What’s Going On?

May 20th, 2010

The last time I etched out a moment to write here was a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean nothing is going on. I try to make it a point to post at least 3 times a week, however when things are extra busy, something’s got to give. Here’s what’s going on now for Agrippa93:

Upcoming Shows: Right now we are in show promotion full force for our 2 upcoming gigs. The 1st of these is on June 5th opening for Fear Factory and Prong at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT. There’s a possibility that we will be picked to play the main stage instead of the usual small Webster Underground stage designated for local the bands. Both rooms will be open for the show and no bands will overlap, which means all the bands playing can gather a decent crowd between main stage setups.

Working the main stage could be a good opportunity or a total waste of time depending on the circumstance. Bragging rights, of course, always look great on the press pack and the photos would be sweet, however if we do play the main it means we would go on as the 1st band of the night at as early as 6:30 pm to a most likely scarce crowd. This would be a complete waste of an opportunity for more exposure to much larger audience than ever before.

Playing on the Webster Underground stage at a later time in the evening might actually be better for exposure for us as the crowd will be a lot more dense. From my experience ingoing to shows, a majority of the people show up as late as they can so that they can skip most of the opening acts. Too close to the time Fear Factory goes on would mean a room full of crickets and tumble weeds for us.

Video: There’s a small video company that approached us to create a music video for one of our songs for the low price of $400. I’ve checked out some of their past work and it’s pretty high quality stuff. I’ve sent them Forever Wasting Time as the song and they have already responded that they have some good ideas. As of last Thursday everyone in the band was on board with this, but since then a couple of guys are having 2nd thoughts, concerned that it may not be money well spent.

In the age of multimedia consumers expect audio and visual from their products. YouTube has been a valuable marketing tool for bands, and for some lucky enough to have their video go viral, it’s actually propelled them to stardom. Some sort of video performance of a band is also expected in EPK’s (Electronic Press Kits) when distributing to potential venues.

Demo: With a good collection of finished songs representing our new evolved sound it’s time to get our music our there to cannibalize our older stuff. Music from the Cypress Tree album just doesn’t represent what we do anymore and even some of those are being Transmutated to conform with the newer. The 1st version of the demo will have Forever Wasting Time, Pale Horse, Among the Ruins, and Evocation (Transmutation) and later The Edge of Sanity will be added when it’s finished and ready for release. The primary reason for the demo is send to WCCC in place of the older songs of ours they’ve been playing on the air.

New Songs: There’s always something in the works with us and here’s a little of what’s on the way. Forgotten Will, a long lost song from the really early days of A93, is finally making a comeback and it sounds like it’s going to hit hard and fast. Although the foundation for the vocals has been recorded for a few years now, the rest of the song needed to be developed around that. Recently Will was working on a riff that was fitting nicely with the feel of the song. Scott picked up on that and worked out some more guitar pieces for other parts of the song.

Face of Fear will be Transmuted soon, which will make it the 3rd incarnation of that song. Originally it began in 2004 as a sort of alternative sounding song called Fear and was remade into a heavier industrial sounding piece called Face of Fear and found its way onto the Cypress Tree album in 2009. Although not quite started yet, I’m sure the latest version will be miles beyond than any of the previous ones.

Also on deck for some Transmutation treatment is Isolation, which was 1st recorded in 2007. This one is still in its early stages, however you can expect some drastic improvements lending to its epic potential.

Summer Goals: For the summer my main focus is to get Agrippa93 into as many venues as possible throughout Connecticut to build reputation and credibility as a great live band. With so few shows behind us, I’m falling into the pickle that it’s hard to get in the door when you don’t have tons of live experience, but you can’t get tons of experience if you can’t get in the door. There are some really great venues in Connecticut that I’d love to get into, but so far there have been no serious bites on my inquiry hook.