Vestascension

FAQ

Here are the DETAILED answers to some questions that have been repeatedly showing up in our inboxes. Have a look and see if we've answered your question here before emailing us. If you still can't find the answer you're looking for or you think there should be some other information we should be providing here feel free to drop us a line at Vestascension@gmail.com

Q : Is your music REALLY free? Why? What's the catch?

A : There isn't any. YES! It's REALLY free. No bullshit. No email you have to enter first (even though we are ecstatic if you do enter one for our mailing list!). If you'd like to do this there will be a prompt before you reach our BandCamp page if you click on the BandCamp link on this website. You can also join our mailing list via the "Music" tab on our Facebook page. Just download it. Enjoy it. Pass it along! If you're not into the whole BandCamp thing (I can't imagine why but just in case) our SoundCloud page is the next best thing-they offer the highest quality downloads just like our BandCamp page does.

Why?

Because actions always speak louder than words and regardless of what music fans may say their actions show they want free music and we're more than happy to provide that! Yes it costs a lot of money to record these tunes. Between paying for all of the tracks we're releasing in 2011, investing in all of the merchandise I've purchased and had designs made for, the launch of all the online sites and design work associated with them, and finally all the advertising we're doing for the project I've surpassed the 6 figure mark and have absolutely drained my life savings. I work hard and bust my ass for every penny and put it directly into this project. I fucking love it and wouldn't have it any other way! Too many bands/artists throw around words stating how much they love their fans and how much they'd do anything for them and how it's "just about the music, man". Then they continually fuck them with extreme merch prices, music prices, concert prices, etc. etc. I TRULY want to have fans that simply enjoy this music. That's it. I put my money where my mouth is. If you really want to help, spread the word. If you'd like to help out a little more than you DO have the option to donate money to the project via the PayPal donation links on this website (or you can just CLICK HERE). This is done simply because there are going to be some fans that will want to contribute and we love them for that. Passing the music along to a few of your friends you think may dig it is also something we would truly appreciate and is-in our eyes-a valuable form of payment for the music as well!!!

So from simply listening, mentioning us to a few of your buddies, posting links to our page, forwarding someone our Newsletter, or even throwing us a few cents via the donation link-YOU have the power to do what YOU please and give back as little or as much as you want to!

Also worth noting-we DO have our tracks available on all of the "standard" online retail sites that sell music (iTunes, Amazon, etc). We do this simply because there are people that prefer to get their music and only get their music this way and we certainly don't want to leave anyone out in the cold or make it harder for them to get our tracks. WE DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO SET PRICES FOR ANY OF THOSE SITES! Any money we earn from those sales will be used for exactly the same thing we use any money we get from donations for-investing it right back into this project. I have a dedicated Vestascension bank account and it's setup that all of these sites that generate any money go directly into that account.

Q : I'm not familiar with BandCamp and would like to know more about it. How does it work? Are there different formats available? What's the best way to get your music from?

A : BandCamp is DEFINITELY the best place to pick up our music. As mentioned in the answer to the previous question we do also offer the tracks via the standard online retailers. Some people use just those sites religiously and we don't want them to not have access to our music. Unfortunately we HAVE to charge the price they set on each of those sites-it's beyond our control. We also can't control exactly when each tune will make it's final upload onto each site as they each take different amounts of time and can vary with absolutely no guarantee of when they will appear. This means that BandCamp will be THE place you can get them first. So to sum it up, I absolutely recommend you get them from BandCamp. BandCamp offers every format you could possibly want! You will have the option to select whichever you'd prefer when you go to download the track. From MP3 to FLAC the choice is yours!! Our SoundCloud page is another great option as well-they offer the highest quality downloads just like our BandCamp page does (http://soundcloud.com/vestascension).

Q : What's with the "pay as much as you want" thing I keep reading about that you guys are doing?

A : There has been LOTS of confusion about that and I apologize. We'd initially offered all the tracks for free along with the OPTION to pay money for it if you'd like. Unfortunately with BandCamp there is no way to get a "Free Download" button next to the track UNLESS it's strictly offered for free with no strings attached. With the way we had it set up to pay as much as you wish the button you had to click to download the track said "Buy Now-Name Your Own Price". The track was still of course available for free but to get it you had to click on the "Buy Now" button and then enter "0.00" in for the amount you were paying for the track. A large percentage of people ended up assuming that button only lead to having to pay money for the track and it's totally understandable why they came to that conclusion. I REALLY wish BandCamp offered the option of having both buttons but they don't. So we're now offering the tracks absolutely for free and have installed "PayPal Donation" links on our website for those that still want to contribute some money into the band (or you can just CLICK HERE).

We'd like to implement the pay what you'd like option at some point in the future if we can find a simple way to do so.

Q : How can I get the tracks on my Ipod if I don't buy them off of iTunes?

A : It's very easy. Once you've downloaded it, just select "add files to library" under the "File" tab in your top iTunes toolbar. Select the track from where you downloaded it and you're done!! All the track info and artwork is already provided (this is referred to as the tracks "metadata").

Q : What if I don't have my own computer? The internet? A way to burn CD's???

A : If you absolutely don't have any way at all to obtain the tracks online (which if you're on this website you surely have internet lol) send me your address and I'll personally send you a burned CD-R of the track at no charge. I only ask that you PLEASE try to obtain the track online first before emailing us as sending out CD-Rs can quickly become very expensive if there are lots of requests for them. We're not only covering the CD price, but the cost of a mailing package and the postage as well as the time it takes to make the CD itself and get it to the post office. The CD that is sent will just be a regular CD-R you can pick up from any store such as Walmart so you are NOT missing out on anything special by not getting the track in this manner. Having said that if you'd like a CD of the track(s) (I'll automatically send you the current track and any of the previous ones that have been released) send a request here with your name and address and I'll get it out to you A.S.A.P.: Vestascension@gmail.com

Q : Why is your merch so cheap? Is it low quality? What's up with the odd pricing?

A : No, it's absolutely not low quality. All of our merchandise is of the highest quality. Some of it will even be hand made by the band and offered in limited runs at some point.

I've grown tired of going to see bands that charge anywhere from $20-$50 for a t-shirt. I mean really?!?! The one and only exception I see is for bands on major labels.

If you don't know this already, bands on major labels make very little money-if any-off of album sales. Yes, even HUGE bands get the shaft most of the time. They make their true money off of merchandise and concert ticket sales. But isn't there a limit? I mean do they REALLY need to charge you-the hardworking dedicated fan of all these years who bought every album twice and even the bands diaper line for infants-$45 for a t-shirt so they can add yet another Lexus to the garage? This is my response to that. We're making a HUGE effort to keep our prices insanely low. In fact, they are very close to what we pay after you account for the graphic designer, printing, packaging, shipping, etc. etc. In an effort to save the fan even more money the merch store is run directly out of my house! It'd be much easier to have a merch company handle this for us, but I insist upon doing it this way to save the fan money and not have to have set prices that we don't approve and are there so the merch company handling it makes a cut of it (which of course they should do if you hire them to do the hard work for you). There MAY be a point in the future-if we're fortunate enough to start gaining some fans and selling a decent amount of merchandise-that it will become inevitable I have to hire a merchandise company. So get it now while it's cheap!!

To explain a few specifics about the odd pricing it basically works like this. If a shirt is a black t-shirt with a single design on the front comprised of one color the price for us to purchase it is lower than say a black t-shirt with a huge design on the front and back comprised of 10 colors (it can get VERY expensive when the design becomes more in-depth). So we will offer the first shirt at a lower price than the second one. It's not a reflection of quality whatsoever-simply the cost associated with the printing on the shirt. There may even be 2 shirts that are each one color designs on the exact same type of shirt but one is located dead center on the front of the shirt and the other shirts' design is located in a way that's wrapped around the side of the shirt-the second one WILL be more expensive. Little details like that always cost more when ordering from a merchandise company (this is due to the extra time it takes for them to print this type of "irregular" artwork placement).

Q : Is there a way I can help spread the word about this band?

A: Yes and thank you soooooo much for wanting to do so! BandCamp offers many easy tools to share our songs with your friends via all the social networking sites as well as email. We also place all of our tracks on YouTube on each of their release dates as well due to it being extremely easy to share YouTube videos. Feel free to post our site/song links via your social networking status updates, bulletins, blogs, or even just plain old emails!. Please send out our tracks to any and everyone you think would enjoy them! We greatly encourage this and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doing so! If you want to get even more creative and make your own video for the track or post them on your profile or a fan page or anything in the same vein as this we of course ABSOLUTELY give you permission to do so.

Q : Is there anyway I can actually contribute money to the band?

A: Yes there is! And THANK YOU for wanting to do that-you're fucking awesome! You can donate money to us via PayPal by clicking on one of the many donation buttons on our website or simply by CLICKING HERE. So go ahead and send us $1,000,000,000 and we'll write a whole album entirely about you and your awesomeness!! We really would! We'll also change the band name to match your name (so if it's Jenna we'll change the name to Jennascension!) Or we'd just be really happy to get a nice shiny quarter too :) We greatly appreciate your donation and promise it will absolutely go towards future studio time or any other costs related to Vestascension and nothing else-not even Nates creatine powder!

Q : When will the next batch of songs be ready after 2011 ends?

A: We will keep you posted! Right now we-as you are probably already aware-have enough tracks to last the entire year. As soon as a fresh batch is ready after all the 2011 releases are done we'll be sure to let you know as well as the details on how we'll be releasing them. The time it takes to write the tunes-which is a VERY in-depth process-plus booking the studio time, working around all of our full-time jobs, etc. definitely factors into how long it takes for the tracks to become "ready". We assure you though, we are working overtime to keep cranking the songs out and already have many seeds planted for tracks that will hopefully be available at some point in 2012!

Q: Where can I find the lyrics? How about guitar tabs?

A: There aren't lyrics available anywhere and there may never be. We're all fans of bands that leave that stuff open to interpretation so each individual listener can make that song be whatever they think it should be. We don't feel like our material and concepts are really suited to print on paper and be like LOOK-THIS IS WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT!! :) A lot of thought has gone into the lyrics and there are a ton of double meanings and metaphors weaved into most of the songs-we don't want to ruin it! Come on, don't you HATE when you've been singing the chorus to your favorite song for a year then the band releases the lyrics and you realize you never were even close and not only are you like WTF but the lyrics you loved so much that held so much meaning to you aren't even in the song anymore?!?!! That's the worst!!!

As for guitar tabs I'm flattered by anyone that has inquired about them but at this point in time there aren't any. I'm not the best guitar player so I'm not sure who the hell would want to play that stuff?! If enough interest is show for them and it appears that people really are intent on getting them to see the "official" way they're played I'll probably make something at that time.

Q : What is the rest of the years material going to be like? Are there any heavy songs? Are there anymore guest appearances?

A : For quest appearances - yes - there are a few spots coming up. Nothing "prominent" like we've had before-but there are some spots here and there in future releases.

The March release "And Endless Voyage" featured the heaviest part in any of the songs that we've recorded thus far. We're not by any means ruling out more heavy stuff in the future-that's just it at the moment. We're going to be switching it up A LOT over the course of 2011 genre-wise. Some people will definitely like the first stuff and hate the other stuff, some will be the opposite, some will like all/most of it, and of course some will hate all of it! We're totally aware of that and totally cool with it. Being able to just release a track at a time opens up so many options. We don't have to keep the "flow" of an album in mind or just stick to one sound to make it all cohesive. This project is all based on the ideal of just releasing whatever the hell we want to release because we write whatever the hell we want to write. If it's a bluegrass song awesome. Perhaps a deathmetal song?! Wonderful! Perhaps a combination and creation of a new genre - "Death Grass" or the emo sounding "Blue Metal". Sure, why not?!

So keep checking back. If you don't like a track we release one month there's a good chance you may feel differently about the next. Also, to say it in advance, we DO have lighter stuff we're releasing. I assure you it's not us "selling out"-it's us just doing whatever the fuck we want to do :) We love Sigur Rós as much as we love Pantera-got it??

Q : Where's an ACTUAL bio? What is the history of the band? And W.T.F. is a Vestascension???

A :The bio we have on our website as well as the "Info" tab right here of F.B. clearly state why we don't have a "traditional" bio. My perspective on it is who cares?! It's just about wether you like the music or not. If you're really intent on knowing more about anyone in the band it's pretty easy to find online or just add them on F.B. so you can stalk our profiles! We love chatting getting to know anyone that's a fan or the band so please feel free to do so.

To give a bit of back info the seeds for the band started in 2002 when Chubb and I met and started jamming and set out to make just one damn album. We actually first recorded together on February 27, 2002! 9 years later-TA DA! The name Vestascension itself started getting used around 2004-05 if I recall correctly. In 2006 the previous era of the band was essentially over due to "internal issues" that went unresolved. But finally-after the largest chunk of depression Chubb and I have ever had in our lives followed by a long period of intense writing and rebuilding a brand new lineup-we returned on 1.1.11 bearing new lullabies! This year will finally see Chubb and I finishing up that albums worth of songs we set out to make in '02!!! Chinese Democracy ain't got shit on us son!

As for the meaning of the name it's derived of two words put together-Vesta and Ascension. You can research the "actual" meaning of both of these if you wish-they are all definitions that I find really awesome and they do hold some meaning on their own. After having to change our band name during the first years of the band due to finding out a boy-band in Canada popped up with the same name and THEN having to make another name change after once again finding out that another band popped up with the same name (this time it wasn't exact-it was like a letter off lol) I came to the conclusion making something up would be the best approach for a number of reasons. Picking a band name is fucking hard! Every single proper word in the English language is essentially in a band name somewhere right at this very moment. Trying for months to come up with a band pissed me off to the point I started making shit up. Of course most of it was really stupid haha…and I guess Vestascension still is?! It basically came to be when an old member of the band just started reading off every single word in an astrology book he had. I heard Vesta and really liked it and then further down the list heard Ascension and really liked that too. It literally snapped together in my head within .01 seconds. VESTASCENSION! The major downside was discovered when we realized it seemed to be impossible for people to spell it correctly. From marquees to flyers to interviews to advertisements we got it all from Vestacension all the way to Vestascrusionsiise haha. During the hiatus I tossed out the idea of ever using the band name again buuuuut then an ex band member made the mistake of telling me I'd never succeed without them in the band and that "they were Vestascension". I soon found out that many other people were being told this as well. Soooo as anyone that knows me knows this of course meant that I had to not only use the name forever but that I also had to come back and silence any naysayers by delivering the strongest product possible. I'm really only half serious about that-I would never actually pick a band name I didn't dearly love soley out of spite ;).

In reality though-to be completely honest/serious-it's really became about marketing and the more I've read into the subject the more the band name just continued to make complete sense to me. Research shows that the harder you make your band/business to find online the worst off you are. Everyone has A.D.D.. Everyone wants everything and they want it NOW and they will give up if they don't find it NOW! And since EVERY word in the english language is taken what are you gonna do? Even if you can find real words no band has previously put together the same way that you are doing once you start using them you're still fucked!! Look at a band that's even as huge as Tool. I just googled them to give a current stat-I got 378,000,000 HITS when I googled the word "Tool". How many of those hits that come up are actually related to physical tools and not the band?! Know what I'm saying? Try it with ANY band that uses real words in their name and you'll get the idea. Now obviously Tool is a huge band and is doing just fine BUT they didn't build their success during a time where the industry is the way it is now with internet access playing a key role in your success/failure-they succeed via the old business model.

Soooo to wrap it up-if you Google "Vestascension" all you get is stuff related to the band and nothing more!! Same is true on YouTube and any other site you can imagine. The name is trademarked-it's ours! This means there will be no confusion in the future either. We also own every social networking site as XXXX.com/Vestascension. Shit like this is important. If we had to have the website be "vestascensionband.com" and the myspace be "/vestascensionmusic" and the Twitter be "/vestascensionrocks" it'd just be even more confusing and harder for potential fans to find. Even if you do have all your social networking sites registered under the same name how many of you have exclusive use of your name on Google?!!?

We have a VERY RARE ownership in regards to our little corner of the web that we consume. Exclusivity at it's finest!! I hope this long drawn out explanation makes complete sense now and everyone understands the meaning and importance of the name to us :)

AND THE MOST ASKED ONE QUESTION BY FAR:

Q : When are you guys playing a live show/touring?

A : First off thank you for asking-guess that means you want to see us live?! The answer is that I don't know-we may not ever play live in fact. I don't feel like there is any reason at all to get out there and start playing shows unless there is a big enough demand to justify the time and effort it would take to do so. With the exception of Semesky we're all older seasoned (i.e. jaded) musicians that have done the "local show" and "independently booked tour" thing for 10+ years. I'm pretty over having to draw a minimum amount of people, having to beg your mom and little sister to come, begging co-workers to come, offering to deliver tickets, selling them for less than what you're paying…etc. You get what I'm saying. For the record I have NOTHING at all against bands doing that. I just try to look at it for what I believe it means when you're in those situations which is the cold hard fact that nobody wants to see you play live!! There is no demand! It hurts to realize that and accept it-we're fully aware right now there is a very minimal demand for us to play live. We DO hope that changes sometime down the line though and if it does we WILL deliver the best live show we can possibly provide you with.

To explain even further; this music is very in-depth and everyone in this band prides ourselves on being top notch live musicians. This means that we don't want to do anything half ass so we would NEVER settle for anything less than perfection if we do go live. There's sooo much that would be required to do that. The truth is we've never even played any of this material together as a full band in a live setting once-NEVER! Don't confuse that with us saying we're only a studio band-we're certainly not. Everyone in this project is more than capable of "doing it up" and pulling off all these songs live when/if the time comes. This lineup of the band was not only brought together based off of talent-it was equally based off of seeing these wonderful musicians that I'm so blessed to be able to play with now kill it live time and time again with their other bands. We also have to take into consideration that we'd need to hire a 3rd guitar player for a live show as well as a keyboard player and perhaps some string players. As you'll hear for yourself with each release there are going to be sooo many elements and genres explored over the course of the year and we're NOT the kind of band that would use backing tracks. This will make sense to you more and more as you hear what each new song is comprised of instrumentally. It's either you do it or you don't with us (nothing at all against bands that do use backing tracks-it's just not our thing). We hope too that you can understand that the demand would have to be enough as well for us to be able to play in larger venues. We absolutely aren't snobs at all-I'll come play my acoustic in your shed during your BBQ this summer if you really want me to-it's simply because trying to squeeze 7-8 musicians along with all that gear on a small club stage would be ridiculously difficult!!!

There's also the fact that since we're giving away all the music and since we're planning on selling our merch at a very very reasonable price we sort of have to draw the line somewhere. I only want to play live if we can start getting a decent amount of money back into the project to again justify the time and effort it would take. SOOOO much focus is needed to pull this all together as a live band and any time we spend doing that is taking away from our "online" aspect of things. By this I mean continuing to write and steadily release new material which is what I want to stay focused on doing at the moment.

In closing I hope this F.A.Q. page has helped shed some light into Vestascensions operating procedure. Thank you for your interest in the band and for taking the time to read this. If there is anything else you'd like to know please feel free to drop us a line by clicking HERE