Monday, June 4th, 2012 and almost exactly a year later since I was given the final push to the epiphany that this music thing was something that I wanted to devote my entire being to. It's the day before The Peak announces it's top 20 local bands for The Peak Performance Project, and as an independent artist from Vancouver this would be one of the biggest rewards your hard work can amount to. This penultimate day had me awake with a jolt, and then a slow and steady reflection of my past year as a person, artist, and how since the two have become inseparable. Though I have played and written music nearly my entire life, the last year has been by far the most monumental and self-discovering. I have willingly put myself deep into the role of starving artist, somehow scraping together the funds from my own back pocket to put out my first EP, yet at times not even having enough in my bank account to ride the skytrain (which I will admit resulted in an unpaid ticket for being .75 cents short of proper fare, thank you for understanding Vancouver transit "authority"). A year ago I started as a young man with a couple good songs and that was enough to get me started, but a true artist will never get better standing still. I met a cellist on the skytrain by the name of Adam, and pulled him into a gig that very same night. The songs took on a whole new life and over the next 8 months I shaped and reshaped what I had written with his help and poured myself into creating stories worth telling. The studio we recorded in was small and humble, but the engineers passion and knowledge were overwhelming. I had no permanent band members at the time other than Adam, so friends lent a hand to recording the bass, the fiddle, guest vocals, you name it. Whatever it takes to get the job done. When you embark of project like this you take on every role almost single handedly. I was lucky to have my lady Kristina on my team and supporting me 100% of the time. With her help I was writing, recording, booking the shows, meeting other local bands, doing the social networking, working with venues and promotors, producing merchandise etc. We had no previous experience in operating within this tough Vancouver indie scene, no band to help, and not a penny to spare other than to give to the project. Between my lady and I we completely hand made the physical EP. I wrote the text on the front and back of the CD sleeve, we made that into a stamp and hand stamped each sleeve of recycled cardboard. Kristina took the photo that appears on the CD itself. I hand wrote the insert of every single copy, written on paper with seeds sewn in (which grow wildflowers when planted). It was a complete labour of love. I wanted something special and hand made, a real DIY effort by the artist, and actually create something unique in a music scene that is quickly turning into carbon copy upon carbon copy. Musicians came and went, none of them willing to inconvenience themselves to make an effort to advance the project, and even when things were quickly advancing it didn't seem to be enough of an opportunity gift wrapped for them. Many chose their dead end retail jobs (I was forced out of mine because the music store I worked at wouldn't give me the time off to do shows. Ridiculously ironic, I'm aware), or just didn't feel like being out late on a Friday. I was left standing there by myself lamenting that I was the only one who was willing to give it everything. Over the course of time I am now playing with amazing and like minded musicians. The songs have matured with their help, and I beam at the beautiful music we create together. Eventually, things have to start clicking. I was booking nice shows at nice venues and meeting some incredible artists. Humble people who just loved playing music, artists who had been around the block a few times and ended up being great friends and mentors for me to look up to. People were coming out to our shows, cheering loudly, listening to our songs watching our videos online, I was even lucky enough to shoot a fantastic looking music video. Through tactics of pure persistence I managed to get a couple blog features, some radio interviews, a little bit of attention that every artist craves. I realized you have to go through these oh so tough and sometimes unpredictably long periods of drought and that if you persist, things will begin to pay off. I was given the nickname by a friend of Keith "Doesn't Take No For An Answer" William Miller. There were (and quite honestly still are) moments where you think at it just isn't going to work. It's too hard, the business is unfair, you can't write, your band is a bunch of short-sighted primadonnas, so on. But every time this happens I tell myself that I knew this going in, I am more than willing to make those sacrifices. And here I am, stealing wifi from a cafe just so I can write this post. I have learned many valuable lessons over the years. I am happier than ever. I love my songs, I love my EP, my band mates are great, and I am starting to feel the overwhelming development that I have forced upon myself all the while. So, regardless of whether or not we make the Peak Performance Top 20, I am proud of everything that I have done and excited for everything that I will continue to do as an artist. Still though, fingers crossed. This is only the exciting beginning.
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