After four months of hard work, tears, and a few sleepless nights, a very surreal thing has happened. If you've been around for the last few months, you know I've been posting almost nonstop about Rock Allegiance and the artists performing at this festival.
Even trying to cover this seemed a little crazy, its seventeen hours away from where I live, in a part of the country I have never been to. It was too good to pass up though...it was as close to a dream lineup as possible. Though one of my favorites has been dropped from the lineup, its still incredible. Saint Asonia, Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch, and so many more, all playing aside legends like Rob Zombie and Korn? It began to seem totally impossible, and probably a little silly to believe I could get it. But I kept persisting, and did reviews for every single artist on the original lineup, and kept up with the news the best I could. Guess what? Good things really do come to those who bust their ass. I will be facing my biggest fear on October 8, and getting on a plane. I will be flying across the country to a friend who has helped me through all of this, and has helped me stay focused, and we're going to go cover Rock Allegiance together. I don't know who I'm going to interview yet, but I know who I want to ask for. There will be tons of pictures of this trip, vlogging will happen, and I will have tons of stories to tell. I want to give massive thanks to everyone who has been there, supporting Immortal Music, or just putting up with my constant talk of the festival. This seriously means more to me than words can explain. Rock Allegiance- I'm coming for you! See you October 10. If you have any questions for anyone at the festival, please sense them my way. I wouldn't be able to do this if it weren't for you guys helping me get this far, and I want to include you in every way I can. This is the biggest thing I've ever done, and I can't even form into words the excitement I'm feeling. Let's do this.
0 Comments
Today Atreyu released the music video for "Do You Know Who You Are", which is featured on Long Live. The video encourages people to show who they are, and it got me thinking.
There's been a campaign going around for a while from Gillette Venus called "Use your and" which encouraged people to show that they're not just one thing. A lot of YouTube stars were talking about it, and for months, we have thought of doing the same. Since Atreyu has now brought the topic up, now seemed like the perfect time to do it. With the recent equality movement, and social media being as open as it is, individuality is very hot topic these days. Everyone identifies as something different, and from day to day, that can change. One day you're very self motivated and out going, and the next you find yourself procrastinating on everything you want to get done. Instead of writing reviews, and articles, you find yourself watch a marathon of Family Matters reruns, even though you want to get stuff done. Well, actually, that may not apply to everyone, but that's me at this very second. Atreyu's song asks, "Do you know who you are in your heart?" I can soundly say I do, but some cannot say that. I sincerely hope everyone finds who they are, and are able to grow comfortable with who they are quickly. "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken." -Oscar Wilde So you may be thinking -okay, so being yourself is important, but who are YOU? Well, I'm Ariel. I'm a self motivated music journalist and photographer. I'm a hard worker, and a very social person, but still greatly appreciate my alone time to sit quietly in my room. I love bright colors, but never wear them. Same thing goes for makeup -its an art form that I appreciate, yet never bother. Some days I can spend hours alone in my room doing absolutely nothing, other days that will depress me to the point of tears. I try not to get my hopes up, yet somehow almost do. I'm something of a realist, but have slightly outlandish dreams. My weakness is that I care too much, and sometimes that gets the better of me. I can talk for hours, but somehow talking about myself is proving to be a bit weird. It feels conceited and wrong, in a way. That's probably why I hardly ever talk about the adventures I've had with Immortal Music. While I'm very proud of how far I've come, it feels like bragging whenever I bring it up. Some people have responded with, "So what? You have bragging rights." But I don't care, bragging seems rude, so I try to avoid it. I am grateful for everything I'm doing, and I am dedicated to do more. So now I'm curious....do you know who you are? Post on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag '#doyouknowwhoyouare' so Atreyu may just see it. Tag us as well, so we can see it! We have made it to the 4th anniversary of Immortal Music! Ironically, the story I'm about to tell you happened just a little over three years ago. As I've been saying, this one happened at Uproar 2012, which was extremely eventful and my first festival ever. This was just before my last interview of the day. Staind was on stage, and I got escorted back to a tour bus by the tour manager for Redlight King. Security didn't want to let me leave, and the phone numbers I had proved to be useless at that moment. Then I saw a guy walking past in a Redlight King hat, with a walkie talkie on his hip and frankly, he just looked...official. I decided he probably would be able to help me, so I went ovr and introduced myself. I explained what was going on, and he said he could probably help.
He proceeded to call Candlelight Red's tour manager, who confirmed that yes I was supposed to have an interview soon, and he was in fact walking to the bus with someone else who had an interview. This guy, who's name I sadly do not recall, said he would walk with me to the bus, but first we had to make a pit stop to help break down the merch tent. Of course, I said that was fine, and I would help. So we did that, and finally caught up with Candlelight Red's person. We get on the bus and the other people went straight to the back of the bus for the interview. I hung out up front with their manager and merch person. Now this was my first time being on a tour bus, so I was kind of interested. I don't remember half of what we were talking about, except learning that their manager was from my home area, and their merch person (who I had been talking to on and off all day) is a big fan of Asking Alexandria. That's all I remember conversation wise, until what I thought was a closet opened up. Here's where it got interesting. The 'closet' opened up, and out stepped Brian Dugan, the drummer for Candlelight Red. I couldn't help myself and instantly exclaimed, "Oh that's a bathroom! I thought that was a closet." They all kind of chuckled, and I just apologized and said I had never been on a tour bus before. We ended up talking about how bus showers work and the process you have to go through just to keep the water there. While we were talking, he started making himself something to eat, and yelled into the bunk area that someone could have the shower. Someone answered, and jumped out of his bunk. I didn't see him, and I guess he didn't see me, until he walked out from behind Brian. This man, jumped about a foot in the air, and tried to cover himself because he was just in his underwear. I remember him instantly going, "I'm sorry! I didn't know anyone was on the bus." Trying to make him feel better, I said, "Its okay, I see my dad in his underwear all the time." I don't remember his response, but I do remember he stayed half hidden behind Brian and chatted with all of us until I went back for my interview. That was when he escaped to the shower. This probably sounds like nothing, but let me give you a little more detail. He didn't look familiar to me, but the next day, I had an inkling of who it may have been. My mom had asked me to tell Redlight King that she was very impressed with them if I happened to see them, but I didn't get to see their set or anything. As it turns out, while that was the case, I did speak to one member of Redlight King. The guy I met in his underwear was Kaz, from Redlight King. To this day, this is still one of my mom's favorite stories because she thinks I probably embarrassed him. She always says by saying that I compared him to my dad, and nobody wants to hear that. That wasn't my intention, just at the time, my dad was the only person I had really ever seen in his understand! But none the less, it was a hilarious memory and honestly one of the funniest things I've ever had happen to me. I think that just ended the series! Thank you so much for being here, and all your support! I have another series in mind, but that's going to take some planning and everything, so it might be a little bit before its posted! I have plenty in the works, so...here's to 4 years of Immortal Music and many more! #16/ Yesterday's So, as some of you may know, earlier this summer, Immortal Music went to Warped tour with Remedy X. I actually was not a big fan of Warped tour before I went. I had previously attended Warped tour in 2012 at an entirely different location and HATED IT. I found it absolutely dreadful, and disorganized. This year, was a complete 360 and I had the time of my life.
I'm not here to talk about all of it, I wrote about it not long after the show, and you can read all about it here. This was probably the first show I had been to without a press pass in two years. Once Remedy was done, I was just there as a fan, and I must say, that was really nice! It was a friend's first concert, and we instantly started exploring. Escape The Fate came on not long after, and I just started having so much fun. It was nice just hanging out, listening to music, vlogging and taking some pictures. Every band I saw that day are ones I had previously saw live in the past, except for As It Is. As It Is also happens to be the only band I got close to the stage for, and I have to say I was super impressed! I really want to see them live again, and you can definitely tell Patty Walters is a YouTuber, there for not camera shy. Getting a picutre of any member looking directly at the camera is rare enough, but then to have it happen twice in one performance? Its pretty much unheard of, but did happen during As It Is. As a photographer, I really appreciated it, and after their performance, I honestly had "Cheap Shots And Setbacks" stuck in my head for a month straight. I also tried to brave my fear of heights again that day by sitting on my friend's shoulder during Pierce The Veil. I couldn't see and Pierce The Veil fans are dedicated and do not move from their spots, so that was what we were going to do to fix it. However, moments after I got up there, someone pushed past and brushed my foot, which scared me so I insisted on getting down. Just before their set though, I was talking with these girls who were actually massive Pierce The Veil fans, and one had a press pass believe it or not. They were a lot of fun to talk to, and we actually started talking because I heard the one girl say she thought she was gonna pass out. So I instantly offered her a water bottle, and that broke the ice. That and I realized she had the same camera as me only in a different color and was in an Hakuna Matata shirt. We had too much in common for me to just not talk to her. I have fun talking to people at concerts, and it was just nice being at a show just for fun. That's kind of all I had to say though! Tomorrow is the end of the series, as it is the 4th anniversary of Immortal Music. I will be telling one of my favorite stories that I probably have never told online. Its from Uproar 2012, and I'm excited for you guys to hear this one. See ya tomorrow! #15/ Yesterday's This memory somewhat involves Three Days Grace. The first and so far only thing I have ever had published in a magazine was about them. It was specifically about Three Days Grace live with Matt Walst. I'm not going to get into that too much, because I honestly didn't say the best things about it. Why I wanted to talk about it was because obviously, it was the first thing I ever got published. That was a big deal!
It was with a magazine that is now defunct, I believe. They moved away and I think I heard the creator's went onto a new project, but I am not sure if they kept the magazine going as well. Anyways, this particular issue was debuting at Fort Rock in 2013 and I was so excited. This was supposed to be the first time I was going to see Papa Roach, and I was there with a magazine for the first time, so having my first ever magazine feature to be debuting there too was just overly exciting. To make matters even more exciting, friends of mine Sunshine & Bullets were on the cover of the magazine. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the day, but Fort Rock grew and got better, so that was a massive plus. I actually do still have that magazine, and I still remember the moment I saw it laid out at the booth. The table was COVERED in copies of the issue, and I basically ran right to the table. I remember flipping to my article, and turning to my mom and going, "LOOK! I'M IN A MAGAZINE!" It was a very exciting moment, and the fact that the article was about the band that made me love music was just awesome. I know that wasn't much, but it was a big moment for me, so I wanted to talk about it. There's only 2 more memories I'm going to share, but one of them is probably the funniest thing to ever happen to me. Stay tuned! #14/ Yesterday's As many may know, I am a big fan of All Time Low. On November 11, 2012, I saw and covered an All Time Low show. They were performing with The Downtown Fiction, and Hit The Lights, and all the bands did wonderfully. What I wanted to talk about the most though was All Time Low's performance and their insane fan base.
First I want to say this- I got to the show accidentally way too early. Like five hours too early, so I saw a lot of the behind the scenes, like their now ex manager, Matt Flyzik having to get 300 fans in a line for a meet and greet (which Jack was late to), and all the members going in different directions. I actually got to the venue, and while making my way to a friend, walked right into someone. Neither one of us said anything, just smiled and stepped out of one another's way. As I was walking away, I thought to myself, "Hmm...that guy looked like Rian." I gave it another thought and realized, "That guy was Rian." So that was the first weird encounter for the day. Notice that I said first, it kept happening. Only one I didn't have a weird encounter with that day was Zack. After a couple of hours, a friend texted me and said he had just spoken to Jack around the corner and he would ask about my interview when Jack returns. I asked if I should go over there, and he said yes, but also told me not to explain out loud to anyone where I was going. Obviously, we did not want fangirls to be swarming. Most of the crowd wasn't even allowed on the side of the venue, but he practically lives there and since we were there with them, they didn't try to stop us. (I say 'us' because I had a friend with me as well) We waited for a while for Jack, and when he came over, I decided to just let my friend do the talking. They had met before that day, so it only made sense for them to discuss things first. He asked about my interview, and Jack looked at me with a very apologetic look. He then told me that he would love to, but it wasn't up to him at all. I would have to talk to the very stressed out Matt Flyzik about it, and due to all the stress I knew he was under, I decided to not bother. My friend then asked if he could at least take a picture with me. Jack said yes, but sounded slightly hesitant as he started to put an arm around my shoulders. I noticed and asked what was up, and if he was late for something. As it turns out, he was late for the meet and greet Matt had been gathering fans for. So, I shoo'ed him away and just told him I would get my picture later in the night. Which I did do, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Probably an hour later or something, a different friend of mine showed up and as we were talking she all the sudden made a sound I will never forget as she stared over my shoulder. The only way I can ever describe the sound is to say, "It sounded like you channeled a kitten." Of course, I asked her what that was all about. All she said was, "Alex." I didn't know what she was talking about still, so I went, "Yeah, what about him?" She all the sudden grabs my shoulders, turns me around and points, repeating his name once more in my ear. Sure enough, Alex had come out of no where and was trying to carefully make it through the fans. Yeah....that didn't work too well. Fans quickly noticed he was there, and frankly a couple of them looked like hungry zombies as they approached. It was kind of scary, and I remember not even trying to talk to him and just being relieved when security quickly got him inside. Still won't get the looks on those girl's faces out of my head. Then came the actual show, their lights are blinding but somehow I got some really cool pictures. About two songs in, Jack got an idea. Not a good idea, I might add. He decided to climb onto the amp, which caused fans to flood the barricade in attempts to get to him. Not like you needed to know this, but being between the fans and the band member they wish to get at isn't ideal. I got slammed into the stage and I think I scared Alex a bit because I nearly climbed onto the stage for safety. I think he saw that thought process pass through my mind somehow because he was looking down at me with a look on his face like, "Please don't..." For his peace of mind, I decided not to. So covering the show was a bit of an adventure but they put on such a good show and I had so much fun and do remember it fondly. When All Time Low is involved, something is always bound to happen, its part of who they are. That actually may have been one of my favorite shows to cover, just because of all the antics. In the moment, I think I was probably slightly frustrated, and possibly concerned but looking back at it, it was awesome. I will see you guys tomorrow for another memory! #13/ Yesterday's Yesterday I told the story of getting my Slipknot pass and seeing Godsmack at Fort Rock, and now its Slipknot's turn. If you want to know what happened leading up to this, please click here. If not, then carry on.
I feel like I don't have a ton to say about this, but at the same time, its not overly common to cover a Slipknot set, so it was kind of an honor. One of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken actually was one of the first pictures I took during their set. Corey Taylor is apparently very good at thinking to look at cameras for the photographers, because not a minute into the song, he crouched down and looked directly at (or near) my camera. I'm not going to lie, I took the picture, and took a step back because with his new mask he looks like he escaped from an insane asylum. I had to stop back and remind myself briefly that its just Corey Taylor. Silly, I know. I was sleep deprived and that mask is slightly creepy up close. I feel like I didn't get a ton of great pictures of them because I actually could only see like half the stage. It was extremely tall, and half the members were further back (or higher up) so I couldn't actually get pictures of every member. It was still an honor to do none the less, and I genuinely was impressed with them live! I did not stay for the entire performance, because right after I left the barricade, I went on the hunt for my best friend and his girlfriend, who were moving away that night, and then we found a spot in the grass and relaxed for a bit before deciding it was time for bed. That's pretty much all I have to say though about it. It was awesome, and I would do it again, in a heartbeat. I will see you guys tomorrow for another memory! We're actually coming to the end of this series! There's only 3 days left til the fourth anniversary, and on that day, I will share one of my all time favorite stories. #12 / Yesterday's! On April 25, 2015, Slipknot headlined the second annual Fort Rock festival, which I attended and covered. To cover their performance though, you actually needed to fill out a separate request form, and had to have a separate wristband. I honestly didn't expect it to be easy, but I decided to apply for a pass anyway, Turns out, while it was separate, it wasn't hard to get a pass, and I was kind of honored.
Now here's where it got interesting. In the middle of the day at Fort Rock, their on site press person texted everyone (which was really smart, if you ask me. A phone call could be missed, but multiple texts through out the day have less of a chance of it being missed), and told them where to meet her and when to get the passes. So I ran up to the barricade and called her because I had no idea what she looked like and desperately wanted my pass. Luckily she was right there, and gave me my pass no problem. Godsmack was about to take the stage and nobody was letting me get to the entrance of the barricade. So, I saw an opportunity and decided to take it. I tried to hoist myself up onto the barricade and due to a pretty bad sunburn on my legs and my lack of upper body strength, I got stuck. So, I turned to the couple, and their friend that I just been talking to and said, "I need your help." The one guy looked at me and asked, "What's up?" I think my answer scared him a bit, because he ended up just staring at me for a second. "I need you to help me over this fence." Obviously, most of the time helping someone over a barricade will get you in trouble, so him staring at me was understandable. I just sighed and explained in a hurry. "I have a pass, I am allowed to be up there, I actually have to be up there." The girl with the two guys smacked them both and goes, "Oh help the girl! Clearly she needs help." They did finally help, and ironically, I looked up and saw a security guard smirking because they clearly saw the entire thing and instead of helping, they were amused. When I walked past them, and sat down in front of the barricade they asked, "Had some trouble there, did you?" I sort of just laughed and said, "Yeah, but its all good now." The crowd was bad enough that they let us press people stay in front of the barricade or side stage, as long as we weren't taking pictures. It had hit me about an hour before that just how tired I was, and I'm not the biggest fan of Godsmack so I decided to plop my happy ass down on one of their equipment boxes. I actually had to double check to make sure it wasn't Breaking Benjamin's emblem light because it was the same color and I didn't want to sit on that and possibly damage it. If I'm honest, I can't tell you much of anything about their performance, as I couldn't see a thing from where I was, and was so tired at that point, I could have happily laid on the grass and taken a nap if my body would have let me. Despite being exhausted at that point, and having absolutely no idea what was going on with the band, it was interesting getting to see basically the band's point of view. I was probably 20 feet from the front row even, and could see nothing but a sea of people rocking out, crowd surfers, beach balls getting thrown around. I kind of wish I had taken a picture but in that moment, I didn't even think about it. I remember about half way through their performance, a security guard came up to me. I thought for sure he was going to tell me to get off the equipment case, and find my way back into the crowd. Instead, he just smiled and said, "You look like you've been having fun today." I just smiled back and responded with, "Oh I have been! I've been all over this place and am so tired at this point." I then think I asked if it was okay that I was sitting on the case. He said there was no way I could hurt it, so it was fine. Before I knew it, it was time for Slipknot to take the stage and.....That's going to be tomorrow's story. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow! We only have 5 more days left of these stories! I hope someone's been enjoying reading them, reminiscing is pretty fun. I still have yet to tell one of my favorite stories (which is my mother's favorite story, actually) and that will come on September 16. Stay tuned! #11 /Yesterday's Okay, so this one doesn't directly involve Hollywood Undead, but they were involved indirectly. They played an event that used to happen every year here called X-Mas Ball, and in 2011, I was there. The lineup was Black Veil Brides, Hollywood Undead, Asking Alexandria, and Avenged Sevenfold. The sound system was off that day, to the point that Asking Alexandria sounded just like noise, even on one of my favorite songs. It definitely wasn't them though, it was the sound system not being up to par.
Anyways, while Hollywood Undead was on the stage, due to the sound, I decided to hang out in the hallway with some friends during their performance. One moment in particular stood out to me and I just thought it was funny. I have absolutely no idea what song it was, but at one point, somehow my friend and I started (sort of) ballroom dancing in the hallway. So, while its not related at all, I almost always associate that memory with anything Hollywood Undead. Since I didn't actually get to watch them as they should be, I would like to give them a second chance one of these days. I'm not a massive HU fan, but sometimes live performances can change that. Its a minor memory, I know, but I kind of enjoy it so I thought I would share it. Not long after that, I found my way up to the barricade to take pictures of Avenged Sevenfold. I primarily got pictures of Syn Gates that night because of where I was, but it was fun! I will be back tomorrow with another story, though at this second, I have no idea what I'm going to end up telling you. We shall see. There are so many great albums coming out very soon, and there's several I'm quite excited for. There's also been a ton already released this year that I have loved, and I kind of just wanted to talk about them. Maybe even get a discussion going about albums you're loving and are excited for, because I know there's a lot of music out there and its interesting to see what everyone's listening to.
Meanwhile, where do I start? I think I will start with the albums I am excited for first. I'm just going to talk about them in the order of which they will be released, because...well, why not? First, there's That's The Spirit from Bring Me The Horizon. That's out in just two days (or September 11, if you're reading this on any day that isn't the day it was posted), and so far I have been loving the songs they've releases so far. So far, my favorite is "True Friends", though if I'm honestly, I cannot fully explain why. I just really like that song. I'm not totally sold on "Avalanche" yet, but its still new so that's subject to change. Then there is Threat to Survival from Shinedown. "Cut The Cord" took a while to grow on me, but now I like it. The other two they released too, "Black Cadillac" and "State Of My Head" are wonderful as well. "Black Cadillac" is beautiful, and admittedly I've only heard "State Of My Head" once so I still have to listen to it more to form an opinion on it. Atreyu's "Long Live" because its been so long since they've been gone, so its going to be interesting to see what they have in store. I actually may be getting an advanced copy of the album, but its out in a little over a week so I may end up waiting until its properly out to do a review. Then lastly there is Escape The Fate's Hate Me. That one comes out October 18, and I loved their last release, Ungrateful, so this is exciting. Plus, "Just a memory" is awesome, and was great live too at Warped tour. So, I'm sure they're going to be releasing another great album. I think that's all the albums I'm currently excited for the releases of. With the exception of Pierce The Veil's album, which we know absolutely nothing about at this point in time. I was actually recently talking about that with a friend of mine, and we both kind of decided that we wouldn't put it past them to just pull a Fall Out Boy and release the album as a surprise. As for the albums I've really been enjoying this year, there's F.E.A.R from Papa Roach, the Rise Up EP from Art of Dying, and Saint Asonia's self titled debut album. So tell me, what are you looking forward to? Also, what have you been listening to this year so far? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter! |
What's this?Blogs of various topics go here, and all are written by Immortal Music's creator. You never know what you may find here, so have a look around. Archives
January 2022
|