I checked in on the Young Immortals site and see if anybody’s commented on our new song. Mike and Jake have been working hard on spreading the word about it–which is awesome, and I APPRECIATE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!–and I wanted to see what The Kids are saying about the song. So far, this one’s my favorite, from a girl whose page says she’s 17, but down a little further in her profile it says she’s 14. SOo o o. . .yeah. Here’s her comment:

“Yeah…I really like the music its awesome…for real tho i think you guys will be pretty famous just keep goin. Youll run into obsticles but just work your way through them…you’ll get there.”

I laughed out loud at that. I mean. . .she’s completely naive, but she’s writing as if she’s a world-weary veteran of the music business. “You’ll run into obstacles. . .” Oh, Tiff, you are SO right about that. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the ‘obstacles’ could be your bandmates, or more likely, your own inner demons. Or there could be drugs involved. Or maybe your drummer, who’s been playing with you for a year and a half, can’t cut it in the studio, so you have to fire him, but he’s the one financing the album. OR you could have everything going for you, but the record company goes bankrupt. Or you could become so famous and popular that you hole yourself up on your personal ranch with a pet chimpanzee and snake and invite little boys to stay overnight with you and stuff. I mean, the list of obstacles is endless and different for each situation, but you keep doing Your Thing because you’d die if you didn’t, and because you believe in yourself and your music, and it makes suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune all the more worthwhile if you get any kind of success. Not that I know anything about outrageous fortune, either, but I DO know a lot about slings and arrows.

Then again, we could all become Portland hometown heroes like the Decemberists or Everclear (Dare I mention Elliott Smith?), or even lifelong worldwide stars like the Beatles, but then that level of success brings plenty of obstacles as well. We’ll gladly deal with any of these issues as they arise. It sure is good to know we’ll “just have to work our way through” all that and “we’ll get there.” What a relief to know that such an easy road lies ahead.

I must sound like a pessimistic a-hole by now. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a totally sweet thing for her to say. She could’ve just as easily said, “Man, you guys totally suck” or something. So I appreciate that, FOR SURE. It was just her tone, coming from a place of such deep knowledge and understanding, that made me laugh and sent me into this truthful but hopefully still comic diatribe.