05/24/2012 - Are We Farming or Rocking??!?
/Ah… finally home after helping out in our church’s youth group tonight. Finally a brief moment to chill out and breathe before hitting work for one more day before the weekend. I can only smile now – because the seeds have been planted, and though they aren’t bursting forth with fruition quite yet, with a little more water and care, the buds will start peeking above the soil.
I am NOT a farmer, though.
I deal in dreams and visions. I know what the next FTF album will look like and sound like. I know the promotional machine I want to carry it across the nation. I envision the wind that’s gonna carry this loud, obnoxious band from one corner of the globe to the next. Yeah – that sounds pretty pretentious, but with a lack of vision, there is nothing but dead wasteland – as far as the eye can see. I know I mention dreams a lot (a LOT!), but without the seed of a vision or a spark of a dream, you’d never be able to follow it through and reap the culmination of your purpose.
We had our “first” Kickstarter “meeting” last night. It was a little bit like the Godfather – but in our case, no one had to “take it to the mattresses;” it ended quite well. We all come to this thing with vision and goals, and we’re all there as soundboards for the other guys to “trim the fat off,” as it were, before certain ideas and thoughts get so big and obtuse that they’re just completely unrealistic. I’m the most guilty of this – my eyes are waaaaay bigger than my stomach, and I usually rely on the other three “horsemen” and my wife Lara to rope me back in and get me under control.
But last night went well. We started with the basics, then Gabe came in with his ideas and we started shooting different scenarios back and forth, i.e.: what we’ll need for incentives, what the recording and mixing stage is gonna take money-wise, and then the mastering/artwork/replication stage. Things got pretty heated for a while – and even if you were a fly on the wall in our practices sometimes you would think we were an enormous Italian family who just got told their reservations at Olive garden were lost. We freak out, we take things personally, we think the “other person” is completely out of their mind sometimes. We lose control.
But then…
We remember why we’re here in the first place. We take it to God – pray it through, and get Him to get us through anything we need to get through. Might seem silly to some of you guys – but in this band – we do really on His guiding hand to get to the next level. We’re not businessmen or necessarily completely tech savvy. We’re just a rock band we loves to play. We do, however, like to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals and wise counsel. Hint hint: that is a really good tip for those of you striking out on your own to pursue your own dream. It’s tough being a lone ranger (or, in our case FOUR lone rangers!) – so make sure you surround yourself with good team of people who see things through your eyes.
All the ideas are on the table and the stage is set. I think we’ll be ready to launch our Kickstarter campaign in the next month or so. If I know anything about FTF, it’s that we want to do everything right and as professional as possible. Even if it means waiting a little longer for things to happen for us.
At any rate, our Kickstarter vision is starting to take shape! It’s exciting and also a little formidable. We want to take care to do it the right way – the FTF way and take care of what God has given us and make sure our fans (really our family) are taken care of.
We hope you guys are with us on this next chapter of “all things FTF.” We’re stoked! We want to go into the studio asap, and we want you guys to help us achieve that goal – if you feel led to do so. We thank you guys so very much for being along for this crazy ride with us!!
Hope to talk to you soon at a show near you…
Drew Bell, 05/24/2012