So today was my first time actually meeting some fans IN REAL LIFE, without playing live. Dave from Boyinaband had decided to put together a meet-up at the City Square Mall in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Admittedly, I was really nervous before and I didn’t know what to expect or what to do. I was thinking it would be like a live chat (but a real live chat) but it didn’t go that way at all, which was nice.
I didn’t have to worry about running anything or figuring out what to do. I just talked and listened. It was nice. I got to learn about some really intelligent, talented people from Vancouver and even people that lived hours away. I even learned how to play Magic the Gathering for the first time in my life and I kicked the guy’s ass! Not literally.
We basically just went around learning about each person. There was a guy who did EVERYTHING, like everything. He built motorcycles, he longboards, he’s a gamer, he twirls fire, he mashes tunes, he graphic designs, and I felt pretty amazed that this guy was a fan of our music. He gave some good advice and suggestions too, and I learned about different EDM artists from him I’ve got to check out and I even got to see some sick fire twirling. Not in the mall, but on a video he brought. It was pretty awesome.
Guess what? I. Learned. How to Play. Magic the Gathering…and it was awesome. There was someone who could drink a bottle of water in less than 2 seconds, and he taught me how to play Magic the Gathering. Consequently, the student surpassed the teacher and I beat him with 6 player points to spare. Not bad for a noob. I’ve seen people play this game all the time and always wanted to know how to play. Back when I was like nine years old, card battling with Pokemon was so complicated that when I asked someone to teach me, I got, “Eh…it’s complicated,” so I stole his little breaker marble things cause he gave me a douche response. I was young, gimme a break.
Most of the people who came to the meet-up were students and telling us about their likes and dislikes. We signed some awesome kitten cards. I even met a nice family who came. Talked to a producer (whose CD I’m about to listen to and am super excited about it) who came all the way from Seattle to meet with us and network with us which is awesome. Big props for that man. Not many producers would have the drive for that so I have really good feelings about this guy.
Dave and I also freestyled…horribly…about steampunk…and bitches and cars. The only reason we did was because a few of them dressed up as steampunk (or industrial influenced in technical terms) with a top hat, monocle, a jewelry magnifying glass, and a badass coat. They also brought Dave tea and crumpets to make him feel at home! How awesome is that?! Our friends, Jacqui and Adrian, also brought us cat cards and markers to sign for everyone since we were completely unprepared and didn’t bring any merchandise to give away or even have a pen to sign anything. We’re such good artists. Veela was kind of taking it overboard with the cat cards though and drawing alien cats and jellyfish while I just wrote lame messages, so I had to step it up and put smiley faces in my O’s and U’s.
Everyone also noted on how small I was so I got a lot of hugs while being picked up…by people shorter than me…(sigh) gonna go lift now.
Overall, everyone was really awesome and interesting. I loved actually MEETING fans in real life for once since I don’t get to very often and no one was really a fan when I was playing shows in New Orleans (which was like a year and a half ago). I’d never signed autographs for people either. I signed merch for people and shipped it, but it felt pretty awesome to see the reactions.
Hopefully, the Chicago show (April 19th) and the Texas show (July 27th) will turn out just as good with a live performance too. Now I’m super excited for the shows and hope to meet people just like the people I met today. I like who my fans are. I like how intelligent, clever, imaginative, and funny they are. I don’t want fans who are idle and dream of something without working for it. These people are realistic, fun, and down to earth. It felt like I was hanging out with my high school friends again and it was awesome.
We’ll definitely have another meet-up at some time. Here are a few pics with a fan: sirens-alley.tumblr.com/post/45560380034/thank-you-for-such-a-lovely-day-3. Video coming soon!