Be in a music video this Saturday!
By Kathy Smith
Local rock band VOID is playing a special concert this Saturday night in the Community Hall at the Recreation Centre. While entertaining the audience with a broad variety of popular music and original songs, they’ll also be shooting a music video. They want you to come out, enjoy and participate! Tickets are only $10.
Videographer Jason Ross will be shooting footage of audience participation and reaction. This means you could be seen in VOID’s music video, which will have the capacity/quality to be shown on MTV and on other media. There will be stationary cameras on the stage pointing to toward the audience, and Ross will be wandering around with a camera. Other cameras will point to the stage. “We’re all pumped about the video,” says guitarist Paul Gilmore.
VOID has a recording contract with Vogville Studio in Vancouver. To be signed in March. Producer and Sound Engineer, Jonathan Fluevog, has helped produce the Matthew Good Band, and has worked with Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan, Ashlee Simpson, and many other top names. The recording company requires a music video which they plan to release at the same time as the CD. Gilmore says, “That’s how the whole concept in Fort Nelson got started – the recording company needs some off-stage video shots of the audience having a good time from the perspective of wandering around the stage. They’ll incorporate bits and pieces into a full story-boarded video. We thought you know what – let’s do it! It all sounded very good, and here we are.”
The band has been playing for about 10 years, and began with Gilmore and his sons Troy and Ryan. 16-year-old Troy, a student at FNSS, plays lead guitar and is the singer/songwriter in the group. Oldest son Ryan has been a part of the band until this year, as he’s also pursuing his Red Seal in automotive. He wants to get his trade ticket so he can support his music habit wherever he goes. Ryan will be at the recording studio in the spring. Other members of VOID include Bob Martin on bass guitar, Ryan Oickle on drums, and Jason Sewell on guitar.
Tickets are available at Down to Earth Health Shop, or by contacting Gilmore at (250) 321-2768, or at the door. Doors open at 7:30 pm and the opening band, Alister Stone from Fort St. John, hits the stage at 8pm. VOID will be playing their own music as well as some covers. “Our music is an eclectic collection of rock styles from the ‘50s to current modern day. We’re influenced a lot by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, however there’s also a little element of the Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down and that kind of stuff,” says Gilmore.
Some have actually categorised VOID as a theatrical rock group because of their mix of music, which sometimes depends on the audience they are playing to. “Every time it’s a little bit different, but it’s well thought out and it’s well choreographed,” says Gilmore. “We’re not sure these days how many bands are doing that, but when we do it, people are blown away.”
Listeners generally think of VOID as a 21st century rock band. “We play a lot of fast music and we break it down with ballads on acoustic guitars – it’s fast paced and feel-good music. Some songs have deep meaning, and others are more simplistic with a very catchy sound.” It’s noted that when listening to Troy, some think they’re hearing Robert Plant. Gilmore says, “When he wants to, Troy sounds exactly like Robert Plant. We’ve actually been trying to break him of that so he develops his own voice, and his own voice is really incredible – he’s got a lot of talent.” Troy is young and appeals to his peers (and the girls), but Gilmore stresses their music actually appeals to a really broad demographic.
“When we started looking around for recording studios and sending samples out, we talked to Jonathan at Vogville. He said, Hey you know what? Why don’t you guys come down here – you can stay at our studio and we’re going to help you produce and record your CD.” They have a couple of hours of music (about 20 original songs) they’ve been playing in Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, and Fort Nelson.
“We’re in the recording studio in Vancouver at 8 o’clock in the morning on March 18th. We’re staying at the studio and we’ll be working pretty much 24 hours a day until the 22nd. The engineer and producer are on board for 12 hours a day, plus another engineer, and whatever the studio has for runners and so on,” says Gilmore.
VOID has already had requests to play clubs and do radio spots while in Vancouver, but they will be staying put in the studio. “We’re going to lock ourselves in basically. Percussion has to stay all week, bass guitar for a couple of days, and guitar/vocals have to be there all week. I’ll probably stay one more day to listen to edited copy from what they mastered, and make sure I’m okay with what they’ve done before we print it.”
About Saturday night’s concert, Gilmore says with encouragement; “It’s Saturday night in Fort Nelson, and there isn’t a whole lot else to do, especially for $10 dollars! Maybe a movie, TV, or even the bar, but why not get out of the house for a little bit and check out a couple of upcoming rock groups – it’s not a really late night, and we set it up that way so kids can go – it’s open to everybody.” 12 years old and up is suggested.
In putting VOID together, Gilmore says he feels there is more to their commitment than the joy they get from playing; “I feel something, if that makes any sense. At first our drummer who joined us was a little hesitant, and now he’s in it with a passion. It’s really funny, because the band consists of older people (30s/40s) and all have good careers, and yet we’re putting everything else we do on hold to play the music. We are following the direction of a 16-year-old musician. So it’s Troy, my youngest son, with all these adults listening to him and following his direction – he is the lead of this band. It might be kind of funny, but that’s how much we believe in this kid. We’re here to back him up. If this goes somewhere, great. If it doesn’t, hey, we had fun along the way!”
The band has been playing on a non-profit basis to donate funds to the Fort Nelson Community Literacy Society. From the last show in 2012, they were able to donate a few hundred dollars to the society. “We just want people to know that there’s a rock band developing in Fort Nelson that we are going south to record a CD. A lot of people have talked about doing stuff over the years and we are actually doing it.” In town, VOID has performed at the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, Canada Day celebrations (playing their original music), the Phoenix Theatre, and Down to Earth Health Shop, plus a variety of venues in Fort St. John and at many open mic locations in northern B.C.
“For all of us, we’re just pumped – every one of us! We all have pretty good jobs, other than my sons who are students, but we all have good careers (three of the five in the group are engineers), and we’re going to go do this. We have a producer and engineer who is opening his facility to us. We’re going to shut up, listen to him and follow his directions. It will be an experience none of us will ever forget. In the back of our minds, every one of us thinks what about this song or that song when we play it. What if people love them… What if …
“We’re doing this because we really love to play music, to get up in the lights and have some fun, to entertain people and cause an emotional response with our music. It might go to the next level – what if…”
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