America and the long road ahead

As many of you know, I am moving to the States next year to pursue my dreams of touring my music and trying to earn a living off of it. I am under no illusions as to how difficult a task that will prove to be, but I figure I only have one shot at life, one thing I care deeply about, so I have to muster the courage to go out there and try to tell as many human beings as I can about my music and convince them of its worth. I am excited about this, but I’ve also been having some serious doubts about wanting to build a life in America.

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The Next Four Months

As many of you already know, I am moving back to the States in January. The main reason for that being that I miss the mid-west, I miss my friends, I miss being around my mother, and I’m really excited to tour The Enright House throughout the US and, later in the year, Europe, as well.

Going back oversees after living in New Zealand for almost five years will be good for my soul, I think. As much as I love certain aspects of New Zealand, I love the wider world even more, and to have spent a good half of my twenties in a small and remote country, too far away from my friends and family, has been a significant contributor to my ongoing struggles with depression.

Not everything about my time here, however, has been bad…

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Lovecraft

7.30 in the morning. Ouch. I was feeling a bit light-headed and my tummy’s growling sounds gave me this distinct feeling that it would rather not yet be put in an upright position. Still, today was the day of my first solo show in my de facto hometown of Christchurch, and I had to start setting up around 10 am in order to kick off my set early in the afternoon.

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The perils of not being in control of everything yourself

Re.: a national radio session I did whilst on tour. on their online version they accidentally left out the guitars and had the wrong track titles listed. nothing serious… i love my national radio, after all! :) … but I thought the following chat with my buddy, Dan, was kind of funny :).

Daniel Batkin-Smith: dude, got the link to the NatRad thing?
The Enright House: Erm. Sorry, what are you talking about, again? :)
Daniel Batkin-Smith: your status message
Daniel Batkin-Smith: about missing guitars
The Enright House: oh
The Enright House: ha
Daniel Batkin-Smith: I wanna hear
The Enright House: no fuck you
The Enright House: ha
The Enright House: i’m sure it will be fixed in a few days
Daniel Batkin-Smith: ah come on
Daniel Batkin-Smith: sook
The Enright House: why do you want to hear a 13 minute guitar song that has no guitar in the mix?
The Enright House: explain that, and MAYBE, I will oblige your ludicrous request
The Enright House: that is, if you haven’t already found it yourself with your mad internet powers :P
Daniel Batkin-Smith: I want to hear what it sounds like WITHOUT guitars, out of interest
Daniel Batkin-Smith: fuck you i’ll find it myself!
The Enright House: ha
The Enright House: darnit!!!
The Enright House: FINE
Daniel Batkin-Smith: hahahahahaha
The Enright House: here
The Enright House: SIGH SIGH SIGGGHHHHHH!!!
Daniel Batkin-Smith: thanks buddy
Daniel Batkin-Smith: good trip back?
The Enright House: ha yeah man
The Enright House: despite a delayed ferry it wasn’t too bad at all
Daniel Batkin-Smith: good one
Daniel Batkin-Smith: so have you mailed Kirsten about it?
The Enright House: ha of course. and texted
The Enright House: it’ll no doubt be fixed
The Enright House: or taken down
The Enright House: depending on what happened
Daniel Batkin-Smith: dude… you broadcast that field recording on National Radio!
The Enright House: haha
Daniel Batkin-Smith: talk about not being audience friendly
Daniel Batkin-Smith: you run the risk of alienating a good majority of a possible audience
The Enright House: it’s so friendly it’s smiling like godzilla on its wedding day
The Enright House: what am I? robbie williams?
Daniel Batkin-Smith: you could be, I guess
The Enright House: what do i care about alienating people?
Daniel Batkin-Smith: if you really want
The Enright House: that’s right, i could entertain you. and you. and you. and you, too.
Daniel Batkin-Smith: if only we let you
Daniel Batkin-Smith: (ooh that’s a good one)
The Enright House: ( ,,|,, )

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Major website overhaul and other projects

I’m sorry I’ve been a bit slow on writing up new blog posts. Essentially, I’ve been really busy with the following:

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Frau Grau

I just stumbled upon Frau Grau’s awesome body of drawings and mixed media work. I’m so into what she is doing! Check out more of her portfolio at www.fraugrau.de. The following work, entitled “There’s a feeling / That lingers in the afterwards / Will you ever return”, is a great example of her drawing style:

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Derek Sivers, Lali Puna and The Deadly Deaths

If I could actually stand on one single toe long enough to think and utter speech, whilst being forced to name three things I currently love, I might yell out the following three things in agony:

[1] Derek Sivers (CEO and founder of CD Baby)

Honestly, this man is such a legend:

I’ve met too many people who got into music because they loved playing drums, but well-meaning people tell them they need to read some huge book about the business of music and negotiating contracts, cross-collateralization, and points on the agreement. Feeling guilty, they try to go through it but find it boring. Then they start copyrighting all of their songs and trademark their name and set up an LLC. Someone else says they need to have a website, so they try to learn HTML, but someone else says they need to have flash on the site. Then they try to learn flash. The truth is that while all of those things are important, nothing is more important than maintaining your full excitement for what you are doing. If you lose your enthusiasm along the way, things will fail no matter how flashy your site is or if your band name is trademarked. Pay close attention to the compass in your gut. Do the work that’s most exciting to you, because that’s what you will do best.

[2] Lali Puna

One of my favorite bands ever. So good, so to the point, so city-sidewalk:

[3] The Deadly Deaths

I just bought their album a few days ago at Galaxy after having arrived too early at a meeting. I decided to bridge the wait with some good old record shopping, pick up their CD, and it’s been the only playing from my car stereo in days. They are masters at lethargic pop melodies.

Check out their website at www.thedeadlydeaths.com.

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Planning our acoustic tour for April/March 2008

Yesterday birthed a rather gloomy post; all apologies to you for having been such a killjoy. Lo and behold, however: the sun did indeed rise again this very morning (much, I am sure, to David Hume’s annoyance).

So, today I started work on organizing our next tour (yay tour!!! - ed.). The general idea is to play 10-13 shows, circumnavigating New Zealand’s South Island. If you happen to be reading this and live on the North Island: please don’t be cross with me or the boys for not being able to make it up this time around, but, unfortunately, we just don’t have enough time off between the three of us to make it happen (however, we will be touring up north at least once within the next 9 months: that’s a promise).

I’ve wanted to play some rather more unlikely places for a while now, and when Evan mentioned to me that he had never been further south than central Otago, nor seen much of the South Island’s spectacular west coast, I just knew right then and there that we needed to put exploration ahead of exposure and go have ourselves a bit of an old-fashioned adventure!

In fact, I am so rediculously exited about this tour it’s already bordering on mania! Haha.

Current plans include playing in Oamuru, Dunedin, Lyttelton, Invercargill, Nelson and Christchurch. In addition, I am researching possible stops in Timaru, Takaka and Motueka, as well as some more unlikely places like Okarito and Stewart Island (my favorite contender). Thus, most of this afternoon and night I’ve spent hunched over a map, googling countless towns I’ve never heard of, pillaging the various venue-directories for ideas, and calling and emailing a first handful of venues about availability.

There are still plenty of wildcards left to sort out… Greymouth? Westport? Queenstown? In terms of venues, almost everything is wide open. And where, pray, does one play on a Sunday or Monday night? Is anyone even open? In fact, have I ever bothered to go to a show myself on a Monday night? Oh dear. Haha.

I’m hoping that some of you might even consider inviting us to play in your home? Do you listen to our music and live somewhere where bands don’t play often? We are traveling with a tiny PA and are only using a small toy drumkit. Chances are if you have a livingroom, there will be enough space for us to play for you. Do you have ten friends who might want to come over for afternoon coffee or some late-night drinks and live music? Don’t be shy, don’t think I’m kidding… please get in touch with me (Mark) at “info AT theenrighthouse DOT com” or txt me at 0211028876. For serious!

Also, I really need your help if you have any ideas about towns or venues to play. I’m looking up venues online, but many of the venues have no pictures and not a lot of bands have played Invercargill, for example, so it’s often hard to find people who can share their experiences. If you live in or around any of the places that I mentioned in this post and have an idea about where our music (remember, it’s an acoustic set) might fit, please let us know.

Finally, if you have a place we could sleep at (we’re only three harmless boys), we would totally make you breakfast and play you a happy song over a glass of orange juice.

Ok. I’ve never done this. I’m excited. Any advice or suggestions? I could really need some help with this…

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Twenty-nine years old

I’ve been staying up late again these last few weeks - too late, no doubt. Not being in step with the pitch of the sun, after all, is a dangerous affair. Part of my plan to fight the lethargy and boredom that accompanies the early AM hours is to blog every night, even if only a sentence or two. I feel like apologizing to you in advance for the many unseemly posts that will no doubt follow, prostituting my private thoughts and anxieties for short-lived catharsis.

Shall we, then? Here is a thought:

I just turned 29 yesterday. Next year I might be thirty. When I was 19 I finished the German equivalent of high-school, and was set to become a composer. I went off to university thinking life would finally feel real to me. I am so embarrassed for not having avoided the cliche of being wrong.

Today I stood in a room I didn’t want to stand in, with a person I don’t like, who, of all things, also had his birthday yesterday. How hideous life can be.

I feel like my life still hasn’t started yet. I know it has, of course. I will play the martyr and even accept this as the human (gag) condition. And as my impotent act of defiance and violence I now wish to engrave the following summation of my last decade as 1’s and 0’s into the sprawling history of our unshepherded species:

I have allowed the last ten years to slip away, and now, even with all the rage and fury I can muster, I simply cannot recall how it all came to be this way, and how it is that I might escape it all. I have failed in so many ways, and I cannot even recall for what. What was it all meant for, the sadness, the humiliation, the fear and the loathing? Who was watching? And what did I stand to gain from it all?

One thing is clear, it wasn’t always this bad to be awake, and with sleep no longer providing a remedy, there might not be anything left to do but stop being sad.

Honestly? The horror of depression is consciousness: being mentally present and alert whilst it all continues unabated and unabashed.

I swear, this next decade better be better or I am really going to be pissed.

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Post-camp communication meltdown

Hi. I’m sorry if you have written to me in the last week or two, sent me friend requests, left messages on my phone, et cetera. Almost certainly you will not have heard back from me. Truth be told, since arriving back in New Zealand and then heading off to camp a low hum, I have been absolutely drowning in responsibilities: getting university enrollment and tutoring jobs sorted, working on my mom’s website, playing at camp, rehearsing, getting my apartment tidied up, catching up with friends, working on integrating new equipment into future live sets, helping out a friend with his new album, doing promotion for the Scattering video, making more handmade CD copies of an acoustic EP we recorded recently, looking after my health, and more.

In addition to all of the practical things I have had to deal with in the past 14 days, I’ve also found it quite hard to deal with the emotional shock of being back in New Zealand, especially after five wonderful weeks at home in the States with my mother. In fear of coming off as a total loser, I have to admit that I absolutely detest being lonely, and, truth be told, I really am terribly lonely here in New Zealand. Human beings are not built for this fast-paced life of ceaseless mobility and superabundant acquaintances. Although we can make due with the world we have built ourselves, and, depending on our criteria for success, even flourish in it to some extent, the inescapable fact of the matter is that we are evolutionarily drawn to family and stable social circles in such powerful ways, that not having close family and long-term friends in one’s life on a regular basis is a sure recipe for emotional instability and general dissatisfaction. The contrast of being in the States with my college friends and mom, and now back in New Zealand, where virtually all of my close friends have joined the mass-exodus during the last six months, could hardly be more stark. It’s going to take some time to build up the necessary fragile indifference.

If you are one of many wonderful people who have written to me and the band over the last two weeks, and I have not gotten back to you, I assure you that I have received your message and just couldn’t find the strength to write you back yet. I’m just really tired. One of these days I’ll wake up and the sun will shine, and I will have energy, I will have a cold glass of fresh and pulpy orange juice, and, on that very day, I will carpe that old diem and write you back and tell you all the wonderful things you deserve to be told.

Good night. Rise and shine.

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2007 in review: some of my favorite moments

10 Quietly rehearsing Darkwave to the rumbling of a train

I loved rehearsing this year. When we started out we rehearsed as a three piece in a gigantic school hall. Hardwood floors and high ceilings made for wonderful acoustics. However, after Thomas joined us, we decided we should move to a proper rehearsal space that we had unfettered access to. The newly found rehearsal space was a little garage right by train tracks. During one of many bitterly-cold winter evenings, we rehearsed the slow version of Darkwave, and just as we we began the calmly bowed outro, the whole rehearsal space began slowly to vibrate in a deep, continuous and resonant rumble. It was a perfect musical moment, brought on by a train slowly leaving the station.

09 Talking to Kirsten Johnstone about our album on National Radio

I don’t know why I enjoyed this day so much, but I had just gotten my new car and must have felt a light breeze of adulthood blow in and out of my rolled-down windows. I walked in to the Christchurch studios and felt very grateful to be able to talk about the new album on National Radio. Kirsten was awesome and the interview was just plain old fun.

08 Playing at Southern Amp

What I really liked about this show is that it was a great example of having had high expectations for our performance and them being met. It having been the last show of the year for us, we were all hoping that twelve months of hard work were going to culminate in a live show that proved to ourselves just how far we had come as a band in just a little over a year. I think all four of us felt deeply satisfied with what we had accomplished on stage, and the boys seemed to feel much relieved at the prospect of taking some time off until early next year.

07 Watching the final cut of our soon-to-be-released video for “Scattering the Sun Like Gunshot”

Without diminishing in any way whatsoever the wonderful videos to Solitaire and Darkwave, I have to admit that when I saw the footage that Dan was working on for Scattering, I could hardly contain my relief and excitement. I mean the video just blew me away (it still does!), and I am just so unbelievably grateful to Dan for honoring my music with his gorgeous video. Check out some of the still shots of the video.

06 Receiving a txt that Darkwave was #1 on Kiwi FM radio

I can’t remember who sent me the txt, but vividly I remember sitting at a cafe, hunched over a newspaper and reading a txt message on my phone telling me we were number 1 on kiwi. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t glowing with pride and gratitude.

05 Watching our video to Darkwave play on TV

This was nothing short of a surreal moment. Darkwave played right after Battle’s “Tonto” video on C4.

04 Playing at Al’s Bar with Mary in August

This was a very special concert for me personally, because Mary was there with me. Mary, incidentally, in case I forgot to clarify this, writes and recites all the amazing poetry on “Solitaire”, “Remember The Stillness” and “One of Many Dinner Conversations“. Not only was I able to perform for my very best friend, but Mary even read a poem during one of our songs.

03 Touring in September and playing a secret show at The Stomach

By world standards a tiny tour, no doubt, but never-the-less a tour it was, and our first one at that. We played some random gigs crossing islands on the ferry and played proper album release shows in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Dunedin, and Christchurch. On our first day, during our trip up to the north island, we realized that we actually weren’t scheduled to play a gig until the next day. Thomas called a few of his best friends who still lived in Palmerston North (where we stayed the night), and so we ended up playing an intimate show with ourselves and Thomas’s friends set up in a small circle of gear and couches.

02 Playing the indoor stage at Camp A Low Hum

Playing camp a low hum was awesome. We had only played one or two shows prior to playing camp, and so we were just insanely excited to be part of it all. Not only did we have a great time, but it was also a fantastic bonding experience for the then-three of us.

01 Coming home to five boxes filled with beautiful “A Maze and Amazement” CDs

Mary and I scrambled for days to finish the artwork in time to get it off to our distributer and the press in time for an October release. We finished the artwork, made proofs and sent it all to the manufacturers. However, until I opened those boxes I didn’t really know if it would work. How would the UV Varnish look? How would the colors turn out? Did I set the bleed margins on the CD and packaging correctly? Would anything at all be wrong and drive me insane for years on end? No! I opened the boxes and my babies were beautiful and perfect!

00 Thinking about the future

Always my favorite past-time. I am a serial idealist, and nothing gives me more joy, happiness and ambition than imagining and planning all the things I want to accomplish with my music over the next years. Fingers crossed that things work out!

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A day out in the woods

I spent a wonderful day out in our woods and fields yesterday. It’s extremely cold right now, but heartening. The sun is out almost every morning, and I feel very much at home in the vast expanse of the American mid-west.

It feels like a lifetime has gone by since I recorded this little idea:

[display_podcast]

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