First off, I want to apologize for the confusion I've created for a few of you on our recent Twitter-go-round. Secondly, yes, our old twitter account @atomic_honey has been shut down, and this will be permanent. It was not suspended, nor were there any technical issues; it was shut down by us for our own reasons which I'm going to try and explain best as I can in this blog entry that follows.
Shutting down that account was not a spontaneous or impulsive action, though to the online world I realize it would seem that way. Honestly the thought of shutting down that account had been crossing my mind since this last summer, but a number of things I won't go into here kept me from pulling the plug on it. I seriously love and cherish that account, and it will live on in our spirits forever-so many fond memories there, so many great acquaintances & friends made with it.
Analogy Time:
I've always viewed social networking (Twitter in particular) as sort of an ongoing concert, a stage. I suspect some of you that come across this might have been professional musicians in the past, and maybe even still are-so I will go with the "stage" analogy which was the best I came up with while deciding how to explain this. Those who have played in bands know the difference a stage makes-how each one has a different vibe to it-and how it effects your emotions and ultimately how you end up sounding. Even if you are not a musician, you probably know what I mean if you've ever attended a live show.
Obviously, a show at a large arena is very different from one at a small tavern and both have their ups and downs. Since Atomic Honey does not currently play live shows (we prefer to be around the house, raising our children at this point in our lives), the Internet is literally our ONLY stage, and Twitter is by far where we perform most often-it's not even close! Just as a band might progress over time to larger and larger stages as more people become familiar with them, so it goes on Twitter it turns out. What starts out as a very intimate setting with only a few followers to interact with eventually becomes that arena that wanna-be rock stars dream of playing. Though the cheers get louder and there's a greater body of emotions connecting with one another, the intimacy of it all fades over time. I know many a successful musician that has missed "the good old days" when they were playing to attentive & enthusiastic crowds of 3-10 people. Yes, it was awkward, but holy crap were those nights fun!
So basically, I started missing the intimacy that we used to have on Twitter and was hoping for a way to recapture the magic of our account's early days. Just like playing an arena show, it got to the point where there were too many people you cherished that were too far back in the bleachers and you could no longer see their eyes, or even their smiles. There were too many friends we made too quickly, and we simply couldn't keep up with all of you fabulous people anymore. This made me sad, made me feel like we were letting people down-people that we genuinely care about.
Right or wrong, I finally came to the conclusion that dumping the account was the only way to make me feel good about Tweeting again. I have no desire to play favorites, though in all honesty, yes, people that have been supportive of what we do for a long time hold a special place in our hearts-and we'll always try to put them up on a pedestal a little bit more-it's just the way it works.
As to the future (Happy New Year, by the way), we'll just have to see how it all shakes down. At the time of this writing, we have created two new separate accounts, neither of which will be allowed to grow as large and cumbersome as the old one did-I refuse to let it become a burden or put me in a position to have to take time & energy away from those that I love (and who love me back). The first of these new accounts is @AchyEmotion (which is an anagram for Atomic Honey). That one will remain public and will be used primarily for interaction-we will seldom tweet any promo from that account-virtually nothing of ours, at least. If you find me sharing links to songs, vids, pics, etc on that account it will likely be from someone else that we enjoy and simply want to share with you.I have associated this blog to that account, so these writings will be posted there, but that's mostly it Atomic Honey-wise. This may sound silly coming from a musician, but I don't like promo-not even for us. When I share something on twitter it's genuine-something I think you might enjoy, it's that simple.
The other new Twitter account we created is @LoveRockLockBox and will remain a locked account. That is where we will share more of what we're doing musically, especially rough drafts, demos, and even album recordings that aren't yet public. Using my "stage" analogy, the LockBox is a lot like a backstage pass-for trusted and supportive people only. We will be extremely selective about whom we allow to follow that account, and that's not to be snobby-it's to be safe-because we share some things there that can't be made public.
I hope this makes sense to most of you, and I sincerely apologize once more to those this caused confusion for. I want to thank you all for sticking with us always, you mean a ton to us-you really do. Should you find this explanation inadequate, I'm happy to try and explain more-hit me up on Twitter or feel free to leave a comment below.
Oh, one more announcement to make: we're also retiring the old #AtomicLove hashtag, also for reasons I won't go into here. I'll be revealing the new one on Twitter just after midnight my time (GMT-9hrs), but as a bonus to any of you that take the time to read this, the new hashtag will be #LoveReigns. Thank you again for your love and support!
Kev
oxox
PS If you know people that are into what we do, musically or otherwise, we'd love it if you helped pass along this info to them. Thank you again! oxox
Shutting down that account was not a spontaneous or impulsive action, though to the online world I realize it would seem that way. Honestly the thought of shutting down that account had been crossing my mind since this last summer, but a number of things I won't go into here kept me from pulling the plug on it. I seriously love and cherish that account, and it will live on in our spirits forever-so many fond memories there, so many great acquaintances & friends made with it.
Analogy Time:
I've always viewed social networking (Twitter in particular) as sort of an ongoing concert, a stage. I suspect some of you that come across this might have been professional musicians in the past, and maybe even still are-so I will go with the "stage" analogy which was the best I came up with while deciding how to explain this. Those who have played in bands know the difference a stage makes-how each one has a different vibe to it-and how it effects your emotions and ultimately how you end up sounding. Even if you are not a musician, you probably know what I mean if you've ever attended a live show.
Obviously, a show at a large arena is very different from one at a small tavern and both have their ups and downs. Since Atomic Honey does not currently play live shows (we prefer to be around the house, raising our children at this point in our lives), the Internet is literally our ONLY stage, and Twitter is by far where we perform most often-it's not even close! Just as a band might progress over time to larger and larger stages as more people become familiar with them, so it goes on Twitter it turns out. What starts out as a very intimate setting with only a few followers to interact with eventually becomes that arena that wanna-be rock stars dream of playing. Though the cheers get louder and there's a greater body of emotions connecting with one another, the intimacy of it all fades over time. I know many a successful musician that has missed "the good old days" when they were playing to attentive & enthusiastic crowds of 3-10 people. Yes, it was awkward, but holy crap were those nights fun!
So basically, I started missing the intimacy that we used to have on Twitter and was hoping for a way to recapture the magic of our account's early days. Just like playing an arena show, it got to the point where there were too many people you cherished that were too far back in the bleachers and you could no longer see their eyes, or even their smiles. There were too many friends we made too quickly, and we simply couldn't keep up with all of you fabulous people anymore. This made me sad, made me feel like we were letting people down-people that we genuinely care about.
Right or wrong, I finally came to the conclusion that dumping the account was the only way to make me feel good about Tweeting again. I have no desire to play favorites, though in all honesty, yes, people that have been supportive of what we do for a long time hold a special place in our hearts-and we'll always try to put them up on a pedestal a little bit more-it's just the way it works.
As to the future (Happy New Year, by the way), we'll just have to see how it all shakes down. At the time of this writing, we have created two new separate accounts, neither of which will be allowed to grow as large and cumbersome as the old one did-I refuse to let it become a burden or put me in a position to have to take time & energy away from those that I love (and who love me back). The first of these new accounts is @AchyEmotion (which is an anagram for Atomic Honey). That one will remain public and will be used primarily for interaction-we will seldom tweet any promo from that account-virtually nothing of ours, at least. If you find me sharing links to songs, vids, pics, etc on that account it will likely be from someone else that we enjoy and simply want to share with you.I have associated this blog to that account, so these writings will be posted there, but that's mostly it Atomic Honey-wise. This may sound silly coming from a musician, but I don't like promo-not even for us. When I share something on twitter it's genuine-something I think you might enjoy, it's that simple.
The other new Twitter account we created is @LoveRockLockBox and will remain a locked account. That is where we will share more of what we're doing musically, especially rough drafts, demos, and even album recordings that aren't yet public. Using my "stage" analogy, the LockBox is a lot like a backstage pass-for trusted and supportive people only. We will be extremely selective about whom we allow to follow that account, and that's not to be snobby-it's to be safe-because we share some things there that can't be made public.
I hope this makes sense to most of you, and I sincerely apologize once more to those this caused confusion for. I want to thank you all for sticking with us always, you mean a ton to us-you really do. Should you find this explanation inadequate, I'm happy to try and explain more-hit me up on Twitter or feel free to leave a comment below.
Oh, one more announcement to make: we're also retiring the old #AtomicLove hashtag, also for reasons I won't go into here. I'll be revealing the new one on Twitter just after midnight my time (GMT-9hrs), but as a bonus to any of you that take the time to read this, the new hashtag will be #LoveReigns. Thank you again for your love and support!
Kev
oxox
PS If you know people that are into what we do, musically or otherwise, we'd love it if you helped pass along this info to them. Thank you again! oxox
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