Having recently released their debut album Recurring Themes, Imminent Sonic Destruction will have the chance to open for Swedish prog rock titans Pain Of Salavation during a North American tour this May. In this special guest blog, keyboardist Pete Hopersberger recalls how the Detroit based group scored the chance to do this tour and how crowd funding online has helped make it possible.
Born inside an active volcano, Imminent Sonic Destruction began life forged by heat and molten rock. Ok, not really, but it sounds AWESOME. Anyway, it was a way to start this blog about how we got the opportunity to tour North America with Pain Of Salvation. It’s actually a story that started years ago, before Imminent Sonic Destruction was even a gleam in the eye of Tony Piccoli (ISD founding father, philanthropist and short-form featurette). Our bassist, Bryan Paxton, has gone on an annual pilgrimage to the ProgPower festival in Atlanta for several years. Bryan is a force of nature and a hell of a guy, so he made friends easily in Atlanta. One of those friends was Milton from Intromental Management & Booking. Fast forward a few years and a few hundred beers, and Bryan is now playing bass in ISD and recording our first album, Recurring Themes, under the guidance of producer Roy Z (Bruce Dickinson, Halford, Sepultura). Not by himself, of course. I mean, he IS only the bass player. He really had the easiest part. Seriously. And bass usually gets mixed out in the end anyway, so what’s the point? BUT I DIGRESS. Where was I? Oh right, the tour.
First, the point should be made that we spent a great deal of time rehearsing, playing shows and agonizing over the details of the CD. We knew we had something special and we wanted to maximize the opportunity to have Roy Z working with us. Especially since we didn’t have a label, we knew that we had to put everything we had into this in order to catch the eye (or ear) of anyone who could help us. So, there’s the old story, lots of work, money, sacrifice, paying your dues, etc. etc. You’ve all heard it a thousand times, but it’s true. I won’t say we haven’t had an enormous amount of fun along the way, because we have. That’s mostly due to the fact that we all genuinely like each other, and it’s a nice perk that makes all the hard work fun.
So back to business… At this point in our story, Recurring Themes is out and getting rave reviews, so Bryan naturally took a few copies with him to Atlanta for ProgPower. Eventually Milton (Remember him? From the first paragraph? You’re still reading this, right?) and his partners got back to Bryan after listening to the CD, and were very impressed. Talks started of adding us to a tour if Intromental booked one that we would fit with as a support act. Then the call came down that Pain Of Salvation was being booked for a North American tour, their first in quite a few years, and we were asked if we’d be able to join them. Of course, we said no. The end.
Ok, I’m kidding. Obviously we accepted and started the process of planning and saving to make it work. You see, unsigned bands on these kinds of tours are usually there for a couple of reasons. It helps the band, which is an actual intention believe it or not. Some people in this business, (especially people like the ones running Intromental) honestly believe in the music and helping bands get discovered because they feel the music needs to be heard. It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye, really. But then you punch yourself in the face, because STOP CRYING, YOU BABY!
In our case, since we’re not independently wealthy or especially well-known, we turned to a crowd funding website, indiegogo.com, and asked our fans directly to help us out. We have to rent an RV, fuel it for a trip of well over 4,000 miles, rent gear, feed ourselves, drink a little bit, and absorb the hit of taking 2 weeks away from our day jobs to follow our dreams. It gets pricey. Fortunately, our fans and friends have STUNNED us with their generosity to this point, and at the time of this writing we are over half way to our stated goal with more than a month to go. The goal we set is modest, and obviously we could use much, much more to make this less painful for us and our families. But we have a great support system and understanding families who want us to pursue this and make the most of the opportunity before us.
In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution was… wait. Sorry, wrong paper. Basically, getting on this tour came down to hard work, knowing the right people and having someone take a chance on us. It’s something we’ll never forget, and it promises to be the adventure of a lifetime. I wish all bands could experience this. Ok, maybe not ALL bands, a few of them are just horrible people so that’s not possible. Come on, be honest. Who’s going to help a bunch of jerks with no real talent? Plus, if everyone did it, it wouldn’t be special anymore, would it? And this IS SPECIAL. It’s huge for us, and if any of you reading this has a dollar or two to put towards a band trying to chase a dream, or know someone else who does, please go here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/imminent-sonic-destruction-2013-spring-tour
Watch the video, laugh a bit with us, and support the underdog! Thanks for reading, unless you gave up in the first few sentences due to a problem with your attention span. In that case, FUCK YOU. But hey, those people will never read this far, so who cares, right? You read it, and we LOVE YOU.
Imminent Sonic Destruction will appear on the following dates with Pain Of Salvation and Kingcrow:
05.01 – EMPIRE -West Springfield, VA
05.02 – HOUSE OF ROCK – White Marsh, MD
05.04 – ROSFEST (Pain of Salvation only) – Gettysburg, PA
05.05 – THE MARLIN ROOM at WEBSTER HALL – New York, NY
05.07 – LE CERCLE – Quebec City, QC
05.08 – FOUFOUNES ELECTRIQUES – Montreal, QC
05.09 – THE MOD CLUB – Toronto, ON
05.10 – REGGIE’S – Chicago, IL
05.11 – STATION 4 – Minneapolis, MN
