Hello. My name is Sam, and I like to write songs. Here's a little story about why there are vinyl records with my face on them in Germany.
One time, I moved to Columbus, Ohio after spending a year attending the wrong college in Nashville, Tennessee. Ohio was a better fit for me, and English Lit was a better major for me. I had studied Music Business, but that was just the pits for me.
I wrote some songs and made the walk from my dorm at Baker West to Kafe Kerouac most Tuesdays for the Open Mic there. Jason runs a tight and supportive ship.
I helped open up a refugee benefit show there for The Gentle Lurch. They're a band from Dresden, Germany. Lars and Neli were over here for OSU as well. But they were nice enough to come to our cassette tape release show with Field Sleeper in the fall of 2015. After that, Lars and I became buddies and shared a beer at Dicks Den from time to time. When we threw our record release show in the US, it was a refugee benefit again. I think that will continue to be the case for release shows going forward.
Wow! CDs! And Grandma Bodary's quilt that she made for my high school graduation is on the CD! Hooray!
They invited me over to come visit when they went back to Germany, so I did. Last year, I spent about a week and a half adventuring, meeting nice folks and playing nice shows. The Sound of Bronkow Music Festival was the highlight; I finished my set while the church tower above me sounded for 8pm. I nearly made enough money to pay back the plane ticket! This shit is seriously the dream.
They were nice enough to reach out about giving the record a proper release through K&F Records in Germany. I recently got an email with nearly four weeks of shows. So that will happen in August. And I'm intimidated and don't know what to expect, but work is supportive and friends are supportive and I might even have one or two Hello Emerson members along for the ride.
Fingers crossed we can make back our plane ticket money, and make Lars and Neli some diaper money (they had a baby!)
So, this news doesn't mean a lot to you United Statesians - you all can already listen to the record. But we're excited about our tour and distribution deal with our friends in Germany.
Let me know if you want a vinyl - they're up on the store for North America and will arrive in June. If you're in Europe, I'll be seeing you in a couple months.
With love and gratitude, Sam