Titans of Industry

It's been a while. Stick with me! We're gonna see this thing through together. Feel free to interact and request info or stories.

Last weekend we played a bunch of shows. At a couple of them, we played as a duo. Scott had to deal with a family medical emergency, leaving just Jay and me. I can't remember the last time I felt like that before a gig. The sheer uncertainty of what the performance would be and whether I had it in me to fill the space normally occupied by 3 distinct voices all by myself. It was enthralling. Seriously the most excited I've felt performing in some years, not necessarily in a good way. I was scared a little bit. I just got playful with it and embraced being able to play differently than usual.

Then at Make Music Salem, we had Scotty back! And that was way more fun! We were on fire. We played two killer sets in one day. We earned ourselves free pizza and guitar strings with our playing. You beautiful people formed a conga line at the Grand Theatre during our set! We saw four of our friends' bands play within 2 blocks of each other out on the sidewalk. OH! And we caught it all on camera! Vlogs incoming. Subscribe to the site!! It would mean a lot to me. It's free. You are here…right now…whatever you decide, no pressure.

Those duo shows had their charm, but I would never choose to do that. In fact, had we known Scotty wouldn't be able to show up, we might not have done them at all. We were hopeful he'd meet us there late; we didn't know we were performing as a duo until our set time. We also wanted to support our friends in Man Must Explore, who were cool enough to include us on these shows.

Being forced to do unexpected things is good for the brain. Having a full crew is good for the spirit. MMS was very good for our spirit. 

I said we were unwell last time. It's looking like it was just a small cold. Sorry for being dramatic! I'm willing to embarrass myself every week in writing for you if you like. Let me know if you're reading. I don't look at IG.

All Things are Terrible, in His name, don't trip about it.

-Mitch

Well, everything is still going. 

I finished making the first iteration of a Subscriber page on our site. Check it out; you can subscribe for free and see all the video content behind the wall. I watched the final edits of the FIRST EPISODES of our new vlog series today, and I already can't wait to see more. Hopefully they get longer as we get into the swing of things. They be available now, if you deem yourself a Methbeard-level TOI Soldier (subscribe).

I picked up the new DWEiT t-shirts today. They're awesome, and our name is clearly visible right there on the front (Are you happy now, mom???). Mykell and I spent a little time together after work rolling them up and labelling sizes. We have 2X and 3X shirts! It took years to learn that small person can get big kind shirt, but big person no can get small kind shirt. I love our big fans, and I hope they love the shirt.

I'm vacillating hard about whether to get buttons before Thursday's show (today is Tuesday). And I was really hoping we would get around to carving a rubber stamp of our logo by now. All is okay. Time is not lost yet.

The real tea is that our band has been unwell. It's hard to track the threads anymore, but every time I listen to our record or watch band footage, it brings me joy. I hope others find the joy in it. I hope they find things that aren't joyful, too. That's what makes music so great; it's ALL the emotions when it's good.

Better days ahead, I can feel it.

I'm not worried. Never was.

-Mitch

I want, very much, to remain positive about all the work ahead, but I'm tired today. 

Pushed a little too hard working on social media content yesterday. Ended up staying up way too late working on preparations for my first summer school class, which was today. Class went well, but our Monday band meeting did not. I accept my part in it. I may have ruined everything. Let's hope not. 

Shirts are done and stickers are almost here. The first episode of our new vlog series has been edited. I think we're playing shows this week.

Someone show me some excitement, please! I need it.

Everything truly is Terrible

-Mitch

Well….I'm sick today. I've always prided myself on that never happening. I've been lucky enough to have a pretty well working immune system. It's to a point where I was looking for anything else for the reason I didn't feel good cause it couldn't be sickness, joke's on me haha. When I went to work 2 of my coworkers told me they were sick over the weekend and here I was blaming it on allergies. Now I know, we had plans to meet tonight to work on new tunes for the album, but I can't risk getting my bandmates sick. Just sucks when something gets in the way that was unintentional. But, the boys were very understanding. So for now it's DayQuil and rest for me. Probably call out of work tomorrow too. I've never been good at recognizing when my body is telling me to slow down before it shuts down, I suppose this is the start of learning that lesson. THE MUSIC IS COMING, I'm very excited to get to writing once this virus let's go of me. Love you all and hope you are well :)

-Jay Jay

Captain's Log

The Battle at Keizer was a grand success. We made new comrades and met with many old friends in the midst of the fire and steel and blasting cannons. Our great ally Tommy brought his comrades to rally with us. The crew and I moved with a speed and tenacity I haven't seen in quite some time. The plunder was large, and the onlookers stood astonished as their cheers echoed against the crashing of waves and the crackling of flames, licking up from the decks of our vanquished enemies! I was dealt a heavy blow, for in the heart of battle my favorite weapon was destroyed. But I have found a craftsman not far away, who will be back from sea in a few days. We make haste now to repair our arms, replenish our arsenal, and make our plans solidified for the coming months. I'm hoping the men will feel our rising strength and forget the water growing around their ankles…

Captain Scott

These past shows have been an absolute blast! It's really funny how diving so deep into the “business” side of things can really bog stuff down. At least for me, but that's something I've always struggled with. Having fun is way more fun than doing work. I figured being in a band would just be fun the whole time and we could focus on having fun until we made it. But, you gotta put your nose to the grindstone if you want stuff to move. It's hard for me to find that balance…

That weird moment where your hobby becomes busy. Where the thing you do for fun ends up feeling like it's something you HAVE to do. I grew up learning that everything is about perspective and I'm trying to shift mine. We, as a band, have reached heights that 21 year old me dreamt of. I suppose that's the result of the “unfun” stuff that we (mostly Scott, credit where credit is due) had to do to get us there. Reminding myself that the fun STILL exists, that it isn't being shunned away or “lost” just because we have to do more “work”.

-Jay Jay

It rained for the fourth day in a row here; my garden looks really happy. Peas are developing, the tomatoes are starting to flower, and our herbs are out of control. I was worried we didn't plant enough spinach in April; now I'm confident in my chances if Bluto comes for my Olive Oyl.

The work ahead is all starting to fall into place. Rearranging 10 months of plans into 3 is daunting, to say the least, but it's looking more feasible than ever. We just need to keep focusing our efforts.

Part of that is my involvement in social media. I've always steered clear of social media, except MySpace in 7th grade. I have no soapbox; I don't judge people for using it; I wish I could participate in the appeal, but I'm not that person. Asking for attention brings the wrong attention. I want to hide in the blog.

Another part is rallying my art team, which basically consists of my wife and me. I'm staying positive about a few prospects for help. Artwork associated with the band has always been very important to me personally. I have a modest record/CD/cassette collection, and one of my favorite parts of listening to music has always been holding the artwork and noticing how musical themes affect my interpretation of it. Reverse-engineering the connection between art and music is painstaking. Fans see the art as they hear the music unfold; I have the music in my head and am looking for a visual to unfold before me. This means letting things breathe, giving ideas time to sit, sketching alts, running ideas past people whose taste I trust. Time is not my friend in this regard, but time must be honored.

Don't Worry, some things aren't so terrible as they first seem

-Mitch

I had my best show in over year last night. As a front man there's a whole added element to the show that the rest of the band doesn't really tap into. Jay's behind his kit and Mitch tends to stand away from the front of the stage and be very selective about when he engages with the audience. That leaves most of the movement and all of the heavy lifting with the crowd thru the mic up to me. There's lots of shows where I feel good on stage. There's lots of shows where I play good. There's lots of shows where I feel great about how the band played that night. But it can be a real struggle to get an unfamiliar crowd into vibe, and get them moving around and being vocal. When you play as many shows as we do those variables show up in all combinations. I'll take a show with a great audience over playing great any day, but a perfect show is when all these things come together. Great playing, great chemistry, great vibe, and a crowd that wants to be there and reach new heights with you. We were fortunate enough to have lots of friends last night, and a good handful of fans. But I was really able to let loose in a way I haven't in a very long time, without compromising my playing or my connection to the band, and really drive the energy of the room. If I didn't snap the neck off my guitar it would have been a perfect show. But I'll say more about that later.

Scotty

We played a show last night.  It was probably the most comfortable I've felt on stage all year; I was relaxed, I remembered to warm up and stretch, I could hear everything well.  There's a lot of physicality to playing music, which is easy to overlook when our attention is split between musical and non-musical tasks. 

I displayed our newsletter signup at the merch table for the very first time! We've been meaning to get into the habit for at least a year now. We originally had a piece of paper that we never put out; it was forgotten after the first or second use. Then we made a Google Sheets page to add emails from our phones. After losing a few to typos, we gave that up. 

In the meantime, I started bringing my tablet to work, and on gig days it would make it to the show. Sitting in a bar waiting for a band to set up at some random gig once, I had the brilliant idea to use it for newsletter signups! And then I forgot to put it out on the merch table…at every gig…for months…maybe years?

Well I finally remembered, and people actually signed up, AND I didn't overplay and hurt myself on stage! 

Yes, sometimes I actually hurt myself. It's a little embarrassing. Come look at my right hand after a set if you're interested in how that's possible.

No gigs for a while now. I'm looking forward to spending some time writing new material over the next few weeks; the process may make its way into the vlog series we got cooking. Stay tuned.

Don't worry about everything being terrible; it's supposed to do that sometimes.

-Mitch

Captain's Log

We met with a great videographer yesterday who documented us to be a part of his archive of PNW live music. The water on board felt stable, its flow has slowed. Today we make for our first real gathering since we met with calamity. We plan to take Keizer OR for all it's worth and fortify ourselves for our journey ahead. I will update as we progress. And progress we will! The distant dawn grows ever closer…

Captain Scott