Excuses
Portland. 11.10.25
Not enough writing the last couple of weeks, but that’s okay. I’ve been breaking rocks in the digital coal mines getting Koan’s music out into the world for the first time in 31 years!
Recently, I did have a little lull where I was able to get my photography website relaunched, then I started up this blog, but the real work for the last year has been getting the band’s album recorded and released. Getting aflittcreative.com and this Substack up and running was always a bit more about preparing for life after Tomorrow Was a Long Time Ago is released than for right now.
“Excuses,” the protestant work ethic whispers in my ear. I try to ignore it, but going so long between posts here does bug me a bit.
Launching our first single, Zombie Boy (feat. Martin Atkins), was a bit more than just agreeing on the final mix, getting it mastered, getting the artwork, and sending it off to the distributor, we’ve also had to build a lot of infrastructure around it. Having the same name (we were first, three decades ago) as a couple of other bands hasn’t helped, and it’s added some extra steps getting that knot untied on a couple of streaming platforms (with a couple more still in process). At least, the infrastructure work should mostly be just a one-time deal, and I’ve been busy on this stuff while Jason cranks out our final mixes on the rest of the album.
Some of this work has been a bit rushed. I know we’ve got formatting issues on our website that we’ve got to have our web guy get fixed, but that will be happening as we move ahead through the next releases. There’s just so much to do.
And this… It is coming. I’ll say it here, we’ll be releasing our second single, “Murder as My Witness,” as soon as we approve the master. Probably in the next 24 to 48 hours.
After that, we’d like to do the whole proper pre-release protocols on one more single, release date still TBD, and we are aiming to put the album out near or on the next Bandcamp Friday, December 5. That is not an official announcement, we may miss that date, but this, here, is just between friends, right?
After that, we’ll be taking a bit of a pause. Putting some merch out. A video or two. Jason will get to work on his neglected novel, and I’ll be working on a lot of things, the photography, some video work, some writing, some traveling, and some new music.
We’ve got a batch of Koan songs that didn’t make the album, as I think I mentioned in my last post. Once the album is out, we may release some of them as one off singles, then maybe look at compiling them into an EP? There’s a lot of possibilities, but personally, I am a bit torn on how to prioritize all of that. We’ll figure it out.
Shifting gears…
I’ve been back and forth to Seattle a couple of times over the last few weeks knocking out some of the remaining tracking. I was away in the woods over the past weekend for a recovery retreat. Today, I have my last scheduled shift at the store this month. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading back up to Seattle for the rest of the week to finish up a couple of songs. I may actually have a few days off in Portland next week, to rest and to take care of some other things, especially if we can get all the remaining tracking wrapped up this week. Then I am off to Chicago for the rest of the month to see Martin’s Extremities shows at Reggies, which I am super looking forward to, and for, hopefully, a trip that is a little more of a relaxing vacation than I usually allow myself!
Then December, then 2026…
There’s been quite a few stories that I’ve wanted to tell on this Substack, but just haven’t had the spoons to dig into them with everything else going on. I’ll get to them. Things will be calming down a bit. That has been my mantra for a year and a half now. If I say it often enough, it will happen! If I say it often enough, I’ll, hopefully, remember to not overextend myself too much.
Even if I didn’t have the time to dig into any of those stories today, at least I have a new post up, and that is good. It’s a little too much of a navel gazing laundry list as I sort out my crowded brain than I’d really like to see going on with these pages, but it is something.
No excuses. Just write! So I did.
Links:
Koan Official Website: https://koanband.com
Koan on Bandcamp: https://koanband.bandcamp.com
Listen to Zombie Boy (feat. Martin Atkins): https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/koan8/zombie-boy-feat-martin-atkins