it's day 30.
the celebratory bottle of champagne didn't make it to see day 34.
late nites make for some very interesting delirium (please kids, do not try to take a pic of urself while in handstand position at home).
listenin to the same song over & over again for hours...
pennin crazy lyrical concepts in 5 min & gettin it in 1 take...
8 songs into our first major label release...
half of a FADER "mixtape" in the bag...
a distorted ep just waitin to be free...
and u wonder if we can pull it off?
man, listen.
i remember sitting aimlessly in my cubicle, wishin i had free time to sleep in & record. instead, i slaved for no money, babysittin famous musicians (some of whom didn't have half my talent), working from nine to nine (sometimes) & hittin the studio right after till six in the mornin. i was like a zombie at that place...not like it wasn't a great job...it just wasn't the right job for ME. so, one day as i sat bored in my cubicle i decided to make a myspace music page. i had seen other people's music pages & i thought they were kinda cheesy. "what do we have to lose??"
four demos...
rough ideas that brook & i had to rush cuz studio time was hard to come by...
two tracks. unmixed. cheesy myspace music page, right?
wrong. instant cult-like fan base. FADER came callin. journalists wanted interviews. people wanted to take our pictures. no-name indie labels wanted to sign us to painful slave deals with no real money up front. "damn! people actually like this shit??"...promoters wanted to fly us all over the world to do shows. no band, no stage presence, we'd rock it as a duo & get blank stares. then okayplayer caught on & it's been bittersweet ever since. i lost my "great job, which was such a blessing cuz i needed to give the music 200%. more alright shows. shleppin shit from country to country & losin it in spain. gettin boo'd in toronto one night & praised in the same city the next. radio city music hall. 3121. warner bros. oh boy.
there was no rhyme or reason to this.
we didn't even realize what we were gettin ourselves into. we just made some music we thought was pretty dope & went for the gusto.
we weren't confined by a deal. we weren't confined by any rules. so, we took advantage of our freedom & let the chips fall where they wanted.
we kept our eyes & ears open, & learned from other people's mistakes.
we kept our egos in tact.
we let the indies talk talk talk cuz we knew they couldn't really walk walk walk.
we were gonna just do it ourselves. release the distortion via internet & infect the population with the sound
but
everytime we geared up to make it happen
something got in the way
and
it just didn't.
sign from god? who knows. if it was meant to come together, it would have.
the pressure was crazy. everybody wonderin, askin, waitin, wishin, assumin, hatin, lovin, wantin the album.
"why don't they just put it out?", "what's holdin em back?", "when are they gonna start writin good songs w/ hooks?", "her voice ain't this", "she's too skinny", "they ain't urban".
blah blah blah.
me & brook had never worked inna real studio before. when we first started out our studio time was borrowed & limited. brook would make tracks & pass em to me so i could demo em in my room. we never had the opportunity to vibe out inna professional space & create from scratch. however he would sequence his tracks to cd is how i recorded em. so much for hooks. so much for structure. we were just fuckin goin for it. raw energy, man. pure expression.
now...
we're 30 days in.
the celebratory bottle of champagne didn't make it to see day 34.
8 songs in.
miss jack davey.
brook d'leau.
polyester.
ron & steve bruner.
kenneth crouch.
trackademics.
chris warrior.
matty j.
savage dragon.
kardinal.
pac division.
bleu collar.
diz gibran.
elucid.
brother rodney (aka hot rod).
string arrangements.
andy summers like guitar chords.
tambourines.
synths.
shit...
u thought "mister mister" was our peak?
u thought "might as well" was the best we had?
u thought those lil live shows u saw/heard abt were all we are capable of?
man
u don't even know.
but it ain't for me to tell u.
give it a few months...
you'll see.
although i'm sad to leave this utopia, i am ready for a lil change of scenery.
not like we won't be workin.
we're supposed to do chi-town on feb 8 (no details yet). i'm happy about that cuz my fam is in stl & i haven't seen them inna bit.
then, we may do sxsw mid-march. did i mention the fader "mixtape"? yeah. we'll prolly drop that at the same time.
then, warner might help us put out the ep that this post is named after. like, maybe forreal this time.
and if all goes accordin to plan, our big debut will hit later in the year
&
well
then it'll be a wrap.
but i guess we'll see.
ha. "mum's the word".