We know we’ve been away too long, but sometimes good things just take time! This is why we’ve waited to re-launch our blog, and why we’re now more excited than ever about what’s to come – we simply wanted to make sure everything was in place!
So what are we talking about here? Well, first and foremost – we’re working on a new album. Most of you may already know this much, and we sent a few of you who are on our fan list an email a couple of weeks ago, detailing exactly what’s going on. Plus, you may remember from late last year, before we took a blogging hiatus, we were talking about the new studio that was being built above our old practice facilities – well now that studio is complete, and we have finally begun tracking what’s looking like a grand total of 10 completely new songs. More to come on that in the coming weeks, including a video update or two, so check in when you can.
Another topic worthy of a re-launch post, is that along with our upcoming release (which we can’t tell you the exact date yet, but think summer), we’ll be doing some cool new stuff to interact with our fans, and be more engaged here on the web. And we know you’re thinking, you guys have fans?, but yes, we do have at least 5 good fans, and we’re going to work hard to connect with them as much as possible. In fact, we’ll be blogging more, social webbing more, sharing more, and we’ll even be rolling out a forum here pretty soon – so get ready to chat us up with your comments and stern disapproval!
Finally, we have a few words to say about this moment in time, the right here and now. If you’re reading this, we think you’re cool. AND, if you’re reading this, know that you’ll be able to look back in a couple of years (when we’re all the way up to 25-30 fans), and say, yeah I supported those guys before they made it big! HA. We laugh and mostly cry at the thought of ever “making it big”, but on sort of a serious note, we truly believe that right now is a moment in history for us. We’re on the verge of releasing our second album, and our first full length record. We have over 2 years, the making of our last album, and tons of other crazy events that have contributed to our experience and maturity as a band. And most importantly, we know now, more than ever, exactly what we are going for as a band – and that includes our music, niche, appeal, and even our look. We may not be a trendy band, but our confidence is unshaken, and in fact is now stronger than ever as we face the biggest moment in our short existence thus far – and we couldn’t be more excited. Hang with us as we make the journey through this year, and chime in every step of the way; it’s gonna be a great year!
Look for more posts very soon.
Life Stage
February 18, 2011 | Categories: Album/Studio Updates, Stuff We Think Is Cool, Stuff You Should Know About Us | Tags: blog, blog re-launch, life stage, life stage band, life stage blog, life stage music, music, music blog, new life stage album, prog metal, prog rock, studio update | 2 Comments »
OK, here it is! Our first official “progress report” on what’s been going on, but moreso, how far we’ve come since first launching this new era of Life Stage (geared towards blogging, social networking, and better communicating with you). So with that, I’d like to first briefly preface this report in progress with a little background info on how this “new era” actually came about (again, briefly).
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
March 3, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: blog, life stage, music, prog metal, progress, progressive | Leave A Comment »
Hey everyone! Well, after so long being away (1 month), we’re finally back in action with a new blog, a new look, and a new home page! We couldn’t be more excited (well we could, just probably not about blogging), and we want to share that with you, and give you a glimpse into what’s to come with our new blog, as we say “so long” to the old one! Of course, for most of you it wont make much of a difference, but to those of you that care, we want to let you know why we blog, when we could just as easily (well, quite a bit more easily), um, not.
And here’s the simple reason behind that: it helps us better connect with you! Obviously, if you’re here, you share some sort of connection to us already through our music, and that’s great! We know that any connection has to start there, because after all, we are a band, and music is not only what we do, but it’s our passion, and it’s what keeps us alive (mostly metaphorically, but almost literally 
). But, we also know that music has an even deeper connection when you can really relate to a band or a performer. It’s the same as when you go to a concert and there’s just an energy coming from the stage, and it radiates through the crowd, and they in turn radiate it back to the perfomer, and pretty soon you aren’t just sharing the music, but that almost inexplicable energy as well, and it grips you and makes it an EXPERIENCE, not just a concert. Yeah sure, you already knew the music was great, but man, it’s just not the same as listening to the CD, is it? There’s a deeper connection there. It’s real. It ties in your emotions, memories, and spirit into the music you already felt some small connection to in the first place. And that’s essentially what we hope to do as a band, is not only connect with you through our music, but on every possible level we can so as to build a lasting relationship with you – and trust us, that means a lot!
So, we know most people aren’t really gonna care. They’ll just enjoy the music, and that’s totally cool! But this isn’t for them. This is for you. You are the reason we exert ourselves daily to keep up with this blog, and all of the other “sites” and sounds on the web, and send out free CD’s, and make sure you know what’s going on! Because even if you are the only person we do this for, to us it’s all worth it!
Thanks for caring! Keep in touch – Myspace Facebook Twitter
Life Stage
February 24, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: blog, life stage, music, prog metal, progressive, stage 1 | Leave A Comment »
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