The Bay Area Band Show Podcast Interview

Hi everyone,

We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Steve O'Sullivan on his podcast, The Bay Area Band Show. The Bay Area Band Show is quite self-explanatory - Steve speaks with a number of varying Bay Area musicians. He was a warm and welcoming host, and we believe his show is something to pay attention to for bands and music fans alike. Special thanks to Steve for having us sit down and talk. 

This is also our first official public interview! So that is exciting. You can listen to our interview --> here <--. We also strongly encourage you to listen to his other posted interviews and follow who he interviews next. Who knows, you may hear some friends of ours.

Some other updates:

We've been taking it a bit easy this month as we've had a bit of a gap in shows for April. That said, the month ends with two back-to-back shows with Coastlands from Seattle, as well as Even Gods Can Die (some friends we haven't played with in quite some time). Info for both shows can be found pretty much all over the place (Facebook, BandCamp, here, etc.) Both shows will be great, so we hope to see you folks at one or both. As ever, writing of new material is coming along. Some interesting shit is getting cooked up in the ISLES lab, and we think you will like it once it is ready. 

Ciao until then, friends.

- Dev 

Thanks to Muzoic for the 4 Star Review!

Thanks to the awesome folks of the Russian music site, Muzoic.ru for their wonderful and thoughtful review of our new album, Bending Light. I'm lucky enough to have some colleagues at work that were kind enough to help translate it for us! You can checkout the full review here, and our translation below (keep in mind certain phrases didn't have exact English translations):

ISLES released a new album named Bending Light. It's a fresh studio album, that contains 9 tracks, was released on 10/20, and was self-published.

The musical collective from Oakland, ISLES isn't chasing after commercial ideas/goals but creates masterpieces for the people. The beginning of this wonderful tradition begins with Bending Light. It would be wrong to compare Bending Light and its authors with orthodox post-rock. there are much more emotions than [typically found] in post rock and definitely (slang) and as far musical (something) musicians don't hear in typical movements in complex music.

Practically everything you will hear is not annoying riffs but instrumental confessions of few people. The depth of Bending Light is amazing. the album isn't rushed and its slow current takes you to the sources of nirvana and peace/serenity. Without a doubt, this zen has a pinch of sadness, which is present in every melody/picture.

Usually, instrumental releases don't get much accolades from critics, but Bending Light is different. Possibly, it would not be a very correct comparison, but there's something common between ISLES and Chon -- except Chon has more dynamics and major keys, but fans should consider that. Bending Light from ISLES is pleasant, midnight work [we couldn't quite figure out what they meant by this], and probably the most kind to you, dear listeners.

Thanks again for all the kind words!

-Ivan | ISLES

Bending Light Available now!

Bending Light is finally out and we're ecstatic to be able share it with the world! This album is  the culmination of a ton of hard work over the past year, we sank a ton of time and money into making this album sound every bit as good as we thought it could. Bending Light is also the first real album we have that represents our growth as a full band, so in a lot of ways, the release of this album is almost like a new start for us. Anyway, Check out the album at any of the places below, and let us know what you think!

Purchase Bending Light at our Bandcamp page. Physical and Digital formats available. 

Other places to buy or stream the album:

iTunes | Spotify | Google Play | Amazon | YouTube | Tidal | Magnifi

Thanks for the support, we hope you enjoy the album!

- Ivan | ISLES

October Update and Bending Light Pre-orders!

We're happy to finally announce that our new album, Bending Light, will officially release on October 20th! We're now taking pre-orders on both digital copies of the album as well as a physical digipak CD at our Bandcamp page! There's even an option if you want to save on shipping by picking up the album at our CD Release show at Bottom of the Hill on the same date! You can get tickets for the show here! No matter what you pre-order, you'll get an immediate download of the album's opening track, "Chasing Ghosts," which you can stream below. 

We hope you like what you hear, and we can't wait for you to hear more. Please show your support by pre-ordering the album now and sharing our bandcamp page with friends! Hope to see you all October 20th for our CD release show!

- Ivan | ISLES

August Update + Album Announcement

After much delay, we're extremely excited to announce that our new album is finally coming out! We're calling it Bending Light, and we're aiming to get this album out by the end of September! This album is the culmination of a lot of time and hard work, and represents a HUGE jump in our sound compared to 2013's Spaces. While Spaces was written as a solo experiment by one guy, Bending Light is a true representation of where we are as a group, and where we're going. We're super excited for you all to hear it. We'll announce the artwork and pre-order details soon, so stay tuned on all our social networks for more info! 

This video was shot and edited by our good friend Bradley Whiteside. Thanks again for putting this together for us!

Lastly, we're being featured by Alternative Press Magazine as one of their unsigned bands of the month! If you haven't done so already, please stop by and cast your vote for ISLES! If we get the most votes, we'll get our own feature in an upcoming print issue of AP Magazine! Thanks a ton to everyone who's already taken the time to vote on one or all of their devices! Go here to cast your vote!

Thanks,

Ivan | ISLES

Social:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Soundcloud

April Update

What a killer month it's been. We're hot off the heels of a really fun show at the Oakland Metro opening up for Intronaut, one of my personal favorite bands, and a huge inspiration to me as a musician. We played for one of our biggest crowds to date and met a ton of new friends and fans thanks to this incredible opportunity.

What's next? ISLES is halfway done recording our still-to-be-titled follow-up album; we go in May 9-10 to finish tracking it. After that's done, we wait for the mixes to be finished and then send it out to get mastered, while we finish up the artwork and CD layouts. It's going to be a really busy month as we get this done. Hopefully we'll have this album out mid-June. We can't wait to share these new tunes with everyone. 

Almost forgot to mention that we're working with one of my really close friends, Bradley Whiteside, who's been following us along our trips to the studio and to a couple of our shows the past few weeks. He's working on a spotlight & documentary on us, so be sure to stay tuned for that!

Make sure you're following us on BandsinTown so you can find out when we'll be in your neck of the woods. You can do that here. See you guys soon!

-Ivan | ISLES

January Update

It's a new year and we have a lot planned for the upcoming year. Writing for the new album is almost finished, and we've announced a few shows in the upcoming months, with more to come. If all goes according to our plan, we should begin recording the new record in February, and hopefully we'll get it out not too long after. In the meantime, be sure to track us on BandsInTown so you can stay up to date on when we're coming to your town, and follow us on your social network of choice. Check the social networks in the navigation pane up top for links to our accounts. Stay tunes for more updates soon!

- Ivan | ISLES

November Update

We just finished up our last show of the year at Neck of the Woods in San Francisco. We had a great time playing there, and our good friend Austin Cairns managed to take an impressive video on his phone of our closing number, "Chasing Ghosts." 

We're taking December off from playing shows to finish writing our still unnamed full-length album. We'll be re-recording a couple old tunes, but this will be mostly new ones. I can't wait to reach this finish line with this album, as I'm already incredibly proud of what we've already written for it. We're hoping to get this bad boy out by January or February at the latest, so stay tuned!

- Ivan | ISLES