Where Did Antiquiet Come From?

I guess that I’m most well known (on the internet) for being the guy that started aperfectcircle.net. Literally, it was just a fansite for the band A Perfect Circle. But to many that were involved with it, from visitors up to contacts at record labels, it was a little bit more than that. We had a reputation for digging a little deeper than your usual artists-ass-kissing fanboys, and we weren’t afraid to piss off the record labels or even the band by giving the fans what they wanted, when they wanted it. We illegally taped most of the band’s shows and put them online as free MP3 downloads, without permission, footing all the hosting bills ourselves. We leaked many insider secrets before the band was even let in. We served the fans. And by fostering a community of fans around a site that kept them informed of every single thing the band wanted to sell to them, the band and the label benefitted plenty. Kicking and screaming. It was an interesting experiment.

As much fun as I was having with all of it, the band broke up right around the time I went broke, and I had no choice but to move on. So I took a job at Universal Music & Video Distribution, where I made a ton of great contacts, but then left to tour with a shitty punk band that noone cares about. Which I don’t regret.

After the tour, I took a job developing in online marketing, which is still my day job. 3 years later, I’ve learned a lot about marketing, and how to make money online. But I also got really fucking burnt out on websites that only exist to serve ads and cater to the lowest common denominator. I dig my job, and there are plenty of aspects of development that I find challenging and fun. But sometimes it’s a drag running a site that cares more about its incoming dollars than its incoming eyeballs. So I needed another outlet, something I could be proud of.

I shared this desire with Johnny Firecloud, a great writer and friend, who has written for pretty much every site I’ve been involved in starting with aperfectcircle.net. So this is what we came up with.

We came across Britney Bernstein looking for someone qualified to comment on complex political issues, and found in her the perfect mix of informed wit and direct confrontationalism. I’m being told that confrontationalism isn’t a word, but I’m going to use it anyway.

I will eventually run advertisments on this site, because I don’t want to repeat the fatal mistake I made with aperfectcircle.net. But this site will exist independently, for its visitors, whoever they may turn out to be.

Our Gameplan:

For now, we’re just going to write about the things that have us riled up. The record industry. US politics & foreign policy. The election. Society. And we’re going to bust our asses to get interviews with people who we feel can answer some real questions. We admit that the concept is a little incoherent and may be confusing at the moment. But as we see what kind of visitors we attract and how they respond, we’ll be narrowing our focus and evolving the site design to suit the natural order. If you’re reading this, you’re welcome to be a part of this process. Contact us or comment below. Tell us what you like and don’t like about what we have so far. We’ll listen, and we’ll respond.

The three of us have three entirely different perspectives on a lot of the broad subjects we’re tackling. Johnny and I fight constantly over Obama, and not in a contrived ‘Hardball’ kinda way. We’re more like Archie Bunker and Meathead. Britney is for Hillary… Hillary Duff or Hillary Clinton, I’m not sure. But don’t bother trying to put us in a liberal or conservative box. All we’re after right now is real discussion, with real questions, that lead to real answers.