Chapter 21: Playing for a Small Audience

Posted by admin on June 23rd, 2010 | 1 Comment »

This past thursday we ventured back into Central Pennsylvania for a 2-set show at a great venue that we had played at once before called the “Stage on Herr.”

Having only been to the area once before, we don’t have the biggest following out there just yet, and given the fact that there was the big Harrisburg annual block party festival across the river, we played to a very small audience.

It costs money to travel to venues way outside the city.  Every time we do it we have to ask ourselves, is this worth the investment?  Will this help us grow and build our fanbase?

When we first took the stage and saw the small amount of people in the audience, though I was excited (I’m always excited to play shows) the business part of me questioned whether it was worth our money to travel all this way. The venue and the people who run it are spectacular but were we going to be able to walk away feeling like we had made enough of an impact to come back?

Every show is an amazing learning experience, and this particular show provided me with the learning experience that there is no audience too small to fully “bring it.”  Our “Stage on Herr” show was a huge success for us not only because we had a good time and the music was solid (for the most part but more so because we brought it completely, and the 20 or so people in the audience loved us, put their name down on the email list, asked for autographs and told us they would bring friends the next time we came.

I asked a couple of the people in the audience whether they thought that we should come back or not, and how they felt the rest of the audience liked the show.  One guy even said to me “don’t be discouraged because of the lack of turnout tonight.  There is a huge anual block party going on tonight and most of the town is over there.  You guys were truly spectacular and I think that people in Harrisburg would love you.  You should definitely come back.” Another fan offered us their home for us to all stay in the next time we came back.

The sound guy also said he wanted to open for us the next time we came around with his local band.

I left feeling proud of us for bringing our best no matter what.  The Stage on Herr was so hospitable the last time we came there in April and we were very excited to come back last week.  Same goes for the next time we come back as well.  Thanks Harrisburg for being so great.  We’ll see you soon.

Zach

Chapter 19: Rocking My Radical Plan and Being Nicer to Myself

Posted by admin on May 7th, 2010 | No Comments »

First off, I will say that I am ROCKING my radical plan.

A couple parts of my plan were to book myself at five more venues, get featured on 3 more interview or blog talk radio shows, and to write a brilliant business plan.  Well I will just tell you that I booked us another 10 shows, got featured on 3 radio shows and am in the middle of finishing a yes, brilliant business plan.  I am happy, rocking and in love with my life, music and business.

On another note, during rehearsal today Sally, Keesha and I were looking at the rough draft of a new promo video that we shot at our last gig.  Its the rough draft so a lot of it is apt to change even though it’s already solid, and I was being mean to myself…making comments about how I might look or sound like a tool when I was being interviewed etc.  Keesha said something of the sort like “wow Zach, you are really going to town on yourself,” a little taken aback by how harsh of a critic I was being.

Why was I being like this?  Because I think I’ve realized that it’s easier to and SAFER to think poorly or self-depricate rather than take the risk and own who I really am or what I am standing for.  I am standing for putting music out there that helps heal peoples hearts, that moves people emotionally in the way that it sounds and feels to them.  I am writing about accessible things: love, motivation, romance etc, but the arrangement, the tone and timbre of the music is uplifting, spiritual and healing.  I was talking about this in my interview and got insecure that I might sound arrogant or self obsessed and really I was just scared of being as vulnerable as I was being, of really telling it like it is.

What I learned is that it takes an amazing amount of courage to do what I do, but even more so to OWN it…to be unapologetic, not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way, about who I am and what I stand for.

I will post the video when it’s finished.

Love

Zach