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First of October (band)

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First of October
Huang (left) and Scallon (right) in 2017
Huang (left) and Scallon (right) in 2017
Background information
OriginChicago, Illinois, United States
GenresRock, pop, power pop, Midwest emo, indie rock, punk rock, funk metal, progressive rock, heavy metal
Years active2018–2019, 2021–present
MembersRob Scallon

First of October is an American-Canadian indie rock duo formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 2018.[1] It was formed between musical YouTubers Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang from an idea where they would go into a recording studio and write and record a 10-track album in a 10-hour recording session. The duo's name is derived from the date they recorded their first album. The band has recorded and released six albums of the sort since 2018, with plans to repeat the project annually.[2][3]

History

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Background

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Scallon and Huang both rose to prominence as internet musicians. Huang founded the website "Songs to Wear Pants To" as a way to earn money for commissioned songs. Scallon was inspired by Huang's project, and started a personal MySpace page to promote his own music.[4] Huang moved to YouTube in 2006,[5] and Scallon followed in 2007. The two began to frequently collaborate on the platform.[4]

Both Huang and Scallon were members of the Perfect Strangers, the backing band for Hank Green.[6] The group released one album in 2014, Incongruent.[7]

Since the formation of First of October in 2018, Huang and Scallon have continued to collaborate outside of the band. For example, the duo premiered the YouTube series Sonic Boom in 2023. The production features Huang and Scallon completing various musical challenges or experimenting with unique instruments.[8]

2018–2020: Ten Hours and Gourmet Ravioli

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First of October formed in late 2018 for a YouTube video where the two would write and record an entire album in a single 10-hour session. Their first album, Ten Hours, was recorded in Uptown Recording studio on October 1, 2018, and released two weeks later on October 15. The album was mixed and produced by Rob Ruccia of Uptown Recording and formerly of nu metal band From Zero. There was no tour to support the album, which was self-released online. Huang announced the breakup of the band in a video containing all the album's songs, "The band name is the First of October, because that was the day we recorded the album, and the band doesn't exist any other day of the year!"[9]

Exactly one year after the recording of their first album, the band announced in a rerelease of their song "Don't Go" (featuring Brandon Acker on theorbo) that they had reunited in the studio to record a second album to be released later that month.[10] This time there were more instruments than the previous year they recorded, now featuring a piano, synth, 12-string electric guitar in E♭ tuning, and a short scale electric guitar in F♯ tuning. For this session they gave themselves an additional 2 hours for lunch and a break. The album, called Gourmet Ravioli (in reference to a song on the album titled "Ravioli"), was recorded in a single 12-hour session and was released on October 26, 2019. At the end of the behind the scenes video on Scallon's YouTube channel, he hinted at another album for 2020, saying, "Thanks for being such a fan of our one day a year band. See you next year."[2] These plans were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which Scallon announced on Twitter.[11]

2021–2022: Gotta Record Everything Good and CHAOS

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On September 30, 2021, Huang uploaded a YouTube video titled "This Is the End", and Scallon posted a comment confirming he and Huang would be reuniting in the studio to record their third album for 2021.[12] On the first of October itself, Rob Scallon posted on the community page of his YouTube channel "First of October is Happening :)" along with a picture of their studio, now in Canada, with a 12-hour timer.[13] They released their third album Gotta Record Everything Good on October 26, 2021, again with additional instruments such as ukulele, mandolin, 5 and 6-string basses, and banjo.[14][15] In addition, this was their first album to feature an eleventh song, which was recorded in the final three minutes.[16] The title of the album comes from a recurring character in their discography called Greg, who is mentioned in “Don’t Go to My House” on Ten Hours, “Thirty-First of October” on Gourmet Ravioli, and “Greg!” on this album. Here, Greg is also an acronym for Gotta Record Everything Good, an idea that came from their engineer Rob Ruccia while Scallon and Huang were writing "I Am Not Afraid". Scallon again hinted at an upcoming album for 2022, saying “Thanks so much for being a fan of our one day a year band. See you next year.”[17]

On October 1, 2022, Huang published a video of him and Scallon writing 100 riffs in a day to prove that First of October was true improvisation.[18] This would be the inspiration for their song "Riff Lord" on the following album. That day, Scallon uploaded a video to Twitter announcing the return of the band, now back in Chicago.[19] Huang uploaded the same video to his Twitter. Huang and Scallon also announced that they would be releasing more merchandise, including t-shirts, beanies, pins, and cassette tapes distributed through DFTBA Records.[20] Throughout the day Huang and Scallon put out a series of twelve tweets each on their personal accounts, saying the same thing as the other member, seemingly revealing the upcoming album's song titles as they were recording (two of those tweets were re-naming songs). They would continue to announce the song titles like this on their subsequent albums. On October 22, Huang announced the album's name was CHAOS.[21] It was released on October 26. The album was more Halloween-focused and heavier compared to their previous records, as the last two albums contained only one song centered around the holiday, whereas this album had four. This was also their first record to not mention their character, Greg, on any track.[22] On November 5, Scallon posted a video on his secondary YouTube channel, the video titled "Guitar pedals we used on 'CHAOS' (album in a day 2022)". At the end of the video, Rob confirmed they were planning on doing another album the following year.[23]

2023–present: Across the Road and Round 6

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On October 1, 2023, Scallon posted on a video on X announcing that they would be recording their fifth studio album at Abbey Road Studios in London.[24] Despite report of a delay, Across the Road and its accompanying videos were released as scheduled on October 26, 2023.[25][26][27] The album's title and cover were derived from The Beatles' Abbey Road album. Other names that were considered were "Rob, Rob, Andrew, and Greg", "October's Garden", and "Here Comes The Fun". During the session, Rob stated that he was experiencing undisclosed medical issues, later revealed to be bipolar I disorder, that were hindering his ability to write songs quickly, only primarily writing three tracks for the album.[28]

On October 1, 2024, Scallon announced on X that recording for the band's 2024 album had been delayed to October 19 because a team member contracted COVID-19.[29] This was the first time the band had ever recorded a First of October album on a date other than October 1st. The album, Round 6, was released November 16, 2024. The album was heavily inspired by video games of the early 1990s, particularly fighting and dungeon-crawler games. During recording, they used the sound chips of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Game Boy to record numerous sections of songs. They also used a melodica, 2-string bass, bear bells, and 8-string electric guitar, at various points. At the beginning of recording, the band was experiencing over half an hour of technical difficulties relating to the Game Boy. They tried to write a song on acoustic guitar in the mean time, but decided they did not want to start with a slow song. After the issues were resolved, the group decided to restart the 12-hour timer and start over. The album was the first since Gotta Record Everything Good to mention Greg, whose actor showed up at Uptown Recording Studio while the duo was recording the album.[30]

Band members

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Current lineup

  • Rob Scallon – lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar, drums, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, keyboards, balalaika, theremin, percussion, harmonica
  • Andrew Huang – lead and backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitars, drums, keyboards, bass guitar, ukulele, percussion

Additional personnel

  • Rob Ruccia – recording, engineering, mixing

Discography

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  • Ten Hours (2018)
  • Gourmet Ravioli (2019)
  • Gotta Record Everything Good (2021)
  • CHAOS (2022)
  • Across The Road (2023)
  • Round 6 (2024)

References

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  1. ^ Stolzer-Gary, Isaac (October 16, 2018). "Here's What An Album Written And Recorded In 10 Hours Sounds Like". GearGods. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Scallon, Rob (October 26, 2019). "Album in a Day 2019 (w/ Andrew Huang)". YouTube. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  3. ^ Mullen, Matt (October 28, 2021). "Watch Andrew Huang and Rob Scallon write and record an album from scratch in one day". MusicRadar. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Galil, Leor (March 29, 2017). "Chicago's most popular young metal guitarist plays on YouTube, not onstage". Chicago Reader. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  5. ^ Tingen, Paul (May 2017). "Internet Famous: How three musicians have cracked the code and made it big on YouTube". AudioTechnology. Australia: Alchemedia Publishing. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
  6. ^ Dickinson, Chrissie (April 20, 2015). "Hank Green merges online, real worlds at Metro". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  7. ^ Dunn, Patrick (April 17, 2015). "A music career spurred on by a video blog". The Detroit News. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  8. ^ Philips, Derrick (May 15, 2023). "Local band Curb Service featured on popular YouTube series". Smile Politely. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  9. ^ Huang, Andrew (October 15, 2019). "We had 10 hours to make an album. (w/ Rob Scallon)". YouTube. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  10. ^ Scallon, Rob (October 1, 2019). "Rob Scallon & Andrew Huang - Don't Go (ft. Brandon Acker)". YouTube. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  11. ^ Scallon, Rob [@RobScallon] (October 4, 2020). "Unfortunately Andrew and I weren't able to get together for another First of October album this year..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ^ Scallon, Rob (September 30, 2021), "So glad you made it back in time for First of October! See you tomorrow :) [Comment on the video "This Is the End"]", YouTube, retrieved October 25, 2022
  13. ^ Scallon, Rob. "First of October is happening :) Edit: new album will be out on the 26th!". YouTube. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  14. ^ Scallon, Rob (October 1, 2021). "Just got home :)⁣ First of October was a massive success Thanks for such a lovely time as always Canada :) First of October album 3 will be released on the 26th.⁣".
  15. ^ Huang, Andrew (October 24, 2021). "The new First of October album and videos come out Tuesday". Twitter.
  16. ^ Seah, Daniel (October 27, 2021). "Watch: Andrew Huang and Rob Scallon race against the clock to write a 10-track album in a day". MusicTech. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  17. ^ Scallon, Rob (October 26, 2021). "Album in a Day 2021 (w/ Andrew Huang)". YouTube. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  18. ^ Parker, Matt (October 10, 2022). "Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang write 100 riffs in a day, with typically brilliant results". Guitar World. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  19. ^ Scallon, Rob [@RobScallon] (October 1, 2022). "IT'S THE FIRST OF OCTOBER!! Our one-day-a-year band is back together to write and record our 4th album in a day" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "First of October Full Bundle". DFTBA. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  21. ^ Huang, Andrew [@andrewhuang] (October 25, 2022). "First of October's new album "CHAOS" (+ making of video) comes out tomorrow! All written and recorded in one day" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Scallon, Rob (October 26, 2022). "Album in a Day 2022 (w/ Andrew Huang)". YouTube. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  23. ^ Scallon, Rob (November 5, 2022). "Guitar pedals we used on "CHAOS" (album in a day 2022)". YouTube. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  24. ^ Scallon, Rob [@RobScallon] (October 1, 2023). "It's the First of October!" (Tweet). Retrieved October 27, 2023 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ We made an album in a day...with the Beatles' gear, October 26, 2023, retrieved October 27, 2023
  26. ^ Album in a Day (using THE BEATLES' instruments), October 26, 2023, retrieved October 27, 2023
  27. ^ Scallon, Rob [@RobScallon] (October 26, 2023). "We made an album in a day at @AbbeyRoad" (Tweet). Retrieved October 27, 2023 – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Scallon, Rob (July 6, 2024). I have Bipolar 1 disorder (mania, psychosis and my mental health struggles of 2023) – via YouTube.
  29. ^ https://x.com/RobScallon/status/1841152537618981254
  30. ^ Huang, Andrew (November 16, 2024). Album in a day 2024 (w/ Rob Scallon) – via YouTube.
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