Stage of Dreams -- from left, Daniel Butch, Shaun McConnell and Chris Marriotti (not pictured, Darren Stalnecker) -- will release the EP "From the Shadows They Strike" in 2022. (Submitted photo)

Area artists made the most of a year without live gigs by focusing on writing and recording new music.

Several acts released new music in 2021, and that trend will continue this year, especially as those performers hope it will be easier to play live shows and promote that music in 2022.

Here’s a sampling of what some local acts and acts with local ties have planned for the coming year. It should go without saying after the last 22 months that the releases and concerts talked about below are subject to change.

STAGE OF DREAMS / LOUD HAILER

Daniel Butch has been knocking out area audiences for years singing classic and current rock covers with the band Haymaker. But Butch also has a couple of projects that will release original material in 2022.

Stage of Dreams — Butch, lead vocals; Shaun McConnell, drums; Dion Pomponio, guitar; Darren Stalnecker, lead guitar; and Chris Marriotti, bass — is billed as a melodic classic metal band. The group released three singles in 2021 — “Dragonfly,” “Strong is the Way,” and “Rooting For Ghost” — which will be included on an upcoming EP called “From the Shadows They Strike,” recorded at The Vault Recording Studio in Pittsburgh with producer Dave Hills. And the band has a full-length metal rock opera in the works.

The band will compete Jan. 29 at Akron’s Empire Concert Club in the first round of a nationwide contest where the top prize is an appearance at Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival. The three-day event Aug. 4 to 6 features Slipknot, Judas Priest, Limp Bizkit and more than 50 other acts.

Butch also has started a band with son called Loud Hailer.

“During COVID and all the lockdowns, all of my bands were down,” Butch said. “We didn’t even have a practice for eight months straight, though we did some writing over the Internet. I was getting pretty discouraged when something unexpected happened. My son, Caden, who was just learning to play guitar at the time, and I started writing songs, in my opinion, really good ones. Right off the bat we wrote ‘Live My Life’ and ‘Bonded By Blood.’ Before we knew it, we had an album’s worth of ideas.”

They plan to record the songs this year with McConnell on drums and Tim Frederick on bass, Butch said, and the band will make its live debut on June 11 at Empire Concert Club.

THE VINDYS

Few, if any, local acts had a better year than The Vindys in 2021. The band released a live CD in March that was recorded at Westside Bowl in 2019, followed by its second full-length studio album, “Bugs,” which arrived in July.

The release was accompanied by a headlining show at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre, and The Vindys — Jackie Popovec, lead vocals and guitar; John Anthony, guitar and backing vocals; Rick Deak, guitar and backing vocals; Ed Davis, percussion; and Matt Jackson, bass — also played the WonderStruck festival, sold out a pair of shows at Cleveland’s Music Box Supper Club in November and expanded its touring reach.

Popovec said more touring is planned for 2022, including an appearance at the inaugural WonderRoad music festival in Indianapolis, which will be headlined by Vampire Weekend.

“Bugs” will be released on vinyl this year.

“We’re also looking at heading back into the studio in the spring to complete another album already in the works,” she said.

MATT JACKSON

When he isn’t playing bass with The Vindys, Jackson is focused on his own music, releasing his debut album “Better From Here” last fall.

“2021 was a nice year to get my foot in the door to the local music scene, and I’m very excited to see what 2022 brings,” Jackson said.

He’s starting the year with a road trip, with stops this month in Nashville, Asheville, N.C., and San Antonio, Texas.

“My plan is to go and see other bands as well as try to get into local open mic nights and network myself out of the area,” he said.

He also plans to record demos of some new songs while in Asheville that he’ll start arranging and tracking when he returns to Youngstown.

Booking shows for his own music has been difficult, he said, both due to all of the acts trying to make up for lost time due to the COVID-19 shutdowns along with lingering uncertainties, but at least one local gig should be announced soon.

CANDACE CAMPANA

The Struthers singer-songwriter has released several singles in the last year or two — “Every Time I See a Truck,” “Goodie Two Shoes Girl,” “No Average Joe,” and “Pink Ink” — and despite the country bent of her music, several of her songs have received airplay on the adult album alternative public radio station The Summit.

Those singles will lead to a full-length album that will be released in 2022.

“I’ve been in the studio working on this record, and am just thrilled for everyone to hear what I’ve been working on,” Campana said. “The album will include the aforementioned songs, along with a slew of other never before heard tunes. Each song will of course have its own music video, which are usually shot at least partly at the farm.”

Campana describes herself “as authentic as it gets as a country singer,” but she’s been recording at Ampreon Recorder with local rocker Pete Drivere (who also plays guitar in her band) and she counts metal act Korn as her favorite band.

“I have been blessed with a passion, and a drive that just won’t quit, and I’m thankful for that everyday,” Campana said, and she listed several goals that might take longer than 2022 to accomplish — “Touring with Carrie Underwood, collaborating with Jonathan Davis of Korn, opening up at the Grandstands of The Canfield Fair and being in a James Wan horror film.”

MUNNYCAT

The Los Angeles-based indie electro-pop duo, featuring Hubbard native Katianne Timko (K808) and Austintown native Khaled Tabbara (Khaledzou) will follow-up its 2021 EP “The MUNNYCAT Mixtape” with a full-length release called “golden goose” in early spring.

“It’s a much slicker, cleaner — and dare we say optimistic? — pop / hip-hop record in comparison to our grimy, sample-laden back-alley EP,” Tabbara said. “We’ve had a blast making ‘golden goose’ and feel like it’s wall-to-wall with trunk-rattling bops.”

Three videos already are completed, and the duo is working on a fourth with some former Mahoning Valley expatriates.

“Talented friends like Jenna Pace (raised in Liberty, now in Brooklyn) Paul Sauline (Struthers native now in Los Angeles), Jordan Teutsch (of Canfield, now in Los Angeles) and Michael J. Moritz (New York City via Struthers) have all helped us bring these videos to life,” Tabbara said.

“We also have a few collaborations coming out in 2022 that we’re really looking forward to. Basically lots and lots of music this year.”

APOCALYPTIC LOVERS

Apocalyptic Lovers, which rose from the ashes of ’90s metal band Love and War, is preparing a follow-up to its 2016 release “Redemption Volume I.”

The band — Dave Hope, drums and vocals; Robert Kane, lead vocals and guitar; Mike Nagy, bass and vocals; and Sean Magee, lead guitar and vocals — wanted to release new music in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic altered those plans, and the band continued to write new songs during the downtime.

Hope described the new songs as having a “Vintage ’80s metal vibe with a sprinkle of the European flavor happening in the melodic-metal world over there today.”

“Redemption” was mixed by Michael Wagener, who worked with such acts as Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Dokken, Motley Crue, Poison and Alice Cooper in his career. Wagener recently retired, so the band plans to self-produce and mix the new album, tentatively titled “Is This the End,” with Josh Roman at Mindrocket Studios in West Middlesex, Pa.

“(It) will have nine new songs and one cover of an Ozzy Osbourne classic chosen by lead guitarist Sean Magee,” Hope said. “The (expected) lead-off single is ‘Run to the Sun.'”

The plan is to release the first single and an accompanying video in the fall, and the album will be released on CD and vinyl a month or so before it becomes available on streaming services.

Apocalyptic Lovers is planning live shows in conjunction with the release of the single and album, but Magee’s schedule limits his availability, Hope said. The band plans to hire a second lead guitar player. When Magee is available, the band will have a three-guitar attack. Inquiries about the lead guitar position can be sent to apocalypticlovers@gmail.com.

JULIA COOPER

Since appearing on NBC’s reality singing competition “The Voice” in 2020, the Poland native has split her time between performing in the Mahoning Valley and pursuing her singing career in Los Angeles. That will continue in the new year.

“I am heading back to L.A. to continue to work on new music and plan to release three singles over this year, eventually leading to an EP,” Cooper said. “I will be releasing a live performance video of “Sugar Rush,” my recent single, sometime this month.”

Live performance videos also are in the works for two additional songs, which she said are a surprise.

FRANK TONCAR / RAVINE

The Cortland native has been making a living as a musician at various theme parks for several years, but after a few weeks at home he’s planning a relocation to Nashville with his Ravine bandmate Reese Maslen.

“I’m both very nervous and very excited to fully relocate to Nashville,” Toncar said. “I’ve been moving around a lot for the last few years, but it’s always been for gigs that last two-to-four months … It’s an exciting plunge to take, and I’m looking forward to seeing what a change of scenery and immersion in such a heavy musically-driven area can do for me.”

Ravine, the sad-boy, pop-rock trio he formed with Maslen and Hobie Butcher, remains his primary focus, but he’s also started to work on solo material again as well as collaborating with fellow Youngstown State University alum Herbie Hunkele for a duo project that he said will have a horn-driven soul / hip hop / R&B vibe.

“I’m definitely excited to be able to release some of my own stuff again,” Toncar said. “It’s great to be able to dedicate so much work into one particular project, but it’s also very refreshing, and a nice way to avoid burnout, to bounce around between projects and keep fostering fresh ideas.”

DAMIAN KNAPP

The Warren musician has found a receptive audience for his guitar blues in northeast Ohio wine country, and he plans to continue performing up near Lake Erie and closer to home. He also plans to travel to the source of that music for inspiration.

“Before corona hit, I spent some time in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, and I plan to return this spring,” he said.

He is continuing a project revisiting some of his past albums.

“I plan to complete the trilogy I started with ‘Decay in our Cities’ and ‘Maui in the Sun’ with a new album that features re-mixes and never before released Machine Gun Mary originals,” Knapp said. “I took my old tapes to Mike Talanca (at Tune Town recording studio in Newton Falls) and I added fresh vocals, and then Mike and I remixed and mastered the tracks.”

THE SUPER BABES

The duo of Bridget Reckless (Yurcisin), guitar and vocals; and Ann Rock, drums and vocals, has some musical plans for 2022 — an appearance at a Cleveland winter music festival; a show at The Vortex in Akron and possibly a show at The Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights with Punch Drunk Tagalongs.

But the biggest news is nonmusical.

“We were cast as leading roles in a TV show, written by local writer Laytton Lopez Lenoir,” Reckless said. “We filmed the pilot episode with Nexxus Sound Studio in November 2021. It’s set to be released in 2022.”

The show is called “FaKoff,” and is described on Lenoir’s social media as the story of “Kat, a 20- or 30-something party girl and her unfiltered sisterhood as they roast one another about life, relationships and the drug culture of Youngstown, Ohio.”

Rock plays Kat, and Reckless plays her best friend Lisa.

BAMBO KINO

Boardman bass player Mark Buccilli, who records under the name Bambo Kino, released a couple of ballads last year, “In My Heart Now” and “I Miss You Old Timer,” that were written as a tribute to his parents.

He returns to the jazz sound of his past CDs in 2022.

“I am working on a new CD. It’s called ‘Vipers,Vixens & Vagabonds,'” he said. “It’s jazz fusion — sax, keyboards, bass and drums. No vocals, all instrumentals, five new tracks and five remakes. I’m working at Boss Studios in Hubbard, Ohio. I hope for a spring / summer release depending on our ability to complete the tracks ASAP.”

DEMOS PAPADIMAS

Papadimas had a busy 2021, releasing both a live CD and a new studio release, “The Way Up.”

He’ll continue to promote “The Way Up.” A music video for one track directed by Chris Rutushin is in the works as well as footage from the album release show shot by Jim Stickel of Youngstown Playlist. Papadimas also hopes to release “The Way Up” on vinyl this year, but the current backlog are vinyl pressing plants could delay that further.

A couple new things also are planned.

“In the spring, I’ll be releasing a single of a newly recorded version of my song ‘If I Had Religion,'” he said. “It will have been 10 years since I recorded it for my first self-titled EP, and I’m revisiting the song with the current lineup. Also, perhaps later in the year, we might see the release of the Greek Rembetiko folk songs I’ve been working on for a few years now.”

LEO D’ANGELO

Most of the Youngstown singer-songwriter’s efforts in 2022 will go into promoting the EP “Flesh & Bone,” a four-song collection released in November.

“Things are gearing up for new merchandise, including vinyl,” D’Angelo said. “I am also in the process of finishing up some new songs and hope to release them end of spring.”

Performance opportunities haven’t rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, but he has played some outdoor and socially distanced shows.

“I’ve also been talking with some other local musicians to safely put together a small acoustic tour along the East Coast.”

JOHNNY STANEC

The Youngstown singer-songwriter is happy to get back to playing shows after focusing on writing and recording during the pandemic. He will open for Ike Reilly Assassination at Youngstown’s Westside Bowl on Jan. 28 and has upcoming shows in Virginia and West Virginia as well as Columbus and Cincinnati.

“I spent a lot of the last two years recording, and I’m finishing up work on some new songs,” Stanec said. “Late in 2020 I released a collection on vinyl, and I am looking to have a follow-up record out later in 2022.

His latest single is “Turn Another Page,” which was released in November, and another single, “Temporary Seasons,” is slated for release on Jan. 14.

PAUL CHARLES PLACE / NOT SO BAD COMPANY

Paul Sheehan, who has played in a variety of local bands over the years, started a couple projects during shutdowns caused by COVID-19.

“One is Paul Charles Place, in which I do a one-man-band kind of thing playing country blues, classic country and some of my own songs on dobro, cigar box and other acoustic guitars while keeping the beat going via a stomp box and foot tambourine,” he said. “I’m all booked up in January, probably because this project is cheap, fun and doesn’t take up much space.”

He also is taking on the vocals of Paul Rodgers in the Bad Company tribute act Not So Bad Company.

“This is a large, loud, live tribute to supergroup Bad Company and features veteran local musicians Garth Gilmour (guitar), Jerry Walters (bass) and Rob Schietrumpf (drums),” Sheehan said.

He also continues to play blues and classic rock covers with the band Muddy Cadillac.

HIGHLAND ROSE

The Youngstown hard rock band will celebrate the release of its third EP, “One Way Expedition,” on Jan. 29 at Westside Bowl. Also on the bill will be Northern Weather, The Middle Room and The Full Flavor.

According to the band, “Along with the new EP we are also planning on hitting 2022 hard with shows to really get the music out there for people who may not know us.”