Category: Features

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Battle Profile: Lady Denim

February 15, 2021

“We were starting to get the ball rolling, you know, the snowball effect,” recalls Lundeen, Lady Denim’s lead vocalist, of the band’s momentum heading into March 2020, “and then it all got paused.”

Lundeen looks back on the band’s last headliner at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins, where the band walked out to a crowd of 450. At a show a month later on March 13, just as news of COVID-19 began to flare up, the band walked out to a crowd of less than 50. 

“The silver lining of it all was that we were able to set aside time and record,” Lundeen reflects. Trading rehearsals for recording sessions not only brought the band closer, but also yielded the seeds for what Lundeen said will be their next release.

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Battle Profile: Hannah & The Cuddies

February 13, 2021

Hannah Rodriguez knew that The Cuddies were entering a new chapter in January of 2020 when they won the first round of BandWagons’ Battle of the Bands. She eagerly planned their finalist set and looked forward to the future. But the future had changes in store.
So now, after a year-long unplanned intermission, losing / gaining new band members and the optimism of a vaccine, Hannah is ready for The Cuddies’ first gig in 2021.

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Battle Profile: Graham Good & The Painters

February 12, 2021

Graham Good is relentlessly upbeat. Not only is that really his last name, it’s his nature, and it’s the band’s aesthetic. Even the band’s website greets you with “I believe good things are coming.” He wants people to be happy.

So after a year-long delay between the semi-finals and the finals of our Battle Of The Bands, he’s ready to rock.

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Joy as Resistance: Wayne Watts Raps Decompression for Revolutionaries

February 2, 2021

Wayne Watts is a man of letters, but he is also an educator and activist.

“I wanted to make music for revolutionaries to decompress to. While you’re fighting these things it’s really essential to remember to breathe.”

The power of his dedication to words lies in the myriad of ways in which he employs them.

“They’re filled up with a lot of manifestations and affirmations,” he said. “I treat my mantras like songs.”

As an educator, Watts co-founded the Dream Create Inspire Tour. “The intention has always been to create an incubator to give disenfranchised creators a platform.”

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Dead Amps: Where We Are Now / Harnessing the Chaos

January 12, 2021

Erin O’Toole isn’t Dr. Phil, but she does have a little marital advice:

“If you can record an album together and remain happy,” O’Toole says, “you can survive anything.”

O’Toole would know, given that she’s made music with her husband, Jonathan Payne as the band Dead Amps since 2005, a year after they met. She says when they both find something they like, it can be magical )as on their new full-length “DA4”) but it’s usually more arduous than that. Just like a marriage with moments that inspire rom-coms and adult contemporary hits, there’s a whole lot of hard work behind the magic.

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A Brother’s Bond: Holdfast. Stays, Fights and Reflects

January 11, 2021

“We are three brothers” is the first sentence Holdfast. wrote in their Facebook bio and they’re not really wrong about that. Brothers Tom and Mikey Maddocks and their cousin Charlie Maddocks grew up right next door to each other in Windsor, CO. They did everything together, including signing a sync licence with Audio Network in 2020 and releasing their first full length Stay And Fight on January 8, 2021.

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DIY Kick: Colorado’s Recording Industry Takes It Home

January 6, 2021

Independent artists made more music online and at home during lockdown, and recording studios have adapted. Mike Davis was uniquely prepared for this shift, founding Koncept Jewel Studios, an itinerant collection of recording equipment and instruments that operates wherever Davis happens to be living at the time. 

“It’s kind of an amorphous thing. I’ve moved around since I started it and plan to continue moving around,” he said.

This can-do, remote DIY sentiment is echoed by Ben Behrens of Wright Studios: “It doesn’t matter how cheap or weird your gear is. If it works, we can make something cool with it.”

Stone Cottage studios in Boulder has even turned its space into a stage for live-streaming artist performances online.

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Sarah Slaton Says It’s Time to Get Up and You Know It

January 5, 2021

Despite the chaos that was 2020, Fort Collins singer-songwriter Sarah Slaton has been able to find one gig: “I’m joining a bunch of other folks from the music industry who have been laid-off from their normal jobs,” she tells BandWagon. “We are part of a Covid rapid-response team, going to small cities to build testing infrastructure and testing sites.”

Because let’s be honest, if you need to build a mobile facility meant to deal with a lot of people, call are the music festival folks. “We get shit done quickly,” Slaton says.

Additionally, Slaton released the “Get Up” single and video in December, which speaks to what so many are going through. She championed the Save Our Stages Act, spearheaded community events and much more.

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