News.
08.14.10 : Two more days…
Driving to the second-to-last Warped Tour show. It’s really hard to believe that it’s already time for me to re-pack my suitcases and buy plane tickets and think about re-entering the real world — or that I’ve been on this crazy tour for 51 days without losing my mind. This is definitely one of the most trying things I’ve done, and I know that once I stop to catch my breath it’s all going to hit me at once and I’m going to either get sick, write an album, or disappear into the woods. Or all of the above.
There are so many exciting things that have come out of my summer on the Warped Tour. I have barely been able to keep up with everything, but hopefully I’ll be able to catch myself (and everyone else) up soon. Between performing on the tour each day and running the EIY Meetups each day, I’ve been extremely inspired and I have tons of new ideas for the world of G,NA.
If you haven’t yet, go to the Press section and check out the things people have been saying about G,NA this summer!
And if you didn’t know, I’m working with my good friend to book a North American tour for the fall, and the tentative routing is up at earnityourself.com/gardeningnotarchitecture. I can’t wait to get back to all these cities (and more) to hang out with everyone I met this summer!
It’s been a very intense summer for me, personally, with extreme highs and extreme lows that will undoubtedly fuel the fire to write some new G,NA songs. I never thought I’d be back on this side of music, touring full time with no money, no security, no personal life, and no idea what might happen next. I definitely never thought that in just under two years, G,NA would be on the entire Warped Tour or that so many people would be invested in the project — a project I never intended to be anything more than a free downloadable EP on a website.
I can’t say I’ve ever been happier, or more personally satisfied with my life, than I am right now.
Thank you for being part of this
Love,
Sarah
08.09.10 : Dear Los Angeles Friends:
*EDITED 29 MINUTES AFTER POSTING: Found someone! 
*
Does anyone want to come to Warped Tour in Pomona on Wednesday and take my road case back to LA for me? I need to store it in someone’s garage until the end of Sept. I’ll get you in to the show, and I’ll pay you for storage! Otherwise I have to leave it in Portland and then get it to LA for the start of my Fall Tour, somehow.
Oh, the logistics of being homeless, car-less, and broke.
Email me if you can help, and you have a safe garage or storage space!
Love,
Sarah
08.06.10 : The first G,NA family?
Got this letter today and it was too adorable not to share! – Sarah
Subject: Little Listeners
Message: Sarah,
Saw mention of your music in some article covering the Warped Tour. Not really into the music in the tour but the article was interesting. It mentioned a different electronic-pop group GNA and so I quickly pulled it up in Google. Great stuff!!! I’ve always loved Mono and this was like a merging of Mono with another one of my old favs – velour100.
Anyway! I put the CD in our van hoping my wife would chance on it when she drove next. Well, its funny, the next time we used the van, we drove together and while she liked GNA she said, “Where’s that new The Innocence Mission CD you just got?” mainly because she loves Innocence Mission as I do and she had been looking forward to it for some time. I reluctantly put it in. The next time I had a chance I put GNA back in the CD Player 
Well fast-forward a week later. Yesterday as we were driving home seperately. We reach home, she gets out and says, “That CD you put in the van, what are they called? I love THEM!” I said, “Gardening Not Architecture ……what happened to Innocence Mission??” She said, “Yeah I couldn’t get into the new songs”
:O
She went on,”Your little ones are singing along too you know….” Sure enough inside the house, my five year old is singing “Stop I get it, it wasn’t obvious” and my 3 year old is singing “a million circles round the same old thing” LOL.
It gets better. I go out for Chinese and I take my 3 year old daughter with me. Your CD is playing. On the way back when I am taking her out of her carseat she says, “We need this music in our house”. XD
What better recommendation could you ask for???
Take care, keep safe,
David
08.04.10 : I breathe in deep before I spread those maps out on my bedroom floor…
I’m teaming up with Adam Kreeft from UO Booking Agency to put together a Fall Tour! I’m super excited to be working with Adam, after doing a Canadian tour with him this year that was such a success (and the most professional tour I’ve ever done). I’m also excited for Adam, who has built his company from the ground up, to the point that he is ready to take on the US! He’s an old-school EIY member, and has been involved with the site since the beginning, so it’s especially rewarding for me to be able to join forces with someone who shares my values. I think this tour is going to be my biggest and best tour yet – I can’t wait!
But enough gushing, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. I need your help! There are tons of cities on this (tentative) routing that I have only played on Warped Tour, so I need suggestions for the best local venus, promoters, and bands to hook up with in each town! The more info you can give me, the better – and the best thing would be if you can book the show yourself! I will play anywhere, and prefer small venues or house shows. I also need floors to sleep on in all these cities, and help passing out flyers, selling merch at the shows, loading in my stuff and setting it up, etc. AND, if there is a way to tie in an EIY Meetup/Workshop before the show in your city, we should talk about how to make that work, too! So, there are lots of options and ways to get involved.
I will be using my EIY profile as the home base for info about the Fall tour while we work on the routing, date/city changes, additions, updates, etc. It’s just easier to keep it in one place until everything is confirmed, so I don’t have to go around editing a million different profile pages and such.
Bookmark this page, and email me if you can help with any of the shows: www.earnityourself.com/gardeningnotarchitecture
I can’t wait to get back to all these cities, this time with the infamous LIGHT WALL for all to see!
Love.
Sarah
08.03.10 : The sidewalks are watching me think about you…
I found out last night that one of my best friends passed away in a tragic car accident. She and I have been through so much together, and it will be impossible to replace her in my life or in this world. She carries so much of me with her to the other side. I am in shock and I don’t know when it will hit me. There are so many events and emotions that we experience enough times in our lives that we know what to expect and how it will feel when certain things happen. But death doesn’t happen that often, so it is a totally surreal thing to try to process, especially when the person is close to you.
My friend was an incredible energy source in my life. She was full of light and everyone wanted to be around her. She was not afraid to be herself and she was honest in everything she did and said. We had such an amazing friendship. We met when we were 20, and immediately fell in love. We threw basement shows together, went on adventures together, made each other mix tapes, and spent endless hours listening to music, talking about life, and encouraging each other to live out our dreams. She introduced me to The Weakerthans, which is still one of my favorite bands of all time.
She eventually moved from Madison (where we met) to Seattle, where she became a social worker, helping troubled kids get on the right path. She took a year off to travel the world by herself, something I can’t even imagine trying to do, but she did it and she won the hearts of everyone she met along the way. She stayed with me in LA before and after that trip, and I got to see how nervous she was going into it, and then how confident she was when she got back — having achieved and surpassed her goals, and having learned so much about herself in that year.
Though we didn’t see each other or talk often enough after we both left Madison, the connection remained strong, and I knew I could pick up a phone and call her anytime, and it would seem like no time had gone by at all. Thanks to G,NA, I was able to tour to Seattle a few times in the past couple years, and spend some time with her there. We got to have some of our inspiring talks, and catch up on all the latest stories from each of our lives.
A few days ago, she texted me to ask if she could bring some of the kids she worked with to Warped Tour to see me play. I told her of course, and that I missed her. I will never get used to the idea that I can’t pick up a phone to call her, but now more than ever I am inspired to live my life to the fullest every day, to be true to my calling, to never take anything for granted, and to head into each new adventure with determintation and a smile on my face.
Sara, I love you, I thank you, and I will always miss you.
