While scrolling through Facebook, a post from Bryan Stars came up. The first line in the post? "The reason I quit BryanStars Interviews."
Now I had realized he basically stopped uploading any interviews, and only really uploaded skits and challenges on My Digital Escape with Johnny Gilbert and others. Over all, I didn't think much of it. Everyone needs to time to themselves, and the YouTube community is a lot of fun to play around in. Come to find out, he quit interviewing all together. Now I know this is going to sound incredibly fangirlish, and say what you will, but hearing this kind of...hurt in a way. Not because of him, being who he is, quitting. Nothing like that, it was what he said, and the history I kind of have involving Bryan. Bryan is one of my biggest inspirations. His interviews are what made me want to start interviewing bands, which lead me into full blown music journalism and photography. So, not only is there that, but there's his reason for quitting. Those same thoughts have been running through my head a lot for several months lately, but yet there's still something, somewhere in my mind telling me not to give up just yet. Everything Bryan said on Facebook is entirely true. Getting access to bigger bands is incredibly hard and I have mixed feelings hearing him say it. On some level, its sort of comforting realizing someone as well known as Bryan Stars also has a problem getting in touch with bands he would like to speak to. On another, its sort of like, "Crap. If he can't even get to them, how the hell am I supposed to ever manage?" But that's the thing, you can't really compare yourself to others, you know? Sometimes, with enough persistence, something does work in your favor. That's what also gets frustrating. Journalism is a lot of work, especially when you do it all yourself. There's all the promotion to get 'legit' enough to get to cover shows, there's the writing, photo taking, editing, more promotion, traveling, ect. And yes, its very rewarding in the long run, but its a very underrated, stressful job that you don't really get paid for unless you get that "big break" everyone talks about. It also really honestly sucks when you bust your ass for something, put your heart and soul into something, just to have it fall apart. Trust me, it happens. For everything that does work out, there's at least ten that didn't quite work out. Or if they did work out, didn't work as planned. I'm about four years into Immortal Music, and have debated on and off since about April about giving it all up. The 'spark' has come and gone through out the year, and its interesting how it fluctuates. In the back of my mind, I'm going, "I really need to get something up on the website." I always need to do a review, post a news article, write a blog, request an interview -SOMETHING. And I get incredibly discouraged when I post something and get absolutely no feedback regardless of how much I promote it. It gets to feeling totally and completely pointless sometimes. And Bryan made a good point about that too. "Bands do interviews to promote their music. But the bigger a band gets, the less they rely on press as they have enough power on their own to promote their projects. Press essentially becomes a waste of time and they are very limited on who they grant access to." That thought comes to mind a lot -press essentially becomes a waste of time. Us journalists sometimes are burdens to band members, and trying to do an interview that's worth their time and fun for them isn't easy. I am sure there's been interviews I've done that the band was more than happy to walk away from when it was over, because I'm not this crazy, fun, wacky person that's going to ask porn star names and such. I'm not Bryan Stars, and frankly, Bryan is something I've always aspired to be. Which is probably why his post did upset me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's doing something he is happy with, and I sincerely wish him the best of luck in anything he does. But how are you supposed to react when one of your inspirations moves on because of the same thoughts you've been having? I mean, fuck, he interviewed 450 BANDS IN 6 YEARS, and went on Warped tour twice. He flew all over the country to interview bands, and edited it all himself. Of course he got burned out. I have gotten a little burned out in four years after interviewing just a handful of bands....and most not in person. It seems slightly pathetic...But at the same time, I stop and think about it. Sure, I've interviewed only a handful of bands, but I've also reviewed 165 albums, written I don't know how many blog posts, and articles, threw together graphics and web layouts, and promoted it all. Until recently, that was all completely by myself, and I've had a job outside of this that keeps me pretty busy for the last year and a half. I've worked to cover shows I didn't get to cover, saved up money I barely had to cover shows that were no where near me, made merch that nobody's bought, promoted on several platforms just to have absolutely nobody say a word, and been frustrated and stressed out to the point of tears. But at the same time, I've also sat down with some incredible people, discovered some great bands I otherwise may have never heard about, experienced some amazing things, discovered a passion for photography, and found a sense of purpose in the world. All because of journalism. All because my best friend about five years ago showed me a Bryan Stars interview. I still remember the exact one actually, and exactly how he showed me. It was Bryan's first interview with Andy Biersack, back when he still went by Andy Six. I went over to his house after he got out of school, and he says to me, "Hey, you have to watch this interview. You'll love this guy." He meant Andy, and at the time his ultimate goal was to get me into more music. So, we sat down in front of the computer and started watching the interview. Probably half way through the interview, it randomly hit me. "Why am I not doing this??" I'm pretty sure I said it out loud too, honestly. I loved music, and I loved to write. Why not write about music? I didn't really think about trying to ask for an interview for a few more months, but once I did....I kept going. Bryan Stars was my second ever interview, and I remember he started asking me questions about how I got started and all that. I told him, and also was able to tell him that I has just been confirmed for my first 'big' interview, Mayday Parade. I remember him pausing and saying, "Wow, really? And how long have you been doing this?" He seemed genuinely impressed when I said it had only been a few months. Before we got off the phone, he told me to keep up the good work, and never give up. Four years later -I'm still trying. With life, I've slowed down, but I'm still trying. I'll know if I'm ever ready to quit, though I know right now is not the time. I am very proud of Bryan for knowing when to quit, and for doing something that makes him happy. I don't know why I insisted on writing such a lengthy blog about this...it just got me thinking. He spoke the truth about how journalism can be, and I just had to say something. Best of luck with everything you do -and that goes for anyone who's feeling burned out right now. Know what's right for you, but don't make any rash decisions. Mull it over, talk it over, do whatever it takes to figure out what's right for you. When the time is right, you'll know what your next move is. If you want to know exactly what Bryan said, its on his Facebook page, and I do recommend reading it. It may open your eyes a bit.
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This week's category for the 2015 Immortal Music Awards is starting just a bit early. This week, we encourage you to vote on the Best Music Video of 2015! Keep up the good work with voting, by the way! Once again, we were absolutely blown away by the amount of votes. We just received over 1,000 votes for the Favorite Band of 2015, and did have a very clear winner. We also realized had we kept the Best Drummer category open longer, we would have gotten close to 20,000 votes! So, thank you for all your enthusiasm in categories now past and future ones still yet to come! With that, please check out the nominees for Best Music Video of 2015!
This category will be open until Sunday, December 6, and you are encouraged to vote as many times as you would like! Don't forget to ask your friends to do the same, and share it on all social media with the tag #immortalmusicawards! Many of you have been doing that, and for that, we thank you! Not sure who you want to pick? Watch all of our nominees below to refresh your memory! Killpop -Slipknot Cheap Shots And Set Backs -As It Is Kids In The Dark -All Time Low Angels Fall -Breaking Benjamin Jekyll And Hyde -Five Finger Death Punch They announced that Fort Rock 2016 will be two full days this year, and with that came the biggest question that comes with every festival. Who all is going to be playing? We won't actually know until December 7, but we have some perdictions.
Now normally, the lineup matches up fairly well with Welcome To Rockville, which happens in Jacksonville every spring. This year, that's definitely not happening, because both festivals are happening on April 30 and May 1. Both festivals are going to be announcing the lineups December 7 at 8 am -which we find a bit odd. Why are they lining up perfectly with one another? We're not sure, but I guess we will find out soon enough. However, we've been thinking about the lineup a ton, and we definitely have some bands we would love to see perform here locally. We also have some in mind that just would logically make sense. We have been thinking about it a lot, and there's some bands that just seem likely to play for various reasons. Then there's others we would just like to see perform, and we just thought it would be fun to share the thoughts. Obviously we have no idea who is going to play, nor do we have any say so in the lineup of any kind. We just have some ideas and educated guesses, Disturbed, and Marilyn Manson play a lot of festivals, and haven't been around this area in an extremely long time. We actually can't recall ever hearing of Marilyn Manson coming to this area, though we think Disturbed did many years ago for a now defunt X-Mas Ball festival. Coming up with a lineup for two full days was quite the feat, but we think we actually did it. We thought it would be fun to come up with a full lineup and see which ones may actually end up actually playing. Obviously it won't all become real, but if some of our guesses and ideas come to life, that would be incredible badass -right? Right. First we came up with a list of artists we would just like to see perform. That list looked something like this; Saint Asonia, Papa Roach, Shinedown, A Day To Remember, Escape The Fate, Bring Me The Horizon, Art Of Dying, Within Reason, and Disturbed. Then we thought logically about our choices. Papa Roach will more than likely not be back for Fort Rock 2016, because they played Fort Rock 2015 and 2013. Escape The Fate played two years ago, but there seems to be an every other year pattern with some bands for this festival. So, they seem plausible, along with a few other bands we haven't mentioned just yet. Disturbed seems to be primarily playing festivals despite their recent return from a five year hiatus, and album release. They have hardly ever played this area, as far as I know, so this could go either way. You could either say they're way over due to play in this area, or you could say its never going to happen. We're choosing the optomistic route here and saying they're long over due and should play here. On a similar note, Art Of Dying is long over due to play this area, and we just want to see it happen. Its been four years since they were here, and that's just too damn long if you ask us. Seeing Saint Asonia live would mean a lot to us, so having them come close to home would be perfect. Why that's so important is a topic we will get on another time, even though some people will already know why that is. The rest on the list just need to come around here. We've never gotten to see Bring Me The Horizon or A Day To Remember, and would greatly enjoy that, so they're a must. Maybe not for this festival, but at some point, we need to see them. Then for Shinedown, Escape The Fate, and Within Reason. They just put on incredible shows and I would like to see them all once again. Those nine bands are wonderful, and they alone would make an incredible one day festival. Throw on a couple up and coming bands, and boom, you have a great festival that will rock on from morning to night. BUT with things going bigger and better this coming year, that's not enough now, is it? No, so we took the time to come up with a lineup four two full days of music. We chose 30 bands in total to play over the two days. Some go together, some do not, but its all for fun. Again, we want to stress that this is all just speculations and ideas. Its a completely made up lineup, and we have no idea who is really going to be performing. Day One; -Disturbed -Korn -Bring Me The Horizon -Lamb Of God -Volbeat -Blessthefall -Atreyu - Alter Bridge -Of Mice And Men -Beartooth -Memphis May Fire -Drowning Pool -Black Tide - Islander -Nine Mile Drive Day Two; -Avenged Sevenfold - -Seether -Shinedown -A Day To Remember-Escape The Fate -Hollywood Undead -Saint Asonia -Art of Dying -Pop Evil -Within Reason -Nothing More -Theory Of A Deadman -Nonpoint -Lacey Sturn (of Flyleaf) -Remedy X We cannot even begin to describe how difficult it was to come up with a lineup. This is not our dream lineup or anything, though we believe we have discussed that man times in the past. It wasn't hard to think of bands, the hard part was choosing the order! Its not like when you're really setting up a festival, where you will have to work with everyone's schedules and figure out who can perform when. This is all a work of fiction, so we just wanted to organize it in the best way possible. We probably didn't suceed at that, but we're hoping someone we named does end up performing at Fort Rock. Even if that does not happen, Immortal Music will be going for the second year in a row. We're extremely excited for it because not only is it close to home, but its going to be our first two day festival ever. Who do you want to see come play near you? This question goes for those speaking about Fort rock specifically and everyone anywhere else! There's infinite about of possiblities, and we would love to hear your ideas. Remember, the real lineup for Fort Rock 2016 is coming at 8am on December 7 on Fort Rock's official website and on their Facebook page! It is now time for the fourth week of the Immortal Music Awards! Last week's category went over insanely well! We received nearly 14,000 votes for the Best Drummer and couldn't be more impressed with the fans out there! We don't want to give away who won, so we're not going to say which fandom impressed us the most with their dedication. You will find that out when all the winners are posted on New Years Eve. Now it is time for you to vote on the Favorite Band of 2015! A couple months back, we asked for suggestions and these four bands are the ones that were suggested the most.
You have until November 29 to vote for the Favorite Band of 2015! Please be sure to tag your posts with #immortalmusic on all social media, and ask your friends to come vote and share as well! Hollywood Undead kicked off their last North American tour of 2015 on Friday the 13th this year! It was in Saint Petersburg, FL and I was there! Originally I had a press pass through a band called ReAktion, but for whatever reason they had to pull out of the show last minute and the pass fell through. I was disappointed, but ended up having an amazing time and actually had the best time ever promoting Immortal Music! The line alone was insanely fun -Saint Petersburg, you are so full of character and I love it. You can see why by watching the vlog and looking at more pictures on the Facebook page. I took some pictures of downtown Saint Pete, which is covered in very colorful art. A first happened at this show actually. Not only did I have people acknowledge the Immortal Music shirts in line, but I got to pass out bracelets, and made a new friend. Said new friend was met in the line, and actually helped me get bracelets to both bands that played. The first band was Evacuate the City, which is a slightly up and coming band from Orlando, and I did actually get to speak to their singer about Immortal Music. I'm not going to lie, I freaked out when the bracelet got handed to him, because that was a first. I did try throwing bracelets on stage at Warped tour, but as far as I know, it didn't work. I freaked out even harder when I witnessed Danny from Hollywood Undead get my bracelet. I may have actually gotten a picture of that moment, actually. Below is the picture from what I think is that moment, though I am not sure. I cannot remember if I had my camera that moment, or if my boyfriend did. He did take the camera from me and take a couple pictures for me, but I cannot remember if he had the camera when Danny got the bracelet or not. I think I was too focused; and everything always gets blurred together in your memories from a show, so I honestly cannot tell you. I would like to think this picture is of that moment, even though Danny lost his face in this picture because he moved. I could crop him out, and it would be a beautiful picture of Funny Man on his own, but due to the memory connected to it -I simply refuse to. And I'm not even sorry about it. There's also two others that were taken just before this that I felt like sharing. One I originally thought may have been seconds before the bracelet got to him, and the other was just cool because Danny is interacting with fans. Those moments are always cool. A lot of the pictures I chose as my favorites were actually favorites because of the effects the lighting gave. Like this one below -looks edited right? Its slightly faded out, and has a couple orbs in it, its clear and personally I think its BEAUTIFUL. Maybe its just me, but I do kind of think it looks like I put a filter on it like the ones on Instagram, but somehow that's just how it came out. Then there's those 'classic' concert pictures with the hands in the air and the band on the stage. I don't know about anyone else, but I kind of love those pictures and pictures of the crowd. It shows the passion, and to me, shows what a concert is all about. Bringing people together just for the sake of music. I got a few of those, and honestly love them! I'll admit, I actually wasn't looking forward to the show. Then when the pass fell through, I really just didn't want to go. Had we not driven two hours, and my boyfriend not been so excited, I probably would have not gone. I'm honestly so glad I went through with it, because I think it brought something back that I genuinely needed back. Over the last month, I've been rather discouraged, and frankly a little bit depressed. I completely lost the spark I had, and no longer had any drive to write or do anything really. It felt like there was no point, and hardly anyone seemed to mind anyways, so it didn't make sense to try to make myself write. I didn't even want to make myself do anything -I just wanted to feel like doing things again. I was hoping covering a show again would spark that again, and I think it has because I actually have wanted to write since that show. I've wanted to share pictures and tell stories. I think its back, and that makes me feel so much better. Want to see more pictures? Head on over to the Facebook page to see all of the pictures I took from this night! There's almost 300 of them!
We are now officially three weeks into the Immortal Music Awards! The second week went extremely well for two of the three categories. The best singer received over 2,000 votes, which is simply mind blowing! Thank you to everyone who voted; you actually really amazed me with your enthusiasm! Surprisingly, Best Bassist had a pretty decide response as well. It received 62 votes total, which isn't as much, but much better than the 10 max we received for previous categories. Oddly enough, our last active question for last week, Best Screamer, only got six votes total. Weird -but a winner was still determined and now we are onto the next one. Now through November 22, you can vote on the Best Drummer of 2015! The nominees -suggested by YOU, are as follows.
As previously mentioned, you have one week to answer this category, so please get your votes in now and ask your friends to do the same! Don't forget to tag your votes using #immortalmusicawards! Almost everyone had a phase where they absolutely LOVED Good Charlotte, right? Maybe some still feel that way, and those who do best get excited because they have made their come back!
I was no exception there. When I was about fourteen, I started looking into rock music more. Here's how long ago this was; I went to the library and borrowed CDs. This was before I had an iTunes account, and really only listened to music through YouTube or actual CDs. I may not have even had an iPod yet! Imagine that, right? I found their album, The Young And Reckless first, and instantly really liked what I heard. You have to admit, "Girls & Boys" is still a classic, and always will be. Not to mention, "Movin' On" has more meaning to me now than it did back then. With the announce of their comeback, came a lot of excitement for thousands, and perhaps a little bit of surprise. I wasn't completely surprised, what with the Madden Brothers project that happened, and all that. It was only a matter of time before Good Charlotte chose to come back. However, I was a little bit late on actually listening to their new song, "Makeshift Love." Only about two seconds into the video, I pretty much instantly liked it. Its classic Good Charlotte, but yet, still completely different. The lyric video is pretty cool too, you see two people texting back and forth, and the lyrics are what they're typing out. It's pretty cool, if you ask me. Its simple, but nice -and who doesn't love a good lyric exchange through normal conversation? I sure do! The song is all about unrequited love, and trying to come to terms with that, and its done in a perfect way. I can't say exactly what genre you would call this. I say pop punkish, but its also got a slight alternative feel to it. I like it, and it appears as though many others do too. Comments on the video are going on about how happy they are that they're back and kept their sound. What doesn't mae sense though is why some are saying "Compared to the new Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte's comeback is better." You can't even compare the two, just stop. What do you think of their comeback? Are you excited to hear more stuff from Good Charlotte? Does anyone else feel like we've just been transported back to 2007?? Let us know! _There's a lot going on with the Immortal Music Awards this week! We have three categories for you to vote on this week!
Best Bassist - Best Singer- Best Screamer As you may have seen, we started the Best Bassist category yesterday. We had originally planned to start it last week with the Best Guitarist category last week, but accidentally did not. So, you just have a bonus one this week! You can also vote on the Best Singer and Best Screamer! All three of these categories are active until November 15, and you can see all the nominees for all three categories below! Best Bassist- Steve Harris from Iron Maiden, Nikki Sixx, Brad Stewart of Fuel, Zack Merrick of All Time Low Vote for this one through its poll here! Best Singer- Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low, Adam Gontier of Saint Asonia, Brent Smith of Shinedown, and Corey Taylor of Slipknot Vote for this one through its poll here! Best Screamer- David Draiman of Disturbed, Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, Kyle Pavone of We Came As Romans, and Shane Told of Silverstein Vote for this one through its poll here! You can vote anyway you would like! You can comment here on the website, over on Facebook, or Instagram or Tweet us! You also can, of course, use the polls too, which are all linked above! As previously mentioned, all three of these categories are active until November 15, so please get to voting and tell your friends to do the same! The Immortal Music Awards are now in full swing! This past week, people have been voting on the Best Guitarist of 2015, and so far there's a pretty close tie. The voting for that closes officially on Sunday, November 8. However, we noticed a slight mistake on our part. We originally intended to have two categories for you to vote on this week. They were going to be the Best Guitarist of 2015, and Best Bassist of 2015. Somehow, we overlooked the plans of running both at once, and were preparing to begin that one tomorrow. We have two other categories set to begin tomorrow instead. So, rather than fall behind, or drop a category, we're going to have three categories open this week. The voting is not open just yet for the next two categories. That will begin tomorrow, but you can now vote on the best Bassist of 2015. The nominees for the Best Bassist of 2015 are Zack Merrick of All Time Low, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Nikki Sixx, and Brad Stewart of Fuel.
Just as we did with the Best Guitarist, you can vote in many ways. Vote through-
This category will be open through November 15! The picture above says November 14, but we meant to put the 15th and will fix that before posting it on any of the social medias. Don't forget! You can still vote for the best guitarist today! Today is the last day for it though, so get your votes in now while you still can! We are closing it tomorrow! Any votes made after tomorrow morning will not be counted. For more information, please go here. Also, starting tomorrow, you will be able to vote on the best Singer And Screamer! Stay tuned for that. Thank you very much to everyone who's participating! We appreciate it a lot! The winners for these categories, and ones yet to come will be announced on New Years Eve! Eskimo Joe is an alternative rock band that formed in 1997 out of East Fremantle, Western Australia. Since the release of their debut album, Girl in 2001, they have released six albums in total. Their most recent one was called Wastelands and came out September 20, 2013. They have not done much since then from the looks of it, though. Their singer, Kavyen Temperley announced a solo tour that happened July - September of 2014. On this tour he played some covers of songs that influenced the band's second album, Song Is A City because the album was approaching its 10 year anniversary.
It was their third album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine that really put them on the spot internationally. They recieved a number one spot on national charts, and got platinum accrediations four times. Not long after that, they set off to the US and Europe. While in the US, the peaked the attention of media, and ended up getting their song, "How Does It Feel" in the first season of Gosspi Girl. The album also was considered to be the Album Of The Year by SFist, which appears to be an Australian news outlet. While touring in promotion for that album, Kav began creating some folk pop songs with some friends of his, Kevin Mitchell, Josh Pyke and Steven Perkin. Whole this was originally intended to be nothing but fun, it ended up taking off into another project called Basement Birds. They released several digital singles, and EPs, and performed at several festivals. This project did not last overly long, as all members decided to go back to their major projects just a few months later. Kav also does extensive work with Dirt Diamond Productions, which is an indie record label that is shared with other members of Eskimo Joe, and their manager, Catherine Haridy. Eskimo Joe is still together today, but clearly are enjoying other projects, such as the producing, and Kav's website said he was going to co-write some music with various artists and was going to work on some of his own music. That being said, we cannot find anything about it at this time. Curious now out on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, be check out their official website. We have posted a review of the band's latest album, Wastelands for anyone interested! You can check that out here. Over all, the band is pretty good though we wouldn't call them alternative rock. They're more alternative pop, honestly. They sort of have a Fun. or Anberlin feel to them. |
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