YouTube
I had a big meeting today that got pushed to tomorrow so I took a little break about an hour ago to sit outside. I’ve found that some combination of water and sun can cure most problems. Seriously, try it.
Anyway, I find myself on YouTube watching old New Hippies videos (more on them real soon). I watched the lyric video for “What You Want” which Understanding and I made with Griffin, our roommate at the time and I still think it’s pretty cool. Sure, I was heavy-handed on the color and the effects but we were vibin’. It was a vibe. I’m making a sick face with my tongue out while I’m writing this to emphasize the vibe.
Next I watched one of the videos we made with Zane’s brother Jeremy. We did a live version of the first song we released, Street Dweller. Two of many thoughts: 1. It was about as raw as could be and, 2. Everybody went for it, and that made it awesome. Also, the video is already six years old! Sheesh.
(Sidebar - I’ve had my AirPods in for about 45 minutes with nothing playing. I always do that. wtf)
Finally, I watched about 30 seconds of a recap video of Jacaranda Jams volume 1 before I had to turn it off. It had nothing to do with the quality of the video, which some friends at school were nice enough to shoot for us, I just couldn’t take the sound of my own voice in that one. I did catch a quick early Ginger Root appearance before I stopped watching, though. (It’s been awesome to witness the growth of Ginger Root. Cameron was always very kind, and even subbed in on bass for us once!)
I laughed when I closed out of that last video, thinking about how funny it is to look back and hear me rapping when I was in college and then to think that people might also remember that. I never could’ve guessed that would happen, and now there’s video evidence forever. Plus, I’m still doing it. This thing better work out, otherwise I’m going to look like an idiot.
…a beautiful idiot.
-J.P.
Dream Research
I’ve been doing some research, and it turns out if you’re NOT having dreams as an adult where the monster from “Wicked City” is chasing you out of your childhood home toward a mini tornado with eyes coming down your driveway and a horde of shin-high goblins are swarming from the woods with pitchforks and clubs that you and your family have to brawl with for 10 minutes in order to get to the car and drive off into the sunset, then you didn’t go to church enough. Or maybe you didn’t watch a lot of cartoons.
Research is on-going.
-L.U.D.
Reach, Target, Safety
Remember when you applied to college? Sometime at the beginning of your process you might’ve met with your high school guidance counselor. That’s what I did, at least. One random day at the beginning of my senior year I was called to the guidance office to go over my transcript and talk about my future plans. I think - to be honest this is a pretty hazy recall, I’m reaching a bit.
You see what I did there? Reaching. That’s one of the words in the title. Anyway, this was the concept my guidance counselor wanted to present to me: “Reach, Target, Safety.” I was supposed to compile a list of schools to which I wanted to apply (I use my best grammar when I speak of the hallowed halls of college out of respect, no sarcasm implied here, none at all) and organize them into three tiers: Reach, Target, and Safety. Threw in a little Oxford comma for the spice and, yes, this is the tone I used on my applications as well.
Let me first say, I think this is a stupid method. It sucks. Nothing turns me off more than qualifying your ambition before you begin your work. I’d never met the guidance counselor in my life. The first thing she wanted to do was tell me what I couldn’t do, based solely on numbers on paper. Now, it’s not her fault - she’s doing her job. It’s the mindset that upsets me. I wish I had more school experiences where people encouraged me to imagine what I could do, rather than tell me what I couldn’t. That being said, I put Harvard and Yale on my reach tier and applied for political science, a subject in which I had no real interest, nor did I have any requisite qualification. What? She told me to reach.
I then applied to a slew of target and safety schools, 75% of which I was admitted to and then never considered attending. Not even for a second. The remaining 25% were the only two colleges I ever imagined myself attending, New York University in Manhattan, and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
I didn’t get in to either one. No wait list, nothing. Whoops. Probably should’ve taken the whole college application process a little more seriously instead of getting mad and complaining about the system. Looking back, I was not prepared for the auditions and to be honest I might not even get in today - I don’t really think it was in the cards. Alas, I ended up at Ithaca College, major undecided. Just kinda there. That’s where I got the most financial aid, and I’d heard of it because a couple kids older than me in high school had gone. It was a safety, ya know?
Guess what? I was gone in three months. Dropped out. I wanted to come home to do music. I had to focus on my art. Thank god for my mom, she let me. I took the spring off from school and worked at the mall, while I wrote songs and got a couple recorded. I did a year at community college taking night classes, and eventually transferred to Chapman University in 2014, and I got into film school for screenwriting without ever having written any sort of screenplay in my life. I was reaching.
Two days ago I applied to a dream apartment. Yesterday I found out that “Where Do You Go” has the most streams of any song I’ve ever released. This week I’m going to pitch an album and a follow up television show. With all due respect, guidance counselor…
Let me reach.
-J.P.
Short-Term Memory
Not many people talk about the potential benefits of short-term memory. Say I go to the gym and shortly after I forget, so I go back to the gym.
I’m getting shredded that week.
-L..U.D.
Consider This
Consider this: the universe exists in perfect harmony.
Everything is all right, delicately balanced, working exactly how it needs, to keep this party going. Allow yourself to be the vessel you are, having this one of a kind, miraculous, collective experience. That could be what’s happening when you wake up, when you go for a run, when you mess up at work, when you get in a fight, when you fall in love, when you have a baby, when your grandparents pass, when that storm came, when you had that really nice day that one time… ALL the time, this unbelievable balance is achieved.
Consider that you exist within that balance, and it is your duty to the universe to pursue the passion that brings you closer to the sun, that thing that makes you feel most alive. It is your responsibility to inject the universe with as much energy as you can, because a machine works best when all its parts operate at peak performance.
Consider how beautiful that could be. How exciting, to be part of that history of the perfectly balanced universe, where you did your best.
Work hard, be faithful... You’ll get your just reward.
-J.P.
Nobody Said It Was Easy
No one ever said it would be so hard. They say if it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it. I say that sucks. I just want one thing to be easy. This whole thing - starting a company, managing my time, releasing music again, dealing with people - it’s never easy. It’s been a series of one step forward, two steps back at every single turn. It’s not even just my career, it’s my whole life. Today I found out I have a misdemeanor on my record because I got a speeding ticket in Brainerd, Minnesota. I paid the ticket, expecting to be done with it but found out about it when a real estate agent called to ask about my rental application and if I could explain why I was a petty criminal. “Uh… cause I did 74 in a 65 on an open road the one time I was ever in Minnesota I guess…. can I still have the apartment?”
We’re getting ready to introduce (reintroduce) our second artist, The New Hippies, this month. Understanding and myself had the privilege of working on the music for the Hulu show “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” over the past four years, and we got the opportunity to write and license a handful of songs to the show to use in season 3. Consider this a soft announcement of our upcoming release. Unfortunately obtaining permission to use the title of the show is highly unlikely and leads to a world of legal loop-de-loops and just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
We can pick another name for the album. I can explain that it was a just a speeding ticket. I can speak with support at Spotify or CDBaby or Distrokid or whoever to make sure my releases end up in the right place and whatever other problem comes next. I just had to complain for a second. Just once I would like this to be easy, ya know? Maybe next time.
-J.P.
Video
Part of the ultimate goal here is to expand. To me, that means incorporating video at a more consistent clip. In my dreams I’m releasing music videos same day as the song, essentially weekly by the end of the year. Just in case you were wondering where my personal bar is. I went to film school, but I was a screenwriting major, and I’ve always considered the words easier than the sounds when it comes to music, and the music easier than the visual when it comes to storytelling. Nevertheless, I’m trying to build a world here.
We’ll see where we’re at in December, but tomorrow marks the start. We made a simple lyric video for “Where Do You Go” and I’m excited to share it with the world tomorrow. It’s not the original idea I had for the visual and it’s fairly simple in concept, but I’m proud of what it is. Again, we’re just getting the ball rolling here. There’s a long road ahead of us and everything is more learning experience. Hopefully by the end of this journey you’ll see a feature film by Beautiful Idiots LLC, the guys who brought you Roe’s Garden, The New Hippies, and a couple more things you’ll see this year. Like Understanding said yesterday, repetition is key. Consider this my first time picking something up and putting it down. There are things I want to get better at. Now I have to repeat, and improve.
I hope you enjoy the video if you choose to watch. Hit me on Instagram, tell me what you think about it! Give me your opinions, tell me what I can do better, tell me if you want to help! We can figure out how to grow this seed. I have to remind myself sometimes these are collaborative arts.
-J.P.
