Priory: Live at the Bootleg Theater

“If you want to work 60, 70 hours a week and make as much as a gas-station attendant, this is the career for you.  And bottom line, we’re lucky to do it.“

The best part of doing what I do, is being able to speak with people and find out how they got to the places that they have.  Most of what is written here is from the perspective of a University student.  It’s a narrow perspective, one that is often squeezed thin by societal pressures, parental pressures, tuition fees, etc.  We’re all here to study, grab our degrees, and get a solid return on our investment, hopefully having some fun along the way.  Getting a degree in psychology seems almost cowardly sometimes.

Musicians have a certain bravery and yearning for something more than that, more than what is known.  I feel as though music is the epitome of drive, feelings, and urges for something bigger.

I was able to talk to the Portland-based band Priory.  We spoke about like on the road, what it’s like to be out here in Los Angeles, and what it means to be a band.

“These are my best friends, we have a blast.”  

“The close proximity we have together as a band, all the stuff you’d normally do yourself – you do with your bandmates.  Instead of having your own inner-dialogue, you all really become one person.  So, choose wisely the people that you’re doing it with.”

“Don’t do it for money, ever.  You’ll be madly disapointed.  Do it because you have to do it and give it everything you have.  That’s it.”

“It’s the hardest job on the planet, to make no money.  You work so fucking much to not make any money, but you have to – that sounds melodramatic, but it’s real.”

“To get on stage, and have those moments, that’s my lifeline.”

“I haven’t said this to anyone else.  We have these moments on the road, you wake up, we’re all adults, we get to be in a new environment, looking out the window and seeing scenery that you haven’t seen and being in these magnificent places with your best buddies and it’s a trip.”

Priory’s full-length album is available now on iTunes.