What's in a Name?

How a band comes up with the perfect band name has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Ever since I had the idea in my head to "build" a band and start playing music, thousands of ideas for band names have been flowing through my mind (and still do constantly) and not one has had the decency to stick around and make roots (until now).

"Perfect"

Really, when you think about it, what makes a "perfect" band name? In the whole scheme of things, is it the most important aspect of your band? I would think it's not the most important aspect. To me (and most others I would assume), the most important thing would be the music itself or the message of the music.

In the time it took me to pull up Blogger to begin writing this article, I began to realize that a band name in the whole scheme of things makes no difference at all and is really only a label or identifier for you. It's the vision that draws people in, and the vision that makes someone want to listen to you and pay attention to what you're saying. It's the way you make the audience feel and the way the audience makes you feel that is what it's all about.

I've always been drawn to artists and musicians and authors and creators that have found a way to completely draw me in and gain 150% of my attention.

What draws you in? A name or a message?

What Inspires our Words to Flow?

What inspires our words to flow from our heads like a river flowing down a snow peaked mountain? It could start with a trickle and open up into a deluge of thoughts and feelings and emotions pouring out onto the paper.

Where does this come from? It could come from the faintest smell of a flower or food you used to love, or witnessing someone doing something profound or ordinary as you stroll through the park.

From time to time a memory will pop into my head that inspires me to write write write and I don't want to do anything at all but pour it all out without stopping. That rush is so incredibly addicting and is more powerful then any drug or bottle.

Someone within earshot could say the simplest of things or the street musician I just passed by on my way to Starbucks could cause a chain reaction, striking a chord and causing an explosion of inspiration in my mind. Inspiration can come from anywhere, anyone.

What inspires you?

When asked "How do you grade yourself?"...

When I was recently asked by Derek Sivers "How do you grade yourself?" I wanted to do more then post a comment on Derek's blog post, I wanted to also ask the question myself and see what responses I would got. This is what I came up with.

I tend to do a lot of thinking, whether it's about the exciting (or sometimes unexciting) things I'll be doing during the day, or what goals I have set for myself to accomplish in the next minute/hour/day/week/year.

I find great joy in creating music and I grade my happiness by the quality and not necessarily the quantity of work I accomplish.

When I say work it could mean creating a new concept for some album cover art, or laying down a new track for a newly created tune, or remixing some previously recording material bringing it ever closer to a "final product" that I can be happy with and one that speaks to people. My ultimate goal is to create something that speaks to people, something that moves them and makes them feel the way I feel when something moves me. That feeling is indescribable and is what I crave every moment of my life. The more moved I am, the more I tend to be happy.

How do you grade yourself?

What moves you?

An Impromptu Mind Explosion...

I sit still and let every outside influence, every sound, every sight, every minuscule inhabitant, whether conscious or not, leave my mind's eye. The ebb and flow .... interruption .... phone rings, done .... ebb and flow.

The DIY (DIM) Musician

The Do It Yourself (Do It Myself) Musician of now has so many more options and loads and loads of opportunity waiting to knock on your door these days.

I've been thinking about how exciting it would be to do everything myself and the accomplishments (and some good ol' experience) I would have under my belt at the "end" and think that is worth every headache, every heartache, every splinter, every broken string, every soar throat, soar wrist, soar eyes and ears and is what I am doing right now.

I've been told that stating what you are doing and what your goals are tend to lead towards a lazy attitude in the end and tends to, whether subconscious or not, make people less apt to finish what they started. I truly believe that can be an accurate statement but I just wanted to fill you all in with what is on the horizon for me and Notes in the Sandbox.

I stumbled upon (thanks to Google Reader and more specifically this instructable) this great idea for the DIY musician. In my mind, this is brilliant! Absolutely BRILLIANT and I can't wait to show everyone what I've come up with. This is so exciting I can hardly contain myself. Thanks for listening!

If you want more NITS join our Street Team or let me know what you're thinking here.

The Right Fit

Drinking my coffee this morning (no amount of cream and sugar could make this coffee taste good...YUCK!) and checking my email I came across an article in the Stamford Advocate regarding a local band which at the moment I can't remember the name of, but hopefully by the end of this posting I will have remembered.

This was a band from just outside of Connecticut in a town in New York. The article didn't get into detail as to how they made it to where they are today, but they were lucky enough (and good enough from what I hear) to be opening for Better Than Ezra last night at Alive @ 5 in downtown Stamford. I've been living in Stamford for almost 5 years now and I still have not made it downtown for the weekly Thursday night showcase that happens throughout the summer months.

What I'm trying to get at is this...

Local original music is definitely not dead in this town and it surprises me and makes me happy to know and finally realize this. What I took from all this is although the barriers and walls are all around a musician just starting out in this town and this area, there still is a chance the right path can be found or blazed with determination.

Now that I got that thought out of my head and onto paper...

Looking back at my previous post, and being a bit of a blog novice I am feeling a bit limited and freed by this blog all in the same instance. Having never done this before I don't know what the "protocol" is or what I should or shouldn't say, and yet I feel like I can say anything that I want. This internal conflict energizes me and excites me to want to blog more and more.

Now that I got THAT thought out of my head and onto paper...onto "The Right Fit"...

Searching around this area for bass players and keyboard players and drummers and lead guitarists and fiddle players and kazoo players and the like is quite the daunting task. To find the right person, one who has the same ideals or who is into the same music, and one that enjoys playing the same music that you do has proven to be a lot harder then I ever imagined. I was lucky enough to find a drummer right from the start that basically wants everything that I want. He likes some of the same music that I do and yet brings other music to the table that I wasn't necessarily avoiding, but probably wouldn't have ever thought to bring to the table. I do the same for him as well. It always leads to great rehearsals and great conversation after our rehearsals. I know it's cliche but I guess the best advice I could give to myself would be to just stick my nose to the grindstone and keep posting those craigslist ads, keep chatting to as many people as I can about the band to try and gain some interest, keep playing out as much as we can even if we don't have a full line-up and keep posting those Audition Flyers at all the local music stores and grocery stores and on any and all bulletin boards around town. That is the only advice that I can give myself.

What to say, what not to say, and other NITS and Notes

Hello WWW. My name is Brian. I'm pretty new to this whole idea of blogging and thought I would give it a try. So here I go...

I've never been one to have a whole lot to say (out loud anyways) and for the most part am much more of a thinker than a speaker. I find myself writing drafts, reading them over, making drafts of my drafts, reading them over, and making drafts of the drafts that I already drafted. I find by doing this I eventually can get out of me what I was originally trying to say.

These ideas tend to come in spurts and I am always writing things down. In this blog alone I've probably deleted as much as I've written already, if that makes any sense at all.

You should see the massive piles of post-it notes that are constantly swirling around my room, my desk, my guitar case, my pockets, my mind, and anywhere else those pesky post-its eventually end up.

It's really quite amazing I get anything done at all.

For those of you who don't know me, I am a banker by day and a musician every other moment of my life. I am the lead singer/songwriter for a group called Notes In The Sandbox. If you were to ask me what we sounded like, I would say we are a mix between Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Dave Matthews Band, or the DaveYoungDylan Band for short. It's been a long arduous road to get where I am now, searching for those willing to take a chance on my music.

We are almost there.

Through our travels I will be documenting every last tid-bit and I am so excited, tickled you could say, that we are definitely almost there. Looking forward to seeing you all along the way.

Thanks so much!!

NITS Notes (NITS is short for Notes in the Sandbox)

www.isound.com/notes_in_the_sandbox