Ten years ago, I was pretty much writing reviews for this Shithole of a Website (TM) every day. Any genre, any musician, signed or unsigned. It was a rough patch and writing was pulling me through, sometimes with excellent results, but most of the time, the reviews landed like a thud. I tried food reviewing, speed dating reviewing, art exhibitions, theatre, you name it.

I thought I could put that workman-like energy into creative writing, and I dabbled into making short stories out of some albums. Couple of bands hated it, others liked it. Still, the only real physical output I got from that year was a couple of zines, an endeavor I’ve abandoned since 2016. A box full of drafted but unfinished zines keeps two novellas and a three novels company.

It just feels like my writing, either on the review front or the creative field, went nowhere. I still get ideas, but it just feels the energy is not there. Is it writer’s block if the well is spilling over, but there are no buckets around? Is there point to writing if you know the audience was never there to begin with?

Yadda, yadda, grow your audience…there’s a lot of luck in writing, any type of writing, and if you don’t have it, you simply don’t. I still enjoy finding new bands, and there are myriads of fresh new music to be discovered. Even if I’m no longer reviewing on a regular basis, the mother lode runs deep.

My commute to work is a highway drive. About 94 km in total every day. Plenty of time and scenery to enjoy music. New ideas on how to fix unfinished novels might conjure up between the new track from a Mexican psychedelic hard rock and the soft spoken indie musings from Finland that the algorithm suggested. Maybe this year I can go back and finish something?

Or maybe it should just waste away, never finished. If it didn’t happen, it wasn’t needed in this world. Too many mediocre authors churning word salads that are best avoided.

Pessimistic, I know. No point spending too many words about the spilled milk that all those words I never laid on paper mean. It’s February, we’re all in doldrums. It’s just a phase. It will pass.

Hope you enjoy the playlist. I swear I’ll bring you something nicer soon. Positivity, not so many shades of grey.