By Eddy “Snow” Levitsky
FROM APRIL 2014  VANDALA MAGAZINE – READ MORE ARTICLES FREE!

Here I am back to my daily routine and schedule. Home sweet home, they say and yet, something is amiss, something is clearly stuck on my mind similarly to that feeling you have when you forget if you’ve locked the door. Half of my mind is away, trying to relax and enjoy, trying to soak up all these awesome memories gathered throughout the tour and the other half…well the other half is hardcore stressing over finding a way to keep the machine going, keep up with the momentum.

Indeed, there is this creeping pressure that I constantly feel as a band leader, a thankless job if I have ever seen one, that nags and pushes me my every breathing moment. You never really get used to it but you learn to channel it and it will, in return, help you grow as a musician, an artist and human being. After my little tour with HOLLOW, I still feel this energy that I got from the shows, from the public’s response and from meeting new people. As a songwriter and performer I take into account the people’s reactions towards songs, take note of particular moments of songs and definitely learn from watching some of the other bands performing. All of these little things including all of the logistics attached with organizing the shows are all nibbling away at my brain the whole of the tour. Questions take shape concerning my musical direction, my band, my resources, my friends which I intimately and constantly debate within my own mind. “Am I making music that will address a certain public demand or am I imposing my music on the public and hope to create a demand?” It’s the age’s long debate between the elitist approach versus a more popular one and quite frankly, this is one of those questions that does not have a definitive answer. For those of you out there who write and create, isn’t sounding like truly yourself the hardest thing to accomplish as an artist? Of course, over the years you gain experience and technique and writing music becomes easier and faster but no one really recovers from a certain loss of innocence. Technicality replaces feeling and those riffs and melodies you used to do as a kid are now automatically brushed aside for being too simple or making no sense according to your evolved, learned and experienced musicianship. Needless to say, these debates have been the reason for many a blank paged writer-blocked night for me.

These intellectual debates stem solely from moments where the band is stagnant and the pressure to produce something arises. You have to feed your band, your child but you have to work to feed it too. You have to nurture your relationship with fans while ironically closing yourself from the world to concentrate on creating something deeply personal and the only vacation you can take is to play shows, to live in that moment where logistics, money and public relations are of no concern anymore. Being on tour somewhat strokes your ego, it releases some of the stress of daily life. After preparing your show, practicing the songs for months, dealing with bookers, printing merchandise and contacting the media, being on tour and making new fans in remote, unknown locations is the biggest reward one can hope for. It’s as if somebody just gives you a high-five, a pat on the back and tells you a well-deserved “good job man, keep up the good work”.

So here I am back to my daily routine and schedule, stressing out over small, probably trivial details that could better my band’s look and sound, feeling the pressures that come with writer’s block, dealing with the logistics necessary in setting up some new gigs and more than anything, impatiently waiting to step back on that stage.

For More On Eddy “Snow” Levitsky and Hollow Visit www.hollowofficial.com

Photos of Hollow and other bands performing this past month HERE

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