"you guys are Actually Good!"

it's one of my favorite things to hear afterward, especially from someone meeting me in this context for the first time.

like, you know how it is with friend stuff--your cousin's community theater play, your coworker's art exhibition, your neighbor's brother's beer league game--sometimes you'll like, go in the spirit of camaraderie to be an extra person but...how do I say this...

would you keep going back mostly unprompted?

so it's always cool to see familiar faces at demonstrations--legit, in a world with more options for entertainment and dissociation than ever in human history, your presence is a personal gift--it's a whole 'nother vibe when people express that they truly enjoyed the experience.

"you guys are Actually Good!"

I guess it could be read as a sliver of shade, "I expected nothing"...but, yaknow, I am as ever an optimist at heart...when I hear that, I hear honest appreciation for the project.

we put in a lot of hours to make this magic happen, and I'm not JUST talking 'bout practice here...I'm talking about the time spent learning about one another as people. live.

sometimes I'm as much a spectator as anyone else in the room.

like, everybody knows by now ZiZi is an amazing singer (she literally teaches other people how to sing) and although shock is not a necessary element of enthusiasm--mfs love them some ZiZi!--it's not like people are surprised that the public facing classically trained music education major and jazz pianist is good at organizing noises.

it's more that Emma has caught quite a few compliments from the public lately: "your bassist kicks ass," "that's a good player right there".

turns out his musical North Star is George Benson--asked him recently what made him pick up the instrument to start with--and he also apparently digs Lizzo's production so having a seasoned vet with an ear to today is a crazy advantage...I know musicians who haven't sought out a new sound since "Wagon Wheel."

at one point last night in the brewery I kinda just kicked it with the audience and watched Kim go way off script in the funkiest fashion...I like to think I have a bit more of a roadmap to what he generally has in mind since we uncovered our mutual appreciation for 90s R&B after one gig, but when he really lets the sticks loose the only thing I know for sure is that it's gonna be something to see.

something to hear, something to feel.

there was definitely a shared feeling in the room last night...still fuzzy on genre but according to a first-timer our stuff has "a consistent funk" but that maybe we were missing "metal" in the set of descriptors we use on promo flyers ("funk, reggae, disco, hip-hop, locura").

...and I didn't notice until they said it--the instrumentalists can use whatever color crayon they want--but yaknow, I guess ole Million did take the whole "Wolfpack" arrangement in a very hard rock direction.

never really thought of us as a rock band but listen, the song is about how a rhythm section and the decisions they make both individually and collectively define the sound...so hey, guess I'll just have to headbang a little more.

the point is, people actually like it. they LIKE the songs that we wrote, that in many cases I hunted and pecked out on this same damn keyboard.

from shitty sounding, fucktangular MIDI files to real songs that people actually enjoy, spend some of their only spare time to come hear in person.

"you guys are Actually Good!"

I REALLY HEAR IT when people say it, because you know what people don't HAVE TO like it at all.

you know how much asstastic music there is out there to hear? somewhere out there, not so long ago, some other songwriter sat in the lab with a pen and a pad, carefully choosing lyrics and imagining sounds in their head...probably played it in bars and cafes just like us, probably thought it was pretty good.

the result was "Hey Soul Sister" and I'm yanking your aux cord if you ever put it on. might cut the mf, maybe you're not responsible enough to have this.

as for how that song got popular enough for us both to have unfortunately heard it...well, capitalism works in mysterious ways, who can say for sure what dubious dealings and nefarious machinations go into pumping a selected song through supermarket speakers across the continent.

tbh, I don't ever expect to hear "dancin' (on the grave)" in a chain coffee shop.

...but yaknow, when people come out to our shows, when folx really reach out for what we're putting across, that feels like success to me.

when you join the Uprising on some Friday night, our songs are popular enough for us both to hear them.

...and ya know what, I'm not the only person who thinks they're Actually Good.

that's where it starts, yeah?

all power to The People.

--Flor!

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