2010 was a good year for Suburban Sunrise! After a long hiatus, we picked things up and began anew – and have been having great fun in the process. As is good to do at the beginning of the year, I thought I’d review 2010 and take a look at what’s up in 2011.

2010 Review

During the first half of 2010, Kelvin and I spent a lot of time putting things together in the studio, learning new recording and mixing processes, and putting together ideas for some new songs. But it wasn’t until summer that things started to really roll. In July we started the “Music Success In 9 Weeks” blogging challenge from Ariel Publicity. Although we didn’t win the publicity campaign that was the grand prize, we made great improvements across the board and set and achieved some great goals.

By the end of summer we hooked up with a new bass player (AJ’s the man!), created a new website (this one here), created an online presence on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc, did a couple photo shoots, updated our image and logos and such, began setting dates for our fall 2010 tour, and started recording new material. This focus on our written goals helped us progress immensely and although we didn’t accomplish all that we’d have liked to, we accomplished much more than we had in the recent past, and a few things we’d been hoping to do for a long time.

“Pogey Paid For My Amp” Tour

The fall tour was awesome!! We did a handful of shows with Miiza Rebel from Montreal to London and had a great time all around. Each city brought it’s own flavor and people, and though some shows were more “successful” in terms of turnout than others, all in all it was a great tour. We had a couple nights where we slept in the van. Not the worst place I’ve slept, but definitely not the best! We also met some really great people who helped us along the way with places to crash, food, and just plain good times! A big thanks to Munir and his crew, Sarah #2 and hers, Adam Emm and Enrique, Neverfiend, and of course, Miiza Rebel and his crew!

Since before the tour, we’ve been hammering away in the studio. Suburban Sunrise has been backing up Miiza Rebel for his coming EP to be released on the Inity Arts & Music record label. We’ve also been working on our own tunes, planning to release our EP at the same time. Some of the demos of these recordings were put on a CD to bring to people on our tour. We hope everyone who got a copy has enjoyed it!

Clearing Distractions

One thing we noticed regularly over the course of the year was that we’ve been distracted a lot by taking on too many various projects and note keeping focused on the core ones. This is something we’ve acknowledged repeatedly and have been getting better and better at managing.

So looking back, our greatest accomplishments have been a product of goal setting and sticking to our guns, while our greatest setbacks were a result of putting too much on our plates. There were many obstacles along the way, but I feel as though we’ve done some good for ourselves and others, and have set the stage (so to speak!) for a future of music making and sharing!

2011 Focus

And that brings us to 2011! This year looks bright for us. We’ll be releasing the aforementioned EPs as we’ve wanted to for some time. We’re also set to begin recording very soon a full-length album to release later this year. Miiza Rebel is also a major focus for us this year. We’ve had a lot of fun working together so we’re excitedly putting together more tunes.

After many years of efforts with the recording process – learning and growing – things are finally starting to move with greater ease. Our skills are getting good! So, expect to see more recorded music this year than ever before.

Another tour would be great as well. We’d love to come see again everyone we met in fall, and to meet some more great people.

New Approach This Year

The biggest change I’ll make this year is in simplifying. Last years progress was only held back by trying to do too many things at once. This delayed the progress of everything while creating such a large amount of stress. Truly the best approach is to do things one at a time, and leverage each success.

So, let’s see if we can create as much and more fun this year as in 2010!

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