3rd August 2009: Monday Mosh #13

3rd August 2009: Monday Mosh #13
Sorry for the delay in getting this week’s Monday Mosh out – very busy weekend. Actually, I kind of bit off a bit more than I could chew by doing a weekly Monday Mosh. I’ve decided that from now on they’ll go out twice a month (so essentially once a fortnight). I’ll post the Monday Mosh on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month for the rest of the year, then reassess the things in the new year. Depending on my work situation, I’m hoping to have a bit more time up my sleeve in 2010 to concentrate on the band.

We have booked our tickets to Sydney for Blackstump last night. We will be playing on Friday night the 2nd October at the Equestrian Centre at Horsley Park in Sydney. We can’t wait! We are hoping to play a church gig on Sunday 4th October. If anyone reading this lives the greater Sydney area and knows a church that would have us after an evening service please drop me a line. My contact details are on the official Grave Forsaken site. On that note, we will also be available on the Thursday 1st October if anyone knows somewhere we could play. It could be a tiny gig for all we care – would just be great to play a few shows while we’re there. I’m also really looking forward to catching up with my friends in all the other bands – Matt, Pete, Phil, Jayson, Andrew, Brad and Paul (formerly in Fearscape). It will be really special.

We have had two rehearsals in the last 3 days. We are working on a setlist that contains songs from all 5 releases. We are using the next few gigs to celebrate our 5th anniversary. No guarantees, but we might be making a special 5 year shirt for all you GF supporters out there. Last night we were bouncing around a few ideas. As always it comes down to finances. We just annihilated my credit card booking airfares last night (don’t worry, we’ve got the cash to back it up). Between bills and airfares, I’ve put over $5000 on my card in the last two days! It’s that time of year when all the council and water rates arrive in Byford (my home suburb). But hopefully we’ll have some new merch out soon.

I’m still tweaking the live album “Light The Hall!”. That will be available in late September as a pay what you want download for the Mosher Crew. I like this idea because it means you can listen to it before you decide if you want to pay for it. With the physical CD market in such a bad shape, downloads are truly the way of the future. I’d like to think we can keep putting out actual CD’s, but they may have to be limited to professionally printed CD-R’s. It costs about $1000 Australian to manufacture 500 CD’s, but about $300 to print 100 CD-Rs. So we’d be paying more per unit, but we could definitely sell 100. I recently got an official live Kiss CD-R (Rock The Nation Instant Live), and apart from the blue back, I really wouldn’t have noticed (or cared) that it was a CD-R. Small bands like us may need to do things this way to keep the physical product alive. The offset is that we can still print the same quality booklet with all the liner notes and other cool stuff. I’m very optimistic that the determined bands can get through this rough patch for the music industry. We’ve always had an element of DIY, and there’s no reason we can’t continue. I have North Wind Studio now, so I can record our albums myself. Essentially what I’m saying is that GF isn’t going anywhere, despite the doom and gloom around the industry.

Speaking of downloads and CD’s, we now have a mp3 store and merchandise section at the official site. You can download every song we’ve ever released for what I think are very reasonable prices. You can also listen to each song through the page, so you get a real feel for the material before deciding whether you want to buy. It’s a really cool feature, and one we are very excited to offer. This is also the first time “Beside The River Of Blood” has been available digitally as well, so head over to the site to check it out. You have to pay through paypal, but it doesn’t require you to have a paypal account to make purchases. There’s a section in the shopping cart for people to use their bank accounts or credit cards.

With the release of the new Stryper album, I’ve decided to go back and listen to Reborn. It really isn’t as bad as it’s reputation suggests. I’ve always liked it to tell the truth. I think artists should be allowed to produce the music that’s in their heart. One thing I’ve learned is you can’t force a sound or style. What’s inside you is what will come out, so artists most of the time are really only doing what comes naturally. I always say vote with your feet – if it’s not your thing just let it be and listen to something that is your thing. People are entitled to their opinion, but having been in this band for 5 years, I totally understand why things change within a band. There you go, that can be my random soapbox for the week.

One last thing – I’ve decided to go a little bit crazy. I have 20 free copies of our 2008 album “Destined For Ascension” to give away to the Mosher Crew. So the next 20 Mosher Crew members who email me with their mailing address will get an absolutely free copy of the album. If you’re not in the crew and you want the CD, sign up now and drop me an email before they all go. You can join for free via the Mosher Crew section of our website at www.graveforsaken.com

So I will be back next Monday, but then there will be a two week break before the next Mosh on the 24th. Thanks for reading and you’ll hear from me again soon!

God Bless and MOSH ON!
Vaughan and Grave Forsaken