I’m sitting here crosslegged on my bed, taking a break from recording for a minute to get some new ears on me, the laundry is going with fresh sheets and a clean comforter is hanging on my bedroom door. Today is nice and overcast, it’s been drizzling off and on all day and I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. I love a good rain while I’m sleeping. When I first heard it this morning it took my subconscious mind a minute to even register it, I’m guessing because it’s been a little minute since we’ve had any. I’m glad for the flowers and the trees and the ground and all the thirsty things out there. 

I’m so used to spending the majority of my day outside with Lucille that I feel a bit restless on rainy days. I find myself popping up every so often, grabbing my coffee and computer, riling up Lucille with a “You wanna go GIT yer balll?!”, heading to the backyard and then I remember FUCK. Definitely craving the feeling of the hot sun on me but I’ve quickly pivoted and now I’m fully embracing this Wednesday spent indoors. I have some chores going, the Bed Studio open for business, a frozen pizza in the oven, and sweet Lucille is snoring with her tummy out for me. 

It’s been a little while since I’ve written and I feel like so much has happened. Internally speaking, I’ve been going through what feels like a bit of an awakening of sorts. Really beautiful changes, feeling renewed and higher every day. Love is real. Frequency matters. Things move forward and refresh themselves when you believe it. I’m beginning to see evidence now of how remaining in gratitude and positivity yields more positivity and things to be grateful for. It’s not always the easiest, and I’m privileged to be in a position secure and free enough to explore what it means to try and live with awareness. I know a lot of people don’t have time to turn off their ‘monkey’ brains so I consider myself lucky. 

This past Sunday, the 26th, I played a show on a charter boat called the Charleston Princess. It was part of Henry & Maari’s Rip City Comedy Cruise, and I had such a good time! Kevin Hanley is a Godsend. When I initially was asked to play, they were looking for the full Faline band but with Brett being on tour at the moment with Band of Horses, there wasn’t really a way to make that happen. So instead, I called on Kevin because he and I have had so much history with playing music together for indefinite periods of time, ranging from covers to originals, to just anything we feel like. He asked Jack Burg to join for some light percussion, and it was so nice to reconnect with him after some time. Jack is a great musician in his own right (look up Punks n Snakes) and he played drums on my first album years ago. He also is a fantastic real estate agent and sold not only my mom and sister’s houses, but also found the house that Ben and I moved into in Awendaw 3 or so years ago now. He’s a sweetheart and so is Kevin, and we kind of just played a random collection of songs having never really practiced all three together, and it was wonderful! Super laid back, funny, lighthearted time. The comedy show was great, and I love being a part of something that reminds me of how great a community of eccentric people we have here in Charleston. Getting to spend the evening on the water was a dream, and I saw several dolphins…which made me smile. So pretty, this city we live in. I forget sometimes that the water is ALL around us and being on a boat is so magical! Going to plan on making it to the beach more often this summer. 

Pictures from the Comedy Cruise

Happy to have played some original songs in a more stripped down way and have them be well received. I’ve been busy with recording every day, just been so inspired as of late and I know not to deny the Muse when she comes around, so I’ve been leaning into it and really enjoying myself. I’ve done several covers to start, and in the process, opened up some free space in my head to write some new originals. I’m excited about the direction everything is going. Obviously they are all just demos, using my GarageBand, so eventually I’m planning on booking a recording slot somewhere and getting them fleshed out and done properly, but the songs are coming. The lyrics are writing themselves, the melodies too. I don’t know if there’s any better feeling than being tapped in and having the ability to start and ‘finish’ a song in one go. I just love it and I live for it and I’m endlessly grateful to the set of circumstances at this given time in my life that allow me to feel such inspiration. Like I said, love is real, even if it starts as a belief in love for someone or something intangible and far away. That alone can inspire some really beautiful things to come out of you. Transmuting these feelings as often and truthfully as I can, day to day, as I navigate opening my heart space and letting the wonder of possibility flood in. It’s been satisfying and gives me tingles just typing about it.

I will be putting up the recordings I’ve gotten done under the Portfolio & on Bandcamp, and I’m thinking of releasing the covers EP when I have enough songs. It’s all very roughly recorded and mixed lol.. BUT It’s exciting to be flowing with stuff and letting things be imperfect. Some of my favorite music is imperfect. So there’s never a reason to be overly critical about a mix or an offbeat guitar when you’re demo-ing something. I’m happy to do it and to listen to it and that’s what matters. I LOVE IT.

I have a lot of updates coming to the site this coming week, and finally got the zines sent out and in the hands of those who are subscribers. I’ll be adding it to the shop too if you’d like to purchase one separate from a subscription plan, they turned out really well and I’ll post some pictures of the first issue when I take some. Also will be adding those songs I mentioned and thinking about maybe reworking the flow of the site to make it easier to navigate. It feels good to circle back around to getting this corner of the internet up-to-date with all the new things.

Lucille is ready for her dinner and my pizza is out of the oven but getting colder by the minute. I suppose I should eat it. I’m going to try and find something to watch later tonight and just see if I can manage to get myself to focus on something long enough to relax. I’ve been nonstop in create-mode and I feel at times as though my brain isn’t even my own! No complaints, but curious to see if I can get it to slow down for a bit. Given the rain, a dreamy lazy night sounds perfect. 

I’ll keep it somewhat short so I can eat some dinner, there’s so much more to say I could go on and on and on but I suppose that just means I’ll have to write again before too long. I’ll leave you with some photos of things: the zine covers before I stuffed and assembled them, a tiktok troller pretending to be Kendrick Lamar blowing up my profile incessantly (I mean, it could happen), my favorite PJs for the texture and lines combo, and perhaps the most fun thing is that I found a way to import some inappropriate emojis into my keyboard and I’ve been having a lot of fun with those, so I’ll leave you with a little taste along with one of my favorite combos of emojis that I personally came up with and am very proud of, that about sums up how I’m feeling atm lol.

I love you, I hope I see you again, and I’m always thinking of you. I hope your day has been beautiful and I know that you’ve been killing it, so I’m sending you a GREAT JOB! 

Love, Jenna Faline