Westlake Village, CA (Top40 Charts/ Travis Barker Official Website) Continuing its support of aspiring artists, Guitar Center (https://www.guitarcenter.com), the world's largest musical instrument retailer, and
Travis Barker today announced Twin Berlin as the winner of Guitar Center's Your Next Record unsigned artist competition. After an intense 8-week period of peer judging through OurStage.com, Barker personally selected the winning band from the top 100 artists entered, sending one talented unsigned band into Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles with the acclaimed drummer and producer.
As winner, Twin Berlin will have the opportunity to record a 3-song EP with Barker, have Barker appear on their single from the EP, receive worldwide digital distribution of the album through TuneCore as well as $10,000 in new gear from Guitar Center.
"This was definitely not an easy decision, a lot of these artists really stepped up," says Barker. "I can't wait to get into the studio with Twin Berlin. Their mix of gritty guitars and undeniable hooks really drew me in. I think we'll be able to create some incredible music together. It's really cool that Guitar Center has given an unsigned band such a unique opportunity."
A Connecticut-based trio with a growing following in the Boston-area, Twin Berlin (https://www.ourstage.com/profile/twinberlin) draw from a recent rock lineage that includes The Strokes, The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys. The band's high-energy sound has already garnered heavy radio airplay on FNX Radio Boston and a MTV VMA "Best Breakout Boston" award nomination. Another huge career boost will come from the break Guitar Center has provided through the Your Next Record competition, and the chance to work with a respected artist like Travis Barker.
"This is an unbelievable opportunity for us," says Twin Berlin's James Janocha. "We were literally jumping around the room when we got the call. We're in debt to Guitar Center now, it's just amazing to see a company take this kind of interest in helping unsigned bands. We never expected anyone to fork over this kind of opportunity. And Travis is someone we've wanted to work with really bad. He's got a punk touch, but he's also up on all kinds of music and what's cutting edge, so we feel like he'll bring a fresh touch to what we're doing."
In March 2011, Guitar Center teamed up with Barker, whose solo album Give The Drummer Some is out now, and commissioned OurStage.com (https://artists.ourstage.com/Welcome), the leading online music company for unsigned bands, adopting its proprietary competition management technology to collect and present each music artist's submissions, allowing music fans to rank them using the OurStage.com fan judging software. Each competing artist was equipped with digital tools to help encourage their fans to judge their submissions as well as other talented unsigned artists. After the 8-week submission and judging period, Barker personally evaluated the top 100 artists to select Twin Berlin as the winner of Guitar Center's Your Next Record with Travis Barker. The prize package includes:
- A 3-song ep produced by Travis Barker at Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles
- Travis Barker to appear on a the winning artists single
- $10,000 in new gear from Guitar Center
- Worldwide distribution of the winners music through TuneCore
Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record is just one of many Guitar Center initiatives created to foster growth and success within the music community. In addition to the first two editions of this competition, Your Next Record with Slash and Your Next Record with Keith Urban, Guitar Center also provides its annual King of the Blues, Drum-Off and On-Stage competitions to emerging musicians, among others.
Guitar Center's King of the Blues is a nationwide amateur guitar skills competition with the goal of finding the next great undiscovered blues guitar player.
Drum-Off, now in its 22nd year, is an annual drumming competition that has served as a launching pad for many drummers, including Cora Coleman-Dunham and Tony Royster, Jr., two Drum-Off winners who have gone on to become highly acclaimed professional drummers with Prince and Jay Z, respectively.
Guitar Center On-Stage is an annual competition judged by a legendary rock band. Each year, the winning band wins an opening slot for the judges, which this year is alt-rock pioneers Jane's Addiction.
