So after taking all of my music down to breathe new life into it and promotionally give it a second chance, I'm finally starting to release music again. With music, ROI is most times a joke, here is a good example, I'm taking out an ad on Spotify for 250 dollars so to make that back I would have to get over 60,000 streams. Money is just never going to happen for me so I'm trying to just get as many ears on it as possible. One of the most important things about pursuing your passion is celebrating small victories and managing expectations. When I was a kid I thought ambition was this beautiful thing that could never lead me wrong but honestly, you have to keep ambition at a safe distance. It can be a dangerous thing, if you set your expectations too high you'll be crushed over and over again and ultimately give up. On the contrary, without ambition, you'll never truly taste your potential or even push the envelope at least. It's a difficult balancing act and one I struggle with even after all this time.

Something I've struggled with in the past is feeling like I didn't do enough to give my songs the chance they deserve, a mistake I don't plan on repeating. I've read stories of inventors who take out morgages on their houses just to help fund their ideas. Small business owners who sign their lives away for a loan to  breath life into an idea with  unequivocal determination. I envy their resolve and I vow to emulate it. Money can be throw away in music VERY easily so I've always been cautious but maybe a little too cautious. I'm going to throw everything I can at this song and see what sticks.I couldn't think of a better guinea pig than harbor city blues. It's weird, its not mainstream but I feel like it's cool enough to be appreciated on some level.

Excited isn't the word, maybe more so intrigued at the new things I'm trying. Excited is a dangerous word for me, it usually leads to disappointment. I'm trying to find that sweet spot between having goals yet being slightly unattached to the results. Focusing more on the effort I put in than what I got back out of it. which sounds very stupid because it is very stupid. This is just the place I've found myself in the grey limbo between success and not being able to give up. Life doesn't really matter, why not go for the best life possible otherwise what's the point? Just gotta keep marching with my friend ambition at a safe distance, reality in my left hand and my dreams in my right hand, my eyes right between the two.

Viewing yourself or your art objectively ,I do believe, is near impossible. I pulled my whole catalog back to try and reevaluate and see how I can make songs better but what does that even mean? It's a difficult line to flirt with where you stand by your work but also don't want to be too stubborn that you can't grow. I committed the cardinal sin of music or any artistic endeavor, I put too much weight and pressure on it's shoulders. when you expect too much out of your creative outlet it suffocates and spoils creative energy. It's hard not to get down on yourself or your work when it goes unnoticed, thats human nature. There are millions of reasons why certain things don't catch on, its impossible to pinpoint one single reason. This will at the very least give me an opportunity to change some small things about songs that have driven me nuts.

We are a world that lives and dies by the internet but the internet makes no sense. I have this dream of a strange music that has no genre, with meaningful lyrics and real instruments. Which is all fine and dandy as long as you don't expect to make money. It is naive to think that exactly the art you want to make is also what mass amounts of people want to hear. At what point though does an artist bend too much to fit into what people want?The internet is pure unfiltered entropy, how on earth do you control such a thing. I always try to tell myself that you can't control how it's received, you can only control creating it. It should be a somewhat linear process and how its received should never be present  during creating it.

I'm preparing to re-release Schematics my original EP but this time I'm going to make sure it gets the opportunity it deserves. Its been a terrible process picking apart all my work and trying to figure out how to make it better, I hate it. I'll be happy once this process is over and I can just focus on promoting. We are a world in which success as an musician boils down to social media clout and streaming numbers, so when your work doesn't produce those things it's easy to feel like a failure. The thing I try to keep in mind is making the music I want to make is a victory. Even if it doesn't produce money or clout, just let it be what it is, expression. I have never been a rich person, I believe there is beauty in living a modest life. I won't lie, I do hope to find a way to live off of my art some day after all this time. I'm not goin to lose myself in the process though, there has to be a way. There has to be a niche of people out there who feel the way I do and I won't quit until I find them.

I'd been tossing around the idea of a rebrand in my head for quite some time now. My music had just honestly hit a dead end and it felt as if all that hard work was just sitting in the void of the internet, so I had to take action. My only recourse  was to take everything down and start anew. It feels awful, sort of like the past couple years were a waste but sometimes it takes bravery to withdraw, to accept that you can be better and take the steps necessary to do so. This doesn't mean that the music is dead, it just means that I have nothing to lose so the least I can do is rework my music and make it perfect, make it exactly what I want it to be. In all honesty, with my budget restrictions and mania when it comes to writing, it's a miracle I've put out as much music as I have. Sometimes you don't exactly get the take you want in the studio but when the budget runs dry you have to kind of just stick with what you have.  I've just been beating my head against the wall ,doing things I know didn't work and being stubborn. Sometimes its necessary to put your ego on pause and evaluate yourself objectively.

I'll be rereleasing everything hopefully soon but I've made some big improvements to my home studio to truly be able to make things sound the way I want from home. Take the ideas back to their cradle and get them  to the level I know they can be. I'll take all the criticism I've gotten and use it to be better. The hot iron brand of criticism burns every negative thing I've ever heard about my art into my brain. I used to tune it out and try to forget but instead I want to use it as a learning opportunity. Truthfully though, it's selfish, there are so many things I want to fix for myself. Small details, things no one else hears that drive me nuts. I love and stand by everything I've put out but the thing with music is you always feel like it could be better. A maddening never ending rabbit hole. It will never be perfect I know that but I also know there is this magical place in-between "that's good" and perfect that I have to find.

The part of all of this that keeps me awake at night the most is the promotion aspect.What if there was nothing wrong with the recordings? Maybe they just hadn't been given the proper amount of exposure.What if I actually just dropped the ball on promoting? The last couple songs I had lost hope, I must admit. I'd promote on instagram and some other avenues for a very short amount of time, then when there was no response I'd give up.  I'd chalk it up to "well there's just too much music out there and mine fits nowhere". That may be true but I can't let the success of my songs infect what I think of them. I can't let my number of streams tarnish my vision or damper the potential of my music. I'd be lying though if I told you I wasn't hungry for my music to hit a larger audience and finally get my music some respect. It's just a balance between holding true to your art but also doing what it takes to find a group of people who respect what I do.

Labeling myself as hip hop was a bad move, my music is confusing and finding a genre to call home has been an impossibility. The genre problem is on the top of my list of things I need to address promotionally. I may have to some day acknowledge the fact that I may not be talented enough to make a living off of music but I'm not there yet, I still believe. It's exciting to be planning again and feeling like these songs have another chance. when I was a kid I used to think "anything can happen, one song could change my life"somewhere along the way that died. I want to regain that feeling now and forever. I'll do everything in my power, whatever it takes to give them a better fighting chance this time. Without support though, I will most certainly drown again. I'll no longer be too proud to ask for help  and I'll vulnerable enough to admit I have no fucking idea what I'm doing most of the time. My mouth salivates from the sweet smell of change wafting from the future, I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from John C. Maxwell, "The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the leader adjusts the sails".Maxw

I just grow weary of feeling like the fate of my music career is out of my hands. I want to take action, try something bold, keep fighting. I'm so so tired of submitting my songs to nameless faceless people who run blogs and playlists. I would honestly rather die out on the road making pennies than for my life to be run by the numbers next to my songs on Spotify. Social media is a necessary evil but I'd so much rather go play a room of ten people than have thousands on instagram followers. Even if it's a colossal failure and I lose tons of money, at least I took things in my own hands and got an experience out of it. I've never been afraid to fail, I more so worry that I'm not doing enough or there are more things I could be trying.I need some hope, some momentum and feel like the music I'm making actually matters. I want to feel like myself again. All of these industry people can make you feel like being yourself is wrong. I firmly believe that there is some sort of audience for art that comes from the right place inside of you, just have to find it.

I always seem to find myself looking at the sky and thinking "there has to be a better life out there for me somewhere". I have to catch myself often because I know how susceptible i am to escapism. I'm trying this time for it to be more healthy and realize that the problem is me, not the place i live. It's not one of my best qualities but I do think their are certain important elements of escapism that die when we become adults. Life is fucking boring and I just refuse to accept it. Money is the bloodline of life though and it is what traps us in routines and boxes. So i sat down recently and tried to think what actually makes  me happy? Music and travel are legitimately the only things that make me happy(although Mediterranean food does bring fleeting happiness). Making money doing that is not impossible but real real close. I have saved up quite a bit of money this past year and written tons of music, so i feel this is a better time than any to try and go on tour. I'm relocating to Nashville for the time being but paying rent while going out to play these shows is another gigantic obstacle. I've considered recently not having a home base and putting all of the money i make back into keeping me on the road. A truly beautiful nomadic existence it would be but it could take years to even get to a point where I'm making enough money for that to happen.

Well I've always believed a bad plan is better than no plan and ones that are born from desperation are usually even worse.  Promoting music online brings me no joy, its uninspiring and underwhelming. Playing live seems to be really the only option I have left. I could spend the rest of my life traveling playing small shows and scraping by and existence. I'm setting in motion a plan to do just that. I'm having to pay a company to book the shows the first time around with the hopes that I can make some connections and book shows in the future without having to pay a booking agent. The other problem I run into is that convincing others to come on tour with you takes money or at the very least shows that have high attendance. I can't promise either of those so  I've been learning and practicing how to play my music alone. Now i have to learn covers and shit too probably but it is a necessary evil. Fuck it, I'll do whatever it takes.

When you're a kid you have an idea of how your life will be. For a very small number of people it turns out that way but for the rest of us it does not. For most people,it's a fire that burns brightly throughout their 20's and then, reality hits. Most people accept what they must do and let their dream become something else. Let it become a hobby,start a family or put their efforts elsewhere.  What if that part of you wasn't able to die or change? It's like a knife in your chest, if you pull it out you'll die but to leave it in, it's immensely painful.  I am stuck with an impossible hunger that cannot be satiated. An deafening  alarm  that can't be turned off.  A riddle that can't be solved. ( I thought of lots more of these but I'll spare you.) I used to always say " Fuck it, I'll go down with the ship, i'll die with my love". That's poetic and a beautiful, bold statement but it's getting so hard to live up to. years and years and years of beating my head against the wall and spinning my wheels trying to get my music out there has taken a terrible toll on me. It's like all other doors in my life are shut until i get this one open,it's maddening. Some days it feels like a curse. I think, why couldn't I have been passionate about something that's actually fucking attainable. True passion chooses you, digs it's roots deep and becomes part of who you are.

Recently, I've been feverishly searching for something I might be able to do for money that I don't hate. As much as i would love for it to be music, I just don't believe there is an audience for the music I'm making. I'm stuck in a dark conundrum with music where it is the only thing that will ever bring me true happiness but until then just brings me crippling depression. At this point, failure would be an upgrade from nonexistence. If I had  large sample size of people who had heard my music and hated it, I would at lest sleep better at night knowing it had it's chance. with my music though, I make ll these songs that I release and then go to die on the internet. Of course, I cant ask for guidance in this because there is no clear cut answer. Every day I tell myself to chill out, just have fun making music again, try my best and if people dig it, then great. At the end of the day though I need to love making music again and just enjoy it.

I get so caught up in everyone who's doing better than me, self analyzing and trying to figure out what is wrong with my music. It suffocates all the creative energy out of me and I'll sit down in my studio and begin writing, when the thought of " Who cares" hits me. I'm so bad at promoting and have no clue how to make people care about my art. I go through highs and lows, I'm sure in a couple days time, I'll be back in fighting spirits. Maybe there is happiness inside of the struggle, if i could find that and learn to love the fight, maybe I would be more productive. The only answer to this impossible problem is to love the struggle, keep trying things, FIND A WAY. I’ll leave it on a quote from Hagakure “If you are slain, be sure your corpse faces the enemy."

do you ever feel you have a purpose? something that you are compelled to do for a reason you may not even understand fully understand. Accomplishment is the only feeling that has ever brought me a sliver of peace but it's never enough.Everyone around me seems to want to just go to work and drink away that one little voice in their heads that's actually making any sense. That voice is a scary one though, the one that tells you " none of this feels right" or that bit of emptiness that's felt right before sleep. When i was a kid, I used to watch other kids be so blissfully happy and wonder "why can't I just stop thinking so much and be like them".I still sometimes have that thought when I'm around my peers. All i wanted as a kid was to shut off my mind and just be happy. of course, most times with this problem, people turn to substance abuse but I was fortunate enough to see the dangers of that at a young age. I had sleeping problems my whole childhood and my thoughts became an anchor around my neck that I couldn't shake. It was maddening, having so much to say but just not knowing how to portray it or not knowing how to get others to understand how you feel. Reading and writing became the only ways I could take my mind off of things, so i avidly started reading.

I was at the library one day when I saw a small black book with red lettering laying next to some others called Hagakure( in the shadow of the leaves). I flipped to a random page in the book and read this paragraph ““There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present . A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.” I was too young to really understand what it meant but I loved that i didn't understand, I had no idea how big of an impact this book would have on me. It was a collection of old stories and sayings about the code samurai used to live by. For the first time in my life, I realized a life of purpose and discipline was the only thing that could ever bring me peace. I'm not like the other kids, this burden is mine because I'm able to carry it. I vowed to never do drugs or drink alcohol, I started working out and getting my body in shape.It wasn't a feeling that i finally mattered, it was embracing that I don't matter and that's okay. I am an instrument of purpose and I can use my mind to influence this world in a positive way.  The book also taught me  extremely important life tools, meditation and complete and utter submergence into the current moment. Another major lesson I learned was unattachment, being too latched on is unhealthy, as all things must  pass. I try to live with the constant reminder that I am only a fleeting gear in a machine much larger than myself. 

How do you think of nothing? Even actively thinking about nothing in itself is defeating the purpose, it seemed like a conundrum.I struggled so hard with meditation, it took years and years for me to finally be able to lose myself. it may very well have been the best day of my life. I still to this day need the help of running water or a noise to focus on, which makes nothingness easier to achieve. you put your mind on the noise and you aren't thinking of anything you are just focused on the moment. I was always so worried about the future or dying or something awful that I wasn't able to touch the moments as they went by. It was only when I realized how small of a part I am of everything and how little I matter, that I could throw myself at my purpose with wreck less abandon.Live as though I am already dead, let go of fear and doubt. Of course, I'm human I have emotions,I get sad at times and lose sight of the epiphany i had all those years ago. Any time I'm feeling that way though, I pick up Hagakure and read back through and I always feel better. It is the oldest possession I own, I never travel without it and it's the only possession I truly cherish. I leave you with this another one of my favorite paragraphs "“If one is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that “All abilities come from one mind” sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat.”   I wont turn my back on the difficult thoughts or paths, I will embrace them and live inside of each moment unafraid of the next.