It's already been almost a month since we released the Ashes for my Valentine EP. That's incredible. After a slog of work to get it recorded and edited, and without really knowing what we were doing, we actually released music. You can look the band up on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Facebook and Instagram, now, which is absurd to me. We went from being a group of people who played a couple songs at some parish festivals to self-published musicians. At band practice on Wednesday, we were commenting on how it felt unreal but also amazing. And then, we started talking about what's next.

We have about ten original songs at various stages of readiness. Our songwriting tends to run long - one, that focuses on the emptiness of this world and a longing for God's second coming, is close to 10 minutes. So, with just ten songs, it would be a long record. I think that fits our style as a band and as artists. For me, at least, any time I try to write a song, I write a lot of words. I have a lot of things to say, I guess, and I enjoy making pictures with words, especially when I get to punctuate those verbal images with music.

We're not ready to record yet, though. Megan and I are both pretty tied up with school semester stuff. Moreover, we don't currently have the equipment that we would need to record drums well. We're working on a practical solution that will get good sound quality without breaking our non-existent bank account. We may try some initial recording over the summer.

But we're also gearing up for a second season of shows. We are already booked for two parish festivals - check out our events section for dates and times. That means we have to make sure our original songs are ready to show off to the world live, and also develop an engaging set list by adding covers. In brainstorming, we've been pretty adventurous. Whereas last year featured a lot of basic punk pop, since that's easy for a new band to pick up and play, we've got a wide array in sight for this year's shows. It should be exciting.

A dilemma arises from this. Prepping a set list and practicing enough to be ready to play live takes a lot of time and dedicated practice, and there's a harsh deadline. Whether we've practiced enough or not, we're going live in July and August. If we play a solid, engaging live set, there's hope we could continue to establish a local following. We now have the online presence for people to track when we're playing and start to get excited about the band. But if people head to our website and there's no music to listen to, it's hard to keep that engagement. If we spent more time recording, we might risk the show, but then people could hear us, head to Spotify, and we'd be in their ear frequently. But we can't do both at the same time, especially since we don't have this self-publishing gig figured out yet. If we were good at this, we could whip up a few demo tracks without taking too much time, but that's not feasible right now. And so, we're probably going to have to delay serious recording until after the summer.

I do want to continue working on our online presence, though. I'm going to post blog updates regularly. I like this medium. It gives me a chance to dig into the lyrics that my bandmates and I pour our hearts into. To quote Anberlin, “I grow tired of writing songs | where people listen but never hear what's really going on.” I view songwriting as an opportunity to share the experience of beauty amidst suffering that I've encountered, and writing about what all these words mean to me lets that artistic reality shine. I want people to think about these songs. I'll also start doing some basic social media presence stuff, principally on facebook and instagram. Make sure you click the badges to follow our pages on those sites to follow, etc.

The email list that got created when people started downloading our music was an afterthought. I realized it was an option after the music had already been live for a bit, and thought it might be a good idea. We plan to send out an update each month or so, along with some exclusive goodies. Maybe some quick acoustic recordings of upcoming tracks, as well as further insights into the creative process we go through. So, if you're not already signed up, use the widget below to make sure you get our emails. You have my solemn promise that you will not be spammed.

If you look at the first blog post I did over six months ago, I was worried about the effects of social media and publicization on the band and on myself. I don't know that social media is a good thing. In order to succeed as a band in the digital market, you need to commodify and sell yourself. I hesitated for two weeks about making an instagram and facebook page for the band, because I was scared of what running social media might do to me and to how I think about the band. But, in the end, I decided it was necessary. We've put a lot of effort into the songs we're writing and the music we're making. And music is made to be heard.

Thanks for listening.