Over a year ago, I set out to write a new book. I wanted that book to be a reflection of the topics and approach we take every week on my podcast Super Duty Tough Work. In other words, I wanted to write a book that helped artists understand how to be better artists. Whereas my first three books were about me and my career as an artist, I didn’t want this book to be about me–I wanted it to be about helping others.  And while it took me over a year to get right, I’m happy to say that my new book is here.

This week only, we’re having an End of Summer Sale this week on weightless.net. During this sale, ALL APPAREL IS 25% OFF!  This is the perfect time to pick up that shirt or hoodie you’ve been looking at but hadn’t copped yet.  This sale starts today and ends Sunday at midnight.

Check it out HERE

Thanks for your support!!

In celebration of this Fourth of July holiday, we’re having a big sale on weightless.net.  For the next 48 hours, all of our digital downloads are 50% OFF.  You don’t need a special code for this sale and all items should show their discounted price once you place them in your shopping cart.  This sale starts today and ends on Saturday July 4th at midnight, so don’t sleep!  Go HERE to shop.

Word is blog,

Blueprint

From now until Monday, we’re having a 25% off Juneteenth sale on Weightless Recordings.  From apparel, books, to vinyl, and movies–hit up our store and take advantage of this sale.   All you have to do is use code JUNESALE at checkout.  Shop here: http://bit.ly/WTLStore

Thanks For Your Support,

Blueprint

Ten years ago, blogging was one of my favorite things to do and one of the best ways to connect to my fans.  Sure, I’m a musician and creating music is my primary means of communicating ideas, but once I saw how blogging was connecting with people, it quickly became a favorite tool in my toolbox.

From 2008, when I first started blogging to now, I always made it a priority and tried to write here at least once a week to communicate with my fans.  Unfortunately, as most people can see, things have changed a bit.  I recently just had my longest break from updating this site in my career, which was a couple months.  It’s not that I didn’t have anything going on, but more that blogging has changed over the last few years.

For the last year or so, there have been rumblings from the fans of my podcast Super Duty Tough Work, asking us about a video version of the podcast. At the beginning, I dismissed it because it seemed like something that would very difficult to pull off and because I wasn’t sure there was enough interest in it to justify the effort. But over the last couple of months, my thoughts have changed on it.

I’ve been off the grid the last couple of months, not really doing much blogging or writing here. Part of that has had to do with it being the holiday season, but the other part is that I’ve been officially writing my next book, which I hope to release this year.

Throughout my career, I’ve had a pattern of putting out an album, touring that album, and then returning home to relax and recharge before even thinking about making more music. During my time at home, I would get into different activities (usually unrelated to music) to fill the time until I was ready to dive back into making music. This process would take me anywhere from two months to a year depending on how worn down I was from touring. Even though this process wasn’t the most efficient, it worked for me because I always came back fully recharged at the end of it all.

There are a lot of things that can cause stress for a full-time artist like me. For anybody self-employed, things can be up and down from year to year. Some years you can be up and killing shit. Other years you can be sitting at home, trying to make a small amount of money stretch until your next project comes out (which could be years away). It’s a great job in most aspects, but the future is something that anybody self-employed and involved in the arts has to be concerned about, even somebody like me who has been doing this full-time for 16 years.

Those who have been following my career for a while have noticed that while I do tour quite a bit, and do really long tours, very rarely do I play New York City. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes it is just a routing issue and we can’t get the tour routed into the city. Other times it is that we can’t find a venue willing to take a chance on the show. But whatever the reason was, this led to a situation where I have never headlined a show in New York City. In fact, I haven’t even played in NYC since 2011 when Adventures in Counter-Culture was released, which was seven years ago.

Three years ago, when we got into an auto accident that totaled my van and brought us to within inches of losing our lives, things got a little weird for me. As an artist who loved touring and was known for regularly doing extremely long tours, that near-death experience changed me. On one hand, it made me extremely appreciative to be alive to see another day and cherish my time much more. But on the other hand, the entire experience made me realize that I needed to take a break.

Last week, I announced that I will be releasing a new single every week until the new album drops on 5/22. Today’s song is titled “Hoop Dreamin” and features Has-Lo. Produced by yours truly and the video is directed by me as well.

Watch HERE: