A Holiday Card from Night Vision
Dear Friends,
As 2015 comes to a close, we have decided to look back at an amazing year and say a quick thank you to everyone who has been a part of it. This year has been, without a doubt, the most meaningful, challenging, and ultimately rewarding year of our young, hot lives. ;) We started Night Vision with the intention of creating new experiences and opportunities in the Edmonton music scene, and this year we feel like we accomplished that goal in many new ways. Before we party one last time in 2015 (join us Dec 18th at the Starlite Room!), here's a quick look back at our year.
The Studio and Music Academy
What we started with. A gross hole in the basement.
The creation of the Night Vision Music Academy was the most ambitious thing we've ever attempted and its creation was an amazing team effort from everyone involved. We are so excited to be able to help new producers and DJs get their start, and it has been amazing to see the diversity of people who have been interested in learning to produce. If you're interested in learning more about the school, check out our Winter 2016 list of courses. The Academy and its attached studio space have truly changed our lives and created so much potential for the development of our members, students, and our peers. We have so many plans to build the space into a true hub for producers in the city and we can't wait to share them with you. We invite you to share your ideas on what you'd like to see from the academy and the studio space as well.
We'd like to personally thank everyone who helped with the construction of the space (shout outs to Brendan Fair and Stefan Steele), as well as Owen Brierly of EDAC for his support, and John Glassey for giving us a temporary studio home while we tested our concept. The creation of the school could not have happened without the support and help of all our friends.
What we finished with
The Events
Our Common Takeover
This year we experimented with events in many ways we've never tried before. We curated everything from secret, pop-up warehouse parties featuring world-class headliners (Sub Rosa Vol. 3 feat. Billy Kenny) to an outdoor winter festival with our pals from Wheelhouse Productions (the Downtown Defrost). This past summer, we had the honour of playing our first major festivals and we have endless love for the Astral Harvest, Zion Noiz, and Thumper Camp crews for hosting us. I couldn't personally be prouder of the range and ambition of the events we threw this year. Lastly, we have endless gratitude for our venue partners within Edmonton who have hosted us for so many good nights. Thank you so much to Sal and Blair and the entire Bower family, Dane, Justin, Kyla and the whole Common/9910 crew, and Nick Degree, Darren and all of the staff at the Starlite Room.
In 2016 we will be continuing to bring in international talent, starting with long-time favourite of ours Jesse Rose at The Bower on January 15th. We'll also be focusing on smaller, more intimate events like our brand new live-streamed "Close Quarters" event series as well as showcase gigs outside of Edmonton.
Justin Martin and Ardalan in May
The Music
Musically, this year had many milestones for us: we officially started releasing our music on Beatport & iTunes through our Night Vision Music label, two of our members received their first international label release, and many of our members started producing original music for the first time. We worked extremely hard to develop ourselves as DJs and we constantly pushed each other to perform better and better at each show. Our monthly podcast series continued wit 12 excellent episodes hosted by DMT, who brought in amazing guest mixers from Edmonton and beyond and selected our favourite tunes from each successive month. We're so proud of the success that Shaedes, Nick Garcia, and Adam Johan have found with their releases this year and we can't wait to hear what's next from them and the rest of the crew.
In the new year, you'll start to hear the first new sounds to come out of our newly built studio space. By combining our resources together, each and every member of the Night Vision crew has stepped up their production game by a long shot. Stay tuned, as we know you're going to love the new sounds coming out soon!
To wrap this all up, one final THANK YOU! We are so grateful for the laughs, cheers, and memories. Thank you for being the best group of humans we could possibly hope to perform for and work with. See you on Friday ;)
Love and Kisses
- Andrew (NVS) and the Night Vision Team
