Release Days

Here comes a secret truth about release days.

Every Friday social media is full of musicians getting super excited and happy about their new release. But the truth is, most of us are totally terrified about that day. It took so much work to get to this point. Making an album, or even an EP, is a completely insane project. For months, you've struggled over every note, every syllable, every sound. And as an independent artist, the promo phase comes on top, which easily demands the same amount of time and energy again. Over time, all this effort piles up a monstrous expectation, and this expectation accumulates into one single day. Which, of course, can't do justice to all this pressure at all.

And that's why we musicians hate release days. We sit in front of our screens and wait for something big to happen. That somehow the world is no longer the same as before. Yet it's just another Friday, when tens of thousands of musicians and bands release their new material, hoping for some miracle in this relentless battle for attention.

You may have noticed that our big release was actually yesterday. And that we didn't let you hear anything from us during the whole day. Now you know why. From morning till evening I sat in front of my laptop and tried to write a post for this supposedly historic moment. Discarded everything again and again, because it seemed either too insignificant or too inflated. In between seeing the posts of all the other release artists and with each one our EP seemed smaller and more irrelevant. Until finally Leo stood at my door waving a bottle of wine. That saved me. We walked a bit down the country road, across a meadow and then down to the creek. Everyone else was already sitting there, Till, Hans, Ava and also Jin. When it got dark, we lit tea lights. The creek murmured to itself in its secret language and above us the stars hung like overripe cherries. Until they faded again in the glimmering sunlight.

So since yesterday, our first EP lɪɐxdɐloː is now available. But not ONLY yesterday, rather from yesterday on for virtually forever. At least as long as anyone wants to listen to our music. So the release day is just the first day of a potential eternity. And if you look at it like that, it is bearable after all.