My Satellite

My Satellite
Lift
self-released; 2014
3.9 out of 5

By Jerrica Tisdale

In 2010, Bryan Stage started creating tracks for My Satellite. While still a solo effort, My Satellite released two EPs, Telescopes and Depths. In 2011, Andy Marshall (bass and backup vocals), Ryan Ward (guitar), and Justin Paul (drums) joined the current lineup for My Satellite. My Satellite’s first full album, Lift, was developed through a Crowdfunding campaign. The album has an otherworldly vibe. It’s intergalactic, spatial and explorative. Lift tells individual tales of love, loss and does some meditative musing.

Lift resides in an electronic, indie-rock realm, heavily graced with electronica sounds. My Satellite beautifully composes beats in each of the album’s tracks. The beats in “Mariner Valley” create all the harmony of a valley, while the ones in “Pacific” capture the intensity of a fast-paced big city.

“Olympus Mons” feels like a day in the clouds with the gods. It’s the single that has the most production with its layered vocals, and instrumental and electronic blending. “Made & Left” has dark, haunting, ghostly tones, which seamlessly matches the song’s content. “Control” is whimsical and spacey. Its beats are so beautiful that the song is just as strong without lyrics. “We Were Weightless” has somber tones, which pairs with its message of love and loss. It’s the song with the most interesting vocal dynamics.

My Satellite creates awe-inducing beats blending. The band tenderly establishes tracks that make you admire their skills, efforts and inventiveness to their album. Lift’s one downfall is that its lyrics are sometimes difficult to hear through all the other sounds. This takes away from exploring all the elements of these songs. But overall, My Satellite’s Lift transports listeners on a different creative and strikingly vivid journey with every new track. - TheEqualGround.com

5. Margate – Rock n’ Roll Reserve

4. Voxhaul Broadcast – Turn The Knife

3. New Beat – Fund Scare Me

2. Oedipus – Kiss On The Fist

1. My Satellite – Mirrors

World Famous KROQ "Locals Only" show held "Mirrors" on repeat for 8 weeks straight summer 2012. - KROQ - Kat Corbitt

This EP is euphoric, blissed-out and at times chaotic and stormy. This truly is a musical gem that you will marvel at over repeated listenings and revel in it’s moments of pop bliss. - PlayFairNow.org

This EP is euphoric, blissed-out and at times chaotic and stormy. This truly is a musical gem that you will marvel at over repeated listenings and revel in it’s moments of pop bliss. - PlayFairNow.org

You voted My Satellite as your BeatCrave Fav for the month of April! The LA based band has been enhancing the music scene with their ambient, dreamlike alternative rock music that paves a unique path through the contemporary LA scene. We got to pick the brain of Bryan Stage, the musical genius behind My Satellite, and find out some answers to our most burning questions (from influences to dream patterns… its all here!). Check out our exclusive interview with My Satellite below:

BeatCrave: Who are some of your major musical influences?

My Satellite: I’ve been influenced by so much music over the years it’s really hard to narrow it down to just a few. I listen to psychedelic rock, classical, jazz, 90s grunge, early emo, post rock, 70s and 80s punk, post punk, electronica, indie, etc. Putting my iPod on shuffle is a nightmare of clashing songs and genres. Bjork and David Bowie are two of my biggest musical heroes because they have uncompromising musical visions, they take lots of risks and they are both just so ridiculously cool. A few other favorites are Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Vivaldi, Aphex Twin, Crystal Castles, The Cure, Papa M, Postal Service, Elliott Smith, Blonde Redhead… I could go on for quite a while. I like a lot of music and try not to obsess over any particular artist. Obsession leads to mimicry.

BC: How do you set yourself apart from the Los Angeles music scene, lyrically, melodically, etc.

MS: A number of our fans have described the music as “epic” which is obviously a really broad term and feels far too elevated of a description to me at times. I feel like it would be rather presumptuous of me to describe my music like that, but when I really think about it, from the beginning my goal was to make each song as big, as powerful and as beautiful as it can be. In a way it’s a pretty spot on description. The music is “epic” in it’s own way. I think that makes us very different than most bands in the scene. A lot of bands here have gone for a more minimalist approach which works great on a lot of levels and I like what a lot of these bands have been doing, but My Satellite is different. I like to do a lot with a little, not the other way around.

BC: One of my favorites is “A Nighttime Daydream”. What do you dream about?

MS: Kittens, popsicles and kittens eating popsicles. Oh… and murder. Sometimes the popsicles are alive when the kittens are feasting.

BC: With so many layers, harmonies, and rich melodies in your music, how do you compose each song, and what is the writing process for your lyrics like?

MS: My writing process is usually a mess of inspiration, perspiration and drunkenness. There may also be some dancing involved. Maybe. It usually starts with some haphazard banging around on my guitar or my keyboard which turns into an idea that I like and I begin building the song from there. The layers and harmonies tend to become obvious to me as the song progresses. Each song is very much like putting together a puzzle. Since I record everything myself, it’s nice to be able to write and record at the same time so that I can play with a number of options and figure out what works. And once I’ve figured it out the song is done and I don’t need to go back into a studio and rerecord it. That’s one reason I really love digital recording. I know that statement may turn off the analog purists, but oh well. Fuck it. I am a fan of technology.

Lyrics tend to be the final step in the process. I tend to have a vocal melody from the start, but the lyrics don’t typically take shape until I have all the music and the vocal melodies laid out. I’m not at all a linear writer of lyrics. Not a storyteller in that sense. I’m more interested in conveying an emotion which is never a linear feeling. At least not to me. I really enjoy open ended art that allows for individual interpretation and meaning. I tend to talk around the subject of my lyrics, or at least what I intended to be the subject so that the meaning is what you make of it. Finding your own message in a song makes it more personal and significant. When people ask me what a song means I don’t like to answer them. I don’t want to ruin the trick by explaining how it’s done. Never mind the man behind the curtain!

BC: How did the live band lineup come about?

MS: At the end of last year I was finishing up the second My Satellite EP, Depths, and I felt like it was time to start making this band a reality. Ryan Ward and I used to work together and have been friends for years, playing music together off and on for various projects. He was always a fan of My Satellite and is a great guitarist so I asked him to join the band. So that was easy enough. I knew that I wanted a female keyboardist to handle some of the higher octave vocal harmonies that I did in the recordings. We were searching for months. It was really trying. I had all but given up hope that this band would materialize when I got an email from Sammi Doll who had happene - BeatCrave.com

You voted My Satellite as your BeatCrave Fav for the month of April! The LA based band has been enhancing the music scene with their ambient, dreamlike alternative rock music that paves a unique path through the contemporary LA scene. We got to pick the brain of Bryan Stage, the musical genius behind My Satellite, and find out some answers to our most burning questions (from influences to dream patterns… its all here!). Check out our exclusive interview with My Satellite below:

BeatCrave: Who are some of your major musical influences?

My Satellite: I’ve been influenced by so much music over the years it’s really hard to narrow it down to just a few. I listen to psychedelic rock, classical, jazz, 90s grunge, early emo, post rock, 70s and 80s punk, post punk, electronica, indie, etc. Putting my iPod on shuffle is a nightmare of clashing songs and genres. Bjork and David Bowie are two of my biggest musical heroes because they have uncompromising musical visions, they take lots of risks and they are both just so ridiculously cool. A few other favorites are Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Vivaldi, Aphex Twin, Crystal Castles, The Cure, Papa M, Postal Service, Elliott Smith, Blonde Redhead… I could go on for quite a while. I like a lot of music and try not to obsess over any particular artist. Obsession leads to mimicry.

BC: How do you set yourself apart from the Los Angeles music scene, lyrically, melodically, etc.

MS: A number of our fans have described the music as “epic” which is obviously a really broad term and feels far too elevated of a description to me at times. I feel like it would be rather presumptuous of me to describe my music like that, but when I really think about it, from the beginning my goal was to make each song as big, as powerful and as beautiful as it can be. In a way it’s a pretty spot on description. The music is “epic” in it’s own way. I think that makes us very different than most bands in the scene. A lot of bands here have gone for a more minimalist approach which works great on a lot of levels and I like what a lot of these bands have been doing, but My Satellite is different. I like to do a lot with a little, not the other way around.

BC: One of my favorites is “A Nighttime Daydream”. What do you dream about?

MS: Kittens, popsicles and kittens eating popsicles. Oh… and murder. Sometimes the popsicles are alive when the kittens are feasting.

BC: With so many layers, harmonies, and rich melodies in your music, how do you compose each song, and what is the writing process for your lyrics like?

MS: My writing process is usually a mess of inspiration, perspiration and drunkenness. There may also be some dancing involved. Maybe. It usually starts with some haphazard banging around on my guitar or my keyboard which turns into an idea that I like and I begin building the song from there. The layers and harmonies tend to become obvious to me as the song progresses. Each song is very much like putting together a puzzle. Since I record everything myself, it’s nice to be able to write and record at the same time so that I can play with a number of options and figure out what works. And once I’ve figured it out the song is done and I don’t need to go back into a studio and rerecord it. That’s one reason I really love digital recording. I know that statement may turn off the analog purists, but oh well. Fuck it. I am a fan of technology.

Lyrics tend to be the final step in the process. I tend to have a vocal melody from the start, but the lyrics don’t typically take shape until I have all the music and the vocal melodies laid out. I’m not at all a linear writer of lyrics. Not a storyteller in that sense. I’m more interested in conveying an emotion which is never a linear feeling. At least not to me. I really enjoy open ended art that allows for individual interpretation and meaning. I tend to talk around the subject of my lyrics, or at least what I intended to be the subject so that the meaning is what you make of it. Finding your own message in a song makes it more personal and significant. When people ask me what a song means I don’t like to answer them. I don’t want to ruin the trick by explaining how it’s done. Never mind the man behind the curtain!

BC: How did the live band lineup come about?

MS: At the end of last year I was finishing up the second My Satellite EP, Depths, and I felt like it was time to start making this band a reality. Ryan Ward and I used to work together and have been friends for years, playing music together off and on for various projects. He was always a fan of My Satellite and is a great guitarist so I asked him to join the band. So that was easy enough. I knew that I wanted a female keyboardist to handle some of the higher octave vocal harmonies that I did in the recordings. We were searching for months. It was really trying. I had all but given up hope that this band would materialize when I got an email from Sammi Doll who had happene - BeatCrave.com

Off their self-produced and self-recorded Telescopes EP is A Nighttime Daydream. My Satellite is the work of song-writer and multi-instrument talented Bryan Stage. His sound is euphoric and light full of layered instrumentation and tender vocal harmonies. - RideTheTempo.com

Off their self-produced and self-recorded Telescopes EP is A Nighttime Daydream. My Satellite is the work of song-writer and multi-instrument talented Bryan Stage. His sound is euphoric and light full of layered instrumentation and tender vocal harmonies. - RideTheTempo.com

Here’s the next release by My Satellite. Again, Brian did all of the instruments and recording himself. However he’s working with a band so that he can play out in the next couple of months. That should be interesting. Depths has the same euphoric quality found in his last release but plays around with hook melodies and tension filled harmonies that resolve in just the right places. - RideTheTempo.com

Here’s the next release by My Satellite. Again, Brian did all of the instruments and recording himself. However he’s working with a band so that he can play out in the next couple of months. That should be interesting. Depths has the same euphoric quality found in his last release but plays around with hook melodies and tension filled harmonies that resolve in just the right places. - RideTheTempo.com

His music career might be young, but Bryan Stage is a complete pro when it comes to blending sounds, harmonies, and multiple instruments in his work. My Satellite is a collection of these talents, harmoniously textured together to create the ambient, transient rock music that Stage creates. It’s something familiar and warm, but at the same time you won’t feel as if you’ve heard My Satellite’s over and over again on the radio or at shows.

An important aspect of My Satellite is the range of influences that Stage draws upon, some of which are reminiscent in his music. There are hints of classic rock melodies, meshed with ambient and electronica styles, a sound that demands the attention of the listener and refuses to simply blend into background noise. I was drawn in by “Mirrors”, a song featured on My Satellite’s myspace page. The chorus immediately hooks the listener and engages the senses, a talent that Stage will most definitely carry through his career. - BeatCrave.com

His music career might be young, but Bryan Stage is a complete pro when it comes to blending sounds, harmonies, and multiple instruments in his work. My Satellite is a collection of these talents, harmoniously textured together to create the ambient, transient rock music that Stage creates. It’s something familiar and warm, but at the same time you won’t feel as if you’ve heard My Satellite’s over and over again on the radio or at shows.

An important aspect of My Satellite is the range of influences that Stage draws upon, some of which are reminiscent in his music. There are hints of classic rock melodies, meshed with ambient and electronica styles, a sound that demands the attention of the listener and refuses to simply blend into background noise. I was drawn in by “Mirrors”, a song featured on My Satellite’s myspace page. The chorus immediately hooks the listener and engages the senses, a talent that Stage will most definitely carry through his career. - BeatCrave.com

My Satellite began as one man, his laptop, and a few instruments. Now, it’s a fully developed band. More importantly to you, My Satellite is the featured artist of this week’s New and Noteworthy. Los Angeles-based My Satellite has a very unique sound, as they work to blend ambient post-rock and electronica. Frontman and founder Bryan Stage says that he has “consciously avoided being concerned with limiting any song to the realm of what is possible to play live”.

My Satellite – as a one man project – released a début EP, Telescopes, in early 2010. By the end of the year, the second EP, Depths, had made it through the writing process. Now, the time had come to put together a full line-up. After five months, the line-up was complete, with Stage on vocals and guitar, Sammi Doll on keys and backup vocals, Ryan Ward on guitar, Andy Marshall on bass, and Justin Paul on drums. Depths was released in February 2011. At this point, the band is pulling together in hopes of playing live in the near future.

Guitarist Ryan reminded us of the difficulty involved in finding the right lineup for a band, particularly one with a different kind of style. "In forming the 'band' we had to find the right personalities and technical strengths to uphold this - it's not a quick fix for songs like these - it takes a lot of understanding of the mood and attack within the four minutes of the piece.”

Despite the difficulties, Ward’s words make it clear that they’ve found the right group of people. “We've loved each other's company in the past few months. We're laughing while we bang the best and the worst about loss, fear, great kisses and empty whiskey bottles."

Keys player Sammi seems to agree when she comments that "Everyone is really on the same page with each other. The level of dedication from each member compliments the vibe the music portrays."

My Satellite began as Stage’s “attempt to interpret… [the] endless amount of beautiful, awe-inspiring experience [there are] to draw from”. For Sammi, it is “a beautiful feeling to being able to open the minds of those who have selective musical boundaries." What they’ve done and what they will continue to do is beautiful. The passion felt and demonstrated by each member of My Satellite has made it into something that allows for no other outcome.

In the end, though, it is Ryan Ward who best puts into words the appeal of My Satellite. "There's a sense of building intensity in every song,” he states. “It seems like most musicians have lost that sense of drama."

Well, My Satellite certainly stands apart from the crowd when it comes to that "drama", their designated blend of sounds, and the unmistakable drive. - AltSounds.com

My Satellite began as one man, his laptop, and a few instruments. Now, it’s a fully developed band. More importantly to you, My Satellite is the featured artist of this week’s New and Noteworthy. Los Angeles-based My Satellite has a very unique sound, as they work to blend ambient post-rock and electronica. Frontman and founder Bryan Stage says that he has “consciously avoided being concerned with limiting any song to the realm of what is possible to play live”.

My Satellite – as a one man project – released a début EP, Telescopes, in early 2010. By the end of the year, the second EP, Depths, had made it through the writing process. Now, the time had come to put together a full line-up. After five months, the line-up was complete, with Stage on vocals and guitar, Sammi Doll on keys and backup vocals, Ryan Ward on guitar, Andy Marshall on bass, and Justin Paul on drums. Depths was released in February 2011. At this point, the band is pulling together in hopes of playing live in the near future.

Guitarist Ryan reminded us of the difficulty involved in finding the right lineup for a band, particularly one with a different kind of style. "In forming the 'band' we had to find the right personalities and technical strengths to uphold this - it's not a quick fix for songs like these - it takes a lot of understanding of the mood and attack within the four minutes of the piece.”

Despite the difficulties, Ward’s words make it clear that they’ve found the right group of people. “We've loved each other's company in the past few months. We're laughing while we bang the best and the worst about loss, fear, great kisses and empty whiskey bottles."

Keys player Sammi seems to agree when she comments that "Everyone is really on the same page with each other. The level of dedication from each member compliments the vibe the music portrays."

My Satellite began as Stage’s “attempt to interpret… [the] endless amount of beautiful, awe-inspiring experience [there are] to draw from”. For Sammi, it is “a beautiful feeling to being able to open the minds of those who have selective musical boundaries." What they’ve done and what they will continue to do is beautiful. The passion felt and demonstrated by each member of My Satellite has made it into something that allows for no other outcome.

In the end, though, it is Ryan Ward who best puts into words the appeal of My Satellite. "There's a sense of building intensity in every song,” he states. “It seems like most musicians have lost that sense of drama."

Well, My Satellite certainly stands apart from the crowd when it comes to that "drama", their designated blend of sounds, and the unmistakable drive. - AltSounds.com

This young producer clean production style make for an electrifying sound. The layers of instrumentation in his track, “A Nighttime Daydream” explode into your eardrums. - Ohh! So Famous!

This young producer clean production style make for an electrifying sound. The layers of instrumentation in his track, “A Nighttime Daydream” explode into your eardrums. - Ohh! So Famous!

Each song is a differing experience filled with airy reverbed vocals and many different instruments creating a layered wall of sound that is unlike any upcoming artist that I have heard. There is an effortless sense of mortality within the lyrics, all too real to truly describe within text without losing their meaning all together. One must just listen to the emotion within the music to truly appreciate it. - Basha! Basha! Basha!

Each song is a differing experience filled with airy reverbed vocals and many different instruments creating a layered wall of sound that is unlike any upcoming artist that I have heard. There is an effortless sense of mortality within the lyrics, all too real to truly describe within text without losing their meaning all together. One must just listen to the emotion within the music to truly appreciate it. - Basha! Basha! Basha!