Allie gave me a bunch of Peach Kelli Pop merch and I had a nice chat with Kate Nash and she said my girlfriend is beautiful. It was a good night.
Album progress: 6 songs finished.
Every time I sit down with my little songwriting book and go “alright, I’m going to finish one of these unfinished songs”, I end up just starting a brand new one. Which I always think sounds better than the unfinished ones and usually takes way less time for me to finish.
Hungover morning listening to George Harrison, thinking of new songs and working on my portfolio. Not too bad.
I think during the week my girlfriend was here, I gained back all 17 pounds that I had lost the month previous. Because when I’m with her I don’t feel like utter shit and I can eat like a normal person.
My girlfriend will be here in less than 24 hours and instead of cleaning my apartment I’m having a half drunk anxiety attack because I’m unable to fall asleep and watching law and order to try to distract myself.
You can easily gauge my depression/anxiety by the number of empty ice cream containers in my rubbish.
Every time it’s the same thing. We finish one record, I get sick of the songs in it, we keep practicing because we need to keep playing shows and I get worried that I’ll never be able to write another song ever again.
And then all of a sudden all these ideas start popping up. As of right now there are 7 songs in various stages of completion.
My main problem now is with lyrics… the last three records were pretty much born out of frustration and loneliness. Now I’m in a happy relationship. I have no idea what will come out.
DIY
There’s something very humbling about having 100% control of your creative endeavors. Of course it’s also very financially futile, but all the frustration, all the annoyances, the long nights, the shitty moods & the great end feeling once you’ve accomplished something is a reward you can’t top. It’s very interesting when certain people claim to have this control, yet are relying on others & simply taking credit for it. Why take credit? Why not give props to talented people? The people who’ve helped you get to where you are.
Anyway, I guess the point is I spent a month mixing this upcoming EP on my shitty old computer in an outdated Cubase program, learning why people pay other people to do these things, and I have so much more respect for people that do this everyday in microseconds. I’m really proud of the outcome & hungry for more.
This is probably a really fucking dumb thing to proclaim, but this band doesn’t have any money. We can’t pay people to do our shit for us. We write/record/produce/book everything from music to video to dumb blog post. Nobody sponsors us (what up DORITOS! j/k), we don’t pay people to review our shit. We go on tour and barely make ends meet. Just want to say ‘hell yes’ to all the other people doing the same thing out there. There’s so many talented musicians out there doing it so much better, all in the name of love.
Think I ate too many girl scout cookies, gettin’ all sappy. Sorry y’all. Hope everyone’s doing well. Can’t wait to share our lil songs with you.
xo
CHRISTA
I know this feeling, exactly. Sometimes I wish we’d get to the level where we can afford to record at a proper studio, with real engineers and more equipment than a mid-level interface and a laptop. But the feeling of accomplishment you get from something you made by yourself, with your friends and bandmates, being listened to and appreciated by people all over the world, whom you’ve never met… I don’t think anything can beat that.
The cheapening of the music industry
Why is it okay for people to want to spend unlimited amounts of money on clothes/gadgets/art/books/furniture but when it comes to music, no one wants to pay more than $.99 a song, if even that? What makes it okay for a musician to undermine their talent, the amount of blood, sweat and tears they pour into their craft, just to make their records “affordable” to friends and fans? This terrible trend has been bugging the hell out of me lately and isn’t the whole point of having a blog is to have a soapbox to voice said opinions and start a conversation?
If you believe in your art and think its worthy of attention (which everyone seems to be vying for lately), give yourself some credit. The only way we’re going to be able to change this fucked up mentality is for the artists themselves to change their line of thought. I’m all for giving a little to get a little and if you are a musician strictly making music for pleasure and not trying to make a career of it, by all means, give it away! But if you’ve spend months writing, recording, mixing, mastering, pressing, assembling, shipping a record, give people a reason to buy it. WRITE GOOD MUSIC. Be awesome live. Make a quality looking/sounding record that even your mom will want to buy. Its going to take the whole lot of us to remind the world that music is ART, as much so as that fancy schmancy painting on your wall, mid-century Eames knockoff rocker in your living room or shoes on your feet. Music makes you part of a community, look and sound cool to your friends and most importantly, makes you feel good. So instead of spending $500+ on the next useless version of the same phone you already have, why not buy your new favorite band’s record for $15 and make it possible for them to continue being your new favorite band?
I’ve felt this myself. A lot of my friends are visual artists (as I sometimes am as well) and I notice that whenever they have a new print or new work out they sell out rather quickly and have no trouble asking for $25+ a print. Meanwhile, if I try to sell my band’s 7” for more than $5, I get comments like “you should be glad I’m buying it and not downloading it from a torrent site.”
