I was originally intending to do a post about how tough it is to "make it" in the modern music scene, but decided instead to do a more positive post about all the help the band has had since our (re)inception. Simply put: it's amazing to look around your group of friends, your clan, your tribe (if you will) and find out how many people are willing to work on behalf of your dream.
Since Kiss is my big influence, both musically and professionally, it's interesting to call attention to just how MANY people worked to make the band a success. We like to give credit to Paul, Ace, Gene & Peter, the original foursome, and certainly without their unique chemistry the band never would have taken off. However, there were a LOT of people working behind the scenes as well. Bill Aucoin: Kiss' original manager (no disrespect intended to Lew Linet), saw their promise and, certainly in the early days, worked tirelessly to promote them. His partner (both business and personal) Sean Delaney co-wrote with the band and was instrumental in their onstage look and choreography. Neil Bogart, president of Casablanca Records, gave them their contract and worked like crazy to push their product. Their original crew - JR, Moose, Mick, and the rest - were there night after night, behind the scenes, making each show a knockout. The band itself may have only been four members, but the team behind them was large, and legendary.
Iron Fist is fortunate to have many, many believers in our corner. When Rebel and I first set out to fill the roster, I suggested my longtime friends Pappy and Scooby Drew, and they stepped up, making room in their busy lives to become a working rock band. Hans, a sound engineer by degree, came onboard to both run our live sound AND provide invaluable feedback with regards to our overall musical concept. As we move forward on the first full-length album, we'll be doing basic tracks at his home studio, with him working the board. You may only see four guys onstage, but we really consider Hans to be an essential part of the group; without him, we wouldn't sound as good as we could.
There are others, plenty of others, and they're all close. Al, for instance, is at once our head of security (a licensed CPL instructor), a photographer, and a stage tech. Chris works a bunch of jobs, seemingly simultaneously: when we needed a backdrop, he went out and had our awesome stage sign made. He serves in the capacity of chef, cooking our meals while we get set up to play. He's also a tireless promoter: when we played at our annual Fife Lake camping trip, he went around to all the other campsites and invited folks over to watch us. His wife Colleen works our merch table, organizing t-shirts, buttons, CDs, and all the concert ephemera, keeping all the money in order. Carson and Donna are our publicists and resident Fistorians, doing interviews with us and keeping a running history of the group. The two Pauls are excellent stage techs: need a setlist written up, the sign hung, or amps hauled around & plugged in? They're the guys. They make life a little easier for the four of us with instruments, allowing us to say "Set that up there," or "This guitar cord is fried, find a new one." They also usually man our cameras, filming every gig for (ahem) future posterity.
As time rolls on, and the snowball effect turns our group into a juggernaut, I'm sure there will be other people brought onboard: assistants, wardrobe, instrument techs, yadda yadda…and, I'd like to keep those people as in-house as we can. Because what we've found is that when you have people in your corner, people who are willing to work on your behalf (often for just the thanks and a few after-show beers), then you're ALREADY halfway there. So, while there WILL be a future post about the difficulties of "making it" in the modern world, right now all of our believers deserve a shout-out "Holla!" for the work they do. Literally, we could not do this thing without them.
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