Boy Rekless

Boy Rekless

Name: Boy Rekless

Sounds Like: Kevin Rudolf, Mac Miller

History: I grew up in LA and always loved music. I started interning at studios to learn the behind the scenes of the business and build relationships that would help propel my career to next level. So I sorta "went to school", you could say. As I was playing in bands and learning how to produce music on my own things starting really taking off. I landed a tour with major acts such as Far East Movement, LMFAO, and DJ Class and producing for other artists on the LA scene. That caught notice of Kara DioGuardi (Sr. VP of Warner Bros Records who also appeared on American Idol and Bravo's Platinum Hit) and she immediate signed me to her publishing company ArtHouse Ent. Since then I have collabed with Jason DeRulo, Demi Lovato, Charice, Cobra Starship, Hot Chelle Rae, Neon Hitch, etc. I was featured on ACUVE 's 1-Day Celebrity Mentor Campaign alongside singing sensation Charice, notable music director Adam Blackstone, and actress Meaghan Martin and aired during the Teen Choice Awards. I also recently headlined Club Tigerheat at Avalon Hollywood where I premiered my video to my new single "Tossed Up" and performed for over 2,500 people and headlined at Shark Club in Orange County to over 1,000's of people.

Something Special: Im obsessed with Rocky. I own the whole box set and can quote almost every line from any of the five movies! Let's just say its on heavy rotation at my studio.

Where to Find: www.boyrekless.com, twitter.com/BoyRekless, facebook.com/BoyRekless, and youtube.com/BoyReklessTV

Future Plans: A lot of exciting stuff is going on! Im gearing up for the worldwide release of Rekless Life Vol. 2, releasing my next single "Overload," and planning a huge pop production video. Also we've just started the talks for a nationwide tour. 2013 is gonna be a REKLESS year!

UC Takeaway: What we love about Boy Rekless' story is all the different twists and turns his musical career has taken thus far. From studio intern to band member to producer to songwriter to solo artist, he's done it all. You never know exactly where you'll fit in to the music industry until one day you trip and fall into your sweet spot. The best possible thing to do is just to try it all. The more skills you develop, the more opportunities you'll have and the more chances you'll be given for you, your talent, and your music to be noticed. Especially while you're young, make sure to utilize the time you have before the "real world' hits by taking classes, interning, and generally doing whatever you can to both learn and make a name for yourself in the music industry. It worked for Boy Rekless - why not you? So go try out something musical and new, and check out the multi-talented Boy Rekless below!

Band Called Catch

Band Called Catch

Name: Band Called Catch (Tim Frank - Vocals/Guitar, Jess Lyons - Aux/Vocals, Doug Waxman - Lead Guitar, Matt Sebby - Drums, John Dorhauer - Trumpet, Tim Koelling - Saxophone, Dave Langley - Bass)

Sounds Like: Rusted Root, The Lumineers, Head and the Heart

History: Tim traded his drum set in 7th grade for a guitar to ease his parents ears. He started leading the music sessions for camps for people with disabilities in high school. Started writing music around the same time and performing in local coffee shops. He moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University and continued to perform music on the side. In 2008, he found some cool people to play with and Band Called Catch was born. To this day the band has seen a few line-up changes, but things only keep getting better and better.

Something Special: We like to toss Frisbees to people during our shows. We are Band Called CATCH after all. We sometimes tape download cards to the bottom of the Frisbees. We also donate 20% of the proceeds from our new record, The Story, to Bright Pink, an organization committed to outreach and prevention of Ovarian and Breast Cancer. We also think it’s really important to give back and to promote great organizations. That’s why we work with Bright Pink and play shows like Rescue The Runway.

Where to Find: www.bandcalledcatch.com, facebook.com/BandCalledCatch, twitter.com/bandcalledcatch

Future Plans: Keep on playing baby! We love to play live and we’re always coming up with new ideas. Tim might record a solo record with different songs played all around the country in odd places like campgrounds and lakesides. We always looking forward to new adventures!

UC Takeaway: "We like to rhyme and create catchy easy songs to remember and sing along to. It’s important to us that everyone who listens to our music and goes to our shows has fun! But we have a serious side too. We love being able to create and be part of a thriving local scene. Sometimes it can be a bumpy road with unexpected setbacks, but we keep moving forward. We’re constantly learning and growing as both musicians and as people, and we get to do this all while sharing what we love to do with more people every day." That's a lovely little message from Band Called Catch. Variety is the spice of life. A slower, more serious song wouldn't be nearly as meaningful without the contrast from lighter tunes; the good times wouldn't be as sweet without the bumps we all experience on the road. The more you embrace all the different sides of yourself, of your music, of your life, the better off you'll be. Every happy song, every sad song, every up and every down, they're all a part of who you are and what makes your music special. So enjoy the ride and check out Band Called Catch below!

The Pedal Stills

The Pedal Stills

Name: The Pedal Stills (Cory, John, Dave, Trev)

Sounds Like: Collective Soul, Kings Of Leon

History: Dave and I (Cory) have been playing since high school in various bands. We made a little noise in rural South Carolina, which isn't much at all. In 2010 we decided to make the move to Nashville. We met John and everything instantly clicked musically. Months went on and we play as many shows as possible and started to record our first record. A few months later Trev fell into our lap and that's when things started to pick up a bit. We've spent the past five months in the studio recording our new album, Night & Day, which was released on the 5th of May.

Something Special: Trev is frequently a Star Wars/Pro Wrestling encyclopedia. We sometimes only talk in movie quotes... it's extremely annoying.

Where to Find: thepedalstills.net, youtube.com/thepedalstills, facebook.com/thepedalstills, and twitter.com/thepedalstills

Future Plans: We just recently released our new EP Night & Day and plan on touring until the Fall. We hope to be back in the studio as soon as possible.

UC Takeaway: Here's a little message from The Pedal Stills: "We lost all of our equipment in a drunk driving incident a few months back. It's extremely easy to throw up your hands and call it quits, but if you truly want to live out the dream of playing music you have to give it everything you have - especially when the shit hits the fan. It's going to." The Pedal Stills are completely right: throughout your musical career, things will go wrong. Very, very wrong, in ways you didn't even know things could go wrong. You won't know where or when, but it will happen - likely more than once. Accept that fact now or get out of the industry immediately. Look, there will always be bumps in the road: that's life. But if you're an independent artists, you're choosing to enter an extraordinarily difficult industry on one of the hardest paths to success possible. So, yeah, expect things to go badly at one point or another. If music is your passion, though, this should in no way deter you from a career in music. You need to have passion, passion that blinds you, passion that makes you stupid enough to be smart enough to follow your dreams. So be like The Pedal Stills and keep playing your music even when everything goes wrong, and check out the band below!

Drop Down Smiling

Drop Down Smiling

Name: Drop Down Smiling (Chris West - Lead Vocals/Guitar, Martin Dale - Bass/Backing Vocals, Mike Brown - Guitar/Backing Vocals, James Porter - Drums/Backing Vocals/Samples)

Sounds Like: We struggle to compare our sound to any one out there, the producer we worked with on our latest EP came up with an interesting comparison, he thinks we sound like "RHCP meets Nine Inch Nails", were not so sure, but people need to listen and let us know who they think we sound like!

History: We all met at school in Nuneaton around 10 years ago. We became friends and started dabbling in music and jamming with each other and we never stopped! We just stepped up the game and turned what we were doing into a whole new beast. Drop Down Smiling was born! In our younger days we were nominated for a Kerrang Award (Best Live Unsigned Act 2007) at the Vodafone Live Music Awards, that was a pretty awesome experience. We have also been lucky enough to support some great bands on our journey to this point in time, a highlight of which was our recent main support slot for personal favorites of ours, We Are The Ocean - we can't wait to share the stage with them again in the near future! We are also extremely proud of our recent music video for single "Why Should We Change", which has been really well received and earned the band a prestigious award from Beat100.com. The video features violent gorillas playing life-size chess with equally as angry humans!

Something Special: We're a well educated bunch, all of us took a break from the music to study for degrees around the country, we achieved this, put the pens down, picked back up the guitars and got right back to business! We're also well protected when we're out on the road, our drummer James served some time in the forces training to be a Marine, and our bassist used to throw naughty people out of clubs for a job!

Where to Find: www.dropdownsmiling.co.uk, twitter.com/dropdownsmiling, and facebook.com/dropdownsmiling

Future Plans: Right now we are pushing the new EP Sign Here. We are having a great response so far and gaining a lot of air play around the country with the lead single "Why Should We Change". We are also currently in talks with a major brand who wish to license some of our music so were looking at opportunities in all markets to get our music out to as many people as possible. We have some great shows lined up in 2013 also, we are supporting Rat Attack in May and heading south to Camden in June for Kerrang's Camden Rocks festival with acts such as Fearless Vampire Killers, The Rifles, Therapy?, and loads more!

UC Takeaway: There are many artists out there who would rather play tiny, mostly empty rooms wherever they can book them as a headliner than open for another band. Drop Down Smiling know the truth: those artists are missing out on a fabulous opportunity. Look, headlining is great; the majority of people in the room are there to see you. But it keeps you in your comfort zone. When you're an opening act, half the people in the venue may have never even heard your name before. Embrace that fact! Show them all what they've been missing and build up your fanbase in every city you play. That way, when you return to that location or one nearby, you'll have a room full of new fans and old friends there to see the show. Look, everyone wants to be a rockstar on stage, closing out the night with thousands of devoted followers singing along to every word of the songs you wrote. Yet that doesn't happen overnight. So take full advantage of the chance to open for a more successful band (maybe you'll even learn a thing or two!), and check out Drop Down Smiling below!

Gamble Street

Gamble Street

Name: Gamble Street (Nat Austin - Lead Vocals/Guitar/Piano, Joe Devine - Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals, Jamie Byrne - Drums, Henry Green - Bass/Backing Vocals)

Sounds Like: We can't really pinpoint any band that we sound like, but we do have elements similar to Kasabian, Kings Of Leon, Biffy Clyro, The Killers, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, White Lies and Muse to name a few.

History: 10 years ago, Jamie Byrne and Joe Devine used to make noises in a shed. Bad noises, apparently. Then they all went off to big bad university, where they met Nat Austin AKA Baby Noel. It was a good couple of years before Jamie received a phone call from Nat asking whether he would be up for a jam. They liked each other very much, and after a long afternoon in Jamie’s “music” room, Jamie suggested getting his old china Joe in on the action. Joe, Jamie and Nat liked this arrangement, but decided that three just wasn’t enough. Nat posted a status on a certain social networking site (let’s call it Bookface) about his elation at the progress the threesome had made. It was then that Henry Green (the handsome one) posted himself in Nat’s status, commenting on how he would like to jam with Nat et al. He then went to join the trio to make sweet sounds in Jamie’s ever-enchanting musical lair; much to the annoyance of his neighbors. Now entitled the daring Gamble Street, the awesome foursome have released a debut self-titled EP, made a music video for "Lucy" with renowned producer and black belt Daniel Watkins and have appeared on the wireless several times, including a couple of epic extravaganzas on BBC Introducing. As we speak, they continue to prod into the future with uncertain hands...

Something Special: Joe is a confused Master (almost) of Physics and avid follower of 13 different faiths. Nat is currently growing his hair as long as possible in order to train it to play the guitar for him. Jamie has taken so long in the bathroom, it has now been two weeks since their last gig and he is still scrubbing (allegedly) away. Henry once managed to acquire a stool from a certain fast food outlet (let’s call them Kurger Bing).

Where to Find: www.gamblestreet.co.uk, facebook.com/gamblestreetmusic, twitter.com/Gamble_Street, and youtube.com/gamblestreetmusic

Future Plans: We’re looking to tour in the Autumn and are gigging all over the UK. Eventually our goal is world domination. Please ‘like’ and/or follow us to keep up to date with info.

UC Takeaway: When you have a tough job - and let's face it, any music industry position can be difficult, but especially for those solo artists and bands making their own way through it all - one of your biggest assets can be your sense of humor. The guys of Gamble Street are pretty silly (come on, did you read the interview?) and honestly that may be what saves them one day. A lot of bad things happen in life, and being able to laugh about them only makes you stronger. Not only that, but the ability find the humor in the darker moments will bring you closer as a group, solidifying a friendship, a kinship, a band. Sharing a chuckle at the end of a day when nothing has gone your way is perhaps the best way to make it through such an unforgiving industry. So smile, laugh, enjoy playing music with your friends, and check out Gamble Street below!