The New Website Is Here!
Ok fans, the new website is now officially up and running over at LifeStageMusic.com, and it’s waiting for you to check it out! We’re extremely excited about this, and we need you all to head over there now, and hit us back with your feedback on the site.
Obviously, this thing is not perfect (no website is), but we’re stoked to have an official homepage. One of the coolest features of this site is the sweet toolbar at the bottom of the page. This toolbar allows you to check out our videos, pictures (when we get some!), and share everything immediately with your friends on ANY social network – we highly encourage you to do this! Not only are we excited about that, but you can also chat it up with other fans on any network via that same toolbar. Perty cool huh? Give it a look while you there, and as always, let us know what you think.
So that’s it! New website is up and running! Go check it out now, bookmark it, and respond to this post to let us know what you think. There will be more updates soon, so keep an eye out.
Until Nextime,
Life Stage
So Long
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
A Million Words
1 Million words. That’s a mouthful! But, if the old adage is true, and a picture really IS worth 1000 words, then 1 million words is exactly what we have after this weekend’s photo shoot! That’s right for those of you who can count, 1000 pics of Life Stage were taken just this past Saturday afternoon! Can you believe it? We almost can’t either. But believe it or not, we actually fell SHORT of our goal by ONLY taking 1000 pictures this weekend – by over 50%! Yeah, we really needed to take around 2400 photos, but due to memory card mixup, we didn’t have enough space to continue. awwww… 
BUT, we’ll make due…
So, you ask then, WTF with all the pictures??? Well, we say, that’s a great question, and we’re glad you asked!!! So glad in fact, that we’re ACTUALLY going to tell you why we need so many freakin photos, and here it is:
- We’re making a music video!
“Oh a music video?! Oh wow coool totally awsome!” (done in best eric cartman voice)
But WAIT. What does making a music video have to do with all those damn pictures?
WELLLL, again, we’re glad you asked. (and for those of you who already know the answer, please don’t shout it out. you’ll ruin it for the others…) Basically, what we’re gonna try to do (even with far less photos than we hoped for) is create like a really old-timy, 8fps camera recreation effect, the cheap way – by just creating a really quick slide-show of sorts with all the pictures we took, matched up with our music! I know, cool right? Well, we think so. And anyways, we’re not completely 100% sure all this is going to work out just yet, but we’re hopin! So keep your eyes peeled for that to roll in sometime soon!
And other than that, we really just thought we owed you all an explanation of why we didn’t blog this weekend, and that’s it. After 1000 photos, we needed a recoup day… or two.
Finally, we’ll be posting some of the shots from this weekend intermittantly (if that’s how you spell that), so look for those, and give us as close to 1000 words as you can… or 100… or 10… ok 5!… but they better be good! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Life Stage
Tonight
Tonight we’ll be having our 3rd offical jam session of the week, and we couldn’t be more excited. Having really over 7 new songs already in the making, we’re coming into tonight with amitions to get each of them on a rough recording so we can listen back to them, make adjustments, and really tune in to each tune! This is especially significant because it marks the first time we’ve had new material (significant new material anyways) in over a year. So all in all, what this really means, is that shortly, as we put the finishing polish on some of these new gems, you’ll be able to hear new material from Life Stage! That’s right, just a few short months after the release of our first studio EP – Stage 1, we’ll be throwing BRAND NEW material at you, so look out! Of course we can’t say EXACTLY when all of this “new material” will start to surface, but that’s for you to find out in the coming weeks! Which means you’ve gotta pay attention… You don’t think we’re gonna pre-release new material to just anyone do you? Not a chance. So stay tuned, and be the first to hear new songs from Life Stage! OK, gotta go…
Under the Influence
Alright, so for those of you thinking that today was going to be the post where we introduce the band members and all that, well, you’re wrong! haha We’ve decided instead to go straight on to talking about each of our musical interests, and how they influence us in our music! We’ll elaborate on this topic more as we go, but today we just want to give you the 5 musical influences that have impacted each of us the most, and how we go about writing our own brand of music based on those things that interest us. Sound cool? (and don’t worry, we’ll introduce ourselves formally with a video post here in a couple of weeks! so stay tuned for that..) Ok, well let’s get to it! Starting with our top 5 musical influences:
Ross:
- Dream Theater
- Metallica
- Rush
- Eric Johnson
- Progressive music from the ’60s til now (from Yes & Pink Floyd to Tool and Porcupine Tree!)
Andy:
- The Beatles
- The Police
- Steve Smith
- Brannen Temple
- Gregg Bissonette
Chris:
- Led Zeppelin
- Rush
- Dream Theater
- Cliff Burton
- Megadeth
So those are our influences in a nutshell (again we’ll elaborate on those later), but the real question is how we USE these influences creatively, without sounding like a copycat band, or like some confused conglomeration of all of the above, with no voice of our own; two categories that probably 90% of all bands fall into! Well, our answer to that is simple: WE PLAY WHAT WE LIKE TO HEAR! That’s it. If we only liked to listen to say, Metallica, then we’d just strictly be a Metallica cover band! Or the Police, or Beatles, or etc., etc., etc… and you get the idea.
When we get in the music room however, our main objective is to bring in ideas that we all like individually, and come out with one idea that we all like collectively. So with each indivdual writing his own riffs, lyrics, concepts, etc. that he likes, he is bringing in his own set of influences. But when we all get together to hash out parts that we’ve all brought to the table, what we strive to come out with is something unique and personal to Life Stage; something that couldn’t be represented by all or even just one of the above. And of course, when we do, we hope that all of you guys enjoy it just as much as we do, and can appreciate the time we’ve put into it!
All that being said, you now know why we’ve chosen this topic today – we want to let you guys in and take a look at what we do on a personal level, in hopes that you’ll return the favor with some feedback, and your own personal influences that make you who you are! So let us hear it! What are you under the influence of?
What's to Come…
So yesterday we covered the all important topic of “Hi.” Now that that’s out of the way, we can get on to the REAL business of prefacing our real.. business.. Uh yeah.
So anyway, what I wanted to do today is give you guys a glimpse at what’s to come with Life Stage, and what our plans are for the year 2010! Nothing major, just a highlight reel into the future, to give you all something to knaw on while we get ready. So, get ready! Here’s our plan…in bullet form:
-Launch web blog (check)
-Begin posting daily on web blog (check)
-Begin posting weekly VIDEO blog
-Start a series of LIVE, interactive concerts from our garage, posted LIVE via Ustream.tv
-Get some REAL photos of ourselves
-Keep better in touch with our fans through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others
-Launch another massive CD giveaway, promotional campaign
-Finish another album’s worth of songs, 7 of which are in the process as we speak
-Preview these songs as we finish them to our fans, that’ll be fun!
-Try and do a couple of shows each month, at least until summertime
and ultimately (pending funding)…
-Get in the studio
-Record another album
-Go on a tour!
And that’s 2010 in a nutshell for Life Stage! Again, though we’d love to share ALL of our detailed plans with you right now, this is only an outline, and we all learned in English class not to put too many details in your outline… Thanks for that Ms. Newman!
Questions? Weird remarks? Light it up! (our message board, that is…) Can’t wait to hear from you! Talk to you soon.
Ross
What's Going On?
Hey guys and girls, this is Ross here writing in for Life Stage, and I’m here today to sound off the first of what will be many, many daily blogs to come, each geared at answering the all important question, “What’s going on?” in the world of Life Stage music. That’s right, this new blog space here at http://lifestagemusic.com will now be the official home page for all of the news, videos, announcements, and stuff you could ever want from a tiny little band like ourselves! We’ll be connecting to you through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more, but ultimately our blog here will be your ONE TRUE SOURCE for genuine Life Stage facts, and other stuff as well. So without further ado, I hereby launch the official Life Stage music blog! (yeah it felt good to say it! haha)
Be sure and write in with your questions, comments, concerns, complaints, or “where do I mail this check for $50,000 to?” questions, and let US know “What’s going on?” with you. Talk to you soon!
Ross
Visit Our Homepage
whoisross.com