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Empires
Garage Hymns
Empires recently finished recording their second full length album, Garage Hymns. The band’s self-produced debut album, Howl, garnered a massive amount of attention when they released it on their website back in 2008, and now, with Garage Hymns, Empires feels that they have found the sound they’ve been searching for all along.
“We’re definitely more defined than ever,” explains vocalist Sean Van Vleet. “We’ve figured out what works for us as we’ve played together more, and now the music feels really honed in.”
It’s been a rapid ascent to critical acclaim for the young Empires, who came together in 2006.
“We never started out saying ‘We’re going to be a punk band,’ or ‘We’re going to be an indie band,’” says guitarist Tom Conrad. “What we wanted to do was never acknowledged in words. It was more like, ‘Oh, you play drums? Sweet. Show up and let’s play.’ And that evolved to what we have now.”
The band finished Howl in guitarist and producer Max Steger’s studio in March, and their “all over the place” approach had obviously worked out for them: the album garnered thousands of downloads online, including over 15,000 in its first week alone. “With Howl, we worked out the instrumentation of the songs as we recorded them,” explains Max. “With the band being so new, we took a lot of freedom experimenting with different sounds and genres. I think that gives the record its diversity and charm.”
Howl was named one of the top five local albums of 2008 by Metromix Chicago, and Empires spent the rest of 2008 and much of 2009 building a profile locally. They sold out several of Chicago most popular music venues, including Schubas, the Beat Kitchen, and the Subterranean. Then, late in 2009, they went back into Max’s studio to record again, and in 2010 they released a seven-song EP called BANG.
To generate more interest in their second collection of self-produced material, the band put out BANG in the form of monthly digital singles until physically releasing a deluxe edition of the album in March of 2010, right before their first SXSW appearance.
The BANG EP and their first SXSW appearance ushered in some good national attention.
“Whether we’ve been trying to spread the word ourselves or not, the word-of-mouth amongst our fans has always been really nice,” says Tom. “People have always been talking, and more people have been getting into it. We’re really grateful for that.”
With the BANG EP and a raucous makeout music video for the title track keeping a lot of attention focused on them, Empires quietly began demoing the songs that would later become Garage Hymns in the summer of 2010. Then, from February to May of 2011, the Empires fan base came out in droves once again when Empires was one of sixteen bands being considered for the August cover of Rolling Stone.
Hand-picked from over 1,200 artists by Rolling Stone editors to be part of the magazine’s first ever “Choose the Cover” campaign, Empires advanced (through public voting) to one of the final four slots. Rolling Stone called Empires a “big, multi-faceted, tower of power” and said that “inspired by the independent spirit of ‘90s grunge, Empires’ music takes the urgency and emotion of that era and reboots it for a new generation.”
“We actually started recording and tracking everything during that competition,” explains the band. “It was bizarre, because the Rolling Stone thing was great for us, but we were part of this huge contest where we didn’t have any control over things. The voting was all done by the fans. So we got back from a show in New York, and just said okay, let’s make this record, because we have control over that.”
“The Rolling Stone contest rallied our fan base,” says Sean. “So when it came to the record, we really tried to finish it as quickly as possible—for the fans—which made us do it really honestly. Takes were very minimal. That’s why there’s a live feel to it that we really love.”
The “live feel” on Garage Hymns that Sean refers to is a more loose approach that comes as a direct result of the way the band went at the recording process from the very beginning.
“Garage Hymns was figured out mainly in the practice space,” explains Max. “I wanted the recordings to sound more like the band in practice, and I wanted to avoid any slick over-the-top production. We wanted to be as gritty and raw as possible.”
Tom adds that the difference between Garage Hymns and Empires’ earlier records is that the songs on Garage Hymns were all demoed out six, seven, eight times beforehand. “When it came time to actually start to record the album, it was a really quick process,” he says. “All the homework was done, we just had to play the songs.”
EMPIRES TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM GARAGE HYMNS ON JUNE 12th
NEW EP & SONG CAN’T STEAL YOUR HEART AWAY NOW AVAILABLE
FOR FREE DOWNLOAD
BAND CURRENTLY ON TOUR
Chicago, IL rock band empires are thrilled to announce the release of their 2nd full-length album GARAGE HYMNS, out June 12th on the band’s own label HISTORY Records. Driven by insightful lyrics and an exciting balance of swagger and melody, empires have been catching the attention of both critics and concertgoers since their formation. Known for an explosive live show, empires just finished a weekend of dates with Temper Trap, are hitting the road with A Silent Film, supporting Kaiser Chiefs later this month, and are looking forward to a handful of upcoming festivals. Tour dates below.
empires are excited to offer new song “Can’t Steal Your Heart Way” for free download at www.weareempires.com. The song comes from their latest EP of the same name, that within it’s first 24 hours, was the #2 most downloaded EP on Noise Trade.
Last year before heading back to the band’s home studio in Chicago to record GARAGE HYMNS, empires was hand-picked from over 1,200 artists by Rolling Stone editors to be part of the magazine’s first ever “Choose the Cover” campaign, empires advanced (through public voting) to one of the final four slots. Rolling Stone called empires a “big, multi-faceted, tower of power” and said that “inspired by the independent spirit of ‘90s grunge, empires’ music takes the urgency and emotion of that era and reboots it for a new generation.”
“The Rolling Stone contest really rallied our fan base,” says songwriter and vocalist Sean Van Vleet. “So when it came to our new record, we tried to finish it as quickly as possible – for the fans – which made us do it really honestly. Takes were minimal. That’s why there’s a live feel to it that we really love.” Guitarist Tom Conrad adds that the difference between GARAGE HYMNS and empires’ earlier records is that the songs were all demoed out six, seven, eight times beforehand. “When it came time to actually start to record the album, it was a really quick process,” he says. “All the homework was done, we just had to play the songs.”
With GARAGE HYMNS, empires feel that they have found the sound they’ve been searching for all along. “We’re definitely more defined than ever,” explains Van Vleet. “We’ve figured out what works for us as we’ve played together so much over the last two years, and now the music feels really honed in.”
By self-releasing their music – which has always been entirely written, engineered and produced by the band – empires has taken full advantage of the Internet and online communities as a means for getting the word out about their music. What the band has created is a national following that has downloaded their music over 70,000 times and helped catch the attention of MTV, Alternative Press and AOL Spinner, among others.
“Whether we’ve been trying to spread the word ourselves or not, the word-of-mouth amongst our fans has always been really nice,” says guitarist and producer Max Steger. “People have always been talking, and more people have been getting into it. We’re really grateful for that.”
TOUR DATES (more to be announced):
With A Silent Film
April 3rd Brighton Music Hall Allston, MA
April 4th The Space Hamden, CT
April 6th Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA
April 7th U Street Music Hall Washington, DC
April 10th Mercury Lounge New York, NY
April 12th Maxwell’s Hoboken, NJ
April 13th Jillian’s Albany, NY
April 15th The Auricle Canton, OH *
April 19th House Of Blues Chicago, IL **
* Indicates headline show
** Indicates show with Kaiser Chiefs
EMPIRES ADVANCE TO NEXT ROUND OF ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE CHOOSE THE COVER CONTEST THE FINAL FOUR CONFIRMED HEADLINING TOUR BEGINS THIS JUNE NEW MUSIC ON ROLLINGSTONE.COM
With an overwhelming response from both fans and critics, Chicago four-piece EMPIRES have advanced to the next round of Rolling Stone Magazineís ìChoose The Coverî contest. What started with thousands of musicians, has now been narrowed down to the final four. Known for an explosive live show, Empires will embark on a national headlining tour beginning June 15th and play a hometown show on May 21st. Tour dates below.
Driven by insightful lyrics and an exciting balance of swagger, melody and an explosion of guitars, Empires is catching the attention of many. Along with MTV, Alternative Press and more, The Chicago Tribune praises Empires as ìrefreshingly unpredictableî and AOL Spinner applauds the bandís ìexplosive Gaslight Anthem-grade stadium rockers.î Rolling Stone goes on to rave ìa big, multi-faceted, tower of powerî and ìinspired by the independent spirit of 90s grunge, Empiresí music takes the urgency and emotion of that era and reboots it for a new generation.î Since their formation, Empires has taken full advantage of the Internet and online communities as a means for getting the word out about their music. As with all of their songs, which are entirely written, engineered and produced by the band leaving them totally free from creative restraints, Empires has allowed kids to download their music for free on their official website HYPERLINK “http://www.weareempires.com”www.weareempires.com. Through an organic word-of-mouth and a true love of these songs, the bandís debut album ìHowlî is currently over 70,000 album downloads, and counting. Check out news songs “Night Is Young”, “Hard Times” and “Hells Heroe”s athttp://www.rollingstone.com/choosethecover/artists/empires
By rating Empires five stars, you can help the band become the first unsigned band to land the cover of Rolling Stone!! Voting for round three ends Friday, May 13th.
TOUR DATES (more to be announced):
May 21st Beat Kitchen Chicago, IL June 15th Frankieís Toledo. OH June 16th Jammin Java Vienna, VA June 17th The Studio @ Webster Hall New York, NY June 18th The Fire Philadelphia, PA June 20th Vibe Lounge Rockville Centre, NY June 21st Smiling Moose Pittsburgh, PA June 22nd Macís Bar East Lansing, MI June 23rd Musica Akron, OH June 24th The Strutt Kalamazoo, MI
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