First of October was an American-Canadian indie rock band 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 day that they recorded their first album, Ten Hours. The band recorded and released two more albums of the sort in 2019 and 2021 respectively, with plans to repeat the project annually.[2][3]

History

The duo first formed in late 2018 for a YouTube video where the two would go into Uptown recording studio and record an album in a single 10 hour session. Their first album, Ten Hours, was recorded on October 1, 2018 and released for free on October 15 the same year. The album was mixed and produced by Rob Ruccia of Uptown Recording. 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!"[4]

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.[5] This time there were more instruments than the last time they recorded, now featuring a piano, synth, 12-string electric guitar in E♭ tuning, and a short scale electric guitar. 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 for free 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.[6]

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.[7] On the first of October itself, Rob Scallon posted on his Youtube Channel "First of October is Happening :)" along with a picture of their studio, now in Canada, with a 12 hour timer.[8] They released their third album Gotta Record Everything Good on October 26th, 2021, with new instruments such as ukulele, mandolin, 5 and 6-string basses and banjo.[9][10] In addition, this was their first album to feature an eleventh song, which was recorded in the final three minutes.[11] 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. 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.”

“Don’t Go to My House” is their most played song on Spotify, with over 600,000 plays.

Band members

Current lineup

• Rob Scallon – lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar, drums, synthesizer, ukulele, mandolin, banjo
• Andrew Huang – lead and backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitars, drums, bass guitar, piano, synthesizer, ukulele
• Rob Ruccia - recording, engineering, mixing

Discography

• Ten Hours (2018)
• Gourmet Ravioli (2019)
• Gotta Record Everything Good (2021)

References