Woohoo!

I've been successful in returning my blog to one only read by lurkers.

Or so I've been led to believe by all the verbal comments I receive. No one bothers to comment publicly on my blog anymore.

Addressing one comment:

Paolo has humbly suggested that my comprehensive band history is not actually talking about focuspoint, but rather three different bands, those being the Skalternapunks/Faceplant v.1, Faceplant v.2, and focuspoint. On the surface, I agree. Songs like Summer Lament, Wait, and The Happy Song from the first band are no longer played, nor even discussed (except for maybe Wait). Songs from FPv2, like The Mexican, Project P, Leave Me Alone, and Stumble have met the same fate. Hell, even songs from the latest 'regrouping' of pretty much the same musicians are no longer played. Can I get an As of Now, Lights Out, Faceplant, or Peace of Mind hallelujah? Those are on our LP.

We're in the process of realizing what effort members of the band are willing to put forth to ensure continued success. That sounds like a loaded statement, but really, it isn't. What spare time members have available also factors in there. I'm sure there's some complicated algorithm to fully explain why we're not rehearsing, writing, and playing as much as we used to, but honestly, I'm not able to type it out here. It would crush your tiny brains. What I can say is that Paolo and Amanda are engaged and planning their wedding in Indiana (congratulations, you two), Danny is now married and expecting a little girl to further fuel the estrogen bonanza already in full swing in the Woodward household (sorry, brother, I expect man-tits in three months), and Puddy....likes to go to baseball games, is still living with his parents, and has not driven a car of his own in four years.

Now, as Paolo and I have discussed, there really isn't a "business plan" when it comes to being successful in the music business. Obviously, we're not what has been unfortunately coined as 'indie rock' (i.e. Death Cab, Fleet Foxes, Kings of Leon, and the like), we're not metal (I don't need to list all the shred metal bands that are popular nowadays, blah), and we're obviously not in the hip-hop/rap genres. We're not affiliated with LiveNation, the seemingly-most-lucrative grouping of established bands and groups still grasping at the uberlucrative '90s music scene teat. On that note, Paolo, being the futuristic visionary that he is (literally, his finger is somewhere near the pulse of the ever-changing music scene), posited to me that "Watty, the goal of scoring a lucrative record deal is not a viable option, we're not in the '90s music scene any more, and the commodity factor has far surpassed the hard copy we used to hold so dear." I AM paraphrasing.

I've been slapped and punched in the teeth figuratively for voicing my opinions on this blog, but I want to proffer these thoughts, as it is fresh in my mind and I cannot contact Paolo at 3:30 am to go over these with him:

He pointed out that as there is no business plan for success in the music biz, that dedicating as much time as I saw necessary to make this band succeed was unfair to request of my fellow members. I see this (as I always have) as an incremental success venture. You slog it out, build up a fan base (obviously people fucking like us), and extend that fan base by being continuous in your production, your performance, and your dedication to creating, rehearsing, and honing your craft. As we've been dormant these last several months, I attribute my lack of success in selling tickets to this upcoming show to the fact that we've not been consistent in any of those areas, save lyric writing on my behalf and whatever Paolo has written in the interim as well. I've had no problem blowing through a stack of tickets before. But, as was brought up in conversation, we do see a lot of the same faces at every show. Admittedly, we're not part of the most popular genres of music.

That being said, my approach to this business (and it IS a business, ask any hard-working popular band member) is not shared by my band. Fine. I agree that we need to get back to being friends first, which unfortunately we have foregone the last two years or so, but the ultimate question does remain:

What amount of our spare time are we willing to commit to the cause? This includes tweaking the current formula. Some of us have stated that in its current form, we've pretty much hit the ceiling, and in order to get anywhere, we're gonna have to change a few things.

Well, let's get on it! I'm looking forward to a fresher approach to this.