YouTube Channel Profile Series: Woodward Avenue Studios

After a road trip-accelerated delay, here is this month's YouTube Channel Profile in our second post today! This monthly feature looks at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose uploads are at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians/concerts, and this month's selection gives us a prominent and extremely talented local metal band, albeit an earlier glimpse as their studio work before their current lineup fell into place. Here's what you should know on this sunny Thursday!

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Woodward Avenue Studios (http://youtube.com/woodwardavestudios)

Owner: Convergence guitarist and Woodward Avenue Studios owner Brendan Christie, also known from prior work in local bands like Late & Loud, Stillbroke, and The Hydra's Teeth, and as co-host of the Late & Legends podcast

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 12th, 2009; Current videos uploaded from November 2023 until October 2024

Channel Summary: Originally a personal use channel that predated his best known local band work, Brendan converted the channel into focusing on his current progressive metal band Convergence in 2023, with the channel branded after Woodward Avenue Studios since 2024. All videos prior to late 2023 have long since been taken down from the channel, and Brendan exclusively uploads "Shorts" videos here now rather than standard videos, so all are vertical and typically under a minute each. The vast majority of the twenty-four "Shorts" are focused around Convergence teasers, but their most recent video hypes up Woodward Avenue (formerly Yellow Room) Studios for other musicians' professional recording needs.

Why You Should Watch: The limitations of "Shorts" acknowledged, this channel is still worth watching for fans of Convergence for some of their most frequently updated video content! While the channel likely still serves a purpose given that it is branded after the studio, Brendan has since focused on uploading videos (both regular longform/horizontal ones and "Shorts") on the band's own YouTube channel, suggesting that Convergence are prioritizing the newer channel for official content. Note that "Shorts" on the new channel are often jokier for social media promotion than the Woodward channel got. Still, the older channel does have some of the last extant public content from their second EP, so fans won't want to overlook it!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Chimera Teaser: Possibly because it was forgotten in the culling of prior instrumental-era Convergence social media accounts, teasers for the band's early studio material make up most of the content on the Woodward Avenue channel. I wanted to highlight their very first "Short" here because it features an audio sample of "Chimera", an original song planned for their 2023 debut EP "One" that did not make the final cut for one reason or another. Convergence were represented here by Brendan and his brother-in-law Jake Valois, both on lead guitar. Visualized here via the song being tracked on Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio, this minute-long teaser is effective to sample what was a promising prog metal track, even if unreleased!

 

 

Glass Statues Short https://convergencessm.bandcamp.com/album/dead-and-dreaming #metal #metalcore: Ten of the "Shorts" on this channel are sub-minute long clips of songs from Convergence's first two EPs "One" and "Dead & Dreaming", and the latter is particularly notable because the band delisted it from streaming after relaunching as a full band with singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio and drummer David Peredun. The band has signalled plans to re-record songs from "Dead & Dreaming" for their forthcoming album, but this channel wasn't wiped, so if you want to hear that EP's initial instrumental versions, you have a partial way. I preferred "Glass Statues" out of the five songs on "Dead & Dreaming" thanks to its melodic structure and variance, even if the EP had heavier songs than this, and while a potential full-band version could still be ahead, it is nice to hear this again!

 

 

You are not flesh playthrough #metal #djent #guitar #metalcore #guitarist: Eight videos on the Woodward Avenue channel are of Brendan and/or Jake playing along to their studio material, including two Kraken Mara-era clips of them playing "Stratus" at the Bushplane Museum in 2021 (mainly to hype their endorsement of Halo Guitars). The most popular video on this channel is a playthrough video featuring Brendan playing "You Are Not Flesh" (the first unveiled song from their unfinished third instrumental EP "Gemini") in September 2024. Will this be reworked with vocals and live drums? Time will tell, but Brendan lays down the gauntlet here with professionalism and technicality in a promisingly heavy sample, and there's more to look at from Convergence's instrumental beginnings on this channel!

 

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I hope that you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Then next installment (hopefully moreso on time) is scheduled for around June 26th, so look for that then, plus more news and notes soon, as well as this month's CD review! Thanks everyone!