so that was the depressing chart from
cnn recently.
imagine trying to start a band in the middle of this.
i don't wanna get into a discussion about the music "business" because honestly, it makes me nauseous. people become musicians so they don't have to look at charts and talk numbers.
but you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, for the times...they are a changin'!
so here we are. a band full of modest nice guys and gals, being forced to kick and swim and force ourselves into peoples faces and ears. our shows are probably anything BUT modest, but that's because we are home there. the stage is the one thing we DO know. and we know it damn well. and we love it. but that god-awful word "networking" we don't know so well.
the reason our band goes through long lulls of no news isn't because we stopped rehearsing or making music, it's because we were waiting for opportunities to show up. every day checking the gmail to see if we got a big ol record deal (which is kind of an inside band joke). we get emails all the time from A&R peeps from all the majors. but you could respond to every single one of them and it wouldn't matter - at least in our experience. we even got 2 real record deal offers. one of them was swiped away from another local "silver lake" band (didn't think that could happen, but if it could happen surely it would happen to us). the other was retracted after business execs got cold feet in the biggest economic crisis of our time.
so then we wait some more. we wait for show offers, for interview inquiries, for something...ANYTHING. waiting around to die. all the while, doing our "job" of making and playing music. it's frustrating, because it causes you to question everything. thoughts like "maybe it's just not meant to be for castledoor" / then we remind ourselves the truth that we are a great band! certainly we're deserving of a chance if "so and so and so and so" get's a chance.
so we press on. some days that simply means existing. writing another song. booking another rehearsal. tweeting, haha. sometimes just existing as a band is the most bad ass thing you can do. to keep going after self-releasing 2 ep's and one full length album and not making a penny. literally we don't make any money from this band. maybe that's TMI, but fuggit. in the history of this band the only time we've personally made money is if at the end of the year we have a bit of "castledoor money" to bonus ourselves out for christmas. like here's a hundred bucks each or whatever. the rest goes back into the pot to keep fueling our existence.
sounds pathetic. and the last thing we wanna do is be a mopey band. liska told me i should blog more often and so today i woke up and decided i had some explaining to do. we normally don't inform our fans of all the little details. probably because every band is always on the verge of some really exciting thing that never comes through. but that's okay. that's life. the possibility of something great is what keeps you going. and my my my the possibilities ENDLESS!
anywayzzz--
lots to look forward to these days. our first ever real professional photo shoot is scheduled for march 1st. we are mega blessed to get the chance to work with two super talented photographers. see some examples here:
http://www.williamshirakawa.comwe also have a video shoot in the works. the new music is better than ever and we're all still alive and in pretty decent health. let's do this! whatever that is.
before i go back to work (yes, i'm sitting at a desk at my day job getting paid for this!) i would like to leave you with a quote from one of my favorite people (i nearly cried when i watched him give this speech on his last late night show):
"Please, do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, it’s just true." - Conan O'Brien
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