Blog #3: Off Into the Sunset!

Insert rant about coffee here.

I leave for tour on Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll be picking up my crew at Newark International Airport and bringing them down to the pine barrens to load up the RV/trailer with the equipment, merch, supplies, etc. They'll crash on the property in the RV, and the next day we'll slouch towards Stroudsburg.

I got my entire stock of vinyls/CDs/tapes from Say-10 Records, including a bunch of variants of The Normal Album, so that's pretty exciting. We're going to be going our separate ways soon, so things in the realm of physical media distribution and my online merch store are gonna be a little weird for a while - all with mutual respect and I wish them the best. But it also means we have enough vinyl to hopefully last the whole tour this time around! On the other hand though, it means it's the only place you'll be able to get my vinyls for a while. It's also entirely The Normal Album and EIAL.

To preempt what I thought would be a lack of physical media on tour, I also slapped together what I'm calling the "Worst Edition" CD of The 2023 Normal Album mix. There's only 300 of them. If they sell I'll try and do another couple hundred but then that'll be it, because the packaging is shit and looks like the cheap-o last-ditch effort to have SOMETHING to sell that it is. That's why it's the worst edition. Because it felt wrong calling it a first edition even though it is because CDBaby prints fucking garbo. Full offense to CDBaby. Fuck you, CDBaby.

There's going to be some tour-exclusive merch as well, which should be fun - I made some doodles and I'll attach the doodle to this post so y'all can see. That'll be on T-shirts and hoodies and stuff. I'll also have sticker packs! Little plastic baggies with a logo on them full of stickers of art from my discography and random doodles which I get a real kick out of. It kills me, it really does. We got thirty boxes of shirts and hoodies and posters and stickers and things to sell you, and I've just been told they're arriving where I've got my rehearsal space set up tonight. Which is annoying because there's nobody there, it's far away, and it's too much for me to bring inside. So fingers crossed it doesn't rain or get all dewey overnight between now and when my crew arrives.

We'll also be loading up all my stage outfits, some of which I'm super into. I'm enjoying dressing up for shows for the first time in about ten thousand years. Last night I really felt myself, which was nice. I'm having the most fun I've had onstage since like 2018, and my health has improved since 2022 so I don't need to wear loose-fitting linen to not overheat or an oversized sweater so. can pretend I was as svelte as people remembered me being pre-pandemic. Also, by the way, speaking of health:

Surgery was WAY more intensive than the doctor predicted. Apparently the masses were way bigger than he thought, and he ended up having to scrape tumorous gunk off my bone. (Benign, don't worry. Hey btw why is one of the top google searches for me asking if I have cancer? I don't, and I never said I did...) So I had to be on a billion pills for a billion years with a billion ice packs strapped to me and yeesh my back was swollen and I'm only just now able to sit normally again and yowie oof blurgh whew aye carumba. All better now though, mostly. The lipomas were embedded in my muscle. It was either this or risk hindering my piano playing. Now I can BEND! I swear I feel years younger.

I did my last test show last night and it was amazing - thank you all so much for coming out. It seems like none of you noticed (based on our conversations anyway) how much I was struggling to make it work, and I hadn't eaten anything all day so by the end of the TWO HOUR show (it's not supposed to be that long, oops...) I was out of breath while just talking and getting lightheaded. Tonight I'm giving myself a cheat meal but starting tomorrow it's fuckin' protein bars and organic veggies for this pseudo-vegetarian emotional overeater. I'm gonna need to be real careful about how I eat and how I treat my body for the coming weeks. It's gonna be fun, I can't wait to salivate over my crewmates' French fries and whine about not being allowed to.

What was my point? Oh right. Dress rehearsal went beautifully. What a thrill, so exciting. I can't wait to start doing this on real stages. The first show or two will probably still have its hiccups and gaffes, but that's (part of) what the phone pouches are for muahaha. I'm dreading my show in Kalamazoo, where the venue "accidentally" oversold and now it's 400 standing room attendees instead of 150 people with cabaret style seating... at a Brewery too, for Christ's sake. It's gonna be a hard to perform what I have prepared with that kind of energy in the room! It's very much a theatrical performance, which is why the shows are mostly City Wineries or serious theaters, but we'll see what happens!

Leaving the day after tomorrow. I can't believe it's finally here! I'll be posting tour diary entries here, although I don't know how many I'll have the energy or time to do, or if I'll be able to share my thoughts on each show as I go. But I'll do my best!

Anyway, I can only say "I'm so excited" so many times before it starts to lose its impact and starts seeming less genuine. But it's very, very true. I am SO excited. I can't wait to perform "SLOUCHING TOWARDS BRANSON" for you guys!

See you out there :)

Will