#dodiy

As always I’m writing new songs, planning new releases and scheduling upcoming tours.  Music has always been a part of my identity and I’ve been engaged with the DIY music scene for most of my life.  Some people question why I persist. Certainly not for the money because at the end of the day for me it is always a “loss”, or better labeled as an “investment”.  I prefer to call it an “investment in my sanity”.  Some people come up to me on tour and make comments like, “your living the dream”, or “you’re really making moves” or some other similar comment that implies I’m throwing all I have into my craft to “make it”.  Truth is I love travelling and sharing my music with whomever will listen to it.  I still find it amazing that I am able to put a tour together, that people agree to let me jump up on a stage and sing my punk songs that I wrote in my basement.   

When I was young, I had always wanted to be in a band.  My mom found me as a little boy using her walkman (for you young-ens of the most recent generation, a portable cassette tape player) and blaring “Classic Yes” (a prog/classic rock band from the 70′s).  She found it odd that I had figured out how to use the device and was concerned that maybe a young kid shouldn’t be listening to music on headphones at such a high volume.  My first band was in kindergarten/1st grade, I didn’t know exactly how to play an instrument but me and my friend wrote songs and recorded them on a cassette tape player, which that recording is long gone.  I didn’t attempt a real band until years later when I was 15 and talked my parents into getting me my first guitar.  Six months after that I had somehow got my first band together.

Prior to this my social life sucked hard.   Typical high school story for freaks and geeks.  I had a small pack of friends, I was picked on heavily.  I tired my hardest to fit in, but I was weird and the kids at school thought I was weird, some hated me for it.  That summer that we started the band, the next year my band played our first shows, and the amount of my friends doubled.  I was introduced into a greater community of musicians and artists.  By the time I was 17 I was booking shows at the one of the local venues.  I was friends with the owners, sound guys, door guys and the bartenders.  Hell, they had me drinking at the bar by the time I was 18.  Either way music changed my life, and every step further I took opened me up to new opportunities.  Most if not all of my relationships that I have with people today are a result of playing music.

So that’s why I do this.  I do take music seriously, I do put all I have into it, but this is also my community.  It’s hard for outsiders to understand a statement like that, but that’s my reality and the reality for many other people on this planet.

Musicians support each other, that’s how we survive so to speak.  When it comes to touring as and independent musician you rely heavily on other musicians that you have never met before to find information ranging from booking resources to housing.  There are also other folks out there who go above and beyond when it comes to supporting the community.  Do DIY (dodiy.org) is a website that compiles booking resources.  One guy does most of the legwork for this site, and he asks for donations to help him maintain the site.  I know we live in strange times, but recently hate groups have come out of the woodwork and started using this website to find these venues and shut them down.  Yes, shut them down.  Why, basically these groups believe that many of these venues/spaces are places where leftist political action groups organize.  In many cases this is true, which this is certainly not a crime.  One of the biggest enemy’s for these activist groups (and other sane people) are, for obvious reasons, white power hate groups.  

These community spaces for the existence of my life have always provided a positive atmosphere to express your opinions and practice your art.  The fact that this community could or would ever be attacked is beyond rational thought.  Because of this many venues have been shut down and the website until recently was taken offline to protect the spaces that were listed on the site.  How can they get these places shut down?  

Many of these spots are maintained under the radar, like a house show venue; or for another example, a vintage clothing store that holds performances after hours.  In whatever city or state that they are located they may not have the proper licensing to legally hold an event.  Usually there are a lot of loopholes, and events held at these locations are largely ignored unless volume becomes a problem.  Even then if the cops come they usually tell the crowd to disperse or to turn the volume down. Obtaining a permit or a license can often cost a lot of money, come with absurd amounts of paper work and in some cases be unattainable because of legal restrictions.  The fact is in some cities and towns there are not actual music venues in existence to hold events.  In other locations, there are venues, but they only accept certain styles of music or performance art or have age restrictions.  Other venues have operational fees that are hard to cover for smaller events, leaving little if any money to distribute among the performers.  

But because some of these places are not operating legally it makes them vulnerable to legal action.  Other spaces are just plainly getting harassed by hate groups infiltrating the premises and trying to close an operation by fear.  I’ve actually dealt with Nazi’s and other types of harassment at shows in the past.  Usually it’s just a couple of bad apples that you can easily dispose of..  Somehow though they keep resurfacing, and unfortunately they have become emboldened.  We’ll just have to work hard again to let them know that they are in a serious minority, and that we will not be intimated by fear and hate.  Sounds ridiculous that after 20 + years in music and punk that I still have to write stuff like this and be serious about it.