STandART: 2007-2008

“Corrosion” spent 6 weeks at no.1 in the chart of the biggest Latvian alternative radio station NABA, becoming one of the most successful songs at Radio NABA in the whole year 2007 . The recently founded Latvian Music Channel (LMK) supported STandART videos.  “Corrosion” entered and also topped some of the radio and Internet radio charts in Lithuania, USA. In April 2007, “Corrosion” was included in the compilation by American radio “Dark Horizons”. “Corrosion” single received several good reviews by European electronic music magazine. The critics underlined that, even though the musical direction of the band is clear, STandART manages to achieve a very special sound.

Meanwhile, STandART were looking for a new co-producer again and it resulted in a new collaboration with Kaspars Tobis from already known rock band “Dzelzs Vilks”. The main studio works were moved to Sigulda Sound Studio (SSS).

In May 2007, STandART released its 5th maxi-single “Seven Times” and the new collaboration with Kaspars Tobis instantly proved to be successful. “Seven Times” also became one of the most popular songs of the whole year 2007 at Radio NABA (some mathematicians claimed “Seven Times” to be the song of the year). “Seven Times” video entered the rotations of Latvian Music Channel and MTV Baltic.  The “Seven Times” maxi-single featured a couple of remixes and videos agai, as well as 2 songs made together with another artists. “Small Fish” was made together with Polish artist Hien and the song also got its video. “61″, made together with Estonian artist Reigo Vilbiks (Reix) became one of the most demanded songs at STandART concerts. During the summer STandART took part in several festivals in Latvia and Estonia.

In the first days of September 2007, STandART published the new digital single for Latvian media “Kā Citi Dzīvo” (How The Others Live), which repeated the success of the previous singles plus also topped Radio SWH New Artists Chart “Priekšnams” for a couple of weeks.

In September 14, 2007, in collaboration with indie label “Gauja Records”, the first full-time STandART album “Australia” was released. The album was followed by “Australia Tour” in the Baltic States and Poland. The album, whose sales turned out to be positively surprising, was nominated for the Best Debut 2007 at the Latvian Music Awards.

In October 2007, a few days after the band’s concert in Warsaw, happened what the band had been aware of for a couple of months – the already married guitarist Juris Tipa de Casar moved to Mexico. STandART played a few gigs as a electronic-only trio again and then called the old friend from “Skrīveri” times -  Modris Matisāns – into the band as a guitarist. However, soon Modris moved to study in Sweden.

In June 2008, a new double maxi-single “My Holiness” / “Australia” with remixes and videos was released again. The original versions of both songs were already available on the “Australia” album. “My Holiness” featured a guest musician Mārtiņš Links on vargan. Mārtiņš was already known as a former member of the bands “Depo”, “Pasaules Gaisma”. In August 2008, STandART played a couple of concerts in Lithuania and in Siauliai Mārtiņš Links debuted on the stage as STandART’s new guitarist. A week later Kalvis also joined Mārtiņš’ own band “Ēnu Kaleidoskops” as a keyboard player.

On August 30, 2008, a day before DE/VISION concert in Riga, STandART organized the pre-party and performed a mix of their own and DE/VISION songs with DE/VISION members being present in the audience (“Camouflage” received a similar welcome in 2006). A couple of months before, STandART had mad a remix for DE/VISION song “Life Is Suffering”.

In September 2008, STandART performed together with “Ēnu Kaleidoskops” and the Estonian band “Forgotten Sunrise” in Riga and Liepaja. At this time “Seven Times” was included on a CD of the British gothic culture magazine “TWF” along such bands as, for example, “Christian Death”, “Zombie Girl” (ex-”Icon of Coil”), “L’ame Immortelle”, etc.

After the September gigs, STandART made a break from concerts and focused on composing songs for the new album. Several of the new songs were played live for the first time already at Christmas 2008. In January 2009, STandART started the recording of the second album with Kaspars Tobis in Sigulda again.