"I'm in de Denmark. This place flipped my mind over backwards. So different.
I was too excited to sleep on the plane and I still don't feel tired.

The computer and guitar have yet to be traced though. They think they are
still in Chicago. Pretty unbelievable. Maybe arriving 2.5 hours ahead of
time worked against me. I'm hoping they come on the flight tomorrow. Its
given me some time to explore and talk to Janis. As long as the stuff comes
tomorrow!

I'll keep you updated. Janis and I are having a shapenote singing party.

joel"

Joel's leaving prompted the band to do a quick photo shoot and to videotape rehearsals for our myspace account--we are youtubers now. Overhang chose one of the coldest days of the year to go out by Lake Michigan to take the photos. While walking along the icy shore, Nate stepped through the ice and dipped his foot in the water. It was cold at first, but then he couldn't feel anything, except a sharp burning on the flesh. We asked if Nate could stick it out for the rest of the frigid shoot and he gladly put his left foot on the line for OVERHANG.

Current doings: Grant and Kristin are paying (with money) for years of uncompromising pursuit of their dream jobs. Ouch. Jeff and Amanda are starting to regain their bright cheery outlook on life with OVERHANG after adjusting to the shock of another child. Joel is in a constant holding pattern, waiting for Janis to send final mixes and money from Denmark. We've gotten one track already and were surprised to see Joel smiling finally after listening to the mix. He has really put himself out on a limb with this whole Janis thing but it seems to finally be paying off. And Nate is looking for work in Chicago. He has a few decent leads and has been getting to know the city. Nate joined OVERHANG at a special Brew 'n' View screening of Talladega Nights and Snakes on a Plane last Wednesday evening, which is the best way to see a bad movie and get to know the people of Chicago's north side. And a good way to feel out the personalities of the band.

And so we begin another month of this high stakes adventure.

Rolling Stone Jones
Smashing Pumpkins Johnson
U2 Yoo
Rage Against the Machine Jr.
Earth, Wind and Fire Vander Dandersma

Also, we were approved by Thorn Creek Reformed Church in South Holland to use their sanctuary as a practice space in return for occasional participation in worship services and other special occasions. This comes at a good time since Jeff and Amanda's house is getting a bit too small for a family of four, Joel (who has been staying there the last several weeks) and a loud rock band in the basement. Playing at the church will give us more time to practice and a whole lot more needed space for speakers, drums, keyboard, guitars and amps.

Another item to mention is that Nate, a bass-playing friend of ours who we met through *cino connections, flew from Boston two weeks ago to visit the band and scope out the possibility of moving to Chicago. All parties involved came away from the weekend thinking it might be worth pursuing Grant, Joel, Jeff and Nate as OVERHANG (Hey, isn't that Olivia's middle name?!). Nate is currently working through other job options in Chicago and New York. We shall see what the next month brings.

And finally, an OVERHANG blog would not be complete without mentioning Janis, our producer friend. He had to move to Denmark to pay some bills at a recording studio there. He's been sleeping on the bathroom floor in the home of some pot-smoking hippie types and getting by on one meal a day to save money. Before directing your pity Janis' way, just remember he's doing what he was made to do. That'll get you through some tough days. And despite the hardships, he seems happy about his current situation. We're sending mixes to him again to see if maybe he can try one more time to make something beautiful out of our sonic mess of a masterpiece. He'll be heading back to Latvia in a week to dive once again into "Another Hole..." The best part is that our current plan for finishing the album would use all the equipment--including very expensive analog tape--we bought several years ago and wondered why we were doing all this. If everything finally works out, we'll be able to look back and say we knew what we were doing all along. Of course, that wouldn't be entirely accurate.

And OVERHANG played a show in Cameron, Ontario for the *cino conference! The band was worried that not having a bassist in time for the show would be a bad omen, but OVERHANG seems to go well enough as a trio. In fact, the communication between bandmembers is better than it was before. All three are very in-tune with eachother, figuratively speaking. We even tried some new material out on people. The pressure of getting two full sets together helped us to get the songs further than they were. Grant is particularly pleased with the direction of "Beat Them to Hell", a punkish raucous pound of flesh aimed at the Christian Wrong or anyone who wants to sing old Lamech's song. The trip there and back was a family affair. And the border guards didn't even bat an eye at our trailer full of musical instruments.

So OVERHANG is playing shows again. Hopefully one a month until December. And then maybe a recording session in Latvia. Or maybe not. Joel is really stretching his resources now, trying to buy time, hoping Janis can pull everything together before we have to pull the plug on our equipment loan to him. And Jeff is waiting for his second-born, who will come any day now. That should be a day to celebrate, though it also means we need to find a different place to practice. A baby and a booming band in the basement do not mix.

Janis is trying to find money to pay the workers who are putting the walls and floor in for his studio. Janis has set up an arrangement with the owner of the hotel to let him build his studio there so that the hotel guy would get more money from the people who would stay there while recording. Maybe the hotel owner would be willing to put up some money for Janis to finish the studio, then. We've invested just about all we can in Janis so he and God will have to do the rest.

This past weekend was fun and not so fun. The band had a frustrating rehearsal session in which many of the parts we had learned for gospel songs were forgotten and had to be painstakingly relearned (practicing once every week-and-a-half is not ideal). We played for a church service at Pullman and we think the lack of rehearsal time and not having a bassist really shows. We're doing what we can, though, with our limited options. But even though we do not have the ideal practice situation, when we do get together it's always great. This past weekend, Grant and his wife and Joel stayed overnight with Jeff and Amanda and their little daughter Kate. Kate has gotten used to Joel and Grant and Kristin now. When we come over, she says "Make noise?" and we say, "Music...M-u-s-i-c." But she's right. From her perspective, we just disappear into the basement and loud pounding noises come up through the floor. She's taken to saying "Gunight Gant" and "Gunight Doel" before she goes to bed. We're becoming one big happy family brought together by the question, "How are we going to make this work?"

The big question continues to be whether or not we are using this moment in the best way possible? Are we obeying this moment? It's a question that actors have to ask themselves as they make their decisions about each scene they're playing. Every movement must be intentional, right? Every act must have its reason so the play is meaningful and communicates to the audience. Much of our moments often seem wasted. Maybe even most of them.

Last week, Grant, Joel and Jeff came very close to going to Latvia to work with Janis in a town on the Baltic Sea but Janis will not be able to finish the studio in time for it to be worth our while. He is having difficulty getting the money for the building materials. He is frustrated that his Christian friends in Latvia are not willing to give money to such projects. Though we are tempted to get another loan to help him through this patch, it is far beyond our means, of course. We are slowly replacing equipment lost during the fire. And Joel is saving as much money as he can for future recording costs.This summer, Grant and his wife are living in Evanston which means the commute to band practice in Lansing is around 2 hours. So Grant and Joel drive to Lansing and sleep over to get two good practices in before heading home. It's a good time of bonding. Musically, we are now ready for a bass player. Since we have three Dutch reformed guys in the band, two south side Chicagoans and one Canadian, the type of bass player that will work seems narrower. But you never know. Joel's visiting other churches looking for bassists again.

Kanye West was on the Ellen Degeneres show this week, talking sincerely about being a tool for God and about speaking his life without fear. He seems like a kindred spirit, much more than the folks who claim to make "Christian" music in Nashville, though I trust they have a part in this whole thing too. By "whole thing", I mean this movement of believers who are reclaiming the music industry. Even though OVERHANG is not visibly contributing anything more to the movement right now than a few practice sessions in a basement in Lansing and unreleased recorded material, we pledge our support and offer these good words of Thomas Merton from NO MAN IS AN ISLAND:

"My successes are not my own. The way to them was prepared by others. The fruit of my labors is not my own; for I am preparing the way for the achievements of another. Nor are my failures my own. They may spring from the failure of another, but they are also compensated for by another's achievement. Therefore the meaning of my life is not to be looked for merely in the sum total of my own achievements. It is seen only in the complete integration of my achievements and failures with the achievements and failures of my own generation, and society, and time. It is seen, above all, in my integration in the mystery of Christ."

Just a few days ago, Joel found out that the money we were planning would go toward finishing "Another Hole..." this summer will not come through, so if we want to go all out for that album (and recent rehearsals with Jeff have shown that we definitely should attempt to record it live), our best bet is to work with Janis with all the equipment we bought for him. Which is why Grant was up early this morning looking at maps of Riga, Latvia on-line. The timing seems to suggest that this is the way to finish the album. Grant will be finished teaching in a week, Joel's living situation is up in the air again, Jeff might have some freedom this summer to get away from work and Janis needs a band to work with this summer.

Granted, It's kind of an all or none scenario. If we don't go through with this, then everything we've been doing the last several years, in a way, will have been wasted. We have all this equipment in Latvia purchased so we could finish "Another Hole..." and it's just sitting there waiting for us to use it or sell it. So why not use it and then sell it? Makes sense. At least when we get back we will have a finished album (minus the artwork) to sell when we play live. Oh yeah, playing live is now an option. Last Sunday, the three OVERHANG members played a few songs at church. This was a momentous occasion for us. It means Joel's wrist problems are getting better so we are sounding more and more like the 4-piece OVERHANG of old. Joel, Grant and Jeff are excited about the opportunity to play at the "Practicing Resurrection" conference in August so our friends can hear what we've been up to. Hopefully, our performance will be evidence of the resurrection we're experiencing daily in our own lives.

Right now, Joel is sending an email to Rik Simpson in London. He produced Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, did something on Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and has had involvement with Portishead. He has a relationship with Janis, so we may want to set up a recording session with Janis as the assistant producer. This would mean Janis would have to sell all the equipment so we can put the money towards recording. It most likely still wouldn't be enough and it would suck to take away Janis' dream of having his own studio, but it is money we designated for the recording of our album and since Janis can't do it alone, we have to figure out a way to still put that money to use (but it might be good for Janis' career in the long run, anyway). What to do, what to do...

After Mitch Dane's positive reaction to our stuff, we are at least convinced that the music is there. The only thing left is to make it sound as good as it feels already before it sounds good like it feels like it should feel like it sounds. ya know?

In other news:
Last week, Joel sent our demo to Mitch, an engineer in Nashville who is very excited about our stuff. He wants to set up a meeting with EMI so that we could get some major label support and record with him. Though he (who has engineered for "Jars of Clay") is not quite what we had in mind, it would be great to be working with a Christian with lots of engineering experience and it would be nice not to have to ask our friends and family for $20,000+ to record, provided a label would indeed be interested in us. The problem, though, is that we don't relate to immediately to his aesthetic. But the producers we'd really like to work with are too expensive and too well-known. The other guy in the studio with Mitch produced Tom Waits (you know the "Big in Japan" beat? Yeah, that was him), Smashmouth and Kings of Leon and that stuff sounds great and would be alot closer to what we're going for sonically, but he costs over $50,000 a month.

It's agonizing to know what we want sonically but not have the resources to get it. So we find ourselves faced with a choice between two ways of going forward:

Option 1-- You have to start somewhere. So just take the first step, even if it's not what you ideally want. But then you think, we've spent over 5 years working on this stuff so the production is fresh and new and wild. We don't want to take a producer who might just make it sound the same. But Mr. Dane says he likes the freshness and wants to be part of a band that thinks innovatively about sound. If he likes it so much, maybe others would too--maybe other engineers who fit our aesthetic a little bit better. But would they help set up a meeting with a major label? If we say no, are we passing up a good opportunity or remaining true to our musical/artistic ideals? Or maybe we're holding on too tight to these ideals.

Option 2--Hold out until you can afford that special someone (this might take years of touring etc.). So far we've taken this route and although it has not achieved financial success, it has been the wiser path for our art. But is it time to try a new strategy?