Some of you may be wondering what has become of Escalator Dance Party. The band has been strangely absent this term due to a couple of its members being gone.
Alex Schaaf, the pianist/songwriter is studying in London for the term. Unfortunately, the band also lost its bassist, John Merritt. He transferred to an east coast school in order to pursue his interest in jazz studies.
Even though the band has not been able to perform this term, they have managed to maintain a presence on campus by releasing their first album, “God Save the Crane.” The album features sophomores John Merritt on bass, Georgi Petrov on guitar, Alex Schaaf on piano/male vocals, Colleen Welsh as female vocalist and junior Alex Bunke on drums. The band also recruited a number of Lawrence musicians to fill out some of the tracks.
The press release that announced the album’s unveiling describes the music as “a cohesive mix of piano pop, guitar rock, and a little bit of jazz licks here and there.” The album consists of nine songs, all written by Alex Schaaf, though Schaaf claims that he had help from all of the other band members in the writing process.
“I wrote all of the songs,” said Schaaf, “but everyone else contributed their own parts to it to really make it a group effort. Almost every song has some part of it that is a contribution of someone else, it’s not just me doing everything, it’s a full-band album.”
The entire album-making process took all 10 weeks of winter term. The band did all the recording themselves in various places on campus. They started in the WLFM studio and from there, moved to various dorms and practice rooms. The only help they had was from Lawrence’s Recording Technology Engineer, Larry Darling, who mastered the album.
Right now, the band is focusing its efforts on getting the news out about the album to as many places as possible including newspapers, magazines, Web sites and music blogs.
The album has already received a very positive review in SCENE, which is an arts and entertainment newspaper for Northeastern Wisconsin. Anyone interested in reading the actual review can find the newspaper in the union.
The albums are for sale on campus from either Colleen Welsh or Alex Bunke. Colleen asserted that everyone “should get a CD; I decorated the covers and they’re only five dollars.”
As for the future, the band would like to start playing again next year as soon as Welsh and Bunke return from their respective off-campus studies during fall term. The group hopes to take it as far as possible by first branching out in Appleton, then the state and then seeing just how far they can go.
More information and news about the band can be found on its Web site: http://www.escalatordanceparty.com
EDP goes one step further with “God Save the Crane” – gc -mts -cd
