2012 - The Fade Perspective
I feel the need to split my yearly summary into two parts, as if I was two people at once. Why? Because I don't want to bother non-fade fans with all my fade-blah and want to give close friends a chance to have a look at what I have been up to BESIDES fade, in a personal way. ~ Since the fade-perspective is more fun for me though and easier to sum up, I will start with this.
2011 for me had ended with the idea of wanting to do more for the band I treasure the most, than what I was up to till that point.
I have always been a person who hated to share work and attention and loved to accomplish as much as possible alone and on her own, but by the end of 2011 I realized, that this was going to be a war I couldn't win alone. One voice into the storm wouldn't make the bandnames be heard worldwide - so I followed what I had been doing in the past and mailed Ricky, fade's manager, about the idea of creating Streetteams worldwide, to spread the word.
In January the first meetings with the new US Staff took place and also touring the US was not out of reach for fade anymore, so the idea of spreading the word globally was very warmly welcomed.
This was, where the hard part of the journey started for me, I guess, yet I'd never wanna miss the experiences I made, the people I met and the things I did...
January and February I would be busy organizing interviews and setting up the German Streetteam, as well as trying to encourage everyone who showed interest in forming a ST, to actually do it in the end.
That way I got to know Louise, from the Australian ST and Hamano (I use your nickname since I'm not sure if you want me to unveil your real name, dear, eh? ;D) from Fade Finland.
I'd also pass my driving exam - and turn my driving teacher into a fade fan as well... *laughs*
By the end of February Dorian Smith would be officially introduced as the new Promotion Representative for fade - and she surely tried whatever possible to really cover the media with fade's faces and get them to the US and Canada by March.
I wrote my first CD Review - for GalzLoveMusic, about "Kings Of Dawn" and began writing tons of E-Mails to German magazines, websites and festivals trying to get fade better known especially in Germany.
Around March, as mentioned before, fade would play in Canada and the US. The concert night of fade's Live at the Webster Hall in New York is probably one of those events I will never forget - and consider as one of those moments I just wanna burry myself for, because of feeling embarassed.
Alisa, one of the Webmisses of the US ST, would attend that Live and Tweet a lot about what was happening and I'd silently really die from jealousy so hard, that I ended up crying half of the night, because I couldn't go. The more I think and look back I wanna laugh about it all. I have really been an idiot.
Considering Alisa got me a little handwritten message from Jon that night and also wrote me the sweetest letter ever, I feel even worse. She never meant to make me angry or jealous, in fact she has all the time been assuring me that my work for the band is very much appreciated and that I shouldn't lose my faith but keep fighting for my dreams. Guess I will never stop feeling guilty about all the ugly feelings I had back then. Unf...
Saying Alisa, I also can't forget about Shannon, the other Webmiss of the US ST - which I stumbled across due to her Photo with Jon from exactly the same concert night as well and have been jealous on, too. *lol*
By now I may say that I am glad I stumbled across those 2 power women, though. And that they really made me see that there is no reason to ever be jealous, but rather be caring and don't forget others. They definitely taught me a lot about what friendship, despite the distance and never having met, means and how teamwork and trusting a person for real really works.
I became so much less bitter due to this encounter.
Also during March I would start discussing with Gan-Shin, fade's new EU label, what could be done to spread the word about the new album, which was still in recording process back then. Unfortunately that teamwork didn't really end in success, but still the label gave me a lot of nice ideas I also used later on in the ST for better promotion.
I'd prepare new .pdf's with promo material in German and English to attach to my E-Mails to magazines, including the newest facts and most important details about fade's career.
April would be my first time of going back to Madrid in 2012. And I think everyone of my friends couldn't hear the words "Jon", "fade" and "promotion" anymore. *laughs*
I'd walk around the city in my hoodie and T-Shirt, encouraging friends to take pictures of me at important spots and make everyone listen to the newly released snippet of "REIMEI".
Returning home with new motivation, energy and awesome memories in my backpack, it'd be the time to prepare stuff for Bigapplestyle's "Beautiful PV Shoot".
I remember way too clearly how it sort of turned into a competition - which country would send in the most videos? What would the final result look like? Who'd sing for real in their videos or with which ideas would people come up?
The girls from the Russian ST had a meeting to do their video in a little, but motivated group and despite the rain did an awesome job filming at amazing places!
My dear Ka-Chan, nowadays German ST's right hand, who I only started to get to know better around that time and had never actually "seen" before, not even on Photos, would preview me her video - and make me understand that she totally is an artistic person with a lot of talent + that I am still of the opinion she should record a CD one day with her amazing voice ~
And me?
I'd force my brother up on the highest mountain of Trier with our little videocamera and stand there and sing. Horribly. *lol*
Guess I never had done anything comparable to that before, especially not having to sing in front of my family members and still trying to pull a straight face, since I considered what I was doing there as "serious business"...
I must have been close to fainting when I later on read that Jon personally wanted to look through the videos to decide on which parts would end up in the PV. - Or rather didn't, since that PV never surfaced (luckily?)
"TEN" would be finished in May and the excitement about a release would start to grow. Back then there were still high hopes that with Gan-Shin an EU release would be possible and the band would even manage to play here around summer.
Unfortunately none of this didn't work out in 2012. Nevertheless Ka-Chan would manage to spread some Flyers I had created as a Promo for "TEN" in Munich and send me the rest by August. The idea of spreading flyers is still in the back of my head for 2013 I may admit, but first I really want something the Streetteam can promote aka a new album release around the corner.
As soon as June came and the album release by the 6th, my Streetteam work would consume all my free-time and even my sleep. *laughs* I remember writing endless reviews for CDJapan, GalzLoveMusic, Akataiyou no Nihon and other webs.
Luckily I had Alisa to beta-read and correct my English in the review for AnN, since this collaboration would become important later on.
In general there would be a big movement due to the album release. Fade-Finland and Fade-Australia appeared and as mentioned before, 2 awesome people were added to my life due to that. I had to understand how hard it is to spread the word about a Japanese band in Germany after all, seeing how successfully and amazingly well fade were received for example in Venezuela. I still bow down in respect looking at all the ST's accomplished worldwide. I think many of them appeared especially after the release as well.
By July I'd push myself far across every limit, knowing I'd have to start my apprenticeship by August and not knowing how much time I would have left for my bandwork by then. KingOfDawn got loads of updates, I was practically writing and replying to band-related E-Mails non stop, Ka-Chan's awesome idea of the fanbook project would be born, etc...
I'd also manage to meet her in person by the end of that month. A meeting that probably changed my life completely.
In general, a person who changed my life completely and made me understand a lot of things, as well as seeing life from a completely different perspective. Naive as I was I didn't realize how important and dear she'd become to me, but I was impressed and admiring this young, confident woman going exactly her way and plotting to live in Japan for a year a month later. All alone and by herself - and she wasn't afraid but rather excited and totally sure she could manage this.
I must have been as worried about that as her mother, even if I tried to hide it well. *lol*
Anyways, August came and with it the start of my really rough workweeks.
So my work for fade would decrease almost down to zero and I'd have really, really tough times in which I doubted if to keep running the ST or simply hand it over to Ka...
I also managed to meet Lintares from the Russian ST in Düsseldorf during that month, which was probably one of my highlights of 2012 in total. I never expected for real that this would work out and we'd have such an amazing, even if short day together, walking around the Japanese Street or hanging out in my favourite Café called "Barcelona".
And mentioning ST's: August was also the month the Spanish ST appeared - and this alone made me super happy and excited.
The girls behind the spanish team had ever since been supportive and doing a amazing job! Never expected they'd turn out to be really faster than the speed of light when it comes to translations and newsposts. It's probably the most organized and active ST right now and even being still "young" they have already accomplished a hell lot!
By the end of August the amazing Acoustic Live of fade was Ustreamed and I managed to catch a bit of it with my mini Laptop at work.
Despite my birthday this year being a work day and feeling really unwelcome and uncomfortable in the office after all, fadefamily and the band themselves turned the time around the end of the month into a time I love remembering.
I was never let down or alone during this entire time of struggle and doubts, and this is the reason I am still going strong after all.
September and October I was burried under work, also due to going back to work at the bakery I had worked in before I started my apprenticeship - which made my weeks 6 days long by then and left only the sunday's free to update KingOfDawn every once a while. Nevertheless the fadefamily would go strong, even after Dorian unfortunately left...
Fadefamily @ Livejournal would appear and bring the awesome Bernie into my life! (:
As well as making Louise from the Australian ST even more confident and successfully teaming up with Bernie. I am glad to see how this community just keeps growing and is kind of unstoppable already. GREAT work, girls! Keep going strong!
In November the interview I had helped organizing around June (?! XD) with AnimePro and fade finally went online (remembers me I still need to make a translation of that o.o) as well as teaming up with Sabrina from Akataiyou no Nihon for a Skype interview with Jon and Rui.
Probably another highlight of the year: Taking a day off from work to travel 5hrs to Mainz, starting around 3AM to be able to attend the interview at all. *laughs* Not to mention the months we needed beforehand to come up with questions, find a fitting date for the interview, etc.
Shows once again how insane I am when it comes to the fadework.. thinking about it now. That travel was the only day I took off from my office work at all this year, I needed more time to arrive to Mainz and make it back to Trier than I was in Mainz at all and more than once I almost fainted in the train from being way too nervous. Overall I am still super happy Sabrina asked the questions and I simply had to sit there and write down what was said - I remember how I felt horrible nervous everytime Jon simply mentioned my name or KingOfDawn.
The more surprised I was at myself being able to at least state some wishes and things I had recognized not working by the end of the interview... and getting the task to fix them myself (Fade's Videos not available in Germany -> Upload them to MyVideo to make them accessable again) made me really proud. So it was not surprising I managed to get the transcription of one hour Interview done and written down onto 6 pages within 2 days. We're still only waiting for an okay to get this published ;)
At this point I really need to thank Ricky and Sabrina for making this interview possible at all and also coming up with many good ideas and offering support for 2013. I am sure this will be teamwork which really pays off with time!
Finally, December came. With the end of the year, which I never even expected to come. This year seemed endless, especially ever since August. And my dear Ka-Chan wouldn't make it an easy end of the year either. After already struggeling all year long it was hard to find any convincing words for her and seeing they resulted in nothing made it unbarable for me to deal with the situation other than by not being able to sleep, losing weight, losing my entire will to live.
I really need to state that I am forever thankful for Shannon's support in a direct way, which made me feel so relieved and finally hopeful again. But also thankful for everyone who worried so freaking much about me, yet I could never tell exactly what was wrong.
And I don't even need to use the word "thankful" considering that the guys from fade were the ones making Ka reconsider things and just giving everything and everyone a second chance...
Besides trouble December also made me try to give back a little to my dear ones, so I organized some presents for fade and tried my best to help finishing the amazing ST Book Ka had sent to me before she had left to Japan around August and for which I collected all the things the ST members sent. I am still angry at myself even my nightshift before sending it off didn't allow me to finish it properly and I am really embarassed of all the work that had been put into the entire thing by everyone, besides me.
However. 2012?
Some final words about it in general:
I am really glad it made me "meet" people from all over the world, lately even including many nice Japanese fade-fans who try their best to deal with me even barely knowing English and only because I don't speak any Japanese...
2012 taught me what teamwork and friendship mean. It taught me that nothing is out of reach and that I am never really alone, no matter how rough life becomes. It made me understand how precious life in general is and how easy your balance can be lost if things change.
But overall it made me see how much I care for everyone and how much everyone cares for me.
I really hope I can give back a bit of all that love and support I got in the last year.
Thanks so, so much fadefamily. And of course also my friends who ain't a part of it.
I am thankful I didn't drop my ST work in the end. I am happy I still have KingOfDawn. Because all the work done is so freaking worth it and the guys appreciate every little step so much, that alone the thought fills my heart with joy.
The guys are the most caring people I came across in my life and they have definitely the most motivated and passionate manager someone can imagine.
I wish them all the best for 2013 and that finally things start working according to plan, now that they have joined forces with Universal Music.
Thanks Jon, Rui, Godo, Noriyuki, Kansei - and overall Ricky.
For your support, your kindness, your awesome music and the hard work you do everyday and yet never lose your smiles.
You're the reason why my life changed for good within 2012.
For 2013 I have just 3 wishes:
That fade and the fadefamily stay happy and that I can manage to meet them if possible.
And overall, that all their dreams come true.
I will work hard to help them. That's for certain.