Talk:Feel Good Drag

Stephen Christian explanation of re-release

It needs to be summarised and then re-added. It's not inconjunction with wikipedia's context and tone guidelines, needs to be included in the article or properly introduced/explained and then specific portions added:

'Reasons for Re-Recording the song as the first single'

Absolutepunk.net's CEO\Founder Jason Tate recently ask frontman Stephen Christian about why they chose to make the song the first single on the new album.

“ we have the most incredible friends/fans of all time. they saw us through the days of vans with no seats, sleeping on the side of the road, living with our parents, having only 2 dollars per day each to eat on when on tour, through the good (christian joining the band, neal avron producing) and the bad (former member changes, rumors, etc.). we have a core group of die hards that will be with anberlin as long as we so shall live. and we owe every single bit of success to them, and them alone.

the reason we did feel good drag is because what some friends (fans) do not understand is that anberlin is not a 'big' band, we are not mainstream, we have never been played on rotation at fuse or mtv, we have never had an article in rolling stone or spin magazine, nor up until this point have we had the luxury of being on a major label. with the record never take friendship personal, (the album that feel good was on) selling around 150,000 (an amazing number that i would never have imagined when we started the band) it was a huge accomplishment in the 'underground' indie scene, but in the broad spectrum of the musical world it is really not that impressive. (in comparison it is only 1/7th the amount that lil wayne sold FIRST WEEK on his latest record.)

and no its not about the money or numbers! actually its the opposite. as musical 'artists' we want our medium out to as many people as will listen, we are proud of what we have done on 'new surrender' but we were also proud of what we have done in the past. 'feel good drag' was at the end of one of the records we put out 3 years ago and we never ever thought it got the shot it deserved. being on an indie label we did not have the financial resources to get our songs in front of the broad audience of listeners we felt the song deserved. we could not afford another video, nor purchase radio time or a radio team, or barter or buy are way onto music television stations.

we chose to re-record feel good drag, the label had nothing to do with it AT ALL. we chose it for several reasons. one, i mentioned above... we love the song and did not want it to get lost in a back catalog, we liked it to much.

secondly, as is radio protocol, we needed to start out our radio push with a heavy song, we didn't want to start out with something like an 'unwinding cable car' or 'inevitable', we wanted to introduce ourselves to the general audience with something a little more powerful, energetic, something that makes even slipknot fans cower in fear. ok not really. but you get the idea. i promise that this will not be the last single of the new record!!!! there is plenty of other songs that we feel are better than feel good on this record! i promise!

lastly, we did it because we NEED the fans to rally behind us, we were counting on them recognizing the song on the radio, feeling somehow connected to it and us, and calling in to request it more. after all it is you, friends, that allowed us to be on warped tour main stage, it is you who keep voting us the extra 10 minutes almost every day here! it is because of you that universal republic took a chance on a small indie band from a little town in florida. it is because of you we can keep doing what we love and loving the life we lead. we need you again! after all 'the feel good drag' was your song! you knew about it first, you have the original version and 'like it better', you knew us when..., this doesn't have to change. you know us personally and how hard we work to make sure you know that we care (youtube videos, constant updates, blogs, autographs, hanging out after the shows, etc!).

we belong to you friends, always will. stephen christian

”

.

kiac (talk) 14:10, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

References