Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Long time no see!

I feel like every few months I come up with a post like this. I don't post regularly, and when I do I'm like "So where have I been?" This is one of them. I'm sure that anyone who reads this is either a friend of mine or maybe follows me on Facebook, where the limited amount of characters doesn't allow me to fully articulate how I'm feeling.

Well good news, because I'm home sick! And that means you get ALL THE FEELINGS!

Okay, most of the feelings.

As you may have heard, today we hit the Billboard Heatseekers chart at #8. This is a huge accomplishment for a band like us, because as you may or may not know, we do everything ourselves. Here's a breakdown of all the work we do:

Me:
  • Booking Shows & Tours
  • Layout for merchandise
  • Interviews
  • Lyrics
  • Singing
  • Theremin-ing


Josh:
  • Shipping
  • Sales
  • Interviews and Interview Scheduling
  • Press Releases
  • Distribution Deals
  • Lyrics
  • Guitars
  • Composing
  • Recording Scheduling


Jesse:

  • Bass-ing
  • Sandwiches 
  • Booking (especially in Tennessee!)
  • Lifting heavy things
  • Being Handsome
  • Singing
  • Keyboard-ing


Chris:
  • Drumming
  • Lyrics
  • Driving the tour van
  • Being our alarm clock

So as you can see, there's a lot of stuff in there. People often ask why we get so emotional, so attached to what we do. Well, this is why! It's a lot of work, and we do it all. Most bands do not do all of this. Most bands (especially bands on labels) can dedicate all of their time and effort into making music and performing. For us, we don't have that luxury. While doing all of the behind the scenes work affords us the ability to have full control over our music, it also is a huge responsibility. We got over 400 people on KickStarter, so Josh gets to single-handedly make sure that all of those people receive their orders. This includes special orders, like when someone asks me to draw a penis on their CD. Josh keeps track of all those special requests and makes sure that they go out, all without actually being paid for his time.

Oh, you thought that KickStarter money went to us??

Guys, we never put that KickStarter money toward man hours. We do all of this work without any compensation because we believe in the product. We want to put all of our resources into getting our material and our dreams into people's hands. Is this a wise move, investment wise? Probably not, but we don't live on this planet for a very long time so while we're here we want to make sure we do everything that we possibly can.

In our case, that means staying home for months so that we can save up enough money to go on tour. It means sacrificing vacations with loved ones so that we can be on the road together, playing clubs as close as we possibly can to our fans because they ask us.

It also means getting highly emotional, sometimes. When you put your heart and soul into your work, it's hard not to become too attached. It's hard not to fly off the handle when you think someone is disrespecting you, or ignoring you. As a lady, I've felt that many MANY times. It means I've had to work harder to be heard, but it also means that I've found better ways of being listened to. Sometimes it's better to be quiet and lie in wait than to screaming from the rooftops. Screaming has it's place, and it's on stage.

Anyway, my point is that our Billboard charting is a big accomplishment and I'm very proud, but I'd like to let the numbers speak for themselves. We're a 4-piece band. We do everything, and we still somehow managed to break the industry and show the world what 4 people are capable of doing. It might not be much, but it's a big step for the little guy.