I’m thinking a lot about possibility lately. I’m thinking about those things that we can do if we decide just to do it. I’m thinking about what it means to go after something that you want, and what it means to just let it go and not bother. It’s challenging to let things go, especially when you’ve put a lot of work, time and thought into something. At what point do you pack it in, and say you know what maybe this just isn’t meant to be.

I have a friend and for years and years he was an adjunct educator. He tried, and tried. He worked so hard, and one upset after another he stuck it out. I used to say ‘man, pack it in, give up on this… maybe it’s not meant to be.’ and he was human, he was frustrated, but he had vision, and he could see it, or if he couldn’t see it at least he could see what he wasn’t supposed to be doing and so he persevered on his path.

Eventually, he landed in a solid place, a solid job with great experiences, and a ton of opportunities. I was so proud for him and all of the work that he put in. I wished that I had his vision, his perseverance and his will to stick it out because he knew what was right. I didn’t then, but I do now.

This is something that’s so important to the journey. Sure, sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, as was the vision statement of my Alma Mater, Goddard College, but at the same time sometimes you need to get somewhere so you don’t feel like you’re wandering around in the cold. Call it faith, vision, hope, certainty, whatever, you can’t know that you’ve made it until you have, and usually whatever it was that helped you make it, whatever drives you, has you focused on something even further out there when reach that place that you had been trying to get to.

This is where my mind is at as I work on this new recording. I started on my musical path writing songs, and over the years, I’ve written man. However, after I started working on the ambient/space music I started to focus less on the songs, singing and songwriting. For the most part, over the last decade that’s stuck. I haven’t deviated much from the electronic, ambient/space music perspective.

Mostly I haven’t moved from that genre much because I haven’t wanted to disappoint fans, or at the same time start all over again in a new genre. On top of that, as much I’ve sung, performed and spoken in front of people, singing publicly still mortifies me just like it’s the first time, which constantly has me starting and stopping my sort of “ambient folk” projects, because the live singing piece is such a huge component… this was the case with the band Olagra and the recording Olagra.

However, as I’ve moved forward with the poetry, the singing, songwriting, and now this recording of this new project the ambient folk thing is coming back around again. I’m re-recording some of the songs off the Olagra release. I had planned on doing the vocals in a sort of spoken word manor, but the more I listen to them the more I feel it will be necessary to sing, or at least some combination.

It’s early in the recording and creative process, but the new tracks definitely have a Windy and Carl, or Kranky singer/songwriter style to them. Kind of guitar drenched in reverb, and the vocals kind of going the way of spoken word meets Leonard Cohen or Gordon Lightfoot. Again, it’s early in the process, so it can go anywhere from here.