Looking back and looking forward

It's been a while since the last update, and the reason for that is basically my unfathomable sloth. There is also the motivation of me not wanting to seem like a constant whiner. With that in mind, I whine less by posting less. Are things that grim? Well... they could be considerably better.

Back in 2004 I started my own record company called “ColaRolla”. From year one I've managed to turn a profit releasing records or recordings. The simple fact I made a penny of profit means working as my own publisher I've made money. I've been “signed” twice in my life and never made a dime being a signed artist. When you work for a record company, the guy that sweeps the floors gets paid before the artist does. Whey you own the record company you get all the profits and you also sweep your own floors.

In 2005, ColaRolla adopted the motto, “Doing things the Cowboy way since 2004”.

If you've ever seen the band, “Riders in the sky” you know there are two ways to do things. The easy way, or the Cowboy way. And while ColaRolla put a few pennies in my pocket, it wasn't making me rich. One of the downsides of the Cowboy way is it's not likely to make you rich. But I really don't need to be rich. I just need to dig myself out of poverty. Digging out of poverty is very Cowboy.

The vast catalog of recording made by my identity Zorch Boomhauer is just a continuance of my endeavors with ColaRolla Records.

The very first ColaRolla release was pretty embarrassing at least by my estimation. But I was learning everything at once. Not just recording the music, but creating artwork, and placing it on the inter-web for sale. If you had the name of the CD and or the name I recorded it under, you could still buy it on the inter-web. But I hope nobody does.

Recording has always been important to me as an artist. Yeah, I love playing live, but the recorded song is something someone takes home and adopts as part of their lives. This is why I bother to write and record songs.

I'm constantly getting better at writing and recording. But an odd thing is happening. Seems as the quality goes up, the sales go down.

Of course, I'm probably to blame for that. Perhaps has my efforts in quality music increases, I let the marketing side slide a bit. Second Life is very socially driven, and I spend less and less time online. I show up a half an hour before a show to drop notice, play my show, and log off. I'm possibly the least sociable performer on all of Second Life.

I could probably be more successful by just hanging out more, but hanging out more seems like it should be more of a waste of time. It's probably not, but it seems like it should be.

I play the best shows I can, and put out the best records I can, and that should be enough. That should qualify me for success. But I'll be the first to concede, thinking you should be successful because you warrant it is very “Cowboy thinking”.

The upcoming release, “Emotion and Reason” is probably the best sounding, and best collection of songs I've ever put out. I'm fully expecting it not to sell as well as it should. Of course I'm told that doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result is the text book definition of crazy. With that in mind... I need to do different things or check in to the nervous hospital.