Foolishly Moving Forward With Failure

Happy April Fools Day!  There are a lot of funny things happening today, and we could use some cheering up.  Fake news is allowed, and it's not taken seriously by anyone like it usually is.  I've got a tidbit of real news to announce, no joke.

I'm going to release a new album with 365 songs on it.  It will take me a year to release at the rate of one song per day.  Just kidding.  It will have a normal amount of songs on it, and less than the experimental track count of my last album.  Seriously, I've been working on it, and I'm getting close to putting some finishing touches on it.

Certainly I've been foolish even attempting to be in the music business, because I've done nothing but fail, and doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is foolish.  Here we are in April, and the newness of spring is upon us, and I'm about to spring more music on you. Writing, recording and releasing another album is definitely a fool's errand.

It all depends on how you look at failure though.  I define success in music as making at least one person happy with a song I write.  I've done that many times that I know of, possibly more.  When I was a ski bum, I used to intentionally live a lifestyle that I knew would be well below the poverty line because I found other aspects than income to be important.  Most do that for a year, I did it for 6.  Amazing experiences and memories are what I achieved vs. things to show off.  Maybe that tells you some things about my character, maybe not.

At some point, I will probably come to the realization that after releasing a bunch of music for a bunch of years that hardly anyone ever listened to or became aware of, that it might be better if I stopped doing that anymore.  This isn't it.  I'm not at that point.

Consider this a teaser post to wet your appetite.  I'm planning to do it yet again for no apparent reason.  The world has 13 Scott Cooley studio albums in it, and I'm gearing up to make it 14.  I'm not superstitious, but #13 didn't set the world on fire, not that I expected it to, and I don't want to end the solo artist career stopped at that unlucky number, just to be on the safe side.  I remain hopeful for an improved reception next time.

Not only do I release music to a barely-existent audience, I also blog about doing it to a barely-existent audience.  I don't know why I do these things exactly, and I'm not sure how I got to this point.  I guess I thought it had a chance to catch on with people somehow.  I never thought any of it would achieve a viral surge in popularity, but I did think the slow, steady audience growth might speed up eventually.  It hasn't really.

I'm getting closer to stopping the public release of any more music at some point in my future, but what's preventing that is the fact that I have more in the vault.  And I keep writing and recording more from time to time.  It doesn't do much for me.  I don't get much of anything out of it, except the satisfaction of knowing it's out there and that it could be discovered and enjoyed.

I say all of this as an introduction to the real point of this post, which is to tell the world that I anticipate releasing more music again fairly soon.  It sure seems like there are actual people out there in the world, you probably included, who would be interested to know about this, so here you go.

Maybe I've already dropped some hints, but I can't remember.  You can pretty much count on one new full-length record of new original material from me at least every two years.  I've proven that.  Sometimes even more frequently, as has been the case in the last few.  It's not so much that I'm on a roll, it's just that I've got to let the stockpile dwindle, and the hobby doesn't stop.

"They" say that you need to slowly build interest, periodically letting people know small amounts of information.  They wouldn't keep doing it if the approach never worked.  I understand it, yet, have had mixed results, but hey, I'm no marketing or PR expert.  Sometimes I'd rather learn about it after the fact.

Don't you hate it when you somehow become aware of a TV show, then check it out, and get into it, only to learn you'll have to wait a year or more for the next season to come out?  I'd rather wait to hear about it after the whole show ended, so that I can binge all episodes in one week.  When you get into a book, you can keep going at your leisure until you finish it, which can be so much better.

As a music fan, I run across and read news articles quite frequently that are about some solo artist or band working on their next album, and as a fan, I am indeed interested enough to enjoy hearing about it.  I guess it gives me something to look forward to.  We could all use more things to look forward to.

When that happens, I file it away in the back of my mind as a reminder to remember to wait a while, then search for it.  Sometimes I sort of almost wish I wouldn't have read those articles because the waiting is the hardest part as Tom Petty sang, and instead only read the official release announcement, which would require less waiting.

Paul McCartney has a new album coming out, which I became aware of recently in that very type of article.  I discovered the single called Days We Left Behind, which is really good.  Now I have to wait until the full album The Boys of Dungeon Lane comes out.  It will be a while, so like I said, a part of me would rather not know until the whole thing is already available.  

That article worked though.  It pointed me to the single, and now I have something to look forward to.  In my mind I'm telling myself to forget about it for now, wait a few weeks, and by then I'll be able to stream the whole album.  I can get bummed out from time to time, but I always have a sneaking suspicion that good fortune is right around the corner.

This is the way it goes.  So, yeah, I'm working on finalizing a new album of songs I've been writing and recording.  I do this stuff from the same desk in the same spare bedroom in my house I'm typing this from.  Like I always do, I write songs here, record them here, type blog posts from here, maintain my website from here, announce releases on social media from here, etc.

I suppose I could record one of those behind the scenes videos of me showing you around my little home office/recording studio, but I'm confident it wouldn't be very interesting to anyone.  I have a computer, with an audio interface attached to it, and a microphone attached to that, and a guitar on a stand here next to me, and there's two keyboards - one for typing and the other for making piano sounds on.  

So, yeah, nothing special, but this is one of those posts to let a few interested people know I haven't given up yet.  I continue with the hobby, and I have plans to make some new music public again soon so you can listen to it.  Wait until the end of June, and it should be out there for you to stream in its entirety.

There, you have a little tidbit of extra information - release timeframe - but astute fans already know June 21st is not only my birthday, but also my typical street date for new music releases.  Street date is a stretch because it won't be in brick and mortar music stores with streets in front of them, but you'll be able to listen via streaming on a device of your choosing, and wherever that is, you'll have some type of street nearby, so close enough.

Yay, we both have something to look forward to!  Another thing I can reveal at this juncture is that it won't be the happiest record in my catalog.  It hasn't been the happiest of times for me lately, nor has it been for a lot of you I suspect.  It's okay to allow yourself to feel bummed out sometimes, and your feelings influence the music you make.

I'm no different from anyone else, and these seem to be challenging times.  It's alright to admit that to ourselves.  I know I'm not alone.  It will be okay.  Things will get better.  They always do.  Hang in there, and just when it seems like there's nothing to get excited about, a new Scott Cooley album appears.  It's in the works.  The music business era that we're in is a fool's paradise, and I'm in complete denial, happily continuing to participate.