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existing and beyond

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 the other was retracted after business execs got cold feet in the biggest economic crisis of our time.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.com
we 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

castledoor back in the stooodio

we started recording our new song.
you'll all hear it really soon! of course, we're all really excited about it.
we've been busy working on new music and talking with label peeps, good things are happening and we can not
wait to go on tour and record more new music and get it out there.

here are a few pics from yesterday.
we will try and keep this thing updated...even for our sake, to keep track of all we do :/

Invisible Children (& a new free song!)

ok so here's the deal...

On April 25th, non-profit INVISIBLE CHILDREN will be staging a global event in an effort to rescue the 3,000 child soldiers in Uganda, and we are part of a coalition of bands/musicians creating awareness online to make this a huge success via Biggestlabelever.com and Causecast.org.

In support of The Rescue we are giving away a free download of our song "Hidden Treasure" on BiggestLabelEver.com

go to the site (i think you need to create a login username/password), click on Free Music and you'll find us under the alphabetical artists list, then click Get Track. a short video will play, once it's finished you will be able to download the song.

This song is one of our personal fav's and has become a live favorite for fans as well. It will be featured on our new record Shouting At Mountains out on iTunes April 21st!



p.s. in other news...
just put in an order for castledoor tote bags (gonna start makin' the merch happen like a rurl band!)

Castledoor March Tour 2009!

morro bay

i have an obsession with the coast of northern california.
i've only spent time there on a handful of occasions, but
each time has been rich. just simply making the drive up
the pacific coast highway, or even inland on the 101 is an
experience that makes you think hard and ache in a good
way. at the moment, the way it looks and feels to me is
how i want the music to sound. i don't always aim for
that when writing a song, cause the songs kinda choose
their own personality in a way. but anyway--

last year lisa and i went to morro bay, which is actually
south of monterey. we have a song on the new album
that's sort of an ode to both locations.
below are some photos of our time in morro bay:

bordello photos

we recently played a fun show at bordello.
here are a few photos taken by jeff koga.

thank you spaceland recordings

recorded live on Jan 20th, 2009 @ the Echoplex in Los Angeles



to download a free mp3 of this performance go here: www.spacelandrecordings.com/castledoor

lost video camera

we lost a video​ camer​a at our show on satur​day at the echop​lex.​
it was last seen on top of a car in the parki​ng lot near the entra​nce.​

if anyon​e has any info PLEAS​E conta​ct us here or at: castl​edoor​music​@​gmail​.​com

there​'​s lots of famil​y foota​ge on it that is very valua​ble only to us.

thank​ you

it looks​ like this:​