Poindexter lives!

l-r: Leon (bass), Simon (keys), me (guitar)

 

At the weekend I met up with half of my old band from back in the old, old days of 2003ish, Johnny Poindexter. Yes, it was a stupid name for a band (I have form in this, don't forget), but it was actually supposed to be a very 'serious' post-rock band. Which is funny, because it started as just a way of me and a few pals from where I grew up to just piss about with guitars and stuff like that. 

It grew out of that and into a very po-faced post-rock band in the end though, and by 2005ish, we were gigging around Leeds, and had put out a record. It was fun, but these things never last do they? It eventually led into worriedaboutsatan though, so I do owe it quite a bit.

I'd lost touch with Leon, who played bass in the post-rock days, until Simon (who I very much am still in contact with, as he lives down the road) put together a day out around some breweries around where we live. Was really nice to see Leon again, and always nice to have a natter with Si, reminiscing about the old days and all that stuff old people do over pints.

But yeah, it's nice! Give your old pals a ring and go for a beer. consider this a PSA! Especially if you used to be in a band: just meet up and have a drink, it's great!
 

Halcyon days

It's weird how with age, and a crumbling grassroots music industry, your priorities start to shift. 

Back in the day, I'd have been a real, proper, arsehole about how to push the band and how to get what I'd deem as 'famous' - getting signed, get a manager, a label, booking agent, etc. and now, as I'm approaching my 41st birthday, I look at all that same stuff and just think how absolutely not-for-me it all is.

Don't get me wrong, if Warp rang me tomorrow, you best believe I'd be there with bells on, but unless a miracle happens, that'll stay as satan fanfic for the forseeable. It's so strange, because a lot of what this business is based on, is just bullshit - there's no real reason why anyone gets signed over anyone else, or why someone sees something in one band but not in another - it's totally up to the hands of fate really, but 'the biz' has a real weird way of getting you to think the opposite, like you should suddenly go to war to get a record put out by someone. 

My increasing age, wasitline, and bald patch has meant that I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect of booking yet another DIY tour round the same 5 venues, but for the first time in while, I'm completely cool with that. It's taking your foot off the gas, but all the voices in your head, and all the ones online, saying how you should keep it on there because 'you never know'. Well, I mean, in 2024: who fucking cares?

Time was I'd be trying to push the band to everything, but looking back now, it's funny how futile all that was. You've no idea how many times, in the years between 2010-2016ish, that I heard of some new fangled way to 'make it big' - game the algorithm! do this! go viral! do that! start a new project! re-brand your facebook! - so much of it was about trying to cut an imaginary corner, trying to be fake famous, gaming some system or other to trick people into liking you. All of the blog-heavy scene of those years was essentially built around that, and looking back, maaaaaan... what a waste of time. It's no coincidence the whole 'anonymous producer' thing was big around then - it was just people trying anything to get signed, by any means neccesary.

I dunno what the point of all this whinging is, but I'd like to believe that these days, I can just pop a record out, a few of you will buy it, and that's fine. Whereas once I'd be mega jealous of a band doing an insanely long tour, or having a fancy record out, now I just realise the extra baggage that comes with all that, and if I can just sit here and spout nonsense and post silly pictures and all that, yet still shift a few records to people that want them, then that's fine with me. I'm in my grandad-sat-on-the-front-porch era, and that's absolutely fine. I suppose it's a paean to just knowing you have it pretty good and learning to live with that.

Once, there was someone that suggested satan change it's name, because of the connotations with the word 'satan' and how hard it is to market something with that name, and a younger me would've wrestled with a way to get around that, but a 40+ me just, and I can't stress this enough, be fucked. If no-one wants it, fine, I'll stop, but some people do and it's those that honestly keep me going.