Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls, Humans of all makes and models….

I give to you, the new band name.

Picture the Ocean

We’ve had over a month to get comfortable with it, say it, think about it, talk to a graphic designer about it so that our album art is RAD and so we have a sweet logo to release at some point. Our producer Mr. Smith totally digs it and is stoked to be working on the first Picture the Ocean album. Speaking of Mr. Smith & the album, we were keeping this name a secret and hoping to release it in conjunction with a few new tunes; however, we couldn’t wait any longer!!! The suspense was supposed to be building inside of YOU PEOPLE, not KILLING US! haha The process of making this album is taking a little longer than any of us anticipated, it’s true. But let me be so bold as to say that you are going to LOVE every sonic moment of this record!!! We’ve been getting a mix back every couple of days and we are absolutely thrilled as to how it’s shaping up… It’s nothing like anything else we’ve done. We can’t wait to get it out to YOU!!!!

Picture the Ocean

Something that encapsulates the depth of thought we put into our sound and each song, the emotionality, the movement.

After announcing the name change in January, we decided to have a contest to name our band. We didn’t choose any single suggestion, however we did take a few folks up on their suggestion to look to our lyrics. We scoured the new words and Picture the Ocean is a phrase that jumped out at all three of us – that was the clincher: all 3 of us had to be sold on the name. The song is called Being Me and the lyrics will be posted on the website soon-ish. We promise.

~As an aside, but not really, we made public the name on the mic for the first time at our show in Golden, BC up at the Kickinghorse Mountain resort lodge, The Winston. It was pretty anti-climactic, to be honest. But at the same time, it felt good. A sense of freedom. Like we were bleeding off the pressure, in a way. Can’t wait to keep saying it!!!

Yes.

So, to everyone who has known and supported us as Jesse Dee & Jacquie B, let us now introduce to you all the new name, the new sound, and the cohesive vibe that will from here on in define us as such: Picture the Ocean.

Thank you, thank you very much.

We’ll be playing festivals this summer under this new name. All interviews we’re doing for our northern tour will know our new name. We’re touring Europe in the fall and Australia in the winter under this new name. We might as well get everybody comfortable with it. We already are!!!

Don’t forget to pre-order the new album by Picture the Ocean which will be autographed and mailed to you in the spring. The more preorders we get, the quicker we’ll be able to get it out to you. AND, as a bonus, we’ll give you a free download of our current album Our Ghosts Will Fill These Walls!!! What??? 2 for the price of just one?? What a wonderful deal!

Paul Crawford introduces “The Travelling Troubadours” (as he calls them) and we all take our seats. The next 2 hours are ones I will never forget! Jesse Dee and Jacquie B, along with their drummer Matt Blackie create a sound together that transcends auditory magic. My imagination was inundated with scenes of places I’ve never been before, each song different from the last and with each place we “traveled” a different emotion was shared. It was so fascinating that this trio could evoke so much emotion in their deeply reflective box car blues, it was captivating.

Read the whole review here: http://awesomeokanagan.com/2012/02/masters-of-reverie/

It is beautiful. It is raining. Rain is what it does here, and I’m fine with it.

Other than a brief drive up to Pemberton on Friday night (to play the surprisingly receptive Pemberton Hotel), the band has been parked in Vancouver for the last 5 days. It really is quite the shock dropping out of the elevation of the Coquihalla highway into the unfair-to-the-rest-of-the-country humidity of the Fraser Valley. Suddenly Jacquie is complaining about how her hair won’t stay curled, Blackie is sleeping less, and my feet are sweating at an extraordinary rate.

When the planning for this tour first started there were some serious concerns about what kind of weather might be encountered. I mean, who likes driving through the mountains in the winter anyway? You spend most of your time looking at the sky to see what the next few kilometers will bring and that luxury ends when you run out of precious February sunlight. But this year has been the weirdest winter I’ve ever experienced. The only rough piece of road was the tail end of the Coquihalla, and usually one expects to run into something up there. I guess we’ve been lucky, and we’d better keep out fingers crossed because it is only the beginning.

But seriously? Vancouver you have it so easy. I don’t even have a jacket that is adequately light enough to endure the mildness! Ha ha. Who am I kidding? I frickin’ love it. It’s a good thing we have some time to hang out here too. As you may or may not know, our new album is being mixed and we just found out we need to re-track a vocal. No big deal. Tomorrow we’ll be going over to Red Light Sound studios to fix it up. Good thing we are here. I imagine it be would rather difficult to find a studio in other parts of this province.

My favorite thing about being in Vancouver isn’t the weather though. It’s the friends. After the show last Thursday at The Railway Club we actually had the time to head over to the Libra Room on Commercial Drive and check out my favorite Vancouver band The Broken Mirrors (formerly Queso Blanco) Noah Walker, Michael Simpsonelli, Tom Heuckendorff, and Michael Rush. These guys are totally awesome. Great songs, great players, and super original. We don’t often have the opportunity to listen to live music while on the road and it was a real treat!

While I’m talking about music, our good friends Miss Quincy & The Showdown are about to release their brand new record ‘Like The Devil Does’. Some good old dirty blues from 3 wicked woman who happen to be hanging out in VanCity right now too! Thank god for Waffle Sundays!

We are here until Wednesday when we leave the springtime for cooler pastures in Penticton. So if anybody has some great shows coming up or recommendations for hangouts, music, or really anything, drop us a line. You can comment right here on this post and we’d love to hear from you.

Keep warm

Jesse