I just finished listening to an interview with Amy Lee from Evanescence. I stumbled there on Youtube because I had been putting together a writing playlist (you can find it here) and found We are the Fallen. Come to find out, this is Ben's new band [who was in Evanescence] and they were talking about how they were being compared to that original group but didn't want to be. Then I did some more reading and found out that Amy keeps kicking people out of the band, and they're all pretty hostile about it. So, I ended up watching the interview hoping she would say something about the member changes and she did. I thought it was pretty interesting [since there are always two sides to every situation].
She made the comment that she wanted to be honest and write music that stretched her, that basically challenged her as an artist. But, she said writing with Ben was stifling because he wanted their music to be more commercially accessible, easy to understand, more straightforward.
This shocked me, because I think this way [not the latter, the former]. I thought a lot about this today when I was working on a Business Plan [eventually scrapping the biz plan altogether and going with just a simple marketing plan]. I'm not interested in tailoring my writing to make it more commercially acceptable. Yes, I would like to get paid for my effort. Yes, I wouldn't mind making Hocking money - be able to live my life and focus all my energies on just writing great stories that I love and hopefully others would love, too. But, I'm not interested in switching from my current genre to - say, vampires - just because blood suckers are a popular ticket right now. I don't write for others, I write for myself. I would be ABSOLUTELY thrilled if someone else [meaning, a multitude] read and liked my stories - but it is not the main reason why I write. I write because I love my charaters, I love the stories and I want them to come out - to live, to breathe.
I think, if what Amy Lee said was true, she is right and justified in her decision to change up members in order to hold on to her integrity. Of course, no one really can know what's going on in that band but the members themselves. And who really cares, anyway? Some people just feed on [and often create] interpersonal drama in their life. I suppose. It is a way of life, but no life I would ever want to live. No thanks. But many, if not most, would say the same about living in the back of a pickup truck out in the woods - which, of course, I think is a sublime way to live. Here is the video.
In the end, you have to be honest with yourself and protect what is yours. You are the only one you are stuck living with for the rest of your life, so you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror. The relationship with yourself is the only one yo have to make work. All the rest is just utter wreckage.
I forgot to talk about Release Dates. I'll do that in a later post....sorry.
ReplyDelete