Busting my balls to ‘make it’

Busting your balls in the strangest of the ‘industries’

The older I get the more I understand that there really isn’t a ‘top secret’ formula or series of events that makes one band or musician more popular or successful than others. In my youth I thought there must’ve been some secret that all the top bands had that I just needed to find out ‘what’. It turns out that I was so far off the mark it’s not funny. Sure there are a lot of tasty ingredients that make up the ’success pie’ and depending on exactly what flavour you’re hoping to bake depends on ‘where’ you need to get your groceries.. so to speak (only mildly confusing I guess).

One particular ingredient that I believe is overlooked, especially within this ’sit-down’, sms, facebook digital age, is the lost art of pure and simple ‘hard work’. I know too many musicians (definitely me included) that take the easy road far too often. This is most certainly not the case with The Eastern. I mentioned in an earlier post that I believe the band is the hardest working band in the country and here’s how. Consider this:

In the last 2 years the band has:

- Written over 300 songs
- Recorded over 50 songs
- Released 3 EPs
- Released 2 Albums
- Toured the country 5 times
- Travelled over 80 000 NZ kms
- Toured the USA twice
- Played over 600 shows (averaging 4 or 5 shows a week)
- Supported and played with acts such as the following: Steve Earle, Jim White, The Old Crow medicine show and Fleetwood mac
- Sold over 2000 cd’s
- PLUS so much personal stuff that puts my achievements to shame.

What’s MORE amazing is that all of this was done completely independently, off their own backs, 5 members full time musicians, no publishing deals, no nz on air or creative nz grants, no record deal, no management.

Are they tired? Yes, of course.

Are they happy? Yes.

Can anyone do this? Sure if you’ve got the heart of a bear and the balls of a brass monkey.

Sometimes I think they’re all mad and it’s only a matter of time until one of them implodes, however most of the time it’s just an overwhelming respect I have for what they manage to get done. So, next time you see The Eastern playing in your hood make sure you pop in, buy them a drink and shake their hands, they friggin deserve it.