As we all know, last year was... difficult. That may sound like an understatement, but we continue to move forward and distance ourselves from the events of last year, and I believe that however difficult our situations might have been, we can all agree that we would like improve our lives and improve the environment surrounding us. If I sound overly optimistic, it's because I am. I've had a lot of time over the past year to reflect not only on my creative output, but my life in general. Granted I wish I could've spent more of that time in the company of others, collaborating on music projects because that is what I've been drawn towards in the past few years, but I understand the need for a large pause in order to get this virus under control. If anything, it allowed me to reconnect with my own creativity and make music on my own for the first time in many years. Hopefully I can keep that momentum going into this new year. When last year started, I was very eager to see what the year had in store for me. I was playing a lot of music with people and I was scheduled to be touring for a large part of the year. At the same time, I knew my time in NYC was coming to an end, with Emily and I making plans to relocate to Los Angeles sometime in the summer. Obviously those plans didn't come to fruition, however, we did end up in Los Angeles, albeit with a short detour through Denver, and now I'm very happy and fortunate to be settled in a new city, eagerly looking forward to all that this year brings us. I am cautiously optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless.
With that in mind, 2020 wasn't a total loss. A second Gold Child album was already underway when NYC entered lockdown, and thankfully a majority of the tracking had already taken place. Our timeline obviously was extended, but I am very proud of Emily for continuing and ultimately finishing the record. Thankfully the modern recording process has already allowed for remote collaboration, so finishing the album didn't prove overly difficult.
The first single we released from the upcoming album is titled "Like You Used To.' I believe this is Emily's greatest work to date. I love how this song came out, and I really like the way it sounds. I hope you do as well.
The only other project that I worked on and released last year is the debut full length album from Surf Rock Is Dead. This had been in the works for a long time, and unfortunately could not be pushed back any further. This was going to be a huge year for the Surf Rock boys, and we likely would have been on tour for most of the year, starting with our first ever appearance at SXSW. I can only hope that one day soon we will be sharing the stage again together. They worked very hard to put this album together and it deserves to be heard by more people.
And that's it folks! I did do a few remote recording sessions at the beginning of quarantine, so we'll see how those pan out, but I can only hope 2021 will be a more robust year creatively. Fingers crossed.
