Why subscribe?

In the past, I’ve leaned towards the view that the public’s apparently-growing desire to understand a work of art primarily in terms of the artist’s intent is a sure sign that a host of unfortunate social and psychological ailments have established a stranglehold over our collective imagination.

I’ve eye-rolled at popstars posting a few paragraphs on social media about why this song is about this specific romantic relationship and therefore Truly Expressive of themselves.

I’ll be the judge of what your fucking song is about.

But then I also find myself devouring interviews with my favourite artists, disappearing down Wikipedia rabbit holes tracing the lineage of various groups, labels, and genres, and generally trying to understand if not why then at least how certain things came to be.

Because meaning aside, an audience cares about a lot more than the the de-contextualised content. We might care about who the artist is, where they lived, how they lived, who they worked with, what tools they used, what traditions they drew from or contributed to, or what we think liking them says about us. How else to decide if this specific pretty picture is worth caring about more than an Ikea poster?

As much as my true preference would be to let people try and figure things out for themselves, I’ve started to think that asking people to do so without any context might be a little uncharitable. There’s probably also value in pushing yourself to do things you’ve some deep, oh-so-deep resistance to because resistance is never entirely rational.

So in an effort to be a little more charitable with my work, in this newsletter, I plan to share one song a week, and to try writing a lil’ something about the piece. That something could be anything. I have enough music to keep up with one song a week for about a year, then I may have to take stock and see what’s feasible.

Many of these songs are already in albums and EPs that I have sitting on my hard drive, so I’ll probably share the work in vague chunks: a few weeks of folk songwriting, a few weeks of impressionist electronica, etc.

I might also end up sharing works in progress, process investigations, other thoughts, etc. Who’s to say? Certainly not me.

You’ll be the judge of what my fucking songs are about.

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