Notes From The Other Side

As if Glenn Harveston couldn’t do any more to make ProgPowerUSA VII the coolest metal fest in the world, he went ahead and announced this surprise (taken from the press release posted on the ProgPowerUSA web site):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2006

ALL-STAR PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCED FOR PROGPOWER USA VII

ATLANTA - ProgPower USA promoter Glenn Harveston has confirmed that there will be a very special “all-star” performance led by vocalist Jorn Lande during his headline set at ProgPower USA this year.

Confirmed thus far to join Lande on stage are Zak Stevens (Circle II Circle, ex-Savatage), Lance King (Pyramaze), Michele Luppi (Vision Divine), Pasi Rantanen (Thunderstone), Mikkel Sandager (Mercenary), Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), and Mattias “IA” Eklundh (Freak Kitchen). Other participants will be announced at a later time.

Along with Lande, Swedish progressive/power metal band Evergrey will headline the two-day festival, performing a worldwide exclusive set featuring the Evergrey choir and the Poulenc String Quartet from Atlanta.

Lande and Evergrey will be joined by German power metal band Savage Circus, Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, Pyramaze, Wastefall, Sweden’s Freak Kitchen, Finland’s Thunderstone, Italy’s Vision Divine, and Denmark’s Mercenary, who is returning to ProgPower due to overwhelming popularity at ProgPower IV.

ProgPower USA VII will take place on Friday and Saturday, September 15 and 16 at Earthlink Live in Atlanta. A very limited number of tickets are available via www.progpowerusa.com.

ProgPower USA VII is sponsored by Pacific Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Shure Microphones, Evans Drumheads, D’Addario Strings, and Planet Wave Cables. Interested sponsors may contact ProgPower USA via www.progpowerusa.com.

Information is available on the website for parties interested in participating in the CD Showcase sampler or advertising in the official program.

www.progpowerusa.com

# # #

If you don’t yet have your tickets, I suggest you waste no time getting to Ticketmaster. They’re almost sold out!

The question was recently posed to me, “When will the [fill in the blank] interview be posted?”

The answer is, “When they’re posted.”

For those of you who haven’t ever transcribed an interview, I’ll let you in on the little known secret (call it the dark side of interviewing): A one hour interview can take 10-12 hours to transcribe. So, for example, if I was able to spend two hours per night transcribing, it would take 5-6 days to complete the interview. And that’s if each word and name can be understood without having to back up repeatedly to listen in context. Then, once the interview is transcribed, it requires another 2-3 hours to edit (about another day’s work) to take out all the incomplete thoughts or “Uh” and “Um” utterances.

And that’s per interview. And that doesn’t count the day of preparation beforehand, doing research, formulating questions, reading other interviews to make sure the overlap is minimal, etc. Or unforseen illnesses, as I experienced with another kidney stone occurence which set me back at least a week.

Bottom line: Each interview takes a week to 10 days, give or take, from start to finish before it sees the light of day.

Multiply that by a dozen (or more!) interviews and what you’re looking at is an entire summer spent in front of a computer, formulating, transcribing, and posting.

Of course, the above doesn’t take into account one’s day job, which — in my case — is the most busy in the summer. What do I do for a day job? Write radio spots, TV spots, brochures, direct mail letters, e-mails, web sites, print ads, postcards, and even — you guessed it — podcasts that require interviewing, transcribing, and planning. Often, the last thing I want to do when I get home from a 10 hour day is park my butt in front of my computer to do more work. Plus, I sometimes have to work week nights and weekends for my job. And that doesn’t even count the nights I just don’t feel like doing a thing, preferring instead to vegging out watching 24 or Lost or Amerian Idol just because I haven’t the creative energy to string together a single sentence.

Add to the above the fact that I didn’t intend to conduct and then post every interview immediately, even if it were possible. If I did that, I’d have everything posted by June and then nothing for the months leading up to ProgPowerUSA VII this September. I intend to space out the interviews over time.

So my plan for Notes From the Other Side is to slowly reveal interviews throughout the summer, leading up to ProgPowerUSA VII — and then do more interviewing, picture-taking, and posting as the weekend of the metal fest unfolds.

I promise to make my interviews as in-depth and worthwhile as possible (and my pictures as exceptional as I can possibly make them) so that the wait for you is worth it.

Bill