When was the first time you can remember being transported somewhere by a piece of art?

This November, I’ll be releasing my eighth full length record, called Interior, and it’s about this very thing.

I have this memory of lying on a hotel bed in this tiny town in Saskatchewan, Canada. I was sixteen, tagging along with my parents while they drop my older brother off at college. One night while we were hanging in our hotel room, I loaded up my Discman with Discovery by Daft Punk. I had been obsessed with them since Homework, and while I had seen the video for One More Time countless times, I had yet to really dive into the whole album.

While my parents watched TV in that hotel room, I was becoming immersed by this record. I had never had this experience before, it felt so much more than just the simple act of listening to music. I was visualizing this world, created within my own imagination. Listening to this record made me feel like I was living in this new space.

I'm about a month or so into this release process. The album is due out in November, but there's lots of prep work that has to be done so that everything can run smoothly in the fall. Here’s a quick list of some of the things that are being worked on at the moment:

• The art for the record (the cover, the back, and several digital singles) is in the process of being made. First sketches are in, and they're stunning.
• A live concert film to coincide with the release of the record is being developed and imagined.
• Press photos are being arranged.
• Music video treatments are being written.
• Single edits are being cut.
• Songs are being mastered.
• Vinyl is just about to start being manufactured.
• A publicist is being chosen, and hired soon.
• Digital promos for DJs (both club and radio) are being prepped.
• A biography writer is being chosen, and I'll be sitting down to chat with them in the next few months.
• Conversations with agents are starting. Shows in 2022?
• Lots, and I mean lots, of conversations about releasing a music in the time of web3 are happening.

This is truly the most involved and intensive album release I’ve orchestrated (alongside my manager, and the label I’ll be releasing the record with). I’ve released my last several records on my own label, Flora, and while it’s been an incredibly rewarding process, there’s an energy and excitement in all this that my last few releases just didn't have.

It all just makes me feel like this is going to be a significant release.

This is actually kind of terrifying to me. But we'll get into my artistic insecurities another time.

I guess it's worth addressing why I would want to write about this process.

I want to journal through these upcoming months for my own sake, but also on the off chance that it could be of some benefit to someone else. Maybe you're a musician as well, and you're curious to see how the process works for someone else. Maybe you've been following my music for a while, and you're excited to get a sneak peak into an album you're anticipating. Regardless, I'm honestly just excited to get to share all of this with some other people.

There's also a specific reason for why I've chosen Mirror as the platform to publish these journals. This is the first time I'll be involving any sort of web3 aspect to an album release. Like I noted above, I'm having lots of conversations with a lot of smart people about the most interesting ways to go about doing that. Mirror just feels like the right place for me to document that specific journey, and hopefully lay out some groundwork for how an artist might be able to work in this space in the future.

Looking forward to spending some time with you. Be back soon.