Paying The Devil His Due

Have you ever known a band within the last past decade who made it? Is there such a thing that exists today in the music industry? It seems like things have changed their game. You can now listen, download and watch your favorite band from the comfort of your home on the internet. You don't have to pay for parking, wait in line or even bother with pre-sale. Sounds good, right? But is it? Are you missing out on a bigger experience you may not know about? With the ever changing world of how music operates comes to the issue of new bands trying to find a footing on an already slippery floor.

Letters to Sam is a female-fronted musical act out of Long Beach, California that has experienced just that. From playing dive bars and not getting paid for their time, to actually paying to be part of a show with a national headliner just to be seen. Formed in 2015, the 4 piece grunge/alternative group consists of vocalist Miz.44, whose real name is Michelle Blasky, guitarist Mr. 44, real name Larry Wasan, bassist Brian Redfern and drummer Cris Blakk. The band invented its name from "Sam", the notorious demon who was said to have inhabited the dog who commanded "Son of Sam" convicted serial killer David Berkowitz to commit murder. Berkowitz was also a letter sorter for the U.S Postal Service, hence the name, "Letters To Sam." There is also a second meaning deriving from a political aspect which refers to, "writing a letter to the proverbial iconic, Uncle Sam," who is the common national personification of the American government.

I sat down with Miz.44 to get a clearer picture of what's happening in the music scene today and how it has affected her band, Letters to Sam.

Getting the Scoop

ANGEL D/BEAT: What has been your experience with Pay to Play?

MIZ.44:"We've had some good experience with this and some bad. If you are a new band on the scene trying to make it, especially in California, there is this door you have to step through called, Pay to Play. It's basically ticket sales. When you want to be seen, you work hard on getting on the same bill as an already well-known established band so that it will hopefully draw a larger enough crowd to get your band more exposure and maybe even the attention of a record scout who may be in the audience during your show."

ANGEL D/BEAT: How is this a bad thing?

MIZ.44: "I wouldn't say that it is completely terrible [laughs]. However, it does put a lot of pressure on the band, in my personal opinion. The problem with this is that bands really don't make their money back and that is the real problem. This is what you don't know unless you are a close friend or relative of the band. Bands have to front the money in most cases because nobody has heard of them. We have over 12K followers on Twitter and people still don't know who we are. Then, in order to get people out to a show, you either have to ask random people to buy your tickets or you just give them away for free. Most of the time, you can get a couple friends out and your relatives. It also puts pressure on those who are close to you because you are always asking them to help buy a ticket and come to support you. The first or second time is okay, but after that, it puts a lot of weight on their shoulders. But then, your audience turns out to be people ranging from your age to your grandfathers. These are, unfortunately not the group or demographic who buys albums and t-shirts."

ANGEL D/BEAT: You bring up a good point! How do you think these concerts could be better advertised?

MIZ.44:"I'm not sure they are advertised at all! When I say advertised, I mean commercial radio and TV. Not someone at home who has a podcast and is willing to give a shout out. Or posting it all over Facebook. This is still very helpful and gets the word out to a particular audience. But we should be advertising these shows to high schoolers still living at home, and college students who want to go out and have a good time. Those are the ones who have a little more money than a hard working adult with a family and more important responsibilities."

ANGEL D/BEAT: Who do you think is making all the money from these shows?

MIZ.44:"Certainly not any of the bands. Maybe the venue operators, but if they advertised, they would have a much better turn out. That would actually help bands sell tickets. If a concert goer hears it on the radio, they are more likely to make the purchase because it's on the radio. When something is on the radio, that means someone paid for airtime. And if someone paid for airtime, that means someone out there felt that their event was important enough to pay for that air time."

ANGEL D/BEAT: How do you see the situation improving?

MIZ.44:"Well, there's an old saying that goes, "You have to pay the Devil His Due," and I think my band and other bands out there have been doing just that. We've had everything happen to us from selling the tickets to a show we never performed at because it was very disorganized to being interviewed and never seeing or hearing that interview after it was one of the promotional rewards promised to us for having played such show. As far as improvement goes, I don't know. I think it's going to take some open communication and some paid commercial airtime to get the underground to surface or it will always be underground."

If you'd like to check out Letters to Sam's music, you can find them on Twitter at:@theletterstosam and on Reverbnation at: https://www.reverbnation.com/letterstosam9 or by visiting Hermeticrecords.com.