Long Walks on the Beach - We’re Growing Up
Fritz Kramer writes:
Mark,
Hey dude, new tune, here’s the story.
After you premiered “Literally Crazy” last summer, industry folks came
out of the woodwork. All the big markets, New York, LA, London — pr,
managers, publishers, a handful of producers. I would take these
calls, and have these conversations, and get these speeches about the
”importance of staying relevant in the industry,” and “brand
management,” and “monetization,” and etc etc etc.
And while it was extremely flattering, it gave me pause. First off, it
was clear that there was suddenly an audience listening, which,
honestly, made me self-conscious of my sonics. I care about what I put
out, and these songs are home-made, like laptop recorded/headphone
mixed/unmastered homemade, and I just wasn’t happy with how the other
cuts for the EP were sounding. I straight up shelved them, just put
them away for another time when I knew a little bit more about wave
propagation or sidechain compression or whatever was gonna allow me to
achieve the sounds in my head.
But really, more than all that, I wasn’t convinced that any of the
stragegizing would make for better tunes or a more interesting
project. I wasn’t convinced an increase in output would make Long
Walks a more sustainable creative outlet. I mean, the www presents so
much opportunity, so much inspiration. And, sure I’m cognizant of the
fact that there are now accepted modes of engaging an audience on the
web, but the scale at which I was working makes a lot of that
impractical anyway.
I’m not yelling about how much I hate money and collaboration and the
man, all that stuff is cool, it all serves a purpose. But at the end
of the day, after all the phone calls and all the pitches, nobody ever
said, I really like what you’re up to, I can help you do it better. So
I decided to just keep moving, make demos like normal, take my time
with recording, and put things out when they’re really ready, which
because of my television work has been a long long time.
So not only is this a way of saying I’m sorry — I didn’t deliver on
what I said I would, and I apologize for that — but, in as sincere a
way as possible, I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank you.
Without people like you and all the blogbros supporting and nurturing
new sounds, projects like Long Walks don’t exist. It’s been incredible
to have all these experiences, to meet all these people, to be put in
the position to even have the luxury to think about artistic
integrity, or the creative process, or how someone could actually find
the tunes twee (like, have they actually listened to the tunes??).
Attached you’ll find the new one, it should also be sitting in your
inbox on soundcloud. I haven’t seen many lately, but if you’re still
into doing premiers, all yours. Ultimately, it’ll go up on bandcamp
for free dl with the others. It’s about growing up, individually and
collectively, and my little sis is on the cover with me. She’s had an
eventful last few months, so this one’s going out to her. Lyrics
below, they’re always the #1 search in my analytics.
Hope our paths cross sooner than later,
Fritz
