I was blogging a bunch last night and it basically turned into free writing for myself. It was just me thinking in circles as I often do and really not being able to articulate how I feel. I feel excited. We’re releasing a bunch of new merch on Friday and that exciting. We took the time to design some nice stuff, picked out some beautiful garments to print and embroider our ideas on, then borrowed Jordan Mizrahi from the Grayscale crew to take pictures so we could present the stuff nicely to you online. Not everybody is able to make it to our east coast shows so the online web store stuff is important to us.
The merch stuff is only one little piece of what I’m excited about though. Another is the fact that we’re writing a new album. We’re not writing 10-12 songs that go together to put a cover on and throw up on spotify, we’re writing an album. We thought we were going to pivot and release some singles because it feels like the safe modern move for bands to do, but we’re really not a single band. Releasing singles leading up to a release is cool and we do that, but to actually claim that singles are a viable option for a band that likes to tell full stories just didn’t feel right. Besides we’ve been talking about this album idea we’ve had for years now. We have all the tools and skills we need now to create a very cool soundscape and dynamic transitioning atmosphere so we will just write it and figure out how to fund it’s production later. We did go to a new studio and record a single, and the result is that we know where we’re going next to record. Grace Session is old to us because we sat on it for a year, but outside of us it’s still new and you’ve been giving it new life constantly lately. We will support that and work on getting on some bigger tours for the next few months while we write this LP. If you read this blog you might have seen me mention the name “Harmony” LP and that still holds up. We started talking about it a few years ago. It’s most exciting because I feel like Jacob’s Ladder was our demo, Grace Session was a follow up EP and this will be our first true LP as a band. We felt a lot of things out musically together through writing, practicing, and touring and we just finally honed in what we want to do.
Anyway I was about to just run on that topic for another paragraph and I stopped myself. I’m very long-winded and it sucks when I’m trying to make points or express things. Nobody wants to read a book every time I have a thought. This next one is important though. The main thing I am excited about is the major shift I’ve had in my perspective of what we’re doing. We’ve spent three years trying to build a following every way we possibly could while staying to true to our values. It wasn’t wrong but it has become unfulfilling at times. We have all of these people on the east coast who care deeply about what we’re doing and saying already and instead of just taking care of you all, our focus has been on finding more people instead of taking care of you. So that changes right now. I do not care about your quantity. You’ve listened to the songs, watched the videos, asked questions, started conversations, inspired us, bought the merch, and came to the shows. You might believe what we believe, or maybe you want to believe what we believe. Maybe you just think the songs sound cool. Maybe you like that all the cute girls and boys come to our shows so why not? I doubt it though. I feel something with you all. You seem to care about what I care about. Being part of something that isn’t causing harm and that’s inspiring us to do more with our lives than just think like everyone else and follow the steps of everyone else. That’s how I got into this type of music in the first place. Hardcore and emo bands were A. cooler and B. forward thinking. It starts out rebellious but then I think it needs to turn into acceptance later on. That’s what Rich People is about. Getting angry about status quo illusions, accepting them as realities, and making sure they don’t become my reality.
The world is expanding way too rapidly now to put my head in the sand and be compliant to some machine. We don’t have to. And we don’t have to be aggressive polarizing rebellious assholes about it either. That’s not productive and doesn’t serve me anymore. So I’m looking for new ways to tighten our community and I’m open to suggestions. You know where to find me.
Also if you read this entire thing it’s basically a really long one-sided conversation. Reach out and tell us what you value and what you care about.