I did a little social media reboot. Not that you would have noticed.
As much as I’d like to think I’m a household name and people hang upon my every little nuanced portion of life. I know that’s not my reality. Though it has been suggested to me more than once in my life that I should have a camera crew following me around.
The reboot…
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a change in my social media. Such that I took several hours, over the course of several days, to delete my Facebook posts history. I noticed a real stupidity in my own beginning there. The progression of posts didn’t get a whole lot better. But they were less stupid.
I then found a means for wiping out my Twitter posts as well. Before I did that, I took the time to have Twitter send me an archive of all my past Tweets. I have no desire to go back and read through that history – but I have it saved in hard copy form should I ever wish to peruse my momentary lapses of reason on that platform.
I continued the wipeout process by archiving a vast majority of my Instagram posts as well. I stopped short of completely wiping it out at the behest of an Instagram professional. He wanted me to leave a few posts – and start on a new schedule, which is what I’ve been doing there.
Why did I do all that?
The main reason for going on a social media reboot was to feel like I had a fresh slate. To make sure that I was more focused on what I was to post next. Each platform (Instagram, Twitter..) will get a more focused concept to what I’ll post on each. Have already made minor tweaks on Instagram that have yielded fantastic results.
Quite frankly, I’m pretty much done with Facebook. Yes, I get the irony of typing that, when Instagram is owned by Facebook. Another friend recently tried to get me to start doing informative videos related to music and posting them to Facebook. However, with the recent spate of privacy issues and low reach Facebook gives to content creators at this point, it feels like a lost cause.
The pivot
2018 started with a huge amount of promise. I was to be going out on a major tour with a big artist, had a new band nearly finished and in the last lap of finishing the production on a bunch of singles.
Suddenly, the artist I was too open for disappeared. Which required a quick change as my whole year was geared to being on the road. I hunkered down and finished up a new library of music. I also got into producing for other artists and helping them realize a goal of sounding great in a recording. There’s another project I’ve been working with that could result in something I’ve never seen a band do in the history of music.
Goodbye 2018
You’ve been a roller coaster of a year. Some really high highs and a near rock bottom low. I’m ready for 2019. The year where I’m not hyping anything – but rather letting you know when something has released. There will be new music released every month in 2019. If you got this far, I hope you’d sign up on my email list and join me for this reboot of a musical journey.
Yesterday I tweeted that I’d take questions from Twitter followers. It’s the first time I went out and asked what burning questions my Twitter followers, I figured I ought to actually make a video for it and answer on camera. That’s exactly what I did.
Took a little time out of my mixing schedule to answer your questions. It was fun! I got some interesting questions that ranged from why our current president is following me to ones that I’ve actually been asked numerous times.
Your Twitter Questions
Transcript Questions:
1. How are you? and what is your opinion of Nickelback? (@IndieAppleTree)
2. How does it feel to be followed by @BarackObama (@CherryDoley)
3. Do You know Jacob Whitesides? (@kristinholly22 & @Ribka_sitorus)
4. Are you related to Jacob Whitesides? (@abbiemaxreeves)
5. WHERE YOU AT HOUSTON YESTERDAY? (@qtxgrier)
6. Are you related? (@Cashewsass)
7. I need you to tweet the boys from 1D to follow me bc you are verified, will you do that? (@zainbigdick)
Transcript of the video:
Hey! You caught me here in the studio. I’ve been working on a song with a good buddy of mine by the name of Claude J Woods Jr. Amazing singer. This is a song we have co-written together called “Supernova”. And right now I’m gonna take some time out and read questions to you that I have gotten via Twitter.
Question #1 comes from Indie. How are you? And what is your opinion of Nickelback?
Well, I’m doing very well at this point. I had a surgery not to long ago, if you went back through some tweets. And I’m on the tail end of the recovery on it. The doc has given me the thumbs up and says that I’m doing okay. And I believe I have about another week to a week and a half before I can start doing workouts again. Because I like to workout just about every day of the week.
As far as the second half of your question, what my opinion is of Nickelback. Personally, I happen to like several of their songs. I think they’re a very successful band and anybody that thinks otherwise is obviously fooling themselves. They guys do stadium tours and play to huge throngs of crowds. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Personally, I’d like to be playing those kind of stadiums at this point and that should hopefully be happening towards the end of 2015. We’ll see.
The next question is from Cherry, Cherry Doley I believe the name is and asks: how does it feel to be followed by Barack Obama?
You know, its an interesting thing. I’ve no idea how to react to that. Mostly because he followed me out of the blue. I don’t think it was Barack Obama himself that followed me. As far as I know, that Twitter account is the political campaign for Barack Obama. And occasionally he does tweet out of it and when apparently he does tweet out of it is it signed with a little bo. How does it feel? I think its pretty darn cool to be followed by the first President of the U.S. that is of non white descent in America.
This next question comes from Kristin Holly and another by the name of Ribka Sitorus. I hope I’m saying those names right. The question is, do I know Jacob Whitesides?
The answer to the question is: I know of him. I have never actually met Jacob. I’m sure he’s a fantastic guy. I know he does music much like I do. I’ve never actually met the guy, so I can’t say that I know him personally. There’s your answer.
The next question is very similar to the last question, this one comes from Abbie. Hello, was just wondering if you are related to Jacob Whitesides?
This is something that I’ve gotten asked quite a bit on twitter. And the answer is, I don’t know. I know that originally when Jacob and I started following each other on Twitter we had no idea either. So the reality is we don’t know if we’re related. Nobody’s done any research into it, so there’s no way to know it from that aspect of it. That’s really all there is to say about it. We don’t actually know if we’re related. We both have a very unique last name that is not widely popular. It is highly possible, but we just don’t know.
The next question comes from Ruby. The question is: Where you at Houston Yesterday?
And I believe that means, was I in Houston yesterday? And the answer to that question is: No. I was actually here in the studio. I was working on this mix for this song called “Supernova”. Have I been to Houston? Yes, I have. Was I there yesterday? No, I was not.
The next question comes from Kat. Kat asks are you related? Unfortunately Kat I have no idea who you are asking me if I’m related to. If you are asking me if I’m related to my sister, or my mom, or my dad – I’d say yes I am.
If you’re asking me if I’m related to a musician by the name of Danny Whitesides. Who is the drummer for The Used. The answer to that question is: Yes, we are related. We are 2nd cousins.
If you’re asking me if I’m related to someone like say Barack Obama. The answer to that is, I have no idea. Chances are no. If I’m related to somebody, need to get a little more specific please.
The next question comes from someone who goes by the letter H. And that question is: I need you to tweet the boys from 1D to follow me because you are verified. And actually the precursor to that question for her saying that was, would you do something for me via direct message on Twitter.
H. the answer is, I cannot. And the reason for that is, is I have done that a few times in the past and it has never worked out for anybody unfortunately. Just because I’m verified and they’re verified does not mean that we actually know each other. I believe one of the guys from One Direction does follow me, I do follow him back. But we have never exchanged tweets. We’ve never exchanged any kind of information of any sort on Twitter. So unfortunately any I’ve asked somebody to follow another person, it has never worked. And I don’t think having the verified symbol on the account makes me any different. I wish it did. But I don’t think it does.
Thank you everyone who posted questions to me on Twitter. That’s all I’ve got for right now. Pay attention, because I will ask again. For those who wanna ask me questions, you’ll get your answers via video.
Thank you and have a great day.
Enjoy, get your questions ready for the next round!
Timber is the word I need to be yelling as I’m finally getting my head around Twitter in a positive way that is building momentum. I’m starting to play around a bit with their video service known as Vine. As part of my New Years vows I told myself that I’d start to take more pictures on Instagram and do more videos on YouTube and start up with more Vines. So far, most of that is going well. Though I’m still working on the Vine thing and getting up to speed with creating more of them. Below is my first 6SecondCover. I recently heard this song a couple of weeks ago and really dug the hook, the flow ain’t bad either.
Timber
“It’s going down. I’m yelling Timber. You better move. You better dance.”
It was pretty fun knocking that out. In the process that took a few minutes due to my voice being nutty early in the morning. I think some ‘viral’ Vines were missed with me hacking up some phlegm. Dang it.
Thanks Pitbull & Ke$sha for a fun tune.
A little while ago on Twitter I put it out there asking Tweeps what song they’d like to see me do a cover of. One of the requests that came in was for Tool’s Sober. I thought – hey, that’s an interesting one if I do it with acoustic guitars and a single vocal. I found some time to put a day aside to learn the song, come up with a couple of guitar parts that would work acoustically. I recorded it. Sang it. I put it down for a couple of weeks as I was busy shooting video and recording some of my tunes. A few days ago while taking a little vacation to visit my sister, I spent a couple of hours shooting some video for the cover song. I give you:
Sober
There’s a shadow just behind me,
Shrouding every step I take,
Making every promise empty,
Pointing every finger at me.
Waiting like a stalking butler
Who upon the finger rests.
Murder now the path of “must we”
Just because the son has come.
Jesus, won’t you fucking whistle
Something but the past is done?
Jesus, won’t you fucking whistle
Something but the past is done?
Why can’t we not be sober?
I just want to start this over.
Why can’t we drink forever.
I just want to start this over.
I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
I will work to elevate you
Just enough to bring you down.
Mother Mary won’t you whisper
Something but the past is done.
Mother Mary won’t you whisper
Something but the past is done.
Why can’t we not be sober?
Just want to start this over.
Why can’t we sleep forever.
I just want to start this over.
I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
Trust me [x5]
Why can’t we not be sober?
Just want to start things over.
Why can’t we sleep forever.
I just want to start this over.
I want what I want [x4]
Enjoy my take on it. Make me happy by hitting the YouTube subscribe button. Share it all around.
Thanks!
For those of Unity 42 and beyond who are not aware, I am part of a side project. I had a musician friend come to me wanting to write a sports anthem and thus started a new project. I can say that don’t kick the baby is smart advice, but Don’t Kick The Baby is also the name of the band or rather the project.
What did we do? We wrote a soccer (football for our worldview friends) anthem. It’s called Go Get The Goal. Much like what I did for Do You Want To Play, we did numerous versions for different leagues. So far we’ve covered the US, England and Australia. Coming soon we’ll be doing versions for Latin teams, and then we’ll be going after many more languages and countries. Our goal is to cover the world with a soccer/football anthem.
As of right now 4 of the 7 albums we’ve done are on iTunes and Amazon. Later this week should see the other 3 being released. We’re excited. We’re so excited we have a Twitter handle and an official website as well. They’re still in their early stages. We’d love it if you’d follow us on twitter and tweet about us as well as finding us on Facebook, spread that gospel of soccer.
It’s said that Don’t Kick The Baby is smart advice, but the smarter advice is to get the song then go out and get the goal. You’ll be happy you did. We’ll be happy you did. I’ll be happy you did. It’s a super win situation.
It’s that time of year when the lovebirds are out and people start sending little Valentines to the ones who have their heart. What’s better than knowing you’re giving of yourself and letting someone else know how you feel about them? Not much. Except maybe for winning the lottery. In this case I have an offer for you and it’s all in the the name of love. Aw.
Right now when you click on this music player below, you get a chance to be serenaded by me for my song “Falling In”. In the immortal words of other people:
“That song is so cool. Not only to listen to, but also to watch you play.” – W.S.
“You’re a victim of your own coolness with ‘Falling In’.” – M.B.
“The coolest love song ever that doesn’t flat out say the word love.” – G.L.III
Here’s the even better part to this deal. Right now, for a very a limited time, when you “Share” this song via the player. You can get this song for free! That’s right, you read that correctly. I will give you the song for free. All you need to do is click on the download button and “Share” it. You’ll be taken on a magical internet ride to a special place to get “Falling In” for free. All in the name of love.
Hurry though, because this offer ends when Valentines Day ends.
Share it
Who says a rockstar doesn’t love you?
Enjoy!
– Jody