“The US Government can’t shut down YUCA”
Japan Blog Post 3
So what do you do when you get the news that a major festival you are playing (on an Army base in Okinawa, Japan) gets shut down by the US Government just days before your flight leaves?
You get pissed & super disappointed. Once that settled, I looked to my team and saw they had this roguish look in their eyes. This wasn’t a door being closed; they saw it as a challenge and declared “The US Government can’t shut down YUCA!” That’s the kind of team that I am proud to be a part of!
When I’m asked about what tour-life is like in YUCA I can see in the persons eyes that they are expecting to hear me say “We sleep in till 4pm, wake up to shots of Jack Daniels, limo picks us up for sound check, we eat out every meal, perform for millions each night, drink & party till the sun comes up…then do it all over again”. Well, only part of this is true lol.
When we hit the road touring we hit the road with the mentality that we want to be the hardest working band out there. We know it take a team to achieve a dream and we don’t want to let our team down. They have put countless hours in preparing for the tours and we feel such a responsibility on our shoulders to continue that hard work ethic in every country and city we tour to. So, we do party hard till the early hours of the morning and we do have crazy tour stories that get locked in the YUCA vault but we are also committed to getting our asses up early & getting to work.
With the launch of our new album “Rebuilding the fallen empire” successfully underway we found ourselves in the smoking hot sun of Okinawa, Japan with a fire under our asses that we had lit. It was just before 8am, all the other bands were still asleep and our driver showed up to take us to our first video interview. Our days schedule looked like this:
8:30am - Driver picks us up at
9am - First full band Video Interview
10:15am - Individual Interviews to follow
10:45am - First band photo-shoot
11:30am - Head back to cabin (Respond/post to all social media, emails, tour updates. Grab a bite to eat)
12:45pm - Head out for second full band interview
1:30pm - Individual Interviews
2:15pm – Full band Photo-shoots
3pm – Leave to head back to cabin
3:45pm – Be ready to leave for sound check at club
4:15 to 5pm – Arrive at club and sound check
5:30pm to 6:30pm – Dinner
7pm – Be at Club behind merch table to meet n greet/take photos with fans
9pm – YUCA goes on stage to perform
11:15pm – YUCA (Post show / Festival) Video Interview
2 to 3am – Arrive back at cabin for the night
One of the best parts of that day was when we came out of our cabin at 3:45pm. We had cold beers in hand, we were dressed for the stage and had a swagger in our walk that we were getting shit done and we were proud. As we walked down the porch, one of our hosts asked if we were just getting up? Apparently the other bands were still in bed. We shared with them what time we had gotten up and what we had done already. There was this shocked look on their face – I loved that look. I had the feeling in my heart that we were making our dream a reality. We weren’t waiting for anyone to make that dream come true for us. It was a great feeling.
I grew up with my dad teaching me about having a strong work ethic and what that meant. About starting something and finishing it. He taught me to work hard without grumbling, even when it was something I wasn’t stoked to be doing. He taught me to never compare myself, to always attain for the best in myself, to work harder than everyone else so that I had no regrets and I remember learning the life lessons sucked at times. I look back now and I am forever grateful to him for teaching me those things. They are embedded into the DNA of who I am.
I remember in grade 6 I took band and I was so pumped. I wanted to try drumming so badly. I remember going home to tell my dad I wanted to drum and my dad telling me that I was going to play the trumpet. He played the trumpet and I guess wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Instantly I was deflated and had zero passion or drive to want to be in band class anymore let alone play the trumpet. But out of respect for my dad I took up the trumpet. I remember sitting in class with my trumpet in hand and I learned everything by ear. The guy beside me was terrible and didn’t want to play the trumpet either. He didn’t know how to play one note and the teacher never caught on that he was just singing notes into the mouthpiece instead of playing – it was the only funny thing about my band class. About half way thru the school year I was really done with band & I was done with the trumpet. I remember sitting down at the dinner table and my dad understanding I really wanted to quit. It pissed me off at the time but my dad said something that has stuck with me to this day. He said “Matt, I know you don’t enjoy the trumpet and you want to quit but you are a part of a band and started this with them. I think it’s important that you do your best; you don’t let them down and finish the year. After that you can quit.” I never played in any school band after that even thru high school. I guess what I am getting at is how easy it is to quit things we have started when things get hard, doors get closed or parts of it aren’t “fun”. I loved that our label, our team, didn’t think twice about quitting with the news about the Festival being cancelled.
That night back in Okinawa after we got off the stage from performing a fan came up to Andy and was so pumped about our performance wanted to help setup a show for us in Tokyo! It was incredible and perfect timing, some say it was luck - but I don’t believe in luck. I believe “When preparation meets opportunity – you create your own luck” and this tour was loaded with “lucky moments”. I get an overwhelming feeling of pride as I think about how hard everyone worked to get us “prepared” and create the moments for “opportunities” to arise. You’ll hear more about that show and the others in my next japan Blog. Till then…. Be active in creating your own luck.
Cheers, M@ YUCA
*View photos from this leg of the tour here* If you didn’t get to see last week’s blog or photos click here
Lastly, if you haven’t bought our new album yet, please support us and buy it today! iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/rebuilding-the-fallen-empire/id717956553 Or prefer to buy the Physical Copy: http://yuca.bandcamp.com/releases
