Alpha Address #1: 4/19/20 (Part One)

Alpha Address #1: 4/19/20 (Part One)

        Hello good people of the internet! This is the transcript of the very first Alpha Address. Every quarter we dive into what’s new in the world of AP. This one being on April 19th, 2020, the dates will always be the 19th or 20th of April, July, October, and January. With the band being so new, there’s a lot happening right now! So let’s get right into it.

First and foremost, let’s get to the elephant in the room: the date. This particular address is taking place during Quarantine 2020. For all the people and families who have been affected by this global pandemic, like John Prine and his loved ones, my heart goes out for you. I’m one of the lucky ones that is alive and healthy during this, so I’m very grateful for that. The “worst” part of it for me is being so physically disconnected from essentially everyone.

Having evolved into a more social person over the years, it’s a really tough time of essentially not being allowed to even hang out with friends, much less meet new ones. It’s also a time now more than ever have I realized just how much I had taken shows and live music for granted. One more than one occasion in the past was I upset because I couldn’t afford to go see Umphrey’s or Phish again. At least I got to see them and knew that there were more tour dates where I would get to see them in the future. Now all of that is up in the air and a huge question mark. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one out there who feels most comfortable, most at home, and happiest at a venue with music and people that I love. Whether indoor or outdoor, at a festival with many great acts or at a show for one band I really love, that’s my favorite type of atmosphere to be a part of. And that’s the seeing shows side. Playing shows, performing, and improvising with other musicians live is my favorite thing to do in life. To not know when that’s going to happen again is not the best feeling. And there are millions of other musicians in the same boat.

This global pandemic has made me oddly grateful that I was not touring the country, in a place where so much of my band’s income comes from playing shows. It’s a strange notion because making a living by my music and touring has always been a lifelong goal. But if I was really reliant on touring money at this time of writing I’d be even more fucked financially than at this time of recording (laid off 3 jobs instantly, meager unemployment to be sent out that hasn’t come yet, hovered above double digits in my bank account, etc.). As much as I wanted to play more and more shows with Alpha Pegasi, I made a choice to stop reaching out to venues shortly before our last show on 2/8/20. I realized there was still a lot of foundational work to be done as far as my online presence went so I wanted to focus more on that.

At the beginning of March I was on a lunch break upstairs at one of the restaurants I was working at, attempting to map out all I really wanted to work on during 2020 especially. Man, even if I had a month or two off right now, I don’t know if I could finish everything I want to do right now, I thought. A week or so later, everyone with a serving related position was sent home after an hour of work on 3/16/20. We were told that dine in restaurants would be shut down until May 11th. As they would only be open for delivery, servers were no longer needed. After going to the Capitol building to find out it was closed, the next day I was finally able to reach someone in the labor and employment department of the state. I asked what they were doing to do for the restaurant workers affected and the response from a governmentally contracted worker for the state said “I don’t know.”

At first I was furious. Pulling the plug on a whole industry employing tens of thousands of people with no plan to help those affected was insulting and financially debilitating for many. Having no emergency plan was in place to help those who were suddenly so deeply hurt by the state is something that I hope will be learned from. As COVID-19 kept blowing up, a reality set in where I would be more extremely in a position that I largely been in since moving to Colorado: alone and on my own, not sure how I was possibly going to make ends meet and fund this music and business that I’d be pouring my heart, soul, and finances into for so long.

At the same time, I was fortunately able to get my head out of my ass pretty quickly and realize that it was a blessing. Though I was essentially completely stripped of one of the two main elements humans crave and need, Money, I was blessed with a huge amount of the other element, Time. Here was literally all the time in the world to tackle what I had wanted to work on. The mixing and mastering for two new singles I recorded were wrapped up days before Denver and the world as a whole started closing down. At the same time, I was in the thick of it in finishing two books I was writing, each one marking the start two distinct series of books to come after them. Along with two new singles, I had enough recorded, mixed, and mastered material for 2 EPs. On top of those, I had music, lyrics, and charts for an additional full album and a double album. Time to get to work.