"work"

Ted: Smash?

Will: Sounds good. It'll give me a good break.

Ted: From what?

Will: Work.

Ted: "Work?"

Will: Hours upon hours of emails and phone calls.

Ted: To who?

Will: Booking agents, the guy who's doing the art for my CD, a photographer, etc.

Ted: How's that going?

Will: Eh.

Ted: How so?

Will: It's hard to feel like I have more of a buzz going than I did when I wasn't devoting over forty hours a week to my music.

Ted: Well, it's got to be doing something.

Will: No, it is. At the very least, I'm a much better performer than I used to be. More people have seen me perform that havn't seen me before, and even though there aren't many of them, those people count. They will hopefully remember me and go out of their way to come to my shows. The problem is, no one's doing that yet.

Ted: No one?

Will: No one I don't know. Almost everyone at my shows is a friend of mine or someone a friend of mine brought along. No one is coming who is completely unconnected to me.

Ted: Yet.

Will: You're optimistic.

Ted: Dude, it's going to happen if you keep up with it.

Will: I hope you're right.

Ted: I mean, I can tell from the number of times that you're too busy to hang out that you're working hard. Granted, that doesn't guarantee success, but it's going to help.

Will: Hopefully.

Ted: So, what are these phone calls and emails about?

Will: Well, to the promoters, they're just out of the blue emails saying that I'd love to play and link to my press kit. With the artist, it's to find out how close I am to being able to send off my CD for duplication. With the photographer-- Well, I mean with everybody, all I do is send them emails and wait for them to reply. That's the main thing I've been doing, really. Waiting for people to get back to me. I do other things and send other emails while I'm waiting for those replies, but I'm perpetually waiting for someone else to take the next step in the conversation. It sucks to be powerless like that.

Ted: How long does it take for people to get back to you?

Will: Bookers usually don't. If they do, it can range anywhere from minutes later to months later. I don't want to pester them too much by over-emailing them, so I have to wait long periods of time before I email them again. I'm continuously discovering just how small a place the music industry is.

Ted: I'm sure you'll make something happen soon, dude.

Will: Well, I'll certainly try.

Ted: Do, or do not. There is no try.

(Pause)

Will: How long were you waiting to say that?

Ted: All week.