Taking a whole month off from touring feels almost as epic as four years of non-stop travel. I took April off to look for the kind of human connection you can’t find when you’re in a different city everyday. It’s been awesome reconnecting with old friends but difficult to stay focused on important things like booking and writing. It’s like real art only happens when your life fully depends on it.
Why are we doing this to ourselves? What is the point of this indie touring madness? The answer is that experience and struggle truly do translate into greater art. As we cross the scorching four corners of AZ, UT, NM and CO for the second time I have learned to appreciate water like never before. What used to be a boring blank canvas waiting to be filled with coffee or tea is now at the forefront of our daily activity. We must find somewhere to fill the glass jugs, schlep them around and keep them from breaking. The clean water inside is precious and it connects us to the local culture. In Ashland, OR naturally occurring Lithium can be found in drinking fountains. In cities the tap water has all kinds of fun pharmaceuticals that slide through the reclamation process. In the middle of the desert is where we found the clearest most refreshing water EVER. (probably because we were dizzy from heat and dehydration when we found it) Indie touring isn’t just travel, it is the journey every artist must experience. My favorite part is creating the soundtrack.
I LOVE Metric so I did a remix of their song Sick Muse and entered it in a contest. You should definitely listen to it and vote for it.
Photo by Elise Nadeau
Things have been so unbelievably crazy that I can’t even post about them in a public forum. Why not though? Why not just go ahead and broadcast our darkest moments to the world wide web on a whim? Most people would think I was telling stories and making things up. That’s what I would think if I read about all the things that have happened to us. I would like to be more like 50 Cent. 50 tells it like it is. 50 doesn’t need to sugar coat shit. But I don’t have bullet-proof glass on my ride so I guess I’ll just post a picture from The Delancey and listen to some beats on my new outta-this-world sound system.
