One More On Creating, Dropping The Angst, And Crying It Out(if you feel like it)

Hey all. I know, I know, there hasn’t been much over on this part of the interweb in regards to album reviews and just general spreading of the music love. I wouldn’t say that what I’m dealing with is writer’s block, or even disinterest. Maybe there’s been some malaise and some heavy-heartedness in regards to the passage of time and all the breaking down and changes that come with it, but I’ve wanted to write. I’ve been writing more personal stuff. Stuff on my mind stuff. The kind of stuff that gets you lost in your head when nobody’s around to snap you out of it.

This isn’t a bad thing, I don’t think. The getting lost in your head bit. As long as you leave the proverbial trail of breadcrumbs to help you find your way back out, meandering in one’s own psyche and doing those mental and emotional checks from time to time is a good thing. I think there’s way too much pessimism these days. It’s cool to not give a shit, or to hide behind funny memes and answer questions with gifs instead of honesty. I see people sour on earnestness. They don’t start that way, but over time with disappointment after disappointment and heartache after heartache one starts to look outward for the source of their problems and not inward. Relationships fall apart, jobs fall thru, debt grows, and a shell forms over one’s heart to protect them from it all. You armor up for the bad. While you may not feel the hurt as much, you can’t feel the tender moments either.

You harden like an artery with 50 years of red meat, trans fats, and high sodium pumped through you.

I’m not saying you need to cry it out once or twice a week, or go up to random strangers and tell them you love them. What I am saying is that sometimes you need to feel it all in order to appreciate what this existence can offer. Our moment in time on this rock is nothing more than a pebble in a rock quarry. It’s not worth it to spend what little bit of time we’ve got being bitter and targeting your regrets and angst on some self-created source of it all.

If something in your life is causing you angst, anxiety, and just general negative juju then I say cut it out of your life. I’d say first and foremost cut down the scrolling on your phone and laptop first. Fill that scrolling with something else, something positive. Read a book, play a board game with your kids, do a crossword, pull that guitar out of the closet and learn some Neil Young songs,….anything else but the phone scroll. You may not feel it, but that’s only making things worse. The self-judging, the comparing, the creating a need for something you don’t need. Just find an outlet and, well, let it out.

The music project is coming along. I’m now in the mixing stage and I’m pretty thrilled with the results. Four songs mixed so far and I love the vibe. It’s about as close to pure electronic improvisation I’ve ever come to. Gotta admit, I got goosebumps. It’s exciting. It’s quite the set up, too. Recording digital electronics on a 4-track cassette recorder, then mixing down onto a 16-track digital recorder to shine up a bit before moving them to the computer to master. I’ll find the most roundabout way to create. That’s what I do.

But hey, I’m digging it. That’s all the matters. And maybe you’ll dig it, too.

More album reviews and general music sharing is coming. I’ve got a bunch of new albums to review, as well as a song premiere from the amazing Hunter Complex(Lars Meijer.) Brand new long player dropping on Burning Witches Records, so get excited. I’ve got a lot to catch up on, so next week will be a whole lot of new albums to dig into.

And of course some more of this.

Happy Friday.