Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/The Silver Heart Club

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Bo Weber and Steven Price grew up as neighbors on the outskirts of Colfax, Wisconsin. While attending Colfax High School, the two could usually be found participating in the sports programs Colfax had to offer, such as basketball, track, and cross country; they also joined their friends in the back row as bass singers in choir throughout their middle school and high school years. “We have always been interested in new music, but listening to our favorite bands was as far as we took it.” That summer, they spent many nights talking around bonfires and playing video games with friends, which often times carried into the early hours of the next morning. One morning, after a heavily caffeinated night of video games, Bo and Steven came up with a great idea to make home-made music videos to a couple of their favorite songs. “I dug out my parent’s camcorder as Steven went home to search for an electric guitar he received as a Christmas gift in the 7th grade. He came back within a few minutes, and we didn’t waste any time getting started. We filmed ourselves lip-syncing along to a number of our favorite tunes. As silly as it sounds making and watching those videos kept us entertained for a couple days.”

Eventually, Steven grew tired of singing into a flashlight, and Bo became unsatisfied with pretending to play guitar. It was then, when Bo and Steven had the epiphany of writing their own songs. Although neither of the boys knew how to play an instrument, let alone write original pieces, it was something the two felt they needed to pursue. Against all odds, Steven enthusiastically lent his un-tuned guitar to Bo, for him to learn to play on his own. Months of horrible notes and sloppy strumming followed, as Bo slowly made his way through the adventure of understanding the fundamentals of the electric guitar. “Steven would come over to my parents’ house almost every night to practice. Our practice consisted of Steven singing to whatever the heck I could make up on the guitar.” While Bo continued to progress, Steven chose to pick up the guitar as well. It wasn’t long before they decided to upgrade their gear by purchasing two new electric guitars and amplifiers.

“We began writing songs right away. Whether they were good or not is definitely questionable, but we were pushing out original lyrics and melodies from day one. Every day, our main priority was to jam with each other. We didn’t take the time to learn the names of the notes we were playing or what key we were in. Creating music just made us happy.” A little over a year later, their guitar playing, song structuring skills, and writing ability progressed to a point where they were able to create functional pieces of music.

In the fall of 2007, they eagerly shared a few of their newly written songs with friends around a bonfire at Bo’s house. After their performance, one of their friends complimented them on their music and encouraged Bo and Steven to be one of the opening acts for a show he was currently assembling, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was this show that introduced them to the Eau Claire music scene. They had no idea that just 24 miles away was a community of local musicians writing and performing anything from acoustic folk to hardcore scream-o. “This was a very exciting time for us, not only as a new band trying to find our place, but as a community member discovering a world of various talents and creativity, all available in our own ‘backyard.’ ” This hidden world reignited a passion and purpose that Steven and Bo were unable to tap into from any other career they had considered. “Music was never given much of a spotlight growing up in Colfax; we didn't know of any bands in the area besides the barber shop quartet. Being exposed to the music scene gave us hope that one day our hobby might possibly become more than just that.”

Bo and Steven then recruited Colfax students Tom Ryan (drums) and Kayla Syczinski (piano), and began playing as many shows as they could. “There are so many jobs woven into the career of any given musician. Starting out, we simply thought of ourselves as songwriters, until we began performing. With no prior experience, we decided it would be best for us to be our own booking agent.” Bo and Steven immediately started reading advice columns in various music scene magazines and internet forums, covering a range of information on anything from booking shows and building a fan base, to music publishing and audio engineering. While their peers were off taking their generals at various colleges, they began educating themselves on how to build a career within the music industry.

The Silver Heart Club performed at just about every venue that would have them, with any band that would share the stage with them. Steven and Bo would even make trips to the nearest college campus. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a satchel filled with poorly recorded live CDs, they would wander through the halls asking if anyone was interested in hearing their material.

    They designed and supplied their own merchandise from the beginning. At shows their “merch” table was scarce with a few shirts, buttons, stickers, and demo CDs. Bo and Steven personally designed flyers for most of the shows they played, which got them better acquainted with programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. “We also dabbled in HTML, so we could control the design of our MySpace page, which turned out to be a great stepping stone to designing our own professional website.” 

After playing a large number of shows and developing a respectable local following, Bo and Steven started feeling the drive to record an album (an area they once again were unfamiliar with). They attempted record a full album with a local engineer in roughly 13 hours, but ended up being dissatisfied with their rushed results.

    In an ambitious and slightly out of the blue manner, the two made the decision of moving to Arizona to continue their education of hard knocks. Steven and Bo kept writing new material and playing shows here and there, meeting and exchanging knowledge with the local musicians of Phoenix. They regrettably became aware of concert promoters undercutting performers, and even lost money to a studio on a second attempt to record their new songs. They also met an independent artist who had built a career touring Europe and performing at colleges, which helped motivate the two to stick with it. 

    In July of 2010, they once again gathered up all of their belongings and traveled 2000 miles back to the Midwest. Bo and Steven ended up in the suburbs just south of the Twin Cities. “After about a year, and a third failed attempt at recording our album with an outside party, we came to a realization that no one was going to help get us to where we wanted to be, except ourselves. We had to do everything on our own, and we wanted to.” So, the two put their money together and purchased a few inexpensive pieces of gear to make up a home studio. They taught themselves how to use the programs, instruments, and software plug-ins they needed to record their music. “This was definitely the biggest learning curve we had experienced so far. It took us about a year and a half to record and edit thirteen songs.”

    The Silver Heart Club released their full-length album “Rookie Card” on August 31st of 2012, making it available to purchase digitally on iTunes, Amazon and other distribution websites. They also held an album release concert on September 16, 2012 at the Oxford in Eau Claire. 

“Our hard work and dedication has given us opportunities to land opening slots for many national acts. Having a chance to play concerts with bands we grew up listening to is something we never thought was possible. The best part about being an independent artist is that our work is never finished. There will always be room for us to grow, and we strive to make this hobby of ours a life-long career.”