Those Goddamn Liars At The GAD! Zine
I promised a bazillion folks a while back that we'd be updating this site on a more consistent basis. Turns out I was mistaken. Until NOW! Well, this is the first post in almost a month, but after "NOW!", we'll be posting articles of various lengths, subject matters, and uh... quality far more often. My relatively meager dream is for us to post new content every day. Probably be closer to 5 days a week, but we'll see what happens.
Like everyone who is reading this, we have lives outside of this creative little box. As I've said many times, life interrupts art. Sometimes things take longer than initially planned. Disappointment and rigidity of concept are two killers of the any process. The creator will become disappointed that things are not working out according to the original plan or not meeting the original deadline. Especially if the deadline is self-imposed, it would be better for that creator to adjust their expectations. You don't have to take life's lemons and make lemonade (or a battery!), but being adaptable can be an asset to the independent and budget-conscious artist.
Preachin' the Gospel of Punk, here. You don't have to be a music student with thousands of dollars worth of equipment to be in a cool band expressing yourself. A lot a folks have big ideas that they can't imagine being smaller, so they don't try. A few years ago, I wanted to make a zine. A lot of my "peers" kept bogging down the project with ideas like full-color and glossy pages and a $10 price tag. All that sounds nice. It was hard to get started and unlikely to be even remotely sustainable. Like I said, we're poor and we have lives to kinda maintain. A lotta people were overwhelmed by their preconceived scope or just let down that the project would be anything less than their "vision". And they went away. I finally just said, "I'll make a little zine just like the ones I made in high school." I knew it was doable (if dumbass Teen-Adam can do it, anybody can), so I did it. It's a photocopied black & white rag on standard paper. Some people still don't get it (they never will), but with the help of many friends and family, GAD! has taken on a life of it's own.
The threshold to a blog or a website is far less daunting than even a Sniffin' Glue knock-off. We intend to take better advantage of this. GAD! is now a zine, two websites (if ya count The Alabama Underground Music Directory), a podcast, an internet radio show, 3 music compilations, a yearly music event, and a really bad Christmas album. All of them done with the same utilitarian mindset. Just "fuckin' doing it" already puts you ahead of the curb. We have no competition. No confusion over what our success is. We do this because we love it. Every issue, every article, every episode, every whatever is the accomplishment. Sharing what we love is the success.
Oh, yeah. And GAD! Zine Issue 20 is running a little late....
-Harmless
Like everyone who is reading this, we have lives outside of this creative little box. As I've said many times, life interrupts art. Sometimes things take longer than initially planned. Disappointment and rigidity of concept are two killers of the any process. The creator will become disappointed that things are not working out according to the original plan or not meeting the original deadline. Especially if the deadline is self-imposed, it would be better for that creator to adjust their expectations. You don't have to take life's lemons and make lemonade (or a battery!), but being adaptable can be an asset to the independent and budget-conscious artist.
Preachin' the Gospel of Punk, here. You don't have to be a music student with thousands of dollars worth of equipment to be in a cool band expressing yourself. A lot a folks have big ideas that they can't imagine being smaller, so they don't try. A few years ago, I wanted to make a zine. A lot of my "peers" kept bogging down the project with ideas like full-color and glossy pages and a $10 price tag. All that sounds nice. It was hard to get started and unlikely to be even remotely sustainable. Like I said, we're poor and we have lives to kinda maintain. A lotta people were overwhelmed by their preconceived scope or just let down that the project would be anything less than their "vision". And they went away. I finally just said, "I'll make a little zine just like the ones I made in high school." I knew it was doable (if dumbass Teen-Adam can do it, anybody can), so I did it. It's a photocopied black & white rag on standard paper. Some people still don't get it (they never will), but with the help of many friends and family, GAD! has taken on a life of it's own.
The threshold to a blog or a website is far less daunting than even a Sniffin' Glue knock-off. We intend to take better advantage of this. GAD! is now a zine, two websites (if ya count The Alabama Underground Music Directory), a podcast, an internet radio show, 3 music compilations, a yearly music event, and a really bad Christmas album. All of them done with the same utilitarian mindset. Just "fuckin' doing it" already puts you ahead of the curb. We have no competition. No confusion over what our success is. We do this because we love it. Every issue, every article, every episode, every whatever is the accomplishment. Sharing what we love is the success.
Oh, yeah. And GAD! Zine Issue 20 is running a little late.... -Harmless
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