BIFFO'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Hello, you lot. Just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year. Sorry we never managed to get a New Year’s Eve special filmed. We just ran out of time, and I realised that a better use of this past week was to chill as much as possible.

That said, Sanja and I have been talking a lot about plans for next year – both Digi and BYAMPOD. Because, frankly, we love doing this. LOVE IT. And we both agree that 2021 was a really important year for the YouTube channel, because it felt like the year that I totally shook off the shadow of Digitiser The Show Series 1, and people finally *got* that Digi is mine. We saw our first proper growth after – frankly – years of our subscribers going down every time I put up a video (the one exception was the standalone Jesus Christ Superstar song, which scared off a lot of people!).

I’ve loved bringing the characters in. I’ve loved going out and about more. I’ve loved giving myself more time to edit. I love making videos with Sanja, and I love it when we have guests on.

Admittedly, part of the reason all this happened to me in 2021 is because my day job ended up being less demanding due to Covid. It has taught me, however, that I am happier not working myself into the ground, as I had been doing. That creativity is what fuels me, and creativity needs space. That’s my goal for 2022: to give myself space to create (while also paying the bills, obviously).

Something I really love is when we do episodes that have a lot of variety in them; think our specials. So, we’re planning to do as many special eps as possible next year – Valentine’s Day will likely be our next one. Between the regular eps, the specials, Digi Level 2 due by the end of the year, and with 2023 marking the 30thanniversary of Digitiser, it’s going to be a big year for us, I hope. We’re already talking about plans to celebrate it (yes, including live plans… maybe even a book).

BYAMPOD also continues to grow, and there’s a new Marillion album out in March, which will mean we’re going to be very busy for the next few months. Lucy, the band’s manager, has started listening to us, and enjoys what we do, so we’re confident we’ll get at least a couple of band members on to chat to us.

Lastly, we are going to introduce a new Patreon tier in the new year, which will hopefully be worth the extra investment. 

That’s it for now. Have a good one. Thank you as ever for your support. None of this would be remotely possible without you.

Paul