Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
It was sweaty last year. Very sweaty and very loud. The speakers were blaring, guitars screeching, voices hoarse and the bass sent rumbles through the ground.
Adstock, you could say, was one resounding, sweaty success.
Adam Rayburn, the event's 20-year-old organizer has pictures to prove it, so convincing the District of Maple Ridge to give Adstock another go wasn’t a hard feat.
The suits at municipal hall and the festival office have been helpful in making it happen.
"They’re not as stuffy as you might think,” Rayburn says. "I think in general, there’s a real lack of shows happening in Maple Ridge and all the suits I’ve talked to have been really supportive and excited to have one more youth making stuff happen in the community. Just because it’s not exactly easy listening doesn’t seem to bother them at all."
Adstock is a one-day, free music festival set to rock the Gazebo or bandstand in Memorial Peace Park July 8.
It will feature the best independent bands in the Lower Mainland belting out metal, hardcore and screamo or simply “Hard Rock” for everyone who doesn’t know much about those scenes, Rayburn says.
In its third year, Adstock (short of Adamstock and borrowing from the most famous music fest of all time, Woodstock) has grown from a birthday party for Rayburn at his Pitt Meadows home to a full-fledge festival with nine bands and seven hours of non-stop melodic noise.
We’re talking about a tiny little party here, says Rayburn of Adstock’s humble beginnings.
“Adding the date to the end was another joke because I definitely did not think it would happen again, never mind growing to what it is today.”
Rayburn's band Hollow Log may borrow its energetic raw sound from the more famous like Alexisonfire, Underoath, Misery Signals and The Bled.
But when it comes to inspiring the troop of four to slogging it out on stage, Hollow Logo sites the fervour of local bands like Ninja Spy, Callahan, Kincaide and Lights Below.
Hollow Logo is Brandon Smith on guitars and screaming, Rayburn on drums, Ryan Flynn on guitar and backup vocals and Jayson Graham (ex-Fred’s Fear) on bass and lead vocals, who joined the band within the last year.
“All up and coming bands who aren’t on any big label but who still carry solid fan bases and make music that really means something to people. We look up to all those guys bands and they definitely keep our egos in check,” says Smith.
Their first EP titled Paper Weight will be flogged at Adstock this year featuring six songs which will be played during their set.
Smith says Hollow Logo writes the music first, then figures out the lyrics and vocals.
“A lot of what we’re about as a band and what we write about is environmental issues and preservation for future generations.”
The Paper Weight EP touches on lots of different subjects like living up to expectations in 'Father’s Shoes', suicide in 'Shotgun Facelift', and living up to what you say or write in 'Stasis Quo'.
Young and technically-savvy, Hollow Logo gets its music out to fans via the Internet through myspace.com and www.hollowlogo.com.
But, says Smith, there’s no substitute for just playing a ton of shows and meeting people in person.
“Those are the contacts that will get you somewhere and I know as a music fan myself that seeing a band play a kick-ass show live and maybe even meeting them afterwards leaves a way better impression,” he added.
Hollow Logo is quite content for the moment but would eventually like music to become a full-time job, says Smith.
“ If I’m eating and surviving off of my music then I’ll be content to just keep making the best music I can and try and reach as many kids as possible. I know the rest of the band feels the same way.” - Monisha Martins - The Maple Ridge News
Discography
Hollow Logo (self-titled demo)
Best Laid Plans demo
Paper Weight (6-song EP)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Hollow Logo started with the breakup of Adam and Brandon's old band One Week Later. Left with out a bassist and a singer, Brandon and Adam went in search of the peices they needed to recreate the band, with a heavier sound. They found Cam for bass and Graham for lead vocals, both of whom were good friends of them anyways so the band was very tight in that regard. The new band needed a new name and they chose "Hollow Logo" (which was a name Brandon and Adam wanted for OWL). Since their formation around spring 2005 the band had been playing some shows and working on their first self titled demo released in early October 2005. The band had just been working on new songs and spreading the word about the relatively new name on the local scene.
Although Graham and Cam were close as friends to the band they did not share the same ambition for HL that Adam and Brandon did and just after their first major gig at the Croatian would leave the band a few weeks from eachother. Graham and Cam had stepped up and carried the band along as long as they could before what would eventually be more permenant members could step in and considering this they did a fantastic job and without them nothing would have been accomplished and there wouldn't even be a band after OWL... Scary thought.
So after some searching, Adam and Brandon found Dan on bass and Daryl as the lead singer. Both come with their own fair share of ambition as well as a very apparent passion for their instruments (yes vocals are an instrument). Unfortunately Daryl found his interests elsewhere and after a few months on board and a show, he decided to leave HL. Luckily, however, this was righted when Ryan expressed some interest in jamming with the band and very soon he was invited to join the band as lead singer/second guitarist.
Dan continued with the band for a while, and decided that his other project that he had been working with was more his genre of taste, so, again, HL was left incomplete.
Flash forward a few months and here you find HL in their new studio recording their demo, AND acquiring a new bassist/singer, Jay.
Finally, B&A&HL as a whole are ready to go out and make a name for themselves on the local scene or maybe elsewhere. Who knows... rock-star fantasy or not this band is ready to rock harder then they ever have before.
The band is definitely confident and excited about its music and future and they absolutely have their fans and supporters but they figure that they dont need some cheesey band bio to tell people about how great they are. They can only encourage people to check them out and make up their own minds.
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