Romanticize The Middle

A lot of life has happened over the last few months!

I'm engaged to the most incredible, thoughtful, caring, smart, second funniest (only second to me) person I've ever met and I'm so lucky she keeps me around. We've had some family drama, medical scares, creative showcases (for both my partner and me), travel, stress at work, and more. And that's not including just being in Brooklyn and enjoying time with friends and our dog.

And between all of these things happening (mostly good with some bad), I feel this craving for things to slow down so I can take it all in. I have this thought of "one more weekend, and things will return to normal". I'm falling into a trap that I actively seek to avoid.

I have a tattoo that says "The Journey, Itself, Is Home". It's based on a quote that says "Everyday is a journey, and the journey itself is home". It's a reminder to remember that no matter what is happening, life is happening. It's a reminder that despite how excited and I am for the future and how much I want to work to achieve certain things, I need to live and value every day in the meanwhile.

This problem is only exacerbated when it comes to music. There's that nagging voice "I need to produce more", "Shouldn't you have another track signed by now?", "I need to be out networking", "Why don't I have any shows lined up?".

Despite creating music to express how I feel in the now, I struggle to stay present.

This is a love letter to me, and anyone reading, to romanticize the middle. Fall in love with mundane. If you keep looking for the next sunrise you'll miss the sunset. There really is so much richness and love and fulfillment in the day-to-day and that's worth my time and energy and attention as much as the future I'm working towards. Life is a great thing and right now I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. I'm going to try to take it all in and enjoy the journey.

On that note, I have A LOT of new music that's basically done but I'm figuring out what to do with it (slow drip singles, send to labels, do an EP, hold on to them forever out of shame/guilt). There's a lot of options on the table, but as I looked through them, I found a song that I made a while ago that highlights why I'm thinking about the middle. It's a song I loved making, combining my taste of indie vocals with synthpop-py sounds. In the the nature of enjoying the now, here's a song that flowed out so quickly while producing but I was too focused on the "next thing", I didn't give it enough attention. So here's a song from the backlog that may never see the light of day proper but still deserves love and attention. A mix of my love of CHVRCHES and Midnight Kids.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the now.

- Kardnl