For self-produced band The Sylvia Platters, the top of a mountain seemed like the perfect place to record their first album.
Armed with their instruments and personal recording equipment, brothers Tim and Nick Ubels and their friend Simon Tressel secluded themselves in a cabin on Mount Baker last July to create the first tracks on their debut album, Make Glad the Day.
Set to release this Friday (Nov. 27), it’s been a long process for the Langley Christian grads to make a professional collection without any professional help.
“When you’re trying to produce it and do it all yourself, you don’t have anyone helping, you kind of run into problems all over the place that you’re not expecting,” said Tim, the drummer and vocalist for the band.
“It’s all self-produced, self-released and independent. We did get it mastered by a professional, just because we had no idea what we were doing in that regard, but outside of that, we are doing it ourselves.”
With previous experience playing in a university band, the one thing the friends did have down pat is their music.
Although their songs are short — most range from just over one minute to two and a half minutes — they have an alluring upbeat sound with classic rock undertones.
“It’s pop but it’s rock at the same time,” Tim said.
“It’s a bit hard to explain, but we love interesting chord progressions that have a bit of an edge to them, but still at the same time keep that pop sensibility in there.”
Some of their songs have been written for years, waiting for the opportunity to be performed, Tim added.
“Me and my brother have been writing songs ever since our university band split in 2011,” he said.
“We had a backlog of songs, we were talking to our friend Simon about maybe playing a bit, and it worked out.”
After recording a few songs in Washington, the group added another high school friend, Luke Agawin, on guitar and finished their 14-track album in Langley.
But there was still one more thing delaying their release.
“My brother and I are a bit of vinyl nuts so we wanted to go for that and have a copy of our record on vinyl,” Tim said.
“That was one of the problems with doing it by ourselves. There’s quite a bit of delay because there’s only so many vinyl factories in North America, and you’re placed in the back of the line with every other artist. If a popular artist wants to produce 50,000 copies and we want to produce 500, and they’re in front of us, it takes a lot longer. That pushed it back a little bit.”
With their digital release on iTunes and Amazon this week, record lovers can own a 12" vinyl copy in February. The band is already taking pre-orders online through their website, www.thesylviaplatters.bandcamp.com.
They are also hosting a kick-off party on Nov. 29 at Brother’s Bowling & Billiards in Abbotsford.
For more, visit their Facebook page “The Sylvia Platters.”