Still A Solo Artist, Still a Skier

I haven't posted anything for a while, but today, I got around to it again.  I went skiing in Michigan recently and loved it.  We're having a good winter for snow.  A perfect cure for the winter blues.  Actually, the last song I wrote was a of the blues variety.  That's about all I have to report on a personal level.  I haven't had any newsworthy information to share, but I wanted to reassure you that I've been continuing on with the songwriting/recording hobby sporadically.  I haven't done any marketing at all for my existing catalog of music, as usual.  I haven't written about myself, nor has anyone else written anything about me that I'm aware of.  

Even as a first-time reader of this blog, you can probably tell I'm not a hype man for my own music.  I don't like revealing much about myself, but I do understand that if you've discovered my music and like some of it, you might be curious to learn more about me.  I'm not a solo artist with much of an "image" or "brand" to get you more interested.  I like it that way, and I'm guessing that's part of my appeal.

Although there's quite a lot of information about me on my web site, and in my blog, I primarily let the music do the talking.  In other words, I'm not the type of person to tell my whole life story online, although there are bits and pieces in my lyrics that may reveal a little about who I am as a person I guess.

There are not a lot of photos of me out there, but the ones that are out there, are really me, and I don't wear any disguises.  I'm not out to be some type of enigma, so it's how I would look if you saw me in person.  I'm a private person, yet a public artist, albeit one who is barely known.  

I resist oversharing on social media.  I barely even announce new music when I release it, and beyond that, I don't care for self-promotion.  I've trusted that discovery happens somehow, and people who like it, recommend it.  My identity has been revealed from the start, with my artist name being my real name, but people I work with in my day job have no idea.  I don't try to maintain a mystique, nor do I try to be elusive, but I do have some degree of anonymity.  I don't care for the artists and bands who wear masks or whatever, but I do envy them being able to be completely anonymous.  

I am a somewhat established solo artist with a longer "career" than most, but I've never been signed to a record label, and few music-related publications have ever written about me.  I'm not famous, not a celebrity, not notable, no wikipedia page.  That's my deal.  I let the "artistry" take center stage.  I'm the complete opposite of new young artists like that Alex Warren guy who spend a huge chunk of their time every day posting content and working the algorithms.  I'm not a court the influencers or be your own influencer type of person.  I don't crave popularity, but more of it, if it happened organically, would be nice of course.

Despite being a little immature in some ways as an older person, I guess what I have going for me now is what they call "catalog maturity."  I've released over a dozen albums in twenty years, and they're all still available for streaming in most music streaming services.  There is steady growth every year, even though the amount is relatively small.  I think I like this better than if I was all of a sudden an overnight success with millions of streams.  It's so cool that I've been allowed in, that I can stay in the game.  I hope to keep it going, and to continue with the slow momentum.

I'm more suited to being a songwriter than an artist, and more of a behind-the-scenes guy than a frontman.  I'll never be a good singer, and no one will ever accuse me of being a shredder on any instrument.  The appeal might be that I do everything myself, and that I keep doing it.  My style is unique, and hard to describe.  It's way different than what is trending in mainstream popularity.  Some people find out about my music, and some of them like it, and some that like it tell others about it, and to paraphrase that old TV commercial, they tell two friends, and so on.  Strictly word-of-mouth, and I like it that way.

I primarily write love songs, songs about romantic relationships.  Sometimes the mood is dark or blue, sometimes sunny and happy.  There's a lot of variety in genre, form, tempo, key, instrumentation, and style if you can get past the constant sound of my singing voice and ever-present strumming of an acoustic guitar.  Most of the songs are fairly serious, although I don't take any of them that seriously.  Many people don't dive into the deep end of my catalog, and I'm cool with that.  They like the funny one about the island with a swear word in it.  I get it.  All artists have one song that is more popular than the others.  I'm lucky to have written that one.

In some ways I feel like I've already over-shared, but the reality is you can find out a lot about most people online nowadays.  Unless you completely unplug and live off the grid, people can find out about you.  I think there's enough already about me out there, and even though I know if I would promote myself more it would be good, I just can't bring myself to do it.  I don't have it in me.  Not that kind of person.  

I plan to just stick with releasing new music once in a while in the form of a new album of originals I write and record myself at least every two years, maybe more frequently if enough songs materialize.  I'll announce them herein, then let the chips fall where they may, as I've been doing for a couple decades.

There are metrics and milestones that you can look back and reflect on, but I'm not one to rest on my laurels.  Not that I would've ever been able to garner interest from a record label in the first place, but if I had, I'm sure they would've dropped me long ago.  With a couple more albums, I should be able to reach the 200 mark for number of original songs released, which might be a good quantity to end up with.  A convenient, round number anyway.  A goal, perhaps.  

I probably won't ever quit writing songs, but that might at least make sense as a time to take a break for a while from releasing albums publicly.  Who knows?  It seems like there's still a demand, but I don't really know.  Nobody knows.  I've been very self-deprecating in this blog and on my website.  

I've said things like "I know I suck, but I do it anyway because I can."  There's some truth there, and my music certainly isn't for everyone, but there are statistics that show it's still catching on with new people, and that existing fans keep coming back for more.

Check back in after a while and I may have another new music available announcement to make later this year.  I'm working on it.  If it does happen, you can probably expect it on my birthday - hey, there's a personal detail - which is June 21st.  It's also Make Music Day, World Music Day, or if you parle Francais, Fete de la Musique.