I have been spending at least a month working on a Squish book to document Squish from beginning to end. It will be a great thing for Anson Jr. and all the band members to look back and see how much they accomplished at such a young age. In one of Squish's early television appearance Anson Sr. was interviewed and something he said was that these kids can take it as far as they want to take it. There were some members, who's passion and drive was stronger than others, but if they weren't all on the same page it wasn't going to happen. I know that if they all wanted it bad enough, they could have gone further and possibly even have some songs now on Radio Disney and touring nationally. We put so much of our time, money and effort into these kids and towards the end we saw that we couldn't do it all on our own. Anson was so busy with school, but he was picking up kids for practice and dropping them off and then every time we had a show he would have to pick them up again when he should have been setting everything up and on and on... He just didn't have that time to focus on the band and still do well in school. I think most of the kids were burnt out and weren't excited anymore to play in front of people and it showed on stage. That's when we knew we had to stop. We just stopped booking them for things and still to do this day we get calls asking if Squish would like to play at this event or that festival. Like Anson said, they took it as far as they wanted to take it.
This book has been so much fun and it will be something tangible that people can look at to see all the amazing things Squish accomplished in such a short time. I don't think people realize exactly what they did when you're actually telling them about it. These kids were making money. They were getting paid for the shows they played. They were selling CD's and t-shirts and walked away from every show with money in their pockets! I think that is rare. Hopefully these kids will appreciate everything that was involved in getting them to where they were. Their parents played a big part in the success of the band as well. We had a parent who cashiered at the merchandise table, one who organized the line at the autograph table and made sure it ran smoothly, one who brought snacks and water for the kids and one who helped set up and take down the sound system. It was a great experience and is well worth the time I am spending on the book project!
