This week, the Frogs are headed to Texas. Things have stabilized in the FGF camp since moving into a new house and getting robbed several months back. The Denver police found one item (the largest and most expensive) and Steve and I were more than happy to sit at the cop-shop, haggard and anxious for hours, in order to tow our PA back to it's rightful pad. We have an awesome new roommate moving in, Calvin, who works in finance and can probably provide some perspective to us about what life in the corporate world might be like. The first time he came over we bonded over his "existential breakdown" in NYC, where I had just returned from a wild trip, running back and forth between Brooklyn and Manhattan, recording two full songs and playing two shows. Producer Will (Will E. Beats) and Engineer Klem should be sending me some tracks this week and I will post the new tunes as soon as they are in my eager paws, or Frog toes to be more specific.
On that note, the amount of Frog memorabilia we've obtained over time, a relatively short time, is astounding. From where I sit at my computer in our living room I can see:
- A giant stuffed Frog from one of our youngest fans, a kick-ass little girl name Willa
- Posters from over a dozen shows, We've only begun to put them up. our buddy Kevin in the mountains has stacks and stacks in the archive.
- A wall-sized, sewn blanket of our South Park-style caricatures, replete with our Frogs Gone Fishin' logo. If Trey and Matt came in the door we might have a lawsuit on our hands.*
Any number of amphibian-related books, holiday-cards, painted Mexican leaping Frogs and hygiene accouterments like candles or soap decorate our house, bathrooms, Suburban (Leslie) and RV (Bertha). I am a Frog. It's not a question if I want to present myself that way. People refer to the group as "The Frogs", individuals as "a Frog", and make checks out to us as simply "Frogs".
These are physical indications of the world that your band becomes. It is much more than a physical world, however. Your world as a musician is defined by concentric circles around which are your band and it's family. Family goes way beyond the conventional definition at this point. And just like you love your real family, as it's the only one you've got, you love your fan base and business associates, even the annoying step-brothers or creepy uncles in the bunch. From the moment you wake up to when you go to sleep, you take stock of this family, figure out how to make it work together for a greater experience than any fan or band could achieve by themselves. Most often this happens in the form of live concerts and your job as musician is to make fans feel like you are watching them, as much as they are watching you.
It's so cliche to discuss, but that reciprocality between band and fan is the ONLY thing keeping you as musician from disintegrating into some sort of repetitive, guitar-playing robot. And when fans come to multiple shows in a row, your art becomes more comprehensive because you have the arch of time to work with, days in between shows, as a new factor to manipulate. Active fans will guess rabidly about which songs will be played in what order, which songs will open and close the next show. Some bands have whole archives, dedicated to information about those very statistics.
That is the source from which your world as a band should emanate, the catalogue of songs you maintain to play at the moment that is just right for band energy and audience atmosphere. In fact, that is where you can draw the line between real musical artists, and corporately created pop-stars. Real artists operate on a catalogue built-up over time, pop-stars are ushered into the public domain on a cascade of dollars, not musical aptitude or hard work. It's also pretty cliche for artists like me to bitch about said pop-stars but none of it is relevant anymore, anyway. Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift sell a fraction of the CD's Britney or N'Sync did, the model has gone out the window.
What we are left with are hard working bands (we're now on hour seven of the 15-hours to Texas, in the middle of Kansas, as I finish this post) and independent-minded labels who might get their cash from the big boys, but certainly make their own decisions, sometimes for the worse. One of the more famous examples of this twisted carnival-industry came when alt-rock band Wilco was released by their label, only to be picked up by another owned by the same parent company, Time Warner. Not only had Time Warner financed Wilco's record, they had to essentially buy it back from themselves when the band was let go due to poor management.
Many years ago... OK maybe 6 or so, when I was (hopefully) less wise to the ways of this world, I thought being signed to a major label would be the best, the balls, the brass ring and not knowing what that would mean (large-scale debt to a corporation) I was probably disappointed when my amateurish emails to Sony or Disney Records or who knows where weren't returned promising studio time and world tour. Now, after seeing what happens to bands who are signed to contracts they can't fulfill, oftentimes because a major won't market them correctly, I realize that there's nothing better in the world than being able to call my producer Brad, or lawyer Eric with a problem and have an advocate on the other line, rather than some money hungry scum-bag whose utterly disinterested in music or art.
After returning from TX, Frogs will spend some quality family time for Thanksgiving at home and tour around Colorado during the winter. NYE will take place in Telluride for two nights straight of celebration with the FGF band. Everyone who attends will receive a live CD of the show. Also, check out a pair of new music videos, produced by L.A.-based filmmaker Travis Milloy:
"Never or Now" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYB1thJbVHA
Enjoy!
*Trey Parker and Matt Stone must have some ballsy lawyers. The creators of South Park are also from Colorado... must be something in the water.
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