The Calm Before the Storm
Blogging From New York,NY - 24.02.13



Hi and welcome. Or if you're back for the second, third, or countless time, then welcome back.

I woke up this morning thinking that it was time for me to send another batch of my thoughts out into the world, to set them free and let them meander their way through the collective conscience of anyone who happens to read them, but quickly realised that I had very little to talk about this week, compared to last week. You see, seven days ago, I was able to wax lyrical about number one singles and coming out of my shell for the first time. This Sunday is quite different though. Sure, the single has surpassed a million sales over the last week (and I thank you all once again for that mind blowing fact), but in the space of just a week, things have gotten a lot quieter. Don't worry, by no means am I complaining about that fact. The chance to relax has allowed me the opportunity to breathe a little after the breakneck speed that everything went throughout January, so I'm glad for that little bit of...downtime if you will. But what is the subject of my blog today? I bet if you saw the title and looked at the headline picture alone, you'll have come to the conclusion that this was going to be some form of emo rambling about an impending nightmare I'm about to go through, but don't worry. I just like the notion, and the picture is a good way to epitomise what I'm talking about. But I'll come to that point again later and explain what I mean. For now, don't worry, there's no depression here. None at all. Just sit back and relax with a drink whilst I regale you with my somewhat warped wisdom. I have an apple and a black tea as I enjoy my morning routine. How about you?

I suppose I really should get onto the subject then, huh? As I said, this week has been a hell of a lot calmer than any time in the last month for me. And that's in a way what I want to talk about. I came to the realisation when I woke up this morning and came down stairs. I got up at 8AM as I always do. My fiancee is still asleep, and as I came down I realised the peace and quiet that I am afforded at a time like this. NY is still cold in February, and the birds are chirping happily on what is a chilly but sunny Sunday morning. This is the sort of calm that I enjoy, but this is also the sort of calm that is soon to be wiped away for me. You see, as anyone who attended the Chaos Awards a few weeks back, or indeed watched it on TV, will know, Blood of Wecz have a new album coming out in less than a month's time from now. And let me tell you, as a seasoned professional in this game, when one of those things finally drops, it makes you savour the moments of calm that existed before the storm. That's not to say I'm not excited and looking forward to it all. I am, on a level that I don't think I've experienced since I was about 14 and enjoying my first days as a member of the band. It's just that in those moments, I long for the quiet that I enjoy just now almost as much as I crave albums and tours while enjoying downtime.

I suppose if it's not something you've ever experienced then that can be a hard concept to grasp. The idea of post album releases being like "a storm." I remember growing up as a fan of heavy metal music, watching my favourite bands live and on DVD, and I remember thinking that touring must have been the best thing ever, for example. It's not. It's in no way the worst thing you could ever experience either, but people think of touring as some sort of fairytale that it just isn't. Personally, I can't wait to get back on the road. And sure, it's a lot more comfortable for us now than it was back in the old days. We'll stay in hotels, and we'll fly from city to city in Scott's private jet, but there's still that feeling of upheaval that I liken to a storm.

Imagine going from a situation where you have a fantastic home life with a very comfortable house and all your possessions under one roof. Now imagine that suddenly you don't have that anymore. No, all of a sudden you're on the road. Night after night you are working, but in a different place, and when you wake up each morning, you're in a different city to the one you were in when last you closed them. I know what young guys dreaming of making a living from their guitars are thinking right now. You're thinking "fuck yeah! That sounds awesome!" And I agree, it really does sound fantastic and the things dreams are made of. But think of the little things as well. You wake up at the moment and you need a coffee right? Well you walk to your kitchen and you make a coffee, before you get milk from the fridge and use as much as you want. Imagine then waking up in a van, for example. There's no kettle, there's no milk, there's no toilet either. That's the early reality though, as we all graduate to buses and then hotels further along the line, but then there are still other things you miss. Your own bed is a distant memory, the chance to sit and watch your own TV on your own couch is even gone. I sound like I'm complaining here, and I want to reiterate that I'm not. I love touring, it just genuinely feels like being torn from your own surroundings by a storm and cast from pillar to post for month after month.

And it's not even all about the touring if I'm being honest. The whole storm metaphor plays throughout every aspect of professional life from the very moment that an album hits the shelves. Suddenly you're in PR overdrive. Everything has to be promoted, everyone has to know how good the new album is. And when you're a bit of a bigger act, everyone wants to know as well. You go from peaceful Sundays like the one I'm enjoying at the moment to suddenly spending day after day from 5AM to 8PM jetting around from station to station and magazine to magazine in a car giving the same answers time and again. Sure, media is fun as well, but it just seems like you suddenly lose the freedom and will over your own happenings as you fly from pillar to post promoting the new album or new single or whatever it happens to be that you need to promote. That's what I'm coming to expect over the next month. I've been here a great many times before, so I know how it will go. I'm enjoying my quiet and serene Sunday morning with my apple and my black tea, because I know that after March, Christmas will be well on the way before I get the chance to truly enjoy another like this. Am I sad or depressed at that notion? Of course I'm not. I'm proud, and way more, that what we have done means that people want a piece of us so badly that that's the life we have to live for a few months. I'm not worried, I'm excited.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, I was also going back to the analogy in the headline picture to this blog. There are a great many pics of "calm before the storm" on Google that would have lent themselves well to this story, or blog, but that was the one that immediately jumped out at me when I was deciding what to use to epitomise what I was talking about. If anyone out there reading this ever wants to know what it feels like to be a top star releasing a much anticipated album, then just remember that exact image. Imagine yourself as the dandelion there in the picture before a storm begins. You blow in the gentle breeze, not bothered by the elements, calmly surveying life as it passes you by. Then when the storm comes, you find yourself almost torn from your moorings. Not only that though, you find so many parts of who you are being blown on a billion different directions. Most of all though....imagine the excitement and intrigue of never knowing just where you might land at the end of it, and all that you will see along the way. That's why the storm is nothing to fear. Sure, the calm like now is very much enjoyable, but the storm will hit soon enough for me, and it will be the start of another exciting journey. I can't wait to see what it brings.

Have a great week, and I'll talk to you all soon,

Mark

Rage Against the "Machine"
Blogging From New York,NY - 04.03.13



Good evening all, and welcome again. Let me apologise first and foremost for missing my Sunday morning appointment with my blog.

I'm coming to you guys this week from a different location to normal. I normally like to write my blog from the comfort of my home. Relaxation seems to bring out the best in me as a writer, and sitting in my own lounge with a cup of black tea often brings out the most vibrant and imaginative ideas from me. This blog is going to take me out of my comfort zone though, both in terms of style and in terms of the tone. You all know me, of course. I'm the sort of quiet and happy guy who tells you of my feelings and likes to give you an insight into my life and stuff. I can honestly say that I've never ranted about anything at any time in my 24 years of living and breathing. I want to say that isn't going to change today, and I'm going to try to be as non-ranting as I can be, but the subject matter is something very upsetting and saddening, and something that really struck a chord with me personally, and with my best friend. By anyone else's standard, I'd imagine that what you are about to read would be very very mild in the ranting ranks, but for me, it will be quite angry, and I hope that shows how much it hurt, how upset we both were at what happened a few days back while we were working. Anyway, I'm sorry, it feels like I'm ranting away already and I haven't even started yet. How are you all? Hope you all have a warm drink and a warmer heart. I'm currently sat with my laptop open in front of me and a cup of black tea. Anyway, probably best that I take the chance to explain what I'm talking about, right?

You're probably wondering why I used a Starbucks logo as the headline image for this week's blog. That's where I'm sat right now as I type this. These types of mass-produced coffee factories with a key ingredient of fake smiles and false love are one of the only things in the world I can say I dislike. The notion that by writing "Mark :)" on the side of my cup of tea makes me feel more valued is flawed on a number of different levels. Anyway, I'm not here for the tea, or the service. Both the header image of my blog, and the fact I'm in Starbucks is an imagery for the subject, the idea of "the machine", the very epitome of corporate planet earth. I could have used any number of companies....McDonald's - although sitting there and blogging might have looked weird, or even Apple - actually that might have been a better imagery. However, I'm in Starbucks to try to soak up the sort of notion of a corporate behemoth because this week Scott RH and I were accused of essentially being the musical equivalent of Starbucks, a corporate money machine simply churning out what the masses want to hear/taste in order to maximise our income. Yes, you read right. We've been accused of caring about nothing but making sure that paycheck is signed at the end of each month and swelling our own bank accounts, forgetting anyone and everyone else who mattered along the way. I'm sorry, but what?

Hold on, hold on. I'm getting ahead of myself here. It's time to explain a little more. It all started on Monday afternoon of last week while Scott and I were sat in his office to discuss PR and advertising for the new Blood of Wecz album when it comes out. An email popped into Scott's personal email inbox, which was weird in itself given how protective he is of such details, and it was from a fan, ranting on about the changes that we have made to our style in music, as everyone saw with our performance at the Chaos Awards. I mean, we're used to this, and Scott is used to it, but this was something special. To give you a sort of insight into the music world again; if you're in a band that has a sort of passionate fan base, every time you bring out some new music, there will be someone who thinks you've changed style or gotten too generic, or whatever. Everyone in the industry will have experienced this, it's part and parcel of the game we're all playing, and you just have to hope that for every message bemoaning your new style, there will be another raft of people who love it. Fans come in waves like that. It's easy to always try to please everyone with everything you do, but it's a losing battle. You will lose fans and bring in new support each and every time you bring out new music. Swings and roundabouts, as the old analogy goes. However, while this is just a part of deal as a musician, what no one could ever expect was a 15,000 word rant about how their change in style was wrong, unjust, and sickening.

That's exactly what we had to deal with last week. Email number one was followed by a separate new load of vitriol on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That's a full 75,000 words of pure anger. That takes some doing. And what was our crime? Nothing more than bring as brash as to alter our style of music. This is where the Starbucks analogy comes in to things here. The common theme throughout all five of these emails from the same person was that we are, in his eyes at least, some sort of corporate machine. The accusation was that Scott and I have forgotten everything that we set up Blood of Wecz to be (that in itself was flawed considering I joined five years after it was formed), and that the only thing on our mind was to maximise the income we could make from the band by playing music that appeals to the masses rather than remembering who our fans are and what they loved to hear from us. You guys have no idea how upsetting it was for Scott and I to read that. It's easy to say shrug it off, that it's just the opinion of one person and that we should try to not let it bother us, but when you see such a blatant attack on something that you love, damn it it hurts. Blood of Wecz is like our child. It's something that we have nurtured over the years, something that we have been proud to see go from strength to strength and become a success story. To see our efforts brought down to some accusation that all we cared about is the money was heartbreaking. We both sat in silence for a good while after reading the first one, just shocked at the level of anger. I think the length of it, and the time invested was part of our shock. For someone to have written so much, they must have really meant it.

I've had some time to think about things though, and I wanted to have the opportunity to defend ourselves. Normally I would leave this to Scott, but I think the rant from this "fan" affected him far more than he would admit. That guy loves this band, and the last thing he would ever do is make a decision with anything other than music and pure art in his mind. To see him feeling like I know he did every day last week was something hard for me. I saw the pain in my best friend's eyes, and now it's up to me to defend us. You know me, guys, I'm not normally the sort to have a rant or to have a go at people, but I've been provoked. Pay attention, if you will, because this might be the only time that you see me getting a little mad. The fact of the matter is though, if you try to attack the young of any species, expect the mother or father to defend it with their life.

The first thing I want to ask our "fan" is this; have you ever been to a Blood of Wecz show, or even had a read of the liner notes in any of our albums? If you had, you would, of course, understand that contrary to your slanderous accusation that we "don't give a fuck about the people who have got you to where you are today", Blood of Wecz has always, and always will be, all about the fans. Do yourself a favour and read Scott's notes in the Heaven/Hell or Deeply Disturbed album sleeves, and you will see that the guy thanks the fans repeatedly for all they do for us. If you've ever been to a Blood of Wecz show in your life, you would notice that the stereotypical post-encore request from the crowd of "One more song" has NEVER been ignored. Even if we are out on our feet back there, tired from the exertion of a long touring schedule, we never reject the wishes of our fans. A few years back, we came to the fans to let them decide on the direction of our new album, and the heaviness in metal terms, and it turned out to be one of our best decisions ever. The fact is, the fans are the heart of Blood of Wecz. We have never done anything that we thought would compromise our fans. Yes, we know that this new direction is very different to the death metal you've heard from us in the past, but it doesn't mean we have sold out. It doesn't mean we are some sort of corporate conglomerate set up to make money money money. Please don't mistake this as me bragging here, I am merely trying to make a point, but we have already made more money than either of us will ever realistically need, so that has never and will never be our driving force behind doing this.

Have you ever wondered why it took Blood of Wecz such a long time to put out this 15th studio album, anonymous fan? Have you ever taken the time to notice that we have, on multiple occasions, announced a new album or a new era, only for that to fizzle out. Why do you think that is? It's because we didn't want to put something out that didn't feel right. We could have pumped out anything happy in the knowledge that it would sell millions of copies all over the world. But that isn't Blood of Wecz. It had to be perfect. It had to be the album we've wanted to create, and it had to be something that we were confident our fans would be proud of. I have lost count of the number of times in the last five years that I've recorded a song Scott wrote, and then sat back to listen to it only to see him delete it because it just wasn't right. It just wasn't Blood of Wecz. That guy eats, sleeps and breathes music, and he would never release something until it was 100% spot on in his mind. That's why it hurt him so much to read your bullcrap last week. Scott RH has never been a sell out, no matter how flashy and over the top he may seem. Scott RH will never be a corporate machine, no matter how his music and his style changes.

Sure, this album is not the death metal you might have hoped for, and I'm sorry if that disappoints you, but believe me, an album of this magnitude, a collection of songs with a purpose, with meaning behind them and with the emotion that pumps through us truly passing into it is worth far more than the generic death metal we might have pumped out to please the people who criticise our change. The fact is, times change, and we have grown to accept that we are not into metal anymore. We created a full metal album two years ago. It was packaged, it was ready to go and almost shipped. We scrapped it at the last minute, at massive financial loss to ourselves. Why? Because it wasn't right. Is that the work of a corporate money printing machine? No, it most certainly is not. We do this because we love to do this. We love music, we love our band and we love our fans. Oh and we sure as hell love each other. Scott RH is like a brother to me. No, scrap that, Scott RH IS my brother, blood link or not, and seeing my brother cut up the way he was about the abuse we received last week made me feel like I never had before. Don't get me wrong, we welcome all criticism that is constructive, and we even welcome negative opinions of our music, that's part and parcel of the game. Some people won't like us, and that's fine. What I won't stand for is seeing the effort and the love we pour into everything we do belittled. Blood of Wecz will never be a Starbucks. We just happen to be a little family owned establishment that got massive somewhere along the way.

At this point I want to take the chance to apologise to everyone. You all know that the above rant is not me at all normally. I just feel that someone had to respond to what this fan put us through last week. I promise that the gentle and happy Mark you all know and love will return next week. And I promise that this Blood of Wecz album will prove our love for music, and our love for all of you guys. Seriously, I love you all, and thank you for sticking by us for all of these years. Here's to many more successful years together.

Mark