The End of an Era

This isn't a blog post or review for an album, so I apologize in advance. But I think in certain circumstances, this site should be an outlet for music related news that I've come to take part in.

As many of you may or may not know, I have worked at Cherry Lane Music Publishing, in some capacity for the last 4 years of my life. Cherry Lane has been my home. It's where I served my internship during my junior year of college. It's where I was hired in 2007. It's where I wore khakis and polos everyday for a year, thinking, 'Oh this will make me look good.' It's where I've met some of my best friends. It's where I've been until 9pm some nights, banging away on a calculator. It's where I met my roommate. It's where I've played softball and volleyball with everyone. It's where I've bowled. It's where I've thrown birthday parties. Simply put, it was the good life.

Cherry Lane was more than a company, it was a family. It ran the entire gamut of emotions and was everything one could want to expect from a company. Yes, we're all co-workers, but moreover, we're all friends. We all made the conscious decision to work there because:

a.) we absolutely love music

b.) we absolutely love the people we work with

Yes, sometimes we complained about the money and the workload and questioned what we were doing. But we were all brought together by this common thread of music and friendship. At the end of the day, we were a family. We worked together, ate together and in some instances...lived together. There is no possible way for me to clearly convey what it meant to take part in this, but for those of us that did...it was nothing short of amazing.

There were points, for all of us, where we were just swamped with work and it felt like we couldn't breathe. There were points when we would all leave work to go to drink at happy hour. We would all go to BBQ's. We would all go to concerts. We would go to each other's apartments. We would go on road trips. We would call and e-mail each other, across the country, just to let the other know that the softball team won. But whatever we did, it was always together. Hell, just about all of us even go to the same gym!

We've experienced funerals, weddings and births together. We've been to each other's bachelor parties, likely taking part in inappropriate behavior. We've met each others families. We've visited each other during breaks. We complained about not getting paid enough, but never had a problem paying $10 to go see someone's band play.

It was comfortable. It felt right. There was never a time where someone would say:

"I can't talk to him, he won't understand."

"Oh, I don't like her."

"He doesn't do any work."

"I don't want to hang out with him, we don't get along."

Everything had this tremendous organic nature to it. We were all in it together. We were all in it for the same reasons - and more importantly, the right reasons. Yes, collectively there was probably about 70 of us, but together we were Cherry Lane. And that meant something more than words could. When I would introduce co-workers to personal friends of mine, it felt great saying, 'Oh yeah, he works at Cherry Lane with me. He works in this department. He plays softball with me and he's in this amazing band. He's the man."

Today was, in all likelihood, one of the worst days I've ever had to endure. The majority of co-workers that I had become friends with were let go. These were bosses, co-workers...and more importantly - friends. These were the people I worked with when I was the nervous intern from Pennsylvania. These were the people that I went to festivals with. These were the people that I worked on research projects with. These were the people I had no problem going out drinking with on a Tuesday night. We all had each others back.

Knowing that they're gone is bittersweet. I know how close I was to being lumped into that group, and in certain instances I kind of wish I was. I feel the days of being this tight knit family are all but gone. I keep saying it, but Cherry Lane really had a 'family' feel to it. It never felt like work. When we all wake up in the morning, we would throw on our iPods, catch the subway and go meet up with our friends for the next 9 hours. While it was work, it never felt like it. And I think in the world we live in, this is something all entirely too rare - and I'm glad I was able to take part in it.

From here on out it's going to be weird. It's going to be awkward. It's going to be quiet. Impromptu coffee runs to Starbucks and Jamba Juice will likely dwindle. I'm thankful that I'm staying on, but at what cost? I'd like to think this is a great personal opportunity for myself. However, the idea of being a benefactor to the unemployment of a large group of my friends is a notion that I'm not entirely comfortable with.

At any rate, we all of have to move forward. We all have to put our heads down and keep working towards our goals. I guess that is kind of the silver lining here. The fact that everyone was such intelligent, hard workers, and more, such great individual humans - I'm confident that everyone will land on their feet. And I'm sure that most will go on to even bigger and better things. And so it's the end of an era. It was fun - and will not be soon forgotten. To everyone that won't be at work tomorrow - just know you'll be missed.