A fine line

INTRODUCTION:

Like the immortal words of Denzel in the film Philadelphia: 
"Explain this to me like I'm a two-year-old, cause there's an element of this I can't get through my thick head."

When is a hobby a hobby and when does it become a business? 

When does a close friend become just an acquaintance from the past?

THE BLOG:
My music was always my dream and yes a hobby, because I had a full-time job as a painter, with a reasonable income. Now times have changed, I no longer have a full-time job and actually, I have no income at the moment, thus I have had to rethink my plans.

So now I see ZEEKtheFREAK no longer as a past-time but as a product/ my livelihood and like other companies/ bars/ restaurant/ musicians or whatever I am trying to sell as much of my product, to try and get some income. 

Thus I use the social media, Facebook, Twitter etc to promote my songs and try to get as much attention as I can, to the fact I am selling my music. 

I encouraged friends to help out, as word of mouth advertisement works the best, but since I knew no-one would dare do that, due to the 'do not encourage him' threat...yes, this is honestly real, not something thought up, I knew I would have to do the publicity myself.

I know I cannot force my music on people,no that is not in my character, but I asked family and friends to help out.....buying the songs would, of course, be the best solution for me, but since again I knew it was too much to ask, I asked them just to share my posts and that could maybe lead to others who have never heard of ZEEKtheFREAK finding my music and thus maybe letting their friends hear it and thus creating a chain reaction that could lead to other things, but, this was met with silence or 'oh, I never saw the post', I was even accused of putting too many ZEEKtheFREAK posts on MY page and I know people actually stopped following me, yes it is far easier to stick your head in the sand than witness another advertisement and virtual plea's asking for their help.

Another example, after Halloween, when the 'Blow a Fuse' CD's were STOLEN, no not borrowed or lost, they were stolen from a well-known bar in Alkmaar. I again asked family and friends in Alkmaar to re-post my post to get as much publicity, but again...not one friend or family member re-posted it and on the Well-known bar's Facebook page, a small post saying the CD's were borrowed. 

The profits from the sale of the CD were to be used to finance 'the Gullible's Travels' CD, now I have to find another way to raise the cash.

Yet, a friend's bike was stolen, another person's house had something stolen and I see nothing but shared posts on Facebook and people crying outrage, while I get accused of being a bastard, because I was negative about the well-known bar and their lack of empathy...

I must stress there are friends who help me out without me even asking. I am proud to know them, not because they helped me but because they did it without being asked and that is the kind of person I like to be and yes this post all sounds like a bit like me having a whinge, but, I genuinely don't get it. People say they are your friend and I actually helped a lot of them in the past, only because I think that is the right thing to do, so that is why I ask ...

"Explain this to me like I'm a two-year-old, cause there's an element of this I can't get through my thick head."....when someone starts a new company, they need all the support they can get, but I received the silent treatment from family and friends and even told to grow up or it's just a hobby, you'll never be famous etc.....even when I explained I had no money and every penny would help. 

So what can I do? What can I say? Like every company, I need the support of close friends, family etc., to even have a chance of surviving in the dog eat dog arts world.

I know for a fact without the help and support of my misses, I might have called it a day on following my dreams. 

I genuinely hope everyone who reads this is happy and I wish everyone nothing but good fortune. I will continue to make my music, as I will continue to try and sell my product, that is ZEEKtheFREAK, but the 'Alkmaar' chapter of my life is coming to a close. I will no longer ask or rely on these friends for their help, neither will I mention it again, this book is closed, with just one more sentence.........and Denzel's I borrow the idea behind your quote, but change it to my Freaky style....
"What the fuck do I have to do to get your help?"

ZEEKtheFREAK Cabannes 11/02/2017

FROM SLEEP INTO A FILM

It's very strange how the creative mind works. You can get an idea or an inspiration while working or chilling or even in your sleep. That is what happened to me one Saturday morning.

I had been working so hard for almost 2 months trying to get the new single 'Blow a fuse' finished. I have never spent so much time on a song, but I wanted to get this song just right. I was having problems with the songline, it just wasn't hitting the happy spot in my creative nerves. I have a mini-disc full of different ways for me to sing it, but I must admit I was struggling. I even had to put the release date back by a month as I was nowhere near finished

Then one morning during the walk with our boxer dog, Bruce, something came to me. Luckily, I was in the middle of a field and that I had my mobile with me, as I have a recording app on it. So singing in a field is cool, but when you find a songline after weeks of disappointment it is a brilliant feeling. So with my beautiful Aingeal off to her work and the pee monster all crapped out and lying in the warm Provence sun, I recorded the vocals on a Thursday morning in a few hours. All I had to do was the final mixdown.....but I wanted a break from recording. So I set about making advertisements for the release of the single.
I made a few cool ones just to annoy so-called friends (but, that is another story and blog) I laughed as they all had my strange sense of humour, but there no response from anyone, so that is enough proof, it has hit a nerve, ha ha ha.
Anyway, I went to bed Friday evening feeling good with how the campaign was going, Mrs. Freak came up with a few good ideas and also kept me in check with my posting to much...thank God she is around. I know I slept great, but around 4 in the morning I awoke very sharply and was wide awake within seconds, something had come to me in a dream, I had this marketing idea I just had to make a promotional film for the single, it only took me seconds to come up with old lady thing, as I have been playing around with the idea of changing from Psycho Rock to Pensioner Rock (well, I ain't fecking 20 anymore).
I scribbled down a few notes and went back to sleep.

In the morning, I set about writing a scenario, not much was needed as it was to be a short film to let the people get just a taste of the new song.

Then after the usual house chores and food, we set about getting the wardrobe ready, that is where my Aingeal comes in.
Mrs. Freak was in top form and proving that our humour and life's are on the same wavelength, because nearly everything she brought out for me to look at, was perfect. My wardrobe was ready,

It was sunny but windy and we thought about delaying the filming until the Sunday as less wind was expected, but we decided to get it done as knowing my luck it would be raining on that particular Sunday.

We got everything set up, camera on a mike stand and then I went into wardrobe. There was no need for makeup as it was not the plan for me to have my face in the picture a lot.

And so to the shoot, we decided at the end of the drive, by the passing road would be a perfect location and after a try-out run...we filmed what you see on the promo film....of course, it has been speeded up to make the film shorter, but you get the idea.
The passing car was a bonus, it was totally not planned and it's passing could not have been better. And I wonder if anyone notices Granny kicking the dog, ha ha ha

Filming finished and so it was onto finishing the final mix of the song. I had to have a small portion to put with the film to get the public interested.

With the song now ready, it was back on the computer to edit everything, now the internet here in Cabannes isn't great at the best of times, but when I was editing it was perfect, my only problem was when trying to upload the finished promo film, it is advised to leave the USB stick with the film in the computer. FFS ha ha ha what an idiot. So with that sorted, the final film was uploaded to the internet and YouTube.

It was a fun journey, moments of losing our cool at each other, but Mrs Freak (Agatha Stoneheart) and I honestly make a great team, she has the same sense of humour and without that Aingeal, I would never have got this or the single finished and to such a high quality.

I hope people enjoy the song and the Promo video, I am now working on the actual video for the song....gonna be funny and yes Granny is involved.

ZEEKtheFREAK Cabannes 14/04/2016