About Belleview

Jamal McLaughlin - Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar
Brennan Stamps – Vocals, Guitar
Josh Steinmann – Vocals, Bass Guitar, Moog Taurus pedals
Justin McLaughlin – Drums, Shakers, Movers, Tambourine
Chris Ash – Vocals, Guitar, Violin, Keyboard

RECENT HISTORY

Local band, Belleview, has a newly released concept album, Fountains, which takes the listener on a sci-fi journey steeped in images of annihilation and redemption. The album is a tale of a dystopian tomorrow, but it is built on the echoes of concept albums from the 70s. Josh Steinmann, vocalist and bass guitarist said, “We were feeling nostalgic for those epic albums of the past like 2112 and Dark Side of the Moon so we decided to write our own.”
But it wasn’t just the past that had these guys inspired. Jamal McLaughlin, vocalist, keyboardist and guitarist, admits, “Fountains was inspired by the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.”

FOUNTAINS BRINGS NEW SOUNDS
Fountains has been a rebirth for the band as players took on new roles. Jamal switched from primarily playing guitars over to keyboards, and Brennan took on majority of guitar duties. Chris had the challenge of contributing remotely from the University of Chicago. And Josh added in the Moog Taurus pedals, while Justin incorporated more electronic drum sounds to his palette.

HOW FOUNTAINS WAS WRITTEN
Even with the slight lineup juggling and exploration of some new instrumentation, the real departure for Belleview was in writing and collaboration. The previous albums were done on a song-by-song basis. The members would write and collaborate on a particular song through jamming. Once enough new songs piled up, they’d record them. Since all 3 albums in their current repertoire have been recorded and produced primarily by Jamal at Bare Foot Studios, they’ve had the luxury of setting their own timetables. Unlimited studio time has provided Belleview with an opportunity to explore something that, before now, had been pretty foreign to them; writing and recording a collection of songs with a predetermined script or meaning. In essence, they created a “concept album”.

While working with the inspiration of Battlestar Galactica, they were not so strict with the concepts that it stifled what they were trying to create, but ended up using quite a bit of creative freedom on many of the tracks. Initially, a song might be written for a certain theme only to be changed to better fit one of the others. When that happened they would just write additional songs to fill the gaps. Out of all of this back and forth came quite an array of songs along with transitions and shorts. Though the album was initially inspired and driven by themes from the Battlestar Galactica series, the finished work ended up being a lot more than that. Fountains was ultimately an album that focused on the human condition, the mundane cycles of everyday life being interrupted by something catastrophic, the ability to adapt, and the probability that eventually everything will come around full circle and happen again, and again.

FOUNTAINS ARTWORK
Belleview worked with designer Jim Harper to create limited edition, hand-screened tin cases. And in place of a standard insert, they included a poster with photos and liner notes.

GET FOUNTAINS
The album is available in digital format on:
· ITunes
· EMusic
· Amazon
· Napster.

-MJS