Greetings, salutations, and how the heck are ya? Brian here, writing to you from the Open Beta Secure Bunker and Haberdashery. We don’t get a lot of traffic through here. Makes sense, we post infrequently, and with no discernible pattern or schedule. We each have lives outside the band, busy lives, with day jobs to work, kids to raise, bills to pay, Grail-shaped beacons to keep lit, exciting underwear to knit…you know, regular life stuff.
That said, we’re looking to make some changes in how we do things this year. We’re re-examining our priorities. It feels like the right time to become more focused on what we do as a band, and on the fans who support us. Some changes have already begun; did you hear we have a new album out? Just released in November 2022, our second album and the first new one since 2015. “Mission Statement” is a good representation of who we are, who we’ve evolved into as musicians, and the kind of work we’d like to do going forward. Plans are already in the works to try to record another album this year; keep checking back in, we’ll keep you posted.
There’s other lofty goals we’ve set for ourselves this year. We’d like to start writing original music. We have things we want to say, and it’s high time we started saying them in our own words. We’d like to perform more, try new venues and new kinds of performances. (If you spot a good place for such, drop us a line and let us know.) Most of all, we’d like to find more and better ways of engaging with you, our fans. In a real and literal sense, we can’t do what we do without you. Trust me, I’ve played to empty and near-empty rooms. It’s not fun, it’s not satisfying, and it makes me sad. A lovely little community has formed around this band, and we want to see that grow and thrive. So we need to give more attention to you, in a variety of ways.
One of those ways is right here, before your very eyes. I started this site as a school project almost 8 years ago. It’s been through a number of changes since then. I handed off the management and architecture of the site to our resident Technomancer, and she’s done a great job with it, but we’ve been lacking in consistency and content. If there’s nothing new to see here, why would you bother looking? Problem is, the various social media platforms we’ve historically used to communicate with you have become…unreliable. (Looking at you, Mark & Elon.) We don’t know how much longer they’ll be really viable. In addition, the big SM platforms are really only useful for short-term communications. They’re great for announcing when and where our next show might be, but kind of terrible for engaging in meaningful dialogue with you.
Effective immediately, we’re committing to improving content consistency and engagement on this site. That’s fancy business-speak for “We’ll be posting things here every week.” Each of us has committed to writing at least one page of content per month. The fourth week of each month, we’ll have a guest author write something up and post it. Sometimes it’ll be one of our amazing support staff. Sometimes it could be one of our lovely Patrons. Topics will vary, from music to day-to-day band operations to updates on our nerdy hobbies. We not only want your feedback on these, we’re humbly asking for it; we need it, really, need your help in growing this community and making it thrive. Even a quick note just to say you stopped by would help.
We have other ideas in the works, and you’ll hear about them here first. Virtual shows, gaming sessions with the band, a Discord server of our very own, a possible roadtrip, new Patreon rewards and who knows what else. If there’s something you’d like to see, let us know! If we use your idea, we’ll concoct some special reward for you.
We look forward to this time of new growth and renewal. We sincerely hope you’ll continue along with us on the journey. And we’re forever grateful for the love, trust, and support you’ve shown us for so long.
A question for you: What do you remember about the first time you heard us play?
Looking forward to more things here on the website and hearing about your alls doings. Love to you all!
I’ve seen each of you play in many places (and with various people), heck, I’ve played with y’all more than once (some of my absolutely favorite memories btw). First time I saw you in your current incarnation was at Cup O Karma at one of your weekly shows. It’d been years and hearing and seeing you was like coming home!
I remember the first time I heard you guys. One of my dearest friends passed just a few days before one of your shows. You were playing at the Harp and he was a harpist. It was an incredible balm for my soul and therapeutic. I don’t think I could thank you enough for what you provided for me that night without actually knowing it.
I’m happy to see more updates.