Journal 7 (December 25th, 2024)
Hey!
It’s David again with our last journal of the year! As always, we post these updates weekly/bi-weekly with cool insights about the band, our lives, and what we’ve been up to. If you ever miss one, you can catch up on our journal page linked below. The password to access it is 1110.
Here’s what’s new:
These past three weeks have been super hectic. I spent the second week of December traveling for work, and I was on planes so much that I wished I wouldn’t have to fly again anytime soon. On the way back home, I missed two flights and ended up spending a night in Memphis, Tennessee—but honestly, I think it was meant to happen.
As you may or may not know, I’m from Staten Island. Whenever I fly, I usually go through Newark Airport in New Jersey. While standing in line at the TSA checkpoint (missing my flight because I overslept from travel fatigue), I struck up a conversation with the couple behind me. Turns out, they were both artists from upstate New York. What’s even crazier is that the girl happened to be someone I was supposed to write a song for with a buddy of mine! My friend had sent me her demos about a month ago, and we were planning to get into a session after the New Year. And there we were, meeting in an airport while traveling to separate destinations. What are the chances?!
We’re planning to get a session in after the New Year and work on some music together. Her boyfriend is also a super talented artist—he’s only been making music for two years, but he’s already amazing.
Updates on Music:
We’re still wrapping up songs for our second EP. We’ve booked studio time next Thursday on Staten Island to record some live drums. I’m super hyped to finish these two tracks and get the EP sent out for mixing and mastering.
For those who don’t know:
Mixing is the process of balancing all the different elements in a song, making sure they don’t clash and that everything works together sonically.
Mastering adjusts the overall volume, balances sound frequencies (like bass and treble), and adds finishing touches to make the track cohesive and ready for release.
Without mixing and mastering, it’s hard to create music that sounds great on all speakers and fits well on playlists with other songs. While we can handle this process ourselves, it’s usually best to leave it to a mixing and mastering engineer—it’s what they do best.
Last week, we also had a writing session with our friend John Gatta, an insanely talented rapper. I shot a bunch of his music videos this past year. We worked on some new hip-hop and R&B-influenced songs. I’ll attach a clip of one of his songs on our blog page—check it out if you’re interested!
Earlier that week, we attended a producer networking event in NYC and met some amazing artist-producers. We’ll probably set up sessions with a few of them after the New Year. I’ve been in serious networking mode lately, meeting tons of new people, which is a big part of my work. It’s been interesting to see how my networking experience translates to building connections in the music industry.
Personal Updates:
Last week, I felt super burnt out from all the travel, the networking event, and the session with Gatta, and I ended up catching a cold. I’ve been taking it easy at home, which has been a blessing in disguise since I really needed a break. Yesterday was the first time I took a real breather and just sat down to watch some TV. I caught a few more episodes of the anime Dandadan, and it brought me so much joy.
I don’t know how to explain it, but lately, I’ve been feeling this aura of joy and gratitude.
This year brought a lot of change, and not all of it was easy. Some moments really rocked the boat. But I learned a lot and feel like I’ve taken a few steps in the right direction—even if I did backtrack here and there. I’m just incredibly grateful to have another day on this earth and the opportunity to connect with others. Writing these journal emails has become one of my favorite things to do (other than making music 😂). It’s something I genuinely look forward to, so I just want to say thank you.
Thank you so much for being here, for opening these emails, and for following our journey.
I’m so excited to head into the New Year and share all the amazing things Hunter and I have been working on for 2025.
- David
