Day 165

Day 165 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #11)

What's going on? I am blogging every day now! Oh, my, there must be some mistake!!!

No, no, my friend, there is not. I am actually keeping FOCUSED... remember, I was having BIG trouble with that not long ago! Just read yesterday's blog and I honestly have to admit I am surprised how well I am keeping focused!

Got the Artbeat THANK YOU's out, got the Des Moines e-mail list updated, in communications with booking for MOTOR, and sent an e-mail to the guys about rehearsing for the 21st at the Coach House. Sent the CD to Jesse for the cover artwork, and Theo is, AS I WRITE, building that database of the Midwest venues. Good thing Ralph and I are not working together since he would not be happy doing the work that Theo is doing to get us BOOKED... building that database, sending out e-mails, follow-ups, etc. Is it really the job of an intern to do that sort of stuff WHEN YOU HAVE NO INTERNS???

We've already got venues from IL, IA, WI, & MN asking about rates & avails. Not bad, "Intern-Boy"!!! And what I like about the online database we are using to build our own is that there is ALOT of information on each record for each venue. Capacity, genres, lots of contact into including MySpace links, percentage of cover bands vs. original bands booked, it's AMAZING!

Next BIG project: Working on cleaning out my e-mail in-box. Turns out that the girl who books bands & artists for MOTOR already contacted me earlier this summer and I never got back to her! Can you imagine that? Her e-mail got LOST in my in-box! NOT GOOD!!! Boy, does that make me look like a disorganized flake, or what??? So, I am doing my best to get rid of 200-300 e-mails out of my in-box every night. (No, Honey, you really don't want to know how many are in there right now.) I hope I can do it. It will still take me a long time to clean out my in-box, but I now know the secret: FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!!!

Also started submitting for more Sonicbids opportunities. I guess since we got the GAP one, I should keep the good energy flowing!

Gosh, it seems like a lot got done today. It really does help - this blogging thing. You should try it!

Peace, Love, & Light!!!
:)
Annie

Day 164

Day 164 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #10)

Hello, Hello! Working today on getting all those long-overdue THANKS YOU's out to all the Artbeaters! Also need to send out that e-mail to all the new Des Moines fans from our show last Friday. Did sell a few CDs but I will be happy if we get paid better next time since we did not even get paid expenses (and that was actually part of the deal). But we did really have a GREAT time on the drive out - lots of laughing and bonding. The three of us work well together in the rehearsal studio, and now that I know we can get along fine on a 6-hour small-car drive, that's really a good sign. The show was great, not a HUGE crowd, but a decent crowd... again, sold some CDs, collected some e-mail addresses... moving forward in Des Moines!

Anyhoo, got an e-mail from Kandall Polster (welder artist from the last Artbeat) who is helping me get a show at the Harley Museum restaurant, Motor. Also got hooked up with a gig at Momo's in Austin through a contact there - John Doughty. Scott Berendt also hooked up a gig at the Coach House since he double-booked himself. (Oops!) But it feels REALLY good to be getting offers and calls now instead of always having to solicit the gigs, make the cold calls, etc etc etc. I guess hard work really DOES pay off!!!

New this week: my artwork for The Kiwi Cafe being done by Jesse Engelbrecht (gallery artist from the April Artbeat). His sketchwork would be PERFECT for the Kiwi Cafe album cover, so we are to talk about it tonight over the phone. (TOTALLY excited about putting out the album the way it should be, instead of burning copies for my shows every time!)

Also, I am no longer working with Ralph from Active Artist Management. I guess that's no surprise, since we have been butting heads since almost Day One. He is a good guy, but I know that we do not belong working together.

Thank goodness the dry songwriting spell over the last 3 years or so seems to be FINALLY OVER! Those 3 new songs we started working on at rehearsals are definitely worthy additions to the set!

Theo started e-mailing venues all over the Midwest last week so the band can start building a regional following. So far, we have been getting a pretty good response, but there is a great need to build an online database that we can use to communicate all activities, and find people's e-mail addresses quickly, since I notice that most responses do not indicate the venue/town they are representing. ANOTHER project!!!

I ALSO need to start working on contacting publishing companies for "What Do You Do"... since that song just does not seem to fit in with what we are doing right now. When I am going to find time doing that, I am not sure... but I hope to fit in in somewhere soon!!!!!! Anyone who is interested in interning for a record label based out of Milwaukee, please give a shout: anniebbaby@gmail.com. I know a LOT about the music business and I know how to make things happen, but with everything we've got going on, it can't all be done by just a few people! We need interns!

Have a beautiful day and NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!!!!

Day 160

Day 160 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #9)

Today we had a VERY productive rehearsal, and yes, we will be ready to rock the House of Bricks tomorrow night in Des Moines. 9 songs, 3 of which are VERY new (I have to memorize the lyrics for 2 of them tonight!!!!!) and the trip will be LOADS of fun! Mapquest says the trip is 6 hours and 4 minutes but with it now being "construction season"...

I still have to burn a bunch of CDs so I have product to sell tomorrow night, too...

So, I will meet Theo in maybe an hour at our rehearsal space to run through these songs one more time with him... he needs one more run-through.

FINALLY got the CDs mailed for our GAP performance for "Born To Play" on Aug. 20th, and e-mailed the posters. That GAP manager Joey Deitz is a swell guy, very helpful and totally excited about having us!

I better get back to work, just wanted to say HI!
:)
A

Day 159

Day 159 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #8)

The weekend was crazy and fun and Artbeat was a huge success! Honestly, I am not sure if I broke even or if I barely made enough to donate to Express Yourself Milwaukee, but I will be making a donation this week and getting that good energy out there! Thanks to all the Artbeaters for coming out and making Friday night fabulous!!! I also had a great show Thursday night with Scott Berendt at the Coach House, and we will defintley be booking more shows together - he's a very talented guy and lots of fun to work with!

This weekend we have another show at the House of Bricks in Des Moines - it will be with the acoustic trio since we are currently looking for a bass player but there is a kid coming in to check out the band tomorrow - Yay! Anthony and Theo and I have been working really hard this week on this show and it's really turning out to be pretty amazing. 3 new songs for this show and lots of great energy! 9 songs total so we are well on our way to that new album!

Theo has now taken over the job of booking and A&R for remedial children records. He's doing a great job so far and it's working out well since he loves to hang out online a lot (we are using an online database: MusiciansAtlas.com - an AMAZING resource!!! I started with this resource when I first started out on the road in 2006 and it easily paid for itself with one gig booked.) Way to go, Theo - you rule!!! Contacting venues in WI, IL, IA, MN, IN, ND, SD, MI, MO, KY and OH! Wow. No, WOW. Wowza.

Already gearing up for the next Artbeat - got a new gallery artist lined up - met this artist at the Artbeat after-party. Met some folks who really liked Artbeat and want to help promote the next show via their contact lists & other lists they know of. Networking and viral marketing, networking and viral marketing, networking and viral marketing, networking and viral marketing!!!!!!!

Hope all is well for you. Keep the faith, good energy and love flowing from your heart!!!!!!!
:)
A

Day 144

Day 144 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #7)

Well, earlier this week, I booked 2 more gigs at the Klavier Lounge in Germantown - they are gigs where I play mostly covers, but hey, it's better than waiting tables!!! I also got a gig at The GAP for their Born To Play campaign which celebrates their 100th anniversary or something cool like that! This is not a paid gig, but hopefully it will bring some exposure since they are doing a big ad campaign to hype up the whole thing!

Today, however, I did not do much for my career, in fact, I am a little behind, especially when it comes to Artbeat! I had a family crisis late last week and I am still working on resolving the crisis, but it will be resolved in the next few weeks. I was up at 5:30 this morning to get some flyers and a promo kit to "Darlin" Nikki Janzen, the opener for Artbeat. Then off to pick up my mom & deal with the family situation all day today. I got home around 3:30 and needed a nap. In the meantime, I am now blogging on a computer that is sitting on a desk that is so full of papers and projects in the middle stages, it's hard to keep everything straight.

So, here I am , trying to refocus, as I wrote about last week. The band is not rehearsing this week, due to people out of town. But we will resume next week Monday, and we are now looking for a bassist. Two interested players responded to my craigslist ad, so I will investigate this week.

Just wrote a new song tonight, perhaps another that will be pitched to someone like Katy Perry, or maybe we'll keep it and make it work for S.U.M. or the other project. It's too new to know what needs to happen with it.

I did have a meeting with HeyWhatever.info yesterday and they are now handling my websites for Annie B. and for Artbeat! They should be able to make Artbeat's online network a reality before July 31st, so I am VERY excited about that! I found out about the company through Jim, the owner of the Coach House in Big Bend. He uses them for his website, and they seem to be very cool people! Totally excited about the new relationship!!! They are not only going to build my websites, but they will help in marketing & bringing in traffic - which is really more important than the site itself, in terms of what's going to help you sell products online. Please look out for www.annieb.net soon!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!

In other activity, the GAP store I am performing at in IL is very excited about the Aug. 20th show, and 15 sampler CDs for all store employees are being burned as I blog. Still undecided as of right now if I am bringing the full band or what. The sampler CD consists of "Everything", "You and Me", and "The Shining Light". I know that "Everything" is not a acoustic song, but we will be doing an acoustic version of that song at this show for sure.

I need to run off and drop off some quarter-page ARTBEAT flyers to Scott Berendt right now, so I will sign off for tonight...

Until my next exciting blog, have a GREAT evening, and keep loading your gun!!!

Day 135

Yes, here is where I post my activities and goings-on as a successful, be it "small-time" Midwest struggling singer/songwriter trying to "make it big"... hoping to give some insight to other struggling musicians and help them on their way, while they also may be able to help me on mine... it's about working together and your network of friends that will play a big role in your success. And, so, since my last blog..............

Guess what?! Shut Up Marie is now reforming in the Midwest (and I am sure you can guess how excited I am about that!!!) Woo-hoo!!! So, we started working on the songlist for this year's new album and I have found that this band actually has 2 different types of songs... and these two types of songs probably should not be on the same album, or people will be like, "What the hell kind of band are you guys? What kind of music do you play?" So now the band has to split into two different bands. Crazy, I know, but we will have musical and stylistic integrity with each project, which is very important. You don't want to be all over the place with your music. That's one thing I have learned throug the years. People like to know what you sound like, so they can "get into" it. They can't "get into" something that is all over the board. They would not know what to "get into". And they want to be able to explain you to their friends. They can't do that if you don't really have a well-defined sound.

So, as a result, "What Do You Do" is getting reserved for major label artists only. We'll be pitching it to the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Jewel, Michelle Branch, etc etc etc. It does not belong on any new album of mine this year. It will be one of those exclusive unreleased tracks that maybe you'll get to download after it's been re-recorded by some big pop/adult contemporary artist. (Unless you go to my MySpace page right now and get it before it gets removed from my profile.)

Shut Up Marie will remain intact, and there will be a new band project. Some sort of funky-folky-moody-gritty-cowboy-acoustic thingy... a direct descendant of my solo/acoustic stuff. Not much like S.U.M. at all. But fun, for sure!

In other news, Milwaukee Artbeat is coming along swimmingly. I have a TV appearance scheduled on FOX6 news here in Milwaukee on July 29th at 8:15am, and a radio interview on 91.7 WMSE at 2pm that same day! Woo-hoo!

This week I had an epiphany. It's actually a reiteration of what my manager has been telling me for some time now. I have to get a better focus on my goals. I have been all over the board with my 3 (now 4) bands and all the other projects I have going on like Artbeat, the duo with Scott Berendt, and etc etc etc! So, I am trying very hard to find out how to get that focus. It's kind of like what I had to do with the band... find out what the thing is really all about, make sense of it, and then start working towards only the most important & worthy, solid goals. Making sense of the music and making sense of how we can market it and make a good solid album... it just had to be broken up into two pieces. That ultimately will add more "projects" to deal with, but at least it's will just one band.

So, this epiphany came from this dream I had last night - I met this very small, young, blonde-haired, blue-eyed man who was an extremely successful magician. He did this big show somewhere and he was out in some lobby after the show and he was doing a little demonstration and he looked me right in the eye and said "If you want to succeed, you have to pinpoint where exactly it is you want to be, and start putting all your focus and energy towards that one point. You have to pinpoint that one little square millimeter in the miles of surface area out there and put all your energy towards it, and that's how you will jump-start the huge success you desire." Well, those words perhaps were not the exact s spoken to me in my dream last night, but it was something along those lines.

What I took from that is how I got all these things going on and how I need to just start focusing on the one thing I desire the most... my new band and my new album being recorded this fall. If I can make just that my focus and put all this amazing energy towards it, and keep putting more & more energy in that one little square millimeter, pretty soon the thing is going to explode, right? You can't keep putting all this energy into this one space or this one thing... pretty soon the thing gets overloaded and explodes!!! It's a real, scientific, quantum physics thing, I guess... the energy that we project and how it affects the world we live in and the lives we live.

So, I guess I am kind of going through a little transformation. My next few weeks has to be spent refocusing and getting a grip on how to put that energy into the band & the new album. Does that mean I have to give up all my other projects? Do I have to give up Artbeat??? (That would be a shame!) It's been kind of tough since my relocation to Milwaukee. Most of last year was spent managing everything that has to do with my parents, and I still spend lots of time doing that this year. But this year I kind of jumped into so many projects just to get back on my feet as an artist here in Milwaukee, get into the music scene here, and get a grip on Milwaukee. But now it's kind of become too much, I would hate to say I bit off more than I can chew, but I sure need to take a look at things and refocus.

Wish me luck!!!!!

Day 108

Sorry it's been so long since that last blog! I AM going to blog til I win that Grammy - I promise!!!

So, here's what I've been up to... I went out of town on a little mini-US tour for about 3 weeks...

Started with a show in Des Moines on April 10th was amazing – we played to a packed house, opening for gb Leighton, and he was stellar and perfectly hospitable… the owner of the House of Bricks thought ahead and asked gb Leighton’s people if we could use their backline and it was not a problem. We left Milwaukee around 12:30 and had enough time to eat before we hit the stage. The crowd warmed up to us right away and I sold 14 CDs before we started driving home about midnight! Got home at about 6am and slept all morning and into the afternoon.. It was totally worth the trip, and I got a call back from the owner on Easter Sunday – he was very impressed with us and is totally looking forward to having us back!

The rest of the week was eventful, I had a solo show at a regular venue of mine (the Coach House Grill) on Thursday night before Des Moines and that was fun, and another solo show in Watertown, and that was another huge success. The owner of another bar I played in Watertown was there and asked me when I would come back to play for him. I’ll have to set it up again to play for Happy Hour at one bar (Riverview Water Trap), and then at the Uptown again that night. People in Watertown seem to like what I’m doing quite a bit!

Well, I officially took off for my solo road trip on Wednesday at about 1pm, and made it into Des Moines for my first show just in time! I wanted to have a little more breathing time, but it’s hard getting organized for these trips. Good thing I remembered everything… one time I drove out to a venue and forgot my PA speakers! I had to ask my landlord to drive out there with my speakers (the venue’s speakers were not right for my PA), so I offered my landlord $50 to make the drive and he was nice enough to help out!

The first show this week was at a place called Scooter and Bab’s and those folks were totally cool, it was a tips only gig and I sold some CDs and made some tips and had a groovy chicken salad for dinner. Fun people. I had a long drive the next day, so I started driving after the gig. (Quite a bit after the gig, actually… I met a guy named Tim and we hung out at the bar for awhile until I finally decided I had to start driving, at 1AM.) Got about 2 hours of driving in and decided to crash at the first travel center I saw, in the parking lot, under a light, with my car locked. My friend Edie bought me a killer travel blankie and pillow for Christmas, so I was able to sleep until about 9/9:30AM, and hit the road for Muskogee, OK.

Max’s Garage was a great venue; it used to be a car garage with four bays. High ceilings, totally keeping the garage vibe inside. I must have had another chicken salad… my usual fare. Started playing around 4:30 and people were generous towards my tip jar, plus the owner gave me a little bonus at the end of the night. I sold a few CDs and had a great time, but I should not have played that last set. My voice was tired and I had 3 more nights of performing coming up. Stayed with the owner’s friend, Billy. Billy was awesome, and he had to leave for work in the morning before I had enough sleep to start driving again. He woke me up to move my car with the house doggie, this cute female poodle, and I can’t remember her name right now. I left him one of my CDs and a thank you note. I had a great night’s sleep! Thanks, Billy!!!

The next night was in Denison, TX, at a venue where I have played many times before (Break Time), and they give the artists a nice guarantee, plus anything extra that comes in through the door. When I booked this show, the girl who I was on the phone with told me that the date I wanted was already booked, so I asked her if she could call the band already booked and see if they could switch to the following weekend, which was not booked yet. She was able to reach them that evening, and they had no problem switching their date. Nice guys! I slept in on Friday morning at Billy’s house, and got to Denison at about 5pm. Steve is the friend in Sherman, TX (town right next door – 5 minutes from Break Time) who I stay with whenever I am there, and he got switched to graveyard shift due to these hard economic times. He didn’t have to be at work until 9pm so we went out for dinner at a great little place called Cellarman’s, where they have tons of different beers on tap. We enjoyed crab cakes and shared beers & a pizza. Got in a quick nap before we both had to go to work, and when I showed up at Break Time it was empty but the usual crowd filled up the place so that by the end of the night there was a great crowd of beer-drinking fools!!!! Gotta Love Them Texans!!!!!

Stopped in El Paso for a mini "420 fest" and I had fun there - friend drove down from Albuquerque to see me but, I think he got to see me sing like, one song! Also got to see this great little band from the area, Ya Ya Boom. Loved 'em! Had a great night but not such a good morning since I got so drunk I was not ready to check out of the hotel when it was check-out time, so I slept in my car for another 4 hours and finally was able to keep down some food & start driving to CA sometime around 6pm.

The rest of the trip went well… I played the Shut Up Marie reunion show in L.A. with the line-up on the GIMMIE CD, and we had a great time!!! I wish I could go out there more often. Got to hang with the first friend I ever made down there, Lisle Engle – also a GREAT singer/songwriter – we’ve been friends since 1999 and he is good people. Got married a few years ago to a beautiful burlesque dancer Eliza Bane, and they just had a beautiful daughter, Sammy who I got to meet!

Got to see Luvie, Barbara, and Garrard, really enjoyed visiting my friends in L.A., and then up to Reno! Played shows in Truckee, Reno, and Fernley, and got to visit Karen, (Babe-Doll), and Kevin & Katherine, Bob & Kathy, former Beach Boy Adrian Baker, the whole Reno gang!

Next show was in Elko at Machi’s – where they do “Dinner & Annie B.” night – a fun night of great food, friends, music and fun! Hope to head out there again in the fall!!

Drove through to visit a friend in Wyoming and then stayed with another friend in Des Moines… racing back to Milwaukee to get back on my projects!

The July 31st Milwaukee Artbeat is the big project on my plate right now! Working on locking in the final artists for the show, and the gallery artists! It should be a great night! Please visit the ARTBEAT MySpace page to find out more! And tell your artist friends about ARTBEAT – we’re ALWAYS looking for great, interesting artists for the show!

Also working on my new album... the new band is called Annie B. & The Starlight Heroes but I'd like to change the name to the Starlights Hotels... I'll keep you posted! Also working on putting out a compilation CD on remedial children records of female bands & artists mostly from the Midwest! Keep your eyes out for that, too!!!

Peace, & Much Love! I promise I’ll write again much sooner next time!

Annie