Yet naturally, winter, determined to have the last word, sends me off with a painful pinched nerve at the base of my neck. But while my fingers tingle as they type I have to say I’m pretty pleased overall with the last few months of having all and sundry dumped on my head. Obvious to anyone paying mind, the blog entries dried up as quickly as they started. Mostly that was about the stop-start process of life intervention – as it does when you’re not signed to a fancy label and blissfully insulated from the world. This was a winter of more than just discontent; it was a winter of fighting through.

On the day-job professional front, there were a ton of changes and lots of important decisions to be made. Running a marketing agency always involves being creative, but this variety was more about redefining our every approach to what we do. As well, technology continues to evolve at increasing speed and staying not just on top but ahead requires a tremendous amount of time, focus and discipline. Often, escaping to the studio became more of just that and I was too worn out to really put in a satisfying performance. Other times, I was just sick. Through it all was figuring out how to translate what I do live to a professional recording and many times what was originally thought to be a simple and straightforward process became yet another challenge. Fortunately, I had Josh and Chris to help me navigate the thicket – when we weren’t mercilessly eviscerating one another’s souls, that is. But that was as necessary as the actual tracking.

Anyway, here we are, CDs on order, with digital versions released softly on my website and bandcamp page. The whole purpose of this EP is to advance my exposure with actual product. I plan to reach out to Helen Leicht of WXPN to see if she might be interested in playing one of the tunes on her Philly local show. I may reach out to my rush-hour life-savers WKDU to see if they’d like to do the same. There will be CDs left at local record stores, made available at shows I hope to book, given out to family and friends (who truly want them as I’m loathe to “push” anything) and generally distributed into the scene in any way that seems appropriate. I’m also prepared to busk through the summer if need be using my portable generator and to be honest that sounds like serious fun.

There’s also the matter of doing a video to help widen the scope of this endeavor and I have two tunes in mind with ideas for both. I’ll be storyboarding them over the next few weeks and figuring out how to produce them. I’ve been wanting to get back into shooting stories and this could be an excellent transition. Maybe the songs somehow become soundtracks to scenes from my new short film/web series pilot. I’m pretty sure the projects will meld somehow and I fully embrace that. What’s on my mind is on my mind and it drives my ideas. If I get out of the way and become in service to them I’m likely to find a little gold. If that gold connects with others, terrific. But it can’t be forced. Things must work from the inside out and settle where they may

So hey, wish me luck if you like. If not with the EP than with my neck. Dude, it’s like getting tased every morning to wake up.

– Norton