The First Line

Year of Queens. Day 188. Things got a little out of hand on Saturday night. But…. you know… it was an album release party and that only happens a handful of times…. so….

Year of Queens. Day 189. The bravest thing we can ever do is be true. Then we have no defense or protection. This is what we believe in. This is what we believe is beautiful and catchy and will make people happy. If we are wrong - laugh at us and mock us and call us crazy and naive.

Year of Queens. Right is the new wrong. I have a terrible time remembering lyrics. But if I can remember the first line I can get through a song. So I write the first line of songs on my hands. This is a photo from the morning after our last show…

Day 191. Year of Queens. Winter Solstice. The darkest day. The longest night. The day of spells. The day of magic. I don’t think spiritually and mysticism are for stories long ago and lands faraway. The magic is happening right now. All around us. I don’t think you can be a musician and not believe in magic - because all these songs just appear out of nowhere. My favorite songs are the magic songs. There wasn’t a melody line - and then suddenly there was a new melody. There wasn’t a riff - and suddenly there was a new riff. There wasn’t any poetry - and suddenly there was poetry.

Day 192. Year of Queens. All of our songs are true.

Year of Queens. Day 194. There’s something inherently wild about these mountains… and about the people who choose to live here.

Day 195. Year of Queens. I always had this feeling I should be doing this. I had dreams I was up on stage and someone would hand me a guitar and I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’d gone to a lot of shows, lived around the corner from CBGBs, tried to be involved, tried to be in my older brother’s high school band…. the best thing about growing older is that there is no point in being afraid anymore…. about 11 years ago we started this run of bands and shows and music and just went for it….