Worth posting one more time…
Glenn Campbell – “It’s your amazing grace”
Everything I have in this world
I give it to you, ooh, ooh
Everything I say in this world
I say it to you, oh yes, I do
You’re all that’s in my heart
You’re all that’s in my head
You know I believe this
It’s your amazing grace
It’s your amazing grace, yes, it is
I hold my head in my hands and I cry
When I think of you, amazing grace
It keeps us together
You’re all that’s in my heart
You’re all that’s in my head
You know I believe this
It’s your amazing grace
It’s your amazing grace, yes, it is
I hold my head in my hands and I cry
When I think of you, amazing grace
It keeps us together
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Bitter…
It always amazes me when I hear someone who was involved in Christian music “bag” on the scene. I’ve yet to hear someone who experiences success in it so passionately criticize it. It’s always those who have tried and failed. According to them, it’s always someone else’s fault. But when things go right, it’s because of you? Taking credit for the positive and blaming others for the negative is a victim mentality.
Stop throwing rocks at the parade you want to be in!
Take some responsibility!
I think of a time in the late 99 & early 2000′s when I was searching for a solo deal. I would get so close and then door would shut. Looking back now, my heart wasn’t right. My motives were selfish. I was a poor example of a Christ-follower and was living off the fumes of Grace. Should I become bitter and blame God? No! I should thank Him for not allowing me a bigger public position at the time. I was a mess. I needed to deal with “me”.
Christian music is not perfect. It’s like anything else. People doing their best to play music and spread hope. Flawed humans jack things up…no matter where they are at! :-) But, I am grateful to those who get in a van/bus/plane every week to encourage other believers and to have an opportunity to be used by the Spirit. Galatians 6:9 ya’ know…
’nuff said.
jamie
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New Guardian album…
You did it!
You took your belief in the band and put it into action. We reached our goal of 30,000.00 for the new Guardian record. Half of that came in in the last week. With a LARGE part of that coming in the last 3 days! I confess, I quietly had given up a few weeks ago. The 2 weeks ago, I got a call from John Elefante who sensed my discouragement and gave me a kick in the pants to start believing it can happen. This coincided with a band conference call where everyone began to rally… a bit late in the game..but just in time. I can tell you that using Kickstarter was tough for us. It feels weird to ask people to donate. But the math of our fanbase led me to believe that everyone could chip in a small amount and we could be off and rocking. In the end, 446 of our fans turned the key to unlock this new record. I cannot tell you how much I (we) appreciate those people! We found out that most of our Latin American audience, who have inspired us so much, don’t typically have credit cards. they use bank/debit cards. Which is great, but Amazon Payments didn’t accomodate those folks. If there was one thing I learned, Kickstarter really needs to integrate paypal. Also, if you are a band/artist wanting to use Kickstarter, I say go for it. But I’d also advise you to check out similar platforms like http://www.indiegogo.com/ I think if we could use the way back machine, we would have used them instead.
Now comes the really fun part: Getting the songs fine tuned and start recording! I am as eager to get this thing rocking as you are!
I have to give some major props to a few friends who helped spread the word:
Michael Sweet – stryper.com – My hero growing up, he gave us a major boost when he tweeted and posted on facebook. No one asked him to do it, he just did. We got a lot of “I didn’t know you were doing this til Michael posted” comments. Michael Sweet is the real deal folks. I appreciate him.
John DiBiase – Jesusfreakhideout.com – A great friend to the band since the 90′s. He gave us press right out of the box and we thank him.
Andrew McNeice – melodicrock.com – Andrew has created the “go to” site for 80′s and 90′s flavored hard rock. He gave us front page coverage of the note we sent out. He is appreciated.
John Elefante – For what I mentioned in the first half of this.
Phil Madiera – Phil was a major cheerleader to us behind the scenes. The man just got his own Kickstarter funded and was pushing us all the time to stop jacking around and get those updates going.
Shane “Kickstand” Boyd – Guardian road crew and now a successful radio promoter. He was shouting out all the time to his connections.
Edited to add this: I blew it! I had intended to include our Latin American Agent Eugenia Rivas Laise in this list! She is VERY important to us. She was driving our facebook efforts and was in my mind to thank here. I must have forgot when I actually wrote it. It’s important that I clear this up. Eugenia Rivas Laise was/is a MAJOR help to Guardian and all of us appreciate her greatly! I’m sorry I missed it. We thank you Eugenia and we love you lots!
And again,again, again! – Thanks to all 446 of you who made this happen.
To God be the glory!
jamie
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The Official Rowe House Easter Egg Hunt…
Tradition. Fun.
jamie
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Guitar World…
Guitar World gave the Visual Sound Dual Tap Delay it’s Platinum Award for Excellence!
Visual Sound crew is stoked!
jamie
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My Punky…
Is now riding in style in a Scion. Thanks To our friend Joe Rendle at Romain in Evansville!
jamie
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My new gig…
I started my new job as Marketing Director for Visual Sound this past week. I’m loving it! I get to work with great people and promote great products. It’s a beautiful thing! I wanted to share the company story. It’s pretty inspiring!
jamie
Visual Sound
Company Overview
A History
At the beginning of 1995, Bob Weil and his wife Julie started Visual Sound in their apartment in Norwalk, Connecticut. Over the past 16 years, Visual Sound has become known as one of the premier guitar effects manufacturers in the world. Their marketing tag, “Real Tone for Real People”, articulates the company’s philosophy. “My goal has always been to make the best products money can buy at a price the average musician can afford”, says Weil.
The product that started it all was the Visual Volume pedal; a volume pedal with 10 LED’s to show relative volume levels. As with many inventors, Weil’s inspiration came out of frustration with an existing product. In the late 1980’s, the Big Name volume pedal Bob used was inadequate in many ways, specifically lacking a visual reference. After discovering no such pedal existed, he decided to create his own. With no experience or training in electronics, Weil went to the local library and his workbench to try and figure out how to make a “visual volume” pedal. By the end of 1994, the first prototypes of Visual Volume were completed and Bob introduced both the pedal and himself to many artists at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA.
Following the relative success of Visual Volume, Weil began to experiment with other sound effects circuits for guitar, releasing the Visual Metal, Visual Blues, and Visual Wah-Volume in 1996. Although none of the pedals took off, they did open a door that led to a phone call from the band U2. Bono, having seen the pedals, custom-ordered a Visual Wah pedal. After handcrafting two of them, he affectionately labeled them the “Bono Wah”. That experience helped to reinforce Weil’s stubborn persistence over the next two years as the company struggled to build inertia.
The Birth of a Line
1997 saw the beginning of what would become Visual Sound’s trademark pedal shape and design with the creation of the Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive. Although the company had just started producing the Visual Volume in Taiwan that year, Weil didn’t have enough money to make the minimum production order for the new Jekyll & Hyde pedal. So, he and his wife Julie sat down at their kitchen table and hand-made the first 100 pedals themselves. They sold out almost immediately. As a result, production quickly moved from the kitchen table to Taiwan!
Although Visual Sound continued to struggle through 1998, a miraculous turnaround occurred later that year. At the very time Weil invented the pedal that could change the future for both he and his company, the money ran out. “Through a miraculous set of circumstances, in my darkest hour I suddenly was given the opportunity to have a bunch of orders paid for up front. Believe it or not, that turned everything around, giving us the exact amount of money we needed (to the penny) to start over. Right then I recognized the hand of God was on my business. At that time, I actually had begun to close up shop, but evidently God wanted me to keep going. How could I say no?” Since that time Visual Sound has continued to expand and grow.
R.G. Keen; The V2 Series and Beyond
In 1997, Weil began a friendship with R.G. Keen who was a “guru” to the then emerging boutique pedal industry. That relationship blossomed over the years from Keen designing circuit boards, to co-creating what would become the extremely successful V2 Series of pedals. Weil had designed the Jekyll & Hyde, which in turn launched the Route 66 (Compressor and Overdrive in one housing) and the H2O Liquid Chorus & Echo.
Weil redesigned the pedal that started it all, releasing the 10th Anniversary Edition of the Visual Volume pedal in 2006 (having been out of production since 1998). With a new housing and many upgrades, Weil created a highly refined version of its predecessor.
Because of the demand for the effects to be made into single pedals, Weil and Keen undertook the task of creating new single effect pedals to compliment the already successful original three. More than just cosmetic changes, the V2 Series represented the culmination of everything they had learned over the years in terms of reliable pedal construction and tone. It took 2 years to complete the design of the V2 Series, which finally became available in 2008. Not long after, new pedals were introduced to the line including the Angry Fuzz, Truetone Clean Boost, and the very popular Open Road Overdrive.
In 2010, Visual Sound released an entire new line of pedals called GarageTone, a budget line in keeping with the idea of affordability without skimping on quality. Five pedals launched the line including delay, overdrive, distortion, tremolo, and phase. GarageTone was greeted with incredible reviews worldwide, and is quickly becoming a new standard in economically priced effects pedals.
Throughout the years, one of the most widely used and successful products in the Visual Sound stable of products is the 1 SPOT power supply which includes versions for Britain, Europe, Australia, and of course the USA. Included in the line are adapters for other units as well as 5 and 8 plug connector cables for running multiple pedals off of a single 1 SPOT.
Visual Sound continues to expand with new ideas on the horizon. 2010 has also seen the start of its Custom Shop for unique products, as well as some very exciting new pedals coming in the not too distant future.
Artists and Producers and Tours
Visual Sound has one of the most unique and diverse Artist Rosters in the industry. Every genre is represented, featuring many of the worlds most elite and highly respected musicians, producers and studios. From concert halls to clubs, television to motion pictures, Visual Sound can be heard around the world. Over the last few years, Visual Sound has begun branching out into co-promotional opportunities as well as Tour sponsorship; including becoming a part of the hugely successful traveling rock circus, Vans Warped Tour. Visual Sound even created a limited edition pedal called the Vans Warped Distortion exclusively for that tour.
Giving Back
In keeping with his belief that God has His hand on Visual Sound, Weil has continued to look for ways to give back out of all that he has been given. One of the many ways he does that is to give a portion of the sale of each Visual Sound product to an organization called EngageHIV Foundation. 100% of the funds go directly to communities in Africa that have been devastated by HIV/AIDS.
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