Hi yall-

I’m getting increasingly informal with every post, and I hope you find it as endearing as I do.

This week I am again coming to terms with my daily routine and time management skills. As someone who has spent their adulthood traveling from adrenaline peak to adrenaline peak, rising to the occasion and then collapsing from the exertion, it is always a challenge for me to maintain a daily structure, even this far into life with no tour. If I want to do what I say I want to do, which is steadily build and write songs for this next album, as opposed to inching and then barreling toward a delivery deadline and rushing to write 12 songs in 4 months or weeks, then I have to stay vigilant about routine and structure. Please send tips.

I am a huge fan of NY Times’ Sunday Routine, and also Like a Boss, where people are asked to document their Sunday and work week routines, respectively. I seek these out with an almost desperate thirst, the plan being that once I read enough about other people’s routines I will then adhere to one of my very own.

IF A NEWS OUTLET WERE TO ASK FOR MY WEEKDAY ROUTINE THIS IS WHAT I WISH I COULD TRUTHFULLY TELL THEM

5:30 AM

Wake up, spry.

Meditate, go on a run, do core exercises but do them correctly so I don’t injure my knees or my wrists.

7:00 AM

Hand write prose and poetry in a notebook

7:30 AM

Marvel at all I’ve done and that it’s only 7:30

7:32 AM

Start passively cooking an ancient grain in the rice cooker

• vocal exercises

• guitar scales

9 am

Write songs, make beats

Noon

Find something to pair with ancient grains, have lunch

1 pm

Successfully revive the momentum I had for creation before lunch

3pm

Make sure my week’s For the Record posts are ready to go, to be sent out around the same time every Tuesday and Friday, within that sweet spot of a window where people on both coasts could potentially be in a space to open an email from me

4pm

Have a fermented snack

5pm

Go to bed

BEHIND THE SCENES

Just last night I recorded a performance for an upcoming virtual event for RAINN , a national anti-sexual violence organization. I performed Meticulous Bird, and even brought out the jumpsuit I wore in the video.

Who Wore it Best?

Typically when I perform M. Bird solo, I build the rhythm tracks from live looping my guitar. Last night was my first one-toe dip into using the SPD SX sampling pad live, in tandem with guitar and looping and effects pedals. I asked my long-time extraordinary drummer and friend Jason Slota to send over a recording of him playing live drums, and I triggered his track and then performed to it. I will share that RAINN performance when it goes live. In the meantime, here is some outtake footage of me exploring possibilites and exploring keeping time. Endless respect to drummers.

Thanks as always. I’ll be in touch soon!

yours,

t