This transition from The Mink has been a recent source of upheaval. Half of my band relied on that place for our only income. We were a tight knit family, building upon the slow success of our music by working together daily, making ends meet and keeping our hopes alive. The bar was our only rehearsal space as well; near destitute musicians have trouble enough getting their own bills paid, let alone affording any sort of work space. Losing it all at once was staggering.
The warmth of the community's response was humbling . . . we honestly couldn't believe the amount of caring and concern that circulated around our lost home at The Mink. Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that we are all struggling to make ends meet. It doesn't bring everything together for us and present any magical solutions. What do we do then? The same as we ever would, I suppose; we band together even tighter and weather the storm. We've held a couple of small rehearsals this week crammed into my apartment. Luckily there's no downstairs neighbors to complain (though we'd like to imagine if there were, they'd be happy enough with the music to let slide our light-speed 30min run-throughs). With all of us together in the same room, playing together after too much time off and too many stressful life changing events behind us, it felt as if the weight of our troubles lifted for the first time in weeks. There's nothing like doing what we do best to help us remember what we're really here for . . . to make music.
As the rehearsal ended and we broke for the day, reality began its slow crawl back in. We're certainly not out of the woods yet. It's takes time to build good business at a bar of our kind . . . too much time for the amount of us that have migrated together to make any decent amount. The realization has set in that in order to remain together, we must quickly break apart. Money woes may never cease to be a prominent theme for those of us that choose our path, but that rehearsal helped to remind us what is truly important. If we do not continue to make music, then we shall begin to make nothing at all.
Our first show back together since our American Honey release show in July (not to mention these troubles that threatened our very existence) will be this weekend in Austin. I can't help but believe there will be a tangible feeling of survival among us. That we cannot be stopped. And that no matter what happens, we still have each other, and we still have our music.
