Today, June 29th 2020 marks two years since the release of our debut LP The Kids Still Got It. During the final weeks leading up to the album release, we were scrambling to finish writing lyrics, recording instruments, designing packaging, and all the other headaches that come with scheduling an album release before you actually finish the album. Lesson learned. I remember less than two weeks before the release, I sat in Brielle's bedroom with her writing lyrics for the closing track "Channel Surfing". We spent a few hours writing, then immediately recorded those lyrics. I packed up my gear, went home, and started assembling the right takes until 4am. We had a mixing deadline and we were at the very end of it. At the end of that mess, the final CD's were rush delivered to my house two days before the release. It was insane, stupid, and quite fun.
Somewhere in that rush to the finish line, Brielle and I wrote a note to our future selves. We had been a band for two years already, so we put a note in the band's Google calendar scheduled to go off in two years asking "Are we still a band? What are we doing?"
We had big plans for 2020. In 2019, we only released one new song called "Waves." In January, we wrote a release calendar to keep us motivated and on track to put out more new material. Here's what it looked like.
February 8- Film Living Room Session ✔
February 29 - Release first Living Room Session video ✔
March 7 - Release second Living Room Session video ✔
Studio day recording "Rainy Days & Crooked Sheets" ✔
March 14 - Release third Living Room Session video ✔
April 21 - Release studio version of "Rainy Days & Crooked Sheets"
May 29 - Release studio version of 'World's Fair"
June - Release professional live video
July - Release "Stupid Feelings" studio recording
August - Release another studio single. TBD
September - Release another single. TBD
October - Release another single. TBD
November 20 - Package all 6 singles into a CD/Vinyl release
December - Release a professional live video
Suffice it to say, Coronavirus set things in motion to fuck all of that up. Our rehearsals got put on hold, our gigs got cancelled, mixing got delayed, video shoots got put on hold. Some in the band lost both our music & non-music income, some of us had their non-music jobs become much more demanding and time consuming. Part of that responsibility to move forward as a band is on us. Many musicians are adapting to live-streams quite well, though in our situation as a band, it hasn't been as possible.
Today on June 29th, 2020 I'm asking myself the same questions we asked two years ago. "Are we still a band? What are we doing?"
Are we still a band? We haven't been a proper band since March, and that's been a massive disappointment to not be able to create art with your friends, and share that with your community. I'm happy to say that we were all in a room together two days ago finally shooting our next music video, which we plan to release sooooon (we're not committing to a deadline yet, but it's happening. Promise). So yes, we are still a band. We're preparing new music for release. But it feels like at this point, we're finishing up old business and not looking forward. The next two singles we're preparing were recorded and mixed months ago. We're taking care of band matters from a pre-Covid world.
We can't wait to finally get these new studio recordings and music videos out in the world. I'm sure lots of people can empathize with the struggle of having what you feel is your best work finished, right in front of you, and not being able to show it off. Again, some of that responsibility is on us. We could have dropped the songs on bandcamp and spotify anytime in these last three months, but that wasn't part of the vision behind them. I fully believe that our artistic expression goes beyond the music itself. The way an audience digests the music is part of that expression. In the case of our next single, it is meant to be seen with the video, so releasing the song without the video would be releasing an unfinished artistic statement. It's worth waiting for. Yeah, so that's what we're doing... What should we be doing though?
RESET.
As we prepare to get our completed material out in the world, we're also preparing a band reset. For us that means a few things.
1. A face in the band will be changing. Our bassist of the last 2 years, Jesse Botello will be beginning grad school in the fall. We made a unanimous decision as a band that Jesse's new schedule wouldn't allow him as much time for the band that both he and us want out of a creative partner. Jesse is on board to play with us as long as it takes to find an appropriate replacement, so he's not gone yet. We've got a few really great musicians who are interested that we'll be jamming with later this year. When concerts start up again, we'll hope to be able to give Jesse a great send off show, as well as welcoming our new band member to the group.
2. A reset also means we're gonna try to go old-school in our music making approach going forward. Brielle and I had a recent conversation about the beginnings of our band. We both think back really fondly on the way we recorded our first EP. It was just the two of us in a room with a laptop and a couple microphones trying to record ideas before we even had the song finished. Experimenting in the studio without over-thinking. Not being afraid to sound stupid. Not saying "no" to something just because we can't recreate it live. Being open to creating music in any genre. Basically just goofing off and having fun being creative. We changed our process after making Foreign Hours, and now we want to go back to basics. We've learned a lot, and know we can do it better now. We're all better songwriters and musicians than we were 5 years ago. We look forward to having music making being an act of discovery, and not just an act of intention.
3. Finally, a reset means redefining what it means for something to be Hi Crime. Outside of music, we in the band have other creative interests that we realized we can share with the band's outlet. We've talked about using the Hi Crime platform to showcase our other creative interests beyond music. Coming soon, you can expect a video podcast series I'm working on. You may see drawings from Brielle, or stupid skits, or short stories, photography, or whatever really. We don't know what all we'll do. But we really got off on the idea of letting Hi Crime be more than just a brand for music. We hope that those of you who like us for our music, also like us as people. There's a lot more creativity that we want to express in different ways, so we hope you're on board for hanging with us on some other things we do besides music.
Aaand that's it. Thanks for reading! There's been a lot of shitty things that have happened this year. There's been a lot of sadness. The distant, vague, dim light of a reignited music and art community has been a real harbinger for hope of things to come, that I eagerly look forward to. We really miss you all. So sorry for the wait. We look forward to being together again as soon as possible.
- Mitch
