Field Notes
From Isolation
Entry 002
After hiking a few mountains at the northern peak of new york I’ve returned to this room which very much feels like it’s in the wildness. There’s the physical wild, like scanning up and down a mountain for inner peace or taking a kayak out into a lake while it’s pouring rain, and then there’s uninhibited emotional territory, which is what I’m trying to live within here. There are zero barriers between me and the music I want to create when I’m alone. And I don’t want there to be any more barriers ever, not between me and the vision I have for my music — and no barriers between me and the people who listen to my music either.
So that’s why I’m doing these field notes along the way to fill the road to the new releases. I want to share what’s on my mind and all of the disparate places it takes me.
The things I’m writing about include a whole wide range of topics, but they all touch on a similar theme in at least a small way. I’m searching for meaning with what I’m doing, with my place in the world, with my self-understanding, and with making sense of this chaotic world itself. My last few years have had a lot of stops and starts — and now for everyone, things feel like they’re completely stopped — so how do you not get stuck when the whole world seems like it’s frozen? I asked some people for advice on instagram this week and they had pretty solid suggestions. Hike. Meditate. Get outside. Breathe deeply. Make your art and let it be an outlet. Release your art into the world. Could probably benefit from doing all of those a bit more.
I’m debating how to go about releasing the new songs, because they are all connected in various ways (as usual) and I have ambitious plans for all of them. Maybe overly ambitious plans. And honestly I’m equally excited about all of them for all different reasons. Some days I want to just post them immediately and other days I feel patient enough to wait. But I feel really good about this next era. I’d love to get you guys involved in the behind-the-scenes of releasing them — I’ve been ruminating on doing a weekly livestream or video conversation over Zoom with listeners or something, where I’d reveal some sneak peeks and ask opinions. Need to think on that more, but the ideas are starting to grow. Let me know if you have any ideas for me.
In this second entry I want to run you through what I’ve worked on in the last two weeks, because it’s been busy and I’ve been making progress every day:
-I recorded Laura Wurster, a super talented folk artist from Orange County NY, on Fair Weathered Friend / Dear Summer and then the power died for the next three days due to rain from hurricane isaias. It was strangely fitting as we were singing lyrics about great and powerful storms that eventually pass, like seasons of loneliness or like hurricanes themselves. Here’s a clip of Laura in the studio.
-I received back the production files of one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written in my life and have had recorded for over a year now. I now am digging through these production files to make any changes I want to recordings of guitar, soft violin and cello, drum hits, and little vocal samples. The song is going to be dedicated to my mom. Probably by the time I die, everybody I’ve ever loved will have a song dedicated to them. This one will take a while to come out, just a warning, but I’m insanely excited about it. Might even have to save it for the next full-length album but god knows when that’ll be.
-I edited and exported the Fair Weathered Friend vocal recordings and sent them over to Skinny Atlas to put them in with the rest of the instruments. Took me a couple of days of overheating my laptop and choosing the phrases I want to be in the final version, but the vocals are finally there. That song is getting closer and closer to being finished. Starting to be that time where I need to decide what the first new single is going to be so that I can direct all of my energy towards finishing it.
-I sent out merchandise orders to Massachusetts, California, Georgia, Arizona, Ohio, Washington, and a bunch of other places. Thank you to everyone who has been repping!!!! It brings me a lot of joy to package up my own merch and ship it out to you guys—I usually will look up a thing or two about the city or town I’m sending merch to, so I always feel like I learn a little bit more about the world and about who’s listening to the music with every t-shirt or hoodie or pack of stickers that goes out into the world.
-I’ve pretty much decided on a date for launching my new merchandise and I’m thinking it’s going to be monday august 31st 2020. There’s a little notice on my merch page about something coming soon. So that’s when this new era will “officially” begin. I’ve been ordering the wholesale shipping supplies and thinking of ways to make the packaging nice, and to give discounts to people who support by getting merch time & time again, so I’ve been working on all of that as well. A lot to tell you about it and a lot of work to do on it these next couple weeks.
-I also shot some crazy drone footage up in the mountains of upstate NY a little north of the place I’m staying. You’ll be seeing some of this soon and even more of it later. Shoutout to friends who help out on a moment’s notice.
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Huge shoutout to Josiah who got there’s more to life tattooed as his first tattoo!!! Damn. An insane honor. He told me TMTL is a special record to him and gave me a backstory on the role it played for him this year. Brings me a lot of fulfillment to know that these words bring him motivation and drive and focus in his life. He’s been listening since The Window Seat so it means a lot.
And a huge shoutout to Sk8er Baby who got this tattoo of the line from The Glory Years’s second verse, “maybe I was waiting for a battlefield to earn my place in.” This is their third tattoo of the lyrics, along with “die for your dreams you won’t even feel it” and “there’s more to life,” which is really insanely cool to me and a massive honor. These are partnered with sick designs they did themselves. Sk8er Baby messaged me saying “I hope the people getting your lyrics tattooed inspire you as much as you inspire them” — and I promise you, they do.