Congratulations, Shorelines End!

posted in: FeaturesRock

Last year, OurStage’s own Shorelines End buckled down to record, tour and promote new material. Luckily, their efforts payed off . In December of 2009, the band became the Season 1 winners of The Next American Star Competition , a reality series where the Top 100 unsigned Young Adult Rock bands from across the nation compete for the title and a $50,000 cash prize.

Today, we are thrilled and proud to announce that this very talented OurStage band has officially signed with Island/Def Jam/Mercury Records, a division of Universal Music Group. We caught up with bass player Justin Burns to ask him all about the band’s whirlwind year and the trials and tribulations associated with signing to a major label (as well as what goes into that killer hair).

Shorelines End

OS: So first off, congratulations on getting signed. What a dream come true! It seems this last year has been a whirlwind for you guys. Have you had time to catch you breath?

JB: Thank You! Yes, it has definitely been crazy busy the past year, but in a good way.  After working our fingers to the bone promoting Shorelines End, touring, recording new songs, combined with all the personal sacrifices that it takes for a band to succeed, we are finally having our day in the sun.  We recently signed a major label deal with Mercury Records/ Island Def Jam and we couldn’t be more excited!

OS: Between OurStage and The Next American Star Competition, you’re no strangers to being pitted against other artists and voted on. You’ve obviously had major success with the process. How do you keep your fans engaged and coming back?

JB: Both OurStage and TNAS have been very beneficial in not only creating a platform to be exposed to more fans, but also helped raise some much needed extra funds in the early stages of the band. OurStage was helpful by creating a “banner campaign,” which raised several thousand dollars. It was a great concept, where fans would register on OurStage.com via a banner we posted on our social networking sites, asking fans to register on OurStage and they would get a free song download by SLE. In return, OurStage paid the band $2 per registered fan, can’t beat that! We kept fans engaged by offering free goodies and basically bombarding them with email blasts, bulletins, etc.

Shorelines End

The Next American Star [Competition] was a contest where the judges spent thousands of hours and more than six months reviewing video and audio from bands across America and the TOP 100 best unsigned artists where chosen to compete. Fans would vote on the TNAS website for the best female-led band winner and a male-led band winner. This followed by a mini-tour of House of Blues concerts in May/June 2009 with the Top 6 bands competing in the finals with a Live performance at HOB/Live Nation affiliated venues in Chicago, Hollywood, New York, Dallas and Orlando. At the finals competition, one female artist and one male artist would win the competition and a total of $50,000 in cash between the two winners. Shorelines End  was the male-led band winner and won the $25K Grand Prize, so it was a great pay off!!

OS: You just wrapped the new record and your first single is hitting the radio SOON! How are you feeling?

JB: That’s correct, the new CD is done and the first single called Barely Breathing will impact radio in July 2010 with the CD release date set for August 2010. In the meantime, the band was just added the Vans Warped Tour Twenty Ten, and will hit the road in July. We’ll be making stops mostly on the east coast, which we’ve never toured through, so we are all looking forward to that.

OS: What was the transition like going from recording independent releases to recording with a major label?

JB: Well, there’s not really too much of a transition in regard to recording, because the process is all the same. But being able to record in a better-equipped studio on the label’s dime was definitely quite refreshing, and having a bigger recording budget to work with was also nice.

OS: We caught your [Justin] painting contest, pretty impressive. You guys seem to be men of many talents. Any other skills you have we should know about?

Justin Burns

JB: Yes, we are no doubt men of many talents! Some of which we cannot share with the public, but our singer Patrick is a great golfer and our lead guitarist Jony is an amazing cook! We won’t be going hungry on the road with this guy in the band!

OS: You guys have a serious online presence. Why do you think it’s important for emerging artists to take advantage of sites like OurStage?

JB: The Internet has no question leveled the playing field for unsigned aspiring artists.  We were recently one of those unsigned artists, so we took advantage of all the social networking sites to help build our fan base, which really paid off.  Back in the day, bands would have to tour city to city just to get new fans to learn about their band and hear their music. These days you can build a huge fan base with just a simple click of a mouse and some dedication.

OS: So what does Shorelines End have in store for this summer?

JB: The plan is to TOUR! TOUR! TOUR!  SLE will be coming to a city near you soon!

OS: We gotta ask, any hairstyling tips?

JB: While on tour bring a flat iron, hair wax and several cans of hair spray¦never leave home with out them!