One of the best features about social media, is how easily people can share useful and unuseful information with herds of people worldwide. Like any technology, some use it for better and some use it for worse. In the music world artists use it to keep their fans on the loop about new releases, tour updates, and to express themselves freely in an instant mode. Randy Blythe, front-man and vocalist of Lamb Of God is an avid Twitter user (@lambvox). Yesterday a student who was writing a paper about music downloading asked him the following question via Twitter:
"Where do you think you would be right now career wise, if illegal downloading failed to exist?"
"A pointless question. I do not owe my career to downloading of any sort, neither legal nor illegal. Bands existed before internet. Lamb of God did it the old fashioned way: we played out live, anywhere we could, when we could. Our first real following developed in Philly. We were playing Punk Rock warehouse shows until the warehouses couldn't hold us anymore.
"We got a strong regional following, based on our LIVE SHOWS- not on the Internet, and not on a record we didn't have. People from labels first started to notice us in Philly- dudes from Relapse, Nuclear Blast, & other folks knew who we were, because we took it to the hoop each time and EVERYTIME we played. Still no labels were biting- I was told by some people later (label employees) it was because they thought we were too volatile as a group & would break up soon. Too much craziness. No one want to invest in a band that will break up in 6 months, & we WERE WILD.
"So my buddy (Mikey Brosnan, RIP) STARTED a label to put out our records because he believed in us. MORE people started to pay attention to us but we had already BUILT OURSELVES in the first place. The Internet didn't "make us". PUTTING IN THE HARD YARDS DID.
"If the Internet was the way to discover bands, no band would have existed before. And all 1 zillion bands on the Internet now would have it easy. But they don't. The way to "make it" as a band is to DO THE FUCKING WORK. Don't expect the Internet to blow you up, because except in a few isolated instances, IT WON'T. Go play live, learn your chops, and PAY YOUR FUCKING DUES. Then you get respect and real fans. We would not have our fan base now without our early core of fans, which had NOTHING to do w/the Internet. It had to do w/kicking ass & taking names on a shit stage for no pay, all day, EVERYDAY."
Lamb Of God is currently working on their seventh studio album, which is expected to be released in early 2012. Additionally, the band has announced that during their 2012 world tour, Lamb of God, in connection with Epic Records and 914 Films, will be shooting a feature film documenting fans and their personal stories of how they use Lamb of God's music to cope with their everyday lives. Lamb of God will be looking for one individual in each specified location to be chosen to participate in this very special event. The person selected will be involved with the full day of Lamb of God activities the day of the show in your hometown! Click here for more information.
Lamb Of God Discography:
Studio albums
- Burn the Priest (1999)
- New American Gospel (2000)
- As the Palaces Burn (2003)
- Ashes of the Wake (2004)
- Sacrament (2006)
- Wrath (2009)
Lamb Of God is:
- Randy Blythe
- John Campbell
- Mark Morton
- Chris Adler
- Willie Adler
Related links:
Follow Randy Blythe
Lamb Of God
Lamb Of God of Facebook
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