Emerging Artist: The Stills
 The Stills is a band that pays attention. Oceans Will Rise, the group’s critically acclaimed third album, shows perceptive ears for magnetic melodies and observational songwriting, and a knack for superb guitar and bass tones.
Formed in 2000, in Montreal, Quebec, The Stills is a band of life-long friends. They’ve played together in a variety of bands but it wasn’t until a fateful trip to New York City, and a fateful few hours in front of a four-track recorder, that they happened upon the distinctive sound that would launch them into the limelight.
The five art students have created an imaginative brand of edgy anthems that push, pull, rock, chant and blend a bottomless pit of influences, musical and otherwise.
“If you’re a musician you have to be a searcher,” says Tim Fletcher, the band’s vocalist and guitarist. “You have to look in order to find. And during that search you will stumble upon unexpected things that you have to let sway you in new directions.”
This philosophy certainly seems appropriate when it comes to searching out the right gear. Long-time Line 6 users, The Stills rely on plenty of Line 6 gear on stage, in the studio and at home.
Bassist Oliver Crowe gets his gritty but sophisticated live tone by plugging his POD® X3 Pro into his Ampeg® SVT-AV head and 8x10 cab, and sending the direct signal to the front-of-house engineer. “A lot of people have commented on how clean and tight my bass sounds,” he remarks. For home-recording, he keeps it simple with GarageBand® and a Pocket POD®.
Dave Hamelin (vocals, guitar) uses a similarly streamlined approach with some stompboxes, including a Line 6 Verbzilla®, and a few vintage guitars and amps. But he’s not above the occasional taste-test: “Once while making a record,” he recalled, “we decided to put the POD® xt up against a real Blackface Fender® Twin Reverb®. We were awestruck by the POD® and its uncanny ability to sound exactly like the original.”
Onstage, keyboardist Liam O’Neil produces everything from punchy piano tones to ambient pads using a few Nord® keyboards, a DL4™ Delay Modeler and an Electro-Harmonix® Deluxe Memory Man. At home and in the studio he works with a wide variety of instruments, effects and software apps including Propellerhead Reason® 4, a PODxt and a Palmer Piano from 1908.
Tim relies on his PODxt Live (complete with Bass Expansion model pack) when he’s recording. He also plays his friend Josh’s Tele® that he secretly wants to keep “because it's crappy and messed up in a unique and cool way.” We won’t tell if you won’t.
In 2008, national praise for the band came in the form of two prestigious JUNO awards (“Best New Group of The Year”; “Best Alternative Album of the Year” for Oceans Will Rise). Plus, they opened for Sir Paul McCartney at the largest concert in Montreal’s history.
Check out The Stills on the band’s website, on MySpace, and on a stage near you!
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