Colourslide

As the band Pavement once sang, "The music scene is crazy, bands start up each and every day."
For new bands beginnings can be troublesome, but for others they are filled with opportunity. For the Gainesville, Florida band Colourslide, their musical journey may be just beginning, but it is already turning heads. Colourslide, whose four members include a mergence of previous bands, has quickly been gaining attention in the indie alternative rock scene with their self-titled debut album that was released Feb. 20th.
Since its release, Colourslide’s album has gained a considerable amount of attention. Remaining at Awarestore.com’s Top 5 for four consecutive weeks (where it hit 1), the album has also given the band the opportunity to be nominated as Awarestore.com’s featured Artist of the Week. AlternativeAddiction.com also recently elected Colourslide as the top unsigned band this year. One of the biggest highlights was the album’s track "Wake Up Call" being featured on ESPN’s Diamond Cuts segment of Baseball Tonight this past April.
For a band that came into final formation barely over one year ago, Colourslide has proven that determination to create powerful music is the key to becoming a successful band. All in their mid-twenties, the members of Colourslide prove that passionate musicians make up a successful band. Members Dean Newman (guitar), Joe Palmer (bass) and Steve Julian (drums) had successfully formed a band by the name of Time, but after five years they found themselves without a lead singer. Per suggestion of a mutual friend, Alex Lawhon (previously of North Carolina based bands Revelation Darling and later Melbourne) auditioned and finalized the band known now as Colourslide.
"This is the band that we should have been years ago; the band that we’ve wanted to be," Newman said. "We wouldn’t have been able to [release the album] without the talented people that we worked with." Those people would be friend and producer Ted Comerford (Army of Me, Alternate Routes), engineer Matt Boswell and an array of prodigious mixers: Ken Andrews (Pete Yorn, Mae), Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182), Mike Plotnikoff (INXS, All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance) and Paul David Hager (Goo Goo Dolls, Jesse Malin, Avril Lavigne). "Their resumes speak for themselves", Newman continues. "We were just incredibly fortunate that everyone involved was just as excited as we were about what was happening in the studio."
Lawhon not only lends his soothing melodic vocals to Colourslide but also a few of his personal songs. Five of the twelve songs on the album were previously written by Lawhon and were recreated with a Colourslide slant. "Some of these songs I’ve had with me for quite some time", he relates. "I really wanted to make sure that there was a seamless cohesion between the tracks I had written on my own and the tunes we had worked up as a band, make it feel like an album and not just some songs thrown together." With rhythmic opening chords and catchy lyrics, Colourslide’s opening track "Lost Again", drowns the listener in a whirlwind of soulful beats. A Lawhon original, the opening track is followed by the emotion filled "Wake Up Call" and "Suddenly Everything" that both explore fundamental rhythms thanks to Julian’s infectious drumming.
The album continues to excel track-by-track, giving the listener a mixture of addicting beats and stimulating lyrics.
The album’s sixth track and another Lawhon original "Home" takes listeners on an impassioned journey with hauntingly sweet lyrics and a mellow instrumental piece halfway through the track. Newman’s intricately enchanting guitar solos on the seventh track, "Believer", have an eerie yet soothing feel. The album continues to stand out with its more rock-genre songs such as "Crave You" and "Tomorrow" in which Palmer’s opening bass rhythms catch attention.
Ending on Paul Hager’s remix of "Wake Up Call," Colourslide’s debut album leaves listeners anticipating the next album. Perfectionists at heart, Colourslide’s self-titled album was originally set to be released in October of 2006 but was pushed back when the opportunity arose to have Hager’s remix. "We wanted to have Paul involved with the record," states Newman. "When we found out he had an opening in his schedule we jumped at the chance." "Paul is an incredible mixer and a hell of a busy guy." "I’m just happy we had the good luck to tie him down for a couple days," adds Lawhon, "besides, it gave us a reason to go back into the studio and track some ideas for the song that we hadn’t had the opportunity to do before." The time between October and February was well worth the wait since the final product is bound to make impressions on both fans and industry executives alike.
Although the album excels in brilliance, it does little in comparison to their live show. Check out the band’s tour schedule to see when they’ll be in your town.
Adapted from "Newly formed band releases successful first album" first published in The Johnsonian, March 21, 2007, by Sunny Hutchinson