blissed half to death

Can I make an observation? Doing what you love - "following your bliss" - is a totally insane, preposterous and irrational thing to do. It will make you broke and anxious and periodically suicidally depressed. It will ravage your heart and mind with obsessions and compulsions, until you can't sit down to a polite conversation without gabbing manically about your most recent harebrained pursuit. It will slowly strip you of all social graces, as well as any unrelated interests or concerns you may once have maintained. You will forget to feed yourself, change your clothes, and take out the trash. In effect, you will be transformed into a bumbling, obsessive-compulsive, dirty, penniless maniac, with no regard for society and little contact with reality.

Unfortunately, it is absolutely the only way to live a satisfying life.

I just spent two weeks in Atlanta, making my record. We tracked twelve songs in three days, recording drums, bass, guitars and most of the lead vocals live. We spent another ten days arranging and recording overdubs (backup vocals, guitars, percussion, etcetera). Oliver Wood was with me, sharing in the alternating anguish and euphoria, from the first arrangement ideas to the last tambourine. Oliver is a special kind of saint; the kind that tells dirty jokes and plays the guitar like a mofo.

On the day I turned 26, I left Atlanta and drove south to New Orleans, for a week of high octane mojo-renewal. I had my rough mixes in tow.

To tell you the truth, this project has been absolutely grueling. I've been crazed and harried since mid-May, waking up in the middle of the night to make notes about drum fills, or record background vocal ideas on my iPhone. During the recording, I'm pretty sure I felt the complete range of human emotion in the course of each day. The release date has been moved to January (following the advice of a radio promotion firm), which means I've got another five months of the same to look forward to.

To tell you the truth again, I believe these are the best songs I've ever written, many of the best players I've ever worked with, and the best singing I've ever gotten on tape. This record is going to be outstanding, and I am fiercely proud of it.

I told you all in my previous post about my plan for the making and release of this record. It's a three-phase process (recording, promotion, and manufacturing). Phase one is now just about complete, and phase two (in which I'll be hiring a big-shot publicity firm and a radio promoter) starts in September.

I mentioned before that folks interested in investing should contact me. To my surprise and delight, I've raised over $20,000 to date in investments from fans. If anyone else is interested in investing in the project, I am open to taking another $10,000 in investments (to be repaid, with interest, over an agreed-upon period after the record is released). Email me (carsie@carsieblanton.com) for details.

If you'd like to contribute in smaller increments, I'm still taking donations as well. Small donations will help A TON by covering unplanned and unpredictable budget items (of which there are always lots).

Thank you, again, for making me crazy.