News.

01.13.12 : The State of the Garden

I leave tomorrow for Nashville, my suitcase packed with merch, clothes, food, and a sleeping bag, to spend a week rehearsing with Dinner And A Suit for our upcoming east coast tour. DAAS have the incredible responsibility of not only putting on their own live show each night on this tour, but also putting on a live show as Gardening, Not Architecture’s backing band. Crazy! I’m so excited to get to play as part of a full band again, something I haven’t been able to do with this project except for the first two shows I did in Los Angeles at the end of 2008. There were also a few guest appearances by Tip The Van as my backing band for “Stop, I Get It” on the 2010 Warped Tour:

Otherwise it’s been about eight years since I played on a stage as part of a band. I’m curious to see how it’s going to go over for G,NA fans, especially to anyone who has seen my solo show. It will be a much different experience from the light wall, that’s for sure!

As far as the set list goes, I’ve decided to keep it simple on this tour and only perform new songs from “Saboteur.” If I’d been rehearsing with a band for a few months and playing local shows while learning and perfecting a set list of old and new songs, that would be one thing, but for now it’s all about baby steps. First I want to try out a handful of songs with a full band, then I want to decide how to handle upcoming tours for this “Saboteur” album cycle as far as live instrumentation goes, then I’ll start looking for people to work on the songs over a longer period of time, to perfect them with me and be the official touring band for G,NA. It’s definitely going to be a year of baby steps.

The Kickstarter Reward fulfillment, which has become my full-time job in lieu of an actual full-time job, is slooooowly approaching the finish line. WOW. I have definitely learned that I am a terrible judge of how much work and money goes into my ridiculous ideas for handmade merchandise. I don’t know how my brain comes up with its calculations, but I think it’s time for my brain to go to math college, because what I thought would take two months at the most and cost around $700 is actually going to end up taking closer to four months and costing closer to $1000 after all is said and done. It’s all turning out beautifully, even better than I even imagined it would, and I am glad I’m taking the time not to cut corners, but still… wow! Of course, I would never complain about my “full-time job” being handmade merchandise and art projects! I just need to get better about creating the budgets for my time and money going into this stuff. I think this is why bands have managers and accountants.

Currently, of the Kickstarter Rewards, I have sent out:

- all of the digital download packs
- all of the free downloads of the new album
- all of the photozines
- all but five of the posters
- all but twelve of the handmade shirts
- none of the instrumental or collected demos CDs

I’m so close to finishing the shirts, and when I get back from this east coast tour I’m hoping I’ll have enough money to finish up the instrumental and collected demos CDs and get those out.

During October and November, while I was just getting into the designing, planning, ordering, and making of the Kickstarter Rewards, I also mixed, mastered, designed, promoted, and released my second full-length album: “Saboteur.” I hosted a listening party for the album at Liberty Bar in Seattle, which I streamed online via Ustream, on November 21st. The album came out on Bandcamp and iTunes on November 22nd, and soon after I began taking pre-orders for the limited handmade CD version of the album.

Meanwhile, during the month of November, I was also selling and packing my things in preparation for my cross-country “migration” tour and temporary(?) move to Florida, which kicked off in Seattle on November 25th and ended in Pensacola on December 10th.

Just writing that paragraph made me sweat; I really do wonder sometimes if I might be addicted to stress.

Anyway, now I’ve been in hibernation and recovery for a little over a month. Although, it hasn’t been either, really, since I’ve been spending this time finishing up the cutting, folding, sewing, signing, numbering, bleaching, folding, packing, addressing, and shipping of the handmade “Saboteur” CDs and the handmade G,NA shirts for the Kickstarters. Still, I’ve managed to find time to visit family for the holidays, go to the beach, and even watch a few movies on Netflix. I’ve gotten the bulk of the handmade stuff done and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is the point at which I could very easily get nice and comfortable and never leave the house again.

So it’s a damn good thing that I’m getting back out on the road, even if it’s just for a short while. Heaven forbid that I relax!

And even though I tell myself that once I get done with the tour, and send off the last of the “Saboteur” CDs and Kickstarter Rewards, I’ll finally slow down, take some time to recoup and maybe settle in for a few months — I know it’s a lie. For example, I recently launched an Etsy shop that I have several ideas for, and I’m already trying to figure out the goals for the Earn It Yourself community in 2012 — particularly our involvement with this year’s Vans Warped Tour, which would be our fourth or fifth year working with the tour in some capacity. There’s also talk of teaming up with Chris Staples on another tour in the spring, perhaps collaborating with him on some songs, and I’m already trying to decide when the next G,NA full (or partial) band will hit the road again this year.

The icing on the cake is that I will be working the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals again this year, for my third year in a row as an on-site sponsorship coordinator. I love working in the heat and sun of the California desert for a month each year, and it’s also a sort of family reunion for me, since many of the people who work those festivals have also worked the Warped Tour and other events that I have worked in the past. Not to mention that it’s a solid paycheck that will allow me some breathing room over the summer to continue working on the projects I enjoy.

So while I have some idea of how the first half of this year will go, I still don’t really know what to expect. I feel good about the fact that I am still afloat, by some miracle, still living this artist/Bohemian lifestyle one month into the third year of doing so. But there are a lot of holes, and the water is filling up the boat. At the end of 2012 there is a fork in the road — one that I put there for myself in the beginning of 2009. I told myself that I would dive in whole-heartedly and swim as fast and far as I could, but that by the end of 2012, if I couldn’t keep swimming, I’d do what was necessary not to sink.

Tomorrow I leave for Nashville with $65 to my name. I’m taking a box of Clif bars and Cup-O-Noodles with me for the week before we get to the first show in Richmond. We had to take a rain check on the Myrtle Beach show because it would be financial suicide to drive from Nashville 580 miles with no show on the way there to help pay for the gas. I’m hoping beyond hope that Richmond comes out and enjoys the show, so we can continue on to the next show, and the next, and complete the tour we’ve all been working on so hard these past couple months — myself, my booking agent, and Dinner And A Suit. It’s amazing how much time and work goes into these things, with so little financial return. But we all do it because we love it. We love the music, the challenge, the ideas, and collaborating with like-minded people to tackle problems and find solutions. It’s a feeling that can’t be bought, sold, or simulated. If only that feeling could also feed me and pay my bills…

For now, I keep moving forward. Keep putting the music out there in the hopes that new people will discover it and like it. Keep collaborating with people on ideas and keep trying to do and make good things. I see lights at ends of tunnels and forks at ends of roads, and both are reasons not to give up.

I’ll end this update with a request for help from you, the reader, in spreading the word about the shows I have coming up and the new (and old) music I have available for pennies on Bandcamp and iTunes. Even if you yourself can’t be at a show, or can’t afford to buy a song or an album, just the act of talking about it to friends and relatives could mean another ticket or download sold! Thank you in advance, and in retrospect, and in every moment, for taking the time to care about Gardening, Not Architecture as much as I do.

Love,
Sarah