From the Back of the Beachland: Bethesda talks licensing, plans for new album

Written by Priscilla Tasker

I caught up with Shanna Delaney and Eric Ling of Bethesda at a recent show at The Beachland Tavern in November to talk about the band’s successful year. They shared exciting news about the licensing deals they signed with a few global television networks and what the next few months hold for the band. 

The group is finishing up some local shows before taking a two-month hiatus to write a new full-length album to follow up the EP the band released earlier this year; and they are planning tour dates in Chicago and Indiana in January. 

“We just came out with our EP, Dream Tiger & Other Tails, a couple of months ago, and we’re itching to write. So, we have a lot of songs in us, and we have several we’re going to write over the winter months,” Delaney said.

Dream Tiger launched in May with a radio and television campaign. The TV push landed Bethesda 13 contracts, slating the band for 13 shows on MTV, VH1, E! and Showtime, among others. 

“That was actually when we were on tour in June when we got that news – and we were really excited,” Delaney said.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Real World are just two shows on which the band is signed to be featured. Ling laughed as he said they are wondering how the network plans to fit their songs into a show like the Kardashians.

“And, then, just this fall, we were one of six bands shopped for our PR company to the Discovery Network, which has 30 plus shows,” Delaney continued. 

The contract will allow Discovery Network to use any song or section of a song off the album. Bethesda may not be paid out for a couple of years and won’t know when or how the songs will be used because, with the volume of bands large networks contract for music, there are too many artists to email individually when a song is featured in a show. 

“They can do just instrumental or just vocals. They pretty much have complete control over what songs they want to use, but they have the whole five-song EP,” Ling said.

Delaney giggled that they just want to know when they’re on so they can watch – just once!

“We can’t Tivo all the shows, you know. So hopefully someone will call us,” Ling said.

To build on the success of 2011, the band is already looking forward to a new year, completing a new full-length album and a tour stop in Austin to play SXSW Music Festival in March 2012. 

Fans can catch this pipe-dream posse at the Rowdy Indie Craft Fair this Sunday, December 4, before they delve into a studio spell. Bethesda will be performing with Comfort Clouds and ShiSho at Studio 526 in Akron at 7 p.m. 

Follow the band on Facebook, Twitter or www.bethesdaband.com for more information.