Year-End Thoughts... (2016 Edition)
2016 was a landmark year for JPS Projects. For one, this was our birth year! JPS Projects LLC and its subsidiaries were made official in May, and it's been full speed ahead ever since.
In addition to that, our artists were very active (whether publicly or not) with writing, recording, releasing, and touring.
BOTH performed to around 10,000 people in 2016, including an arena performance at Baxter Arena. They spent the year fairly quiet, as they finished writing and recording their upcoming release SortaKinda via Make Believe Recordings - more on that later.
JAGAJA released their debut album! Jagaja received positive acclaim from local publications, college radio, and surprise publications from Argentina and Japan. We produced their music video "Hypno Girl" on a meager $25 budget (the cost of two pizzas from Papa Johns) and completed a Midwest Winter Tour with some new fans to boot.
OKETO successfully moved to Olympia, WA to begin writing and recording their next project. I had the pleasure of spending a week at their lake house to watch the process and set up a framework to keep them afloat. We took a day trip to Seattle to put our name in with KEXP and Sub Pop Records, and got to slug back some signature Seattle bean water. ☕️
Without dwelling on the past, I'm very proud of these artists and am honored to be working for them. Finally, I need to thank the addition to my team Brett Demulling, who joined as my intern in August. Brett has been a huge help in organizing my thoughts, bringing new ideas to the table, and implementing with me.