So This is It.

Well friends, though this may come as a big surprise to many of you who have supported us the past few years, tonight, in Austin, TX, we will be performing our FINAL show as a band.

We wanted to address this issue publicly, so today we are releasing this official announcement, that as of tomorrow, Life Stage will no longer exist as the band we’ve been for the past few years. Yes, we know, this is heartbreaking. Everything we’ve said up till this point has been nothing but promise, and hope for the future of our little band, but today, we come to you announcing our exit from the stage.

So what happened? Well, let me briefly sum up what’s happened, and why we’ve all chosen to peacefully move on in different directions.

1) We are all moving in different directions. This summer and fall, Andy will be out of town, and out of state pursuing academic obligations, as he strives to become the best player he can be. He’s been given so many opportunities in the academic world, and to not pursue them to the fullest extent of his capabilities would be wrong. Also, Ross now runs a full time social media/online marketing business, that, in order to truly be successful, needs his undivided attention. The thing with both of these guys, is that they’ve always had multiple responsibilities, but for the first time since the band’s inception, their responsibilities OUTSIDE the band, have truly made it impossible to keep up with their responsibilities WITHIN the band. You can’t serve two masters, and we’ve all come to this realization in the past couple of weeks.

2) Rather than go on, limping, and trying to fit Life Stage into the gaps of life, we’ve decided it is just best to leave the pieces and move on. It’s best to either do something to the fullest extent of your capabilities (i.e., go all out), or not do it at all – and that’s the challenge we face now. Thus, we’ve decided to go on, and do the band (and all the individuals involved) a favor, so that no one can say we didn’t do our best, or put in our best effort. We legitimately have tried, and tried our hearts out – and we’ve made it work so far! But now, we have to move on, it simply can’t work the way it has been, any longer.

3) It’s not about the music, but then again, it is. Let me make VERY clear, that we all LOVE the music we’ve made, and we’re currently making at the time of our disbandment. In that regard, it has absolutely nothing to do with the music. No one in the group is angry, bored, or unhappy in any way about the music – most of all, we are all just disappointed with the outcome, and that we CAN’T continue to make the music we love. Thus, in that respect, it IS about the music, because we realize, that to keep going in this direction, means sacrificing the time and quality we would be able to put INTO our music. Again, this isn’t fair to us as a band, as individuals, and as fans of music ourselves, we just couldn’t let this happen.

And so, there you have it. Tonight, we are playing our very last show as a band in Austin, TX. We truly, TRULY, appreciate every single one of you who have stood behind us and our music. You’ve given us so much encouragement through the years, and we regret that we cannot continue under the burdens we all face at the moment.

But will Life Stage ever reunite?? Well, this my friends is yet to be seen, but know that we are absolutely NOT ruling it out. We can say though, with a fairly high amount of certainty, that at least within the next 2 to 3 years, there will be no more Life Stage. It’s difficult to see what will happen after that (after all, you’ve been listening to our words, and you know life is always changing, right?), but of course, we would love to see a time when our other obligations become a little less burdensome or restrictive, and we can get back together to make some great music once again.

Thanks for all of your patience, dedication and support. We’re sorry it couldn’t continue to work for us, but we hope you’ll understand, and we hope we can continue to keep in touch with all of you as we move on from here. Keep in mind we WILL be streaming our show tonight, so if you can catch it, great. Please chime in, and let us know how you feel any time. Thanks again, and see you tonight!

Ross, Andy, Chris,
Life Stage

May 12, 2011 | Categories: Stuff You Should Know About Us | Leave A Comment »

Constant Change

Well, we wouldn’t be a true progressive band without a Rush reference or two here and there, but for today we’ve appropiately titled this blog post “Constant Change” not in reference to the great and mighty Rush, but rather to accurately describe what we feel actually makes us a “true” progressive band – our lives. Yes, indeed our lives (and I mean ALL of our lives) can be rather hectic and trying at times, let alone unpredictable, and it is true what is said that the only constant thing is change itself (here we go with this Rush tangent again). So, if we are a band making music patterned off of our lives (and we are), then what other choice would any resulting music have other than to be marked by change, progression, emotion, cathartic release, etc., etc., etc.? It wouldn’t, and thus, constant change, constant motion, changing of seasons, revolutions, cycles, spirals, life stages, and more have all been focal points of progressive bands (not just Rush, if you caught some of the other references there) from the early years in the ’60s and ’70s, until now. So while this thought process isn’t completely “revolutionary”, and it has been around for some time, the cool thing about it, is that no two lives are the same! Everyone has their own perspective, their own DNA, and their own thoughts on life, and their music, should they make any, will be reflective of those things, and ours is no different. Therefore, in the midst of life’s curveballs and challenges, we press on writing and working, and keeping our eyes on the prize in hopes of bringing something original to the table BECAUSE of our unique experiences, and BECAUSE of having endured the shifts and changes and unexpectedness that collectively IS expected in life! We press on for the sake of doing what we love, and sharing our passion with the world, no matter what kind of crazy things life throws up at us.

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

May 13, 2010 | Categories: Stuff You Should Know About Us | 1 Comment »

Preparing for Battle

I sat down last night, alone in my little workspace, preparing for what was to be about 4 hours worth of recording, arranging, and focusing on material the guys and I have been writing off and on in the gaps of life for about 5 months now. I had an overwhelming amount of stuff that needed to be organized, recorded, and arranged for the coming of Summer, whence Andy will be back in town, and the floodgates will officially be opened, and we’ll be immersed in writing, rehearsing, and performing, and I had know idea of how I was going to do it. The thought crossed my mind to just put it off – but no. I was determined, and I knew I needed to get it done before summer (which is only a couple of weeks away for Andy) was upon us, and I knew I wouldn’t have too many more opportunities before then. So I buckled down, prepared myself for battle, and spent the next four hours racking my brain, hooked up to a computer, taking notes, and putting all of my ideas into an organized, recorded format, totalling about 14 new songs for us to work on this summer! It felt great to get it done, but without relishing it too long, I quickly found my bed and passed out.

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

May 5, 2010 | Categories: Stuff You Should Know About Us | 2 Comments »