It honestly felt like we had a perfect game going.
We’d tied up all the loose ends, and we’d been sitting on a collection of songs we loved like children for the better part of 2 years, finally ready to be paraded around to the world. Most importantly though? We had momentum on our side: A solid block of shows in our biggest markets, with some incredible bands & even better friends, leading right up to album release day! Living the dream, truly. The run would go as follows: Guelph, Toronto, Kitchener, London, then back to Guelph for the album release show! Short but sweet. Ah, those were the days.
Safe to say, we got as far as Toronto. Mm. Now I’m not sure if you remember March at all - I wouldn’t blame you - I barely do. Just know, some stuff happened.
I’m not here to complain, I promise. On the best of days, we’re still just some guys trying to facilitate a good time for people, be it for the length of a song, an album, or a show. Nothing puts that in perspective quite like an unprecedented global pandemic. We’re all still extremely grateful to be in the position and age we are. It’s afforded us the opportunity and privilege to live out our relatively simple dream: to make music we love, that (we hope) resonates with people, with our best friends.
In my time as a musician, I’ve been quite lucky to write, record, and release music with a few groups now, so I feel mostly qualified to say this: on the absolute best of days, putting out any kind of art you’ve made to the public is terrifying. Exciting? Of course! Also, terrifying. Releasing an album under these circumstances, that concept rings ever so true. I tried to get some noteworthy quotes about the experience from my band mates, and we quickly reached a consensus: it’s exciting and terrifying, but so much more.
But it’s also forced us to be creative. Generally speaking, most independent bands really don’t make their money off their music directly. We live in a streaming world now, and simply put, that $0.00437 per stream really doesn’t amount to much, unless you're like, Beyoncé or something. And we haven’t quite reached that status yet. Normally, our money is made playing shows, and selling merchandise at those shows. So, with no shows what are we to do? Granted, we are learning as we go, but our theory is that we need to set ourselves up to be in the best possible position whenever it is that we get out of quarantine and back out into the world. Staying relevant is going to be key. Submitting to curated playlists on streaming platforms has been a great boost to our streaming numbers, but more importantly, it’s getting our product out to new listeners, in all corners of the world. We’ve also had to really steer into physical merchandise. The sale of t-shirts, stickers, CDs, and most excitingly vinyl records (conveniently available for purchase at Rabbit Dash!) is what will keep us financially afloat while shows aren’t an option.
Staying stable through those means mentioned above in these highly unstable times also affords us the opportunity to dive head first back into writing new material, and exploring different avenues to yield a memorable release, which certainly adds to the nervous excitement of these times.
In short, no matter how much work one thinks goes into writing/producing/releasing an album, it’s always going to be more. But we did it! It’s out, and we really really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we ultimately enjoyed making it.
Cheers,
Joey
And of course,
Love always,
XOXO,
Excuse Me.