Get Up and Go

16 / Get Up and Go

being included and being provided for, and have begun to look elsewhere, just as I had.

These ideas are sometimes considered to be on the fringes for those deemed “successful” in their careers, because rather than looking for large-scale exposure, financial success or notoriety (looking to “be the best,” the “MVP” or “Best Supporting Actor” or “Grammy-award Winner”), DIY ethics suggest that it’s more important that each person work in their own way, and with those resources around them, to satisfy whatever desire or change they feel needs to be made, regardless of response or feedback and in spite of all obstacles to tradi- tional “success”. This usually results in all means of production being “done yourself,” to ensure quality and control over projects, art, and ideas that are deeply valuable to you. Just like my first West Coast tour, I spent some weeks on the west coast in 2011, playing places like the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and the Echoplex Theater in Los Angeles – years of doing it our own way had given us real exposure and allowed us to play for bigger crowds and much more money. Still, none of the shows from last year really matched up to our first time playing out there, and learning that the DIY community was a real thing. We were broke and played small shows, but we