Unfinished Business

The more time passes,the more I realize how correct Einstein was.

It was Einstein who said, “It is becoming increasingly clear that our technology is surpassing our humanity”. Today, technology isn’t even the driver- it’s just the vehicle. Information is the guy sitting behind the wheel. And no one can seem to get enough of him.

And so it is with a sense of total fascination, awe, confusion, and excitement about the world around us, that we announce through our Internet website/blog/facebook/twitter machine the officially the beginning of the recording of our first full-length album. Yes, yes I know, we’ve talked about it for a while, but this time it’s different. The timing is right, the method is there, the studio has been chosen, and the writing is on the wall.

Life is about having as few as possible regrets. For some reason I am reminded of Hugh Laurie’s character’s assertion in the TV show House, “Dying people lie, too. Wish they’d worked less, been nicer, opened orphanages for kittens. If you really want to do something, you do it. You don’t save it for a sound bite.”

So that’s mostly it for reflective sound bites on the matter. Sort of. Well, one more thing. The fact is that this is something Lickpenny Loafer has been building towards for a long time. And any which way you look at it, it falls squarely upon our own shoulders to get this thing done. No one is going to come along and magically make it happen for you.

In a sense, you could say “We fought the music industry and the music industry won!” You just can’t waste your days magically hoping for the industry to make your dreams possible. And that’s not because there aren’t good people involved in the industry. There absolutely is, lots of them, doing many important and great things. Especially at the local and regional level. In fact, in Toronto alone, there are so many incredible people who are very dedicated to promoting the oasis of indie music in our special city.

It’s the larger side of the industry that’s having a tough time. Look – the infrastructure of the whole f*king thing – the process of discovering bands, recording music, distributing music, playing shows and touring – is standing on its head. And it will still take a while before new models for each of the pieces are established. And it’s likely that the models of the “new” music industry will move even further down the path of being based on grass roots and Do-it-Yourself methodology. It’s a freakin Revolution!!

But revolution aside, we don’t have the kind of time to wait any longer. I don’t say that because we are in a rush. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I think we bade our time very carefully; we have been extremely cautious and calculated about every step and risk. Some might argue too much (but after careful consideration, we would respectfully disagree with them :) ) No, we don’t have the kind of time to wait, simply because the timing is just right.

I liken it to what Sun Tzu preaches in the Art of War- that you must wait for the chosen moment (in the case of war, when all other avenues of peaceful victory are lost) and then strike swiftly, deftly, and convincingly. Recording an album may not be anything like entering the battlefield, but like confrontation, it does subscribe to idea of perfect or close-to perfect timing. And when the moment is chosen, executing must similiarly be swift, effective, and convincing. If you don’t give it the requisite energy or if the process drags out too long, your music suffers.

So that’s where it is. We’ll keep you posted.

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