Music
Running Down Dark Alleys Blind EP—Out Friday, Feb 27
The EP is finally coming out next Friday. It took me a long time to finish. I had to fight through a lot of internal battles to get there. There’s been a lot of resistance in the process. Eventually I reached that point of “happy enough” and let it go.
They say art is never finished, only abandoned. Maybe. I have limited time on this earth. I need to keep moving. Creating new things is what keeps me alive—the cycle of feeling, making, and moving forward.
Releasing doesn’t appeal to me nearly as much as creating does. I release things to leave a trace of the work. But the creation itself is what truly matters to me. Maybe I also care less about release because almost no one pays attention anyway. Who knows.
Listening Recommendations
Two artists I’ve loved for a long time:
- Dave Van Ronk — start with Folksinger and Inside Dave Van Ronk.
- Sibylle Baier — Colour Green.
They’re less known than other favourites of mine like Dylan, Prine, or Nick Drake, but just as great.
Sibylle Baier’s story is beautiful—she recorded those songs privately in the 1970s, never really intending to release them. Decades later, her son found the tapes and helped bring them into the world. I'm glad, it's a fantastic LP.
Videogame
We’ve tightened the scope again. Time and experience are our two biggest constraints. We’re working part-time, and it’s our first game—so if we don’t keep narrowing the scope, we’ll never ship anything.
Recently we created a new mental model: the 90% rule.
Instead of building lots of ideas to 20–30% and saying “we’ll circle back later,” we now focus on a very small set of mechanics and push them to 90%. In games, 30% vs 90% is a massive difference. And often, when something reaches 90%, you realise many of the other half-baked 30% ideas aren’t even necessary.
Another way to think of it: Would I let someone outside the project see this? If yes, it’s probably near 90%.
I’ve been doing a lot of audio work lately, which has been deeply satisfying. It’s interesting how confidence in a skill affects speed. As a beginner, naïveté gives you speed. As an expert, clarity gives you speed. In the messy middle—where I am with art for example—doubt creeps in. That’s part of it. (I wrote about the earlier game pivot here.)
Life
Exercise
Lots of training, especially running. Unfortunately, a right foot injury kept me out of a couple races and slowed things down. But I’ve known this for a long time: I love training more than racing.
I love the consistent daily rhythm. Planning weeks and blocks, feeling progress internally rather than expressing it in a race result.
I’ve also added a daily bodyweight circuit again, something I used to do as a teenager. Keeping it simple: pushups, squats, pull-ups, dips, crunches, pike stands, planks. Basic and effective. It's interesting how well my body responds to this type of training.
Routine
I’m deep in routine right now.
- Up around 8.
- Work 9:30–12:30.
- Exercise + lunch.
- Work again 15:30–19:30 (sometimes 20:30).
The hours are hyper-focused: 55-minute Pomodoros, 5-minute breaks. It’s intense, but good.
Most of my time is going into a small business now, since art isn’t bringing in money.
Home
Moved to a new home in Berastegi with Marta and the cats.
It’s been a tough winter—lots of rain and cold, and the house itself is very cold. But tough doesn’t mean bad. Tough means learning. And tough here isn’t life-or-death like in other parts of the world. So it’s fine.
We also have a new feline member of the family: Ronnie. He’s a boy cat—still a kitten, but already big. I’ll upload a photo soon and link to it here.