You guys might have already known that we love polar bears. If you didn’t know, now you know… (Do you now have Biggie stuck in your head? I hope so.) I can’t really explain why we like polar bears so much, except for the fact that they’re basically real-life abominable snowmen… er snowbears. And since today is International Polar Bear Day, we wanted to share two things with you:

1. A free song.
2. A list of simple things you can do to help save the polar bears (mostly from Polar Bear International).

• • Bundle up and turn down the heat at your house.
• • Spring for a water heater blanket.
• • If you need to drive, begin a “No Idle” habit, by turning off your engine when waiting in a long line of cars.
• • Carpool/take the bus/run/walk/bike… or use some other form of transportation when you can.
• • Recycle. Sometimes there aren’t any recycling bins nearby, but then I think to myself, “What about the polar bears?” Then I decide to hold on to my nasty empty can of sugar-free Red Bull until I finally see one. Maybe that’ll work for you too.

-Joshua

Have you ever felt that if you stared at an object long enough while concentrating hard enough, you could eventually make it move? You know it’s not possible, and yet you try anyways. There’s something magical about the mystery and suspense that’s born when you steer away from the predictable, and dabble into the unknown. Even if the outcome is less than extraordinary, the road to the answer is more than worth it.

We’ve all done it; whether to amuse an obsessive urge or simply rule out the possibility that we’re missing out on something special. We stare at the glass, trying hard not to break concentration until we come to the conclusion that we didn’t try hard enough. I mean, what if you were different but didn’t even bother to explore the possibility?

Life moves fast and it’s hard enough to take it all in, let alone reflect on it. We rely on others for reflection and the answer’s always the same. Our ears are flooded with stories of people that are better than us. We see them fictionalized in film and hear about them them in music. For every new reality show that airs and for every mass-tailored melodic pop song that comes out, we lose the ability to look within ourselves for greatness. Where is this going you ask? Well, I was unfortunately watching a marathon of the Kardashian wedding last week and couldn’t stop thinking about how short the marriage would end up being. Then I read the headlines and realized that I just made the glass move

-Florin

There’s no question that the entire music landscape has shifted. Even in our relatively short career as a band/producers, there have been noticeable changes. And honestly, I think way more of them are for the better than for the worse. But the fact needs to be recognized that for the masses, music is a free commodity. People of our generation grew up with downloading music, the second they wanted it - usually for free and sometimes before it was even available for purchase. So, that is our mind set as a whole and the trend continues in that direction. You like a song, it’s yours. However, as a trade-off it makes it possible for completely independent artists like us to release our music for download alongside major label acts, and start connecting with people without having to wait for someone to decide if it’s a “hot-ass-jam”.

The biggest difference for an artist today, is that even after getting a little radio play, or a song on MTV - the barrier to get someone to actually buy your music is so much larger. Someone has to not only like the song, but they must choose to support you individually over thousands of other bands trying to hustle and get their music heard. If it was just a matter of getting the song onto their ipod, it would be done in seconds, from a million different sites, for free. But the people that buy music, or go to concerts, or buy merch, or promote the hell out of the artists they care about, are the lifeblood of today’s music scene. The connections between the artist and supporters are so real, because the ocean of middlemen has been stripped away.

So basically, we just wanted to point out why all of you who have been with us over the past couple years are so awesome; and say thank you to each and every person who has supported us so far. We have no label. No manager. No producers. No agency. It’s just you guys and us. Holler.

-Joshua

So here is a super easy contest that you can do on Facebook. Go to our facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/goperiscopemusic, and click the “like” button. Then post a status update on YOUR wall telling your friends to check out our music and include the link. Take a screenshot of your post and email it to goperiscopemusic@gmail.com and your done!

PRIZES: Everyone who participates will win a special prize, just for suggesting your friends to “like” us, and sending the screenshot. Everyone.

ONE GRAND PRIZE: On Monday, February 7th, we will randomly select a grand prize winner from all of the submissions, and they will receive a signed Go Periscope shirt, 3 Go Periscope bracelets, our new single and a hand-written letter of us confessing our love to you <3.

Good Luck!

Don’t know how to take a screen-shot? Here are step-by-step instructions for PC, and for MAC.

So… We’re in Alternative Press this month! It’s very exciting news because we have been reading AP since forever. And what makes it even more exciting is the fact that we have already been receiving a ton of messages from new people saying they checked us out because of the article and they are now fans. Nothing is more uplifting than connecting with people who enjoy the music we create. And as an unsigned band, we miss out on a lot of opportunities to make these connections.

It’s really hard to support yourself as a band at almost any level, but even more so as an unsigned one. It’s financially impossible to tour, you usually get skipped over for magazine, television or radio spots and even music festivals have gotten to the point where you basically have to campaign year-round and still have luck on your side just to get a spot on them without a label.

So we just want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out to us with support. Whether you found us through AP, a local radio station, myspace, facebook, or just heard about us from a friend; seriously, thank you. Getting messages from you, meeting you guys at shows, seeing pictures of you all wearing our shirts/bracelets, and watching the videos you guys make with our songs; all are the biggest blessings to us. (This isn’t intended to be sappy, so if it seems lame or cliché, pretend you didn’t just read it, and focus on this other exciting news… we will be doing another remix/mashup of two of our favorite artists in the next month. One of them, is Breathe Electric.)

PS …And of course, thanks to AP for featuring us (especially on an issue with one of our favorite bands, Anberlin on the cover. Dope.)

-Joshua