I’ve been thinking a lot lately about medium.
Increasingly, our culture encourages artists to niche down, and down again, to the farthest possible point—always prioritizing entertainment above all else. From my perspective…this practice often feels antithetical to the art itself.
Ultimately (for a lot of artists, I think), the medium is ideas, more than any specific modality. And when we force all artists to squeeze themselves into a narrow channel, we risk losing something valuable in the process.
I’ve been told time and again that I have a branding problem—that I need to avoid talking about my podcast, that I need to avoid writing so much goddamn prose, and that I should just focus on the music.
But…I don’t know that my medium IS music.
The art that I’m making is about human connection. This project started with a little nugget of an idea. And I’ve been investigating and developing that idea all over my life for several years now.
The Hallowed Wide IS a 12-song fantasy pop concept record…
…and it is also 2 years of podcast interviews, 2 years of carefully-observed life, 2 years of thinking and writing.
Zooming in on one spot…Artifice (my podcast) began in 2019 as a sort of “research and development” workshop for the ideas that came to inhabit my last record, Masks (as evidenced by its title). And when Masks was finished, the podcast became a laboratory for The Hallowed Wide.
Each interview is its own miniature Hallowed Wide. Two [usually] strangers sit in a room together and grapple toward connection in real time. It’s vulnerable and brave. It’s its own medium, certainly…but it’s ultimately one piece in a larger conceptual work. It’s research. It’s data. It’s roots and branches.
And The Hallowed Wide makes LESS sense without this context. The Hallowed Wide doesn’t exist without this context.
Try as I might, I can’t seem to squeeze my artistry into a tidy box. My brain doesn’t work that way, and neither does my creativity—it never has.
So. I guess what I’m saying is that I think I need to try something new. It feels kind of radical, and very scary. But I think I need to at least try just inviting you to zoom out with me.
If you’re looking for music that stays in its own lane, that’s absolutely fine. And I guess The Hallowed Wide might still be something you’re looking for.
But if you’re looking for art that stretches out a bit and lays a messy (if beautiful) blanket atop messy-if-beautiful ideas…I think that’s what I’m offering here.
It’s music. It’s a lot of prose. It’s a podcast. And it’s little sparkles of ideas in all sorts of odd places.
What do you think? Will you stay with me?