FAWM. Day 1.

I am sick.

I'm coughing up a rainbow assortment of mucus. My head is swimming in sinus.

I'm not sure what's going to happen for FAWM this year. I am writing for a new record, and that FAWMy, try-anything energy might oppose the very deliberate approach I'm taking for the record. But we'll see. There's so much songstuff floating around, I might be able to pull something out.

I'm back in Brooklyn (after a month spent in Florida) and bouncing around like a jumping bean. I've started a series of weekly meetings with my producer, and I've promised a sizable amount of output each week. The songs don't even have to be complete, just sketched out. This is a very different way of working for me, I tend to let things sit. For months. Or years. Until I feel like they're done.

Because everything is on the table right now, sound, direction, etc., I feel like it's more important to cycle through the ideas in a tangible way, and then pick what is the most compelling. This forces me to get it all down, and to lose my worries about allowing someone to hear something nascent or premature.

For now though, I will toast the arrival of February with a cup of peach flavored green tea.

j.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I finished my second story. No one got it. It was a weird experience, sitting in class having person after person (and the teacher) tell me they didn’t get it, didn’t get at all that this young person’s anxiety, shyness and inability to connect was related to a trauma that had happened to him, something you don’t find out about until close to the end. It was weird. I was caught off guard; I’d had a pre-reading critique by someone who is experienced at these matters. He said there could have been a bit more foreshadowing, but in the end he got what I was trying to do.

Hm.

I haven’t made any music since February, but I have thought about music a lot. It’s time to get back on the horse – I am ready to start working on another album. I’m scribbling notes here and there, setting up parameters, jotting down key adjectives, coming up with a list of touchstone songs that might help me guide the process a bit. I’d also like to incorporate visuals somehow. Which visuals? Dunno yet.

What else?

There’s a ton of stuff due (TAXES!), but I’m feeling great about everything. Which is odd. Tomorrow night there’s a hang with the girls that I’m very much looking forward to.

Got a new hairdo; still getting used to it, but it looks good. I think.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
j.