Just a girl & her Gibson...
I am happy to report we are home & made it through tour! While it was pretty short (about a three week run...it hit the spot!) We had a great time & there's something about playing music that truly feels like nothing else in the world! This time around things were waaaaaay different in a good way! We left Suz at home (she was in school at the time) & even played a new song "Ride". On this run I got to hit the road with my fiance. I'm very lucky in the fact that I fell in love with my best friend who I make music with anyway! I always had issues in the past of feeling like I was leaving that other person to do what I loved & that was soooo hard on my relationships. I know now that it's NOT really a relationship when you only see someone 5 months out of the year because you both are touring. That's just a hot mess. No one wants to be the one left at home. I also think people are lying to themselves if they don't admit that the temptation on the road and the combination of not being able to connect with your significant other doesn't make eveyone fall. I watched it with my own eyes. I've done it myself. I've seen good people get lonely and it's just not fair to themselves or the person at home. That said I'm on the road with my person; knowing what I know now I wouldn't tour solo if I was in a relationship I wanted to keep.
Christian working on some "Blue Steel"
This last year off the road went by fast. I launched Viva Bandita....I got engaged (yay!)....I lived a little and did some non band traveling...I wasn't broke for once! I don't care what anyone says, without sounding like too much of a pessimist, being in a band is HARD. You make money if you are lucky, but there's not like Lady Gaga money coming in if you know what I mean! A friend and I were talking the other day about how people used to say all the time "oh they sold out" or something to that effect when a band started making money. I really thought that stigma was dead, but the other day I heard a Spinnerette song being used on a Cadillac commercial & I looked it up on google (as with everything) ha ha...anyway someone was like "oh that sucks, such a sellout move...etc." It's stupid....because people who work normal jobs for a living are allowed to make money off WHAT THEY DO, but an artist can't be paid for their work they do or they are selling out?! How is that fair? Now I don't feel like we were ever giving such a big opportuniy that we got labeled as sellouts I really feel for bands that work their whole lives to just make money doing what they love & then be hated by the original pack of diehard true fans that should be sharing in their success!
"Get in the VAN!" While having time off allowed me to renew my love for music, I would be lying if I said I missed being in the van! Am I too old to be in the van? Ha ha kidding! I'm still really young, but I did get to live in a double decker bus last summer & it's hard to pile into the regular ol' van. We pimped the van out put some nice bunks in it....What I really do miss is all the fans and excitement, but we moved so fast for so many years that I never got a chance to focus on myself! I feel I've found a pretty good balance now & I'm even working on some new music stuff....I've been blogging a little on the Viva site & a little bit here...writing feels almost as good as making music does! I'm so optimistic right now it's almost sick ha ha...Glad I have ppl to share it with & an audience that continues to grow with me as I go on 14 years of CIVET! xo
THIS scrzya (crazy) bitch ha ha...
