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http://www.balconytv.ie
BALCONYTV DUBLIN 1/05/2010
PRESENTED BY PAULINE FREEMAN
STAND hail from the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. The band was formed in 1998 by four schoolmates who began gigging at school assemblies and then into the clubs of the city. In 1999 having built a healthy following in Ireland, the song Questions from their debut LP went Top 10 on the Irish national charts.

Armed with cash saved from gigs and a box of records, the band went to America to play South By Southwest in Austin, Texas in 2001. Awed by the prospect of limitless venues, they returned to the US that same year on a one-way ticket.

With no shortage of gumption to match their talent, the band took an apartment in the Bronx, bought a used van and proceeded to knock on all the stage doors of New York City. Soon thereafter, they hit the endless American highway in all the comfort that a used tradesmans van offers.

After the better part of a decade using New York as a home base the band released three more studio albums, garnered praise from local and national press, played many festivals, embarked on coast-to-coast tours of the U.S. and were seen by over 250,000 people.

The bottom line was that we were on our own, explains Neil, and we needed to generate money to fund the vehicle we were running gear, studio time, mixing, mastering and not least important, feeding five people. We were selling everything but the spare tire from the back of the van. The record execs that followed us were all in hiding, watching their business vaporize as ours took steps forward.

The band relocated back to Ireland to re-connect with family and recuperate from the pressures of near constant gigging. We knew how to play. Taking some time to recuperate, take stock & plan the next record, according to singer Alan Doyle, was as important as anything at that point.

After 6 months of downtime, the band found themselves in the same room again for all the right reasons. Stand began the writing process for the songs that would become their latest LP 100,000 Ways to Harvest Hope.

Everyone had good songs coming out individually, according to Doyle, but we needed to be together to put life to them. Lets face it- we are a band. Thats what we do.

The band returned to the U.S. to record the album in the Buffalo, NY studio owned by the Goo Goo Dolls, who befriended the band on a trip through that town in 2006. They tracked 10 songs in 9 days. Trust me, when you are scraping the money to pay for everything on your own, you go in ready. Its live in the studio, with an overdub here and there. Theres energy on it, claims guitarist David Walsh, and Im not sure that weve ever captured that energy before on a recording.

The album was produced by Marc Swersky and mixed by renowned Mix Engineer Mark Needham (Chris Isaak, The Killers, Fleetwood Mac). Swersky sent me the track from his first day in the studio with them, and I was blown away. No pun intended, these guys stand out to me as a breath of fresh rock and roll air in what is a very crowded field.

The band have just completed a tour in the United States and are now planning to take their homeland by storm in the Summer of 2010 with accompanying radio and press campaigns.

http://www.standland.com

Tune in again again tomorrow!!!