Tuesday
Apr012008
Big News
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 03:25PM
I've been waiting to share this news with you guys for quite a while, but today just seems like the day to do it. As many of you know, I've been meeting for the last six months or so with different record companies here in Nashville, looking for someone to partner with my solo music.
After many, many coffees, lunches, and more recently, lawyer's office visits, I am glad to announce my renewed partnership with Forefront Records.
My original band, The Normals, released three albums on Forefront during the years 1998-2001. While critically acclaimed, those records failed to achieve the financial success Forefront deemed necessary and they pulled funding from the band's marketing budget. In the days before MySpace and facebook, this was a serious blow and it led to the (some would say, early) demise of the band.
But what's done is done and today is the here and now. And friends, my future, is once again squarely in the hands of this great company. We've patched up our differences and, thanks in large part to the decline of the record industry as a whole, my sales numbers aren't looking so bad anymore.
So, here we are. Holding hands and skipping through contract negotiations like the gray-haired lovers we so metaphorically are. And I couldn't be more excited.
They're scouting out producers to help me start on a new album. I'm not exactly sure where we'll be recording it, but I'm confident it will be in Franklin, TN. I won't, of course, be allowed to use my usual group of players, but I also haven't had a song on the radio in a couple months now, so I do defer judgment this time. I don't want to make the same mistakes twice.
Also, this means I will not be able to do any more Letters to the Editor projects. I've been (re)learning that you don't make friends or fans by giving music away. You just become another pirate. And this makes me a little sad, but it's time to kill the parrot and take off the eye-patch, I guess. I was able to get it so that those of you who donated at least $12 for the EP will be allowed to keep yours.
Anyone who just got it for free, however, or who paid less than $12 will need to e-mail me their copies of the mp3s (and artwork!!) so I can properly dispose of them.
Yeah, that's the bummer, but as with most things in this reality of living, you've got to make some compromises, and I trust that this will be for the better. And I'm really excited to get in some songwriter meetings and start carving out some songs for Christian radio, and then getting that record out there for you.
So here's to the future, and to the positive and inspiring songs we'll sing together (with your properly registed CCLI licenses). In a career of milestones, this is another one. Thanks for being with me on this journey so far. I can't wait to see where it takes us from here.
(Oh, and I should tell you. This will be my last blog post. From now on, editorial control over this website will be run by someone from the label. They promise to update at least once every other month and, if you're on the mailing list, you'll also be updated with details about every upcoming Forefront release. So I guess I'll see you later at a show or something.)
After many, many coffees, lunches, and more recently, lawyer's office visits, I am glad to announce my renewed partnership with Forefront Records.
My original band, The Normals, released three albums on Forefront during the years 1998-2001. While critically acclaimed, those records failed to achieve the financial success Forefront deemed necessary and they pulled funding from the band's marketing budget. In the days before MySpace and facebook, this was a serious blow and it led to the (some would say, early) demise of the band.
But what's done is done and today is the here and now. And friends, my future, is once again squarely in the hands of this great company. We've patched up our differences and, thanks in large part to the decline of the record industry as a whole, my sales numbers aren't looking so bad anymore.
So, here we are. Holding hands and skipping through contract negotiations like the gray-haired lovers we so metaphorically are. And I couldn't be more excited.
They're scouting out producers to help me start on a new album. I'm not exactly sure where we'll be recording it, but I'm confident it will be in Franklin, TN. I won't, of course, be allowed to use my usual group of players, but I also haven't had a song on the radio in a couple months now, so I do defer judgment this time. I don't want to make the same mistakes twice.
Also, this means I will not be able to do any more Letters to the Editor projects. I've been (re)learning that you don't make friends or fans by giving music away. You just become another pirate. And this makes me a little sad, but it's time to kill the parrot and take off the eye-patch, I guess. I was able to get it so that those of you who donated at least $12 for the EP will be allowed to keep yours.
Anyone who just got it for free, however, or who paid less than $12 will need to e-mail me their copies of the mp3s (and artwork!!) so I can properly dispose of them.
Yeah, that's the bummer, but as with most things in this reality of living, you've got to make some compromises, and I trust that this will be for the better. And I'm really excited to get in some songwriter meetings and start carving out some songs for Christian radio, and then getting that record out there for you.
So here's to the future, and to the positive and inspiring songs we'll sing together (with your properly registed CCLI licenses). In a career of milestones, this is another one. Thanks for being with me on this journey so far. I can't wait to see where it takes us from here.
(Oh, and I should tell you. This will be my last blog post. From now on, editorial control over this website will be run by someone from the label. They promise to update at least once every other month and, if you're on the mailing list, you'll also be updated with details about every upcoming Forefront release. So I guess I'll see you later at a show or something.)
Reader Comments (51)
Since I'm catching up on my RSS feed nearly a month later, it didn't occur to me that this was an April Fool's joke, until I got to the part about carving out CCM hits and then I thought "Andy has had his brain eaten alive, because he may changed his mind about giving away music, but this would never happen." I don't know the Forefront story, so that really didn't strike me much.
But O Clever Andy O. Glad to see I can keep my Letters to the Editor. :)