Hey,

I hope you’re well! We’re already here: the 50th Club Missive of the year! My second year in a row to accomplish such an incredible milestone! It’s Saturday morning, 11:30, and I’m on the third floor of Alex’s home in Virginia, listening to the Damo Suzuki ØSC album! Alex gave me his new book titled I am Damo Suzuki a few days ago, so I decided to listen to every album and project he released — something I’ve never done before — and I’m discovering some very fascinating songs, vibes and a very unique way for a singer to share his mind, that’s for sure! What a character and what a great artist! 

I’m not sad to walk into the last few days of the really hard year that 2023 has been, and as I’m looking back at everything we went through versus everything we accomplished, shared, and built, I’m honestly proud and very grateful to be precisely where we’re at today. I love comparing with where we were at the exact same time last year, and hopefully beat everything we planned and envisioned on every possible level. Alex and I both have a very competitive state of mind and the thing we hate the most is losing, or not accomplishing something we initially planned, and this regardless of the reasons, even the most valuable ones, usually. 

But this year, we simply had to see things a little differently and put our competitive spirits within a pretty overwhelming context! Even though Alex’s recovery took 100 times longer than we initially expected and were told, even though we canceled our last summer festivals and fall headline tour, even though we didn’t release new music, we accomplished a lot of great things that we’re very proud of! The first thing is that Alex is above and beyond healthy and ready to dive into new musical and artistic horizons! 

I’m going to share a personal culture that I have established for the past decade or so, something I have never done before with anyone, as this is a very personal thing, a “Me Versus Me” year-on-year kind of culture, and as I was thinking about 2023, and reading all of what I had initially planned and wished for, I was amazed to realize how far we’ve been in despite the unique and unknown context we encountered for the very first time. 

Being a DIY artist since 2006, I realize more and more over the years how much I really love Christmas time, since it’s the only time of the year when I can turn the switch off for at least 10 days without being too worried about missing out, since pretty much everyone in our industry is doing the very same thing all at the same time…! So, being someone who can’t do nothing for more than a few seconds in a row, I’m always trying to catch up on reading books, reading articles I always said I wanted to read but never took the time to do so, and, something I really like to do, is to establish a list of things I would like to do and see happen in the upcoming year, and to compare it with the one I did the year before. 

I call this list “Better Get This Done”! And… For the first time ever, I decided I would share it with you, as I feel we got much closer throughout the year, and I want to bring this level of proximity to a brand-new level as we’ll navigate through 2024! To be honest with you, I obviously removed a few personal things from it, but left everything publicly shareable! 

Here’s my 2023 wish list. Feel free to share yours and let me know if you have any questions!