The Sessions

http://www.myspace.com/thesessionsmusic http://www.thesessions.ca/ The Sessions was a band from Vancouver, Canada consisting of Josh Helgason, Tristan Norton, Tobias Jesso and Martin Kottmeier. The Sessions were expected to accomplish big things due to their ever increasing popularity and notoriety, which was mostly contained to their hometown of Vancouver, Canada due to their lack of major touring. They did, however, make single appearances in some distant lands such as Rothenburg, Germany - Montreal, Canada - and Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas in the USA. In the winter of 2005/2006 the band entered a competition along with 7,600 other bands from around the world. It's an annual battle-of-the-bands called Emergenza and this was the first year Emergenza had opened it's doors to North American bands, having previously only accepted European bands. By the summer of 2006 the band had won it's way through intense and suspenseful battles across Canada winning the west coast battle in Vancouver, the western Canadian battle in Calgary and finally the national finals in Montreal Canada which sent The Sessions off to Rothenburg, Germany. They would win the grand prize, a month in a recording studio called The Roasting House Studios in Malmo, Sweden as well as Ernie Ball Music Man guitars. They became the first North American band to win the competition, and then they were faced with one of the hardest decisions of their lives. Producer Bob Rock had offered to take the band under his wing proposing to produce their debut album and allow them to maintain ownership of their masters. They had to choose between a month in one of Sweden's best recording studios with keen producers and potentially heavy promotion and touring in Europe, or forfeiting their grand prize win to work with one of history's most celebrated producers of all time, the man who produced Metallica's Black Album, Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood and many more hugely successful and critically acclaimed albums. After much deliberating the group forfeited their prize. The opportunity to record with Bob Rock and also to keep the rights to their songs seemed to be the best option. At the time, no one thought of or mentioned the option of keeping the awarded month-long studio time in Sweden and inviting Bob Rock in to produce there, which may have been a win win win situation for The Sessions, Emergenza and Bob Rock. Highlights following Emergenza included playing at separate parties of The Killers, Hot Hot Heat and The Bravery, (During their show at The Killers party Killers tour manager Jeremy Bates exclaimed "Who are these guys?" to Sessions manager Graham Pence and met with the band following their performance offering encouragement. During their show at Hot Hot Heat's party, at Vancouver's Republic night club, Steve Bays and Dustin Hawthorne watched The Sessions from the bar concealed in hoodies; months later the two HHH members would join The Sessions for a very intoxicated and spirited performance on stage in Las Vegas.), recording with Bob Rock in Vancouver's The Warehouse Studio, playing several charity events and memorable shows in the tourist haven of Whistler, BC as well as in Victoria, BC. Amid these high times was deteriorating creative compatibility and escalating tension among The Sessions, and by the time their Rock produced record was released for the public on iTunes, entitled "The Sessions Are Listed As In Relationship", a play on the marital status options provided by cultural phenomenons such as Facebook, the band ironically had broken up. The closest the group came to signing a record deal was with Epic Records in late 2006. Stacy Jones, former Veruca Salt drummer and American Hi-Fi frontman, working as an A&R guy for Epic Records was set on signing The Sessions to an Epic deal, and talks with lawyers were underway, but the deal never happened. In May 2008, The Sessions split apart. THE SESSIONS (Canada) MySpace Website Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.