SAGE:
SAGE has been rocking the bay area for some years now, and if you haven’t seen them yet, be prepared to be blown away! Their Ukulele Rock is unlike anything you have ever seen before, and their cool harmonies and catchy beats

]]> http://thebandsage.com/?feed=rss2&p=379 0 http://thebandsage.com/?p=288 http://thebandsage.com/?p=288#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:25:44 +0000 Joshua http://thebandsage.com/?p=288 We cannot say enough how excited we are to have had a CD release party! This has been a LONG time coming, but it was well worth the wait! We had about 300 people come out and support us at The Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco last Friday, the 24th and the having the support we have received is inspirational. To celebrate this incredible event, we’ve put together some of our thoughts on the album and what we like to play for you guys. Here’s what we came up with:

For those of you who have been rocking with SAGE since the beginning, you know this is actually our second full album. We never really released the first one physically, and it is much different from the current album. That first one, Sage, was self-produced – recorded in a bedroom in Hawaii, across the street from a school. We had to make sure we recorded between bell rings and before or after lunch hour to avoid bells and students talking on our tracks. We have come a long way from that.. though we are still very proud of those songs and that album (you can hear it on our music page.. click HERE). The first album has a very different sound from what SAGE has become.

This album, Sweet Melody, is definitely a step in the right direction for us. We think it captures not only our music, but also, the energy that SAGE is made up of as well. We have melodic progressions and upbeat tempos that contrasts to more serious lyrics, and we tie it in with positive messages that we hope come across no matter where or when you hear our music. With Sweet Melody, we aim to give you a taste of what coming to a show entails – thumping, dancing, smiling and flat out joy! Joy for music, friends, people and for life.

We’ve been performing songs from Sweet Melody for over a year now and over the course of that year, we’ve all developed our own favorites to play. We’re proud of all of our songs, and super stoked to be sharing them with you! In fact, a lot of our reasons for choosing the songs we chose as our favorites have to do with you, our friends, and our fans. We chose them based on how you have reacted, whether it be through comments and rates on iTunes and our mailing list, or at shows when we play them.

For example, Dana’s favorite song to play live is Tempting. He loves it because he loves the energy that it brings to the crowd. He thinks the band feeds off that energy and that song creates a feeling of community. There is a part in the chorus that encourages the audience to sing along with us and having a collective “woo-hoo-hoo” really gives him a high!

Dave on the other hand, loves to play the song Hideaway. It is a more chill song on the album, with a reggae vibe to it. Dave likes that he can jam out to it all day and he feels he can play it while sitting on the beach under a coconut tree (stereotype alert), or rock out to it on stage. The mood this song sets transcends location. The beat of the music is so chill and it gives a certain feel to the room when we play it. The beat of the song actually balances out the seriousness of the subject matter of the lyrics, and Dave loves that the audience sort of takes the journey of the song with the band as they hear it.

The song that Ben chose as his favorite is sort of similar to Dave’s choice, in that the tempo of the songs sort of takes away from the gravity of the lyrics. Ben’s favorite is the song to play is Lose My Mind, both because he likes the vocal harmonies and the way the energy of the arrangement juxtaposes the potentially sad lyrics about personal loss. Ben also likes that he sees the audiences’ response to this song almost instantly.  The crowd dances to this song and sings along – and some people even join in the harmonies. This song reaches a lot of our fans in different ways and that comes through.

Josh’s favorite song to play on the album is one that we actually don’t get to play at every gig – Shallow. It is so positive and life-affirming in nature that Josh says the energy is infectious. With both the arrangement and the lyrics, Josh feels like this song is a representation of what SAGE looks to accomplish both with their music and in their lives. We get giddy whenever we see people singing along to this song (or any of our songs really) because we see our messages getting across, and with this song especially, that’s a good thing!

One more song that we all feel we need to mention is Whirlwind. We all love playing this song – it is unique sounding and completely danceable and the energy we get from our audience whenever we play this song is incredible. It is pretty much enough to fuel an entire new set. We all love playing it live  – there is an instrumental where we ask our fans to “bounce” with us on stage and this song is really our symbol that the SAGE party has started!

Well, there you have it.. We hope that you enjoy listening to the songs we have talked about, as well as the other songs on the album. We hope this provides you with a little inside look into how we view our music, and also, we hope it helps you understand just exactly how much YOU, our fans mean to us. These songs would have a lot less meaning to us if you guys weren’t here to share our music with us. Thank you for the support and your help in letting SAGE continue to rock!

Aloha,

Ben, Dana, Dave and Josh

SAGE

As the cold weather continues here in San Francisco, we find ourselves reminiscing about Hawaii and about our past trips, and everything that has happened since. It has been a great adventure, getting this 2nd album out and we are so happy with it and we can’t wait to share it with everyone! In honor of warmer weather, our second album, and some pretty amazing jumps  – check out this video!  SAGE, SWEET MELODY

We are playing the Red Devil Lounge on February 24, 2012. The venue is offering up half-off tickets to our show (and every other show on the Red Devil Lounge calendar!) to celebrate their 16th birthday (sweet 16!).  This kick ass deal is exclusively through Ticketfly.  You can buy tickets to any show at the Red Devil Lounge for 50% of the normal fee this Wednesday, January 11 between 10:00am and 2:00pm. This includes shows from us, as well as headliners like Nikka Costa, The Fixx and Tom Tom Club, Storm Large, The Aggrolites, The Toasters, Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols and much more. All you need to do is go to the Red Devil Lounge website, pick your favorite shows, and when prompted, use the access code wafgp12hnyjilky. Head over to http://www.reddevillounge.com and pick your poison!

RULES:
This promotion is on a first come, first served basis, and a limited amount of tickets are available. You can purchase a maximum of 2 tickets per shows. As always, you must be 21 or over with a valid ID. This promotion is only active online from 10:00am – 2:00pm on Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

It’s the new year and this year, we have decided to blog more often! So cheers to one resolution we are fulfilling right now!

We start this new year with a lot of excitement for what’s to come. 2012 for us, both as a band and as individuals is all about our Music. We are back to rehearsals and vocal coaching, which even though is, we guess, “the grind”- we are so stoked to be doing.  Also, we just got word that our physical album is finally in production, as we type!  And we can’t wait for the (fingers crossed) slew of shows that come along with its release. We hope to follow up with tours we are planning for Hawaii and to go up and down the West Coast.  We personally love to travel, and even more so when it means we can share our music with new fans!

While everyone in the band has the same sentiment of wanting to play more and reach new fans, we all have our own different ideas too. Travel wise, while we all want to go to Hawaii, Ben has also expressed interest in going to a different set of islands – the Philippines. We’ve recently gained some radio play and have started to build a fan base there so that would be rad! He wants to taste the food and experience the culture – and taste the food.  Dana on the other hand, is thinking Europe. He has always dreamed of playing at Wembley Stadium in the UK, but also, has taken an interest in going to Finland. He says he feels the need to bring the sunshine of SAGE music to cold places of the world. Dave wants to hit up the beach towns here in Caifornia. If you’ve got water, he wants in. Hermosa Beach, Santa Cruz, SLO, SD- you name it, he wants to play there. The beach and the beach town vibe is a large part of SAGE music-it always has been- and Dave thinks we need to go back to our roots. Josh didn’t really say anything about a specific location, but he wants to delve more into the music community itself. He says he wants to perform at more Ukulele festivals to meet new people who have the same passion for the instrument. He also wants to work with kids more. He says one of his goals for this year is to inspire kids to follow their creative dreams. In a time where there are multiple budget cuts to schools, most of them directly affecting art programs, due to the economic down turn, he hopes SAGE music can be somewhat of a beacon of positivity.

As for our other resolutions, they center around one theme: Being the change we want to see in the world. It sounds simple, and in reality, it is. As it should be – life, and music should be simple and beautiful.  However, the day to day practice of this simplicity is often overlooked. We want to get back in physical shape and eat healthier. We want to make sure our energy is always good and pure and open – we want you to feel that whenever you hear our music, or see is play live. We want to be responsible in dealing with the environment – keep track of our carbon footprint and do our part to ensure that the earth lives healthily too.

Lastly, and definitely, very importantly, we want to connect with our fans more. We realize that our music has only the power you give it and we thank you for supporting us the way you do. We have the friendliest, most awesome fans in the world – and WE WANT YOUR INPUT. We will be posting soon (and definitely more often) about ideas we have for music videos and we want your opinion. So watch out for that – keep dancing, keep singing and keep on rocking!!

Happy New Year SAGES!!!

Ben, Dana, Dave and Josh

1/8/12