Back on the gram
And feeling totally normal about it
Good mid-May morning!
Mo and I played a lovely show at the Lunenburg Opera House on Friday. Mo took this photo in the sunlit greenroom.
A couple updates:
I am releasing a song called "Ghost Ship" on Wednesday, June 10. YAY!!!!
I'm playing a HALIFAX SHOW! on June 4, at Gus' Pub. Joining Montreal rockers Fireball Kid and hometown heroes Angel Girl. Gonna be loud and fun. Tickets here.
I want to start Morning Club again! I miss co-working with artists. Thinking about a mix of in-person and virtual, would anyone be into that? Reply & let me know :)
Longtime readers of this newsletter will know that I railed against social media a lot last year. That was actually the main impetus for starting this newsletter. The process looked like this:
"I hate it here!" (Instagram) "I don't want to do this anymore!"
"What if… I don't have to?" Sun broke through the clouds and bathed me in golden light.
What followed was a months-long deep dive (some would say hyper-fixation) on the evils of social media, big tech, the actual value of personal data, and the possibilities around opting out. It was a beautiful time! I learned so much about online privacy, marketing, business, and branding. Alternative to social media abound.
Optimism reined. "Artists don't NEED to be shackled to these life-sucking platforms!" (Still believe this to be true). Had a glorious ~4 months off social media. Mental health was arguably at an all-time high.
Began to plan my next release cycle and dare I say… get excited about the possibilities of short-form video content?? Making things for social media began to feel creative and fun again.
I'm so grateful for the experiments and learnings of the last year. I'm back on social media at the moment, but it no longer feels like a fraught lifeline to the outside world that I both resent and require.
I have so many more points of contact, like this newsletter that you're reading, my website, and real-life communities. Putting my energy in those latter places over the last 14 months has been unbelievably rewarding.
Here are some people whose writing about creative practice and sharing your work off social media continues to inspire me:
If you're looking for support with social media from people who are majorly skeptical about big tech, the folks over at Strong Brand Social know what they're doing.
Talk soon! Love ya.
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