Manifesto
The primary purpose of every creative attempt is revelation. When you work on a song or a story or a film or a painting, you are trying to understand yourself, yourself in the context of the greater universe and everything in it. It’s simple. And mysterious. And sacred. Ancient as a cave painting.
I have been making art in one way or another since I was a little kid. Music and stories. I think most of the time the results of my tries have been only okay. Once in a while something really shimmers. But whatever the success of any one attempt, it passes. Fades. Dies. It starts over. Have you ever noticed how everything is always starting over?
Toward the end of the summer, Randa and I started talking about what we wanted this year to look like. Personally and professionally. My part of that effort: continue to build on what we set out to achieve with Morse Code - namely to tell a story that felt unique and true, to continue to grow this community of creatives with the Morse Code Podcast, and finally — I should put out some new music.
Goals established, it was time for me to clarify myself and my vision to the world: writing a new bio. Getting some current photos together, putting the website back in order. I tried to be as clear and hopeful as possible. In some ways the audacity of claiming for myself this vision is unnerving. The renaissance man of east nashville. But damn. It’s just true. While I admire and sometimes envy artists for whom a single channel of expression is sufficient, specialization eludes me! I find my deepest creative satisfactions when I work in one discipline and then another and then coming back to the first with a new insight. It’s all a game. A wonderful high stakes game I plan on playing until I die.
In the coming weeks and months there will be a lot of new music and stories coming out of my little corner of the universe. New year, new art. I hope it lands with you. I hope it inspires you. But whatever it does or doesn’t do, its primary purpose will have been achieved. Every artist says the same thing. *I made this. This is who I am.*
~ KL, January 2025
