Your First Tattoo Is The Hardest
Your 31st tattoo… not as hard. My first one took me about 5 years to decide what I wanted. It needed to be perfect. It needed to mean something. My 31st… I saw it in a window that day and thought it looked cool. 1 hour later it was permanently on my body. I love them both.
I guess that’s a metaphor** for creating things too. We overthink getting started. I bought an iPad recently and have been messing around with Procreate. Drawing the lines feels therapeutic. Brush strokes feel good, the repetition is calming, the sense of control in your hands. That being said, the program feels daunting. It reminds me of when I first started making music, a feeling that I haven’t thought of in awhile. I don’t consider myself an expert in anything, I wear ‘student-for-life’ as a badge of honour. I always want to humble myself and be willing to learn more, because I love that music is endless. An infinite game of exploring. I’m not trying to solve anything, I’m merely trying to evolve my approach.
Yet, I do think that it’s important to take a moment and feel pride in the growth. The iPad prompted an “oh-yeah-this-is-what-starting-at-zero-feels-like” feeling all over again. I’ve grown from that at least (thank god).
That disconnect where you can’t make the damn idea you have in your head is frustrating. There’s a myth that that feeling goes away. I would say it just changes… I don’t have the same feeling making music that I did when I opened the iPad. I just sort of have new things I want to improve on. All I know is getting started is the most daunting. I still have to fight the resistance to work on some days, but once I start I'm usually good.
I had shows in Banff and Minneapolis this weekend. Both were a blast. Someone asked “are you on tour?” and I was reminded of this comedian’s quote… I think it was Nikki Glaser. “I’m constantly re-packaging shows under new tour names, my whole life is a tour.” I think that fits. Speaking of tour dates, we did add a few more. (I’m still working on a name lol).
Also big news... My Into Sunsets remix album drops June 30.
This album is a collection of my sunset mixes I’ve been making over the past 4 years.
(And there’s new music on it as well.)
The other night I biked to the beach and listened to it front to back. I’m really proud of how cohesive it feels. I hope you feel the same way.
Over 4 years of work, pre-save now.
The art is by Jean Paul Langlois who is incredible and I’ve worked with before.
Come say hi on the announce post, I love hearing from you. Simply drop an emoji if you’re shy. ☀️
-felix
**PS: I realize the tattoo metaphor is a bit shaky for “just start things!” I do actually believe that you should take time getting your first tattoo haha. What was your first tattoo?