Chapter 17: Dear Diary :) About last nights show…

Posted by admin on April 30th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

It was fucking awesome that’s all I’m going to say.  The sound at Sullivan Hall, at least on stage was phenomenal.  It was our first gig together as a FULL band with Keesha and Sally singing.  Obviously a first gig in terms of being shaky in spots, but now we are excited to let the music marinate and get into our blood.

We tried a couple experiments costume wise.  The band was dressed in slick black DKNY shirts, cufflinks and silk purple patterned ascots around their neck.  I haven’t seen the pictures yet so I’m wondering if they look bad ass or not.  Anybody in the audience, your comments are welcomed.  Ascots or no ascots? The lady’s on the other hand were wearing these very cool feather veil hats that Sally designed…I don’t have to ask because I already know that they looked super bad ass.

It was a short set, just five songs but we will be back there for an hour long set at the end of June or beginning of July so stay tuned.

In other news…I threw a bit of a tantrum on wednesday…it wasn’t an obvious tantrum to anybody else (except my girlfriend…sorry Sally) but more like a mental or internal tantrum about how overwhelmed I was at the whole business side of the music business.  I was feeling resentful of the fact that right now, I have to do all of it myself, including booking which is my least favorite part.  I was bitching about how clubs don’t give musicians the courtesy of calling you back, even if they want to book you, and how NACA will take your money even if you don’t get a showcase.  They want you to have been in the college circuit for 2 years it seems and yet they ARE the college circuit so it feels like a Catch 22.  I was pissed off and wanted somebody else to come and save me and do the hard dirty work for me.  I’m over it now.  These tantrums are healthy I think to a certain extent because when I come out the other side of them I realize that this is part of paying my dues and that the means justify the ends to a certain extent.  They build character…balls, integrity, perseverance and self-confidence.  Even though it sucks sometimes I’m grateful because I know that when the time is right, and I have built a certain amount of success on my own, then the right team of people will come to take it to the next level and I can truly call the product mine…with all my fingerprints all over it.  I love this business.

Chapter 16: A Change of Approach?

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

My very close friend Itay gave me some feedback about this blog and real time story.  This is what he said: “I read chapter one and to be completely honest I was looking to get more of you and I got a manual. I want to hear more about your feelings, fears, thoughts, and challenges and how you overcome them. I want to hear how you evolve. When you complete the journey, you can write a manual.”  Of course my quick reaction was to defend myself and tell him that he only read the first chapter and I already WAS doing that.  This is what he said: “I’d market it as a journal not a manual, I’d also void 1. 2. or any structure that makes it look like a manual. I think you analyze and explain too much. As an example in your paragraph about the reasons you were nervous (Chapter 3). You also mention there that “It was my first gig with my new friend Arthur, a truly remarkable bassist and music business veteran” – I want to hear more about his this guy and how you met and why you chose each other and what is your commitment to each other rather. I care less about why you were nervous.”

SO, I have thought about what he said I realize that I’ve been keeping the “ends” to much in my mind while trying to write about the “means” as they are happening.  In trying to position myself as an authority, I have neglected to truly share myself and how deep and profound this process is for me of truly going for my dreams, taking all the neccesary steps and believing in myself 100%.  This will now function as a real time “journal” of how I am making it, day by day in this business and how I am working towards my vision of being a world-renown artist.

Here is what is up for me right now:  I just added two back up singers to our “act.”  The first is my amazingly talented girlfriend Sally Swallow and the other, my friend and the equally amazing Keesha Gumbs.  We have been re-arranging some of my songs with background harmonies and let me tell you, it sounds fucking amazing.  I know that I am more in love with my music than anybody, but seriously…fucking amazing.

Arthur, Dan and I had an electric trio gig at a German drinking hole in Queens called the Wunderbar.  I wasn’t expecting too much in terms of the gig, just a good opportunity to practice and have a good time and it was our most fun show yet.  There were a number of college students in the bar and both Dan and I were nervous that they wouldn’t dig the music, but they got SO down…dancing, singing along to the cover songs we played.  It made me very excited and pretty much reinforced all the things that we have been working on in terms of making our music funky and accessable to a younger audience.

I’m a very happy man today and beyond pumped for our first NYC show as a full band.  We are going to dress up it up!

-Zach