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Ok, Chris!
Along with my contribution comes the burden of a message. I can only hope
you're willing to read it. If for any reason, let it be because it comes
from a different generation of struggling musicians. (More on that later.)
Now. It's approaching 9am on the west coast, and I've spent the evening,
since about midnight (read: 9 hours, on a weekday evening, yes, I have a
pathetic day job that starts in 30min.), recording this song, I don't know
why I felt compelled to put so much heart into something I know will never
benefit me in the future...... Well, no, I think (even at 9am) I'm lucid
enough to know exactly why. God I'm still drunk. That's horrible. Anyway...
I met Harvey (Gold) a couple months ago on myspace (Now, don't judge me, I
know the website/concept is embarrasing in a lot of ways, but Christ how
else would I have ever met Harvey? Or you?), and since then he's been
dispensing advice about life/music left and right like a father, brother,
hell like a pez dispenser even, ... and so I did some research on him, (and
his band), and of course found you.
And while I would never have recognized "The Waitresses" by name, it was an
ex-girlfriend of mine (who, at 20 years old right now, is obsessed with a
certain single of yours from long ago) that made me suddenly recognize *who*
I was reading about...
So after reading more about the Devil Glitch project, it came clear that it
was never your goal to technically write the longest pop song in history so
much as just create something epic, with *friends* (maybe even epic wasn't
the intention!)... It just happened to be that no one else had attempted
such a thing. Anyway, I really felt comfortable pouring my heart into this
concept because it was obviously not ego-based.
Anyway, Chris, if you're still reading this, then I'd like to change the
subject for a moment.
I'm really hoping you're listening to the mp3 I sent you while reading some
of this, but if you're reading first, that's ok too.
Even though I taught myself to play guitar, piano AND how to record/engineer
records, I still just turned 22 years old. Which means, yes, I grew up
stealing music. Sure, shame on me, I brought about the destruction of record
labels in general, but just wait.
Here's the catch. My parents were frighteningly religious growing up, and so
they didn't let me listen to music, period. Not even the radio. I found out
who the beach boys and the beatles were via the internet, and through
downloads (I hid it all on our family computer... Who should ever have to
HIDE the Beach Boys from anyone????) anyway, I lived a life of musical
secrecy, downloading albums by bands my parents had forbidden me to listen
to. I have no way to justify my theft, but I must say, to this day I'm more
well-versed in the entire history of pop music than anyone else my age.
Of course now I'm at a cross-road. I don't even know if you're aware of this
(and if you're still reading this then I'm amazingly impressed) but almost
ALL musicians in their early 20's who are recording albums, feel like they
should be giving them away. None of us think it's right to sell our music!
Not even me. Especially not me! I've been working on a full-length record
for almost 6 months, and as it's coming to a close I'm still thinking of a
way to *give it away* as opposed to selling it.
So, I want you to put that into your mental equation of the current status
of the music industry: not only are more consumers feeling like they should
be able to download music for free, but bizarrely more songwriters are
wanting to give their music away for free.
I don't expect you to have any insight, hell I don't expect you to even read
all of this, but all the same I feel it should be said to -someone-.
Thanks for letting me be apart a part of your project.
At the very least if you've scrolled through all of this to the bottom of
the email, I want you to read this: let me know what you think of my
contribution? Am I wasting my time as a songwriter? Musician? I'm playing
all the instruments except drums, which is a sample looped.
Sincerely,
Shane
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