Okay – Heather and Kristen and I are just coming off of our NERFA high and I think I’m correct in saying all of our heads are spinning – but I think we also all have a combination of a couple of things:
- We’re pretty fucking awesome, and we’re finally getting recognized for that awesomeness.
- We work really fucking hard, but I think we could work smarter. We all probably took different things from the various showcases, discussions and overall experience. And before even that we need to talk about that and figure out how to intelligently discuss it.
- In many ways I feel like we’re on a precipice to the next level (whatever that means) – but we need to keep on pushing and a big part of that is just organizing how we do things. Trello.com looks like it could be a very, very useful part of how we organize our attack, defining tasks and responsibilities and making sure we each know what the other is supposed to be doing – and what’s getting done – and making sure nothing’s falling through the cracks. We have a fanbase and friendbase that has always been eager and excited to help us. Unfortunately over the years anything that we DO organize on that front gets diffused by a disorganized approach to street teaming and minioning. We are firmly in the “mid-tier” of the folk world. No really. We’re professional, we’re very, very good. How do we attack the next tier. I want ilyAIMY to be a house hold name in the folk community and to continue being THE subversive thing to enjoy. Trello.com could also help in organizing street teaming? Who knows.
- Above all, a certain growly singer/songwriter needs to write some new songs.
- Rebranding – or rather, getting back to our brand. I feel like we’ve watered ourselves down in a couple of ways in order to appear less threatening, less geeky, more or less whatever – I think we’re showing again and again that people are accepting and enjoying who and what we are. We should get over what we “should” be, get over who we wish we were, and embrace the Hell out of what we ARE.
Gordon Nash in the house! Greg Klyma arrives and grins his grin! I hadn’t noticed it at the time but DAMN that’s a nice scarf…. Heather meets up with Brittany Ann, one of our favourite singer/songwriters out of Philadelphia. A beautiful woman and a Hell of a performer with a warm and engaging stage presence and great writing – I could be talking about either of the above, couldn’t I? (at NERFA at the Hudson Valley Spa and Resort in Kerhonkson, NY)
The above are my end thoughts after a couple of hours at Cyber Café West in Binghamton, NY chatting back and forth about business, Life, the universe and everything. Eventually our efforts were hampered by powweb (our hosting provider) crashing – which really, really pisses me off. Here we are in the hours post a major music conference where we pushed the Hell out of our music, our fingers and our names – and www.ilyaimy.com goes down. Twitter and Facebook allow me to still maintain presence and give an idea of what’s going on, but in the meantime it looks unprofessional and I can’t help but curse the timing.
This man stopped me in a hallway at NERFA and said “You don’t know me, but I think we’re of the same religion.” at which he went a’rummagin deep in his pants. Then he pulled THIS out of his pocket and I understood! I was wearing my record spider t-shirt (courtesy of Trax on Wax). It’s kind of crazy that he had one in his wallet… and THAT’S the way I met Bruce Kaplan – smooth electric player in the midst of all these acoustic peeps. Diane has ALL the badges. Bethel Steele is just wonderful people. Here she is playing her heart out in a hotel room at around 2 in the morning. I don’t know why – but this is one of my favourite pics of her. These guerrilla showcases are mad smorgasbords of music and wandering down the halls of the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa is vaguely like wandering the streets of Austin during SXSW with a different sound coming out of every doorway.
Overall NERFA was huge, crowded, hot, loud and overwhelming. Heather’s better at tracking names and faces than I will ever be, but I tried to stay focused and attentive and maintain better-than-nod-and-smile acknowledgement of people that I really OUGHT to know by now. There were a couple of awkward moments, but thankfully they were more often caused by other peoples’ memory lapses than my own. Alas, I’m often the guy “who plays with heather” or “that guy with the black guitar” or “the one with the chick drummer”. Hell – don’t matter to me, you recognize me and have a memory associated with our music? I’ll take it!
Well, I took about 600 photographs that I considered to be keepers, took a fair amount of video, recorded the squeak of our hotel room door and have more little scraps of paper and hastily-scribbled notes than I can shake a fistful of drumsticks at. Heather and Kristen each have their own piles… and then the post networking yammering will get down to practice and I can think of about 15 artists who we’ll ALSO be comparing scraps of paper with….
Madness. Madness says I!
So, I have yet to come up with a full plan of attack, but basically what I’ve come away from NERFA is: write more, own myself and then own the world. Ish. Noooo problem.
