destin log article

Here's a cool article. Unfortunately the Funky Blues Shack show was canceled. The Funky Blues Shack is remodeling this month, but didn't return our calls or emails until late last week to tell us they could not do the show ... nice article though.

Paper Scissors Rocketpack: To Destin or 'busk ?'

Sep. 20--For guitarist and singer Chad Bishop, playing music professionally was a last resort when he had no other way to make a living in Europe.

"When I was 20, I moved overseas, and it was the only way I could actually make any money living in Scandinavia and London," Bishop, 32, told The Log. "I didn't have a work visa; I did have a guitar -- it worked out really well to extend my stay."

Now Bishop, a Pensacola resident, plays professionally by choice, as the guitarist and vocalist for Paper Scissors Rocketpack, which is tentatively scheduled to perform at Funky Blues Shack Sept. 25.

Bishop, who took up the guitar in his teens, said that in Scandinavia he found people to sponsor him in clubs, but in London he'd had to "busk" -- playing guitar on street corners for donations.

"I didn't have a busking license so I had to busk with one eye looking for the cops. It was fun. I learned quite a bit: I learned you're not entitled to people's attention. I learned to get out there, screaming at the top of my lungs."

Getting attention for a new Pensacola band -- both for their tour and their first CD, "escapist vs. exit" -- is also a challenge, Bishop said. He told The Log that Pensacola has an enthusiastic music scene but "it's a really small scene -- once you play the three viable clubs in town, you've done the circuit.

"We don't have a lot of funds to do our own promotion," Bishop went on. "We have to reach out and try to get as much promotion as we can before using our limited resources. We have to network with other bands: If they come to Pensacola or near, we set them up for shows" and look for help in return.

The name of the band, Bishop said, was chosen to create a "surreal environment" for their music. The name of the album, he said, refers to a choice between finding a way to escape a bad situation and simply exiting without dealing with the problem.

Touring is important for promoting the CD, he said, because even small gigs give the band exposure: "Even if you don't play for a lot of people every night, the fact is, you're popping up all over the place, talking to people at the radio station and the press, finding all the opportunities you have and just using them."

Bishop said being small is an advantage on the Internet, where the band maintains a MySpace page: "Getting reviews on blogs helps quite a bit, at least with an independent album. Bloggers love anything obscure, even if it's obscure because it's only been out a day."

As a promotion for the current CD, the band has released a couple of songs on a vinyl record that comes with a download ticket authorizing buyers to download the group's songs for free. Bishop said he'd been initially doubtful about going vinyl, but the idea of releasing such an old-fashioned record was too appealing to resist.

"I think most musicians want one -- it definitely lends a nostalgia to your music right away," he said. "Most of the kids I know grew up listening to their parents' vinyl records and buying their own CDs, so we still had some connection to it."

Bishop said Paper Scissors Rocketpack has their second album written, and plans to do a nationwide tour in the spring.

"If gas is really expensive, we probably won't go past the Midwest," he added.

http://www.destin.com/