February Music Mailout: New Single and Some Writing
This is the February 2026 edition of my monthly-ish plain-text email blast, which is my main conduit for sharing music. I post each one on the blog for posterity, but if you’d like to get them to your inbox, please sign up here.
Hello Friends!
A short edition of the monthly-ish mailout today. Two things to share:
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/ Single Out Today: “Relics”
// Some Words About Music and AI
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/ SINGLE OUT TODAY: 'RELICS'
I released a single today called 'Relics', the second in a string of songs with a bit of a guitar-led emo/math vibe. They are all personal and imperfect, smudged with the residue of human hands.
You can listen on Bandcamp, Apple Music, and all the others.
'Relics' began when my computer died and my guitar amp was in for repair, and I recorded the beginnings of a song on an old Nylon acoustic guitar via the built-in mic of my work laptop. It got a few more layers in the end, but the laptop recordings are still in there.
It is about how confused I get when faced with change. New ways of doing things are sometimes attractive because of their novelty, but in reality might be no better than the old way. Sometimes new ideas are scary and seem ominous when in reality they are just fine, maybe even wonderful.
I find these scenarios hard to tell apart, especially at first. But as a parent and educator I really aspire to be able to say with some confidence, "this fancy new thing here, it's actually bad for you" or "this scary new thing might feel uncomfortable but is actually very good."
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// SOME WORDS ABOUT MUSIC AND AI
I’ve been thinking a lot about technological change and what it means for what I teach and what I do. Like many at the moment, I’m reckoning with the question of: What is the point of doing something that a machine can now do for me? What is the point of teaching others to do it?
As an attempt to sort through some of my own feelings about it all, I started writing a bit of a post called “Making and Teaching Music in the Age of AI”. That was months ago now, and as I’ve continued to think and read, it has grown to unwieldy length that I will judge no-one for not bothering to read.
But if any of you out there are musicians and/or music teachers grappling with the same questions, my hope is that it might contain some useful thoughts to form part of a much bigger conversation.
Find it here on my blog if you’re interested.
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As usual, hit me back with "unsubscribe" if you’re done with getting these.
To those who do still read, my sincerest and most enthusiastic thanks! As you'll probably know, I don't promote music on social media, so this is the sole conduit for sharing stuff. It means a lot to me that you've chosen to be here!
Wishing you all the very best, and hoping this finds you happy and well.
C.