Adventures (+ major edit)
Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:18 am
We had a small adventure in Lawrence... very uneventful; here is proof.
click for more words and pics now:
Intentional De-railing
I de-railed my own lame trend. I'm blowing the whistle on myself. Come
on... I know you're as sick of those crummy live shots as I am. I'm giving
you a break. There were other moments that didn't involved chords, wires,
re-stringing, coffee, sound-checking, over-night drives, interviews, Starbucks,
etc. I thought it would be good to undermine all that stuff I so frequently
bore you with.
Once we got to the top of the hill, the sun was very, very bright.
I thought you'd enjoy a shot of the show. Go Jayhawks!
Getting Back on Track
There might be something I'd love to project into your minds. I can only
imagine that everyone is wondering what's really happening behind
the thin, drab-green veil.
There's nobody on planet earth who would rather pull the curtains back
than I. Btw - this whole management thing is NOT about a heightened level
of security. Think about it... in the old world, management would get some
scoop, download it to me and I'd still have to sit on it until the time
was right. Right? No difference.
Some might say we're in an awkward place. As a band - anytime you're off
the road and you're doing nothing and you don't have some continuous
media push and you're still inside the one year point on your 2nd major
record release, you're possibly sending a message that you're lacking
direction.
But that's not the case. If this is awkward, I've never felt as focused, on
target, excited... and as comfortable in what might seem like an awkward
moment, in my life.Then again, maybe i'm just trying to project something
into your mind. jk.
I know it's different for you guys; once we stop riding the rails, you lose
sight of the band. Train pulls into the Tyler depot and all you have left is
this clerk at the station with a wire. All I can say is - Eisley is writing new
music and that we are very, very excited about the future. That should be
enough for this post. I mean... there were the train pics. (Woo - Woo!!)
I am probably going to edit this post as i find things to talk about/add.
There might be things I want to project into your minds.
-.. .-. .. -. -.- / -- --- .-. . / --- ...- .- .-.. - .. -. .
bd
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Inside the building
More unimportant pict-rifleness
It appears that the heavens opened up that night.
I think it was for the Ja.
All I remember is - the game was going on in the lobby. People were hooting and hollering. Not so many showed up.
Infrequent shots of Garron and Weston are not intentional. Lighting is a problem.
Most of my shots were blurry of the band. My lens in jacked.
This is Sherri. Hey, thnx to you Lawrence people who did come.
This is also Sherri. wups... we're back to trains again.
In the end, it's all about trains.
Someone liked the polarized look.
The Future
Guess by now you're wondering what all the morse code is about. "Drink Ovaltine" was just false code. I wanted to say something important but decided it wasn't in anyone's best interest; perhaps a cowardly moment; perhaps great wisdom.
So many cool things are happening, we're all over-whelmed. My new association with Jason is turning out to be... hmm, how shall I put it... an interestingly, positive one. I feel it is going to be a powerful match. He's a very weird guy... in a good way. Many would say the same about me. I've been around plenty of normal people; normal is good; the world is full of normal. Normal is over-rated. Anyway, Jason and his brain are our newest, strongest asset. Don't count on us doing things normal from here on out.
You ever seen those movies where some evil villain taps into everyone's brains and becomes all powerful? - and bolts of lightening shoot out of his head... his orifice bellows forth with narcissistic particles, an odoriferous spewage of incomprehensible substance fires out the portals of his noseal region... and there's that boisterous, horrid, fiendish cackle. Well - none of that describes Jason at all; i just wondered if you'd seen a film like that.
But he does have a great mind... like he tapped into the minds of many, but without the evil intent and the ego. It's a great match. I'm still shaking my head. What a werl'. Meet this guy in Montreal at an Eisley show, and now we're on the phone for 2-4 hrs per day discussing Eisley; when we're not talking, we're working on something for Eisley... jeeze, I probably have over 300 emails from him in the short time we've been working together. When we're not talking or emailing, we're on conference calls with our expanding team (more on that when i can talk about it); yesterday, we had a conference ichat (moving to isight when i get my Macbook Pro going).
Anyway... lots of communication coursing through the Eisley system right now. International communication as well. Jason can talk internationally at a minimum cost (technology... i told you he was a geek) so he can talk all night long to other countries... and does. Soon, we're going to hook up a system that will allow the Tyler (home) office to dial up (through his server) and talk to Quebec for nothing (save Verizon costs).
Where am I GOING with all this... (asking myself :-0) Sorry. I'm just rambling again. Stalling. The world feels like it's spinning round and round lately... so fast. I just want you few faithful followers to feel the excitement even if you don't know what's happening. Can u feel it?
I do realize guys - that Eisley seems to have been moving forward at a snails pace for more than a decade. You all expected more. We all might have expected more. The sum of so many comments over the years have expressed the collective concern that this band should be bigger than they are. I mean, let's face it... we haven't changed the world. I'd like to think Eisley has been influential; has had an effect on individuals... even if they haven't reached the masses. yet 
.
Ok, so it's been slow... and things haven't always been handled right. Could they have been bigger? Without a doubt. But maybe it's not all so bad. And maybe it's all for a reason. Remember, being 'big' was never the dream. Writing songs was the dream. And much more. But you all know my feelings on this issue of progress, right? In case not - I'll nutshell it for you (newbies. (o brother... here he goes):
SLOW GROWTH IS GOOD. A QUICK GLANCE AT EISLEY'S HISTORY
Phase 1: Eisley's intro into the music industry at such a young age was both good and bad. It gave them a big splash...but created the wrong kind of waves. In spite of the band's 4 year history as an indie act - complete with well-defined image and track record for writing cool songs... playing hundreds of shows, initial 'industry' publicity centered around the novelty of their age, their siblingness, their family ties, etc.
If not for the Coldplay tour and our having a well-defined brand, press would have surely been successful in branding Eisley as nothing more than 'the next big thing..." - which we all know is just an over-used headline for a category in every rock magazine on the shelves. With a zillion bands emerging in the over-crowded marketplace, it's laughable as a launching pad for a band; more like a passing hunk of editorial cheese that fades once the magazine is tossed - yielding the next month's story. Eisley had a story... but the version that publicists told wasn't very important to their career. I saw it coming, but couldn't stop the presses. It wasn't WB's fault. They weren't spinning things that way. Editors look for stories to hang their job security hat's on. Anyway, thanks to Coldplay and their management for playing a pivotal part in the real story. The affinity was an anchor.
So, Phase 1 was a challenge; something to press through... something to escape from. BUT it was important. As they say, all press is good press. Yes, Eisley are family (and proud of it); and yes, they benefit greatly from the relationships with each other. But they're no longer young. Ever heard about child actors syndrome? That was bad positioning. Remember - 'positioning' exists in the real estate of the mind. Hard to change opinion once you stake your claim on a hunk of the brain where no one else has claimed.
Phase 2: Two ep's and two LP's helped solidify Eisley, not only as a working band, but as credible song-writers/performers. Phase two was all about fan-building, touring, promoting, building on-line, engaging in relational sites, getting out of the box - out of the country, touring with diverse bands, taking opportunities like Sundance, recording with various artists like Bright eyes, etc. but more importantly - surviving, proving... enduring. And something called "growing up".
Phase 3: Current. Youngest band member is still only 19 years old. Eisley is at a place where most bands are just starting; now - more focused, more motivated, much much wiser, more immune to criticism, seasoned as a touring band (National and International), a friend to the studio, experienced in life, in love, in pain, in surviving, in lasting.
The point to my glance at the guideposts of our past - it's been a slow growth process. Those of you who have been following for years have heard me talk endlessly about the stability of moving forward... upward... keeping a pace... to win the race. Once you build a base, you can start to sprint. We've stayed in the race and have survived, thrived... it's time to sprint. But the finish line is intangible. There's no end in sight.
The future is not yet written. But it's on the drawing board. Will keep you posted. And now for the most important sentence: you know this entire post, with all the blab-ulance, is just about me setting things up... for another post; but that's for another day.
BTW - i told u i'd come back and I did... even if few would come back for an edit; that suits me fine. This is a bit impetuous; also thrown down without careful thought. Also redundant. Stop reading. I journal because I want a record of this. Some day I'll be glad i did. Thanks for reading the days of our lives.
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