Saturday 4 Aug 2018, 8:37am
Only Echoes Remain (facebook/onlyechoesremain) are a rapidly evolving and growing prog-tinged post/math-rock band based in North London. We released a full concept album in June 2017 (The Exigent) to positive national and online press, toured the UK several times last year, and this year have been focusing on writing for our second album and some choice gig and festival bookings. These have included shows with longtime Godspeed-collaborator This Quiet Army, and a sold-out Tufnell Park Dome at Portals festival recently. We will also be playing ArcTanGent this August.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmptvv_z4xE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQa32ZwQ5nw
Our guitarist Simon has just had his first child, and so will be taking a leave of absence from the band for paternity time. He will still be an official member of the band (and we hope will be contributing creatively remotely to the ongoing songwriting), however will be unable to play or rehearse with us for - we expect - the next 6-9 months, potentially longer.
As such, we are looking for a talented and friendly guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who will be able to take over from Simon during his absence, and then has the musical flexibility to incorporate other instruments (e.g. keys/synth) as well as guitar when Simon hopefully eventually returns full time. I.e., we're not looking just for paternity cover, but for someone who will expand our little group into a 5-person powerhouse once we're all back together again!
Some practical details:
- We're ambitious and committed, though do write and play primarily for the love of it - we have no delusions about 'making it'; but do work hard to see just how far we can take things while we're at it!
- We try to rehearse/meet weekly, varying days/weekdays/weekends based on everyone's availability
- While the life essentials (work and family) are all of our top priority, the band is a close second
- We love what we do!
- Our debut album was quite atmospheric at times - our recent songwriting has shifted more towards riffs and heavier sections though, without losing the occasional atmospheric moment. A lot more prog, metal and math touches have crept in of late! This makes for an intense and exciting live experience, both on-stage and for the audience, based on the very positive response we've had to playing the new songs live!
To us this project is extremely musically fulfilling - this is a passion project for the group; we're looking to have fun, write some great music together, and play our music to as many people as we can. We all have day jobs and busy lives, but we do invest a lot of time, energy and heart into the project, and want to take it as far as we can.
We are lucky to have a lot of varied musical influences and tastes in the band, which is fantastic for writing interesting music, including prog, metal, post-whatever, ambient, alternative, grunge - you name it really. It all helps to keep the music varied, and push beyond the clichés & stereotypes often associated with post-rock. For us the music is about writing and performing very emotionally-charged music that takes us and the audience on a journey.
Our ideal guitarist is someone who we can have fun with, who loves experimenting with their sound/tone, who wants to get actively involved in collaborative songwriting, who wants to tour and play festivals around the world, who rocks out and moves around on stage; ultimately someone who will naturally fit right in and help us take the band to the next level.
Experience with use of technology in live music would be a bonus - we utilise various tools for monitoring and backings, including IEMs, Ableton, midi synced looping and more, so knowledge of these would help you hit the ground running.
Check out the youtube link for an idea of our sound (and the related videos, or search for 'Only Echoes Remain' on youtube).
If you like the music and think you could be what we're looking for, then please email me via this site and include a link to any existing recordings or performances you have. We can supply another link to another new song as yet unreleased, and have rough stems for all the guitar parts you'd need to learn for the live set we've been playing of late. Simon also plans to record video playthroughs of some parts soon to help with learning them.
We look forward to meeting you!
Our influences include: Caspian, Russian Circles, Sigur Ros, Godspeed, This Will Destroy You, Town Portal, 65dos, Nordic Giants, maybeshewill, Cleft, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Mogwai, Samuel Jackson 5, Karnivool, Olafur Arnalds