“Time to Win Vol.2″ – Down With Webster

Suggested by Jenia

What should you check out for the week of February 2nd 2012?

Since our cover story this month is Down With Webster I thought it would be fitting to recommend everyone listens to their newest album “Time to Win Vol.2″.

Time to Win, Vol. 2 is an album by Canadian rap rock band Down with Webster. It was released digitally on October 31, 2011 while physical versions of the album were released on November 1, 2011. The album was released through Universal Music Canada.^[1] This is the band’s first major label full-length album. The album has peaked at #9 on the Canadian Albums Chart.^[2]

Time to Win, Vol. 2 was supposed to be the second of two seven-track mini-albums, following up to the bands debut mini-album, Time to Win, Vol. 1 which was released in 2009. It was initially supposed to be released in the Spring of 2010.^[3] Bucky explained in an interview that the original concept was to release Time to Win in two mini-LP volumes because the band wanted “to get as much music out there as we could constantly, instead of having to wait a whole two to three years before we put another one out.”^[4]

Cameron “Cam” Hunter explained in an interview in September, 2010 that Time to Win, Volume 2, “probably would have been out a lot sooner, but the first one did a lot better than we expected, and a lot of other people expected and as a result, it gets pushed back as we shoot more videos. As a result, the new one probably won’t be out until the New Year, but the original concept was they would be maybe six months apart, but things have taken a different turn.”^[4] The band later changed their mind and turned Time to Win, Vol. 2 into a full-length record. In an interview with Canada.com, Hunter said the record will “be a lot longer” and will have “12 or 13 songs” on it. The release was delayed until 2011 with the album looking to release in the “end of summer to early fall.”^[5]

Hunter also talked about some collaborations saying that the band “got to work with some different producers than we used on the first one. We got to work with some other key people, namely Boi-1da.” On working with Boi-1da, Hunter said “we got some wicked stuff out of him, considering he’s a straight-up hip-hop guy. The songs we made with him don’t sound like anything that he’s done. One of them is a track we’re going to try to put to rock, alternative-rock radio. The song is called ‘Professional’. I’m really pumped about that.”

Other producers on the album include Matthew Burnett, Zale Epstein, Stephen Kozmeniuk, Brett Ryan Kruger, Megaman and James Robertson. Robertson has also been a producer on the bands previous album, Time to Win, Vol. 1 and the bands 2007 self-titled self-released album. Far East Movement collaborated with Down with Webster in one song on the album.

Recording locations of the album include Chille Ville Studios in Toronto, Diamond Factory Studios in Toronto, The Garage^[1] and Rumblecone in Toronto while mixing locations include South Beach Studios in Miami, Rumblecone in Toronto, Chille Ville Studios in Toronto and Gimme More Music Studios in Toronto. The albums was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City.

Tyler Armes told Regina Leader-Post how the band has been working on the record since December 2010 saying, “We’ve been in the studio pretty much since December of last year getting our new record done.” Armes also compared the writing to the band’s previous EP, Time to Win, Vol. 1 saying, “a lot of the songs that we wrote on the last EP, which came out in 2009, some of them were written as far back as 2006 and 2007. This record was primarily written in the last year or two, and it’s night and day listening to something we wrote in 2006 or 2007 versus 2010.”^[6]

The first single from the album, “She’s Dope” was released on May 23, 2011 through digital distribution. It debuted at No. 52 on the Canadian Hot 100 and has since peaked at No. 18.^[13]

“Big Wheels” will be released as the album’s second single. A music video for the song was filmed on August 14, 2011. “Big Wheels” was released to radio on September 9, 2011.^[1] On September 13, 2011 the song was released through digital distribution. The music video premier for “Big Wheels” was shown on September 19, 2011, on the MuchMusic show, New.Music.Live. The song has peaked at No. 51 on the Canadian Hot 100.^[14]

Royalty is the third single from the album. On January 8, 2012 a music video for the song was filmed and on January 10 the song was released to radio.