(this was supposed to be up week 2, around 8/15, but for some reason it didn’t go through to Tumblr server.  oy, technical difficulties…)

So this blog entry is a bit late; I’ve been running around Southeast Asia, helping out with service projects run by SEALNet, the Southeast Asian Service Leadership Network.  A few hours ago I left a project site in Lampang, Bangkok and am now on my way to Vietnam to help with two projects in Saigon and Hanoi; I’ve never been before, so I’m pretty stoked.

But this is a blog about writing my pitch, so let’s get on with it.  Pitch writing is a really arduous process for me, and while I’m not completely satisfied with what I have now, I’m hoping when things settle down for me in a week or so I’ll strike gold with something.

Anyways, I started by emailing a few of my close friends and fans familiar with my music asking them to describe my sound.  After gathering a lot of interesting adjectives and revelations, I settled on this 1^st, twitter-ready draft:

“Andrew Plan writes anthemic and cathartic folk that melts the steel in your spine, blending the gorgeous heartache of Ryan Adams with haunting echoes of Thom Yorke and Damien Rice.”

I then posted this on the ArielPR form and received some helpful constructive criticism.  After taking into account some suggestions on genre wording and the questionable effectiveness of the line ‘melts the steel in your spine,’ I ended up with this:

“Andrew Plan writes fearless folk for the wandering soul, blending the heartwrenching catharsis of Ryan Adams and Damien Rice with the spiritual introspection of Sufjan Stevens for a sound that dares to hope in these uncertain times.“

and without artist names:

“Andrew Plan writes fearless folk for the wandering soul, a gorgeous electro-acoustic blend of heart-wrenching catharsis and spiritual introspection.“

For now I’m happy with the direction of the pitch, but I’ll continue work on this and week three’s content in the next blog.  Till then…

-Andrew