BIO
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“We’re not anti-guitar, but we’re interested in exploring rock music that’s not exclusively driven by guitar riffs. You have to re-invent the way you write when you purposely omit the biggest element in modern music,” Holden Daniels says. “It makes you focus more on groove and energy, as opposed to guitar riffs all the time.”

Edmonton rock duo My Sister Ocean has created their own niche inside the overcrowded Modern Rock genre by not using any guitars for a majority of their songs. “We tend to use guitars like most bands use keyboards – for texture and ear candy, but not as a main element. In doing so, we’ve been able to create music that’s more rhythmic and sub-sonic than we used to when we had guitarists in previous bands,” the band’s drummer Eugenio explains.

“It can be limiting, but it’s forced us to re-evaluate what makes a song a song, and what we want to accomplish as songwriters,” adds Holden (as he prefers to be called).

The result: Foo Fighters meet Beck, without guitar.

Drug abuse, child abuse, neglect, hate, bumbling presidents, car crashes, overcoming fears, realizing dreams, and falling in love are just some the lyrical content listeners will identify with in the band’s songs.

The decision came in 2005 to proceed as a duo after realizing that as a trio or four-piece they were simply another “rock band” in a world full of Radiohead, Nickelback, and Coldplay clones. New successes came very quickly to the band after the switch. They released 2 EPs in Edmonton in 2005 and 2006, and started to get feature airplay across Canada. Then the band signed a distribution deal in March 2007 and released Nucularboy in July 2007. Album sales have been steady in Western Canada and airplay has gone from receiving features here and there, to Top 25 chart positions in some areas of the country.

A video for the single “Don’t Change The Station” was well-received on YouTube and garnered feature spotlights MuchMusic. Most people are very surprised to learn that the video was directed by the band frontman, Holden.

The band also had some coveted time-slots in music festivals in Western Canada including NestFest (Edmonton), the Kokanee Freeride (Jasper) and Meltdown (Grande Prairie). Opening slots for Danko Jones, Social Code, and Ten Second Epic have helped the band win over new fans at an impressive rate. The band also won 1st place in two Battle of the Bands contests in their hometown, and showcased at Canadian Music Week 2007.

The self-produced album has received some killer reviews, including a 4 star rating in the Edmonton Journal.

Holden also received an endorsement deal from Gallien-Krueger Bass Amps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Guns and Roses) in February of 2007 after the company was impressed with the band’s unique sound. Ironically, it was the fact that Holden’s new amp sounded so impressive that he decided to also play guitar through it – changing the band’s identity from being a “bass and drum duo” to being more simply a “rock duo.” He now switches between guitar and bass several times during any given show.

Like a pebble in a pond that eventually becomes a wave, the band has started small and focused on aiming for what they wanted. Their experiment has led to more success in the last year than they’d seen in any previous band. The wave is getting bigger every day. Wanna swim?


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BIO
***

“We’re not anti-guitar, but we’re interested in exploring rock music that’s not exclusively driven by guitar riffs. You have to re-invent the way you write when you purposely omit the biggest element in modern music,” Holden Daniels says. “It makes you focus more on groove and energy, as opposed to guitar riffs all the time.”

Edmonton rock duo My Sister Ocean has created their own niche inside the overcrowded Modern Rock genre by not using any guitars for a majority of th... (read more)