Living Illusion » News

And That’s Why Cal Beaudoin Plays Drums for Us

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:36:34 +0000

Our amazing drummer Cal Beaudoin has entered into a drumming competition and this is his submission video. He has already made it into the Semifinals and has been voted by the judges to be one of the Top 10 in Western Canada. The drum solo is pretty bad ass if I do say so myself. Be sure to check it out!

Cal Beaudoin – Senior West Division 2010 – Direct Video Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eldr3UcFK0o

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

PS Send some love to our good friend Brent Gerlitz as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1keQSApB_8g

Shane Goes a Long Way Down

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:34:20 +0000

As most of you know I have been playing guitar this summer for the wicked band Long Way Down. I haven’t really posted a whole lot about it on the Living Illusion site (aside from Boonstock stuff) but there have been some pretty amazing shows I’ve played and I feel that it would be stupid not to write a post about them. That being said I’m gonna keep it short and just mention the shows and also a couple upcoming gigs as well.

June 18th 2010 – Taphouse – St Albert, Alberta – We were a surprise headliner at the Alberta Last Band Standing Competition. We played with Hollywood Assassyn, The Flash Jam, R.C Sindicate, Oldbury, Heaviside, White Lightning, Apresnos

June 25th 2010 – Boonstock – Gibbons, Alberta – There are far to many bands to mention but here’s a bunch: Matthew Good, Ill Scarlet, Shout out out out out, Christian Hansen and the Autistics, Static in the Stars, The Offspring, Papa Roach, Chevelle, Age of Daze, Hollywood Assassyn, No Heat Tomorrow.

July 1st 2010 – Sawfest – Canada Day – Slave Lake, Alberta – We got the opportunity to play and hang out with Wide Mouth Mason and Kim Mitchell. It was a wild party after we played and the backstage treatment of the bands was incredible. The people up in Slave Lake really appreciate having live bands up there.

July 15th & 16th 2010 – Opening for Crash Karma – Union Hall – Edmonton, Alberta – The Taphouse – St Albert, Alberta – These we’re two amazing shows to play. We had an awesome time opening for a rock group with some of the members from bands we’ve been listening to since we were kids. If you don’t know who Crash Karma is, it consists of Edwin from I Mother Earth, Mike Turner from Our Lady Peace, Amir Epstein from Zygote and Jeff Burrows from the Tea Party. And yes, they’re fucking awesome.

August 14th 2010 - 3rd Annual Day of Destruction – Grande Prairie, AB – Long Way Down performs live along side 50cc Dirtbike races, Car & Truck Stunt Show, & a 125 Foot Waterslide with kicker for launching pedal bikes into the lake!

Well that’s all for now I’ll probably do one more Long Way Down update at the end of the summer if I play any more cool gigs with them.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Living Illusion Album Give Away!

admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:42:36 +0000

Want a FREE copy of the new Living Illusion: Suffering CD? Well then go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fst7qv8NME4 and listen to what MrTyBoze has to say and he’ll hook you up! Special thanks for Ty for making the video and supporting the band.

We all really appreciate the people who get behind independent music, especially when it’s ours Be sure to subscribe to Ty’s Channel which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTYBOZE because well, he’s pretty freaking awesome.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Music Video – Living Illusion – Suffering

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:10:31 +0000

Alright, well after many months of waiting for the album to be finished we have finally gotten our video editor/camera man extraordinaire to make a video for our title track Suffering, from our new album of the same name, using the footage from our CD Release Party show at the Starlite Room in Edmonton (That’s totally a run on sentence but I am in too much of a hurry to fix it). The video looks awesome, I could not have made it look any where this good on my own.

Hope you guys enjoy the video and like the new song!

Here’s the direct link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCvbvlordmM

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

So I’m Playing Guitar in Long Way Down

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:21:24 +0000

The boys from Long Way Down have asked me to join them for a couple shows this summer playing guitar with them. Honestly, I should be focusing more on Living Illusion gigs but let me tell you, it is going to be freaking awesome to take a break from LI to play some shows this summer and only have to worry about playing. I’m so used to having to book the shows, promote the shows, get the band together, schedule every one, sell tickets, online marketing etc that not having to do that for a change and just having to worry about performing my parts is going to be awesome!

To kick off playing this summer with Long Way Down we’re going to be playing at Boonstock just outside of Edmonton at the end of June. Notable bands we will be playing with include: Matthew Good, Papa Roach, Chevelle, Offspring, Ill Scarlett, Swollen Members, Age of Days and Hail the Villian. Needless to say it’s going to kick some serious ass. I’m super stoked to be playing Boonstock and did I mention I get a backstage pass! Here’s to hoping I can party and hang out with the boys from Chevelle (one of my favorite bands of all time!).

Beyond that there are a bunch of additional wicked shows in the pipeline although I don’t want to mention anything until they’re 100% confirmed.

Keep on Rockin!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

PS I will have physical copies of the new Living Illusion disc on the 25th of June, they will be up on iTunes a little bit after that.

FINALLLLLY! The Album is DONE!

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:33:05 +0000

Wow. Who would’ve thought that it would take a year and a half to complete a CD with only 9 songs on it. It’s been a long haul. We started Pre-Production in January of 2009 and now the chapter which is the follow up album to our first record is finally here. Why did it take so long you ask, well let’s do a recap.

Back in 2009 when we started this journey the biggest difficulty was finding a place to rehearse. Luckily our good friend Ryan had a house to himself in the little town of Leduc which was perfect for us to jam and write songs at (aside from the noise complaints from the neighbours that is). With regular rehearsals going off with out a hitch and our producer Kevin Hoskin working with us at the Jam space by April we were ready to hit the studio.

We moved all of our gear into Beta Sound Recording Studio and got pumped to start laying shit down. After some extra pre-production at the studio itself we started recording drums in May. Tracking drums was a breeze, Cal nailed all the songs in less than a day and you could really tell that all of our prior rehearsing paid off. Once that was done we took a little break for editing and had to regroup due to loss of our bass player.

Fast forward about a month and a half and we got back on track. Time to record guitars. This was by far my favorite part of the process. I basically hunted for all of the best amps that I could find. I did have a general guitar sound that I was going for, and seeing as I got all the amps I needed, our guitars sound freaking amazing and exactly how I wanted them to. Recording took a few days, we blew up an amp, all in all it was awesome.

By this time we ended up finding our new bass player, Dave Stoten, and all the pieces came together for recording bass. It actually went by really fast, Dave is a machine. With only being given the gig to track bass for us with about 10 days notice Dave pulled through on all fronts. Also he is a perfect fit for the band.

Now for the last part of the recording process. Vocals. Vocals again were surprisingly quick, it helps that Jay has an amazing ear. It only took a couple nights to get it all done up. So by this time when vocals got completed it was getting into August 2009 and we made the executive decision to hold off on releasing the album until Summer 2010. No one wants to tour in the winter in Canada.

Now it’s June 2010 and the time has finally come. After remixing and remastering the record between September 2009 and May 2010 on three occasions with three different mixers and 2 different mastering guys we have finally finished. It’s done. There is nothing else that we need to do, it’s time to release the damn thing (especially because our CD release party was 2 months ago!!). All I can say is that I don’t regret taking the extra time, and spending the extra money to get it to sound exactly how it needed to.

If I have any advice to give here it is, don’t ever assume that mixing is less important or easier than any other part of the recording process. It is probably the MOST important. I have learned more about compression, EQ’s and SSL consoles than I have thought I would ever need to. Take your time with the whole process. Listen to multiple versions of your mixes and trust your ears.

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: Never Set a Release Date Until the Album is DONE!

So that is that. It’s done, it’ll be up on iTunes and I’ll have physical discs to flog in the next couple weeks. Special thanks to Nathan Kidd for coming on board and mixing the shit out of the album.

Check it out new tracks on the website:
http://www.livingillusion.com in the sidebar

Or go to our MySpace Page:
http://www.myspace.com/livingillusion

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Living Illusion EPK Promo Video

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:10:49 +0000

Check out our new promo video for the band. It was produced, filmed, and edited by Dan Holden of Phase Productions and My Sister Ocean. He did an amazing job and we’re super happy with how it turned out. Stayed tuned for some more video footage coming soon once we officially release the new album online in less than a months time.

Check out the Living Illusion EPK Promo Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcnB2xjRPkc

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Mixing, Mastering & Printing Hell

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:28:56 +0000

Talk about a gong show. With just over a week until the CD Release Party you would think that by this time I would have the finished album in my hands, but sadly this is not the case. After going through more mixing and mastering revisions than I would ever like to admit we have finally come to the realization that we may end up putting the damn CD cases together ourselves the day of the show. Was it all worth it? You bet your ass it was!

In the end Kenton Thomas the lead singer of Portal became our savior and mixed our record at the 11th hour. He busted his ass to help us have one hell of a finished product. Every member of the band Portal had a hand in some aspect of our album and we’re stoked to have such an awesome group of musicians to work with.

Next up is getting back to our rehearsing schedule so we’re ready to go for the show. The clock is ticking and we need to get everything done in the next week. That being said, there should be a wicked batch of hoodies and tshirts coming down the line as well as the CD! I’ll post another note once I get them in hand and can set it up so every one can buy them online.

Alright, I’m done ranting – expect some new music to be posted next week!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

New Living Illusion Website Has Arrived!

admin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:38:10 +0000

Finally, after months of procrastination and weeks of hard work, it has arrived! The new LivingIllusion.com. With the music and entertainment industry going in the direction they are I figured it best to ensure that our new site be built around easy access for visitors to find new content from the band. I wanted this new site to reflect the constant stream of updates and content that we plan on posting while keeping the site dynamic and giving people a reason to come back. Not to get into too much tech speak, but I used a blogging/content management system called wordpress to build the site.

So big things are in the plans for us these days. We’re going to be releasing our new album at our CD Release Party which is booked at the Starlite Room in Edmonton on April 9th 2010. We’re going to be playing with not only our friends, but one of our favorite bands, PORTAL! We’re going to be pushing to get our record on the radio with our good friends over at Oddball Productions, plus more things that I don’t want to mention quite yet. I will have a proper announcement for the cd release party in the coming weeks once we have tickets, posters and all that stuff pulled together. It’s going to be a wicked show, not to mention that we’re finally releasing our album!

Alright, well I’m off to bed, it has been a long day, but it’s great to finally have the new site finished (for the most part). There still will be lots of updates and changing pages in the coming weeks as I fill out and update old content pages plus pulling new merch together and posting songs!

Feel free to check out the site and post a comment to let me know what you think about the new site and if you think I should make any changes!! I’m always open to creative criticism and want to make the site as awesome as possible:
http://www.livingillusion.com

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

New Band MySpace Page is Up!

admin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:35:38 +0000

Alright internet, I just finished the new MySpace page for the band and figured I would let ya know. After two weeks with a designer and an awesome photo shoot with our photographer this was the end result.

You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/livingillusion.

Special thanks to Mike Ofstedahl our photographer he did an awesome job. The picture we used as the header for the MySpace page was taken at the studio and was definitely one of the best. Sidenote: Rick our graphic designer for the MySpace page is freaking amazing.

So what do you think of the MySpace page? Does it look classy enough for ya?

Now I just have to finish the new Living Illusion website.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com