Sunday, July 20, 2008

Idol Times.

Over the span of my life so far I've looked up to many different faces for inspiration, strength, guidance, hope, and countless other things.
When I was younger, before my musical endeavors as Backseat Goodbye, hockey was my thing.
I was an aspiring goaltender, and looked up to such National Hockey League greats as Patrick Roy, Martin Broudeur, and Mike Richter.

Now, I find myself in a new world as a 22 year-old kid that's completely in love with a girl named music.
I look up to many more humans for inspiration now, which consist of an amazing variety of musicians,...
to name a few: Bright Eyes, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, Frank Sinatra, The Mountain Goats, Cat Power, Tilly & The Wall, The Format, and John Mayer.

From a number of those bands/artists, I've became amazed by a select few that make up those groups.
Take Conor Oberst, for example... the ringleader of my favorite band, Bright Eyes.
The man has accomplished so much, and he's done so in a completely independent perspective.
What he's done as a whole is something I've always been in awe of.
Yesterday I was reading an interview on Blender.com that was done with Conor last week.
My eyebrows were raised to the fact that Conor was 22 when he released the album that basically broke him into the Indie mainstream, "Lifted".

After reading that I got even more excited about the point I'm at in my life right now.
Sure, I've been living quite comfortably from my music over the last two years,...
but I'm at a point where things are happening in much larger scales, much quicker.
Though no one really knows about all that's about to happen with my Backseat Goodbye, other than a handful of people,...
there are some literally HUGE things that are going to occur.

I've always been blown away by the fact that I've become able to do what I love for a living,
but there are things happening as of late that really just blow my mind.
It's going to be an exciting rest of 2008...
and I can't even begin to fathom what 2009 is going to hold.

ANYWAYS....
that's not the point of this post,...
so back to where I was originally going with all of this.

I'm a frequent reader of John Mayer's blog.
The guy has always been interesting to me, not only as a musician,
but as a normal dude.
I've been a huge fan of his for years now,
but today I realized I look up to him even more-so than I thought.
I mean, he's a nice guy, doing what he loves, and helping the world along the way.

I get asked a certain question a lot in interviews,
it usually goes something like, "Who are your favorite artists? And what people inspire you as an artist?"
To me, that's a very personal and big question.
I could chime on for hours about how certain songs and artists have completely changed my life with one lyric.
But in interviews you're expected to give a truthful, yet somewhat concise answer.
And that's completely cool with me.
Anyways,...
I usually always just throw one name in there as far as single people I look to for inspiration,...
and that's Conor Oberst.
But I decided today, that John Mayer is now a second name for that list.

I can only hope that one day I'll be able to do things as level-headed and awesome as him on the same large scale.

It may be seen as childish to still have idols at my age,
but if you were to ask me, I would say it's childish NOT to have idols at any given point in your entire life.

- Chad

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

the book is finished!

So...
I finally get to make this post.
What post?... you ask.

Well,
the one where I get to say my book is finally finished.

Wow. What a relief!
After all the crap that's happened that delayed the release,
it's finally off to be published, printed, and ready to read!

Due to me losing about 60 poems that were going to go in the book when my last hard drive died I had to work my ass off to write, and I was worried about even being able to get the back up to half of what it was at the beginning.
But I can gladly say that when I sent it for print, it ended with 96 pages total.
So, despite having half the book ripped from my hands and lost with my old hard drive,
I still fought back and managed jusssssst under 100 pages (which was my original goal.)

And really,
I was super scared about this book.
I really really really didn't think I was going to be happy with the final product,
and I was just plain worried as hell, up until last night.

After I finally arranged all the poems and everything, and looked at it all together as a whole...
I really felt (and feel) like I have made something that people just might like a bit :)

I still have a bit of a reserve in the back of my head that's wondering what the hell people are going to think of it...
because literally NO ONE has seen the book or even read a full page from it.
So, it's kind of a big leap I feel like I'm taking...
but I think it will be recieved quite well.
I suppose I'll find out soon enough!

And who knows,
maybe everyone will hate it.

Like I said, we'll see.

By the way, if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about...
I've got a book coming out next week,
it's called Monsters Under Your Head, and it's a poetry book.
For now it's ONLY available at store.chadsugg.com,
but it will hopefully be available in select retail stores soon (I'm working on that part).

As far as Backseat Goodbye news goes,...
tour dates coming SOON (I PROMISE!!!!!)....
new website coming soon,
new merch coming soon,
and a lovely huge announcement about my new album Dressed Up Like Dreams coming soon, as well.
:)




Oh,
also...
I've got a bit of a preview of the book for you...
if you go over to my Tumblr @ chadsugg.tumblr.com you can see a sneak peak of a few pages from the book ;)


That's all for today,
Hope all is well for you and yours.

- Chad