#1

This is my first blog... ever. I honestly have kind of an issue with the whole premise of the "cyber-blog" world, but it's definitely an interesting way to communicate your feelings. I find that writing is really cathartic for me - whether its writing a song or just throwing down a poem or a little essay. So I guess I now have no choice.

I started fronting The Project in February and things have taken off really quickly. We somehow got our act together and avoided sucking enough to win a battle of the bands and play a few crappy gigs. Then we developed some chemistry and did some rehearsing and recording - eventually we found ourselves in the studio with 5 very different original songs.

I had to ask myself - what is my goal with this band? I've decided that our goal is to make music that the four of us are really excited about. That probably means that our extensive soloing, high-energy live show, and lyrical imagery/honesty will knock us out of most college markets. My pessimistic view is caused by the amount of uninterested/uneducated people that listen to music right now in college. And its not even that people have to like our band - they just have to be interested enough to support local music. Record shops are closing, ALBUMS are becoming obsolete (instead, a collection of singles is preferred), and whatever iTunes decides the next big thing is turns out to be (SURPRISE) the "next big thing."

I guess my problem is really about a lack of personality in modern music. Before I get too far into this, let me explain. The bands that have personality succeed because there are still some trained INDUSTRY ears out there. However, the LISTENER isn't very in tune with the term "personality." There are only so many musical notes - but people that play the wrong note at the right time, people who run up a certain scale in a certain way - THESE are the musicians that have personality - these are the great ones. Not one great musician every believed that studio effects and on-key vocals (done by a computer, thank you very much) made their band great. Unfortunately, this is what today's radio and popular music landscape has created.

So I will conclude this first blog by saying that I appreciate every single person who has taken the time or will take the time to listen to even 10 seconds of one of our songs. It's people who listen with an open mind and a critical ear that will determine what kind of music goes on the radio and gets absorbed by popular culture. Eventually, record labels will run out of tricks in the studio and pop divas will not exist.

We're going to continue to play music because we love to play music. We aren't in it for the money (though, if you can make a few bucks doing what you love, who WOULDN'T?) the girls (well, maybe the other three guys are in it for the girls haha), or the fame. If you like us, thanks so much, keep listening and we're going to do our best to keep putting stuff out that you'll like.

Otherwise, what's the fucking point?

- Andrew
andrew@theprojectboston.com