Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 25th, 2019.  

So, I guess it is time to put out some new material. To be honest, if it only depended on us, we would have a couple more albums out already. But the thing is: making good albums takes a lot of time and, more importantly, a lot of money. The music is not the problem. I'm always writing something and for an album tracklist to take shape, there is a lot of other music that is discarded. And in reality, we feel that an album must have a couple music videos and a tour to make it "worthy". I know, it is an old school mentality that mainly works for well established bands. Clearly not the case. 

Money has been an issue for this band for a long time. I'm telling you this because if you arrived all the way down here to the blog session it is because you (probably) really care about Daydream XI and what we are up to. Unlike many metal acts around we don't come from wealthy families who can afford to invest in our music. I'm not saying we are not privileged (and we are, very much so) but we're not those dudes who inherited a family fortune or can work part-time at their dad's company and make 80k a year just because you're the boss' son. We have to work with different stuff to keep this machine running. 

And, as we get closer and closer to our 30's, we start to dip our foot into very strange waters. Why? Because you can't live with your parents anymore, therefore you have rent to pay and all other kinds of expenses. And you come to that point where to be a touring musician, you can't have a regular job because you're away too much. And if you're away too much you probably won't be hired to a regular job anyway. And also we're at that spot where we're not anonymous anymore, there is people interested in the music, who want to see it live. But touring costs a lot of money and it has to come from somewhere. So, we decided that the best thing right now is to bring you lots of different merchandise. 

Since the band's first release, a little more than four years ago, people from all over the world have been asking for Daydream XI merch. We are pretty much a DIY band, as you well know by now, and writing the music, singing, playing, recording, managing, booking, social media and all those activities takes up a lot of space in our lives when we also have to spend time working with other things. But we finally had the time to put the necessary effort in bringing you a decent online store. 

What I'm trying to say with this is: our merchandise store will be the main revenue for this band in the near future. We want to put together a tour to see you face to face and bring the music to you in a live environment where we can connect in a personal level. So, think of it as an ongoing crowdfunding campaign. Every dollar you spend on a product goes to the band's working capital and will be used to fund recordings, tours, music videos and the production of more merchandise. The more interested in it you are, the more stuff you buy, and the more you tell us about, the more this band is going to do. And sooner. 

Once again, all Daydreamers out there: thanks for the love. 

Tiago.  

_____ 

What I'm listening to in this fragment of time: All That Divides by Black Peaks  
What I'm watching in this fragment of time: Comedians of the World by Netflix 
What I'm reading in this fragment of time: The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith