The Middle Coast finishes the job

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This article was published 11/05/2017 (3410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A little more than a year ago, the Free Press sat down with local “yacht-rock” trio the Middle Coast to discuss the release of its debut album. At that time, the band was optimistic about the potential of the record to “reach the masses,” but it never actually saw the light of day.

“You know, we started working on it when we were quite young, we were 17, we had a different band name, different sound. It’s not like we didn’t like the songs, but it ended up just not sounding like how we were sounding now at live shows and the new songs we were writing,” keyboardist Liam Duncan said.

Now a few years older, wiser and more experienced, the Middle Coast retackled that debut effort. Three songs were kept from the original record, six new tracks were added to the mix and the musicians did much of the recording and audio engineering themselves. They dubbed the album The Making Of:, both in homage to the lengthy process of getting the debut together and because of the hands-on approach they took during the recording process.

“Over that time, we personally developed skills… we ended up being able to do a bunch of stuff ourselves which was really helpful and kind of allowed us to experiment more,” Duncan said, adding he regrets not putting out the old album, which was a snapshot of a time and a place. “Maybe we’ll end up just putting it out later as something else. We are talking about releasing a few of the songs off of it in the summer.”

Before the release, the Middle Coast decided to run a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the costs of printing and marketing the album. That campaign finished a week or so ago, raising 103 per cent of the band’s original goal through sales of CDs, vinyl records, T-shirts and a collection of other items, including a guitar, tickets to the upcoming show and an invitation to a listening party.

“It went really well. We did it just for preorders, there was no donating or anything. They bought vinyl or they bought a CD or shirts or whatever, and it went really well. It’s always really gratifying and validating as independent artists to have people come out of the woodwork and say, ‘Oh yeah, I like you, I’ll give you 30 of my hard-earned dollars,’ ” Duncan said.

Now that the first album is finished, the floodgates have been opened and the three-piece plans to release new music on a regular basis to keep the momentum going.

“We’re really excited to just put out more stuff. Our goal is to put out something every six or eight months, whether it’s a full album or probably more likely EPs,” Duncan said. “We haven’t stopped writing, we feel like we haven’t quite reached the full potential of the band’s sound. This is just the first one and we took so long to release this one that we’re done waiting, we’re just gonna keep putting out more stuff.”

There are lots of opportunities to catch the Middle Coast live this spring and summer — first at the official album launch at the Handsome Daughter Friday, May 12, and then on the festival circuit, with stops scheduled at both jazz fest and fringe fest in June and July, respectively.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel