Cinco de Mayo Celebrations

Gold Standard celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style by performing for a beautiful poolside wedding. To mark the occasion, the band infused many popular hits of yesterday and today with a subtle Latin vibe, helping to personalize this Cinco de Mayo wedding. And, as a special treat, the band closed out the night dancing to a special Latin Remix Night at Maxwell’s with DJ Robot Dream.

Catch Me If You Can, Austin

We had the opportunity to perform for an event hosted by Frank Abagnale who was portrayed by Leonardo DeCaprio in the film "Catch Me If You Can" based on his true story.   We love Austin and hope to be back again soon!

We had a blast at Silicon Slopes 2018!

We often travel between Salt Lake City and San Francisco so have performed for various tech functions in the bay area but were very excited to be invited to provide entertainment for the Salt Lake City Silicon Slopes Tech Summit 2018.  Here are a few moments from our performances.

You might notice a new voice in the mix!  That's the amazing Chloe who will be performing with us on many upcoming events.  I'll let her performance speak for itself . . .

Vlog Outtakes:

This week with so much tragedy and destruction, "We must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane” ― Charlie Chaplin

 

Here are some outtakes to lighten your mood . . . .

Vlog #5: Conn's Birthday, a solar Eclipse, and other life-changing events!

Amangani Jackson Hole was the perfect setting for watching the Solar Eclipse.  We performed there for their eclipse party the night before then were able to soak in the event in their hot tub and spa.  Also this past month we celebrated Conn's Birthday, check out some footage from his roller-skating party, and other general silliness we had to share!

Puppy Love in 360°

We thought you could use some 360° rescue puppy play time . . . about 10 minutes worth!

As you can see, we really enjoyed spending time with these 9 chihuahua puppies rescued from California at the Utah Humane Society.  We are also able to take a tour of the facilities and learn about the many amazing rescue dogs, cats, birds, and other animals for whom the Humane Society is a temporary home.  

Join us supporting a good cause at this year's "Wags to Wishes" Gala Saturday night at the Utah Humane Society: http://www.utahhumane.org/gala

Watch our first ever Gold Standard VLOG!

Watch our first ever Gold Standard VLOG!

Join us in some of our recent adventures in our fist VLOG!  Also make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for all of our videos:  http://youtube.com/goldstandardmusic

Improvisation and New Music

For thousands of years mankind has placed music at the center of community gatherings, celebrations, and social functions. It is truly a universal language. You can feel this at live shows. There is nothing quite like it. There is an energy that flows from live performers and is reciprocated by the audience, and everyone involved is somehow lifted by the experience. We love to perform, we've all been doing it since we were young kids. Over the years we've honed our craft and learned how to best respond to each live setting, crafting and performing our set specific for each event. We've been having a lot of fun lately creating textures and even songs right on the spot at live events to fit the mood. Conn is actually really good at coming up with lyrics to fit the moment- a skill he has developed over many years of constant song making. You start to see the world differently the more you use the lens of music in your life.

We feel like a musician needs to be a craftsman- a great deal of care needs to be put into the way the music is presented. There is a spirit to creating that is infectious- and we're really caught up in it now. We're excited to be working on new original songs for an upcoming album release. In the meantime, you'll find us improvising and stretching boundaries on stage- working out new ideas, trying to make moments count, and sharing in the celebration of music that brings people together better than anything else. It feels like the world needs that more than ever these days. Til' next time- we hope to see you out on the road this year.

-GS

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Integrating a DJ into the band

 Gold Standard is a DJ+Vocals+Drums trio with many tools in our arsenal: live percussion, saxophones, flute, vocals, harmonization, and drum set, and on the electronic side: samples, looping, effects (on electronic and live instruments) and DJ techniques.

 

By integrating a full DJ setup into the band, we share the benefits of mixing acoustic and electronic elements which groups like Bonobo, Disclosure, Odesza, Daft Punk, Major Lazer, have used to rise to success.

 

Here are a few fun things that we can do as a result of integrating a DJ into the mix:

 

The vocals, saxes, flute, drums, and percussion all go through my DJ mixer.  As such I have access to DJ tools like live looping, echo, delay, phaser, filters, EQ, and all the other effects built into a mixer. 

 

Because I’m mixing live as a DJ, we keep the music flowing uninterrupted throughout our sets.  Bands may start and stop songs, pause in-between, tune guitars and have stretches of awkward silence.   Our music takes twists and turns, rises and falls, but keeps flowing as the three of us stretch and weave new spontaneous creations along with time honored hits throughout our set.

 

I run sound from my spot on stage with the band, whether we are performing for a large Aria Las Vegas venue or a small backyard wedding, I can keep the vocal and drum mix consistent so we sound our best.  I control stage volume and our in ear monitor mixes, eliminating the risk of noisy feedback from stage monitors or inconsistencies as we change venues.   We are set and locked in from start to finish and don’t need lengthy sound checks or separate audio engineers.  

 

I’m constantly updating and adding to my large and organized sample and music library to integrate new and classic sounds into our music.  While Conn is singing one of our popular songs, we might bring in a string breakdown and switch gears, changing the mood of the music behind the song on a dime, all the while improvising on our acoustic instruments.  

 

Photos by Pierce and Paris Tews

 

 

Kenny Aronoff's 7 tips for success as a musician (or in anything you do)

I recently attended the NAMM convention in Los Angeles. Ever since I was 10 years old, I've been watching and following pro drummers and idolizing them for their incredible skill. The chance to meet a few of my drum heroes this weekend made attending the convention a really special experience. I got to meet Kenny Aronoff, known as one of the very best drummers in the world. He has shared the stage with countless A-List artists like Adele, The Smashing Pumpkins, Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Elton John, and the list goes on and on. He has played on albums that have collectively sold 300 Million copies. I had the chance to attend a lecture by Kenny that gave a brief synopsis of the book that he just had published. I've heard it is getting rave reviews. In his lecture Kenny explained the 7 keys to success in life or in any pursuit. He was also completely hilarious- so full of vitality, humor, and positivity. I think his advice is really fantastic for any musician who is serious about their craft, or for anyone who wants to be successful in their career.

Kenny Aronoff's 7 tips to be successful and stay successful in your career:

  1. Self-discipline: make yourself do something you don't necessarily want to do. Put in the work to be great. Once you learn self-discipline in one thing you can apply it to everything else in life. Stay on it. You will get further. 
  2. Hard work fueled by passion and dedication, keep learning and educating yourself. This is the gasoline to drive you forward. 
  3. Create a plan that you execute to reach your goal. Lots of people have ideas but don't do anything with them. 0=0. If you haven't applied yourself and put the time in you're not gonna make/sustain it. Think like a running back. You're gonna get hit, you need to focus on getting to the end zone. Don't feel you have to make it in one day or week or year. There are no shortcuts.
  4. Teamwork/Communication skills: make the sessions or the work better that you're involved with, it's about the attitude that you bring. 
  5. RPS: Repetition of anything you do is the Preparation for Success. He does 30 min warm up techniques for every show before and after. He's always so vigilant to repeat his warm-ups and prepare to play his absolute best at every gig.
  6. A healthy life is a wealthy life. Mentally physically and emotionally. Even if you just regularly do Push-ups or Planks, you need to stay physically strong and fit. It keeps your hormone levels up. This fights off cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Cardio- it exercises the most important muscle in your body- your heart. Stretching. Diet is about what you DON'T eat. Stay away from sugar and processed foods. Eat fruit, more veggies, less meat. Multivitamin. Vitamin D are great for immune system. Fish oil. B complex. Water. You should drink ounces of water every day that are equal to half of your weight. So if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drink 80 ounces of water per day. Get enough sleep. Practice meditation- it reduces stress.
  7. Today: Stay focused to be relevant. Don't worry about what you've done in the past. 
    The past is the past. Focus on what you're working on today. Always focus to the future.

I hope these tips are helpful to you. They have clearly worked incredibly well for Kenny. 

-Bart

Me with the great Kenny Aronoff. Such an incredible musician.

Me with the great Kenny Aronoff. Such an incredible musician.

-Bart