Where DID we leave off? Ah, yes… when I formally decided I was going to start a rap project. “project: SAVE c.a. hircus” was a really obscure referral back to my previous band, The Chupacabra Machine. It translates as, project: save the goat. Honestly, I have no clue what fascination tied me to this mythology in first place, and even less of a clue why it had to be the branding for my musical endeavors. Either way, for whatever reason, I ran with it, from its inception in 2007, all the way through early 2015 *plants face in hands*.
Let’s get this part out of the way. In case you weren’t already thinking it, ya boy Jon Ditty wins the award for WORST BAND NAME EVER—or at least most unmemorable. The older and wiser Jon Ditty shames the living sh*t out of his adolescent self for this travesty in Marketing 101. Here’s—obviously—what’s wrong with my brainiac-self determining this name was a good idea: 1) it had odd letter capitalization, 2) it had multiple forms of punctuation, 3) it included latin nomenclature—further abbreviated, 4) it was long, unpronounceable, and unmemorable. The idiot, known as Jon Didier, spent the greater part of EIGHT YEARS writing music under this moniker. EIGHT YEARS of dredging my lane, in music, spent under a name that no one could pronounce or remember. Way to go, Jon. Way to go. I can only imagine where my 34 year old self would be now, in my career, if I had gone about such branding from a more intelligent perspective. I guess it is what it is…
Alright, now that THAT’s out there, this story requires me to go back and forth between the various years. So, in 2007, having been sick of dealing with other musicians, I made some sort of trash beat on a torrented version of Fruity Loops, wrote some angsty raps, and recorded a song with a karaoke mic plugged directly into the mic jack on my laptop computer. project: SAVE c.a. hircus was born!! It was shortly thereafter, I realized, “man, wearing both the rapper and producer hat is an inefficient model for creative output.” And so, I asked my best friend, Derek Saballos (future DJ D-Rok), if he wanted to join the group and be the DJ/Producer. He was, at the time, the only person, in my book, equally as dedicated to the craft of music, playing shows, and establishing a name for one’s self. He accepted, and we were now an official duo.
All of this planning of my own group was occurring simultaneous to a number of opportunities and collaborations happening with local Clearwater, FL band, Variety Workshop. Nick-namely abbreviated the “1VDUB,” this group of musicians were really the first folks to get me stage time in front of an audience, but that story is for the next blog entry.
TO BE CONTINUED…
To find out more about Jon Ditty, please visit http://jonditty.com
