aha! i got you! i figured if i named this episode something eye-catching you would click. it worked!!
in its 3 year run, the Fax Of Life has been a champion of steady readership and listenership, “engagement” the kids call it nowadays. but in the last few months, for no reason discernible to me, our “engagement” has dropped off a cliff. i know i am preaching to the choir here - thank you for clicking, reading, listening - but this cliff drop is concerning, and i’m panic-ing a bit. so… um… please keep listening and reading and… tell a friend? re-up your subscription? let’s climb out of this valley together!
meantime, we’ll pretend this episode is starting… now.
…
today’s audio is “devil’s waltz”, a bonus track from my 2007 album “sing you sinners”. this was the age of the bonus track, when content didn’t mean an endless hose of video clips, but instead premium treats to be doled out to elite consumers. my record label was asking for more content, so we recorded this… nothingburger of a song. it was written in the moment by myself, drummer allison miller, bassist todd sickafoose, and keyboardist sam kassirer. the only credit i can take as a composer was the initial chord progression and the instruction: “play it up a half-step and faster each time until you cant anymore.” we hit record and never thought about the track again. i have no idea what the record company did with it, if they tried to give it people who bought the record at target or barnes and noble or something like that, but “devil’s waltz” quietly danced its way to oblivion.
when “sing you sinners” turned 15, which meant i got the rights back from the original record company, i rereleased it on streaming platforms and included “devil’s waltz” along with several more frankly better recordings we had made as “bonus content”.
but streaming brings its own wonders and absurdities, and one recent one was this: some young people who were definitely born after 2007 and now attend an elite new york city prep school somehow discovered “devil’s waltz” and used it for their spring dance concert.
i happen to have some friends whose kid attends the same school and is in the dance program. it is from their dumbfounded and amused texts that i even know of this wonder and absurdity. privacy concerns probably keep me from sharing the video of these kiddos dancing to our throwaway track, but let me tell you it was wierd, awesome, flattering, and most definitely “content”.
many years ago, in 2010 to be exact, my pal amanda palmer posted one of my favorite blogs of all time. if you know amanda’s work, you know it is emotional, provocative, vulnerable, and raw. people love her for this. and i admire her continued ability to explore her very personal self publicly. however, this blog post was not that. it was a list of all the emails and inbox items amanda had to take care of on an average day as an independent musician.
as someone who has long championed income transparency for arts workers, i loved the honesty and mundanity of this exercise. it has stuck with me all these years. and i am finally getting around now to posting one of these myself. i don’t do this to brag about who or what i have going on, or to complain about my dearth of opportunities. compare and despair, as they say, but merely to validate my fellow arts workers and give beloved listeners a bit of behind the scenes action.
so! here, in no particular order, is what was waiting for me as i tackled my inbox yesterday morning.
later this month i am a guest on a local improv comedy show. they will interview me then use my answers to improvise skits. the whole night is a charity benefit. email #1 - send requested photo for publicity graphic
email #2 - approve graphic so they can put the show on sale (you should go if you live in western mass)
i am producing a session next week for a singer-songwriter client, and there’s a bunch of logistics to go over, including email #3 - get permission from the client to hire an additional guitarist
#4. email prospective guitarist
and… guitarist is in! email #5 - send them details for the session: time, place, musical materials
6. tell the client we hired the guitarist! inquire also about how food for the session will go
7. remind the entire crew of the session the details of where, when, etc plus the fact that i have just uploaded new charts for the songs we’ll record
this fall, i am producing another album project for a long-time singer-songwriter client. they have done the outrageously cool work of funding the entire project with grants, so now we have a budget. after a meeting with the client, email #8 - is a draft of an email to studio owner / engineer getting a price and schedule quote on our dream work scenario
the client approves the draft so i send email #9 to the studio owner. fingers crossed it comes together!
email #10 is a separate email to the same client with details about how we might want to structure a studio day for strings to come play on the record
i am currently working on a new musical in chicago with some wonderful collaborators and a wonderful theater. we’re in the middle of making a big hire for our creative team so emails #11-20 or so are back and forth drafts and responses to various delicate situations
this fall i am teaching a songwriting class for a music organization. i’ll say more when we’re ready to announce. meantime, i send email #21 with penciled in class schedule and a request to revisit some of our initial financial structure agreements
my requests are approved. do i have time to meet by zoom on thursday? email #22: no. i’m writing and recording my podcast that day ;)
a few days ago, my singer-songwriter agent said they were sending a list of folks interested in having me perform this fall. said list has not appeared. email #23 is a nudge.
i might interrupt here and say i generally don’t send email nudges. i don’t know if they work and maybe just engender bad vibes? i personally don’t like getting nudged. i am very well aware of emails i haven’t yet answered.
speaking of… i should answer the following emails… and i haven’t yet. i am so sorry. i should probably answer them now instead of writing and recording this pod.
1. the client for next week has shared an impressive breakdown of the emotional landscape of one of their songs
2. a friend has offered to host a hiking concert in a cool place
3. another friend has offered to host a hiking concert in another cool place
4. a former client has sent a lovely note catching me up on what they’ve been up to recently
5. a fan i met at a festival a few weeks ago has sent a thank you and a follow up question of real depth
6. many many email jokes are passing back and forth between members of the band for next week’s session. i have yet to weigh in.
so! that’s the basic lay of the land in my world, excluding of course all the attendant life emails and concerns that plague us all: new tires, friend plans, scheduling carl’s dog sitter etc etc.
for perspective, this is a relatively quiet time. i’m not preparing an album for release. i don’t have any big run of tour dates on the books. in those times, i like to say the “water level” of my inbox rises. more small details accumulate, the background noise gets louder. so right now, i am quite grateful for the electronic peace and space to dream up my next project.
so please forgive my late reply, i hope this podcast found you well.
warm regards,
erin
¡ME GUSTA! : SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!
i was enthralled and horrified by this account of mental illness and abuse in a large family. there is also this recent documentary about the same story. i recommend the book first. it’s extraordinary.
for whatever reason, i needed to follow this up with a classic true crime. i had never read “in cold blood”, and now i have. if true crime is your thing, there is nothing more poetic, heartbreaking, thorough, and less sensational than this classic.
on a much lighter note, some rad irish kids made a cool song.
how to speak scouse.
do you want to enter my current circle of hell?
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Reminder, Erin does not appear in productions of Miss You Like Hell
some personal news