I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business

If you ever forget just how lousy life in the music business can be, Arthur “Ace” Enders’ interview with PropertyOfZack last December will refresh your memory. Until that point, the musician sounded like he had an awesome 2010. A Kickstarter project raising funds for a new album by his band I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business raised $30,593 of a $10K goal and he'd put out three releases by the year's end. Not so bad, right? His words presented a different image.

Not only did the New Jersey guitarist/vocalist offer some despondent comments about the effects of downloading (“Like the night I put out Dust’n Off The Ol’ Guitar, I find out a website that night that had leaked it and 5,000 people had downloaded it,” he said. “That's a lot.”), but he expressed frustration with the fact that people didn't come to shows anymore either. Enders said he had “lost all my friends in the past 10 years of doing this” and bemoaned being away from family during the holidays. He even expressed doubt that he'd hit the road in 2011.

It was a crushing conversation considering that Enders has been in music since the early 2000s, also working in Emo/Pop Rock projects The Early November and Ace Enders and A Million Different People. Granted, the arts/entertainment field is always incredibly tight with changes and competition, but you figure he'd have found some footing at this point.

Enders is looking to rebound with I Can Make a Mess' “Pay What You Want” tour. The title isn't entirely accurate — tickets go anywhere from $5 to $25, depending on what you want to chip in (and what bonus treats you want with your ticket) — but the approach is rather innovative, as several bands have released albums in this kind of model (Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails being the two most famous examples), but not so much on the touring side.

A video previewing this run indicates that it will be a solo affair with Enders handling multiple instruments at once (expect guitar loop pedals to be in full effect). Hopefully, the concept will pay off for him or, at the very least, keep him by the drawing board.