In the next few months I will be releasing some music, despite a lack of any definite fanfare surrounding it. I have come to a point in my life, not only as an artist but as a person, where I feel that there are things that I have been holding onto that no longer serve me and are not necessarily representative of the person that I have become. The Blakk Dogg moniker was developed in a time of great turmoil for me and it is highly indicative of the stress under which I had held myself for so long. I am not sure if I will ever drop the name, but I do feel an inevitable change approaching in the way I create music and the tonality and subject nature therein.
A few singles will trickle in, then a two full length projects; one instrumental and one vocal. There has been a lot of deliberation on my part about the production and, perhaps to an unnecessary degree, the engineering of these tunes that I have been sitting on for roughly a decade. In a world where streaming services and record labels make access to the highest quality of music available in an instant, it is almost like cutting off one's legs to release something that isn't up to the dauntingly high standards of a well established industry. Or at least, that is how it can seem to the independent artist with no budget and no formal education to speak of.
It is for that reason that I have held on to these songs for so long, in hopes that I could either learn enough about mixing and recording to bring these tracks to a level that I felt was adequate to compete with even the biggest names in the game, or that I could garner enough financial support to be able to afford engineering or recording with a professional studio. After clinging to what basically amounts to a fantasy for so long, at this juncture I am decidedly tired of trying to dress up something that is, at it's core, almost intentionally ugly, dirty, paranoid, obsessive, dark, etc.
These songs represent some of the darkest yet most creative times of my life, and now that they are far behind me it feels superfluous to try and make them approachable when I wouldn't ever re-approach that time in my life for any reason whatsoever. In a way, I believe that releasing these songs as they are in their raw, sometimes unfinished forms, that I will take part in a much needed catharsis and will finally be able to move on from those emotions that once carried so much weight in my heart, mind, and soul.
I don't expect those that are close to me that were not able to witness me go through these things to understand or even appreciate these sentiments. They will likely find my language and attitude within these songs to be reproachful and distasteful. And that is precisely why, in my opinion, I need to let them go and acknowledge the person that I had become and look forward to the person I am still becoming in spite of all that unscrupulous behavior.
So, long story short, I'm going to be putting out music again, at least for a little while. If you don't enjoy what I put out in these next few months then I hope that you can enjoy what I am able to create in the future. I'm honestly just happy to be a blip on anyone's radar at all.
Cheers,
Robert O