PureVolume

Members: NICK WILSON - vocals, guitar & EVAN WALTERS - drums, bass

UPDATE: Light In a Dark Place now on iTunes [posted 8.10.2010]:



Our first album, Light In a Dark Place, is now available exclusively on iTunes. Click on the iTunes link above to purchase now. Hard copies of the album can be shipped directly to fans for $10 upon email request (nicholasjoelwilson@gmail.com). The album comes complete with artwork that I designed and a full track listing. As always, thank you for your support over the past few years.

Keep an eye out for the upcoming release of our new single, "The Side We Never See". It will be made available as a PureVolume free download (without announcement) for a short time, and then it will become available exclusively on iTunes.

Be patient... It will be worth the wait.

-Nick


UPDATE: The Undertow now on iTunes [posted 7.31.2010]:



"The Undertow" can now be purchased on iTunes. Due to the large number of downloads on our PureVolume page over the years and many positive reviews from fans across the globe, we realized that this song would serve as our first single. It has been available for free download on our PureVolume page for over two years now, and I recently felt that it was time for the song to move up to a higher platform of recognition - iTunes. Click on the iTunes link above to buy now.

Following the release of "The Undertow" will be our first full-length album, Light In a Dark Place. It will be officially released on August 10th exclusively on iTunes.

As for the new Northumbra song I am working on, it is taking on a nice shape. Self-producing this thing has been a great experience. I think this song is going to turn out quite good when it's all said and done. I will keep the updates coming as things continue to fuse together.

-Nick


UPDATE: New song in the works [posted 5.20.2010]:

Before we decided to let Northumbra hibernate for a while, there was one song idea yet to be considered, which started as a drum track that Evan sent to me over the internet. For our first album, we normally didn't start a song with percussion being the first layer, so I questioned how it would be for me to build upon Evan's drums, instead of Evan building upon my guitar and vocals to create a song. I thought about this possibility for awhile, but after we put the development of the second album to rest, I did the same with that track and simply walked away from it.

Since that time, I have been busy working on my Ocean Bound solo project. Last month, as I was recording a couple demos, I stumbled across Evan's drum track once again. After giving it another careful listen, I realized that it had a lot of potential to become a great Northumbra song, regardless of where we are as a band at this point. So, I ping-ponged between working on my own material and working on that song for the last two months, and I quickly found myself creating guitar parts and recording some vocals for the track.

The direction I chose to go with this song, musically and lyrically, is similar to the direction I went with "The Undertow", which is still our most popular song as a band. Overall, it presents a sarcastic tone of unfiltered disgust towards our corrupt world these days and the sugar-coated fluff that is tossed our way to keep us satisfied and controlled.

At this point in time, I have not yet worked with Evan on this, and I am self-producing the song as a Northumbra single. The song is titled "The Side We Never See", and it is by far the heaviest, most raw, hard-hitting song that I have worked on to-date. It has dense layers of dirty, industrial-style guitar that kick you in the face, and a tight groove that builds directly upon Evan's technical drumming.

I think Northumbra fans as well as new listeners will be pleasantly surprised with this song when it is finished. A lot has changed since I wrote Light In a Dark Place - my experiences, who I am as a person, and how I approach things. I am very excited to share what I have been working on. Next week, Evan is traveling from his home in VA to have a jam session with me and listen to the progress of the song. It will be officially released on iTunes within the coming months, and it may also be made available for free download on our PureVolume page for a short time, as a gift to our dedicated fans all over the world who have not given up on us. Stay tuned, and I will be posting updates as things come together over the coming months.

-Nick


History of Northumbra [posted 12.31.2009]:

Northumbra is currently on hiatus; however, we anticipate releasing more material in the future. Our first full-length album, Light In a Dark Place, was written, recorded, and produced over the course of one year. I wrote most of the lyrics while staying in Salvo, North Carolina during the summer of '07. I wrote the guitar parts when I returned to Pennsylvania and recorded them in my college dorm room in between classes for about three months. I recorded the vocals for the album in an empty lecture hall across campus late at night for about a month. The room had great acoustics and stayed pitch black when all the lights were off since it had no windows to let street lights shine in. I usually record vocals in the dark for the sake of mood and focus. No distractions are visible when it is dark. This method of recording vocals ran oddly parallel to the title of our album. To me, my vocals represented the light and energy that was flowing in the darkness of the room. Light should be the focus in darkness, even if it is sometimes hard to see. It often is...

When I finished the guitar and vocals for the original seven songs, Evan and I took turns mastering what I had done up to that point. We soon found ourselves ready to add drums and bass to the songs. This is when Evan's role in the band became fully illuminated. He copied the songs to an external hard drive and headed to his home in Northern Virginia for spring break. During this time, he recorded all of the drums for the album in his home studio. When we returned to school to start the second semester of our sophomore year, all that the songs were lacking was bass guitar. Evan recorded bass for each song over a couple of days. The recording process for Light In a Dark Place was finally over at that point.

We once again took turns mastering the seven songs and did a rough mix. During the mixing process, I decided to write and record one more song for the album. I wrote the song while walking back to my room after a class, and I had it recorded, mastered, and placed into the final mix within a total of two hours. This song was titled Find Yourself, and it serves as the opening track on the album. After we incorporated this eighth song into the album, Light In a Dark Place was officially complete for us. 200 copies of the album were printed the next day.

We are very proud of our first effort as a small indie band, and we are extremely thankful for the fans, family, and friends who supported us when we first started the album and for the people who continue to support us today.

To the Northumbra followers in Great Britain, Canada, California, Spain, Hawaii, Netherlands, London, Czech Repub., Switzerland, Ireland, and Australia - thank you for the love. We really do hope to get some new material out to you guys (and everyone else who discovered us) sometime down the road. Be patient for us... We are not done yet.

After hearing Light In a Dark Place, many fans requested that Evan and I make a second album. We discussed this and decided to move forward with plans to make another Northumbra album. A couple of months passed, and Evan moved back to his home in Virginia to attend a different college. We had another talk about the second album and thought that it could still work out, even though the distance between us would definitely present a challenge. I began writing a great deal of material for the second Northumbra album at this point.

Another month passed and we spoke again about the outlook of the band and the reality of making another album. We agreed that the distance would become too much of a hindrance for us in the long run of production, and we decided that Northumbra would need to take an elongated break... Change can be unexpected. Change can call for adjustment. Change can also be healthy, and it is always constant - whether we notice it or not. This is the point in time where Northumbra pressed 'pause' due to change, but we are still constant through our music.

When Northumbra began its hiatus, I realized that I had already written a lot of material for a second album before we decided to take a break. I kept the new guitar ideas and lyrics in the back of my mind and told myself that they would have to wait until we decided to do something else down the road. This idea began to change quite quickly as I prepared to enter my final year of college. The Summer of 2009 was coming to a close, and I began to feel those new ideas that I had come up with - begging to be set free. They had unexpectedly moved from the back of my mind to the very front. I knew that I needed to do something in response to this feeling and by no means deny it. So, I decided it was time to consider doing a solo album.

During the production of Light In a Dark Place, I was actually teaching myself how to play drums and bass guitar when I was not working on the album. I taught myself how to play guitar about seven years ago, and I was singing since as long as I can remember, so I figured I could teach myself how to play those instruments as well. I became quite skilled at drumming, and I developed an ear for putting bass lines into songs effectively. I purchased professional microphones, digital recording devices, and upgraded my recording software. I finally felt well prepared for embarking upon a solo album. I decided to do the project under the title Ocean Bound.

I am currently working on material for a 2011 full-length release. For this album I will be contributing all guitar parts, vocals, bass, as well as some percussion and piano. There may be a guest vocalist contributing background vocals to several songs as well. In addition, Jeremy Hummel, the first drummer for the platinum rock band Breaking Benjamin, will be taking care of the majority of the album's percussion.

Jeremy did all of the drumming and percussion for the band's first two albums, Saturate and We Are Not Alone, which featured the smash hits "Polyamorous", "So Cold", and "Sooner or Later". Jeremy also contributed percussion to "Blow Me Away", which was featured on Halo 2. He continues to stand out in the professional music scene as an undeniably talented, versatile drummer. I am very excited about this collaboration with Jeremy and am anxious to see where this album goes.

You can follow my solo project by visiting the Ocean Bound PureVolume page (purevolume.com/oceanbound). I would greatly appreciate your support.

Stay above(north) the shadows(umbra).

Find some light in this dark place.

Much love,

-Nick // Northumbra & Ocean Bound