INTERCONTINEN7AL is the first band in history to record music across all 7 continents, and is comprised of over 30 musicians from 15 different countries. Their original songs "Manor Hill" and "Puerto Aisen" are the only compositions to ever include instrumentation recorded on 7 continents. The band's music spans a multitude of genres, including alternative & hard rock, folk, pop, blues, jazz, Latin, funk, metal, gospel, prog, classical, reggae, bluegrass, and even showtunes.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello INTERCONTINEN7AL. Can you tell us about your early career? Where did you get the idea for the music industry?
Hello - band founder Matt Smith here. Great question - so it all started back in 2020. I was living in Columbia, Maryland and performed in a local band called Toast as a guitarist. Once COVID hit, and we weren't able to meet socially or perform at all for the first few months, we looked for creative ways to continue collaborating together, even if it was fully remote. I discovered this app BandLab, which is a truly incredible program that let us record and share different musical ideas (guitar parts, vocal melodies, drum tracks, etc) and start to build out original compositions. A couple months went by of us trading different ideas, and we then opted to experiment and publish some rough draft song concepts. We set them as “forkable” to the BandLab public community, which means that the song is no longer private and that other BandLab users can add any instrumentation ideas that they like. Our little group in Maryland quickly made musical ties with various future bandmates, such as Argentina's Gustavo Prida, San Francisco's Hope Gray,Australia's Robert James Shoveller, and Rieneke from the Netherlands. Another member of the group, Marcin Nawrocki from Poland (who is also our resident producer), joined our songs once I received an alert that he flagged one of my songs as something of interest.
I distinctly recall walking outside my house in Columbia one day during the summer when an idea hit me like a lightning bolt – what if we borrowed the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways concept of creating music with artists from various cities in the United States, and expanding it to instead record globally with folks on all of the 7 continents! We tossed around a couple band name ideas, but after a bit INTERCONTINEN7AL was finalized, with the “7” in the name drawing inspiration from the song "7empest" by Tool.
To recruit the remaining members, I reached out to fellow friends and family members who were musicians (ex - Alex Burke, Devin Heritage), and utilized Explore and Creator Connect tools in BandLab. The most trying task was establishing the Antarctic connection, so I basically Googled email addresses for the active research stations in Antarctica and then messaged each and every one to see if there happened to be a musician stationed on site that was interested in working with us. I seriously still can't believe that we were able to get Belgium's Aymar de Lichtervelde, stationed at Princess Elisabeth Station, and Stijn Thoolen from Netherlands, stationed at Concordia, to join the project! They both submitted their recordings through either BandLab app or via WhatsApp, and I was in direct communication with them to help guide which direction our song was going in. Aymar and Stijn represented Antarctica on the Volume 1 song "Manor Hill", which was the first tune to include music recorded from each continent. We will have a remix of "Manor Hill" included on Volume 3, thanks to our production mastermind and fellow band member Marcin Nawrocki, to ensure that our Antarctican connection is maintained. Since the first record, we were able to recruit tons of other talented musicians through the app - Darren Fellows, Bubbas Bentless, Andrasta, Miami73, Rousevision, Manuelonics, etc. - who were either referred through other bandmates or we found by simply exploring the app for potential collaborators. It's been the greatest happy accident I could think of.
Where do you start when producing songs?
BandLab is extremely easy to use, and generally what happens is a bandmate will post a song idea and upload it into our band "folder", for lack of a better term, and then anyone else in the group can add their own tracks or instrumentation as time permits for them. Everyone has busy schedules to begin with, so we try to allow as much space and time as needed for song ideas to develop and mature before they are finalized and ready for release. I frequently communicate with band members to determine what contributions are completed (such as a vocal part or guitar solo), or if they need to rerecord for some reason.
Your latest song is 'Some Thousand Feet High'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
Absolutely! So this song has an interesting origin story :) Some Thousand was completely composed and recorded remotely, using the music multi-track app BandLab. Jukerok, an extremely talented Egyptian musician, uploaded the main haunting piano, synth and guitar melodies into a BandLab project file back in June of 2021, and provided the title of "Some Thousand Feet High" with some lyrical ideas. Within a week our vocalist extraordinaire Andrasta from the United Kingdom provided some thought provoking words and melodic vocal parts, but maintaining the song title that Jukerok had established. Other artists in the group eventually began providing their respective parts by "stacking" their tracks onto the BandLab project, including USA's Dale Pearson on saxophone, Argentina's Nereo on bass, and Japan's Tnbt on drums.
What was the most difficult challenge you faced?
As stated above, since the whole track was completed remotely instead of in a physical recording studio environment, it took a fair amount of back and forth communication within the BandLab chat environment to determine the status of individual instrumentation tracks. However, since this is INTERCONTINEN7AL's third album, we have developed a solid cadence regarding how to finalize these songs for the record.
What is your goal in artistic activities?
Our primary goal is to create the best possible material that encompasses our diverse influences and musical tastes. If the music ends up moving those that are performing in the track, then I feel confident that we will generate similar emotions in the listener.
How do you know when a work is finished?
Generally, when the song contributors have communicated that they have completed their respective portions, and the songwriter(s) feel that there's no further need for additional instrumentation, then we have reached the conclusion of the song's recording. It's definitely a team effort to see where the song ends up.
What is your trademark? It's about unique sounds or behaviors on stage.
INTERCONTINEN7AL is truly unique, in that we are the first band to ever record original music with instrumentation across all 7 continents, to include Antarctica. Our latest album Volume 3 includes a remastered version of the song "Manor Hill", which includes instruments from all continents, and contains an opening classical guitar passage from Aymar de Lichtervelde and percussion from Stijn Thoolen, both stationed in Antarctica at the time of recording.
What are your biggest achievements so far as an artist, but also personally?
Like we mentioned in the previous question, our biggest musical achievement is that we are the first act in music history to record on all 7 continents. However, one thing that I wanted to reiterate is that our band strives to raise money for respective charities with each release, and collectively we have generated over $1,200 in charitable contributions across our first three records. For Volume 3 all streaming proceeds or sales go towards Ukrainian refugee relief. You can also donate by clicking the following link: https://tiltify.com/@intercontinen7al/intercontinen7al-for-ukraine-relief
Please consider donating to the cause.
What memorable responses have you had to your work?
The band has been interviewed or featured in various publications, press releases and media outlets, to include BandLab, San Diego Union-Tribune, NewsBreak, The Tony Kornheiser Show, International Polar Foundation, The Denver Post, and Focusrite.
What are your plans for the future?
So we have already begun production on our fourth album, which will be released sometime in 2023. I'm coordinating with various INTERCONTINEN7AL bandmates, as well as our fellow band member and producer Marcin Nawrocki, on getting these upcoming album tracks mixed and mastered. Stay tuned for future updates!