Support Daphne’s Musical Comeback after TBI & Relocation

I am Daphne Culver. I am still, maybe always will be a

multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, but as traumatic brain injury survivor, I am likely not

the Daphne Culver you remember. Healing has been long, full of surprises, and heartbreaking at times. Most of the time I cannot remember names and faces, or geography at times (I get lost....ALOT) , having uncontrolled body movements and seizures was a big stepback for the first year, not to mention the language and speech dysfunction, there have been too many weird things I've experienced to list, and frankly you'd be bummed if I told it all, and that's not what thid is about, is it? I’ve been told I’m much more crass, as part of my brain damage I’m told, is in the area that controls me knowing what things are acceptable to say socially, so that has been one of the less fun things (especially for others at times) I’ve tried to navigate without executive function… not very successfully…I was unable to perform music or sing, or remember lyrics, chords, etc at first, all this happened during a time I was an entertainer for a living. I felt like GOD (or the other side, not even sure) had all but yanked the microphone and guitar out of my hands as if to say "nope, find something else to do". And so I did... well, I tried. I couldnt hold a job to save my life and I lacked the ability to see that it was a more serious issue. I tried the "suck it up buttercup" method, and as I was unable to drive for the number of seizures I was having was high, and unpredictable. I was walking everywhere for a while, then when I decided to pack up and try to get into a house (e'd been staying out at my river lot with no electric or running water as to not be around people, I was angry AF, and it was not pretty, alot of what I was going thru, and I couldn't communicate and as you can imagine how F-frustrating that is...) I started riding the bus when I could. Some days I would walk 20+ miles (some days when I was on the buffalo, and it was over 100 degrees (no electricity, no AC) I would lay into the water face up and I would float 10 miles up to Lobelville and sit in the library for a bit and walk back at sundown cause it had finally cooled to 95! ) I tried probably 20 places to work in one year, they denied me unemployment and i couldn't figure out how to apply for disability, so i just would try another place when one didn't work out, it was humbling to say the LEAST. Besides the church I worked at, (they were flexible and understood what was goin on and seemed to genuinely care and kept me around) I was unable to hold down steady employment (out of character for me, as I was a stayer, historically, with tenure/seniority at every job I had in my adult life) I can easily say the system is broken. I've held multiple jobs at a time since I was 12 , working for the city pool and for Chanticleer pottery, yes I said 12. I found it royally twisted that I have money in the unemployment pot, LOTS and never did I get ONE DIME OF IT WHEN I NEEDED IT MOST. I'll get off the soapbox and back to now, and the future, which is starting to look bright again for the first time in a long time.

Pre- TBI me enjoyed going to parties and events and the gym and always found myself hanging out with at least ONE other person. now? ha! lets just say "she gone!" I get physically drained when I'm around people (especially talkative ones) for too long without a little reset with some alone time. Once you go over a month without really talking to anyone, you forget that you need to. I operated on that kind of mentality for maybe too long, apparently NOT talking after A TBI, actually exacerbates the healing progress. I didn't know, I checked out AMA cause I was so frustrated about the lack of progress, and the lack of care and frankly I was pissed at them cause I felt like it was their fault partially that I was stuck like that. **SIDEBAR If anyonbe knows who The EMT is that picked me up from off primm springs, outside of Franklin back in 2019, PLEASE share that info with me***.

I’m more Less an introvert now and I’m ok with it. That being said I have some promoters that I would like to hire so I don’t have to be the one talking to a bunch of people, as that is NOT my forte anymore, likely telling them something they find hard to hear about themselves or me, which we don’t necessarily want that…..I don’t know, It’s been a decade since I’ve released an album and that was with Daphne and the Mystery Machines when I was touring with a full band…which did well considering I had no experience and no label or management or booking or anything I wind up playing the coolest festivals and projects, I got mentioned in the Rolling Stone Magazine for crying out loud! How cool is that **THANKS COLBY**?

I have a lot to be grateful for, and believe me I am… but frankly, I’ve had a bit of a rough go healing up from an injury to my brain (SO SLOOOOOOWLY) that left me unable to speak for some time, lost, without executive function, and that had made me forget names, faces, places, and many details we normally take for granted. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to speak in full sentences again. I can do... ok most of the time without getting stuck on repeat like a record….

man…..I can't really connect with what I went to for too long or for too hard, as it brings up too much....and I lose my breath if I do.

To say the least;

I thought my days as a performer were behind me, and had accepted that.

However I still played, wrote, and composed all kinds of music—some I will never remember. I have an opportunity to go make a decent record in Nashville at the world-renowned Sound Emporium Studios and to work with a Top tier Producer who has worked with Tupac, Korn, Megadeth, Mariah Carey, Seal, and so many other greats. I would like to take this opportunity. and I would like to do it right this time. I'm mostly going to be playing solo, I am bringing along a friend from my hometown to play drums and attempt to keep me on track and focused, and Adam Taylor will be helping me out with some lead shreds on a few tracks, as always. Love his playing more than most anyone I've had the pleasure of meeting with. This time around I won't have an entire band to pay, but I will still need to pay the engineers, assistant engineers, and mixing engineers for their time, and I will still need to get mastering, print and distribution, PR blah blah blah, and I also need a new PA monitir , or a PA rather... for when i tour in conjunction with the albums release. Anyways, I looked the other day and I have hundreds of thousands of spins on Spotify alone and I am asking for a little support from anyone who is listening or has been listening on streaming services to chip in, as indie artists barely get paid unless a person downloads and purchases the song/album, etc. (itunes downloads pays us the highest % aside from physical CD sales... but I dont think people still use cds at all anymore besides nostalgic purposes)... back to what i was saying....

what was I saying?

I have enough songs for two or three albums, and I’ve been rehearsing like crazy to make the best use of the time I have in Nashville, and I’m just hoping to get a little support from people who like my music, my comedy, my passion, my grit, or maybe my cute butt. Maybe you can relate to the TBI, or maybe you are just a genuinely kind and generous person!

Also, I think it’s worth mentioning that my brain injury has no promise of improving further, and if it stays plateau-like as it is, this may be the only time in my life I will be able to remember some of the songs that I hope to be recording, ones that many of you may have nostalgic moments with. I hope to get those down at least as a raw take so I can revisit them later if necessary.

I hope you will help me get back on my musical feet again!

It’s funny, I had a job lined up at an oil change place, and it fell through. I still was not thinking about doing music whatsoever anymore. Then fast forward, I’ve applied to hundreds of places and I’ve applied for temporary disability with the help of my DAD...(Thanks for trying, DAD) and they don’t help me. Nobody will even interview me, so this is not only a passion task/ask but one of necessity at this point. It would seem the universe doesn’t want me to wind up living in a van down by the river after all! GOD willing, this will be a well-done and successful album, especially with working with a new producer and co-producing. I’ve got gigs lined up all around Missouri, KY, IA, AR, and for now, that’s the extent of it. Once again I'll say. I'm okay with that. My frontal lobe injury makes traveling too far a scary task for me as I don’t have a driver (or a van for that matter)....but I play mostly solo. I have a drummer I’m very fond of who will be joining me for several tracks, a contrast to my last recordin effort.

Thank you for your love and continued support and please pass this around if you like it.

Aaaaaanyways thank you thank you, thank you if you are reading this , wether or not you can donate right now doesn’t matter as much as you giving a S*** enough to even see what this is and I appreciate the crap out of you.

Xoxo

Daphne

aka Daphrodite

aka Daphne and the Mystery Machines