"Light My Way: Old Lights' David Beeman gets by with a little help from his friends"
By Christian Schaeffer
ONLINE VERSION
PRINT VERSION
11-3-09=Music Video
The music video for the song "Losing My Mind," is finished! It turned out AMAZING! I am so grateful to both Cody Stokes and Tim (?) for the endless hours of both technical and creative work they did. I will have it up on all the various innertube webfaces for everyone to see in the next couple of days.
I have had more focus lately, in regards to songwriting, then I can ever remember. I have 4 or 5 songs I'm going to record with Richard Swift starting around February 20th. It will be an EP tentatively called "Like Strangers." The demos are shaping up to be my favorite songs I've ever written by far. I've spent weeks now working out arrangements and layering some pretty thick harmonies. I'm thinking it's going to be a lot prettier then the first record, with more of a lyrical focus as well.
Well, I'm working at a bar today with no television on Super Bowl Sunday. 2 hours in and not a single patron. Go Saints I guess. I just don't like Peyton Mannings face.
12-09-09 XMAS SHOW
We are playing our first show in quite a while at Off Broadway on XMAS night. First headlining show ever. It's also somewhat of a belated record release show. (See below if you are interested in buying said record) Come out and enjoying a hopefully great night of music and drinks and let's all catch up! (I'm promise we won't sing any carols. I can't speak for the other bands though)
11-3-09 Update from David
If you haven't heard, I moved to Cottage Grove, OR. Random? Yes and no. It was time to make a change, keep things interesting, and seek out some new inspiration. I have an old friend here in the grove by the name of Richard Swift. He is an uber talented recording artist on Secretly Canadian. He is also a wonderful producer with a great studio, and he is now my next door neighbor. Does this make me a stalker? I'm not sure, but maybe.
Anyway, he is going to produce my next couple records. We are going to start recording in the next month or so. Also, in case you haven't heard, Old Lights has a brand new record out. It's called "Every Night Begins the Same." It is on St. Ives, a small imprint of Secretly Canadian. It is limited to 200 Vinyl Lp's and digital download only. My talented friend Patrice Jackson took the photos, and my friend Matt Maust, of the band Cold War Kids, did all the formatting and text. You can order the vinyl at www.scdistribution.com, or get the digital version on itunes.
Oh, and about that music video we shot a few months back. It is coming along slowly but surely. We had to bring in some real specialists to do some of the 3D animation, and finding people that would work for free was no easy task. You can look forward to the debut in a month or so.
Last but not least, Old Lights is going to be playing at Off Broadway sometime in late December. It might even be Christmas night. I will keep y'all up to date as I know more. Happy fall, friends!
10-13-09 = Old Lights (David Beeman) Interview RFT
David Beeman was interviewed by Christian Schaeffer of St. Louis' own RFT. Article is available online and in print. (Get out your scrapbooking tools!) Information below.
|
"Light My Way: Old Lights' David Beeman gets by with a little help from his friends"
|
10-1-09 = Cottage Grove, OR
Old Lights' David Beeman and Kristin Dennis have relocated to Cottage Grove, OR. No, Old Lights did not break up. More to come...
09-28-09 = Best New Band in STL
The readers and editors of the RFT have voted us "Best New Band" in the STL. "St. Louis' local music scene was given a considerable boost a few months back when Old Lights started playing shows locally and regionally. The brainchild of David Beeman, Old Lights constructs rootsy and concise acoustic-driven songs dressed up in the guise of bouncy indie-pop in the vein of Okkervil River and early Shins. Warm and inventive home-crafted studio production — along with flourishes of hard-panned percussion, honky-tonk piano and vintage string patches — makes tunes like "If You Come Over Tonight" and "The Rail" stand out. As Old Lights gains more of a national concert and blog presence — and with a record due this fall on hip vinyl label St. Ives, the band certainly will — and it'll be nice to be able to say they hail from our fair city." So they say... (read article)
07-22-09 = St. Ives Release
Old Lights will be releasing a full-length LP on Secretly Canadian imprint lable St. Ives. The LP will be titled "Every Night Begins the Same" and will be limited to 200 pressed vinyl records. Not to worry, the digital version will be available world-wide without limit. Look for the album coming Oct. 20th, 2009. Track listing below:
 |
Side A Side B |
6-02-09 = RFT Blog
St. Louis A-Z: Local Band to Know, Old Lights
In recent months, the band Old Lights has cropped up everywhere around town (and beyond): opening for Magnolia Electric Co. in Columbia, playing after the Decemberists in the Halo Bar and tomorrow, opening the Constantines/Crystal Antlers show at the Duck Room. (For good measure, the band is also playing with Telekinesis at Off Broadway later in the month and opening for Richard Swift at Schuba's in Chicago.) ... (read more)
5-26-09 = Recording
Old Lights is recording this week in Dupo, IL rather than Pieholden studios in effort to keep writing and production efforts going, despite the unfortunate events of this past weekend regarding Jay Bennet's passing. Several new shows have also been added to the calendar. Hope to see you all out...
5-10-09 = New Shows
Booking lots of shows for the summer. Keep up-to-date via Facebook and Myspace or look at the shows list on this site.
4-20-09 = New Site
This is a new effort and should be, in this digital age, accompanied by a new website. Simple. Send us an email at oldlights@gmail.com to sign up for the mailing list to learn about new shows and other info. It comes with a no-spam guarantee.