Now

Music

Back to Practice

I’ve focused on music again.

Not by starting a big new project. The LP is still for later in the year. Right now I’m trying to get music fit again: practicing the latest release, preparing the next one, writing new material, and learning covers that push me as a player.

This is the part of music I enjoy most. The daily practice. The small improvements. Sitting with songs long enough that they start to open up.

It also means spending a lot of time with my old friend the metronome. It’s interesting how you can always become more in tune with it. There’s always another improvement in feel to find there.

Capturing the Work

The main thing I want to figure out now is how to capture the actual music work sustainably.

I’ve tried this before. Usually it starts with one strong attempt, maybe a week of consistency, and then it fizzles out. Too much friction. Too much extra work around the work.

This time I want something leaner.

Not a big content machine. Not a new project that swallows the music itself. Just a simple way to share the things I already enjoy doing: practicing songs, working on new ones, learning covers, getting better.

If I can make that easy enough to keep going, it could help a lot. It’s one of my weakest links in everything around music as a career. If I can’t get better at it, it’ll be very hard to reach the people who might actually like my work.

Work

I’ve dropped the business ideas for now.

I’m back to language teaching to sustain myself, which feels like the right move. I’m good at it, I have experience doing it, and it doesn’t need to become some huge thing in my head.

Just lessons. Enough to keep life stable. As little extra business thinking as possible.

The point is to protect time and energy for music.

Videogame

I’ve been working mostly on UI, UX, clean design, and the visual language of the game.

I enjoy that work. It suits me. There’s something satisfying about making things clearer, simpler, easier to understand.

We’re almost at the point where we can start building the crafting tree and the first proper loop in the open world. Still no biomes or huge map. Just the prairie for now, with different plants and new machines.

Fun though. Lots of fun. And lots of hats!

Focus

This feels like another level of resisting shiny object syndrome.

That’s been a theme in my life for the past few years. I can feel myself slowly getting better at it. Reducing the business scope. Reducing the creative scope. Letting fewer things matter at once.

Not forever. Just right now.

Music matters most right now, so I’m trying to give it the room it demands.

Running

Still running. I hope that never has to stop.

I’d like to get back into trail running too, but I don’t have the right shoes at the moment.

I also thought I hadn’t got lucky with the Behobia ticket this year, but then I got one from the waitlist. So I’ll be running it after all.