With the ink still fresh on a lucrative contract with legendary heavy metal record label Earache, Ontario heavy metal band Woods of Ypres is set to storm the east coast with a show on Sunday night at Moncton’s Manhattan Bar & Grill.
Formed in Windsor, Ont. in 2002, the band has built a loyal following based on the strength of its four fiercely independent records. It is the group’s most recent effort, W4: The Green Album, that will be released internationally via Earache just two days after the band’s show in Moncton.
Woods of Ypres member David Gold is proud of the groundwork laid as an independent group and believes their Earache deal was the right move at the right time.
“We were an independent band for almost nine years before signing to Earache,” Gold begins.
“During those years, we worked hard to build and maintain our CD mail order business and historically, we have been successful in selling a significant amount of each of our albums directly to listeners via mail order as well as through retail distribution in Canada and partial distribution in the USA.”
Aside from the extended distribution opportunities that Earache will be able to offer the group, one can only assume the album-to-album nature of the group’s previous records will be a thing of the past.
“It has always been a challenge but at least a feasible one for us where sales from the previous album have helped fund the next one.
“We have always believed in writing and recording music when it was ready to come out, with little regard to whether or not we had the cash at the time. Consequently, the balances of our expenses were always charged to credit cards to make the albums happen and then we would hustle to sell CDs and make our money back.”
Along with bandmates Evan Madden, Shane Madden and Joel Violette, Gold is clearly not afraid of continuing to tirelessly promote his band the old-fashioned way: touring. Once the group’s two-week run through the Maritimes concludes, Woods of Ypres will be temporarily retreating home to write a new record before hitting North American highways through May and June.
“We hope to start recording in July and then tour through North America again in September and October, leading up to the release of our next record in November,” says Gold. “The next six months of our lives can be summed up as tour, write, tour, record, tour, tour, release the new album, rest and repeat.”
Article published in March 18, 2011 edition of the Times & Transcript
cool, i think band is really cool, even they cannot be the super start, at least they can enjoy their life and have fun