It seems that as of late, we've been encountering more and more fans from all parts of the world and even people in our home town who are surprised to discover that Rishloo is unsigned. We have been a band for 6 years now and for the entirety of that time, we have been totally and completely independent. No multi-million dollar contracts, no tour buses, no private jets, no television or radio ad campaigns, no year long international tours, none of that. What you see with us is truly what you get, and everything we do have we've made for ourselves with the help of some very kind friends and family, of course. This situation has up-sides and down-sides.
The up side is that we own all our art. No one tells us how to make it or what we should say or how it should sound. We aren't nearly as inhibited by industry politics, and we get to choose where and how we invest in ourselves. We don't have to be fake, and we aren't enslaved by "The Man." When you hear or see Rishloo, you get the true and unadultarated experience direct from our souls to yours with no B.S. in between. It's a shared experience through the medium of music, and there's no feeling in the world like being able to have that with all of you. The downside of all this is the scope of our reach.
The recording industry, especially for rock, as been pruned nearly back to its roots by digital piracy. This is a good thing in many ways: It's bankrupted lots of shitty, corporate "artists" who had no business stepping foot in front of anyone in the first place, and crushed mega-labels who sold out the industry to get rich quick. This needed to happen for the good of the art. However, the labels who are left (there are truly only about 3 majors left nowadays and most others are subsidiaries of them) are not taking risks on new acts because the average listener realized several years ago that they weren't going to pay $17 to $25 dollars for a CD with one song they liked, and a bunch of audio vomit when they could get that one song for free online and effectively tell the label to fuck itself. (Good for all of you, by the way!) Thus: no label help for Rishloo because we aren't a Fall Out Boy clone who will make some douchehole label exec another couple million during our 12-18 month "career."
The bands who are left, with or without labels, still have to make money. One of the ways that they do this is by charging other bands to tour with them (usually to the tune of at least $10,000-$20,000 minimum) by the time you add in travel expenses, the bill gets very steep for four guys, 2 of whom are in school full-time and 2 of whom work jobs that keep them right around the poverty level. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not as simple as just, "emailing such and such band and telling them they should let us go on tour with them to Kalamazoo or Tanzanianoligergorgiastan." Whether they like our music or not, they need to keep making money too, and even the biggest ones are businesses, not philanthrotropic charities.
Being that we don't have a gigantic (or even moderately-sized) label behind us, our funding is limited to what we can bring in on our own. Getting in front of larger crowds, especially those far, far away, is a difficult proposition at best. I can't begin to tell you how many hours Sean and Jesse have spent on the phone and the internet trying to set up tours with larger bands, contacting management groups, promoters, labels, magazines and so on. But money talks as does clout, and right now, we don't have much of either. I promise you that we're doing our very best! But all is not lost!
You can all bet your sweet, sexy (and damn, are they sexy) asses that will continue to grow, but it takes time without massive capital behind us. We may be poor in wallet, but we are rich in your support and encouragement, and you can make a difference. Seattle is a long ways from everywhere but the West Coast of the U.S. but you can still help us get to you sooner rather than later.
If you want to see us on the East Coast, in Europe, Japan, the International Space Station, wherever you are, you can start killing wealthy relatives and sending us the money from the life insurance policy! Just kidding...I think? Okay, but really; tell your friends, tell everyone you know about us, and when you do, remind them we're wholly independent, remind them that you, and we, stand for something more than our own wallets, that music and art are more than commodities to be bought and sold, that there are things in this world that are still true and pure and meaningful. And you don't even have to do it just for us! Talk about other bands you enjoy that are trying to do what we are, support the art that matters to you however you can. It's not money that will ultimately make any of us successful, it's your believing and demanding what you want. Burn a CD for someone with a couple songs on it. IT'S OKAY! We want you to! Tell them if they like it that they can order it online. We're on iTunes, we're on Napster, Amazon and a jillion other places. Hassle the music magazines, hassle the radio stations. Get together with twenty of your friends and flood their request lines until the DJ's play what YOU want to hear. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO HEAR THE MUSIC YOU WANT.