Young & Free

There it is! Crush on the Young & Free editorial playlist on Spotify. It's super surreal to see Crush up there with so many other names of artists I respect.

My day to day life has changed so much since four months ago when I first signed that marketing contract for way more money than I had at the time, sweating and hoping that a Patreon relaunch would work out. This time a year ago I was spending most of my work days either at home alone writing, or at the studio with Seth. Now I spend every week day going to PR things (last week I had my first ever magazine photoshoot/interview!), hanging out at the office with my new manager and his team, or on the phone trying to figure out the plan for the next release! it's all so very exciting.

Although my manager and I aren't *offical* yet, I've been working with a manager for a month now! This is such a wish fulfilled. I'd been pining for a manager that got me and my art for many years now. I've always known the right manager can accelerate your career, while the wrong manager can stalemate you. Over the years I've had a few meetings with people that ultimately I didn't feel like were the right fit so I've just stayed the course on my own. It's really been a wonderful experience to get closer to the team. Besides the practicality of being presented with opportunities I never could have brought in by myself, it's been very encouraging to work with a team who wants to encourage me to be myself in my art. I have cried grateful tears more than once this month haha.

That Crush has found it's self on Young & Free (and at the #31 spot!!!) feels like SUCH a big deal. For some context: The Spotify editorial playlists are hand curated, and pushed across the entire Spotify platform. A playlist like Young & Free is going to mean a couple thousand people every day will hear it, and have the opportunity to discover my music! I'm so stoked on it, both because of the discovery, and because it's very cool to think that somebody heard my song and thought "yeah. i like it. i'm gonna but it right here on this playlist."

It really feels like the album is headed on this upwards trajectory, and at the same time I want to emotionally remind myself that anything could happen and WHO KNOWS PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME AND IT LEADS TO NOTHING... but... meanwhile... it seems undeniably true that the path I'm on is going somewhere i'm excited about. With that in mind I'm trying not to rain on my own parade as a defense mechanism to preemptively save myself from disappointment and instead enjoy all the wonderful things that are coming my way. haha I hope that makes sense. I'm trying to be less of a pessimist.

An album release update incase you may have missed the lifestreams! As you know, the Bad Ideas (the album), was originally announced to be released august 3rd (two days ago lol). but it is currently without release date. I know many artist have found themselves caught in a perpetual "my label says i can't release yet" (or whatever), and I just wanted to let you guys know that that is not my position (I am still an indie-artist)! and although there is no current release date, it's all good news: Because Crush is continuing to gain momentum, we want to let that ride and allow people to continue discovering the song and let the streaming platforms continue to push Crush before the second release. Next we plan to release the single Bad Ideas! Meanwhile I'm playing with the idea of a less traditional release plan than releasing the whole album as a whole, a longer telling of the story... anyway that's all sort of in flux so I have no solid dates yet! Just wanted to keep you in the loop and let you know that i'm feeling really excited about it.

FINALLY, I just wanted to say again that this whole story started with the music, and your support through Patreon. Because of the financial support on Patreon I've been able to: hire the initial marketing team for the release of Crush, have budget to shoot music videos, have the freedom to spend more time in LA where most of the pop music things are "happening", book a flight to Summer in the City!! (can't wait to meet anyone who's coming!). I feel very grateful to be at the center of such a cool story. It's really thrilling to be doing this without a label (and like i've said before - i'm not anti-label, it's just neat to be doing it this way)! Thanks again. Looking forward to the livestream on Wednesday!