Channel Z and Friends

My band, Channel Z, had another great gig at the Canyon Inn last weekend. Saturday night we had a lot of people there just to see us play. We had that same large group again, that have come to see us, both at the Canyon Inn, and at Club 90.

Amy and I had some friends there too. Perry and Cindy were there, who come to see us a lot.  Larissa, who has been to see us a couple of times, and our friend Stephen, who has never been. They also came with our friend Kristen and her boyfriend. They seemed to get a kick out of watching all the freaky-ness on the dance floor. We really appreciated the support.

My alter-ego Roxxi Heart, Larissa, Stephen, Kristen, Mr. Wonderful, and Amy's alter-ego Violette Femme

My friend, Jenn, surprised me by not telling me she was coming. She brought two friends with her. This is the first time Jenn has come to see my band play, and she seemed to enjoy herself.

Mr. Wright's friend, Eric, and his wife, Syd also came to our show. They have been longtime fans of Channel Z, and have been to several of our shows. They brought five of their friends with them too!

As usual, I love it when my friends come to see my band play, and I love it when we have repeat fans come to see us.

Channel Z Builds a Following

Before I left for vacation last week, my band, Channel Z had another gig at the Canyon Inn. We play there about once a month, and it's always nice playing there because people are there to DANCE! Plus the waitresses take really good care of us by bringing us the yummiest pizza and making sure we are well stocked with waters and diet Cokes. (I have actually been feeling guilty, because we never tip them, even though our food is free. They're still serving us.)

Lately it seems the Canyon Inn has been very slow, in terms of turnout. Not that we're playing to an empty bar, but it's been less people than when we first started playing there. It's mostly due to some changes the bar has made in their business practices.

This was the crowd back in November 2010

But finally, we started playing to a bigger crowd again.

Here is how it looked the last Saturday we played there...
Not quite as many people as before, but we usually have less that half of that on the dance floor,
so this seemed almost like old times.

The really great thing is we are staring to connect with our audience more. We are starting to get a following. We've always had groups of people who will come to the Canyon Inn whenever we are there, or groups who will always come see us at the Filling Station.

But this time, I realized that we had people who came to see us at the Canyon Inn, specifically because they are our Facebook fans, and knew we would be there. There was a guy named George, who said he hit on Dana (a friend he was with) there at one of our first gigs. She passed  him off onto her daughter, Summer, who then introduced him to one of her friends. But now they are all still friends, and hanging out together...and it was all because of us! How awesome is that!?




This little group came to see us, because they saw on Facebook that we'd be there.
They met at one of our first gigs, and are STILL friends.

There were also people there who had seen the old members of Channel Z play at a barbecue in Layton, and had also come to see us play at Club 90. They brought a HUGE group of  15 or 20 people! I LOVE that they love us enough to keep coming back to see us, no matter WHERE we play!



This isn't everyone.
I think some of their group had already gone home, or didn't want to be in the picture.
They had A LOT more people there than this!


There was also another big group there on Friday night, that I neglected to get a picture of. But they started dancing the moment they arrived at the club. There were at least 6 or 8 of them there, and they were also our Facebook fans.

We currently have 385 Facebook fans. The Facebook fan thing perhaps seems rather arbitrary...but I think it helps us get the word out. Maybe not all 385 are coming to every gig, but I think it's really encouraging that we are getting SEVERAL Facebook fans coming to every gig.

I Heart my fans

Last weekend my band, Channel Z played a two-nighter at the Canyon Inn. We had a great weekend, and the crowd both nights was fantastic.

I was very pleased to see my friend Gina was there for the first time, and she brought her husband, and several friends. My friend Kasie was also there with her dad, aunts, and uncles. Her dad even asked if we had a CD! :) I also reconnected with someone from Jr. High,  Brian. One of my biggest fans, Shane was also there. He has come to see us several times at the Canyon Inn, and he and his mom also came to see us at Club 90. He's a HUGE Roxxi Heart fan (my stage name).

I even got to slow dance with Mr. Wright

Saturday night was packed, and we had even MORE familiar faces come to see us. Some fans we haven't seen in a while were there, and it was SO good to see them again! Mr. Wright and his friends had a boys night out. His friend Roc was there, of course. He's actually a pretty big fan, and comes to see us often. Hopefully some of their other friends are now fans, and will come see us again too!

Channel Z at Club 90

Last year, my band, Channel Z auditioned to play at Club 90. Club 90 is one of the biggest and most popular clubs in the Salt Lake valley, and what's more, the people who come there LOVE to dance! They let bands audition for them on Wednesday nights (free entertainment for them). Their weekends are booked out months in advance.

The audition was pretty difficult, as they don't have much of an audience Wednesday nights, and we were also pretty new. They said they really like us though, and would call us to get on their schedule. Despite following up with them several times, they never got back to us.

Fast forward about eight months. Our Lead guitarist, Guitar Hero, plays at Club 90 with another band. That band was scheduled to play, but then had to cancel at the last minute. Guitar Hero suggests they book his other band, Channel Z, instead, as a fill in. They called us, and we were booked for a two-night event!! I performed just three and a half weeks after having Sunshine.

The club was really great about promoting an 80's night. All the staff dressed in their 80's attire. There were several birthday parties being held on Friday night. The crowd was really responsive to us, just as we knew they would be. The dance floor was as packed as we've ever seen it. The Friday night crowd was BIG on dancing to nearly every song!

I met a lady in the restroom who said that she and her son always go hear us when we play at the Canyon Inn, and saw on Facebook that we were playing at Club 90. I LOVE it when we have fans that follow us from one club to another! We posed for some pictures for them.

Saturday night, there were even MORE people than Friday night, but they weren't as big on dancing as the Friday night crowd.  Still everyone seemed to LOVE us!!! At one point, while I was singing onstage, I looked around and saw people filling every corner of the club. The whole place was packed! Not a table or corner were empty. I asked one of the managers how many people there were. He said there were at least 300+ people there! AWESOME!!!  

The manager of the club said he had received more compliments on our band, than he had in many years, even among their regular line-up! They were so impressed with us! They said they would like to put us on their schedule for next year, about every 3 months! This is SOOO exciting!! I think this will give our band a lot of great exposure!

He did suggest that we throw a few heavy metal songs into the mix, and in fact, we had several people request Whitesnake. We have now incorporated several metal songs in our set list. Our versions of "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "You Shook Me" are fantastic (if I DO say so, myself)!!!

The bar manager had alot of good things to say about us too. He felt we brought a lot of good energy to the crowd. He liked that we went down to the audience to sing to them, and dance with them. He felt I had improved my stage presence A TON, since our audition.

He asked if we had a regular gig at a bar, and said if we didn't, we COULD easily have that somewhere if we wanted it. He said with a little experience we could be as good as the Disco Drippers, and that we have the potential to charge as much as we wanted!!

Overall, it was a dream come true. We hope they will call us to put us on their schedule next year, and that this will open up many new opportunities for us.

Rock on, Club 90!

Channel Z

And now a brief history of how I got my start with Channel Z.  In May of 2008, I answered an add on Craig's List needing a female singer for an 80's cover band. I had to learn "Love Shack", "One Way or Another", "Mickey", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", and "I Love Rock and Roll," and then go and sing with the band as an audition.

I was excited because I thought this particular band would be a perfect fit, since the other members were middle-aged, family men with careers, and I was a not-quite-middle-aged, family woman with a career. I felt that any other band would be the young twenty-something party crowd, whose career was "starving artist" and they just wouldn't understand that I'm not a heavy drinker, or a drug user, and that I can't stay out until 2 a.m. every night of the week.

Well, I didn't get in the band and I was VERY disappointed. But I decided that since I hadn't sung in a while, I should take some voice lessons to brush up on a few things, and increase my confidence level. Meanwhile, I focused on auditioning for some plays. I was cast in the lead roles in "See How They Run" at the Empress, and "Miracle on 34th Street" for West Jordan.

Lo and behold, I get an email from this band 2 years later, in April 2010. They are holding auditions again, and am I still interested? HELL yeah! I went and auditioned again, and pretty much nailed it! This time, they decided to use TWO female singers instead of one, so I had a second audition with the other female singer they were considering to see how well our voices matched. I was SOOO happy when I learned I got in!

I felt a little intimidated at first, because I knew that this band had had two female singers in the past two years. I wasn't sure what the circumstances were, except that this time, there was only one original member of the band left. It seemed as though the Band Owner just got all new members whenever it suited him. I also felt that the other female singer had more of a "rock and roll" voice, and I felt inadequate with my "bubble gum pop" sound.

I definitely didn't want to be the weakest link, since I wasn't sure of my standing in the band, or for how long it would be. I really felt I had to prove myself, since they didn't pick me the first time I auditioned. I practiced hard on my own, learning the lyrics to the female songs, and the back-up parts to the male songs. Since I wasn't sure which part the other female singer would want to sing, I learned both harmonies.

After 8 months of learning songs and rehearsing, we had our first gig in November of 2010. I made sure to help with the loading and unloading of the gear, and to learn how to set up and break down. I didn't want the band to think I wasn't pulling my own weight. 

I was very nervous because our first gig was at The Filling Station, in the town where I grew up, and I knew I might see some people I knew there. I wasn't sure how well received I would be. At this venue, people come to play pool and chill, so there weren't very many dancers, but the crowd seemed to enjoy us. I DID have a couple of close friends come, but I was relieved that I didn't see anyone else I knew there that time.

At my second gig at The Canyon Inn, a few more friends came. At this particular venue, the people come to DANCE! The dance floor was packed, and people LOVED us. I was running a fever that night, but the show must go on.

I was annoyed that a theatre acquaintance who came to see the show commented that I needed to relax more on-stage and be myself. Excuse me?!? I didn't ask him to come and critique my performance. I didn't say to him, "So what do you think I could improve on?" I wasn't expecting any constructive (or un-constructive) criticism.

I WAS nervous, because it was only my second gig, and there were people I knew there. And I wasn't feeling well, I had a FEVER. Besides, I'm not supposed to be myself when I am on-stage. That's why we wear the wigs and costumes, to help us become a different person. To become a freakin ROCK STAR. Give me a break, dude! Ugh.

We gigged about 2-3 times a month, even travelling to Rock Springs, Wyoming. The more we gigged, the more my confidence grew. I genuinely felt like an equal member of the band.

Then the unexpected happened. I found out I was pregnant. I wasn't sure how the news would be received in the band, because the reason the last singer was replaced was because she had gotten pregnant. Did she leave on her own accord, or was she asked to leave? Would this mean that I would be kicked out of the band? Was my singing career over before it had begun? I kept this secret to myself for 3 months, until I could no longer hide it.

When I finally broke the news, it was with trepidation. I assured the band members that I wasn't going to let this interfere. I pledged that I wanted to continue to perform as close to the baby being born that I could. And that I really wanted to continue once the baby was born. I stated that I was okay performing with a big belly if they were. The news was actually very well received.

Incidentally, I didn't end up being the weakest link in the band. The other female singer didn't know the harmonies very well, and she didn't help load/unload and set up/break down very much. She also missed a lot of rehearsals due to illness, and even missed a gig! I had to fill in by singing her songs, as well as mine! We made a group decision in the band to let her go.

The last few times we played at the Canyon Inn, there have been some familiar faces. Apparently, this group of four friends saw us back in December or January. Since then, they have shown up to both our February and May gigs there. These are not the kind of people who frequent the Canyon Inn every weekend. We don't know these people at all in our personal lives. They were there just to see US!!! This last time in May, one of them said to me, "We come to see YOU, you know." I have my own FAN CLUB! Awesome!!

We just hired a new female singer to replace the one we kicked out. It's my friend Amy who I've done plays with. She impressed us from the get-go, by knowing the songs well, and she didn't have to look at the words. She had the harmonies perfectly. She had a good vocal range, being able to sing both low and high, like I can. She also blended really well with my voice. The guys in the band, said at times they couldn't tell who was singing which part. She did fantastic at her first gig, and had TONS of energy and stage presence!



She's good, I better watch my back.

Again, I find myself hoping that I'm not the weakest link. I'm finding it increasingly hard to make it through our gigs. At our last gig, I could barely breathe enough to sing, since the baby is pushing on my diaphragm. My endurance is also really low. I find I've got enough energy for dancing the first two sets, but the last two sets, I can barely move! The Band Owner commented that I need to watch my facial expressions, because I look like I'd rather be anywhere but there. Yikes!! No Bueno!

Honestly, I would have rather had my last gig be in May, but I'm afraid of coming across like a flake. I don't want it to seem like I'm pulling the same crap as the other female singer. I told the Band Owner that I was getting really tired and winding down, but that I would keep going as long as they needed me to. He wants me to do our June and July gigs, so I'll do my best. I feel frustrated, because I'm a perfectionist. I know what I'm capable of, and I know at 8 months pregnant I'm not able to give my best performance.

I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot by confessing this.

**Please read my addendum to this post.