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BC's Best Teen Band 2010 The Knots Release Self-Titled Debut EP

Youthink’s BC’s Best Teen Band 2010 releases debut self-titled EP!

It’s been just over a month since they graduated high school, but the members of teen band, The Knots, have a good reason to still be celebrating.

The band released its self-titled EP on iTunes on June 30, 2011 and held an incredible album release party at Tom Lee Music Hall on July 10, 2011 that I was lucky enough to attend. The Knots rocked the stage for a large crowd of dedicated fans and proved that youth is certainly no handicap for a band with talent.

Opening the show were singer-songwriter, Elsa Sainas, and folk band, Community Trees, both from Coquitlam.

Once the crowd had been warmed up, The Knots themselves took to the stage and played an hour-long set of songs both from the EP and a few unreleased tracks.

A highlight of the performance was when the audience was shown a video about a girl with autism who was the inspiration behind The Knots' song Just One Day before they played the touching ballad. They kept a good balance of emotional ballads and energetic rock, all the while staying completely engaged with the crowd and the music.

“It feels good,” lead singer, Jeff Huggins, explained after getting off stage. “It’s a lot of hard work that we put into it and it’s all over now. It feels really good. It’s refreshing.”

The EP itself is the product of a few years worth of effort for the band. As part of their prize for winning BC’s Best Teen Band Contest in 2010, an artist development program presented by Youthink Magazine, The Knots had the opportunity to work with Shaun Verreault, lead singer/guitarist of Wide Mouth Mason and producer Jay Evjen both on their songwriting and in the studio. The grand prize also included studio time at The Factory Studios in Vancouver where the EP was recorded.

“The Knots were really easy to work with in that they’re full of ideas,” says Verreault. “But they also have a really great collaborative energy in that it’s the song’s the most important thing, the best idea is the most important idea and it doesn’t matter where it comes from. They’re very open to everyone putting in input and saying, 'You know, can we try something else? We know we can do it this way. Let’s try a bunch of different things.' And in [my] experience working with young artists sometimes it’s hard to give up that hold on, 'Well, this is how I’ve always done it so this is how I’m always going to do it.'  So they were great that way."

The end result is an album that captures The Knots' classic rock style and mature writing ability in a four-song EP that they could be proud to play for an audience of any size.

More videos from the event on Youthink's YouTube channel.

More photos from the event on Youthink's facebook page.

Read more about The Knots winning BC's Best Teen Band Contest 2010.