I hope I say it enough. I’m SO lucky to do what I do. To travel the country and play in front of so many great people throughout the year, to get to make so many new friendships and work with so many amazing musicians… the company I keep seems to continue to get better and better, and that’s such a wonderful feeling.
Right now my body is reacting like it typically does during the holiday season. Tired. Not even close to being ready to hit the road again, and looking forward to what little time it has off. But, I’ve realized how easy it is to forget about all the cool things that I’ve gotten to be a part of over the course of 2011. It’s far and away been our most exciting year yet, and I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite moments from now until we ring in 2012. I won’t do this daily, but as often as I’m able. These are somewhat chronological, and are in no way meant to be seen as any sort of bragging rights. This is just as much to remind me how fortunate I am, as it is to share with you how happy it makes me to get to do these sorts of things. Not that I need to explain myself to you all, this is MY web space. :) I kid.
Our year basically started off at SXSW, prepping for the release of “Death of a Decade”. We did some 12 shows/promotional sessions over those few days, and they were all a blast… but there was something about this gig we did for Grooveshark. It was the first performance of the festival for us, and nothing more than a simple acoustic set up on a bus. The interviewers were really friendly and professional, and it happened to be the moment it clicked for me that we were finally promoting something new, and something that we all were all very proud of. There was certainly an energy to this session… an undertone that you may not sense through the video, but I think something that we were feeling as a group. It felt like a sort of pride in what we had accomplished, and a sense of excitement about what we had in store for the year. This may not have been THE highlight of 2011, but I remember it distinctly as one of my favorite moments of SXSW.
