We’ve had lots of help from our good friend, artist, and fellow musician, Josh Taylor from the band Clairmont (check out their stuff here) with the design and implementation of the site, and have spent a considerable amount of time making sure everything is just as we want it; so when we finally do launch this thing later today, what you’ll see is the culmination of a couple of months of thought and hard work!

Now having said that, we by no means think the site is perfect! Every site has it’s flaws and glitches, and we’ll be working to remove/fix as many of those as possible over the coming weeks and months. If you find any, please let us know. Also, there are many ideas and features that we are wanting to include in the site, but just simply haven’t had the time or money thusfar to implement them. We’ll be developing and updating the site with these features as soon as the opportunities open up to do so; again, if you have any ideas of your own, be sure to let us know!

Finally, we’ll no longer be forwarding our homepage to this website (our blog), so be sure to bookmark it (http://lifestagemusic.com/blog), or subscribe to the rss feed (http://lifestagemusic.com/blog/feed) to stay on top of our news and info as we continue to post them here! Also, be sure and sign up for our newsletter (http://lifestage.fanbridge.com), as you’ll be the absolute first to know about everything going on in the world of Life Stage, including new music, concerts, and website announcements.

We are seriously excited about finally having an official homepage, and we hope you’ll join us for the launch of it later today! Look for the announcement on all of our social networks and our fanlist, and bookmark the page: http://lifestagemusic.com.

See ya then!

Life Stage

Anyways, as I was saying – These are our new summer plans in light of recent events, and I really think you’ll like what we have going on. We’ll keep it short and sweet, but spare you no meaty details on what we’re thinkin’, hopin’, and expecting will happen this summer, in the next couple of months. So here we go, in bullet form, starting with this week, then going through the rest of the summer:

This week:
- Andy is back in town from a teaching gig last week
- We’ll add more new songs to the 4 we already have for our next album (we have about 7 more to work on, we’ll finish what we can this week)
- Do some more video blogging (we haven’t done that in a while!)
- Record all new songs in garage for demo purposes
- Then Andy leaves out for his music festival in NC!

Rest of the Summer Plans/Goals:
- Complete and launch our website (BIGGIE! Already working on it, and it should be launched by the end of this summer.)
- Complete our next album’s worth of songs (continue writing thru summer, then finish them when Andy returns)
- Continue to network and build connections to our fanbase and friends (the website/mailing list will help a lot with this)
- Continue to put the word out and garner reviews from top notch experts on our first release: Stage 1 (2009 EP)
- Get some actual photos done so we look like a band, not a band in the woods :) (when andy gets back, of course)
- Put together our official Life Stage electronic presskit so that we can play shows come fall and winter!
- Put out consistent video blog posts, just to keep in touch, and let you know what’s goin on
& Finally:
- Fundraise for our next album project so we can record and put out another album – this one being full length and of epic proportions! :)

And there are so many more little things, but this (or, these or, whatever, gah), is at the heart of what we’re doing this summer, and ULTIMATELY: This summer is a platform! We’ll use this time Andy will be gone to build the infrastructure and tools needed to bring our tiny little band up to the next level of professionalism, and one step closer to realizing our dream of making our music dream, a reality. So thanks so much for backing us in that process, and know that after this summer, we have even MORE huge things planned, that should all be possible depending on what happens in the next 2-3 months.

Those plans will more directly REWARD you (ie lots and lots of shows, new album, etc), but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get INVOLVED right now. We have a mailing list you should sign up for (you’ll soon see the value in that!), and we’ll REALLY need your help soon as we begin our fundraising efforts later this summer. So please stay involved, and stay in touch! We really appreciate hearing from you, it let’s us know you’re there, and that you’re rooting for us to succeed here. Shoot us an email (info@lifestagemusic.com), or talk to us on Myspace, Facebook, & Twitter, and let us know what YOU think!

Until Nextime,

Life Stage

NOW, having said that, today Life has thrown us yet another curve! And while this change is certainly for the best, and is in no way a BAD thing, it is a big change of plans for us, especially with regards to what we had in mind this summer (ie – see our last post). It is GREAT news however, and this great news pertains to one of our very own, drummer, Andy Emerich. This summer, Andy has been invited to perform at a 7-week long festival starting in late June known as the Brevard Music Festival! This festival is held in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and features some of THE best musical talent in the country, with only a handful of students in each field of study selected to be a part of this event. Andy will get to learn from and be recognized by some of the best teachers and performers in the world right now, and this will be a HUGE boost for his resume and will help him in any path he chooses to take in his musical career! SO, if you haven’t done so yet, be sure and congratulate Andy on his achievement, and let him know that you, and all of us, are behind him!

Cool right? You may have even thought we were going somewhere bad with this post, huh? Not a chance. As for our summer plans, the new goal is to do what we planned and write our tails off now through mid-June. Then, where we were originally planning on picking up a lot of shows, and performing for the rest of the summer, we’ll now use that time to make new friends, do some networking, prepare for our next release, and possibly even do a little fundraising! Who knows? I mean, we literally JUST found out about this whole new thing here, so we’re trying to figure it out, and lest you worry, WE WILL. We’ve got a whole ton of stuff to keep us busy this summer, and we’ll make the most of it regardless, so keep your eyes peeled for news, updates, and free stuff along the way! (in fact this is a good time to recommend that you sign up for our official mailing list so you don’t miss a thing: LifeStage.FanBridge.com) THEN, after Andy gets back from this festival, we’ll be waiting and ready to kick off a late summer through early winter schedule of shows that will more than make up for any lost time! Sound good? We think so, and most importantly, we are extremely happy for Andy, and proud to have such an excellent talent among us in our band! We’ll roll with the changes as usual, and come out better in the end for it.

Keep an eye out for our future updates as well, as we go through this summer, and figure things out along the way. We’ll also be vamping up our homepage here pretty soon, so that every single place we exist on the web (ie- Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, our Store, etc.) can be found in one, simple location via our Homepage, just a click away. So stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, sign up for our official mailing list so as to receive the latest updates, directly from us! So much thanks for your support thusfar – let’s continue to make 2010 a great year – constant change and all!

Until Nextime

Life Stage

NOW, with all of this cool new stuff we’ve been writing, again totalling about 14 new song ideas so far, we’ve also got some other huge plans for this summer, besides just finishing an entire album’s worth of songs! The first of these big plans is of couse gonna be to PLAY MORE SHOWS. We started off the year as we hoped by playing about a show per month, but it’s now been a while (due to having a complete lack of time in April), and we’re all ITCHING to get back on stage. So, our promise to you is that we WILL be playing absolutely as much as we possibly can this summer, especially starting late June through August! Our goal is to play once a week during that time, and use that to really generate some much needed momentum for our next album, and the next stage for our little band.

The next big thing we’re planning for besides writing songs, and playing shows, is to get better in touch with our true fanbase. Let me explain: Basically, I think we’re doing (and have done since starting this journey about a year ago) a pretty decent job of reaching out and communicating with our friends and fans via Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and the like of social networking, but there is no doubt that we could, can, and need to step it up, and do a better job at actually reaching people in a meaningful way. This blog, for example, I think is doing a great job of keeping those interested informed of everything we’re doing and what we’re thinking, and what we like, don’t like, smell like, etc, etc, etc, but the key phrase there is “those interested.” Those interested enough to find out about this blog and actually read it, are already doing their part, and we can’t thank you enough, those of you who actually are! WE, however, need to do a better job of connecting to people, and I think the best way for us to do this is by employing our mailing list, for our true friends and fans to sign up, and stay in the know. SO, after that long digression, the point here is that besides everything else this summer, our number 1 goal is to grow our fanbase and our mailing list, and use it to really keep in touch with our fans! This is something we’re committed to, and we’re really looking forward to doing that this summer.

AND, finally, what we also really hope to do this summer, is break through. We want to play a lot of shows, yes. And we want to write a lot of songs, yes. And we want to strengthen our fanbase, yes. But what we also want to do, is break through! And by that I mean, we want to make an impact, and start getting recognized (just START getting recognized, that’s all) outside of our garage and local community for who we really are – an independent, progressive metal trio! We work SO hard (as emphasized in my opening paragraph), and sometimes the business side of things can be a little discouraging, but it’s all worth it when we get on stage, and do what we love. And we want to share what we love with everyone else, and that’s why we hope this summer we can break through. Wont you help us make this goal a reality? You can in a big way by telling your friends – seriously! I mean, I know you don’t think you have any friends, but trust me you do, and they want to know what you think is cool! If everybody signs up for our mailing list (lifestage.fanbridge.com) and shares us with their friends, we WILL have a breakthrough summer, and that’s a promise.

All this being said, look out for Life Stage this summer! We’re seriously preparing for battle this year, and we want you to be a part of it! Take the 5 seconds to click the “Share” button on our Facebook page, and help us in our fight. We really appreciate our supporters, and we can’t wait to see every single one of you out and about this summer. BTW – don’t be afraid to leave us a message, comment, or just say “hi”, we’d love to hear from you! Let us know what’s going on in your world.

Until Nextime,

Ross
Life Stage

Life Stage is about good music, plain and simple. Our “heros,” if you will, are the bands, musicians, and composers that made music great, and are continuing to make music great to this day. From Mozart to Bethoven, from Tchaikovsky to Debussy, from Dave Bruebeck to John Coltrane, from John Cage to David Lang, from Elvis to The Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Van Halen, from King Crimson to Pink Floyd to Rush to Dream Theater to Porcupine Tree, from Sabbath to Maiden to Metallica to Mastodon and others, ALL of which (and there are PLENTY more we could name) have had HUGE impacts on us both collectively, and individually.

So what comes to mind when hearing these named individuals and bands with regards to their profound impact on music itself? Why were THESE guys so important? Honestly? Who knows. What we do think though, is that these people all did one thing in common – they made music that was true to themselves. Some of these composers and artists were completely obscure, especially for the time they lived in, and yet, they pressed on because they believed in what they were making – history.

Somehow, music today has lost that. That drive, that passion, that innocence. Not ALL music of course, for as you can see we do have some modern bands (and there are many others not listed) that we really respect, and influence us just as much as the rest! But the point is, that by-in-large, music is just not what it used to be. It’s almost as if since the 70′s, when rock was completely revolutionized like the world had never seen, and bands(record companies) began seeing profits like the world had never seen, music took on a whole new meaning – one centered around marketability, profitability, and returns, and less about art, creativity, and individuality.

Now, I know, I’m putting a WHOLE LOT of personal spin and infusing my own opinions on the history and current state of music and all, but I get the feeling that a WHOLE LOT of people out there would agree with me! In fact, I know they would, and DO. This is why you’re seeing (and hopefully you ARE seeing it) a HUGE trend towards independent bands, artists, musicians, etc. who are (finally) doing things their own way! While, yes, we still have to be able to make a living (and some will still do better than others), and yes, profits are great, and no there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s still NOT ok to sell out, and make a passionless record just to make a million bucks. This is the state of music today, and it’s been this way for some time now. The point is, we’re doing something about it. Not just us, but every band, musician and artist out there, who is literally risking it all to do what they love as a career, and not sacrificing their spirit (the same spirit that enabled some of the great artists listed above) and their passion for what they do to get there.

And that’s pretty much the point here today: We, Life Stage, are all about making good music, and creating it with passion, regardless of typecasts and trends. And you can help us in our efforts! When you purchase our album (off iTunes or our store at music.lifestagemusic.com), make a donation, or even just tell your friends about us, you are doing SO MUCH to help us, and it means SO MUCH to us, really. Heck, even just signing up for our mailing list (lifestage.fanbridge.com) and keeping in touch via Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social networking site, gives us a huge boost of moral, and you help us further our career, without succumbing to industry pressure! So thank you in advance for doing all that you can to support us, it does not go unnoticed.

OK, so that’s it for today. That should keep you toasty for a while until we can get back to blogging consistently. Until then, we’ll continue to make the best music we possibly can, and of course we’ll be in touch on every single corner of the web! And yes, we do have a mailing list, so go sign up!

Until Nextime,

Life Stage

So let’s check out some stats:

Giveaway #2 – From 02/01 – 04/01
- 150 CD’s sent out/passed out/teletransported out (lol) in 2 months
- ALL CD’s localized around the Houston area this time (except for a few)
- ~500 TOTAL CD’S GIVEN OUT THUSFAR B/T GIVEAWAY #1 & #2!!! HUGE!

And that’s it! 2 HUGE CD giveaways have now come and gone, and we’ve GIVEN out approx. 500 since the first one started back in September. 500. Wow.

Thanks so much to all who requested CD’s, and told your friends about us. We know it sounds weird that we’re thanking people who, by the industry’s standards, are basically “stealing” from us, but for us, it’s simply a way to get OUR music into YOUR hands. And what a better, simpler way, than Free? Now granted, we don’t have an endless supply of these physical CD’s to give out, but we’re doing what we can, and we hope that by making an investment in our fans, they’ll make an investment in us for the long haul! So thanks!

Also, if you didn’t get one this time around, feel free to purchase a copy or download the album via our album page @ music.lifestagemusic.com, OR, who knows, we might just be doing this again sometime in the future, and you can grab one then!

Either way, thanks again to everyone for your support. Please, please continue to share us with your friends, family, co-workers, and pets, and help spread the word about Life Stage!

Until Nextime!

-Life Stage-

Facebook
Myspace
Twitter

Well you see, when you find something you like, it’s tempting to just hog it all to yourself. You think, “oh cool! I’m gonna be the only one that knows about this!” But what you soon find out is that nothing is ever quite as fun by yourself. I mean, sure, you can play catch by yourself, or go to the movies by yourself, or countless other team-sport type of activities, but when you do that, you’re missing out! And that pot of gold you found is really useless until you have someone to spend it on or share it with. I mean let’s face it – we were built for community! Humans need other humans and like other things that other humans like! We need to share the things we love, or else it’s no fun. Life is just… boring.

So. What’s the take home here? Basically, it’s this: If you like us, or love us – SHARE US. It’s that simple! We feel so honored to share what we’ve made and what we love with you, now turn around and pass it along so you can enjoy our music with ANYONE else who MIGHT JUST FEEL THE SAME WAY YOU DO! And that is the clincher – ANYONE MIGHT JUST FEEL THE SAME WAY YOU DO. You never know. So please take the time (all of 5 minutes) to share our page on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, (not to mention any other place you’re blogging, blurbing, or sharing) and be the first to tell your friends about Life Stage! It would mean the world to us, and it might just make you or someone you know’s world a little better too.

And that’s it for today! We want you to know we truly appreciate you. Stop by anytime, any place, and let us know what you think, and SHARE with your friends! :) We’d love to hear from you.

Talk to you soon,

Life Stage

Well what in the world does that mean? Glad you asked. It means, that aside from (or in addition to) iTunes, AmazonMP3, Napster, Rhapsody, Emusic, and a few others we were already on, (which is pretty much global as far as retailers go) we are now (or soon to be) up and running on several top streaming music sites and online radio stations, such as LastFM, Pandora, and MOG, and a few new retailers to boot, such as Puretracks, MooZone, & ThinkIndie! In fact, you can see the complete list of partners below, and feel free to check each of them out (do Bing search or something) to get a feel for what they do. Who knows, you may even find one you like better than iTunes! There’s other cool stuff included too, like the leading ringtones site, Myxer, and syndication through Wal-Mart online! Oh, and not to mention Zune for all you zuners out there! Cool huh?

Yes, indeed this is pretty sweet, but for now, we’re still giving away downloads of our EP, as well as FREE physical copies to those who ask, so don’t hesitate! Get your FREE copy or digital download before we end this offer – at which point you’ll have to find us on one of these mentioned sites – and have to actually PAY for our music! You wouldn’t want that would you? So go to music.lifestagemusic.com today and get your free download. OR, stop by anytime via Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and ask for a free copy of Stage 1. Don’t be shy! Just shoot us a message, comment, @reply, whatever, and say “I want a CD!”, and we’ll get you one, we promise.

Thanks so much for all your loyal support, and look for us to be up on these sites – coming soon! In the meantime, keep in touch. Talk to you soon!

Life Stage

First of all, it’s no secret that I’m a married man. Yes I’m young, yes I’m a musician, but YES I am married! And I am quite happy being “tied up”. But really, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, and just serves as a preface for the next part, which is that I also have 2 kids! Well, make that, I have 1 kid, but after tomorrow, I’ll have 2! That’s right, my wife is scheduled to deliver around noon tomorrow, and thus will bring our new baby girl into the world! I know, crazy right? First there was the one (my son Remington), now it’s about to be two, and pretty soon it’s gonna be a farm around my house! :) But nevertheless, I’m super excited about it, and I wanted to share with you all this important landmark in my life.

SO. What does that mean for Life Stage? You may ask. Well..
Honestly, what this REALLY means, is that I’m going to work THAT much harder, and dig THAT much deeper in my creative and business endeavors here along with the rest of the band, and we’ll keep doing what we do! A New Life on the Earth – how much more relevent and inspiring can you get?

On a related note, just a week after my duaghter will have entered the world, we will be playing our next show down in Houston at a place called Dean’s Credit Clothing! (very cool place, check it out here: Dean’s Credit Clothing) Now this, unlike my daughter’s soon to be grand entrance, was completely unshceduled until this morning – i.e. we found out about it late last night, and were confirmed early this morning! We still don’t have all the details, but it will be March 26th at the aforementioned place, and we’ll be the middle of 3 bands. We’ll keep you posted on more info, I just wanted to mention it before my weekend just got totally crazy!

And that’s about all as far as news goes in my world! But if you want to know more about me or the band, and what’s going on, just ask here, or get on Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter, and give us a shout! We’d love to hear from you.

Keep in touch!

Ross
Life Stage

Basically, if you want to know how the progression started, we have to go back a little ways to our pre-Life Stage days. Back then, we didn’t really know what we were doing (ok, we probably still don’t, but at least we have a little better idea!), so admittadely, we did A LOT of beating our heads up against the wall. I mean, as far as succeeding in the music business, we thought what I think a lot of bands think, which is quintessentially this statement: “We’re gonna TAKE over the world and MAKE people listen to us and MAKE our own path and BREAK down the barriers! We’re awesome!!” haha how silly.

Fast forward a couple of years (although it didn’t take even that long to realize that ideology was, well, stupid), and we realized two things: a) the “music industry” didn’t give a crap about us, and no matter how “awesome” we thought we were, we were still “nobodies” to them, and b) when you use the “beat down the door” method of finding success, if you do find it, you find it alone – but when you care more about building lasting relationships with the people around you, and you give to them not expecting anything in return, you’ll be more fulfilled in the long run! (Not to mention you are actually building friendships with the very people who will be supporting you in your career anyway!) SO, the moral of this story is that by about the time we changed our name to Life Stage, and got in the studio to record Stage 1, another shift was happening as well, and we knew we had to do more to make real connections with the fans, musicians, and other people that make the music business happen.

So, as we got out of the studio around March of ’09, we decided to take it upon ourselves to find out just exactly HOW we would go about managing ourselves with this new philosophy in mind. And what we came up with was to do a multifaceted approach where we would use social networking tools (Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc), which took a while to research and find out the best and worst ones for us, blogging (keeping you “posted” on what’s up daily with us, in an official manner), and promoting selflessly (ie CD giveaways) in order to get the word out about ourselves, but not ask anything in return. We always saw that people were more likely to stick around and support us when they didn’t feel like they had to! And, so it was. That’s where our research led us, and that brings us up to where we are now.

Now, with that amazingly crafted preface in mind, let’s get back to this progress report! (This’ll be the easy reading part!)

OK. So here are a few things that we mentioned we were going to start doing (or already were doing) back in December, when we first got started with this blog. Let’s see where we’re at with those items, and how plans have been adjusted etc., so you can see what we’ve been doing in a broad sense, and see what we’ve got planned! Let’s go!

Here’s a direct excerpt from our blog post “What’s to come…” (The red words are the adjustments we’ve made)

-Launch web blog (check)
-Begin posting daily on web blog (check)
-Begin posting weekly VIDEO blog (check, when we can get together to record)
-Start a series of LIVE, interactive concerts from our garage, posted LIVE via Ustream.tv We’re actually just broadcasting our live shows now at http://ustream.tv/lifestagemusic – catch one when you can’t make it to the actual show!
-Get some REAL photos of ourselves (check! thanks to Sarah Phillips, we now have some “real” photos to share with the world. See our Myspace or Facebook)
-Keep better in touch with our fans through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others (Check. Or at least we’re trying! Let us know how we’re doing by messaging us on one of those sites!)
-Launch another massive CD giveaway, promotional campaign (Check – it’s going on right now! Let us know if you want one, we’ll send you one FREE OF CHARGE! you can’t beat that)
-Finish another album’s worth of songs, 7 of which are in the process as we speak Being that this was a long term goal for 2010, I’d say we’re definitely getting there. The album is really shaping up already, and we have enough starter material for almost an entire album as of right now!
-Preview these songs as we finish them to our fans, that’ll be fun! (Check. With one completely new song already being played at our shows, we’ll be releasing more as they come. Keep an eye out!)
-Try and do a couple of shows each month, at least until summertime (so far.. Check! Through March we’ll have done one show/month so far, and more are in the works to come)
and ultimately (pending funding)…
-Get in the studio
-Record another album
-Go on a tour!
Of course, these last three are still on hold, but are still on the agenda. Hopefully one day soon!

In addition to all of that (which I apologize if this has been hard to read, I couldn’t think of a better way to get all of this out there), We are also now making it a goal to get as many official Stage 1 reviews as possible from leaders in the progressive community! This has already begun, and you can read the first review of many to come here: Stage 1 Review

And finally, that’s it for this Life Stage progress report. Sorry if this was long or hard to read, but thanks for hanging in there. I’ll try to post these more frequently in the future, with obviously less to say per post, that way we don’t fry your brain! (or maybe that’s a good thing?) At any rate, thanks so much for sticking in there with us, and the take home message here is that we absolutely value your support, and we want to hear from YOU, how do YOU think our progress is coming?

Let us know anytime: Myspace Facebook Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!

Talk to you soon,

Ross, Life Stage