What a ride it’s been for the last month or so…
After sweating and working hard for our tour, we had a couple of days to great ready to present our hard work to Seattle at the official CD release at Tula’s as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival.
The vibe there was definitely different than what I’m used to, in that there is more of an expectation that the audience sits and listens to the music somewhat intently. To be honest, I feel more comfortable in a looser atmosphere, where I can talk to friends and family casually during the show, even step away to give a hug or high five or two. I’m also usually more comfortable inviting people to those shows, because it feels like a more social thing to do than sitting down and keeping the conversations to a minimum.
I was a little nervous as to what it was going to be like, but I was blown away by the support and how much everyone present enjoyed the show. Unless you all were being nice, it sounded like people liked the music, the show, and the energy behind what we were doing, which is honestly the music that I feel is closest to what I really want to play.
The sound of Hardcoretet is really personal to me because it incorporates elements of everything I’m into: the jazz I listened to growing up, the funk, hip hop, and electronic music I got into later, and elements of pop and rock that I’m just starting to appreciate now. Knowing that, combined with the reception we received at the sold-out Tula’s, made me feel incredibly humbled and happy to have a great group of people around me to hear me put something out there basically saying “this music is me” and to have them dig it. I talk about the importance of supportive listeners all the time, but I do that because it’s really important to remember.
Photos courtesy of Daniel Sheehan, www.eyeshotjazz.com
Good post. I’m experiencing a few of these issues as well..