The Last Day
Today is the last day I’m gonna procrastinate, I swear. I’m going to turn over a new leaf. Tomorrow, though. Not gonna get to it today.
-J.P.
TIL
Today I learned that I always need to film more. Get more footage. You can never have enough to cut together. Get an hour for every minute you need. I don’t know if I really mean that, I just know making a video for Day Job has been tough. On the other hand this has been a nice exercise and it’s a positive step for Roe’s Garden in terms of establishing a visual identity. So overall, good. Just need to get more footage next time. Or have a more specific plan.
-J.P.
June 18
Another end of day post. We’re getting ready to hit the road. Not for a tour or anything. Not yet. Just driving across the country to go spend a week at home. Travel is expensive. Roof racks and cargo carriers are expensive. Might need to get a laptop so I can work more effectively remotely. Work is expensive. Gas is expensive. My dog is on Prozac, basically. Morpheus can’t shake his separation anxiety and it makes him self-destructive. Dogs are expensive. Life is expensive. Love and kindness are free. In theory. Should be a fun trip.
-J.P.
June 17
My day to day is entirely upside down. I’ve gotten up late and stayed up late every day for the past week. Used to be cool and fun. Now it just hurts. We’re gonna get back on track on Monday. I swear. Serious this time.
I have been having loads of fun playing Backyard Baseball and NBA Ballers though, so not all bad.
-J.P.
Day Job
Still June 16.
Release Day Number Two in June! This time it’s “Day Job” by Roe’s Garden. Woohoo!
I probably won’t be too long winded here because it’s late and I’ve been talking about Day Job all week. We hired a PR firm to try to help raise the floor of all the acts on our label, so they run a playlisting and a press campaign for one release for each of the four acts and Day Job is the focus track for Roe’s Garden. Here’s to hoping the plan works!
Anyway, Day Job is the first song I wrote for Erica to sing. I wrote it pretty soon after she moved to Los Angeles from New York, so that makes it late 2021 I believe. The earliest demos we have for the track sound nothing like the record and they date back to January 2022, before we knew what our thing was going to be. If I remember correctly she wasn’t a huge fan of singing the song because the range is definitely out of her comfort zone, but I believe one of my purposes here is to help push my friends to new heights - to challenge them to grow and exceed their own expectations of themselves, because I believe in them.
That’s the essence of the song too in this case. Day Job came at a time of pretty massive change in everybody’s lives. Understanding and I were entering into what we knew would be the final year working on the Wu-Tang show and had to start planning for the future. Erica was switching coasts and starting to pursue music for the first time. The lyrics came to embody the natural doubt that comes before you try something new and the reassurance we need to trust in the unknown. When you quit your Day Job you step into a world of uncertainty, but that’s the nature of the world, and we have to find a way to not only accept but thrive in that uncertainty. I’ll put the quote I gave for the press release here, too. Though it sounds a little dramatic, I really believe that it’s the way we should strive to be.
Believe in yourself and take the leap. Follow the thing that sets your heart on fire.
- Joe Picard, Roe’s Garden
Seriously, as far as I know, we only get one chance to live our dreams. Never sell yourself short. Hope you enjoy Day Job, by Roe’s Garden.
P.S. - Bryana helped with this release in a bunch of ways. She made the collage for the cover art and she filmed a lot of the Camcorder footage I’ve been using for the video content I’ve posted on social media for the song. (Thank you Bryana!! Very fun to work with you, and sorry for giving you work to do immediately after you actually quit your Day Job.)
-J.P.
It’s Just a Job
A couple nights ago The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA championship, defeating the Miami Heat in five games. Nikola Jokic, who has won two regular season MVPs over the last three years, was dominant throughout the season and the playoffs and was named Finals MVP. After reaching the top of the NBA mountain he said “it’s an amazing feeling but it’s not everything in the world.” Various other interviews exist where Jokic reiterates the idea that basketball is not the main thing in his life and how he believes that to be a good thing. Imagine that. Imagine being an all-time great at your profession and somehow simultaneously avoiding the risk of being consumed by your practice. Perspective.
-J.P.
Cloudy Days
The plan today is to get some photo and video content for Roe’s Garden around our house. Unfortunately, the sun hasn’t been out in my neighborhood in about a month and a half. I think it’s really starting to get to everybody around here. Our days lag. It’s harder to get motivated. I never thought that the weather could have such a big impact on me because we had all kinds of weather growing up. Seasons came and went and there were blizzards and thunderstorms and heatwaves and I never really thought about any of them. Once you acclimate to 75 and sunny on the daily though, an extended stretch of anything else starts to feel like the end of the world. We need the sun back!
On the other hand, we could just embrace the clouds. Explore the mysterious nature of our futures, and even more so, our present times. Let those feelings guide the expression for a while. This time last year I had a tan and some abs starting to show; this time around my beard is unkempt and I can’t shake these last ten pounds.
I wonder what I’m holding onto. We still have some writing to do for the year. I guess we’ll find out with the music.
-J.P.
