Hello, little life and art update.
Currently listening to: Ethan Gruska’s album En Garde. Favourite tracks include Enough for Now, Teenage Drug and Attacker.
Currently working on: Hurricane EP, which I have been working on for years now. Started in late 2018 when I met up with the initial producer/engineer I was working with, and have since changed songs, changed producers, changed workflow, and really started to bring the project together over COVID. Instead of just one linear path with one producer and one recording site, the songs have become a sort of patchwork of sounds from places across oceans and time. Samples from trains in London, and mandolins and rain from America. Guitar stolen from demos, new stems from friends I haven’t met in person yet. The first track is about to be sent away for mastering, which is a surreal feeling, considering I’ve been working on it for so long, and it feels like these songs have had so many lives already before even hitting other people’s ears.
Something else interesting I have decided to do is stop going on social media until I’m in the promotional phase of this project. Which I know Facebook/Instagram will probably punish me for by hiding my posts in the algorithm (they reward constant use of the app). I don’t really care at this point — I’ve seen how much I use the app and how often it takes me away from what I really should be doing. I can lose large chunks of time in one go. I’m hoping that this change will actually guide me towards more meaningful ways of connecting with people, working, and finding inspiration.
Things I have been doing instead of going on social media:
writing in this blog
sitting and just staring at nothing
researching jobs and training opportunities
listening to podcasts
listening over mixes and working on my EP
That’s still not quite everything I would like to be doing in a life sans social media. What I’d also like to be doing is:
practising music more
exercising & moving my body more
reading more (I am kind of doing this at the moment but am not enjoying the book I’m reading)
writing and drawing more
Maybe these things will come with a bit more time off the apps. I’m still settling in to checking my phone less — I keep picking it up out of habit and scrolling through to find Instagram, which isn’t there anymore.