Recently, we ran an article on new artist For All The Girls. FATG’s background story reveals some truths about indie music and what it’s like to be an artist in the current scheme of things. Rather than read more of our yip-yapping, we had For All The Girls’ brainchild Drew Danburry share a first-hand account of the experience. This is part one of a two-part piece. Enjoy.

Before I embarked on the journey of discovering a new musical identity, I first felt I had exhausted all my resources as an individual. Either my music was horribly mediocre or my image as an individual just wasn’t sellable. The idea of making a living through music was becoming more and more obsolete and I was sick of the stress and struggle to try and make those ends meet. I felt disconnected with people in general and I didn’t even feel anything about music at all anymore. I was numb. For me, writing music was like being stuck behind a one way mirror. The whole world or no one at all may be listening and observing and watching but you really have no idea, you’re just stuck staring in a mirror and getting more and more bored with yourself.

I wanted to enjoy music. I wanted to actually like writing songs and making music. I wanted it to be fun. I wanted to feel like I had no boundaries and I could do anything I wanted without having to worry what any potential fans might think.

I also wanted to see how someone would react to my music if I wasn’t me. If I wasn’t just another run of the mill independent artist creeping into his 30’s. That was the real test for me. What would people think of my songs if I were someone else? That idea wouldn’t leave me, I had to know.

In 2008, I recorded a simple romantic pop song called “Lynette, I Love You” and released it on youtube. For years to come I would get nonstop comments on the youtube video from girls named Lynette who were excited to have a love song with their name.

Thinking back on how simple the process was for the “Lynette, I Love You” song, I decided that if I wanted to have fun and enjoy myself, I should just write simple songs. I decided to limit myself to a few hours of recording so I could ensure that I wouldn’t drown myself in details. I also decided I wouldn’t spend more time on lyrics than it took to physically write them and I’d just throw songs together spur of the moment, for the pure joy of it.

And then after writing and recording so many songs for fun, I decided I would release some of them to see what people think. But this time I would do it under a psuedonym. I wanted my character to be innocent and completely devoid of any form of intimidation. But I also wanted him to be so well crafted that for anyone who came across him, even if he didn’t seem real, his existence could at least be defended.

So armed, with his own email account and Twitter and Facebook and Youtube, Damien Fairchild started to research music blogs and began sending them emails about his love song project called “For all the Girls” staying completely in character. If I talked to anyone in person or on the phone I would readily admit the truth of his fabrication and let them in on the secret, but I kept a strict rule to never put it in print online….

Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow and pick-up For All The Girls’ album