New Empire – 1st ROAD BLOG from the “Say It Like You Mean It Tour”

The alternative rock band, New Empire, is currently on their Australian headline tour, the “Say It Like You Mean It Tour.” While they’re on this tour, they will be writing an exclusive blog for us. You can check out the band’s first entry, after the break.

Thurs, 17th October
So Tour started today! It’s always a surreal feeling, knowing that you get to travel around playing your music to people who enjoy it, and to people who have never heard it before, and be able to call it your ‘job/career’. It’s like that saying, “find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” definitely applies here. Anyway, enough rambling. Started today with an acoustic version of ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ for Channel V’s ‘The Riff’ which was awesome. It aired today too, so we received some great feedback from it and were all pretty stoked on it. Then left for the first stop on tour which was Newcastle, at the Small Ballroom. Was a pretty hectic drive as there were bushfires all up the freeway, and the smoke was pretty bad. But we eventually made it, and it was worth it. The show was awesome, with artists Ben and the Sea opening, and Evan & the Brave straight after, the night was set to be a good one! Ash Gale and the boys then took the stage and dominated it. Those guys are a talented bunch, look out for them in the future. We then played, and had a great time! The Newcastle crew sure know how to party. There was dancing, shouting, screaming… It was wild. Anyway, its 1am and we are on the way home now. Probably wont be in bed for another 2.5 hours. Struggle. Street.

Fri, 18th October
So we just finished playing the Sydney show! Whoa! Seriously, wow! Pretty much a packed house at the Oxford Art Factory, and from the first song, the crowd was vibing! Bears with Guns opened the night- they rock so much and are the nicest dudes. Then Ash Gale stepped up, and honestly, I thought I was at Wembley Stadium watching U2. Rediculous! If you havent checked his stuff out, I’ll give you a chance right now to go listen…
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Crazy good right? Oh, and you’re welcome.
So yeah, honestly, tonight was probably one of my favourite gigs to date. Like I said earlier the crowd was just so amped, and that makes playing so much more enjoyable. We even had a fan fly in from Japan by herself to see us play. I mean, come on, thats just crazy! But we couldnt be more stoked about that, so we dedicated One Heart/Million Voices to her. Judging by the smile on her face, she seemed to enjoy that. So yeah, looking forward to Canberra tomorrow night, and then we have 4 days off which will be good. Tour is fun, but after only 2 days I’m already wrecked!

Sat, 19th October
So we’re currently sitting in the car on our way to Canberra’s ANU Bar for the show tonight. Theres been 90+ something bushfires over the past 3 days that have been ravaging New South Wales, so we’ve been driving past all this blackened bush land, and big billows of smoke cloud. Kinda eerie, and a bit surreal. But it makes you prioritise whats important in life. Friends and families have been affected by these fires, and people have lost their homes and loved ones. So it’s in these times that your career and job definitely take second place, and just making sure the ones you love are safe comes first. Anyway, all that aside, we are heaps excited to play tonight. Everyone we’ve talked to about the ANU Bar has said nothing but great things, so we’re pumped! Hope you’re ready to party Canberra, we’re coming for you!

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