Ever notice that no one speaks of tribulations without involving trials?

And no one speaks of laurels unless they’re commenting on resting on them.

And what the hell is a laurel anyway? Apparently, it’s a wreath… but that’s not the point here.

What I have come to learn is that, musically, if I have any of these figurative laurels, I don’t like to rest on them. From a creative standpoint, it’s always about moving forward.

What I should be doing is finding ways to promote Meaning and Reason, my 2024 record. I think I still will.

But as I am not a salesperson, and I am a writer, I’m way more interested in thinking about upcoming creative projects. I have ideas. But if I don’t act on them—and it’s way easier to not act upon them—I start getting antsy and tweaked by ongoing inactivity.

I’d like to record another record in 2025. And I don’t want to simply record old songs that are already written. A new record should reflect something new, right? Something that speaks to what the artist is feeling and doing in the here and now, right?

But writing songs—music, melodies, arrangements, lyrics—doesn’t just happen. It’s rare that, after 30+ years, I just sit down and pop something out that isn’t a cut-rate clone or close cousin of something I have done in the past. Novel, good material takes work. And who wants to work? Not me. I play music because it’s my passion, not because I want to struggle and put in work.

But I do. Because it’s that important to me to move forward. No laurel resting.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been massaging now three brand new songs for next year’s sessions, as well as a handful of scraps of ideas that haven’t landed anywhere. Of the three that have landed, I’m very excited about two of them. One I’m moderately enthused by. These are the kinds of things on the docket.

And, if this wasn’t enough, I have already started a recording project that will pre-date next year’s full album: a handful of acoustic recordings. Why? Because they’re songs that don’t have drums—which makes the initial sessions easier to work through since recording drums is a lot of work and prep for a studio engineer.

In between my 2023 and 2024 records, I went into the studio to touch up and remaster some old demos (with the 51s) as sort of a mini-project. This acoustic set of recordings may serve the same role before next year’s full-on recording. Sort of like an appetizer for me to nosh on before I am ready for the big meal…

So I have been prepping for that, too. Lots going on. If I think about it too much, especially when I allow other things in the world outside of music to creep in, I can get a little freaked out. So I try not to think about it much. I just attempt to get a little bit done here and there, slow and steady. If I can’t do too much, at least I can do something. Something pays infinitely more productive returns than nothing. That’s true of everything in life, isn’t it?