It’s been a minute, hi. What’s life like now? Is it different like mine? I turned 25 on Saturday and saw a lot of friends so naturally, as a sensitive and sentimental person (someone has to be), I’ve been having a lot of thoughts that I've decided to put here.
Turning 25
This is an age that always felt old to me as a kid. With the cycling of time and plenty of 10 year tours, I’ve been thinking about what my life was back when I was 15 and the world was big. One of my favorite 2013 records, The Greatest Generation by The Wonder Years, finds singer Dan Campbell singing about turning 26 and feeling behind in life compared to those around them as they have kids, get married, and find themselves established in their lives. While the song still hits hard, and I’m now a year away from that age, I feel like I’ve learned that years of my life serve as markers of growth, not deadlines. I have no clue where I’ll live at 26, could be Nashville still or some city I haven’t even visited yet. My job, the people I know, the places I regularly visit all could change. And that uncertainty is something that I feel exciting for the first time in my life rather than something that’s scary to the point of constant anxiety.
Various studies have stated (and also argued against) the idea that 25 is when your teenage brain fully develops and allows you to be more rational. Maybe that’s true or it’s all the reading, asking for support, and deep conversation that’s allowed me to change in the past year. Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is realizing how my old coping methods no longer serve me. Some books that have helped me learn that include:
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Healing, & Resilience - Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfery
all about love: new visions - bell hooks
It Didn’t Start with You - Mark Wolynn
Stoopfest
I spent my birthday weekend in Lansing, Michigan for the first time at Stoopfest - A two day DIY music festival in Lansing’s East Side that takes place in a local park, venues, and backyards. I spent the trip with one of my friends from Gainesville, Natu (text me when you finish today’s Wordle), and we both agreed that it felt like a smaller version of Fest. The tight sense of community, endless support for artists, and the amount of friends from all over gathered in one place. Not to mention the incredible vegan food scene that I need to experience again. Some of my favorite sets from the weekend include:
Grey Matter
Jer
The Weak Days (of course. Just wait for the new stuff to drop.)
Chris Farren
Looming
It made me nostalgic for my life in Gainesville back when I lived downtown, could walk absolutely everywhere and had friends that all lived in the same city but it’s nice knowing how places like that still exist in pockets elsewhere.
Intellectual Property - Waterparks
For a long time, Waterparks was a name I knew but not a band I ever bothered listening to until I saw a Tiktok recommending new songs, one of them being You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You). It’s catchy, has a great bass lead grove to it, and immediately left me wanting more. By the time I was getting into them in 2021, their new record at the time, Greatest Hits, was already out and I listened to it for the first time on an eight hour drive to Gainesville. I was immediately hooked.
Last week, just before my Michigan trip, I went to Trader Joe’s (as one does) and saw an employee with sharpie tattoo that said “AWSTEN WAS HERE” and immediately recognized it as Waterpark’s lead singer Awsten Knight’s handwriting (have i mentioned that I think everything is connected always? anyways…).
Their new record, which explores religious trauma (hence the frog), dives deeper into their wild production elements established on GH. While the singles sell it as a fun, energetic pop album about having a crush, going through the motions, and the self-sabotage that happens in the process, the experimentation and deeper self-exploration is saved for the record. Fittingly, all three singles were co written by Julian Bunetta who wrote on a majority of One Direction Songs.
Tracks like “REAL SUPER DARK” and “RITUAL” are almost over the top with their fast pace and almost chaotic blend of instruments but perfectly mellowed out in slower moments that hold their choruses. An album closer “A NIGHT OUT ON EARTH” (fittingly the name of their last US tour) features a radio interview recording from 2014 for the single “I’m A Natural Blue”.
I still feel like I’m collecting my thoughts on it even after so many listens (my current favorites are “END OF WATER (FEEL)” and “CLOSER”) but I’m excited to look back on this in a few months and know that it’ll always serve as a soundtrack to this new chapter in my life.