• Grand. Just seriously fucking grand. #

• needs a massage. Rock and Roll takes its toll. #
• I don’t even think it’s necessarily confidence. It’s really that I just get distracted from my doubts. ADD does have some benefits. #

• This status update is from the future. I know I’m not supposed to reveal future events, but let me warn you away from the Thai food tonight. #
• Red light is on. #

• Fell asleep very very late last night with complete and excellent exhaustion. Radiohead was playing in the background. Psychedelic dreams. #
• Well, well, well. Did you really think you were going to get away with that? #

• It’s kind of like they just moved all the tourists from the Venice Boardwalk to Disneyland and stuck a churro in their hand. #
• I just saw my personal favourite, a mother who had her child on one of those kid leashes. I asked her if it was her seeing-eye human. #
• If you’re so fat that you can’t keep up with the people ahead of you in line, we will cut in front of you (if we can get around you). #

Do You Love Music?

It’s an honest question, do you love music? Chances are you do. Chances are you listen to music every day, multiple times per day. Some days, you might even listen to my music. You probably even have music for different moods, or even better, you might have music that can put you into specific moods. You probably love that feeling when you’re in your car and one of your favourite songs comes on the radio and you reach down and crank the volume knob. You probably distinctly remember some time in your life when you were lying on the floor in a dark room with headphones on and listened to music by yourself. You created your own world with that music, and you loved it.

But the traditional sources for our favourite life enhancement, music, are drying up. The music labels, record stores, radio stations, etc., are all dying and going away. They weren’t able to adapt to new technologies and new business models, so they are going out of business and disappearing. But this isn’t a eulogy for the old music industry, I don’t really care about industries. I care about music.

However, there were two very good things about the old music industry, it was a means for supporting artists, and a means for delivering music to you. The old music industry could turn four talented cheeky lads from Liverpool into a worldwide music phenomenon that created a soundtrack for a generation and songs that will mean something to people for many generations. It could make sure that every radio station in the world was playing Beatles records, and that every record store in the world was carrying copies of these records for you to take home and make part of your lives. So how are artists supported today, and how can the music you love be delivered to you?

Today we have the internet for delivering music to you. You can find new music on MySpace, iLike, Pandora, Last.fm, and tons of other sites that feature music and let you discover new artists. Your friends can send you links to new artists, or embed new music on their own websites, blogs, or social networking profiles. Then you can go to the artists’ websites and buy the music directly from them, or go to iTunes, Rhapsody, CD Baby, e-Music, Amazon, or tons of other sites and download the music from them. That’s how most people who listen to my music have found it, by people like you telling other people about it. Let me take a moment to thank you for that: Thank you very very much.

But how do we support new artists so they can continue to make music that will enhance your life? Well, unless the artist is making meaningless pop music that you’ll forget about in a year (except to make fun of), don’t expect the old industry to provide any support. The new music industry depends on you. Independent artists today depend on independent listeners like you to determine what their music is worth.

If you like our music please pay for it. I’ve made it so that you can download my songs for whatever price you think it’s worth, so you don’t have to pay the old music industry prices. But even though you can choose what you want to pay, I still need you to at least pay something, or I can’t pay my rent and continue to make music to share with you. Independent musicians like me are working all the time, recording, rehearsing, playing shows, promoting, etc. etc. We don’t have any health insurance, and eat so many peanut butter sandwiches it makes you want to gag. We’re not rich. We’re not floating around in our pools sipping piña coladas all day at our houses in Malibu. Most of us, possibly even like you, are just scraping by day-to-day. But, possibly unlike you, we don’t even have a regular paycheck and can’t even collect unemployment. We depend on your support.

So if you love music, please support it so we can continue to make it for you. Thank you.

Here is the link to take you to where you can pay whatever price you choose for our music:

http://www.sjatr.com/products-page/main/mercy-mp3s-pay-what-you-like

Or if you would like to order our CD, please go here:

http://www.sjatr.com/products-page/cd/mercy

All the best,

SJ