like a realistic release date. It is quite far away but we will be playing the new songs live on our upcoming tour next spring. In the meantime there will be releases of new videos. We’d have loved to release it in 2012, but we want to make sure that our debut sets an exclamation mark! That’s why we want to take our time, rather than stress ourselves out.

restorm.com: Will the musical style be similar to the two EPs or what can expect from your debut album?

LTP: I am actually very pleased with the song material we have on our first two EPs. But the album will still have more diversity. To set an exclamation mark, you have to be a bit extreme, take some risks and be courageous. You can always backpedal once the production started, that’s why we want to experiment and challenge ourselves a little bit. I really don’t think in genres like radiopop or indie, in the end we just want to make music that authentically reflects how we feel as a band. You have to have a clear picture of what you want, and we’ll certainly have that for the album. The already existent complex harmonic structures will be mixed with electronic elements. Something we only implied so far.

restorm.com: What is your approach when you create new songs?

LTP: I always adhere to Noel Gallaghers motto. He once said: “It’s all about the song.“ We are very song-orientated. Usually I write the songs at home. I sit down at my piano and improvise. If I have an idea, a song comes to mind quite fast. Song and music go along with each other. To me both are equally important. We then take the song to our rehearsal room and arrange it together. But for the song „language“ for example, my brother wrote the refrain, which was extraordinary. He is a songwriter as well, so we obviously compare notes. But still, I’d say that I am the creative force of the band. For the album we intentionally want to practice a lot together; so that the rhythm section can bring in their own ideas as well.

They might not have brought any gold, frankincense or myrrh, but they have plenty of musical gifts in their bags. Our three new media partners, including our first partner from overseas, are ready to bring some fresh wind into the featurings and will be on the lookout for new talent on restorm.com

BestNewBands.com

BestNewBands.com from Los Angeles offers young talent a roof over their heads. The team from the US writes daily about the latest releases and concerts, and interviews up-and-coming bands. Once a month the will select an artist on restrom.com to present to a wider audience.

Apply for a featuring in the land of limitless opportunities with just a few clicks.

Kulturmagazin Fingerzeig

The Kulturmagazin Fingerzeig is an interactive online magazine with its finger on the pulse. It features a complete events calendar for the Basel region, and reports regularly on lifestyle, music, film and other stories. The motivated young team will write a comprehensive article including an interview with a band once a fortnight.

Here’s the Featuring Pool where you can apply.      

Stringworks

Stringworks is an Internet magazine for everything to do with guitars. It makes every guitarist’s heart beat faster with useful articles about theory and technique or test for new equipment. Once a fortnight the magazine will report on the latest blues, rock and metal bands on restorm.com.

Apply here to show them you got mad skills on your axe.

We tailored a Facebook app to suit the specific, slim fitting needs of record labels, because somebody had to do it. So your Facebook label fan page doesn’t just look sleek and smart but also allows fans to listen to and buy all your latest releases, find out more about your artists and check out the tour dates. Short on time? No problem, the installation takes only a minute.

Install the app here.

All advantages at a glance:

- Fan page with artist roster, releases, events, videos and news
- Music sales directly on Facebook
- Automatic synchronisation with all your artists’ profiles
- Slider for personalised banners and slideshows



All the elements of the app work together seamlessly. When a fan selects one of your artists, only their releases, videos and events are displayed. So your Label App also contains an app for each of your artists.

The record labels Ankerplatten, Iceberg Records, Mundartisten Records and postrap are already convinced of the advantages.

Nadine, Ankerplatten

„The Facebook app has everything we need: we can easily sell our music in the app, offer our Facebook fans content on our Fanpage and save time thanks to the automatic synchronisation of all our artists’ profiles.“

https://www.facebook.com/ankerplattench

Ole, Iceberg Records

„The app is really customized to suit our needs and makes it more interesting for fans to visit our fan page. They can browse through loads of content, listen to music, look at videos and even buy albums directly in the app.“

https://www.facebook.com/icebergmusicgroup

Manuel, Mundartisten Records

„The best thing is the automatic synchronisation that allows us to display our complete artist roster, discography and concert calendar as well as videos and photos on Facebook, without any additional effort.“

https://www.facebook.com/Mundartisten

Andreas, postrap

„Finally there’s a Facebook app that suits our needs. It makes our Fanpage a lot more attractive, without any additional effort.“

https://www.facebook.com/postrap

Check out the feature pages for more information.

Now enjoy and spread the good news!

For marathon runners. For the brave. For people who get no side stitches from listening to music indefinitely. Smokey 131 has brought us to the borders of our endurance with his monumental beat-tape. “No Rules, No Frames” is a collaboration with the Swedish producer Joel Siméus. More than one hour of instrumental sounds build up beats, blossom in the brightest colours and disappear back into nothingness. A pitch-dark nothingness, where all the sudden a sparkling soul sample shines up and becomes the beginning of a new beat. “No Rules, No Frames” takes you into a true universe consisting of thousands of reverberating elements. From the clonking industrial noises of a factory to sweet sounds, soothing your battered ears. It is an up and down, as every enduring music aficionado is used to. Much like running a marathon. Only that with “No Rules, No Frames”, what awaits you at the end is not pure exhaustion but the desire for more.

Smokey131 is our last “band of the week”. In the future, you will be able to pick a “band of the month” from the daily recommendations of our trusted media partners. Who will you choose? It’s is not going to be an easy decision, with all that great music swirling around restorm.com….

Everyone knows, only relevant news is good news. That’s why we sent our newsletter to university for half a year and now he’s back with a bunch of new skills. In the future you decide which topics you think are interesting, and you will receive exactly those stories, band recommendations and concert. In short: you’ll get your totally personalised music news.

Here a quick overview what our graduate learned and how easy it works.

Filters
The first and most important step is to set the filters. Choose your favourite genre and your location, so the content can be adapted accordingly.  Head banging metallers just get concert tips for metal concerts. The reggae lover on the other hand is spared the screaming and is presented all top reggae albums and artists instead.

Personalise
How often do you want to get your music news? Just specify whether you’d like it on a weekly or rather monthly basis. You can also deactivate any of the modules or move them to the position that you think is best. Design it your way and make it personal!

Statistics
Stay up-to-date on all your pages. Get a concise overview of the main stats such as views, activities, plays and sales for all your profiles.
 
Modules
The content is the most important part of it, so here a complete overview of the modules that are filled depending on the filters you set in the beginning.

-    Band contests: Always know when new support acts are wanted in your area
-    Competitions: Win tickets, CD’s and a lot more
-    Top artist: Read the latest band features in your favourite genres
-    Top albums / charts: Find the coolest songs and albums on restorm.com
-    Concerts: Never miss any more concerts in your region
-    Editorial content: Top stories about what’s happening on restorm.com

And now go and personalise your newsletter here.

We hope you enjoy our newsletter and let us know if you think that we should send it to some additional classes.

Last week the bands really battled for „Band of the Week“ and this round ended in a draw. On the podium is Superflip with their funky feel-good sound and the indie-dance-rock band Mr. Winterbottom.

Superflip combine catchy riffs and chilled out beats with a few scratches that go with the saxophone surprisingly well. The bass makes the whole mix so really groovy. The foot starts to whip until you are finally swept off your feet.

Mr. Winterbottom on the other hand are inspired by a British nobleman and use the typical indie-rock instruments, that all of know so well from the numerous „The …“ bands and combine it artfully with synth elements. The five gentlemen serve the perfect sound to rock through the night in your skinnyjeans.

Their music is obviously different in many ways: the sound, the melodies, the special elements and not to forget the language, just to name a few. Despite that, they do have some things in common. Both bands have been around since about two years, collected plenty of stage experience in that time and persuade the audience of their qualities every time. They make music on a high level and we are proud to offer talents like them a platform.

Just a few days ago we presented the new media profile with the Featuring Pool. On top of that, now there is also a Demotape Pool for labels and new features for the Booking Pool.

The professional and completely free tool allows you to collect all band applications in one place. The entire team can assess them efficiently, no matter whether you are an event organizer, a label or a media worker. From now on, you will always have the right band at your fingertips.

As band you can find all activated pools in this overview or on the corresponding profiles.

1. Demo tape pool for labels

Are you fed up with the chaos of numerous and incomplete demos, although you would be interested in new and promising bands? With the Demotape Pool you can collect all applications in one place. It offers you the possibility to sort and find up and coming bands with hardly any effort.

2. Booking pool for venues

The Booking Pool is now even easier to handle. If you find a band that suits you, you can send them a booking request with one click, directly out of the pool. In addition, there is a booking calendar that displays all requests, booked bands and upcoming events automatically.

Test the pool here.



3. Featuring pool for the media

As already mentioned there is a completely new media profile including a Featuring Pool. You can find new bands easily, listen to their albums in the pool, watch videos and access all press documents. The best part of it: the featurings can be created directly out of the pool and show up automatically on your profile, in your featuring channel, on the band profile and in the press tab of the band.

More about the media profile here.

In the past, some media representatives and our media partners have asked us to create a profile that fulfils their needs. As always, all inputs were taken into account during the development. Now the media profile is finally here and we are curious to hear your thoughts.

Whether for a blog, a music magazine or a newspaper, with this profile it’s even more fun to discover new bands on restorm.com and present them all over the web.

1.    Featuring Channel

With your own featuring channel you can display all your articles in one tab. You can also activate several different channels for example one for interviews or album reviews and one for band presentations. Your articles appear automatically on the following pages:

• On the wall of your media profile
• On the “Featuring” tab of your profile
• On the wall of the featured band
• In the press tab of the featured band

A short tutorial explains how it works.

In addition you can embed the restorm.com Minipage directly into your article on your homepage. This makes your articles even more interesting and turns music journalism into a multimedia experience with images, videos and of course music.

2.    Featuring Pool

The Featuring Pool is the perfect tool for finding new bands quickly. At the same time it helps to organise all request because they are collected in one place. Full inboxes are now a thing of the past. Some of the benefits are:

• Every band is displayed with all the relevant information including music, images, videos and contact details
• A choice is easily made with help of the genre and origin filters
• Once you’ve found a band that you like, you can feature them directly out of the Featuring Pool

Find out how it works here…

3.    Opportunities

On restorm.com you have different possibilities to gain more attention and interact with your fans.

• Contests allow you to discover bands and remain a topic of discussion.
• With a fan voting you can let your readers decide who should be presented in your channel.
• Everyone loves to win things – why not start a raffle?

We hope you have fun with the new profile and let us know what you think.