A Floatie Photo Essay

Let the rock band take you on a tour of their Chicago.
Don’t let your eyes deceive you. You can park almost anywhere you like here. You can even park your dumpster here. But if you want the music, you’ll have to go inside. This is the building that we practice in located at 3005 W Carroll Ave, formally known as Carroll St. It’s here that we feel like professionals with a dedicated space for rocking and eating Popeyes in secret.

 

Creativity manifests itself in many different ways, and it isn’t always pretty. This may seem like a tricky situation, but it’s just Gar (Luc) in a costume. He’s in a costume and the costume is on the wall. Don’t be scared. I’m glad that’s behind us now. Our friend TJ made the costume and it has adorned many walls in its brief seven years of life. Let’s hope it brings us many more years of good fortune.

 

This is engineer extraordinaire Seth Engel. If you think he looks good in this photo, you should see his face. Seth’s former studio Pallet Sound is where we recorded Voyage Out over five days of pure joy and camaraderie. If you’ve never had USA-themed Mountain Dew then consider yourself blessed.

 

On the back of this shirt, there are the same horses, but it features their rear ends. Sam wears this shirt everyday the sun is out. If you see them in it, then the sun is out.

 

Sometimes you go to the recording studio, and sometimes the recording studio comes to you. When the album is done, you’ll know which one was the better choice. Before moving into our practice space at Carroll St., we practiced in the depths of the former Floatie HQ. A house that has seen many faces and even more ants. We don’t miss the moist environment and classroom style drop ceiling, but we do miss the Xbox.

 

Those who have sat here and gazed at this are probably not allowed to smoke in the practice space. This piece is one of the many benefits of renting land at Carroll St. A breeding ground for fine art and definitely not 400 metal bands.

 

Sam made a riff, but it requires maximum focus in order to share it effectively. This photo was taken during one of our first recording attempts as Floatie. We moved all of the gear out of the basement in hopes that the shining sun would give us some answers. It didn’t work. We needed Will.

 

Gotchya. Who’s that behind Sam you ask? That’s Will. Not only did he solve our music problems, he also went to each of our houses and got a stew going.

Voyage Out is out now via Exploding In Sound.

Floatie is a rock band based in Chicago. Their new album Voyage Out is out now via Exploding In Sound Records.

(Photo Credit: Ash Dye)