In the Key of K

What a year!

I posted 40 blogposts on here this year. Lots of recipes and music! I lost momentum around October and probably won’t post here nearly as regularly moving forward. So far engagement has been low–here and on social media–I really don’t like fooling with social media and am sporadic at best. I want to make my art not spend all my time schmoozing with strangers on the internet. I have zero interest in social media popularity but recognize that it is the only way today to grow and share music. I will hopefully find a tolerable balance.

In February, I re-released my song Mood Swings (originally from 1997) and in August I re-released that whole album, now titled Volume 1, 1997. In between those I released a short instrumental called Out of Tune Blues, II—this is from a series of songs that that I write that are blues inspired—some are not really blues at all but part one is on the album Volume 2, 1998 (Out of Time, Out of Tune). It was originally on an instrumental ep I made in the early 2000s. Why a random instrumental release? I was trying to get access to my Official Artist Channel (OAC) on Youtube but both publishing services I’ve used so far no longer connect with Youtube that way–Youtube only lets you connect to the OAC through a publisher. What that means is that there is a separate random Youtube channel that has only my published songs instead of the channel that I moderate. Headaches! Gonna try yet another publisher and see what shakes loose.

My first review of the Volume 1 album said it was “the worst” album they had ever reviewed. 😳🤣 Needless to say, probably not the right reviewer for that type of music. The albums I made in 1997 and 1998 are chaotic, impulsive, dissonant, and violent. I was marketing it as ‘the Misfits meets Igor Stravinsky and they fight.’ As far as streaming goes, it hasn’t been great but I didn’t expect it to be. Surprisingly, Amazon Music started playlisting my anti christmas song in December so that was nice! It is fun to nerd out at the analytics but it would be super awesome if more people were listening. My fingerstyle guitar album from 2009, Spanish Nights, streams pretty constantly and steadily in Toronto, Canada of all places but only on Apple Music. 🤷‍♂️ In contrast, not one song from Volume 1 has been streamed on Apple music, ever. The different streaming services seem to have drastically different algorithms.

I have finished reworking Volume 2, 1998! I think I’m going to change it up to use it’s original name “Out of Time, Out of Tune” but keep the ‘Volume 2, 1998’ on all the publicity and artwork details. Volume 3 will be titled either “Open the Door” or “Black Skies” and have ‘1999-2000’ on the publicity and artwork. I have all but one song mastered and hope to have it released by March 2026, maybe sooner. 90 percent of all the artwork and promotional materials are also done! 😎

Along these lines I also started editing and remixing my 2007 release, “Deliver.” I released this under the name Slag Dial–another horrible name but it will be re-released as In the Key of K. This album was released in the dawn of the streaming era and was widely distributed at the time. I pulled it because the mix was really bad and the vocals were mid to awful. I also do not have the original stems so I used Moises AI to separate the parts. AI is not always evil! I won’t use it creatively for music but in this case it saved me days or months of work that would be re-recording the whole project. Why was the mix bad? Me. I was borrowing a digital Roland recorder (I think it was a 16 track recorder but I only ever used four tracks) that had built-in processors and storage–an all in one. It was a wonderful machine and easy to use. I only had it for a limited time so vocals and mixing were rushed. I erased the hard drive when I returned it.

The work on my album of new material called Monsters is coming along nicely. Probably won’t finish it until mid 2026 with a fall release, if I’m being generous. It would be great to have a spooky September or October release! 🎃

I have a few new tracks of solo guitar music finished and am going to seriously buckle down and get some recording done right before the end of my christmas/new years break. My goal is to release two solo guitar albums this year. I want one released by the end of February. Since it is solo guitar music the tracks will be ridiculously easy to edit and master.

Let’s not forget the Merch store or the Patreon! Support the arts any way you can! Whether buying stuff, sending money, listening to the music, or simply sharing a link. I will have physical Digipack CDs of Volume 1 and Spanish Nights in the merch store soon.

So, to recap and prognosticate… In 2026 you will definitely get one, if not, TWO solo guitar albums; you will definitely get Out of Time Out Tune and Monsters; early in 2027 you will get Deliver and probably another solo guitar record. In 2027 or 2028 you will get Volume 3, 1999-2000–this last one requires the most work–I have to relearn about 60% of the material and re-record every track except for maybe 4 songs and one or two more drum tracks.

In other news, I read at least 36 books this year. Far fewer than most years but I was much more productive in my music work, so, good balance! Plus I have a full time day job and a family. My least favorite book this year was the first book in the Vampire Diaries series—I don’t like to trash other people’s art—they did a lot work to make something meaningful to them—it was, presumably, vetted, read, and edited by many people—but this one was not for me. My favorite book of 2025 was probably Ilona Andrew’s The Inheritance. Such a fun quick read—it ended well and left me wanting more.

I also made and ate lots of great vegan food but am not currently ambitious enough to attach pictures.

Sadly, no vacations for me this year but my partner took the girls to see Tyler the Creator and Katy Perry–fun times. The ladies also all went to visit some family on a short mini-Florida vacation but I stayed home with the cats and our pup.

Which leads to the saddest part of the year—we had to euthanize our best friend—our dog, Radish. It’s a long story but she was a bite risk when we adopted her a little over a year ago (she was going to be euthanized if we didn’t). We are 100% sure she was trained in bite sports. She almost never gave signs of aggression (except MAYBE towards postal carriers, UPS drivers, or rando shifty looking dudes). But certain people would set her off—not in a rage or barking aggressively sort of way—just a lunge and a bite. We had dozens of near misses where she tried to bite someone and she succeeded two times since we adopted her. The last one was really bad. She was just doing what she was trained to do. I wish people would not use dogs in that way. To be clear, at home she was the sweetest, most gentle cuddle potato that ever existed. Completely submissive to the cats—if they fussed at her she would walk away 100% of the time. Meanwhile the cats are fighting each other more since the pup isn’t around to bully. I miss her so much. She was a true pillow princess and always willing to nap on the couch with you or go an a hiking adventure. I want her back.

If you’ve made it this far, dear reader, I hope the new year brings you healing, happiness, and more of all the things you love.

–K