I'll call you

Okay so this comes directly from a conversation I had with a friend in his car. This is probably going to be a shorter blog or not I dunno. But here it goes:

Okay so since I was about 13 I wanted to be a musician, and I still do. Most people would try to convince me that I’d need a solid job on the side or that I’d need a back up plan. In fact that’s what most people tell me. Anybody with musical ambition really isn’t told to just go for it, which bothers me. I’m mostly bothered by this because when people openly admit they want to make music their career, assumptions begin to be made. Most of the time people assume they want to be a huge pop star or the most famous composer or opera singer. I just want to say this: it’s possible to make music a career without ever coming close to being the most well known in whatever area of music they want to go in. My definition of a career is being able to support yourself financially, which in music is totally doable. At school some guy came and talked about how digital media is effecting they we we do business. And even though I didn’t pay a whole lot attention because it was mostly a bunch of stuff I wasn’t interested in but there is a part that did stick out to me. A part of being successful is about who you know and the relationships you have with them. I’m very fortunate to know very successful people in the field of music. I love them to death not because they can help me advance my career but because I love their music and they’re just awesome people but if they like my music they can help me out even though I don’t expect them to. Even here in Iowa some of the big name musicians here like my music and have helped promote my music. And I’m touring this summer with Mumford’s who played at SXSW. Making the right connections is an important step to moving your career forward as a musician. Or any career for that matter.

As far as what I want I just want to be a musician signed to a small record label who tours. I just want to be able to pay for a small apartment or house with my music which is a totally doable goal 1. If I keep my mind set on that and 2. I make smart decisions but the weird part about that is I won’t know if they’re smart decisions til well after I’ve made them. So let’s just I hope I have some luck. And also I hope you enjoy my music.

Not my best blog but it’s just my thoughts. Night guys.

So before I headed to sleep I thought I’d do another blog post since I seem to be on a roll with this blog shit so here it goes:

I wanted to talk about my record a bit because I’m recording on Sunday and I’m super stoked. Joining me will be Luke Davis on bass and his brother Mickey Davis in the drums. This record is more than just an album really it’s a culmination of the last 2 years sitting at home in my basement having no life what so ever and messing around on my piano. These songs come from experiences in the period of time that I wrote them. I’m not the greatest poet ever so forgive me for a few shitty lyrics. It’s been a long road and it’s cool to finally put myself into a product that hopefully you will enjoy (but let’s face it probably won’t). I remember telling myself over and over again: I’m gonna make a record in gonna make a record but never actually doing it because I didn’t feel the songs were good enough to put into a recording. After all if I’m going to spend all this money I at least want the songs to be good. I would play shows but they would be very seldom because I wanted to run songs live to see how I felt they would do live. A LOT of songs were shot down because of that but I think it was for the best. Testing songs to see if you like them live is a great way to sort out shit material and good material, because as a musician you will probably end up playing these songs quite a bit live and if you don’t like the song live it’s going to suck performing it and music shouldn’t suck. It should be fun. Period. So then after I started to find songs that clicked I began to organize them and that shaped this EP. I remember throwing one song out a few weeks ago because I had managed to write one that was more fun to play live than the original so I tossed that one out and subbed the new one in. So now I’m going to explain each song And what it’s about.

Quiet Little Town- This song is about that place you go when you feel like life is taking a giant shit on you and you need a place to escape to to feel better. For me it’s my home of Iowa. The music scene here is so supportive and almost all Iowans are sweet people. It really can be where ever you want, it’s about where you feel safest from Life’s bullshit.

Mirror- this one I wrote during my health class at school. We were learning about eating disorders and how these people couldn’t look themselves in a mirror because they didn’t like how they looked. I remember I was feeling down at the time so I wrote about how that could be anyone. When we look into a mirror more often than not we see qualities that we dont like about ourselves and we feel trapped by the mirror because whenever we look into one we always see the things we don’t want to.

Little Boy- This one was inspired by my creative writing teacher. One of our writing prompts was what would your younger self tell your older self. I kinda flipped that around and made the song about what my older self would tell my younger self. I think as we grow older we all lose touch with our inner child so this is me telling me that I need me because I’m smart and love life and won’t ever get lost in all of life’s troubles because I’m innocent and free and that’s how it should be. (hey I rhymed! Who wants to give me a cookie?)

Julia- oh boy this is gonna be quite the explanation. This song was originally about a specific person in my life who will remain nameless. Then I played it for someone and they said that it sounded like it was about this. The more I listened to the music and the words the more I began to feel they were right. So I changed a few words and that’s how this song came to be. It’s about a couple where one of them wants to go explore the world and the other one does not. So to make him happy she stays there with him and he’s happy for a little while. Then he begins to notice symptoms of her depression. It’s kinda of about how when in a relationship how much were willing to give and take to make the other one happy.

Broken Record- This song has go e through so many lyric and music changes holy shitballs! Im most proud of this song because of these changes though which I can’t thank Susie midget enough for helping me do. This song is about someone who keeps going to their friend to bitch about their problems but don’t take the other friends advice and the other friend says fuck you I’m done. I’m not doing this anymore.

Tru Love- this one is about a man who after being in a relationship for song long realizes he doesn’t love his wife and says its better for them this way. And that he’s never experienced true love.

Okay that’s all I feel like typing on my iPhone at one in the morning! Cya!

So after seeing so many musicians(including myself although I’m barely a musician) use Kickstarter or Kickstarter like websites to fund records I thought i would post something about on this blog I rarely use and nobody follows.

Kickstarter really is a brilliant idea. It allows artists to use their fan base to pay for recording costs and distribution without going through a record label. This essentially allows bands to be successful even with a small following because before these websites recording cost a good chunk of money which if a band could not break even they’d lose money and not be able to pursue music as a career. If they were successful and did get signed to a record label a solid amount of record sales would be taken by the record label to cover the amount they’d pay for the artist to record. So the artist would have to have a good size following to make enough money to pay for the bills. This is where Kickstarter comes into play. Kickstarter allows bands to recieve the funding for recording and distribution through their fans and in return the fans get cool rewards directly from the bands themselves. And since these bands are not going through a record label to pay for these costs nobody takes a chunk of the sales and the artists get to keep 100% of the money. This means being a musician for a living is becoming a more realistic goal. I’m not talking about musicians like Queen or Rolling Stones selling out entire stadiums but musicians who can pay the bills and other living expenses. And as a musician myself it makes being able to do what I love as a career more plausible than it would’ve been a few years ago.

Kickstarter is going to change how music is paid for and released. Seeing this trend grow and grow with more bands using it to fund records everyday it is becoming a tool for bands that I would recommend to any artist.

Okay so here it is! My buddy, Chris Ford although you may know him as Christopher the Conquered, is gearing up to release his first studio album, Fate Of A Good Man, on April 17th via Maximum Ames records. I was lucky enough to be considered “Press” and get an advanced copy of the album and although i have it on my iphone already i have pre-ordered it because it’s just that fucking good. Okay so let’s start this motherfucker.

I was first introduced to Chris through his Christopher The Conquered Thanksgiving Get-together and was lucky enough to participate(I played Jukebox The Ghost’s Hold It In on the piano. They’re really good, look them up) and ever since then i’ve been a huge fan. His first record Fate of a Good Man is very well done. He makes pop music that isn’t just pop but draws from jazz, blues, and gospel influences. There is such energy to his songs that just make you wanna dance.

My favorite is probably Let Us Not Confuse Our Thoughts With Our Beliefs because he makes such good use of the horn section (i forgot to mention it’s Christopher The Conquered and the Brass and Gold Band) and starts with like a rock gospel type meoldy before he starts to sing. When the Vocals come in he starts in his lower register and doesn’t start hitting the higher parts until he gets closer to the chorus. After which it goes back to the horn part from the beginning. It’s just a fun song that has energy like a pop song but is clearly gospel influenced.

Free To Try (But Not Always To Do) probably has the moist pop sound to it it starts off with again his gospel influences. A lot of interesting things going on in this song which is why i love it. It has so much energy to it that it sounds almost like a Jukebox The Ghost song. Maybe that’s just me i dunno but i said it and it’s out there so phbbbt.

Life Is Not Always Easy is again another high energy song. This time though you hear less of the gospel jazz influences and hear more of the pop rock. There are a few moments in the song right before it hits the chorus (and a little in the chorus) where it sounds a LOT like a Queen song. It goes from a high tempo song has a little moment, i guess is how i’d describe that im sorry im not a master wordsmith, then slows the tempo down for the chorus. It does that in Bohemian Rhapsody but i can’t remember where but everytime i hear this part of the song that’s what it makes me think of.

10,000 People is a slower song but with big jazz influences to it. The moldy is really catchy and the lyrics are clever. My favorite line is “one man’s bump in the road is another’s smooth sailing” Which i do think we forget a lot when we bitch and moan about shit that in the scheme of things is actually pretty pointless. The horn arrangements for this song are absolutely beautiful and sound like a Graham Lyle(?) arrangement and is just absolutely gorgeous. God i love Saxophones.

This Vulture Has Been Shocked, sorry Chris BUT, is my least favorite song on this record, it’s not that it’s bad it’s just I dunno takes me too long to get into it. Couldn’t explain why.

The Greatest Record Ever In The History Of Pop Music-man this is a Ben Folds Five length of a song title but is not like one of their songs. I like the premise of the song. The artist brought his friends from all over the country and then proceeded to record a n album so great the producers basically walked out and music was ruined for them for their rest of their lives. Love it.

The Truth Is On It’s Way- Sounds like something you’d hear in a southern gospel church. The beginning starts off with the horns sounding like a badass rockband and then they go into this high tempo really great song. It’s really fun.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST! The Fate Of A Good Man- Such a good song. I can’t begin to musically explain why i like this it’s just good. Lyrics are clever great melody and just fun. Whoever this good man is they’ve decided a good fate for him.

Anyways that’s all the songs. Not in any particular order but they are there. NOW! GO PREORDER THIS SHIT! IT’S SOOOOO FUCKING GOOD!

I may get to review my buddy’s upcoming album “Fate of a Good Man”. Hopefully this works out.

Steve Jobs
Circle I Limbo

Rednecks
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Osama bin Laden
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Scientologists
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Republicans
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

The Pope
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Creationists
Circle VII Burning Sands

pro life people
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

George Bush
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell