Hello Love,
I’ve been inactive. I’ve never been busier.
// WHISTLEBLOWER //
I have a music video to share. It was dreamed up over an afternoon hang with my friend Stuart Gillies. It’s about anger.
Seems there is a lot of anger in the world. Anger can be important. Anger can topple tyrants. Anger can be a catalyst to growth. But if it becomes the default lens through which the world is seen, it can blind us from the redemption or beauty that can be found in this absurdity of errors. This video was not made with the intent to incite anger, but it does hope to advocate to work through anger and find the other side of it. To find resolution, forgiveness, and peace. Everyone involved donated their time/talent completely, and I am so grateful.
(ps. "Whistleblower" is from my 2016 Unmake EP)
// SIDE DOOR //
If you’ve been following my social media as of late, you’re likely a bit tired of me posting things about a new project called Side Door. It is something that has been percolating in my head for over a decade, since my very first tour of BC and Alberta in 2006.
I felt that, at least for emerging artists, the mechanics of the touring industry left much to be desired from both the audience and artist standpoint. For an artist, trying to find audiences that will give you the benefit of the doubt is a near impossible feat, and often leads to financial ruin in the pursuit. My friend Laura and I started a company to try and mitigate the inefficiencies that keep artists from finding the types of audiences that (we believe) actually, genuinely DO want to watch them perform.
I posted some thoughts on Facebook and asked for feedback, and over two thousand people gave us incredible testimonials about their frustrations with the status quo of live touring. Everything from frustration with a lack of transparency in the ticketing industry... to finding it hard to juggle babysitters for shows that start too late to… well… “I’m too short to see the stage in a club”.
The small picture is “house concerts”, as they bring to mind intimacy, magic, and connection. They remove a ton of overhead from the process and allow artists to make a living while fostering community and culture for hosts in satellite communities, as well as in big cities. But the big picture is so much more.
We are in extreme beta phase right now, and our website isn’t very pretty, but what we’re developing behind the scenes is not only blowing my mind daily, but is so very simple that I can’t believe it doesn’t exist already.
OK here’s the sales pitch:
If you are interested at all in getting to know more about this project…
If you are an emerging artist who finds it hard to get in front of attentive audiences…
If you want to build connective tissue in your community, foster local culture and bring the magic of intimate performance into your home/space...
If you are tired of the ticketing industry’s lack of fairness, transparency and accountability…
If you are open to one-of-a-kind tactile experiences in your hometown that you’ll never forget…
for gosh darn sakes, click HERE.
// NEW ALBUM //
No! I don’t have a new album to announce. But, yes, I am working on one. I am feeling really great about the new songs, and how they sit amongst all my other work. It feels like a progression forward, but also a move to something a bit more classic me. I got a lot off of my chest with Club Meds. In some ways, that album didn’t find as wide an audience as I was hoping, but it was the album I needed to make, and I’m feeling a beautiful freedom to go in all kinds of directions now.
We had a second child in December. A boy named Hayden. It’s hard, with the face of a beautiful new life staring back at you, to not write songs that seek a glimmer of hope in the world. Life is chaos. Life is good. I am so very lucky in so many ways.
As always, thanks for listening, thanks for reading, thanks for putting away the dishes.
x
Dan