A thousand words about a picture

Since releasing the CD a lot of people have commented about the album cover and I thought it'd be really cool to tell you guys a little more about everything that went into taking the pictures for "Are We There Yet?" Every step of producing the EP was a crazy journey in which we worked with people that we would have never imagined to, and in the end realized we couldn't imagine having worked with anyone else. The pictures for the CD were no exception.

I have to begin by introducing the photographer, my friend Rick. I work at a coffee shop. At that job, I meet all kinds of random people. Rick was just a regular night customer who worked on his laptop in the back of the shop. He was quiet and reserved but well liked by all the staff. When he stopped coming in suddenly for a period of several months we checked the obituaries regularly worried that he had died (this actually happens often with barristas, warn your mocha maker if you're going on vacation or are giving up caffeine, we get oddly attached and easily concerned).

Eventually he came back, and over years of providing him with a constant stream of medium hot teas, I found out that one of Rick's hobbies was photography.

Rick started bringing his cameras to the coffee shop so he could practice taking pictures. Rick started collecting film camera's and he took hundreds of pictures of barristas, customers, and friends hanging out at the coffee shop. You can check out more of Rick's pictures from the shop herehttp://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403555670813.178522.674315813&type=3

 I was always blown away by the incredible inherent character that came through
these pictures taken with old film camera's. They seemed to capture something unique. To me film photography is like old vinyl records, honest, warm, raw, and beautiful in its flaws.






 Kendel and I are blessed to know several incredibly talented photographers. Thus, as we approached the topic of album photography, deciding who to work with was a very tough decision to make. As the themes of time, trials, and a journey were increasingly seen in the album, we decided that old film photography might be a good fit. Kendel and I both love everything vintage, so this was a pretty exciting idea. We wanted pictures that had a dream like, other worldly, character to them. Rick was actually very reluctant to take the job at first (he views his photography as a hobby not something he should do professionally or get paid for) but once he agreed he suggested that we might want to consider using expired Polaroid film.

The old chemicals in Polaroid film produce some incredible effects. However, it's always a bit of a crap shoot to see how the pictures will turn out.


 Each box can be totally different, and sometimes the pictures don't turn out at all. The gamble and challenge of getting the effect that we wanted "naturally" with old film was exciting and incredibly frustrating. The film we bought and used expired back in the mid to late 90's.

Some pictures only developed partially like this one. Polaroid pictures develop in minutes so we looked at the pictures as we went. This was exciting, nerve wracking, and exhilarating. Each picture felt like we were playing the lotto.

 Each box of film could have different characteristics. Pictures from this box had a blueish tinge and orange speckling. There is nothing you can do to control or predict the quality or effects in the pictures.




We took pictures in the downtown of our hometown Elgin, and out in the middle of nowhere west of Elgin. In every location we had very confused people ask us if were in trouble and in need of a ride. They were all very very confused by our appearance and clothes. I should have asked them what year it was and played along with the whole time traveler thing.






 In a lot of the pictures, the setting sun and old chemicals combined to give us a weird effect of identical fiery red hair.



Ps. Laying on a road for a picture seems like a great idea... In reality it means that your looking straight up into the sun into your eyes burn until they cry uncontrollably. Even if you don't get run over by a car....it still sucks.



Every picture that we used in the album was left unaltered. Our awesome album designer Josh Garner didn't touch up the pics or photoshop any effects in.
We decided to embrace the inherent flaws and discoloring that came from the old film. This correlated with decisions we made in the recording studio. In the studio too we preferred warm natural sounding vocals and subtle raw "flaws" such as the sound of the sustain pedal on the piano.


 This was the picture we used for the cover.


Using a film camera and expired Polaroid turned about the be incredibly difficult and time consuming. It took multiple photo shoots to get the shots we needed. It was difficult and it took time. It's still incredible to think about how odd it is that we ended up using the photography skills of a random coffee shop customer. However, I'm so glad that we chose to work with Rick and do things old school. The pictures turned out great, and I think the match the tone of the album perfectly. Hope this helps you see "Are We There Yet?" in a new light.

The House Cafe

First off- sorry for the lack of bloggin. There’s no excuse. My eleven year old sister Linden has reminded me dozens of time that I needed to post something. But I didn’t. Life was fairly busy and it’s comprised of much more weed pulling and coffee slingin then playing/writing music unfortunately. BUT at long last here is a random tidbit for ya

Today, I’d like to break the silence to tell you about a local venue called “The House Cafe” located in downtown DeKalb. This little hippie-ish joint is on my mind because we play there this Saturday for the third time (insert casual plug for upcoming show here http://www.facebook.com/messages/?action=read&tid=id.319233018163211#!/events/187471944709350/). Now, over the past years we’ve played at colleges, high schools, eleven coffee shops, churches, houses, a park, a Culvers burger joint, and a mall. We’ve played for weddings, fundraisers, birthday parties, open mics, and grand openings. We’ve opened for a Johnny Cash Impersonator, a British chap, friends, strangers, a rap group, and a metal/hard rock band. We’ve met a lot of people, and grown a lot. We’ve interacted with people who were incredibly fun to work with and we’ve worked with people…..who were absolute nightmares. With all that said, I must say, I love to play at the House Café. Here’s a bunch of random facts about the House. The café is an odd combination of things that you wouldn’t necessarily think would go together, but somehow blend together to make something really sweet (kinda like cheddar cheese on a slice of apple….sounds weird together but in reality - surprisingly good). Sorry for the horrible analogy I really like food and think about it often.

Random Facts about the House Café

• It’s a coffee shop-

• The House features tons of awesome local bands

• It has very random crazy intense hippie art EVERYWHERE.

• The sound guy is genuinely nice

• They are a coffee shop that serves wine and beer (bottles and tap)- http://www.thehousecafe.net/menu.php
• It’s an independent coffee shop
• It has a real stage with real lights
• It is groovy
• They have speakers…..so I don’t have to load all of my gear into my 96 Dodge Grand Caravan, this makes me sooo happy
• The staff at kickstand productions (who have booked us to play at the House) are friendly, down to earth, and incredibly supportive of the local music scene.
• They have microphones…..not just a chair for performers to sit in….
• They have hula hoops on hand so that people can hula hoop to the music if they feel so inclined-true story
• There are often men there with beards that Jeremiah Johnson himself would envy (see picture below)
• It’s a local venue that can hold a ton of people but still feel intimate and familiar at the same time

___________

It’s been a long road over the last several years and every day I become more and more grateful for the people who encourage and support our music. I definitely am thankful for all you (friends, fans, and family), and I am also very thankful for places such as the House Café  that have given us opportunities to play and organizations such as Kickstand productions that have made it all possible. If you ever get a chance you really have to check out the House Café-stolen pictures from a google search to follow-

Spotify-A well dressed, nerdy, rotten, sweat shop

That’s right folks it’s rant time. A couple of weeks ago I talked to my buddies Nate, Pat, Chap, and Hicks about a new web phenomenon that you may have heard of called “Spotify.” I had seen random notifications about my friends listening to different artists through Spotify on the ol face book but I knew nothing about the company until I talked to Nate and then did some further research on my own. After hearing about what Spotify really was I got seriously fired up and decided to do some research so that I could at least offer an informed raging rant. Let’s start with the basics in case you don’t know what spotfiy is.

Spotify is a Swedish based music streaming service that has been popular in Europe for years. Spotify recently teamed up with record giant the Warner Brother Company to make their service available in the U.S. There are three tiers of spotify users. Basic users get to listen for free, but are subject to advertisements. The nex tier pays 5 bucks a month to stream unlimited music without ads. The final tier pays 10 bucks a month to listen to unlimited music on their computers, phones, and mp3 devices. Spotify has long claimed that its streaming music service fights against illegal downloading which rips off artists and makes music more accessible to listeners. So what’s the big deal right?

            Well first of all Spotify claims to be a knight on a white horse graciously fighting against illegal downloading that is robbing artists of what is rightfully theirs. In reality however, Spotify’s efforts aren’t actually helping the artists. Streaming has been shown to reduce the amount of illegal downloading. However, it does not encourage people to actually buy any music. In Sweden studies showed that illegal downloading went down with the creation of spotify. However, music sales (both digital and non) went down even more after streaming. So much for rescuing the artist…..

Spotify claims to be providing a way for artists to be reimbursed for their music instead of just having it stolen when people download it illegally. However the fact is that Spotify does not come anywhere close to providing fair compensation. It is estimated that Spotify pays artists around $0.00029 per listen. Let me put that number in perspective for you. That means that you would have to listen to an artists’ song over Three thousand four hundred times for them to earn a single dollar. An artist would need people to listen to their song 4,053,110 times a month just to make minimum wage… That means that you could be as big Adele or Mumford and Sons or any other band in the world but would probably make less then someone flipping burgers off music streams on Spotify. Artists pour their blood, sweat, tears, heart, soul, and lives into making their music. Spotify has determined that they deserve less then a penny for their art. It is not fair compensation. It is not ethical. It should not be legal (in fact streaming music used to be illegal in the U.S.).

Wait a second though right? Artists choose to have their music on spotify right? Not necessarily, you can listen to music through spotify if it is shared by your friends. Thus, some artists have had their music put on spotify against their will by listeners. Additionally, in some cases record labels have put music on spotify without the consent of the artists. In many cases, artists have very little control of what is done with their music. Their record label controls just about everything and makes just about all the money. Many artists are having to fight to get their music removed from Spotify.

            Why do record labels put music on Spotify then? Well the thing is large record labels such as Warner Brothers have deals with Spotify that provide them with an undisclosed amount of money from advertisements shown on the streaming service. Spotify is booming. It’s founders are making millions of dollars. Record labels are also making money. Spotify claims to bring a brand new system but in reality it’s just the same old story. Large corporations and record labels make money while artists make less and less from their creations.

            So what now? Yeah Spotify sucks for artists but there’s nothing that you can do about it? We can’t find a solution so we might as well just embrace the problem right? You might not be responsible for large trends in music and technology but you are responsible for your own actions and it’s important for you to realize that spotify is unethical. So don’t steal music through spotify….yes it is still stealing. If you’re not paying a fair wage to the artists and in many cases they don’t even want to stream their music to you…then yes that is stealing. Is this all really such a big deal? Well spotify has 10 million users in Europe and has a goal of that same number in the U.S. that it can easily reach. So yes purely from a numerical stance this is a huge issue, streaming music could revolutionize the music industry and make it unnecessary for anyone to ever buy music again.

            Spotify is nothing more than a high tech sweat shop. It claims have a noble intention and character but when you look closer at the organization, you quickly see that it is rotten to the core. It forces people to join the workforce (through labels and music sharing). It exploits workers (artists) by reimbursing them with utterly insignificant amounts of money they couldn’t possibly live on. All the while the company makes more and more and more money for themselves. See the thing with sweat shops is that they destroy the people working at the bottom while creating a cheap unimaginative product. If spotify grows in popularity and streaming takes away more and more record sales, then you will see less and less artists. Furthermore it is only a slight stretch to say that if that happens many of the ones who will survive will make music that is cheap, unimaginative, because that’s all that record labels will want from them.  Spotify is nothing more than a new face for a very old story.

What do I want from you? Don’t use spotify, support artists by buying their music. You may not feel like you can do much but think of it this way, if you buy a CD from and artist for 10 bucks, it’s the financial equivalent to over thirty four thousand listens on spotify. So tell yourself you have the strength of 34,000 consumers and choose to support artists. Tell people that spotify exploits artists. Nobody knows, so nobody does anything and the few people that do know don’t think that doing anything will matter, so they do nothing instead. Welcome to every problem worth doing something about in the history of the world. If you are an artist don’t put your music on spotify. It won’t help you to have your music on the service and if people can get any song they want on spotify they will have no reason to ever buy a cd or purchase a song from iTunes ever again. There are large artists such as Coldplay and Adele who are starting to fight to keep there music off spotify. Hopefully, other well known artists will join them.  Hope you survived my rant and if nothing more, that it least made you think. I will leave you with a quote

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil if for good men to do nothing”- Edmund Burke

Helpful resources that I found-

http://derekwebb.tumblr.com/post/13503899950/giving-it-away-how-free-music-makes-more-than-sense

http://musically.com/2011/10/28/the-coldplay-spotify-debate-some-perspective-please/

http://mymusicthing.com/zoe-keating-on-spotify-apple-and-indies-and-lettuce/

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/

http://www.spotify.com/us/blog/archives/2009/01/28/some-important-changes-to-the-spotify-music-catalogue/

Studio Update #2

Ladies and gents it is time for a studio update. Kendel did the last one so I guess it’s my turn this time. We spent last night and this afternoon hard at work over at Ember Records. Kendel and I both tend to be very self-critical. Perfectionism is a blessing and a curse. If you want to torture us, lock us in a room with one of our songs playing on repeat. We always want to improve things and make them better, BUT the crazy thing is…..after Friday night…….we actually liked what recorded. We actually enjoyed listening to our own music it was very strange. All that just to say, we like what we’re hearing and we really think you will too!

Anyways, here’s what the days looked like.

Last night Kendel and I both recorded background vocals for Lemon Tears. Recording vocals at night is THE BEST thing in the world. There’s no one around, it’s quiet, and dark. For me, the key to laying down a good track is being relaxed. So, last night I put on my lumberjack flannel shirt, drank a bucket of tea, dimmed the lights, emptied my pockets, (today I took off my shoes too), and then actually got around to singing.  Kendel laid down her vocals afterward and everything came together incredibly. It sounds even better in reality then it did in my head.

Today we added some Groupooos (Not to be confused with Groupies) to Lemon Tears. Kendel also added a little extra instrumentation to one part of the song just to give it more punch. We put so much thought and effort into small parts and details that in all honesty you might never hear. But all those little details really do make a difference. Even if you will never hear the distinct part, I guarantee you will feel the energy that the part captures and conveys, which is what really matters.

After Kendel was done with instrumentation we did a little dance and yelled a lot to celebrate finishing our first song (see video posted below). These last two weeks we’re just working on the last final details of each song. We will be putting the final touches on each song over the next couple weeks.

Finally, I recorded Background Vocals for Fight On. I took of my shoes and emptied my pockets but things still got off to a little bit of a rocky start. Nevertheless, with lots of good feedback from Beethoven (Ben) things started rolling and I was able to lay down the track.

Well that’s it for now. BUT we should be in studio three times this upcoming week so expect a ton of progress and maybe even some more ridiculous videos.  Enjoy the snow and get some Christmas shopping done!

Unbridled Merriment

A variety pack for your enjoyment

Ok well kendel beat me to the blog update this time, so get your detailed Kendel and Shep studio update (lots accomplished last Thursday) here at http://thelalasoflife.blogspot.com/2011/12/crackling-of-old-record.html?showComment=1322868090774#c8067786817469335241

So since she beat me to the punch this time,  I offer up instead a small collection of various things for your enjoyment

1. A video from studio (we recorded banjo I wanted to get in the mood so I busted out the wife beater. Embarrassing Kendel was just an added bonus).

2.  A short update of things accomplished in studio

I. Banjo for a song

II. Whispers for a song (Our friends Jackson and Ben joined in the fun)

III. Recorded the crackling of an old Bing Crosby Christmas album

IV. Recorded background vocals for There Was a City

V. Recorded Electric Guitar for a song-probably my last guitar part which is bittersweet

VI. Recorded an added piano part for a song-probably Kendel’s last piano part

3. A few lyrics that I wrote the other night. About a week ago I wrote a song. I’m going to be a jerk and only show you the chorus, but I haven’t shown this to ANYONE yet, so you should still feel very very special and important!

Chorus:

I want to take your troubles

As my own

Put em on my shoulders

And take them home

The tears, scars, and fears

From all your days

So give me your troubles

And be ok

4. A topic I’d like your input on. I was talking to some friends tonight about “Spotify” and I’m thinking about doing a little more research and then writing about it. What are your thoughts? Do you use it? Do you like it? Do you think it’s ethical? Just a note, you can comment on and follow the blogs by just using your google account you don’t need to be a blogger yourself! Pretty cool right?