There’s more coming on the Summer Songs project (which I hope to be done with by September). Just wanted to share my joy of having a 3-year-old that freaking rocks!
I’ve got TONS to write about this summer, but I wanted to make sure there was a nice friendly Mississippi welcome to all the young people I met this summer! It was a real joy to share the weeks with you, and I can’t wait to hear from you guys about how you’ve brought what you’ve learned home to your communities!
As a little teaser, I’m going to spend a couple weeks with Joby sometime very soon and record some full-band versions of the songs we sang this summer. My goal is to make it as inexpensive as possible while still paying all the songwriters their royalties (and Joby for his time). Probably like 10 bucks. I’ll also make sure that it’s available on iTunes and all that business as well. Here’s a tentative list, feel free to send suggestions to summersongs AT ryanmeyersband.com or just comment on this thread.
Witnesses
Now
Trading my Sorrows
Micah 6:8 (Help us love mercy)
Psalm 40: Here I Am
You Will Be
Let the River Flow
Let’s Go Outside (written by St. Leo’s Youth)
Lean on Me
Wherever Your Treasure Is (Hurricane Song)
Maybe a bonus: The Turtle & The Eagle or The End of Summer
OK, so I’m not the best at keeping things updated here at RMB.com. I’ll admit it. I don’t have any excuses, only a litany of updates and my normal promise to do better next time… Without any further ado, here’s what’s going on with the band:
* We’ve pretty well moved off of MySpace in favor of Virb. We’ll still add you as a friend and all of that, but the odds of getting an answer to a message in MySpace are slim to none. You wouldn’t believe the amount of SPAM we get every day. It just got overwhelming, and the gain wasn’t worth the cost anymore. You can always get in touch with us at [insert band member’s name here]@ryanmeyersband.com, through Virb, or any of the million other social networking sites we’re bound to have to join.
* Speaking of social networking, you should (1) join our group on Facebook and (2) add any of our songs with the new “Audio” application. Everything from Quiet Cities can be added to your profile, and we’ll try to get everything else up soon.
* Speaking of recorded music (how are my mad segue skills holding up so far?), we’ve been recording some demos, and are almost finished with the mix of “Bigger Than”. It’ll be released on the first volume of BURN/GIVE, a new project where we’re encouraging fans to (you guessed it) burn and give away our music. Joby should have that mix done this week, and you’ll hear it here first.
* Speaking of Joby, that air-haired rockstar is getting married this summer! You can send congratulations to joby@ryanmeyersband.com. I doubt he’d complain about an Amazon.com gift certificate as a wedding gift either!
* Speaking of weddings, my best friend Jonathan Barlow just got married. Big shoutouts to Barlow and his new bride, Susan. I got to sing in their wedding, and am super excited for them. Nothing to do with the band, except that Barlow’s had me lead a retreat for his youth group in Atlanta.
* Speaking of Atlanta, it’s looking like I may produce Atlanta singer-songwriter Grace Buford’s next record, and that Joby will probably (hopefully) engineer it. The odds are good that it will feature the collective talents of RMB, plus some other guys from around our area. I’m excited to get to work on someone else’s material, and to get back into the studio!
* Speaking of Grace, she goes by Cylindrian Rutabaga in a virtual world known as Second Life. The newsworthy thing about that is that I too have an SL identity: Bobby Fairweather. When the band is off the road, I’m often performing live concerts “in-world” under that pseudonym, trying out almost exclusively new material for a worldwide audience. It’s been a great practice in songwriting, and is like the open mic of the future.
* Speaking of songwriting, Sarah Bauer’s new CD will feature a song that I wrote called “All I Want.” It was really the first song I’ve ever written specifically for another person to sing, and I’m super excited about how it’s turned out. In 10 or 20 years, this is much more what I see myself doing professionally, and I’ll always cherish the fact that my first “deal” was with a friend.
* Speaking of friends, our friends in Friday Mourning recently broke up. We were super bummed about it, considering we had planned to conquer the world together. We’re still mourning (pun intended) the loss of great music, but the blow was softened by the fact that they gave us their van. “America” is now in the hands of RMB, and I feel certain that a Youtube video commissioning it will surface sooner than later.
* Speaking of Youtube, we put up a couple of videos in our lazy attempt to take over the internet. The reason I say that is that there are at least 10 other videos that just haven’t made their way up yet… You can catch them there or on Virb. Whichever floats your boat.
* Speaking of boats, Josh graduated with a Marine Biology degree. I’m personally both thrilled and scared that I’ll lose my drummer. Josh has been the heart of the band for as long as we’ve existed, so let’s keep praying that gigs come in enough to pay bills and that he likes drums more than fish.
* Speaking of gigs, we’re launching a whole new way of gigging this fall. Instead of our normal rate (for those that were scared to ask before, we try to shoot between $1200-1800), if we can book a full week (Monday-Friday) in an area, we’ll play for $350 a show (plus a place to crash and food in our bellies). The main reason for this is that for the past few years we’ve basically ended up traveling for a week to play one-off shows. We’d much rather play music than drive, so if money’s been the issue, no more. These will very likely end up being “acoustic band” shows, thanks to the amount of sound we have to rent/haul for normal full-band performances, but it’s all something that can be worked out. What does this mean? This means that we could potentially play a concert at your birthday party for less than it would cost to hire a DJ. This means that you can offer a really awesome experience to your whole parish/school/community for less than it costs to buy one of those new Playstations. This means that you could sell tickets to a show and raise money for your conference or mission trip.
* Speaking of mission trips, I’ll be rocking Young Neighbors again this summer! For those that are curious, I’ll be in Detroit the last 2 weeks of June, off for the week of the 4th, on the Gulf Coast Response for the next two weeks, then back in Motor City for the last week of July. I know you’ve been holding your breath and praying hard to be teamed up with me this summer, so there you go. I promise Jesus still loves you if he separated us this summer.
* Speaking Jesus, he’s awesome.
* Speaking of awesome, I hope you have an awesome [insert time period here between this and next post] and an unbelievably grateful for your support. We couldn’t do it without you!
I certainly wish I’d started that list with a checklist, but what can I say? It was an entirely unplanned bout of awesome that couldn’t be remedied. If you’re into keeping up with what I’m reading/thinking/watching that’s entirely unrelated to the band, you can check out my tumblog: http://rmb.tumblr.com.
Also, I just found out that you can download Chasing After Home for the free on mTracks. I came across that at random, and was psyched to see that GIA/Disciple Records has relaxed their pro-DRM stance in favor of music fans. For those that don’t know me, you don’t know how much I think DRM is stupid and unbelievably short-sighted. I assume that we’ll still get some lovin’ when you download the free mp3. If not, then that’s OK too. Stick your nasty unsanitary earbuds in your buddy’s head and force-fee them some RMB. That’s right, you heard me correctly.
Here’s the official RMB statement on the recent ridiculous regulations on Internet Radio:
Internet radio has proved an invaluable resource for our band, providing exposure and listenership that terrestrial radio (which for independents is largely limited to college or community stations) could only dream of. Smaller stations– those that serve a niche market– are going to be the quickest and most destructive casualty of the new regulations. Eventually, we all hope that the recording industry at large will embrace technology, not to mention music fans. Until then, we hope to see legislation that protects the “little people” that still buy and propagate music despite the eight-hundred-pound gorilla making it as difficult as possible for them to do so. If only we could legislate common sense.
To learn more about the issue at hand, and what you can do to help, click here.
An example of a potential casualty of the regulations is Catholic Jukebox, which is run by RMB friend George Leite. George has been a HUGE factor in promoting Catholic artists all over the country, and this could create real problems for one of his main avenues of promotion. He’s not a member of any nationally touring Catholic bands, he’s not a stockholder at any of the publishers, he’s just a great guy that has a heart for what we’re trying to do (make great, positive art). Show some love and call a representative. Or at least send them an e-mail. You can find your rep here.
There have been few writers that have influenced my own writing, not to mention my belief in the goodness of people and my readiness to offer criticism of my own faith tradition, than Kurt Vonnegut. Not too long ago, when introducing him on his “Daily Show”, Jon Stewart commented that KV’s novels were one of the things that made his “adolescence bearable.” Amen to that. Mr. Vonnegut passed away, and although he would have found great humor in hearing it, I pray that he’s met God and they’ve shared a great laugh together at the irony of it all. As a believer in the vastness of God’s grace and mercy, I hope that one day I’ll share the same conversation. God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut, even if you don’t want him to.
After being inspired by the “Top 100 YouTube Videos” on VH1, we’ve decided to make it our mission in life to create the greatest music video for YouTube of all time. Here’s the first try (and they’ll get better). Thanks to Kathy Fleming for inviting us to play in her dorm room and feeding us on a travel day, and the cinematic genius “Z” for filming the occasion. In honor of VH1, “Waiting Up” is brought to you pop-up video style!
Hey, it’s Ryan Meyers bass player here. It’s a little late, but I wanted to make a few comments about our recent visit to the southwest. The Phoenix area was kind enough to not make me watch my colts lose. Movin’ on…… Thanks to Dan, his infinitely patient and great wife C(K?)atherine, and his often hysterical brood. (hey Aiden, Leah, and Marie for feeding us, putting us up, and putting up with us. Thanks to everyone who came to St. Gabriels to watch us. We hope you guys were as pleased with the show as we were. Vegas was a great experience as well. We kinda off the cuff threw together an acoustic set that went surprisingly tight, and seemingly well received. I think we all really appreciate our new Ohio following(Libby and Jen) for being our pity crowd at the spontaneous shows. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with the RMB (I am the newbie.) The trip started with a airline dirtied pink suitcase and ended with the colts losing….. but every thing in between made up for it. matt
There have been few writers that have influenced my own writing, not to mention my belief in the goodness of people and my readiness to offer criticism of my own faith tradition, than Kurt Vonnegut. Not too long ago, when introducing him on his “Daily Show”, Jon Stewart commented that KV’s novels were one of the things that made his “adolescence bearable.” Amen to that. Mr. Vonnegut passed away, and although he would have found great humor in hearing it, I pray that he’s met God and they’ve shared a great laugh together at the irony of it all. As a believer in the vastness of God’s grace and mercy, I hope that one day I’ll share the same conversation. God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut, even if you don’t want him to.
