Love you, Granddad.

I spent 4 and a half days in Baton Rouge with family within arms reach. My Mom organized all of the logistics of getting herself, myself, and my sister to Louisiana. If you know me, you know that it is a rare occasion for my siblings and I to all be in one place, much less for me to have all my siblings AND both my parents. Because of the circumstances, cherishing the company of family and extended family was the theme of the week. I was without my laptop and phone for most of this time.

My Sister and Mom on the flight from Houston to Baton Rouge

When I returned to Los Angeles, I felt like I could take on anything. I was inspired after hearing stories of my Grandfather all weekend, and I was recharged after a few days away from work and being loved on constantly by family from all directions. I came back to Los Angeles ready to take on the world, and promptly fell flat on my face less than 2 days after being back.

As many of you know, I started a company this past year to help enable me to pursue music while also keeping food on the table. For a long time, I’ve fought with the idea of doing anything aside from art as not giving your art everything you can. However, after living on almost nothing in Los Angeles for 3 years, I saw an opportunity to continue to do my music, not rely on someone else “finding me” and “making me” into something in order to “make it in the industry” and therefore be able to then eat! The industry is horse poop and everyone knows it, and the only possibility I saw to keep pursing music aggressively, is for me not to go down with their crappy ship, and therefore not depend on it to potentially live better. I want to do music. I just also want to be accountable for feeding myself.

Starting a social media company with Max helped me to take ownership over my own financial situation and not be a martyr for my art. However, after landing back in Los Angeles last Sunday night and spending 2 straight days in front of a computer screen, it was painfully clear that I hadn’t thought things through quite thoroughly enough.

Anyone who is feeling off balance and unhappy, I strongly suggest you do what I did next.

I made a list of everything I need in order to be a complete, happy, balanced, productive, and creative person. If I’m not all of those things, then I’m really any of those things. For me, this list included exercise, uninterrupted time to write, time at the piano and outdoors, etc. I also made a list of the company’s needs including work hours, time to take care of organizational tasks, time for meetings and phone calls, etc., I then spent a good part of the rest of the week organizing this into an actual schedule on my Google Calendar. For all of the things on my “to-do” list, I further organized it into “Today” “Tomorrow” “This Week” and “Next Week”. That way, I can be more realistic when telling people when I can have something done. I always say “today” or “tomorrow” because I CAN. However, I can’t keep doing it because I’m not as excited about the job when I don’t make time for the other things that are important to me, and if I’m not excited, I can’t do anything very well.

Evidence of my previous level of organization. A "To-Do" list that stretched for miles and was never complete.

I finished up the week with a show at Molly Malone’s on Sunday night. I opened the night for The Long Holidays and Oak Street Blues. Because of the activities of these past two weeks, the show was not promoted on my end as heavily as I normally do, and as a result, at the beginning of the set, I was playing to the other bands and a couple of my loyal supporters.

Because I was playing alone, the light was so direct and bright, I couldn’t see the audience at all, and with the help of Richard (the sound man) being TOTALLY ON, I was able to go somewhere else and be mostly oblivious to the size of the crowd. It was just piano and vocal, so I was able to take a lot of space and time with my delivery, and the room was silent during each song. The only way I could even tell anyone was there was the applause break between songs. A few songs in, the applause breaks began to represent a larger audience, and at the end of the set the room was mostly full. I couldn’t believe how many people had come in so quietly and politely and joined me in that moment! It was a life-affirming thing to know I could still take myself to that place, and occasionally bring someone else with me.

Photo from Katelyn Benton at Molly Malone's, Los Angeles, 2/19/12

Early in the run, catching up to Kevin.

About 35 minutes into the run, I caught up with my friend Kevin, who also started running late and knew I didn’t have water or food. He told me that he never drank all of his water and he had extra food and salt, so I could run with him if I wanted to. I definitely wanted to. However, about 20 minutes later I really wasn’t feeling good about it. I had a GU and it made me so extremely thirsty that I sucked down most of the rest of my water bottle. I told Kevin that I didn’t want to not drink enough water because I was worried of taking too much and it might be a safer idea if I cut my run short. Right about then, we saw Jimmy up ahead with a handful of other Coyotes.

This made me feel much better about my situation. We also found out that there would be water at 2 places during the run, so we’d be able to fill up Kevin’s pack a few times. Kevin and I both decided to just run until we felt like making a call on the distance. We had a lot of opportunities to cut the run short, but neither of us really wanted to take them.

Photo by Kevin Chan

It was also quite windy. Even some of the flat stuff was quite challenging with wind resistance. Not that there was a lot of flat stuff – this course is no joke. It’s got some big climbs throughout, including one of the steepest right at 25 miles in.

Photo by Kevin Chan - mileage is in the early 20's here.

Beginning the final descent! These views were stupidly pretty.

Near the end of the 31 mile run. Me and my little water bottle. Photo by Kevin Chan

Meet Kevin - my friend and camel for the day.

I’m glad I was able to complete the run yesterday. I’ve been wanting to spend the day on the trails for a long time and with Shmedia and music, it’s really difficult to spend an entire day running as often as I used to. I wouldn’t have been able to attempt the run if it weren’t for Kevin’s generosity. He shared his food, his water, and salt all day long.

I’m so happy I did that run. It was so much fun and I feel surprisingly pretty good today! Not destroyed!! More please!

Anyway, this past weekend at NAMM is probably best described by some of the photos below. Enjoy!

Katelyn Benton + Band performing at the Sennheiser NAMM booth, 2012

Katelyn Benton + Band performing at the Sennheiser NAMM booth, 2012

Sound check!

Toby's setlist

Scott Nickoley and Toby Karlin

Katelyn Benton + Band at the Sennheiser NAMM booth, 2012

Katelyn Benton at the PreSonus NAMM booth, 2012

Want!

I could have spent an entire day with the pianos.

Getting some love from the PreSonus crowd.

4 years ago I had just graduated from Berklee, was working for PreSonus Audio and was attending NAMM for the first time. I loved my time with PreSonus, although from day one on the job, I knew I couldn’t last in a situation where I wasn’t actively involved in pursuing my own music career. The jobs that have followed taught me that I don’t like having a boss in general – and not in the “well, duh, no one wants a boss” kind of way. I am just not nearly as efficient, productive or creative when I’m in a situation with a boss. I’m too worried about making mistakes when someone is “accountable” for me and it prevents me from taking risks.

21-year-old me (right) during NAMM, working for PreSonus.

I moved to Los Angeles 10 months after taking the PreSonus job. I spent the next few years not having a place to live, being on food stamps, working several jobs, but being completely dedicated to nurturing my own ideas and letting myself have adventures. I upgraded my living situation to the dining room of a 1 bedroom apartment that I shared with 4 other people, started running ultra-marathons, and started working on my new record with Scott Nickoley.

Today I’ve been holding down the fort in an apartment of my own for the past 8 months, 4 of which were paid for by my brand new company. I still have no idea how I’m going to pay rent most months up until the days before it’s due, but that’s a lot of people.

This year at NAMM I’ll be performing in the PreSonus booth and the Sennheiser booth. Me from 2008 is high-fiving the present me SO HARD right now.

Have you ever quit your job(s) to work for yourself? Any insight to offer?

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Back in June, when progress temporarily halted on my album, Max Goldberg and I started Shmedia, a Social Media Marketing company that develops strategy and runs the social accounts for brands, non-profits, and artists. Max and I both have knowledge and passion for Social Media and the Internet thanks in part to it’s importance within our artistic endeavors. We have both been working professionally with social media for the past several years, though until recently we had not realized that we could make this into a functioning business of our own, and help other people grow their business’s online communities. We got the chance to work on some great brands right off the bat and we have been able to grow our experience, our skill set, and our resume over these past 8 months.

Today is our official website launch. We even put together a short 1 minute video to describe what Social Media Marketing is!

I’d like to invite you to see what we’ve been working so hard on, since we haven’t shared this information in any public way before and this is probably the only time I will dedicate a post on this blog to Shmedia. Please take a look around and let me know what you think! Thanks for your support!

Oh, and just a heads up, look into SOPA if you haven’t already, and be prepared for blackouts on some major websites tomorrow.

And in case you missed the shoot – you can check it out here

Recording Album with Scott Nickoley (Release Date scheduled for Spring 2012)

So many fun shows! (Here some pictures from a few)

I moved out of the 1 bedroom I was sharing with 4 other people into my own apartment!

My old "room" - the dining room transformed with shelves, blinds, and a curtain for a door.

Still Managed to Squeeze in some Ultra-Marathon Fun!

Crewing out at AC100

Pacing a runner through the night leg of Nanny Goat's 24-hour Run

Feet post-Leona Divide 50. No blisters!

My 3rd niece, Marley Skye Benton, born!

Denali Sol Benton meeting her baby sister Marley Skye for the first time.

Photoshoot with Me in my Place! (Yowza!!)

Click for the whole shoot! (nsfw)

Max Goldberg and I launch our Social Media business, SHMEDIA, and have somehow managed to scrape by with it!

Click to check out our site! Still under construction, but coming along!

Thanks to everyone who played a part in this fantastic year!

As many of you know, I am currently fundraising in order to finish my  album. I’m working with film composer/producer Scott Nickoley (best known for South Park) on a collection of all new Katelyn Benton songs. This is my first full length album in 10 years and I am very excited about it! Once the record is finished, our goal is immediate and widespread television, movie and commercial placement, and we have the resources and energy to do this. However, we cannot complete this record without the help of donations. We are committed to doing this project right. We believe in what we are doing, we’re excited about it, and we want you to get excited about it too!

Thank you for keeping the arts alive! YOU are the reason we are here!

$15+ FREE copy of the new CD, before it is officially released

$100+ Receive liner note credit on the album

$500+ 5 copies of the new CD before it is officially released,  your name or logo on www.KatelynBenton.com, plus all of the above

$1000+  10 copies of the new CD before it is officially released, “Guest list” priority to all Katelyn Benton shows plus all of the above

Please e-mail Katelyn.Benton@gmail.com if you would like to receive more information on our fundraising efforts.