Mark, I think this is spot on. It's why my reaction is typically, "Oh, they've got one out? Neat." Just glad, usually, to see it happen. -----Original Message----- From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Mark Bacino Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 4:41 PM To: pop list Subject: Length of Time Between Releases Con't I can see how length of time between releases could prompt the dreaded - "It took them how long to make this!?" syndrome but speaking from my (meager) musical perspective, length of time between releases indeed doesn't always mean that the artist has been working on said album for that length of time. I can say that really hasn't been the situation re: my album releases. Case in point - My last release ("Million Dollar Milkshake") was back in '03. I didn't begin proper recording of my newest till fall of '06 and finished it early winter '08. Lots of stuff occurred in between and since - some industry stuff but also a lot of other work, babies being born, general life stuff. I think people can forget sometimes that in the end, artists who makes records are, of course, just people first; sh*t happens that takes them away from the music. Also, I can't speak to Axl Rose's record making process/time-line, I don't have that kind of scratch/time (and maybe I'm wrongly assuming he does) but I suspect a band like The Shazam is probably not that far off from my own situation - lives, families, maybe day gigs, limited immediate recording budgets, etc. Not to defend the new Shazam record (I haven't heard it) but I always feel like when indie or semi-indie bands pull off professional quality records at this level of the playing field it's generally viewed in my mind as a minor miracle. There are, more often then not, many, many obstacles/sacrifices to overcome in the making of these little gems, monetarily and personally. I think if I/we were sane we probably wouldn't bother but I'm always glad in the end that we do ;-) Best, Mark (Who's now dreading the "it took him 7 years to make this?!" when his album releases in a few months ;-) www.markbacino.com