So here we go… This has been an exciting couple of weeks. I’ve been featured in Paste Magazine, Relevant Magazine posted a video of me, AND (cue trumpets and confetti), “Spirit First“, the documentary that the fine people at ADDvocate Films are making about me, is launching its IndieGoGo Page. (Will update with link tomorrow when it launches).

We’ve been through a lot together these last few years, you and I. I guess this is what they call “traction”, and I feel like I owe it all to you guys. Well, now it’s time to dig in and take advantage of it…

Tomorrow, the teaser for the film will be released, along with the launch of the IndieGoGo fundraising page. The good news is that roughly 70% of the film has been shot already (by me, Aaron Dethrage, Allen Clark, Aaron Long, Ryan Ondriezek, Sam Hale, anyone else that’s been with me on the road, and an infinite number of you who took a camera and started filming at a show). But there are a lot of expenses left. Editing, Promotion, Sending a cameraman with me for another week (they’re going to pay for my gas that week, you guys!!) Film Festival submission fees, printing up DVDs, etc, etc.

So tomorrow, I’m going to be making ALL of my music free online for one day. My hope is that you guys will share the link to the IndieGoGo page, where everyone can view the teaser and we can get all of these expenses paid for. (IndieGoGo, if you’re not familiar, is somewhat like Kickstarter).

Everything I’ve done, even down to the hundreds of house shows I’ve played, has been because of you guys. So I’m counting on you. I have no idea what the next year or two holds for me, but these last couple of weeks have been encouraging, and I hope we can ride this wave until it turns into a bigger wave.

See you tomorrow!

-Levi

It is that cool.
It isn’t that cool.
And it’s cooler.

The truth is that the longer I do this, hopefully the more perspective I am gaining. It’s not the college-dorm life of hanging with your 4 best friends; at least not the way I’ve been doing it. But it is something good, something meaningful, and yes – something exhausting.

I’ve enjoyed seeing your faces so far. It’s been good to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and have meaningful conversations that just don’t happen on Facebook or Twitter.

For the rest of you, I hope you can make it to a show this year. I have some new songs, some old songs, and hopefully I’ve continued to improve. I hope to never put on another boring show in my life. (That’s always been my goal, but just know… it continues to be.)

I fly back to Reno tomorrow to pick up my car, and hit the great northwest. Until then, you can see the upcoming dates at http://www.leviweaver.com/tour (or if you’re reading this on the website, just click on the “tour” tab up there.)

-Levi

-SO- a little back story, for those of you that (wisely) choose to stay off the internet on the weekends…

I’ve been sitting on a completed EP for almost two weeks, waiting for the release date so I could share it with you all. Saturday afternoon, I just couldn’t take it anymore. In a spontaneous fit of impatience, I uploaded the songs and declared Saturday and Sunday to be the “Sort of Secret Sneak Peek Weekend”. It would be up for the weekend, and then I would take it back down until the “official” release date of March 29th.

Well, the response was overwhelming.

However, I probably wouldn’t have noticed just *how* overwhelming if I hadn’t been spending a night in with Heather, catching up on Season Two of Luther on Netflix.

Since we were using the computer to watch the harrowing tales of the most conflicted law enforcement agent this side of John McClane, I had to use my phone to take down the EP. Thus, I saw a screen I don’t usually see: the bandcamp.com homepage / log-in screen.

This is what I saw:

What the what?!

After I took the screen shot, I refreshed the page to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Sure enough, there I was. #4 on the Bandcamp.com homepage.

You guys!!

I turned and showed the screen to Heather. “I can’t exactly take this down now, can I?” I said, probably not in a British accent.

She agreed. You guys have spoken. “I Am Only a Tiny Noise” now has two official release dates: Saturday, March 24th for the digital, and Thursday, March 29th for the CDs. (They’ll be available at all my shows this Spring / Summer).

I can’t thank you enough. I hope the EP is worth every penny you spent on it. Please know how grateful I am that you bought it when you could have just listened to it for free as many times as you wanted. Without going into detail… it will be nice to be able to actually *get* to Texas to resume the tour on Thursday.

With sincere gratitude and probably still not a British accent,

-Levi

EDIT: a quick addendum to the story: a couple of weeks ago, I had right at 500 plays in one day on bandcamp when I put “The Letters of Dr. Kurt Gödel” up for free for one day. It was the most bandcamp.com plays I’d had in one day, ever. Since “…Tiny Noise” went on to the charts late last night, I’ve broken that record. Twice. Last night = 625 plays. Today so far (at 11:14am): 720 plays. You guys’ support has not only been direct, but you have exposed me to a whole new pool of potential new fans. You Did This. Thank you!!

I went through today and figured out how much I’ve paid in fees this year, and I noticed something. For all the “Dark Clay” downloads of the last couple of weeks (you can listen / buy here, if you’re interested) I was only receiving $.52 per download.

The first place the money was leaking was that bandcamp charges a 15% fee, taken out once you have a transaction that is less than your accrued fees. That way, you’re still getting the full $10 (or in these cases, $1) sent to you until you owe them that much, then they just keep that transaction).

15% feels pretty steep, if I’m honest. But their site is so good, so easy to use, and so reliable that I figure even if I’m paying a little higher than I’d like, I’m getting stellar service, and I’m okay with paying for quality when I can.

But the next place I noticed the money leak was Paypal. For every $1.00 transaction, $.33 was being taken out. HOLY CRAP. How was I paying 33% to paypal?!

I went back to bandcamp (again, i reiterate, they’re worth the 15%), and found a link to this. https://micropayments.paypal-labs.com/

Bands, go do this now. (Seriously. Click here, Do it.)

Here’s how the breakdown worked. Paypal’s standard fee is $.30/transaction + 2.9%.

BUT, you can sign up for micropayments, and that changes to $.05/transaction + 5%. The percentage is a little higher, but the per-transaction fee is MUCH lower.

This means for every $1 that comes in, instead of keeping:

$1.00 – ($.30 + (1.00*.029)) = $.66

I’m keeping

$1.00 – (.05 + (1.00*.05) = $.90

That’s a difference of almost a quarter PER TRANSACTION.

Obviously, the difference is less the higher the transaction goes. In fact, it tops out at almost exactly $12. Here’s that breakdown:

STANDARD: $12.00 – (.30) + (12.00 * .029)) = $11.35
MICRO: $12 – (.05)+(12.00 * .05) = $11.35

So if you don’t sell singles and all your albums sell for higher than $12.00, don’t bother with this. But we musicians mostly live in a world where we are primarily selling things that are $10 and less. I’m self-funded and independent too, so I took the risk of posting a boring Math / Money blog to tell you that you should be saving a little cash.

See you down the road,

Levi

“The Letters of Dr. Kurt Gödel” will be available on vinyl this fall. I’m only printing 500 copies – I’ll put them up for sale on the website after the tour is over, so the only way to know for sure that you’ll get one is to come to one of the 100 shows I’m playing this Spring / Summer.

I’m still waiting to hear back if they’ll be ready to go by SXSW, but I suspect it’s more likely that they will be in my hands in time for the West Coast run that starts on March 29th.

I’m also talking with the folks at Hatch Show Print to see if I can get some custom-designed posters for the tour. These will be way more limited: I’m only printing up 100, and they will be available only at shows.

In addition: a new 5-song EP (currently being mixed by Aaron Dethrage) and a new T-Shirt design.

Anyway, merch is not the point. It’s just evidence that I’m going back on the road soon, and I’m excited about that.

1. I’m playing a show tonight in Nashville, TN at The Basement. Bear Cub, Allen Thompson, and Don Gallardo are also playing. If you like shows, I suspect you would have a killer time here. If you don’t like shows, or you’re not in Nashville, TN, please turn to page two.

Page Two: I’m helping to do the musical score for a documentary about sloths (slothi? Slitheryn? This is something I should know if I’m going to be involved). It’s got a kickstarter campaign, and if you like …sleuths(?), you should check it out here.

Trés: Renee Yohe, who has been a really vocal supporter of my record, and whose movie is coming out soon is also in a band called Bear Cat. They’re going to be touring soon with Never Shout Never, and the kickstarter to fund their new record is here.

Three.5:
While I’m on the topic of funding – most of you won’t be able to get involved (unless you live in Canada!) but you should still take some time to read about this, because it’s awesome. Corin Raymond, A Canadian musician is paying for his record in Canadian Tire Money. If you’re like me-until-last-night, you probably have no idea what Canadian Tire Money is. Well, just click on this link, scroll to the bottom, and start reading your way back up. It’s absolutely infectious enthusiasm, and an inspiration to continue to be creative as an independent musician.

And Lastly (D.)
I’m touring again this year! (it’s my job.)

If you want to know when I’m going to be near your city (and maybe help me book a living room / barn / rooftop / prison show), click here and scroll on down. I’m hitting a lot of places twice, so if you can’t make the first one, don’t despair, just keep scrolling down and maybe it’s there again. If it’s not, then it’s okay to despair a *little bit.

I love you guts. I meant to type “you guys”, but …guts. I love you guts.

-Levi

*”despair a little bit” = say “aw, bummer.” and send me an email about it.

I started making a documentary about my grandpa about a year ago. I have a suitcase full of old photos spanning his entire life, the life of his family, the early life of my dad and uncle. I spent hours with him and my Grammy; interviewing him, matching names to faces to make sure I got the stories right.

I still remember when he was diagnosed with a blood disease similar to Leukemia. The doctors told him there were two strains of this particular disease – one would take your life quickly; in a couple of months, and the other would give you a couple of years to say your goodbyes and prepare yourself, whatever that means. This diagnosis came roughly five years ago, and if that doesn’t tell you about the competitive nature of Jasper Weaver, then nothing else I write here will.

I love it all so much I call
“I want you back”

Grandpa used to have a little miniature wooden casket that he kept at his house. He told people that a rabbit or squirrel or something had died, and asked people if they wanted to see it before the burial. I’m not sure why people seemed to always say yes. Maybe that was just the nature of Grandpa. He could tell a story so convincingly that people who would otherwise have no interest in seeing a dead animal would open the casket to take a peek. When they invariably did, a spring-loaded piece of fur would fly out. Grandpa would laugh and laugh, as if that were the first time he had ever seen the prank play out. He was never without a joke or a story, or a good-natured prank. He loved to laugh, whatever the catalyst.

The last time I saw him was last week; the day after I got home from Europe. The disease had taken just about everything recognizable. Most of his responses were non-sequitur. No jokes, no stories. When I told him about the trip to Europe, he replied with something about meeting up with someone at the rodeo grounds tomorrow. We all knew it was near the end. I missed him even then. He was uncannily good at providing comfort to others when they went through these situations. I needed him there for this. We were already getting a glimpse of the hole in our lives that he would leave behind.

I did not know you as well  as my father knew you

I knew my Grandpa pretty well. He performed my wedding. I feel really lucky. But I wish I’d known Jasper before he was Grandpa. I’m sure we would have had differences of opinion, but I suspect I would have come to the same conclusion as most: a firm belief that Jasper cared about me, even if we didn’t agree on everything, or anything. He pastored a church in Utah when my dad was a teenager. The stories of his interactions with the Mormon ministers at the time are legendary. But in the end, even the bishops loved Jasper Weaver. He had a lot of talents, but the one that I think outshone the rest was loving people. The number of people who he impacted is nothing short of astonishing.

every question you took the time to sit and look it up in the encyclopedia

Grandpa spent a lot of his life attempting to prove to others that he was smarter than his 8th-grade education let on. The truth is, I think he was trying to continually prove it to himself; no one else doubted his intelligence or capability, especially when it came to horses and people. He used to be so good at picking the winners of horse races that he made a living at it before he became a Christian and stopped gambling. It wasn’t guessing for Jasper. He competed in horse shows for years, and his house full of trophies is evidence of the results.

I love it all so much I call
“I want you back”

Grandpa died last Saturday. The funeral was like something out of a movie. About 800 people packed in to my Dad’s church at 10am on a Wednesday. I suspect if it had been a Saturday, we would have had to put up screens outside, in the frigid windy morning. People would have stood outside, I’m convinced. When it came time to put the casket in the hearse, there was an open invitation: “The official pallbearers have been selected from the family, but if you feel like you had a special connection with Jasper, we’d like to invite you to stand here in the middle aisle and help pass the casket to the exit.” Nearly everyone in the room moved to the middle. Grandpa would have pretended to be dismissive of such a grand gesture as crowd-surfing to the hearse, but secretly, he would have loved it.

It sounds like we would have had a great deal to say to each other
I bet when I leave my body for the sky the wait will be worth it

As we left his house last week, I leaned in to hug him. He shakily handed me a hundred dollar bill (which I felt guilty taking) and whispered something no one else in the room could hear. “We’ll wake up one of these days.” Dementia or no, that was profound.

At the funeral, a man from the church said this: “I came from a place where everyone was either cold and hard or hypocritical. Jasper was the first man I met that was not only sincere and loving, but absolutely a man’s man. He set a target for me; one I may never be able to hit, but one I’m not ashamed to aim for.”

I probably could have just written that in this space and said everything that needed to be said.

We buried him in Rio Vista, Texas. I was one of the last to leave, and as I walked to the car, I looked back at the casket. I felt like I was abandoning him, leaving him alone in the cold weather, awaiting the completion of the burial process. It was then that I finally saw what I had been looking for the entire service: my brother’s headstone. It was right next to where grandpa would soon be lowered. It was then that I finally let the emotion wash over me a little bit, but it was a different emotion than I expected. I wasn’t leaving him alone, just like he hadn’t left us alone.

After the funeral, my Grammy took me back to the bedroom. “Grandpa wanted you to have something” she said, as she opened a heart-shaped ceramic container. She handed me his wedding ring. I didn’t feel worthy as, through blurry eyes, I watched myself slide it onto my right hand.

I’ll finish the documentary someday. In the meantime, if you’ve read this far, I ask one thing of you: hug your family today, whether that’s a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a child, or just a friend whose casket you would move to the center aisle to help carry to the hearse.

(The song I’ve been quoting is Airplanes from Local Natives. Hear it here.)

If you would: record yourself making a noise less than one second long. I will try to manipulate all the sounds into a song using ONLY what has been sent to me, no sounds of my own. send your sounds to tinynoise@leviweaver.com

No idea if this will be any good, but I’ll release the track for free either way.

We’re in the studio this morning. Jeremy is tuning his drums while Aaron sets up microphones and runs wires. Ben Jones is also on his laptop. I can’t see what he’s doing, but I’m guessing it’s something cool. We still miss Lindsey (in London) and Ben A. (Raleigh), but 4 out of 6 isn’t bad and later, the new guy Ross will drop in to play piano.

As for me, I’m sitting here at my (t)rusty old laptop, drinking coffee, reminiscing on the last three weeks in the UK and uploading the rest of the tracks for the live album. England was good. It felt like when you find an old shirt you haven’t worn in half-a-decade, but it still fits. You forgot about the hole under the sleeve and the stain near the collar, so those are new again, but it still fits. It was great to spend time with people I dearly love, and Heather got to come with me (!!) so it was even better. I miss England almost every day, but it’s nice to know it’s still there any time I can get back.

“Twenty Thousand Miles”.

By the time you read this, the new album will be available (here!). It’s weird to listen back to these – they were from the very first of last fall’s tour dates, in August and September. It’s interesting to hear how the songs have changed since then; flourishes added or dropped… I think things like asphalt and exhaustion are the proverbial water and sunlight for songs, you can practice as much as you want at home, but until they live on the road, they never bloom.

That said, I’m still really happy with this live album. You can hear the absolute silence of the living rooms, the unfazed chatter of a bar, the crickets of a backyard. I think it captures the experience, for better and worse. LIstening back to these, I am instantly exhausted, which I think is the mark of a good live recording – if it takes you back to that moment (in this case, exhaustion, or the frustration at the loss of my voice) then it’s a good live recording.

Bringing the conversation full-circle, the purpose of releasing this album is to raise money to pay for the studio time I’m using right now. I would just give it away otherwise. I thought about doing a kickstarter, but it just didn’t seem like the right time for that. Maybe later this year when I start work on the next album. For now, I’m hoping to sell enough of these that I can pay for the EP, then sell enough of the EP while I’m on the road to… well, you get it.

I hope this finds you well, wherever you are. I’m really behind on e-mails, but if you want me to come to your place for a house show, drop me a line. I’ll be back to working on booking all week next week. (booking(at)leviweaver(dot)com)

See you soon!

-Levi

P.S. I asked Ben what he was checking on his computer and it was painfully boring, so instead I’m telling you that he was inventing a new note – it’s halfway between the quarter-tone between C and C#, and it’s called C-Black-Icy. the sign is C^. it’s not discernibly different (from C) to most human ears, so we’re going to be making an album for dogs soon.

If you’re interested in hosting a show, please e-mail me: booking (at) leviweaver (dot) com

LEG ONE:
Th 3.8: Orlando, FL
Fr 3.9: St. Petersburg, FL
Sa 3.10: Atlanta, GA
Su 3.11: Anniston / Birmingham / Tuscaloosa AL
Mo 3.12: Lafayette, LA
Tu 3.13: Houston, TX
We 3.14: Dallas, TX
We-Su 3.14-18: SXSW (Austin, TX)
3.22: Atlanta, GA

LEG TWO:
Th 3.29: Dallas, TX
Fr 3.30: Roswell, NM
Sa 3.31: Phoenix, AZ
Su 4.1: Redlands, CA
Mo 4.2: Los Angeles, CA
Tu 4.3: Palmdale, CA
We 4.4: Newman, CA
Th 4.5: Visalia, CA
Fr 4.6: Fresno, CA
Sa 4.7: San Francisco, CA
Su 4.8: Reno, NV

LEG THREE:
We 4.18: Corvallis, OR
Th 4.19: Portland, OR
Fr 4.20: Seattle, WA
Sa 4.21: Spokane, WA
Su 4.22: Rexburg / Pocatello, ID
Mo 4.23: Salt Lake City, UT
Tu 4.24: (Western Colo / S. Utah)
We 4.25: Denver, CO
Th 4.26: Cheyenne, WY
Fr 4.27: Omaha, NE
Sa 4.28: Minneapolis, MN
Su 4.29: Chicago, IL

LEG FOUR:
Th 5.10: Chicago, IL
Fr 5.11: St. Louis, MO
Sa 5.12: Nashville, TN
Su 5.13: Indianapolis, IN
Mo 5.14: Columbus, OH
Tu 5.15: Detroit, MI
We 5.16: Toronto, ON
Th 5.17: Montreal, QC
Fr 5.18: Providence, RI / Boston, MA
Sa 5.19: Connecticut
Su 5.20: New York City

LEG FIVE:
Th 5.31: New York City
Fr 6.1: Philadelphia, PA
Sa 6.2: Paeonian Springs, VA
Su 6.3: Baltimore, MD
Mo 6.4: Norfolk, VA
Tu 6.5: Lynchburg, VA
We 6.6: Raleigh, NC
Th 6.7: Charlotte, NC
Fr 6.8: Savannah, GA
Sa 6.9: Atlanta, GA
Su 6.10: Nashville, TN

LEG SIX:
Th 6.21: New Orleans / Baton Rouge, LA
Fr 6.22: Lafayette, LA
Sa 6.23: Houston, TX
Su 6.24: Austin, TX
Mo 6.25: San Antonio, TX
Tu 6.26: Burleson, TX
We 6.27: Lubbock, TX
Th 6.28: Roswell, NM
Fr 6.29: Phoenix, AZ
Sa 6.30: Los Angeles, CA
Su 7.1: Visalia, CA

LEG SEVEN:
Fr 7.13: Fresno, CA
Sa 7.14: San Francisco, CA
Su 7.15: Reno, NV
Mo 7.16: Corvallis, OR
Tu 7.17: Portland, OR
We 7.18: Seattle, WA
Th 7.19: Spokane, WA
Fr 7.20: Idaho
Sa 7.21: Salt Lake City, UT
Su 7.22: Denver, CO
Mo 7.23: Omaha, NE
Tu 7.24: St. Louis, MO
We 7.25: Minneapolis, MN
Th 7.26: Chicago, IL
Fr 7.27: Columbus, OH
Sa 7.28: Pittsburgh, PA
Su 7.29: Philadelphia, PA

LEG EIGHT:
Th 8.8: Boston / Providence
Fr 8.9: New York City
Sa 8.10: Norfolk, VA
Su 8.11: Lynchburg, VA
Mo 8.12: Raleigh, NC
Tu 8.13: Charlotte, NC
We 8.14: Atlanta, GA
Th 8.15: Nashville, TN