OVERHANG

He's been a recurring figure in this blog since the very beginning. For years now, we've been talking about the guy from Latvia who we'd like to work with. Indeed, he seems to be the very key to the success of our album. We spent a few hundred dollars on other reputable engineers in Chicago, trying to see if they could bring the album one last step, but just because one has worked with Billy Corgan or has experience with Chicago rap artists does not mean one has the spirit or skills to bring the album home.

So, with the setting up of another band going slowly, the focus is again on Janis. This time, the plan is to get him here on a religious visa. We had so much fun going into debt to our lawyer and gathering documents for our last two visa attempts, that Joel said, "Let's try it with Janis!". It really seems to be the only way, short of moving to Canada (which is not an option right now). Joel is currently talking with members of our church who would benefit from Janis' skills in setting up a sound system. And we are looking for people who would lend their names to a promise of supporting Janis while he's here, though we probably can't use the same people as we did with Joel.

Since he is an enduring character in this saga, I want to give a bit of background on who Janis is and how he fits in Overhang's story. About six or seven years ago, Joel was working as an intern in a studio in the heart of CCM land, Nashville, TN. He was enticed by a mass email inviting Christians to be an intern in a music studio. Thinking this would be a way to get experience, Joel moved there the summer of his junior year at Dordt College, arriving at 3 in the morning, thus beginning the strangeness that has been his life. The second year he was there, Janis arrived from Latvia. He had received that same email, maybe through connections at his Reformed church in Riga. Joel and Janis struck up a friendship that developed into one of the more fruitful developments for Joel's sense of taste. Janis loved exploring sounds. Joel loved composing music. Janis felt like he was being used at the studio and the people there were very suspicious of Janis. Joel felt used as well, but he stuck it out. Janis lived with Grant and his wife and six other room-mates for awhile before moving on to another studio. But Joel and Janis kept in touch. Later, when Joel moved to Purdue in Lafayette, Janis came through and stayed with Joel for a few months. Again, they realized how similar their desires were. Janis seemed to love exploring God's world of sound as much as Joel loved to make new music. Unfortunately, Janis had to return to Latvia and work in a studio making television and radio commercials.

Janis worked for a couple years in Riga, frustrated that he could not pursue his dream of starting his own studio and working with the bands that wanted to work with him (he had become one of the best engineers in Eastern Europe, but lacked the resources to go out on his own). When Joel received a large loan, we agreed to send the money to Janis to help him set up his own studio in return for him finishing our album and paying back the loan with the bands he would be recording. Now, after his own share of trials and tribulations, Janis has built his own studio and is doing what he was created to do. At the present time, he is finishing work with a band and is hoping to be able to come to the states next year on this visa. So now you're caught up on Janis.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technically, Joel has not worked a real job for nine years. Sure, he's working for Overhang Productions LLC, but mostly he just sits in his basement living space that someone kindly has allowed him and works at the computer--listening to music, placing beats here and there, making progress that only a few people can hear. He has gotten alot of help from family and friends financially which has allowed him to live this way, but constantly scraping and asking for money for his musical project and day-to-day living expenses is hard work too.

On his breaks away from the computer, Joel reads the Bible and a book about Vincent Van Gogh for comfort, inspiration and direction. Van Gogh seems to be speaking to him again, this time not just in the form of the paintings but in Vincent's relationship with his brother Theo (Vincent's lifetime supporter and patron). At one point in Vincent's life, it seems that his brother was suspicious of the direction Vincent had been heading with his life. With a gift of 50 francs, Theo expressed concern for Vincent's apparent "idleness". This is Vincent's response to Theo's letter:

"Now for more than five years--I do not know exactly how long--I have been more or less without employment, wandering here and there. You say, Since a certain time you have gone down, you have deteriorated, you have not done anything. Is this quite true? It is true that occasionally I have earned my crust of bread, occasionally a friend has given it to me in charity. I have lived as I could, as luck would have it, haphazardly. It is true that I have lost the confidence of many; it is true that my financial affairs are in a sad state: it is true that the future is only too gloomy; it is true that I might have done better; it is true that I've lost time in terms of earning my bread; it is true that even my studies are in a rather sad and hopeless condition, and that my needs are greater--infinitely greater--than my possessions. But is this what you call 'going down', is this what you call 'doing nothing'?...

But I must continue on the path I have taken now. If I don't do anything, if I don't study, if I don't go on seeking any longer, I am lost. Then woe is me. That is how I look at it: continue, to continue, that is what is necessary. But you will ask, What is your definite aim? That aim becomes more definite, will stand out slowly and surely, as the rough draft becomes a sketch, and the sketch becomes a picture--little by little--, by working seriously on it, by pondering over the idea, vague at first, over the thought that was fleeting and passing, till it gets fixed.

I must tell you that with evangelists it is the same as with artists...Why do I tell you this?--not to complain, not to excuse myself for things in which I may or may not have been wrong, but simply to answer you...If there has been any change at all, it is that I think and believe and love more seriously now what I already thought and believed and loved then...So you must not think that I disavow things--I am rather faithful in my unfaithfulness and, though changed, I am the same; my only anxiety is, How can I be of use in the world? Can't I serve some purpose and be of any good? How can I learn more and study certain subjects profoundly? You see, that is what preoccupies me constantly; and then I feel imprisoned by poverty, excluded from participating in certain work, and certain necessities are beyond my reach. And then one feels an emptiness where there might be friendshhip and strong and serious affections, and one feels a terrible discouragement gnawing at one's very moral energy, and fate seems to put a barrier to the instincts of affection, and a choking flood of disgust envelops one. And one exclaims, 'How long, my God!'

For the moment it seems that things are going very badly with me, and it has already been so for a considerable time and may continue awhile in the future; but after everything has seemed to go wrong, perhaps a time will come when things will go right. I don't count on it, perhaps it will never happen; but if there is a change for the better, I should consider it so much gain, I should be contented, I should say, At last! you see THERE WAS SOMETHING AFTER ALL!"

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)