I’m sitting here in the bus enclosure thingie and I’ve got Rhett’s song “Spiritually” going through my head. That song once received probably the most glowing review any song has ever received when some guy on MP3.com said it was the greatest song of all time. I am not sure that was correct, but in my opinion it’s up there. Anyhow, I’m sitting here bopping to my brothers music and several simultaneous thoughts are going through my head. First, why are there two cans of Coors Light sitting here in the bus thingie? I mean, who sits here drinking nasty beer while waiting for the bus? Not my people, that much is for sure. Second thought, how am I going to finish nucleargopher.com in the limited time available? I only have a few more days. Guess I gotta get cracking tonight. Maybe I’ll get lucky and my new scanner will arrive tonight. Third, why haven’t Reed and I ever recorded together before? I suddenly had what I think is a good idea for Reed and I to record a split 7″ together, playing on each others songs just to see what happens. I think that would be lots of fun. Of course, I can’t ask him because he’s off in St. Thomas with his wife. (Lucky punk)
So last night I was working on mixing and mastering on my solo album. Ive decided that a lot of the album is going to change before iti gets released on NGP. However, it will be released and it will be within 6 months. That much I know. Speaking of releases, Rhett is almost done with his new album too and the Kloey release is (of course) on September 10. Lots of music releases happening. The big question is the future of Kloey. What’s going to happen with those guys is beyond me to guess. I gotta gotta assume that they’ll play some shows after this CD release but whether or not there will be any more Kloey albums remains to be seen. It’s probably going to be a direct result of whether or not they sell many of this one. I hate to think that it’s tied to sales, but come on, the whole motivation behind NGP is to financially justify our musical hobbies (at least to the extent of paying for our equipment) or else we would just give our music away. When you have a family and kids and a job and meetings and service and friends, finding time to write and record music, pay for equipment, travel to gigs, etc, is both expensive and time-consuming. People outside of music generally don’t seem to understand the hours and hours of work and the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars this particular hobby takes. That money and time has to come from somewhere and, frankly, real life gets in the way after a certain point. If Kloey is not financially successful with their After-School Special, it will probably be the end of Kloey. It could be anyhow, but it’s less likely if they sell a bunch o’ copies. It’s my job to help them sell ‘em. I’ll do my best.
I hear Reed is starting a new band. Rhett is mostly recording with Brad and Dean now (they’re more his speed) making me wonder if there is any future for The Lavone either or if we should just call it a day at Isotope. Robbie and Hiromi are recording together, me and Manda are Steve, Reed and Jana recorded a cover of “Close to You” for their own wedding annd will keep recording together. So it seems to me that Kloey is going to be gone, SP3 is gone, The Lavone is probably gone (though always ressurectable), DayTrip is gone and what remains is Steve, me and Rhett solo, Reed and Jana, Robbie and Hiromi and Cindy Iverson solo. It’s time to breath some life into the old Gopher or else there might be no point in having a label.
I worry about NGP. It’s been such a part of my life for so long and right now it’s on life support. That makes me really sad. I do think, however, that life is like a game of Perfection. You get a short time to get all the little pieces into place before it all blows up on you and you have to do it all over again. Pre-2000, NGP had a bunch of pieces into place, but the timer ran out on that version, it popped up and all the pieces scattered. Now it’s time to put them back again. Can I still do it? Is there any point? I think there is as long as we care about music. There is always a point…
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