A statement on the return of Good Vibes Promo

As many of you know, and some of you may not, I started building the platform that I have now over ten years ago, and it started with throwing underground parties. Over the years, things have evolved in so many directions that I never could have predicted, but the process was extremely difficult for me to handle. Writing that book about the first era of my company Good Vibes Promo, I was able to understand why I developed such a love/hate relationship with the rave scene over the years, and finally overcome it.

In 2007, when I first got the opportunity to be involved with coordinating raves, things were looking pretty bleak for my future. I wouldn’t have dreamed of public speaking or writing, the job I had at the time sucked, and I hated college and was ready to drop out, which I did. I was a mess in many other ways too, but you’ll be able to read all about that in a month or so.

Anyway, things were rough, then out of nowhere so many crazy turn of events put me in the middle of something that was a success. Those first two years, especially 2008 into 2009 was like this crazy magical time where I started to not only see a better future for myself, but I saw a platform to create social change.

That shit didn’t last long though, but that is often how magic works.

After that first year or two of being on top of the world, everything fell apart. I did a pretty good job at keeping up appearances, but things were such a disaster behind the scenes that it took a massive toll on my mental health. The experience hurt me in ways that I had never been hurt before. It wasn’t just getting fucked over and taken advantage by people close to me, which happened time and time again, it was also the struggle of putting my soul into creative work for years, only to end up with stress, debt, and betrayal.

As a defense mechanism, I became bitter with the world and bitter with the scene. That bitterness got worse when I felt that my writing and activism was being rejected or ridiculed by people in the industry. For years I detached myself from it, I even tried to make sure I didn’t see any party info in my feed by unfollowing related posts because it was a painful reminder of my dream that never was.

In the meantime, I was able to build a global platform to reach the masses with my ideas, just not the exact way that I thought I would. Even though I feel old, especially after what I just went through. I am still a relatively young person that is still growing and learning. It wasn’t until I thought I was going to die that I actually took an honest look back at my path and began to understand my own role in the things that happened.

Through writing that book, I learned a lot about myself and I came to peace with many of those issues from my past. I have also realized that one of the main reasons why things didn’t work out the way that I wanted to is because I strayed from the underground, and that is where I truly belonged, that is where my contribution was most valuable. I saw my competition with all these high dollar shows and I wanted a piece of that action, so I started chasing something that wasn’t right for me. I started throwing EDM concerts instead of raves, and that isn’t even the path that I want for the industry.

When I realized that, it was pretty easy to allow one of my friends to talk me back into resurrecting Good Vibes, for a 3rd time. However, this time, I am going to work on crafting the best underground events possible, and they will not be an every-month thing. I’ll be spreading the shows apart and not rushing them so I can put 100% into each party. I also won’t be an absentee landlord this time, like I was for the 2.0 reboot.

Oddly enough, the global platform that I have built in the past few years will give me more tools than ever to ensure that my vision for these events is realized. So now years later, it seems like that hard and painful path brought me exactly to where I needed to be. Life is crazy like that sometimes. I am looking forward to raving with yall again :-)