Tom Dickins

 Hi everyone. I love you!

I am long overdue with the blog – so this is a blog on the album campaign (including new rewards FOR EVERYONE), the one year anniversary of Fuck Plan B and how much I love and need you all!!!

One Year Since Fucking Plan B

A year and 3 days ago I quit my 9-5 day job to focus on my music. This was either the stupidest or bravest, most exciting and terrifying, punishing / rewarding decision I have ever made. I made the exit on my 25th birthday… On Monday of this week I turned 26.

As I gently reflect on the year that has been, on my bank balance, and my quality of life – I can say without hesitation that it has been worth it.

I made this leap because I believe in my music – but more broadly because I believe in the role of the artist in contemporary life, and I believe in the ever-deepening relationship between the artist and the audience.

Since taking the plunge I have travelled the world, between The Jane Austen Argument and my solo work I have released 3 Singles, 3 EPs and an Album, I have played in converted churches, parks, huge theatres, tiny dingy pubs  and lounge rooms. I have written new songs, I have discovered old ones. In the midst of all this, Ange and I got engaged to be “not-quite-married” 7 times in 7 different countries. These things have made it an incredible year.

On the flip side – I have lost SO much money. I have broken down in tears in the Centrelink line. I have alienated friends who don’t understand my job. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t contemplated giving up. These things have made it a challenging year.

OUR album

On Friday 18 May, 3 days before my birthday, I launched my crowdfunding campaign to fund my debut solo record. In the days leading up to the launch, Ange and I worked 7am-2am pulling the campaign together. This was the last ditch effort to make it work. We taught ourselves to shoot a video; we storyboarded, shot and edited and reshot and reedited. We asked you guys about what rewards you wanted to see, and tried best to incorporate your suggestions. We’ve agonized over the budget, and had to make some really big decisions about what was most important to us – what we could afford, and what would have to go. It was exhausting.

To my utter joy, excitement, disbelief and amazement – we reached the goal of $10,000 in under 15 hours. Just insane. Just totally and amazingly beautiful. Why did it work? Because this community we are all apart of made it work. Because there is a real belief in what we can make together. Thank you thank you THANK YOU for making it work!

I have been dreaming of making this record for as long as I can remember. With $10,000 – we can afford to do it!

DREAM BIG!

But the campaign is still live, and there is still a chance to support the project. The more money we raise – the better the album will be.

Thanks to you… We are dreaming big!

If we manage to raise double our initial target, we will have a really decent budget to make this album they way we want to. We will be able to afford more time in the studio and we’ll rope in AMAZING guest musicians (I’m already scheming)! We could even get some publicity – and might, just might even be able to distribute the real, actually-happening album to real, actual record shops!

If we exceed $25,000 we can get one of Melbourne’s best producers to sign onto the album – and if we hit $50K or above we can afford to tour the album!!! It’s not necessarily likely – but you have all reaffirmed my belief in possibility.

REALLY EXCITING NEW REWARDS :

To this end, we DO have really exciting new rewards for EVERYONE that supports!!   … Potentially

IF we hit the 20K mark (hope hope), ANYONE who pledges or has already pledged during the campaign will get a bonus digital 6 Track EXCLUSIVE Covers EP. We are making this JUST FOR YOU, and it will only ever be released to supporters of this project. AND we will be giving supporters the chance to suggest which songs you would like to see on the EP!!

If we hit 50K… Holy fucking shit!!! We will send out a LIVE DVD of the Album Launch!!! The DVD will also contain behind the scenes footage from EVERY single step of the process, interviews and HEAPS of extras!!! Anyone who has pledged over $30 will get a signed physical copy – anyone under $30 will get a digital download. Awesome yeh???

Click here to become part of OUR album: tomdickins.pozible.com

As Amanda says, We Are The Media

So once again I need to ask you to pick up your phones, talk to your friends on social media and discuss this project with EVERYONE YOU KNOW!! If they can spare a dollar – they can be a part of our record.

But Most importantly:

Forgive me Internet, for I have sinned: It has been 3 months since my last blog. I have been getting drunk and fiddling with instagram. I have occasionally fallen prey to the odd tumblr in the dark.

But during this time I have conspired with my creativity and indulged my inspiration… The result is:

I HAVE SOME FUCKING EXCITING NEWS!!!

I am going to make an album….

A solo album…

…(with special guests)…

……………………………..Hopefully…

I have been working towards this album for the past 4 years, before the Jane Austen Argument and before my EPs. It was initially going to be titled “Three Thousand Empty Seats”, then it became “Later, Along The Grapevine” and more recently “Sometimes A Traveller is Cheaper Than A Taxi”. But an album is so much more than a title. The shortlist of album-able songs has chopped and changed and ultimately grown.

The plan is to use 50% “from the vault” material, and 50% new, purposely written material.

I will be embarking on a crowd sourcing campaign (via Pozible), to raise funds for a creative development period, recording, production and distribution of the album. But more on that a little later on.

If you follow me via any of the social networks, you are probably aware that I have been doing something I like to call “Project Collation”. I have been meaning to do it for years. It is basically going through all my old journals, diaries, sketch books and blogs to collate all the poetry, prose and songs I’ve ever written (currently crammed into a leather briefcase that my Dad gave me on my 22^nd Birthday) into one master document.

A decade of songwriting...

It has been such a dizzying an informative task. I have currently worked through 14 books of heartbreak, poverty, drunkenness, self-sorry and ultimately “fucking fine” writing. So far I’ve transcribed 74 songs and 23 poems.

I am becoming so aware of my patterns of writing. Honestly – if I use the word “heart” again in a song I better have a damn good reason for it!

After much self-ridicule – some of the lyrics are the worst things ever written – I have begun to see the beauty in each of the stages of my growth. Little melodic phrases, lyrical gorgeousness, rhythmic bizarrity… Song and poems that aren’t complete but should be. Thematic ideas pulled from a pile of wank that deserve greater enquiry. It’s fucking exciting.

I am so fucking excited to climb into these songs – some half written, some finished, some are just tiny shards of an idea. These songs, this material – this will be half of the album.

The second half…

I am going to create new material, new songs that come from two major directions:

1. Having identified the patterns of my writing – I want to play with new forms of writing, new stimulus material, new genre.

I am sitting in my apartment – which, thanks to the Virtual Garage Sale I am able to continue living in for at least the next three weeks! Thank you so much to everyone who bid – it really has kept us alive and with a roof over our heads. It was such an incredibly humbling experience – and I am so happy that all my prized possessions found beautiful new homes.

Now we turn our attention to next months music, next months gigs and next months rent!

NEW EP + WEBCAST LAUNCH ON WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER

If you have been tuned into my twitter/FB/webcasts you will know that I have been recording a new solo EP. It’s very lo-fi – recorded entirely at home… But I fucking love it. It’s called “Peter Pan, 6 Years On”… And I’m releasing it digitally on Bandcamp on Wednesday night (two days from now… FUCK!). If enough people buy the digital version, I’ll look to make some physical copies available in the new year.

To celebrate it I will be hosting another webcast gig, live from my lounge room. To spice things up – I am adding another element to this webcast. For anyone who can / wants to make a donation via PayPal or direct deposit, I will learn a cover of your choosing.

I will rehearse it up and play it on the webcast. I will also record the live performance and email it to you for Christmas. Flirting as outrageously as I am with the poverty line, I don’t feel comfortable setting a price for this – so contact me via my contact page if you want to make an offer/request a song!

GIGS

In gig news, I am playing a show at the Brunswick Hotel TONIGHT (Monday 19 Dec). The beautiful organisers of “Passionate Tongues” (an open mic poetry night) saw the garage sale, and decided to help out by making their final night of the year a fundraiser for me. Their will be poetry, me playing music, raffles, hanging out and BEER! It starts at 8.30 – get there!

On Thursday night I am playing a show with the gorgeous Gemma O’Connor of Dearly Wish in my hometown of Ballarat at Babushka Bar.  It is shaping up to be huge and lovely. A few folks are driving down from Melbourne – if you want to car pool, hit me up on twitter and I’ll RT to try and hook you up. The last Ballarat show was just so so lovely – so I’m stoked for this one.

THE JANE AUSTEN ARGUMENT

We have so so much exciting awesome news coming over the next few days too – make sure you follow us on social media for details. Also… Keep Jan 3rd free… All I’m saying… (hint/wink/nudge/other innuendo)

PHOTOS

Here is a photo of me singing into a sock for the EP

And here is a photo detailing what happens when US Border Control doesn’t let one be a rock star and one remains exiled in Vancouver.

And finally, here is a photo of me from Primary School. You can’t see them, but I was wearing white socks and red sandles.

I miss those sandles to this day…

Dear Everyone,

Touring is expensive. And hard. And expensive. Coming back from tour is even more expensive. Over the last 6 months I have spent almost every waking hour working hard to make music, to bring that music around the world, to fight to stay afloat through creative practise. Every bit of money we make we invest into the next project.

Since getting back to OZ, I have been working my arse off to bring you a BRAND NEW SOLO EP (coming very soon, expect another blog on this shortly). I have also reworked solo shows in Ballarat and Melbourne – and have started lining up a few house gigs.

I love what I do. I love the support I have been given by you all. I think it’s important and vital and I will continue working my arse off to make it work. In the short-term though, we find ourselves unable to afford food, bills and (gulp) RENT. Therefore we have decided, at the very last minute and with some encouragement from twitter, to have a VIRTUAL GARAGE SALE!!!

There are some things very dear to my heart that we are putting up for sale – instruments, costume pieces, high-school artwork, right down to the less important, old stuff someone else should have… and a signed vinegar jar.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, the sale is on until Thursday night EST. I’d love it if you could spread the word and help us make this work so we can pay rent so we can make art! If you are able to facebook and tweet the link, it is:

http://tomdickins.net/virtual-garage-sale

PS – there are hints of a possible webcast to showcase the wares in greater detail, on Thursday evening…. Watch this space… Until then – enjoy the VIRTUAL GARAGE SALE  MOFO’S!!!

PPS:

Here is a naked photo of me with all the auction items. If you email me with an offer price, I will print a copy, sign it for you and send it to you for Christmas… just email dr.dickins@gmail.com . Just have “Virtual Garage Sale” in the email subject.

Happy shopping lovers!

Xx  Tom

Photo by Ange Devery

Blog drafted on the first day of recording, 29/09/11

I am sitting in the control room at London Bridge Studios in Seattle. Its one of those weird things where it feels like it’s been a long time coming and also “fuck… We’re here already”. Like Hootie And The Blowfish put it, “I don’t believe in time…”. Yes. I just quoted Hootie. Deal with it.

Our incredible drummer, John is testing drums as we speak. I am reminded that I know very little about music and recording. He is making noise that Blake and co are making changes to. There are lots of buttons, dials and switches and colour bars indicating volume. It sounds awesome… But I have no idea what most of it means!

We have got the final track listing for the album done. 12 songs. 12 of our favorites. 12 little stories from our lives that John will make sweet drum-love to. Then tomorrow Jen will record piano and next week we lay down our vocals. It’s such an odd thing having these stories, these emotions that we wrote down in our little Brunswick abodes, that we players to each other, then with each other, then in front of a whole heap of you – and they become this whole other beast in the studio – they are reinvented, re-realized. They also become the meal ticket for the four or five people who are helping us to record them.

The studio is beautiful. There are tonnes of records on the wall from artists who have made their work here that has gone on to make them small fortunes. I won’t list them here, but if you look it up you will gather that some of the alumni we love, some make us shudder to share space with.

There is a big room for drums and piano and a smaller one for vocals. It’s all amazing and intimidating.

Half an hour ago I was having a cigarette break with Blake (our producer) and Geoff (who owns the studio). Its amazing to think of the trajectory that brought us all here. Geoff always wanted to work here (all the Seattle records of the 90′s that he was listening to came out of London Bridge), landed an internship here when he was 16 then bought the place 15 years later. Blake finished art school and was about to go into an audio school (expensive) and at the last minute met another guy in Montana who was building a studio and needed his help.

I met Blake through the oddest of circumstances. When I was in acting school I did a 6 month exchange to the University of Montana in Missoula. I landed the lead role in Peter Pan and I briefly dated the actor playing Tigerlily, Karly (at the time) Wygmans. We fast figured we made much better sense as close friends and Karly ended up coming to Australia to study for 6 months. When she returned to the states she fell in love with this guy Blake who had just started working on a studio in Missoula.

When I went back to Missoula a couple years later, they were engaged and living together and I became really dear friends with Blake. In fact, he produced my solo record, Majesty and Misery. We all remained in touch via the magic of the interwebs. They married (and in fact have my favorite wedding photo’s of all time) and now have a gorgeous baby called Henry.

When Jen and I did our slap-dash tour of the states in 2009 we stayed with Karly and Blake in Seattle and Blake set us up with a gig in a recording studio. It went nuts and there were photographers and drunk awesome Americans everywhere. I got my first tattoo at Karly’s work. Blake mentioned that he would love to do some recording with us. We filed that away in the back of our brains.

Years passed and Jen and I were recording our debut EP in her music room. We needed a masterer to get the EP ready for release in 48 hours to coincide with the Opera House gig… BLAKE?!? HELP!!!

Blake helped and that is why you can listen to “The Birthing Pyre”.

Months passed, I quit my job, we threw a party and recorded our set. We decided to release a new EP. We needed a mixer/masterer to have the EP ready for release in a canberra in 72 hours (an improvement). BLAKE?!? HELP!!!

Blake helped and that is why you can listen to “Plan Behind – The Beautiful Mess We Made”

Months pass. We tour Edinburgh, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and New York. With your help through Pozible pledges, through buying our EPs, through seeing our shows, through generally being amazing we have landed Seattle, found ourselves in this beautiful studio. We need to make a record in an aggregated 32 hours…

BLAKE?!? HELP!!!

How do you spell a sigh online? I would probably write is as:
haaaaaahhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So how am i feeling?

Well… haaaaaahhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

It has been an incredibly full on few months. In the last two months we have toured through Edinburgh, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York and now I am sitting in Seattle, listening to Jen record the piano for the first scratch track for our album. We go to the studio in less than a week. Suddenly it all feels very real. It is weird, being a songwriter – when your words start to come back and mean even more to you than when they first happened to you… One of the songs off the album, Maintain The Madness, seems to mean so much more now than ever before…

“I’ve got to maintain the madness just so the stillness makes sense to me…”

It’s been so busy, I can’t even put it all down here – suffice to say we have performed for crowds of nine to crowds of 1000+. We played to 300 German high school students. We played in parks. We played in churches. We played in gay nightclubs. We played on a park bench beside the Notre dame. Every day has been hours of planning and admin and emails and phone calls and rehearsing and playing and meeting people.

Fucking awesome. All of it. In Amsterdam Ange’s brother Thomas played guitar with us. In Edinburgh we worked on a song with Neil Gaiman. In Germany we played “As In Berlin” 40 meters from where the wall came down.

“I’ve got to keep the momentum rolling along so that no-one can stop me…”

The most incredible part – the success with Pozible. We asked you to help us make this album. And you responded. And with enthusiasm and love. And we made the full amount to make this album work. And now we are doing it. Because of you. Because of your help, support and belief in what we are doing.

“no-one can drag me…”

On the flip side I have ten dollars to my name… Not enough to pay my loans back. Not enough to pay for the rest of tour. Not enough for a sandwich more complex than lettuce and pepper.

So I have decided to bring forward my December / January plans… And announce my plans to perform a series of house-gig/performances of my solo cabaret show “Fuck Plan B” around Melbourne and regional Victoria.

For this to happen, I am asking you to help me out by pre-buying the show. I will come to your house, perform the show for you, your family, your friends, your neighbors and then hang out and chat and be merry! Usually I would charge $500 for this – but am poor and in need of your help, so if you pre-buy the shows, it will only cost $250!!! BARGAIN!!!

To arrange a show – please contact me at dr.dickins@gmail.com .

“i’ve got to maintain the madness…”

If you’d like to hear more about where the show has come from, what it means and where it fits in now, check out this AMAZING article that just came out in the Melbourne City Times:

http://www.thecityweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/escaping-the-95-grind-with-flair/2299687.aspx

Hope to hear from you. love you all. What a crazy world it is. And a beautiful one.

“…just so the stillness makes sense to me…”

So it’s Monday. Opening night of “The Spaces Between” at the Edinburgh Fringe. We arrived a week ago and have done two showcases, 3 preview shows and a whole heap of admin.

It is a beautiful weird wonderful fucking festival. I was here four years ago as a poor honours student – drinking under the guise of studying. I was working at the Speigeltent in George square and my best mate and I were living off my Youth Allowance converted into pounds and split between two.

It was at the festival, at the Spiegeltent that I met Amanda Palmer, Camille O’Sullivan, Bob Downe, Meow Meow and Sammy J. These were the people performing at the Tent. These were the people that showed me that there was this thing in between music and theatre. This thing that did elements of both. That the songs I was writing could fit in with the theatre I was studying. This thing was called cabaret. and I LOVED IT.

I had one show booked that year – a lunch time gig at the book festival in Charlotte Square. I plucked up the courage to invite all of these mentors/artists/heroes to the show. and fuck me dead. They actually came. That night Amanda and I went swing dancing and decided to sing a song together. 

The next night we did. It was “Hallelujah”. I had THE moment. The moment where you forget the words. The moment where time seems to stop and you think you’ve fucked it up well and truly and forever. But then the other side of THE MOMENT happens. Where you realise with every part of your heart and your mind and your skin that you must do this. That you were born to do this. That it is written somewhere, at the perfect juncture between nature, nurture, fate and science that this is what you should be doing. Then you do it. And it works.

Four years have passed. I have done good and terrible shows all round the world. Honing the craft. Figuring out what MY kind of cabaret is. For the last two and a half years I have been working with Jen, as the Jane Austen Argument. And we have finally arrived at a show that is the perfect middle ground of everything we both want to say. that show is “the spaces between”

I am staying with Amanda who is still fucking incredible, still fucking generous and still fucking beautiful. And Neil – who is all of these things and more. I am in love and I am about to open a show I believe in in a festival where I am no longer wiping mirrors and ripping ticket stubs, but also working my arse off – and am written down in the same lists as the heroes who inspired me to give it a shot.

Time passes quickly and remarkably.

Wish me luck!!! 

I have been writing, thinking, meditating and oscillating on Fuck Plan B ever since Amanda emailed me, advising I quit my job back in march (just after the Goes Down Under tour finished) I tweeted, hashtagged, facebooked and emailed for people’s opinions, and to explore my own. I have followed this philosophy for the last month – thrown in my job, and am working my arse off to try and stay afloat.

When the twitter conversation exploded yesterday it was so fucking exciting – I had been thrashing over these questions for years. Already there are some great blogs (check the #fuckplanb hashtags with links) discussing both sides of the debate. I hope this one can add to it.

My Personal Fuck Plan B Philosophy:

I have always wanted to make a living from my music/theatre/cabaret. It was the first plan. I studied it for four years, then plunged myself into terrifying amounts of debt to travel the world and learn more. Somewhere along the line, whether through the warnings of mentors, or family, or an overindulgence in the value society places on $$$ – I began to believe it wasn’t possible, or at most too risky.

So, in an effort to FIX things, to stay afloat I got a series of jobs – managing chocolate shops, phone stores and then later at a university. THIS WAS ESSENTIAL. It enabled me to continue living in Melbourne, absorbing and making art and to grow a base of friends, colleagues and fans that (hopefully) will be able to support me post making-the-jump. Everytime Amanda and I spoke she suggested I quit my job – and pour all my energy into my art. But I wasn’t ready. It wasn’t likely enough to pan out, in my opinion.

I guess the key thing here is that to successfully make an attempt to live this dream – there is an essential period of preparation. This might be study, full time work, getting loan to keep you afloat for the first six months, WHATEVER. There is no harm – and should be no guilt associated with this.

It reached a point, though, for me, where the preparation became an excuse to not live my Plan A. I started having to choose between security/underfulfillment and risk/artistic career. Only at that point was I able to “Fuck Plan B” and feel right about it.

The Making Of Excuses

It must be said though, of my many friends/classmates/colleagues – we were constantly told that there must be contingency. That only a small portion of us could succeed. Combine that with a healthy dose of tall poppy syndrome and barely anyone was trying.

We made excuses for ourselves – and basked in the perceived futility of trying. And so, of course, we didn’t achieve much. Strangled by circumstance and pessimism, we floundered. It’s essential to identify excuse-making. Amanda called me on mine and she was right.

The Recognition Of Privilege

In the writing of my cabaret entitled “Fuck Plan B” I became instantly aware of my position of Privelage within this decision making. I am in a privileged position, where none of my familial, financial or personal circumstances necessitate the safety net. And I am lucky to be able to make any, let alone multiple plans. So if I fall (and yes, I recognise it is a huge possibility) – I am fortunate enough to possess the skills, support network and society to pull myself up again.

The recognition of this privilege, makes it even more essential to act now. If I don’t – what excuse is there?

On Plan A.

I took the plunge – even though I still have a personal loan debt of almost $20K, rent to pay and world travel plans I have done it. The level of support, love, concern and care from ALL of you is incredibly humbling. I hope my first few weeks of news stories inspires you:

• I re-released Majesty and Misery for digital download. Within 24 hours it hit #1 on bandcamp and I have made my first months rent. Thank you. (it’s here BTW http://bit.ly/dickinsEP )

• I have announced my solo cabaret show. It opens in two and a half weeks. Melbournians – please come and see it - http://bit.ly/fuckplanb

• I have entered songwriting competitions, played solo gigs where barely anyone listens, written new songs (good and shit) and started this website.

I also wrote and delivered this speech at our Fuck Plan B gig/party on the day I finished work.  I’ll leave  you with this:

Obviously making a decision like the decision I’ve just made, and making it publically – many people ask the question: Why?

I studied acting at University and we were constantly told that only 5% of us would succeed, that many of us will ultimately fail.

This was meant to instill within us a working ethic and an understanding of just how hard this road we were walking would be

But there was never any reference to where that road could ultimately lead us.

I understand why they told us this.

Disappointment is HARD.

But the advice is flawed.

It didn’t account for a wider definition of success

It didn’t inspire us to try.

It was a self-fulfilling promise that meant many of us escaped success by not even believing it was possible.

And now it’s taken a few years to unlearn these lessons

To look at my own idea of success.

To figure out how hard I’m willing to try

How much I’m willing to risk

And I’m very, very aware that it could fail spectacularly

But then, I’m a fan of spectacle.

But what I’d like to do – what I hope I can do is to challenge all of us – myself and you

Look for whatever makes you happy 

What couldn’t you live without doing?

What do you do in your spare time that makes you smile?

Are you doing it enough – if not, why?

Challenge the things that hold you back – and build them into your life in a meaningful way.

Build them into your first plan – make them part of the only way you can succeed

Because there is no time for plan b.

Fuck it.

This is the official website for ME – Indie-Cabaret singer, songwriter and director, (and one half of The Jane Austen Argument) Tom Dickins. . Inside it… eventually… you will find music, musings, photography, video’s and thoughts. If you want to contact me for lessons, direction or to enquire about bookings please don’t hesitate to email me at dr.dickins@gmail.com

Have a lovely day… Do the things that make you smile… Feel free to write me a letter… I’ll write back…

Love

Tom