Embrace Your Strange... or At Least Try (Patreon)

I just completed a Kickstarter update for Selcouth. The album is officially done.

There's a point in every project where you have to make a decision to ship it. You can't hold onto every idea. You can spend your whole life improving something. 

Well, you can, but it ultimately leads to never shipping, which is basically failure.

And yet... I had trouble. I planned to finish this album in August. Then it became September. Here we are, most of the way through October. I finally said, it is done. 

And yet... when it came to pushing that publish button on Kickstarter, I hesitated. The "what ifs" flooded my mind. I worry that it's not good enough. That there's a week track. It could be better.

I know, I'm just scared. I'm afraid of criticism. Especially for something that I love so much. These songs mean a lot to me. I want honest feedback about it. But I also don't.

It's weird going to conventions and playing a whole bunch of songs that feel less representative of where I am right now. It's weird trying to sell CDs that no longer feel appropriate.

Selcouth is where I am. It has many of my favorite songs to play right now. I want to give it its due. I want people to love it like I do. 

But I know that not every one will.

That's a fact of life. Maybe it's not funny enough. Maybe it's not fun enough. Maybe there's a sonic problem with the recording that I don't hear. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

Selcouth is done.

It's time to ship it. To put a new idea out into the world.

When everything is strange and different, yet you find it marvelous anyway.

Embrace your strange.

... or at least try.

If you supported the Kickstarter, I thank you.

Thank you for being a part of my journey and for listening. 

I hope this story and this album might inspire you to release something too. Because most of us feel like we're not good enough. The important thing is to push ourselves, past our comfort zone. To be a little different. And to be proud of our differences.

Slainte!

PS. Firefly Drinking Songs is on Thursday. Will you join me?