Skylight Webzine (Greece) Interviews C.O.R.E. Virtual Tour

Jan 25, 2024 | Circuline News and Band Updates, News

Thank you so much, Billy Yfantis, for this fantastic interview!

The entire interview is reprinted in full below.

1. The “C.O.R.E.” Virtual Tour is an ambitious undertaking, spanning 57 events in 48 weeks, featuring various releases, videos, and Livestream Q&A events. What inspired the idea behind this extensive tour, and how do you envision connecting with fans around the world through these diverse elements?

In the past, record companies would spend 10 to 14 months promoting an album, releasing “singles” off the record with promotional videos on MTV.  Examples would be Peter Gabriel’s So, which released singles from April 1986 through July of 1987, and Genesis Invisible Touch, which released singles from May 1986 through March 1987.  Journey’s Escape released singles from July 1981 through October 1982.  Even Asia’s debut album had a six-month promotional cycle, from April through October of 1982.  These single releases with accompanying videos on MTV helped propel these bands to the top of the charts around the world with album sales and accompanying successful tours.

In todays’ world, with the rules of Streaming, singles must be released before an album comes out.  Since we’re an independent band, on our own independent record label, we need as much promotional time as possible, to continue to grow our fanbase and get in front of as many people as possible, in as many different ways as possible.  We spent six years making this record, and I need at least a year to promote it.

In our little genre of progressive rock, there were 996 total album releases in 2022.  That includes every major and indie release for that year.  With basically 1,000 albums per year coming out, how are we supposed to get any attention, traction in the marketplace, or sales?  Even Steven Wilson, who has literally hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, has spoken publicly about how hard it is to get people’s attention for a new album release.

Another cool thing that has emerged over the past several decades are “Behind the Music” documentaries about what artists and bands did in the studio, stories of what was happening at the time, etc.  Obviously fans want to “see behind the curtain” of the creative process, and hear directly from the band members, mixing engineers, and producers about the process, which is fascinating to people about how artists do the things they do.  So in conjunction with the promotion of the new album, we’re doing that type of thing as we go, as the music is being released!

This is why the 2024 CORE Virtual Tour was created.  Circuline is releasing a new single every six weeks, with a promotional cycle of deep dive videos every week for the entire year to support the singles and the album.  Single Releases, Lyric Videos, Official Music Videos, “Behind the Scenes”  videos, and more!  This will appeal to the Spotify algorithm and the YouTube algorithm, but most importantly, hopefully it will appeal to our current fans, and garner new ones around the world, with a year-long celebration of the new album!  We’re also doing near daily Reels releases, Press Releases every six weeks, and emails every week to our list of over 20K people.  And we’re doing our best to personally respond to every single comment on every social platform.  The eight Livestream Q&A sessions on YouTube and Facebook allow us to connect directly with fans just as if we were on tour, and could speak to them in person.  

2. “C.O.R.E.,” your new album, explores themes such as romantic relationships, surviving abuse, finding personal power, and the turbulent times we live in. Can you share more about the creative process behind the album and the significance of these themes to you and the band?

For our first two albums, Darin Brannon and I wrote almost all of the music, and then we worked with Randy McStine (Porcupine Tree, Mcstine & Minnemann, The Fringe, Lo-Fi Resistance)  as a songwriter to come up with the lyrics and vocal melody lines.  Then we would do all of the vocal arrangements of the harmonies and finish the record.  Sometimes we had guitarists and bassists with us in the room writing, and other times we had guest guitarists.

Across the board with reviews, generally speaking for our first two Studio albums, many people said that the music was very good but that the songs did not mean much to them in the way of lyrical content. So for this record we really challenged ourselves to start with the “song” vocal sections first, working hard on really crafting lyrics and melodies.  Darin and I still wrote most of the music, sometimes with other musicians in the room, but I would take all of those musical bits (there were over 100 of them), and as the band “Librarian”, organized all of the musical bits into areas that could be later used for the “Songs”. 

So we had the musical bits, and then would work to build around the song structures, utilizing poetry that Natalie Brown had written, with input from myself and Darin.  The three of us work really well together.  So with me sitting at the piano, we would work out the Verses and Choruses with the melodies and chords.  Then I would put it all together in the computer.  I’m kind of like the master “Frankenstein” assembly guy in the studio. 

After Darin and I would do all of the arrangements and structures of the entire songs (the sum total of the singing parts and the instrumental parts), Natalie and I would put down scratch vocal tracks, then have our new bassist Shelby Logan Warne lay down her bass tracks.  Which would then usually cause Darin to change some of his drumming parts and I would update some of my keyboard arrangements. We would then send everything to Dave Bainbridge, our new amazing guitarist, who would literally usually send back about 10 or 12 tracks of all different kinds of acoustic and electric guitars and occasionally some extra keyboard parts. Then I would redo and finish up all of my keyboard parts, then we would redo all the vocals for the final tracks. 

In an ideal situation, we would all be in the room together, looking at each other, creating this music, just like bands did in the last century.  But these are the times in which we live, and we have to adapt as best we can.  It was all incredibly very different from anything we have done before, but very rewarding.  Robert Berry did an amazing job of mixing this record at his studio in California.  We’re very proud of the work that the team did to make this record.

3. The new lineup for Circuline includes Shelby Logan Warne on bass and vocals, and Dave Bainbridge on guitars, with guest artist Joe Deninzon on electric violin. How has the dynamic changed with the addition of these new members, and what unique contributions do they bring to the band’s sound?

We think that the evolution to this current sound of the band is the best that we’ve ever had. That is no offense to any previous band members who helped to get us here, they all made their own unique contributions. But we are very happy with these new band members. Shelby brings a very groove oriented feel, and locks in perfectly with what Darin plays on the drums. We think that gives us a great rhythmic foundation that will hopefully appeal to a broader audience.

Dave Bainbridge is a world-class guitarist, who has been picked several times as one of the top five guitarists in the world in the annual PROG magazine readers poll. We have never had anyone in the past with this kind of talent and ability, so we feel extremely fortunate and grateful to have him on board.  He really elevates our entire game.  I have now had the space to evolve as a vocalist, singing lead and background harmonies as I have not done in the past.  When we perform live, since Shelby is the lead vocalist for her own band Kyros, and Dave also sings background harmonies, we hope to really have a powerhouse three-part and four part vocals that we have not had in the past.  Inspired by CSN, Journey, Queen, Steven Wilson, and others, Natalie and I had a really fun time stacking up lots of harmonies on the record in a way that we have also not done on previous records.  Our goal was to make the best sounding record we could make, knowing that with Shelby and Dave on board, we should be able to reproduce it live.

4. Circuline’s fanbase has grown globally, reaching #1 in Portugal and Top 10 in Japan. How do you see the band’s international appeal evolving, and what do you attribute to the widespread recognition and success?

We’re hoping that the international appeal is evolving, simply because more people are finding out about us!  From 2013 to 2017, we thought that getting lots of PR placement, print magazine placement, online and print interviews (such as this one), being featured on FM radio, Internet radio, blogs and podcasts, playing at international festivals, and doing lots of touring and playing live would produce success, because that’s what artists traditionally have always done.  But I think doing only that, only worked in the last century.  We had a website and were active on social media.  We had fans and sales, but we were just hemorrhaging money, with no end in sight.  At the end of 2017 we sat down and said, “this is just not sustainable”.  I came up with a new plan to aggressively acquire Fans.  We decided that we were not going to play live again until we had new music, and had a bigger fanbase to play to, when we went on tour.  So we went back into the studio at the beginning of 2018 and started working on this record, and I went to work online with Facebook and Instagram advertising, growing our email list to over 20,000 people, and selling over 7,000 CD’s, DVD’s, and Blu-rays in the process.  40% of our market is in the U.S.  40% of our market is in the U.K.  The rest of the fans are all over the world.  We’re currently Streaming in 45 countries, with physical merchandise sales in 23 countries.

5. The Virtual Tour includes not only music releases but also “Behind the Scenes” videos. Can you share some insights into the creative process of making these videos, including the “Story Behind the Song” and “Gear Behind the Music” series?

We knew that the plan would entail releasing a single every 6 weeks, and that we would need to tell stories around the music for each song. I have been consuming music marketing information for many years now and this 2024 CORE Virtual Tour is an accumulation and integration of everything that I have learned over the past many years. I said to myself, “just for once I want to try to do everything right, and do all the things that all of the so-called experts say that we should be doing.”

So we knew that we would need to do the single releases. We knew that we would want to do Official Music Videos with all five of us performing in the videos, so that the world could see us in a new way, presented as a new band, with a new sound. We knew that we wanted to update our image with better quality videos.  To fill out the six week promotional cycles for each song, we decided to also have Lyric Videos.  For every 6 week-cycle, three of the videos are really about the music, and three of the videos are really “Behind the Scenes” videos.

For the “Story Behind the Song” videos, I got that idea from watching old VH1 “Behind the Music” episodes.  We hired professional videographers to shoot those, because we wanted people to see us looking more professional in our newly remodeled studio, which we did during the pandemic.  The “Gear Behind the Music” episodes I thought of after seeing other bands, but particularly Porcupine Tree, release some videos from their latest album.  Many people often like to see what the gear is that bands play.  But our style for those are a little bit different.  It’s more casual and done with cell phones, as people do in these modern times.  And then I came up with the idea to shoot B-roll during the band’s Official Video shoots, so that we could do video commentary for the “Behind the Official Video” videos, because again it would be an opportunity for all five of us to be together talking about what we just did and what people had just watched the week before for the Official Video music performance videos. We really want people to get to know us as people and as a band.

The Livestream Q&A sessions we first did back in 2020, for our NewView Virtual Tour, when we released our last CD/DVD/Blu-ray, CircuLive::NewView.  That’s the first time I had created the Virtual Tour for us – and it worked!  We released five new Official Videos, re-promoted our previous Official Videos and had 45 Events, which included “Story Behind the Song” live discussions with many guest artists.  That’s where those ideas were born, but this time we wanted more preparation and better quality production.  Those Livestream Events were really popular and helped to grow our fanbase.  All of those videos have had hundreds or thousands of views, and we got a really great response when we did that last time, so we knew that we wanted to do it again this time.

What’s also very cool is that I can take all of these videos and use them as part of our “Circuline Rock Journal” email series, so that as people come on board and join us in the years to come, I can repurpose these videos and drip them out in our email follow up sequence, so that new people can continue to get to know us while we’re behind the scenes working on the next album.  Most artists have an entire back catalog of content, yet we never hear from them until they want us to buy the next thing they are selling.  We put so much work into creating all of this material; I want to use it to deepen our relationship with every new fan for years to come.  We still have people to this day who see our Livestream Q&A videos from 2020, who think that they look fun and festive, and they are sorry that they could not make that series, but they are looking forward to getting on live with us in the future for this next round of Livestream Q&A sessions that we do. So it helps to grow our relationship with our fanbase even though these videos could be years old!  All of this previous work continues to help us, moving forward into the future.

6. Circuline has toured with renowned acts like Glass Hammer, co-headlined festivals, and opened for IO Earth in England. How has touring with such diverse artists influenced the band’s musical evolution and live performances?

For many years we have studied other bands and artists, to see what they do for their live shows. Going to other major label concerts and touring with different artists has exposed us to different ways of performing in front of people.  It made us really want to craft our show and structure things in a way that was more than just reproducing the music from the records.  That’s why we started introducing new and different elements into our live show that people seem to really appreciate. 

We now always try to have different “moments” that will connect in different ways with the people in the audience. So we have an “Acoustic Moment”, where we do a simplified breakdown of one of our songs, with just acoustic guitars and vocals.  We have a “Fun Moment”, the “Drum-Off”, where we all change instruments and are playing drums.  We’ve also had the “Keyboard Challenge”, where Darin Brannon and myself sit at keyboards facing each other, and go back and forth playing different bits, as if we’re competing.  All of these things will continue to evolve as our show does in the future.  You never know what you’re going to see at a Circuline show – but hopefully something will surprise and delight you! 

7. With the extensive schedule of releases and events throughout the Virtual Tour, how do you manage the balance between creating new content and maintaining a connection with your audience, especially during Livestream Q&A sessions?

At the time of this writing, we are two weeks into the year-long Virtual Tour, and approximately half of the videos are already completed. We started filming everything last year, since the song structures were finished, and while we were working on the final tracking for everything.  The “Story Behind the Songs” segments were shot last June with myself, Darin, and Natalie, and all five of us got together for a week in August to shoot the Official Music videos, using rough mixes that I created.  The “Gear Behind the Music” videos were shot by all band members in their respective studios with cell phones, and all of that footage is complete.  We have one of the “Behind the Official Video” segments completed, and we’ll shoot the rest of those in February.  Darin Brannon is creating approximately 1/3 of the videos that we need, we are Outsourcing approximately 1/3 of the videos that we need, and I am making the other third of the videos.  I have a huge spreadsheet and calendar on the wall, to make sure that we stay ahead of schedule, because we cannot afford to get behind.  I’m the master planner, organizer, and project manager! 

The Livestream sessions are actually kind of simple and easy to do. We are all able to get on a Zoom call, which is simulcast through Facebook and YouTube live, and while I host the event, one band member will be reading the YouTube chat and responding there, and another band member will be reading and responding in the Facebook chat.  Being able to directly interact with the Fans in real time, with their questions and comments, is always interesting and rewarding. Those are really fun!

8. The album release is planned for September 20th, 2024. What emotions or expectations do you have leading up to the release day, and how do you plan to celebrate this milestone with the fans?

The biggest emotions that I personally have right now are the time deadlines and pressure to just make sure that the Virtual Tour  and Pre-Order Campaign goes as well as it possibly can.  We also still have to finish doing the first round of manufacturing of the CD’s, which are in a six panel digipak with a 12-page booklet of lyrics and liner notes, as well as the 11” x 17” posters, and we have to get those manufactured in February and March, to send out for reviews this spring.  We also have the 8.5” x 11” Tour Programs to finish creating and print, as well as t-shirts to print.  And on top of all of those Virtual Tour activities, we will also be coordinating all of the reviews and interviews and then sharing all of that across the social media platforms and the blog on our website. That is my biggest focus right now.

As far as expectations, we just want to try to sell as many CDs as possible. That is really where we will find out if all of these last 6 years of marketing efforts have worked and paid off. As far as celebrating this milestone, we still have to get through the end of the year with the Virtual Tour. We are going to be doing a Livestream on Friday September 20th, which is Release Day. That is a bonus Live Stream because it is the day of the album release.  We will also be autographing all of the Pre-Order CD’s and posters, and shipping them out to the fans, so that’s always fun and exciting!  

The best way that we could celebrate would be to go back out and bring this music live to people and tour in person with this new lineup. That would be a fantastic celebration, either towards the end of this year, but realistically most likely it will be 2025 and beyond.

9. Your previous tours have taken you to various international festivals. How do you adapt your performances to cater to different audiences and cultures, and what memorable experiences have you had while touring?

As previously mentioned, we try to adjust our show and introduce new and fun elements every time we perform.  We will often change up our set list, depending on what the situation seems to call for that night.  So far we have toured across the United States and the United Kingdom, so I’m not sure how culturally different that is. We would love to get to Canada, because we know there are very progressive rock friendly audiences there, especially in Montreal and Quebec City.

As far as memorable experiences go, every single tour or live show we have ever played has had funny, sad,  happy, angry, joyous, and frustrating experiences!  At this moment, I will spare you any horrible details LOL.  I will say that we can’t wait to go back to England, and with two Brits in the band we should be able to make that happen!  We would also love to tour the rest of Europe, Japan, and Australia, as we have growing fan bases in all of those areas.

10. Looking ahead, what are your hopes and aspirations for Circuline in the coming years, and how do you see the band’s musical journey unfolding, both in the studio and on stage?

Our hopes and aspirations are that we are going to continue to grow our audience worldwide, which will continue to grow our financial capabilities and opportunities to create and perform more music into the future. As far as the band’s musical journey unfolding, we love the lineup that we have now, and with the pandemic behind us, we would love to be able to block off larger chunks of time in the future, where we can all get in the studio at the same time to create new music. Then as we continue to tour and play live on stage together, that will only hone and sharpen our live experience with each other, which we can then put forth and present to the people who love this kind of music and who love coming to see us. We just want to be able to keep going and growing into the future. We appreciate this opportunity to have this interview with you – we could not be doing this without super cool and nice people like yourself!  Thank you so much.