More Me Stuff
The History of Me
----------Wednesday, June 20, 2001----------
Well, I suppose I should bring you up to speed on my current situation. As of now, I am residing in the little shit-town of Port Royal, South Carolina, right outside of Hilton Head. I will be here trying to work hard at strengthening my finances just enough to make it to Atlanta, Georgia. My goal is to move there by the Fall, but of course, it's just a goal and it's totally not realistic. Ha! At this rate I may not get there until next year, but I'm praying.
"Why Atlanta," you ask? Well, it's my starting point to success. All my life I have been involved with music, but more on a performing level. About four years ago, after going through two years of grueling study at college in music performance, I discovered the technical world of music, and I decided I wanted to concentrate more on sound engineering rather than performance. Over one summer of looking into many tech schools (and especially after sitting through a few tutor sessions with professionals and friends), my interests pivoted yet again. I had decided that it wasn't what I wanted to solely base my career off of.
A close friend had spent some time in Atlanta interning under an A&R Manager for a record company as a talent scout. He (knowing me as well as I know myself) came to the conclusion that it was the perfect career for me to look into.
I have been informed that if I am lucky, I can start out working as a talent scout as well. I may have to start lower, but I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it all works out once I get to Atlanta. I am also considering getting a degree in Radio and Television Production Technology once I get there. If I can land a good job immediately, however, I may just skip any further study altogether. Of course, I do keep in mind also that I may want to develop those skills and take this program anyways. I've also got thoughts about going to a bigger city more music-industry-oriented in the distant future. I'm not too sure yet what I will do exactly. It's all a list of rough ideas right now.
As far as my current preparations for the future go, I have been working like a maniac coordinating "freelance" promotions over the internet for a few bands. It really all started out as a simple on-the-side fun project or two. Within these last few months, however, I have gotten an overwhelming response, and I have met many great, encouraging people who have inspired and pushed me to stretch my limits. Some of these projects have begun to evolve into serious promotions.
My biggest project as of late is with a band many of you may well know as Elliott. I founded an Elliott Fan Club for them at the end of April, and amazingly, the band was gracious enough to contact me and express their gratitude and devotion to my purpose! They offered their support and I humbly accepted! Since then I have also developed a weekly interactive Elliott Chat for fans to speak directly to members of the band. The first chat commenced on the night of June 4th, and it was an instant success! Last week I met a close friend of the band's, and he offered to team up with me to start a new Elliott Mailing List! So we've sort of collaborated on that, and so far so good! I will be attending an Elliott performance on July 29th (at Krazy Fest in Louisville, KY, their hometown), and I will finally get to meet them face to face and take a tour through their studio (Nonlinear Studios)! I am pretty excited about that opportunity! As of now, they have been diligently working there in the studio, recording demos and preparing tracks for their future album. There is no date set yet for the release, and it may be quite a while, but be prepared for a treat! I cannot wait to hear some sneak previews of their upcoming stuff!
I have also been working towards promoting Nuclear Saturday, a punk band based out of Atlanta. I founded the Nuclear Saturday Online Official Fan Club and I have been working on keeping fans up to date with all of their latest events and news. They have been working hard over the last few weeks preparing the final mastered tracks for their upcoming full-length release, "A Cinderella Story." It has been several years since they put out an album (and so far no albums with the newer line-up have been put out yet), but since then they have appeared on quite a few compilations released by various labels including Triple X Records and Vagrant Records, and they have done quite a bit of touring over the United States. Lately they have only been able to perform sparsely throughout the East Coast due to their time being devoted to recording and searching for new representation. But as of June 6th, they have been signed to a new label, Silent Records! Thus endeth their seemingly-everlasting search. Good luck, guys! Anyways, when I move to Atlanta, I will be able to document their latest news more efficiently, as I will be there with them to help them out suggestion-wise, support-wise, and in any other way I can. Until then, I will continue to touch base with fans online. Nuclear Saturday's drummer, Tom, is my best friend in the whole world! As a matter of fact, he is the one I spoke of earlier who interned as a talent scout. He's been a close friend for many years now. He's a super-duper brilliant and ambitious person, and I have total faith in him and the band! I know they will be doing some great things in the near future, so look out everyone!! Here they come!! Hehe.
Another band I have recently been working on promoting is Jimmy Eat World. As most of you know, they have been taking the world by storm with the kickoff of their world-wide tour. They have been out plugging the release of their newest album, "Bleed American", due out on Dreamworks Records July 24th! I can't wait!! I will be attending their performance at the Vans Warped Tour in Atlanta on July 25th, and I am ecstatic about that as well! I have joined their street team and I have been doing what I can to get the word out about them and their new album. Again, most of my participation falls within internet promoting, since there is no scene in this piece-of-shit town. Their new single, "Bleed American," has taken to the airwaves and since been ranked as the #4 most requested new song! Kickass! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for their new music video coming out on M2 in the near future!
Since I am mentioning my favorite bands here, I feel that I must add in a little dedication ditty to another extreme inspiration of mine, The Gloria Record (ex-members of Mineral, etc.). Although I haven't done any official promotional work for them, I hope that I will get that privilege one day in the future, whether that means simply joining a street team or working more in-depth with them. I have fallen deeply in love with their music, and since then, have reconnected with Mineral's music on a more profound level than before. After finally delving into the lyrics of every song both bands have done (since hearing The Gloria Record for the first time), I have discovered just how uncanny the resemblance is between vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Chris Simpson's poetic words and my own free verse writings from the past and present. We seem to have used so much of the same imagery and experiences, set the same scenery, and sometimes even mirrored each other right down to the exact same words. I have to admit, it almost frightened me while reading his lyrics, because it was like staring into my own eyes. Ha! And I can't forget to mention how beautifully intricate their music is. Every use of instrumentation in every song (especially "Miserere," off of their release entitled "A Lull in Traffic") is so carefully and perfectly woven in with one another that it is literally impossible for it to compliment the music any more than it does. It's simply stunning...heavenly. Never fails to squeeze a few tears from me! Anyways, enough of all that. I just thought I'd reserve a space for them in here too, because they certainly have earned it!
Now, back to my preparations for the future, I am hoping that the next step I can take in acquiring experience will be actually going on tour with a band. I believe it will be a great way to familiarize myself directly with the process that a band goes through on its road to recognition. I figure I could go as a merchandise distributor or something. I would also like to get more involved in booking and advertising for upcoming shows. Again, once I move to Atlanta, all of this will be more readily available for me to utilize. I have lots of ideas and various passions in the field of entertainment (my interests range anywhere from films to photography to music to comedy to other visual arts, etc...must I go on?), and I have very high hopes for the future! I can't wait to get out there, make myself known, and make a difference in the lives of talented musicians everywhere!
So now you basically know the essence of me and how I came to be who I am today! Hopefully I have successfully shared with you at least a fraction of my immediate interests and dreams in life. There is so much more to tell, but I wouldn't want to bore you to death with more details! I fear that, being such a detail freak, I have already said way more than is necessary! Haha! For now, thank you so much for caring and taking the time to learn more about my life (if you've gotten this far, you must be either extremely interested or extremely bored, but good job! I'm impressed!), and be sure to check in for updates! I promise any updates won't be NEARLY as lengthy as this! :)
Heaps of love,
-----Lacie-----