I’ve got quite a few updates I’d like to cover, so I’ll just jump right in.
Over the past three months, I’ve been in the process of consolidating. This is not a bad thing – it’s something I enjoy quite a bit. Purging all my half-finished ideas, or things I’ve outgrown, always feels nice to me. I love donating clothes I no longer wear or need; I always look forward to selling or gifting studio equipment I no longer use so it can continue being useful somewhere else. I’ve also decided to do this for myself as an artist, and how I release work.
Change Number One:
I’ve gone back to working totally solo. I’m no longer with any kind of management. I’ve been my own record label for a long time now, but it’s really just an umbrella to release my personal work under – not a real label, by any means. But I’ve found I am much happier just following my own instincts, and I’m lucky to have a partner who can help when I get swamped. And I think that’s enough. Everything is so automated these days that it’s really not a very complicated process to get releases out (at least logistically – whether anything is successful is as much a mystery as it’s always been).
Change Number Two:
I’ve redone my workspace from the ground up. I’ve been recording for almost 30 years now, and over that time I have built-up a sizable collection of equipment. But over half of it is not for me. I’ve always had extra mics in case I need to record different singers, for just one example. But I decided to let all of those things go and only keep what I personally use. The list is pretty small. I tend to record everything with the same three mics. I almost always use the same two preamp channels. I like my variety to be in the work itself, not so much in how it’s captured. The result? I am much happier in the studio. Everything feels fast and easy, and I really enjoy the lack of mental clutter (I also realize that this is a late-stage problem – it’s just been strange watching it go from years of not having enough resources to suddenly having too many).
Change Number Three:
I am letting go of my tendency for side-projects. I’m simply releasing my work under the Radical Face banner now. There are a couple reasons for this. One, I don’t think there’s a need to divide projects based on production styles anymore. People used to be a lot touchier about genre when I first started my projects around the year 2000, so I set out with multiple to address the fact that I personally enjoy writing in, and listening to, different styles. My folkier songs were released under Radical Face and my more electronic and my more electronic/experimental ideas under Electric President (not to mention all my other side-projects). But I think at this point, those divisions are more confusing than helpful. Most people have no idea they exist at all. And they hold me back. I make lots of material that I never release, mostly because I’m not sure what name to put it under. But since I tend to be the sole song-writer on all of them, I think it makes more sense to release them under one name.
What this effectively means is that I’m going to ignore genre/style altogether and just release things when I’m happy with them. Some might be more acoustic, some electronic, some instrumental, or some combination of them all.
To kickstart this, I’m releasing a B-Sides and Rarities album in a little over a week, on July 23rd. Here’s the cover:
(The artwork is an unused photo from the “Ghost” album, a trip where I got into some pretty big trouble. It’s a long story, but the local police thought I was a serial killer, because of the mask, and sent a helicopter out to find me … I was pulled over by police, who had their guns out, and I was made to lay on the side of the road, hands on my head, while they searched the car … pretty wild day.)
If you’ve followed me for a long time, you might remember a super-limited release I did in 2009 under the name “Patients.” I put that record out as a sort of social experiment. The way it worked was: I made 100 handmade CDs and you could only get one by sending me something in the mail other than money. I just wanted to see what people would do when you removed money from the process, and I documented everything on a now-defunct website. The songs on Patients were all B-Sides and experiments that I never found a home for. I’ve had people emailing me to release them on streaming services for a solid ten years now, so I finally decided to do it. But I also added a few never-before-heard songs to it, and I remastered everything.
I’ve also decided to not do my Human Mother tracks as a side-project, but rather combine them into a new album. I have vocal versions of tracks I only released instrumentally, as well as plenty that no one has ever heard. I’m nearly done with that release as well, and plan to put it out in the fall. I realize that might be a little fast, but I also don’t think that matters too much anymore either.
Now, if you’re wondering, I have not forgotten about “A Light in the Woods.” I am still working hard on that series, but the reason it isn’t already out is that I really didn’t care for my last release. I won’t go into all the nitty-gritty details, but I will say this – spending 5 years on something, and the end result being, for the most part, a Youtube upload and a bunch of typical music-industry handwringing, was not very fulfilling. If I’m going to put all these thousands of hours of work into something, I’d like it to feel more substantial when it’s time to share the final result. So I’m combining books 2 and 3 into one larger release, the length of a film, and treating the back 3 parts as another film. I’d also like to do some combined performances/screenings at some indie theaters when these sections are done, before uploading everything to the internet. I have lots more ideas here, but I’ll save them for when the release is closer.
But I did want to share some of the artwork for Books 2 and 3 as a bit of a teaser for what’s to come. I’m proud of how much better I’ve gotten at painting. It’s nice to look back at part 1 and see how much further along the artwork already is. Here’s are some examples:
Beyond that, “Missing Film: Volume 2” is under way, for those who enjoy my instrumental work. I love writing score-style music in my spare time, and I’m starting to amass a lot of it again. I’ll find an appropriate release date for it, but the first half of next year is very likely.
And these are just the ones I’ll mention here. I actually have a lot to get out, now that I’m consolidating things down to one profile. But I love how much simpler all of this feels. I don’t even like maintaining one social media profile, much less multiples. And I’d rather just get my work out to my largest audience, especially in this day and age, where everything feels so cluttered and overwhelming. It’s also nice to just be releasing work again, regardless of how it lands. I’ve been saying a phrase to myself a lot lately: more creativity, less strategy. In a time that’s pretty obsessed with marketing and reducing everything to “content”, I feel like it’s an appropriate form of rebellion.
Until next time, I hope this finds everyone well.