VanScott
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | INDIE
Music
Press
April 2009 Volume 1.1
fixmagazine.ca
At one point or another we all imagine the incredible dream of becoming a rock star. For one band, that dream is becoming a reality. Local hard rock band VanScott has opened the door for opportunity and with the help of producer Duane Baron they might not have too much further to go to recognize their potential.
Baron has worked with musicians such as Tracy Chapman, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and POD and has vast experience in the music industry over the last 32 years helping talented msuician find their niche. He believes VanScott is a band that has this talent and when asked how he finds potential stars he simply responded "it's an instinct. There is no magical formula; it has to strike my emotions".
He described VanScott's music as being "fresh. A new sound I haven't heard in other songwriter's music. I think they're going to do really well." A strong comment from someone who has seen it happen before.
VanScott made their collective beginnings over a year ago. The band includes singer Jamie VanScott, guitarist Jason Dyck, bassist Dean Abram, and drummer Dave Hoyt-Walterhouse. They have since had the privilege of sharing the stage most recently with well known bands like 54 40 and Honeymoon Suite. As much as these musicians are now having a taste of the lifestyle, the group is still down to earth. On the topic of becoming rock stars, lead singer Jamie VanScott voiced that "it all depends on how someone looks at what a rock star is."
"To be able to walk up and see the people in the crowd singing the words along with us would be the climax of our story." Abram added and Dyck reiterated, "We hope to get out there and rock the stage."
Drummer Dave Hoyt-Walterhouse, who considers himself the skeptic of the group thought it would be, "a couple of gigs, but after hearing this recording it will definitely be much bigger than I thought". From a humble background to a wide open future, VanScott has worked hard to acquire their new-found status and advises other hopefuls to not let the words of others keep them down. Abram adds, "You have as good a chance as anyone out there." For VanScott, the reality is now just to follow that dream.
For more information on the group go to vanscottonline.com - FIX Magazine
High hopes for band
The recording industry: Local musicians team up with Ozzie Osbourne/Motley Crue/Rod Stewart producer
TYLER KULA, THE OBSERVER
Posted 1 month ago
A local musician who skirted with a commercial breakthrough is hoping a well-known producer will help put him over the top.
Jamie Scott, formerly of Flicker, and his new band VanScott have enlisted the help of Duane Baron on their debut EP, Thief of Time.
The four-piece outfit includes Scott on vocals, guitarist Jason Dyck, bassist Dean Abram and drummer/backup vocalist Dave Hoyt-Walterhouse.
They've been working with Baron at DNA recordings on Christina Street for more than a week, getting songs ready.
Scott said the music is a departure from the lighter sound of Flicker.
"I was always into heavier, harder rock and some of the guys in the last band were into the lighter stuff," he said.
Scott said he recruited Abram through the social networking site Facebook about a year ago. Abram brought Hoyt-Walterhouse along, and Dyck was dating Scott's sister.
"We have jokes about this all the time," Scott said.
Baron, who also produced Flicker's 2002 indie album, Life Passes By, said he has high hopes for the group.
"When I met Jamie about six years ago I always loved the way he wrote," he said. "I think Jamie's great, and I think these guys could do really well out here in Canada and the U. S."
As a producer, Baron has worked with such big names as Keith Richards, Hoobastank, Rod Stewart and Motley Crue. He also produced Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears album in 1991.
"He was still drinking then," Baron recalled of one Osbourne recording session. "He was drinking in the studio but he wasn't really doing anything. We were doing guitar overdubs."
Guitarist Zack Wylde had about 20 guitars lined up in a row as Osbourne staggered around the studio, Baron said.
"It was about noon . . . and I asked the keyboard player, 'He's not really that f'd up is he, this early?' He said, 'I don't know,' because Ozzy always has a tendency to fake it a little bit."
Osbourne came into the studio, passed out and knocked the guitars over like dominoes.
"In the '80s it was crazy, but for the most part days would start off normal and by 7 o'clock everybody would be off their face," Baron said. "I think since early 90s, mid 90s, I think the studio is pretty much a workshop. Everybody keeps it together."
VanScott has done four shows and performed with 54-40 and Honeymoon Suite. They play Norma Jeans with Scarlet Sins in London in March, and plan to have Thief of Time ready by late spring after finishing up at Baron's studio in Los Angeles.
Scott said it's important that everyone gets along.
"More than talent is a willingness to do the work and to put the ego out of the way to make something good," he said.
"I'm not the best singer in the city, he's not the best guitar player, he's not the best drummer, and he's not the best bass player. But collectively I think we've got a cool sound and I think we're going to do really well."
For more about the band visit vanscottonline.com.
- - -
KULA - The Observer
June 2 /PRNewswire/USA Today - The buzz that is rock band VanScott has not gone unnoticed. If you have been tuning in to any of the NHL playoff games, you will have heard VanScott's Growin' in the background at the Detroit Red Wings home games. The attention from the Wings and excitement from anxiously-awaiting fans has helped set the stage for the launching of their debut album Thief of Time and is surly a sign of even bigger things to come.
With Thief of Time to launch this fall, VanScott plans to take the music scene by storm and star producer Duane Baron is confident that they are going to be the next big act to hit North America.
"I would put this record up against any new release coming out today because I feel the songs are that strong," says Baron, who has worked with the likes of Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne and Bryan Adams and toured with Johnny Cash. "These guys ARE what's new; They ARE the news."
VanScott frontman Jamie VanScott has an impressive resume that speaks for itself. He has shared the stage with Nickelback, Finger-11, Collective Soul, train, Creed and many more of today's legendary rock icons.
Thief of Time, which was recorded in studios in Canada and the United States including Randy Bachman's private home studio, has been long-awaited. Over a year in the making, Thief of Time is the talk of the entertainment world. The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Revolver Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter all recently boasted headlines "VanScott's debut album Thief of Time to top charts."
To hear the first single You Break, chosen by fans in an extremely successful recent online poll, check out their site at www.vanscottonline.com. - USA Today
Readers can choose which VanScott song is first released
TYLER KULA
The Observer
Music fans can determine which song from a local band’s soon-to-be-released EP will be first for radio play.
Five songs from VanScott’s Thief of Time disc are linked at both www.theobserver.ca and www.vanscottonline.com. and people can cast votes for their favourite on the band’s website.
“The thing I like about them is they’re not like anything that’s going on right now, at all,” said Jamie Scott, lead singer and frontman of the four-piece hard rock outfit.
“They’re not structured like a normal top 40 song, which is great to me.”
Scott flirted with commercial success with his last band, Flicker, and is hoping to go further with VanScott’s more raw and energetic sound.
“I think a lot of the bands out there these days are writing to get a radio hit,” he said. “We’re not doing that. We’re doing whatever we feel like in the song, and we kind of take you on a ride. We get a lot of places in three to four minutes.”
The band enlisted the help of veteran producer Duane Baron to bring the sound together, recording at Baron’s studio in Los Angeles and at DNA recordings on Christina Street in Sarnia.
Baron has worked with Keith Richards, Hoobastank, Rod Stewart, Motley Crue and produced Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears album in 1991.
The tracks will be mastered in Toronto before they’re ready for radio release in about two weeks. The song drawing the most online votes — Fading, You Break, Frail, Follow Your Prize, or Thief of Time — will be the first single released.
“Basically I’m trying to get the public to help us pick the right song,” Scott said.
The band is too close to the project and looking for a fresh opinion, he added.
The poll began this week and will close once the songs are ready for airplay.
The band is also found on Facebook and Myspace at myspace.com/vanscottband.
tkula@theobserver.ca - The Observer
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30628961/
TORONTO, ONTARIO - The band VanScott is set to release their debut album "Thief of Time" in the fall of 2009 and from the sounds of things, their tunes will be topping charts everywhere.
VanScott is a high energy, hard rock band whose original songs are a melodic and emotional journey taken from the life of VanScott's front man, Jamie VanScott. Song lyrics have been inspired by everything from drugs and one night stands to hope and love.
Veteran producer Duane Baron, who has produced the likes of Ozzy Ozbourne, Buck Cherry and Motley Crue recorded the album and believes that "this record could be one of the biggest debuts to hit the shelves this year in North America."
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Jamie VanScott and band mates Dean Abram, Jason Dyke and Dave Hoyt-Walterhouse have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Collective Soul, Creed and many more of today's icons.
VanScott members say their influences range from Pearl Jam to Ani Difranco and The Doors but Baron is quick to say that "you can't really compare VanScott to anyone because they sound original."
Songs included on Thief of Time were recorded in various studios from Randy Bachman's (The Guess Who, B.T.O) in British Columbia, to Metalworks Studio in Toronto, The Jungle Room in Atlanta, Georgia and The Banyan Tree Studios in Hollywood, California.
VanScott is seeking the guidance from those that matter most - the FANS! They want listeners everywhere to vote for the first single on their album to be released at www.vanscottonline.com.
"I would put this record up against any new release coming out today because I feel the songs are that strong!" - Duane Baron
Vanscott a melodic rock band... making more than just sound waves Fall 2009.
Source: www.vanscottonline.com and http://www.myspace.com/vanscottband - MSNBC
Discography
VanScott's debut EP Thief of Time,
Our first single "You Break" was released to radio by DMDS.
Our second single "Fadin" was released to radio by DMDS. Jan/18/2010
Photos
Bio
"GIRLS" VanScott vocalist/guitarist/namesake Jamie VanScott beams with a wry smile, discussing his reasons for forming one of modern rock's most melodic yet aggressive and thunderous outfits to date; reveals himself to be like so many other men throughout history from Adam's concession to Eve on down to modern day: susceptible to the all-powerful female.
“Actually, I'd been bothered to play in bands for a long time because people appreciate my voice and I play piano,� he notes. “That was since I was a kid. But the truth is that it happened kind of simultaneously. I was singing at a party one night and a person liked it. They started asking me to be a part of their band. I was apprehensive but did join because I broke up with a girlfriend and in order to get her back, I wrote a song and sang it to her. When I finally got into the band, I fell in love with it.�
Regardless of the cause, Jamie VanScott now boasts a lifelong dedication to music. Through that adoration of writing and performing, he's shared stages with the likes of Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Billy Talent, 30 Seconds To Mars, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, The Guess Who, Our Lady Peace, and many more of rock's most definitive sculptors. During that time, VanScott has also come to understand the true dominance and force of a great song as delivered by a great band with conviction.
Therefore it's no wonder that despite initially forging out as a solo artist, the Sarnia, Ontario native was uncomfortable working alone, preferring the unified vision and collective impact of a band. Working through a number of incarnations yet refusing to relent, he continued to hone the band over the course of the past year until finding like-minded individuals with equivalent talent and drive.
Bolstered by bassist Dean Abram, guitarist Jason Dyck and drummer Todd McIntyre, VanScott is that powerhouse; that unshakeable foundation delivering a supercharged blast of hard rock via debut six-song EP Thief Of Time (Reapit Records). Thick and aggressive yet sultry and lilting, from the album's debut single “You Break� through to its title track, Thief Of Time is the perfect amalgam of VanScott's own songwriting prowess as filtered by the band's sincerity and incomparable ability.
“I did start off on my own but now we're a band. We share a similar attitude, viewpoint and present a unified front,�VanScott declares. “This band finally has the feel I've been looking for. Many of these songs were written before I had the band but I don't want to be a solo artist. I prefer the band vibe, so to me this is a band.�
A consolidated mission, Thief Of Time features some of rock's most pivotal names. The likes of veteran producer Duane Baron (Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Adams, Buckcherry, Motley Crue), mixing genius Stu Young (Guns 'N' Roses, Prince, Sum 41) and Nick Blagona (Green Day, FooFighters) have all lent their abilities to Thief Of Time to ensure its true impact is undeniably perfect, resulting in an effort The Wall Street Journal has declared as a “chart topper.�
Despite the compelling catalog of talent behind Thief Of Time though, VanScott concedes that there is still one overriding aspect to the band, an element that permeates the recording's entirety: enjoying life.
“To me, music is therapeutic. That's what this album is about. Playing music is the only place I get to spazz out and scream my lungs out and it's allowed. I can act like I'm insane. We're looking to inject some of that fun back in music because it is such a lost art today.We're not serious about ourselves; out there trying to make people think we're the ones that will change the world.�
Which is not to say that VanScott and by default Thief Of Time is without levity. In fact, it is quite the opposite, the album featuring a number of hard-hitting tracks ranging from demonic personal experiences to opinions and observations on the weight of life. However, it is the band's uplifting twist that creates a cathartic, all-encompassing aura.
“We are influenced by day-to-day life. I've seen a lot of drug addiction in my life, the loss of friends and other more positive elements. I believe people can do what they want in life. There's inspiration, hope and love in there amongst the uglier side of life: that addiction and despair.�
At that, VanScott notes his personal mission to inject such a purgative essence back into music via raw emotion
delivered through inspiring, illustrious, enduring songs and an unforgettably passionate band has never been more attainable. With a gripping EP, some of the scene's best players and his own will to prevail, even those sultry women that initially snagged him are in for a sinister twist of fate.
“I want our fans to get away from what's going on in their life. I want them to be inspired; feel that if I can do it, so can they. I want that positive spin out of it. We may point out the ugly things in life but there's th
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