Checking in From the Cold

Hello friends! How are things? It’s been creatively slow¹ the past few weeks, even though I have a project I’m planning out (more on that later, but a hint is that it involves finding a solid granite-surf sound for my guitar), and I am starting to get my new studio space together (despite the villain-esque angle of the photo, it’s a nice place to create, even if a little pod-like). I can’t seem to bring anything to a real place of fruition or completion, though. I put out an unmastered sketch a few weeks ago, and a raw piano piece on New Year’s, but other than that I’ve been focusing on keeping my fingers limber (scales, riffs, improvs on each guitar and the keys), and sketching out lyrical ideas.

But somewhere in the middle distance

Hanging like a pale morning moon

In a blue and ecru sky

I’m neither there nor here

Or far nor near

Though I want to be beside you

It’s different than last year when I had released 2 EPs by now and was finishing up the third. But it’s okay. I think I’m coming to terms with transitioning from a comfort zone of being-in-crisis to a new and unfamiliar — but so much more fun — world of just, you know, being (I’ll talk more about how that happened later, but it wasn’t without a lot of help). And this is all part of that. So just an update on a few things, today: heading out into the live spaces and info on the upcoming CD for Where’ve You Been? among other things.

It feels like a good time for me to be waking up and getting back into music. The local music scene seems to have become more vibrant over the past year with open mics almost every night of the week within an hour’s drive, old college associates out performing, writing new music, and releasing albums. All that, and local dances with live bands are starting to come back. It wasn’t this vibrant of a scene when I first began this quest in 2022 with some announcements to my local Front Porch Forum seeking collaborators, so it’s really exciting to see it coming to fruition now. (On that note, if you’re a musician interested in working together on a new raw indie format and think of Central Vermont as close enough to be nearby, drop me a line, because we could use some local friends in this weird endeavor.)

So as part of my continuation in this experiment of becoming and musicianship, and a necessary part of my healing process, I’m getting ready to take some of the songs from Where’ve You Been? out into the world. Specifically and at minimum If You Don’t Mind, Never Made Me Lose, and Flying With New Wings if I can get the arrangements right for solo performance (electric or acoustic). I have a looper pedal, so I could also conceivably perform Green and The King Think, but I’d need to pre-program the drums, which I don’t really want to do live. As it is, I have the right combination of pedals (thank you Behringer) to recreate the sounds on the album for the most part.

And speaking of which, my album is doing reasonably well considering the scant work I’ve been able to put into promotion. Word-of-mouth is working for me. Because of my connections on Instagram, I was contacted by and interviewed for the Jaden Cornelious show on YouTube this past Friday, which was a great experience. He was super easy to talk with, is a fantastic interviewer, and I had a lot of fun. We chatted for close to an hour I think about music, spirituality, shared experiences, my album, and some other cool things. The video will be posted to his channel in March, and I highly recommend checking him out. Alsø wik, I’m happy to say that there have been just over 4,200 total streams and over 200 listeners from dozens of countries with the songs If You Don’t Mind and Who Are You? leading the way with 758 and 444 plays respectively across SoundCloud and Spotify. That’s non-bot, non-AI, non-playlist, non-purchased real people finding my music and listening. Which is awesome for me. Also, there seem to be repeat listeners on both platforms, and songs have been added to a few playlists. Atthe same time, that’s from fewer listeners than who follow me on social media, so …. what are you waiting for? Give me a chance!

All kidding aside, it’s positive traction, and it’s good enough for me that I want to try something new.

I’ve decided to release Where’ve You Been? on CD (and vinyl if the interest is there) very soon. I’m really looking forward to it for a number of reasons. First of all because people I know have asked me to, secondly because the sound quality should be amazing, and lastly because of issues with the music streaming model. I burned a test CD locally, and it preserves the sound of the original recording much better than Spotify does, though SoundCloud and Apple Music are close.

In the meantime, if you want to support me before the CD is released, stop by my BandCamp page, or buy some merch related to my earlier releases and Midheaven. Follow me on my socials, drop by an open mic, subscribe to this blog, or send me a note. And if my music isn’t to your particular taste, find another local indie musician who is and support them instead. Spread the love and help us decorate time.

Love you all. 🙏💜🎶

1. What I mean to say is that I’ve been battling a mental crisis since early December, and am finally outside the pull of it for the most part. ↩︎