Tuesday, April 29, 2014

This is the beginning.

7 years ago, when I decided to take a chance and drive my 22 year old self down to Detroit and meet a girl I knew very little about (aside from her liking the sound of my voice), I imagined it would amount to very little, if anything at all. I had stopped and started projects with musicians a thousand times and figured at most, I might make a new friend.

I left Elida's apartment that night with not only a new friend, but just a little bit of hope and a lot of ideas.

And here we are... almost a decade later. Living our dream of recording, producing and releasing our first full-length album.

The years have surely brought their snags: Losing a family member suddenly, followed shortly by parting ways with a band member, followed by fall-outs and mistreatment/robbery from venues, endless sound issues, rejection, parting ways with a 2nd band member; the blows sort of felt never ending. But where there was a difficult time, there was always a glimmer of hope sandwiched between the struggles. An encouraging comment or message from a fan, a sound engineer liking our sound and offering to record us for free (more than once!), a PA system bought and paid for by a friend just wanting to help out, big shows, great shows, friends/musicians wanting to be apart of our sound during the "in-between" stages, fans singing along to our music and constant encouragement from people who have always believed in us.

That's you! You made us push ahead when times were tough. You softened the blows. You made this album happen and you will continue to be the most important people in the life of Jane of Arc. I know we say it a lot, but none of what we are doing would ever have been possible without you. Ever. So as I sit at this laptop and write this blog on the morning of our album release, the day Elida and I have been waiting 7 years for, we both want to make real sure that everyone reading knows their part in this success for JOA.

But it's not over! We still need you! We need you to support the music by sharing it! If you like who we are and what we do, please tell your friends about us! We promote ourselves in a very grassroots sort of way and this is the next most important way you can help (aside from having helped us fund the album itself). We will be posting a link to share today that we hope you'll repost to help us get the word out.

Our album, which is available RIGHT NOW on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and every other digital music distribution company under the sun, is our gift to you. "Freedom in Falling" is about our journey. Our struggle. The beauty and the tragedy of love and loss. We hope you listen to it and for at least a moment, feel connected to the message. And we hope that through the music, you feel closer to us as a band. Mostly, we just hope you like it - because this is only the beginning...

So cheers! Yeah, yeah… we know it’s Tuesday morning – but it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?

From the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU! 

xoxo
-JOA


Friday, January 10, 2014

Help! No $ Necessary...


Have we mentioned yet how needy we are? Welcome to our neediness.

Trust me, the last thing we want is to burden any of you any further, but this is serious. Like, heads-exploding, career altering, make-or-break serious.

It’s also kind of embarrassing for us to discuss, which is why we’ve waited so long to talk about it.

Here’s the deal:

Two of our current singles “Run Flying” and “Stand” are on iTunes right now. We don’t talk about it or promote them off iTunes because our current bio for Jane of Arc is… well… wrong. Completely wrong. Like, not ours, wrong. We’re not entirely sure how this happened, but when we submitted our bio along with our tracks (several eons ago with our first EP), someone decided that not only were they not going to use our bio, they were going to flat-out put some other band’s bio in place of ours instead. Which is awesome. And we have literally been trying to correct this problem for years.  YEARS.

We’re not sure who to blame, as there are no contacts through iTunes to connect to about the problem. We have attempted to fix the problem going through multiple other music media sites that work through and directly with iTunes with no avail. We have sent hundreds of emails, made countless phone calls and gone as far as we can possibly go to take the steps necessary to correct this epic problem. There is nothing else for us to do. There is no person we can contact directly about the issue… so we keep doing the same things over and over. Elida and I send emails every day to the corrections department of a media site called “All Music” which is directly linked to TuneCore and iTunes. Every. Single. Day. And I’m not kidding. I wouldn't dare kid. This is the absolute truth, folks. We even tried taking down all of our music from iTunes and re-submitting it with an updated bio in hopes that the old/incorrect one would be replaced. No such luck. We are at our wits end.

The Jane of Arc’s bio is currently for a band called “Joan of Arc”, an indie band based out of Chicago (close, but no cigar iTunes). Again, we’re not sure how this happened or why – but we can’t fix it.

How can you help us?

Honestly, we’re not sure you can. This might never get fixed, which is embarrassing, unfortunate and makes us look really unprofessional. Bottom line, it could really devastate any chance we have at a career.  It also makes us look like we plagiarized Joan of Arc’s bio and are passing ourselves off as them, which is simultaneously horrifying and ridiculous.

We have 2 ideas that might move this process along and at least get us noticed:

1)    The first involves you heading to iTunes and rating both of JOA’s current released singles on iTunes (www.itunes.com/janeofarc) and giving us some good feedback so that someone, somewhere might see that we exist. If you hate the songs, maybe veto this step. But my guess is that if you’re taking the time to read this, you’ve probably already heard them and hopefully have some nice things to say. Take to iTunes and rate our music! We’re hoping this will put us on someone’s radar.


2)    This step is a little bit more involved, but if you’ve got a second, this honestly might be what saves us. Head to this link:

                    All Music: Corrections

...and in the “biographical information” copy and paste this:

“Please help correct an error that has been made on iTunes. This band, Joan of Arc has a bio that is incorrectly placed on iTunes for a band with a similar name “Jane of Arc”. This means that both bands have the same biography. Jane of Arc is an indie-acoustic-pop trio from Ferndale, MI and has had their bio misplaced for several years. This error makes them look unprofessional and negligent. To fix this issue, please find Jane of Arc’s bio here: http://janeofarc.com/about-joa/  and replace it as soon as humanly possible. Or contact them at janeofarcmusic@gmail.com if you have any further questions. This mistake is very serious and their fans are hopeful this task can be completed soon.”


The only other thing you need to include is your full name and your email address under “Your Name” and “Email Address”. Under “Source of Corrections” please copy and paste this link:

http://janeofarc.com/about-joa/

...which will take them to OUR current bio so they can fix it.

They will NOT contact you. Again, we’ve been doing this for a while now and have not heard so much as a friggin’ peep. If anything, they will get tired of receiving the emails and just fix the problem.  That’s what we’re hoping at least. To be heard. And without your help, it’s just a couple of the same gals sending the same email over and over. They need to see that it matters. That people care. And the only way to get that point across is for you to show them.

Like always, we appreciate your concern and your support. Let us know if you’ve helped out! We always love to know whose got our back. At this point, this is one of the most important logistical errors in our wheelhouse and we need to make it right. And with you, we think we can.

We love you.

On our knees again,
-JOA

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Dear 2013,

We have a lot to be thankful for. Health, family, friends, Orange is the new Black. Most importantly, that memorable chilly morning in mid-February when the three of us sat down at Mae’s in downtown Ferndale and discussed putting an end to our hiatus and our “do or die” method for Jane of Arc over eggs and toast. We put our hands in together like teenagers, lifted them shouting “Do or die!” and left only comprehending a fraction of what was in store for us as a band.

What have we accomplished over the past 10 months? Re-establishing ourselves entirely, endless practices, booking our own shows, helping out a few outstanding charities, making mitten music connections with the help of one stellar individual (Steve Boyce), two photo shoots, getting our website established and launched… all of which has lead us to one of the most important things we will ever do: our Indiegogo campaign and preparation for our first full-length album.

The campaign is over now (thank sweet baby Jesus) and we need to reiterate to you just how incredible your participation has been in getting us set up for this huge event. Those of you that contributed? You have literally helped make our dreams come true. I don’t know what kind of value you put on such a thing, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that something of this nature and extreme is priceless. When we needed you, you showed up, and there isn’t a way to properly thank you for your support. You have given us the greatest gift. You have allowed us to be in control of our music, our creative decisions, our time, our ideas. We have the freedom to do what we want, how we want, when we want. And in the music industry, that truly is the greatest gift of all.

As for what you get in return?
  1. Hopefully a really sweet perk that you picked from our Indiegogo campaign (i.e. t-shirt, flask, signed copy of the album once it’s pressed, painting, video, etc.)
  2. Our relentless effort to produce the best acoustic-indie-pop album that Jane of Arc is capable of. This is our most important gift to you. 
  3. Our undying love and affection. Forever. We. Will. Never. Forget. You. 
  4. Consistent updates on what we’re doing, where we are, and how to stay connected during the process of our album-making experience. We plan to bombard you with lots of pictures, videos and silly posts (on EVERY social media site possible) to entertain you along the way. 
When will you get your stuff?

Those of you waiting on a pressed copy of the album are in it for the long haul. Those won’t be ready until (we’re guessing) late March/early April – though if it’s possible to have them sooner, then we’re going to do everything in our power to make it happen for you. Flasks, t-shirts, paintings, videos? We should have all of that to you in the next couple of months (you might even catch us putting together some of your masterpiece paintings in the studio) and at the very latest, March.

We are intensely focused on tracking for the album right now, which means we’re basically recording all of the songs on the album with full instrumentation prior to heading into the studio for the real thing so that we’re as organized and prepared as humanly possible. Click tracks and spreadsheets and Garageband, oh my! I’ve had more than a handful of you ask me recently when our next show is. With a big sigh I’ve said, “Not anytime soon.” The album is #1 on our priority list right now and splitting our time between tracking and practicing for shows right now simply isn’t an option. But don’t you worry your pretty little head over it, we will be back and hitting the stage for an album release as soon as the thing is pressed and ready. And we CAN’T WAIT!

So… 2014. Whatchoo got for us?

I’ll tell you what our plans are. Recording, producing and pressing our album, an album release, submitting our album for review, sending the album to every college radio station in Michigan amongst other entertainment avenues flooding with opportunity. Lots of events. Multiple PRIDE’s. And a tour this summer ::fingers crossed::.

This is all happening because of your support. And that’s pretty cool. So thank you again. A million, billion times, thank you.

We love you so much it hurts.
-JOA