Never act accordingly, just let it flow and set your scene

Hello.

It has been almost two months since I have last posted, so I was pretty much spot on when I said that this blog would miserably fail. Although, now that I've got a little bit of time, I am going to try to post a little more. I apologize for my busy-ness. Now here's what's made me so busy.

Music.

SO. Since two months ago, quite a bit has gone down with Fish House. First of all, we got into the Day newspaper, and kinda took a huge part of the front page of the daybreak section. It was awesome. We got interviewed by a couple dudes about our song Jiminy, and we got to perform it for them. They got it all on video, edited it (perfectly may I add), and posted it on the Day's website. Check it out here. It was awesome, and it really got our name out there locally. It's sweet walking around school and having people I don't know congratulate my band and I on something we did. It's really cool, and it raised my hopes for Fish House. I felt at that point that we'd never get the EP done, and I didn't have much confidence as far as us achieving our dreams. It sounds stupid, but even a little bit of recognition for anything helps. On top of that, we did a video interview with our good friends Jade and Avery for the Harmonic Series, which is an online blog type of thing that features artists all over the place. They featured us as Band of the Week, so that was really cool too! Check out that interview here. It's funny as hell so be prepared.With that video, Avery took some promo photos for us, which turned out pretty well. Those aren't really a huge deal, but here comes all the fun stuff. We were asked by the same Avery as before to play at her Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party. It was a blast and I finally got to achieve my dream of screaming my heart out into a mic to an All Time Low song. Judge me. On top of all the fun we had there, they payed us by offering to pay for $150 of the expenses towards the very first Fish House merch. Now, by now the EP is very close to finish. But this offer kind of woke us up in the sense that we should be discussing the support and preparation, and most importantly advertisement of our EP. This means we need to start thinking about merch, new promos, a music video, the album cover of the EP, etc. etc. So we just ordered our shirts (30 t-shirts and crew necks :DDDDDD) which are going to be totally awesome. Avery said that we could take our time in actually coming up with the design, so we're getting a bunch of artistically talented people to sketch out their ideas, that way we can come up with something super creative and fun. Now if this isn't awesome enough, the school is finally starting to recognize us as musicians. The Junior class asked us to play at the pep rally. Now first of all, bands typically need to beg their school to do something like this, and if they're lucky enough they'll actually be allowed to do it. It's crazy that we're being asked. Second of all, during my schools pep rallies, everyone in the school is required to be in the gymnasium during the whole thing. You literally get in trouble if you're not there. So the entire school will guaranteed be watching my band, and I could not be more pumped for that. I'm literally getting butterflies typing this. I sound stupid but we went over what we're going to be playing there today, and the song is perfect, and it's gonna be freaking amazing. I'm pumped. NOW IF THAT IS NOT ENOUGH AWESOMENESS FOR YOU. There is more. The Junior class made this ridiculous suggestion. Normally my school throws in a dance during Winter, to make money for the classes and have a jolly old time. The Junior class wants to hold the same type of event, but instead, it will be a strictly FISH HOUSE CONCERT. They want us to play a full Fish House Concert in our Auditorium on December 15th ( a Saturday). It's weird that they're trusting us this much with our class funds, but honestly I will not complain. The plan is to have 1 or 2 opening acts (I'll get to our ideas for that in a second), have pre-sale be $7, and $10 at the door. Our EP will be done by then, and all our T-Shirts will be all pretty and ready to sell. We're not asking to school to pay us for this (we're just trying to help out our class), and we have our own sound and lights dude, so really this is almost 100% profit. The only thing they really have to pay for is the wristbands we're giving to people to get in ($15). So if this isn't saving the Junior Class, I don't know what is. ON TOP OF THAT. We had ideas for opening acts. Barefoot Truth (band originated from the Noank/Groton/Mystic area) is breaking up unfortunately. The lead singer/drummer attended Fitch, and is off doing his own solo project. Now my mom e-mailed him to get him to make an appearance at my 16th Birthday Party, and he actually responded. the only reason he didn't come was because he was off on tour. SO HE ACTUALLY RESPONDS TO PEOPLE. Now, why wouldn't he want to come back to his old high school and support a band that's forming there? He's going to want to (hopefully). Adam knows this lady who worked with him and is friends with him, so I think she's going to introduce us. This would draw in a huge crowd, so I really REALLY hope it works out. There's also a local-ish ska band called Llama Tsunami that we may look into. I think this is gonna be a huge event for both Fitch and Fish House! The only thing that is NOT confirmed are the opening acts so don't go off being pumped to see either of them, i'm not trying to get your hopes up!

THAT is what the life of a Fish has been like in the past couple months. Pretty sweet right? I mean i'm hyped on everything. The EP sounds amazing right now and it's not even mastered yet. I think people are really going to like it, and hopefully we can send it off to minor record companies. Our goal is to go on a small tour this summer, and looking at the progress we've made in the past two months, it's not out of the question. Hopefully I can keep everything up to date on here.

IN ADDITION.

School is not as hard as I thought it'd be at all. "Junior year is most important" my ass. To be honest I haven't done less work with more A's in my life. I got 100 on an Math test for the first time since probably 8th Grade. I have all A's and 2 B's, and I'm hardly trying. I understand it's early, but shit man. IB is going smoothly at the moment, and I have no school problems anymore. It's rad and I'm digging it.

TRANSITION

My face, has been considerably better. I always had problems dealing with the whole acne thing, and back when I wrote my first couple posts I sure as hell expressed it. Ever since then I've been really strict on taking the medication for it, and people have told me that my skin looks considerably better. It  makes it easier to get up and show my face. Being in band vlogs and other videos like that hasn't been as scary and terrible as it is, and I'm seriously so happy about it. I haven't really told anyone about my feelings about it recently, but it's been better than ever before. I can look at girls now, so that's cool. But I still have a problem with talking to them. The other day me and my friend Joe were at a Fundraiser to support the field hockey team (our friends play on the team so why not) and we were walking by, and this dude I hung out with a couple times (Johnny) was walking towards us with this gorgeous girl whose name I will not give. Anyways, we walked by each other and I said "Sup Johnny?" He was like "sup." Then to the girl, I literally fucked the pooch so hard. I tried to say something like "What's Up" and "How's It Going" at the same time. So really I just said gibberish. "Whazzow." I kept walking, and she waved and smiled but said nothing and walked past with Johnny. Seriously, I cannot do anything with girls. Ever. I felt ashamed to be a person for the rest of the night. I need help.

As a result of all this, I've been writing a lot of new music for Fish House recently, and the song is really a huge reflection of whats been going on recently.

Where I want to go in music, I realized, is gonna be accomplished doing what I want. Doing my own thing, and not copying other peoples ideas, or giving in to expectations, boundaries, or pressure from anyone. It's gotten us this far (which is really nowhere) so really how could it fail us. I mean, everyone tells you to be yourself, and it's so true. Especially in music. It's amazing to me. Just doing what I love (which is stupid sometimes) has gotten us recognized and loved by our school and grade. You don't need to follow the beaten path, people. Take on your own fears, and dream until you can't no more. Quoting my own song (yeah, I I'll do it) Never act accordingly, just let it flow and set your scene. That line describes everything. Never act accordingly. Go crazy. Do shit no one thought you'd do. Blindside them. So what you want and what you want only. Let it flow and set your scene. Let your ideas flow freely, don't worry about anything, just let it flow, and you'll set the perfect scene for yourself. You'll set up your life the way you'd love for it to be set up, and in that scene is where you'll live. The song is meant to enlighten people upon the fact that anything is possible. As long as you can muster up the strength to admit your love for something, and go for it. Honestly, the song is going to be amazing,  and I really hope people get the point I'm trying to get across. Do your own thing and love every second.

Much Love,
- Jake

Never act accordingly.