How do you know when you've made it?

Well, GPT said that 100,000 views is the sign of a local act that's growing internationally, within Australasia or the Pacific, and my brother cracked that with his Know single. That was in 2020. We mostly built a local audience, but at certain times we'd do things like my brother's Buddha of the Backwoods song, which was picked up on US radio. Or my Sondheim show, that was largely for a US/UK audience. Still hoping to dredge up that Night Waltz II tape. Always loved that piece. Jammed it in music school. - It wasn't until 2023 that Covid was largely over and we clicked that a whole bunch of people had watched our stuff while in lockdown. For us, it wasn't a goal to be putting a new single every week, but we believed that if we did a lot of different stuff then we'd eventually have a hit or a paid gig. My brother made Know a hit, though. Paid a bit for Spotify playlist promotion. The Facebook success was more like a happy accident. - As anyone would attest, it's pretty obvious when people see you and they've heard you. In Wellington, we thought it was the weed referendum, then after realised that it was us rather than weed that people were into. People look at you differently. They see you as the icon of your video, not you. Then the industry starts to try and quantify you... whether we'd sell or not. - None of us coped well. Lauren was in Australia, so didn't have to deal with it. Barbara was overseas until 2023. After she returned, it wasn't so easy. But the rest of us were all struggling. Even Ethan. Fame without money is pretty shit. All the shopping was op shops or Temu. It's even worse when the fans are better-paid than us. That'll end soon (hopefully). Fairly common these days, though. We've all got our own little cults, and all the straights keep working at their jobs regardless.