2014: A Year in Review I think it is safe to say that 2014 was my most productive, ambitious, and challenging year as an artist. I wanted to just quickly recap what I thought were some of my most important artistic achievements throughout the year (maybe some of them you guys missed), and share my hopes for 2015. I wont include links, because the second you include a link...facebook causes a decline in organic viewership...so you guys can find it all quite easily if you havent seen or heard it already! The year started with my album The Weight of Glory: Second Edition being named Noisetrades best album of the 2013 by Derek Webb (owner of noisetrade). That was an incredible honor as I appreciate and respect what they have done for me in my career over the last few years. I toured aggressively the second February rolled around. I spent February through October on the road with almost no breaks. I played clubs, bars, house shows, worship conferences, churches, festivals, parties, screenings, rallies...just anything and everything...I was there. I made new friends, new fans, saw people respond to my rap stuff in new ways, saw the Lord work in the lives of people all over the country. Touring really is my life blood. It pays all my bills, allows me to save, and keeps me engaged in doing what I do best...sharing an experience with people. Hoping that the moment itself becomes bigger than the sum of its parts. If you havent been to a show, you should come! If you want to book me in the new year...lets do it!!! My collaboration EP with Free Daps (free on bandcamp and noisetrade), American Snake Oil Salesmen Visit the Great White North was a really cool, surprise success. Me, Heir Jordan, and Isaac Knox put it out at the very end of December, and the enthusiasm spilled over into the new year. Its a really sincere clash of styles with folk, hip hop, and some pop elements intermingling. It just told about the journey that the 3 of us embarked upon in Canada. Really honest storytelling. I think it set the tone for 2014 as far as how my heart and mind were going to process things. In March I released a loosey (a single song for no reason other than to release it) called Hungry Hungry Hippos on bandcamp... you should totally get it if you havent... its what rap is all about. I know a lot of people wonder why I didnt release a rap record this year. Well...I released 2 in 2013, and sometimes thats just not where your heart is at. But Hippos essentially is enough bars to fill an album. Its 80 bars of just lemme get this off my chest aggression and humor over the Groundhog Day instrumental off of Eminems recent release. Rap fans loved it. References and bars galore. If you didnt hear it...you have NOOOO reason to complain about a lack of me rapping in 2014. : ) For April Fools...me and Free Daps released a goofy video/song called Bounce House and for about 2 weeks...we were the coolest kids on the block. Time Magazine, The AV Club, The Daily Dot, Elite Daily, Uproxx, and countless other blogs and websites covered it. It also got a huge feature on YoutubeNation which is youtubes original show that features whats hot on the net at the time. We expected nothing from it, but as it started to gain a lot of attention and our friends, peers, family members, and strangers kept telling us you guys are gonna go viral...we definitely got our hopes up. Lesson learned for sure. Ive been making music since I was 14. I shouldve known better than to think that would be the thing that made me famous. haha. But hope springs eternal. You cant help but want to get your foot in that door however they let you in. Im so happy we did it. People still bring it up every day. Its a fun, silly, and extremely dope song. My dad and oldest brother both had heart attacks in March, and that really put me in a bit of a spin cycle for the next few months. It was hard to write fun rap songs when youre not sure your family is gonna be in tact. But thankfully they are on the mend and doing better. And I would like to thank all of you for your prayers. Since December of 2013 I had been scheming and trying to figure out how I was going to pull off my most ambitious project to date. I wanted to make a short film and a soundtrack/album to accompany it. It was called Fort Wayne. I assembled a group of friends and peers that I trust and who trust me. And from late January through April we put together a film in the frozen state of Indiana. Every day was a record low in temperature. There were days we couldnt film, because the equipment couldnt handle the temperatures. I was having to film, do shows for 2 weeks, come back and film. Fly people in. Pay people (way less than they deserved) hand to mouth and stretch myself so thin to fulfill this vision. Im so happy with how it turned out. I mean...I made a freaking film! A real, living breathing, honest to goodness film. Its my proudest achievement as an artist. I love making records, but there is nothing more difficult than writing, producing, directing, acting in, co editing, and marketing a film project. I learned more in 2014 than I had learned my entire life prior just through making that project happen. I did an indiegogo campaign for it, and thanks to the staggering and overwhelming support from you guys...the project took shape. The soundtrack was done in the summer with my friend Greg Lafollette. I released it on September 27th for free on youtube and the album was free on Noisetrade. I think it has around 9k views since then. I know a lot of people would look at that and say...well thats not viral. Thats not a big deal. But, man...a 43 minute film is not a 10 second clip of a cat falling off a piano. Its not a 3 minute music video. Its not the sort of thing people can sit around and watch 50 times, laugh about, and send to their grandma. Its not a cute story a blog can feature. You have to actually sit down, plan your evening around it, and watch it. It has to be watched and absorbed. And for 9k people to watch this movie I made and have no real budget to share. For people to discover the album on Noisetrade, love it, then discover me as a filmmaker. Thats more than I could have asked for. And I hope it leads to many more amazing opportunities in 2015 and beyond. Thank you guys for supporting my most passionate project. So...obviously after making a film and album...I shouldve taken a break right? Well I thought I was going to. On October 15 I planned to take the next 6 weeks off the road. By the time November 1st rolled around...I had already written another record! haha. Just 5 weeks after the film and album came out. I was driving to lead worship in DC and I just had the words I live my life among a den of liars and cheats and couldnt get those words out of my head. They eventually became the reason I made the acoustic record Among Theives. Honestly...this album surprised me more than it did anyone. I think its the best singer/songwriter record Ive ever made. I think Local News is the best song Ive ever written. And thousands of people agree. I recorded the vocals in a single day in November and put the record out for free on November 21st. Ive had so many people tell me its their favorite album of the year. Tons of blogs have named it one of the top 10 albums of the year. Ive been reading emails since the day it came out of people thanking me and telling me how much this album is helping them through their issues. Thats what its all about for me. Yes...it was serious. Yes it was heartbreaking, but thats where I was at, so I shared it. And it worked. Im so in love with that album. I put out a small little video for the song The 24th right before Christmas, and I really love how it turned out. I think Im always gonna look fondly at it, because every Christmas itll be there for me. So the year is over. A New one is upon us. Im so thankful to have you guys in my life for everything that comes in this new year. I want to speak this into existence for myself this new year. 2015 will be a year of intense productivity, creativity, relaxation, and FUNNNN. I want fun back in my life in every way. Im already working on a lot of really fun stuff. Im about to shove sooooo many rap songs down your throat this year. I dont know if Im gonna release an album or just a ton of singles or mini eps yet. But rap is all Ive been thinking about for months. Im gonna make more videos for Among Thieves and new stuff Im working on. I am currently editing some hilarious stuff that I cant really tell you anything else about just yet. But youre gonna love it! Fun Fun Fun! Thats whats in the works. I cant tell you what curveballs the Lord has for me, but I want to take it all in stride, and enjoy every second of it. Every show, every fan, every long drive, every setback, every letdown, every success...I want to enjoy it all. I love you guys, and I cant wait to see what we can do in 2015! God bless and Happy New Year! Heath McNease (President and Chairman of Mcnasty Robotics)
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 01:36:20 +0000
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