Hi haters! I’m back off hiatus!
Seriously, I mean it. After a month’s worth of restful vacation time spent away from updating the blog and most things Soul Plane to bask in the fame and glory of being a MuchMusic-featured rockstar (I GOT RECOGNIZED, GUYS!!), your boy is back in the building and ready to do business.
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the MuchMusic episode of DisBand featuring Soul Plane. If you haven’t, stop doing whatever it is you’re doing and hit up www.muchmusic.com/tv/disband and then click “SOUL PLANE”. Set aside a good 20-30 minutes to watch the entire episode (and then some, for some reason), and all the bonus clips (including our entire live performance at Much!).
Yes, we got the thumbs up, and yes, it kicks ass. Yes, I got my shit torn apart, but I definitely didn’t do as bad as MuchMusic made me look against Bishop (on the real, though, that boy is dope as hell, don’t let anyone tell you different). Yes, I got caught saying an “f-word that rhymes with ‘maggot’” in that same battle and had MuchMusic VJ Hannah Simone blow that up in my face. Maybe a bit out of context, certainly not my intention to offend, but a lesson learned nonetheless. Yes, I have an ego, but when you ask these Soul Plane kids who they look up to as the leader up in this piece, this ego is the reason my name’s their answer. Yes, Greig Nori said that if we got the "yes” from the judges he would want first crack at producing Soul Plane, and yes, we’ve been in touch with him since the shoot wrapped. Yes, Conor Stief is all over that like flies on shit, including staying in contact with Saukrates’ manager Chase.
It was fun. And now it’s over. What does this mean for us? I’m not entirely sure; ask me when we’re famous. People have been coming up to me randomly in public asking me if I’m “that guy.” Yes, I very much am. They then usually either smile timidly, congratulate me, and hug me. The bolder ones ask for autographs and pictures. The cuter ones (usually female) ask for my phone number. Whether it’s been sitting at my computer replying to an unprecedented amount of fanmail from viewers across Canada, whether it’s been going to a class for the first time in the three weeks since school started being and being recognized by several classmates as “that guy in the band that was on Much,” or whether it’s been the encounters in-person with fans in subway stations and random bars and food joints, I’ve really felt the love from you folks and let me tell you, this is what gets me out of bed in the morning. I thank all of you for the love and support you’ve shown us since we aired on MuchMusic. As for the (messageboard) haters, well, unzip my fly and you’ll find out that we didn’t lie: there really is something for everyone in our music.
I get a lot of questions as to what’s about to hit for Soul Plane. Well, first off, we HAVE to change our band name. It’s not even a question anymore – for our own sake, we no longer want people to have negative preconceived notions regarding the band right off the bat due to the association they would inevitably make with that shitburger of a movie. The hard part is actually coming up with the name – in order to avoid making the same mistakes we made the first time around trying to give our band an identity, we have to ensure that this new moniker is 100% original, 100% catchy, and 100% representative of our band’s image in the meaning the name projects. So far, we have been ridiculously unsuccessful. So, in efforts to hurry up and move on with our lives with a name that carries a permanent effect as well as to build with our fans, we’re going to be playing “NAME THAT BAND”. Email any and all ideas to fanmail@soulplanemusic.com so that we can steal them. Seriously, though, we’re doing our part: we just met with Carl Nanni, Kevin’s father and the former head of Kraft
Another question I get asked a lot is: what was it like to be on a reality TV show? Instead of trying to answer it, I’m going to let you read about it. Each week I’m going to be posting a new entry that I wrote up after a particularly interesting shoot session with Much that details almost down to the minute the happenings of the day. I was going to do this real-time as we were shooting, but Much had issues with surprises being ruined. But now that we’ve been aired and everything that could ever be ruined has been ruined, I think we’re good to go with this shit. Stay tuned and read up on what it was like for us to be part of a rockstar reality show experience: introducing… The Much Chronicles! First entry to be posted this Sunday, October 5th.
Alright, so now that we’re back in business, we’ve got a lot of work to do on a musical level as well. Before we get anyone even remotely important to have a look at our portfolio, we’ve gotta first have a portfolio. The demo has already been rendered obsolete (again) – Soul Plane is back in the lab, taking the time now to go back and re-write, re-structure, re-compose all the music bearing in mind all the tips and pointers we took in from all these industry professionals over the course of the two months we spent working with them. And when we’re done with this, please believe we’re going to hit you with something that’s fresh like whoa, especially because we’ll be taking our game to some very valuable connections we’ve been able to establish through MuchMusic.
In summary, it feels soooo good to be back. It really does. Now that school has started, however, things will be slowing down significantly. We’ll still be playing shows (I think we agreed on one local show a month as well as one out-of-town show in that same month – I’ll keep you posted on those the minute I find out about them), we’ll still be making music, but we’ll be taking advantage of this down-time to pick ourselves up out of this victory glass of champagne we damn near drowned in on August 9th at Much headquarters when we got the “yes” from the judges. Soul Plane is about to undergo some serious renovation in almost every aspect that has to do with a band trying to make it (and there are many), and when we’re done, you won’t even recognize us.
Hate it or love it, we’re here to stay. Keep the fanmail coming!! Peeeeeeeeeeace!
