An open letter to fans and friends.
I
If you’ve been communicating with me during the last year, I have probably seemed more unhinged than usual. This always happens when I am in the heat of the creative process (which is kind of always but there are various phases and this is the most intense one). And usually after I release a new album, I have a meltdown from the relief but also a deep sadness that I must now part with it. The songs are no longer private. Like your kids leaving home or something. Hard to explain. So yeah, rough storms ahead. But I love it. I surf best in tumultous waters. Master of the fall. Rider of the endless night.
II
Lots of changes. Everything is always changing anyways. This album (Alien King) was unexpected as I was working on other batches of songs but these ones just appeared out of nowhere about a year ago and felt more important. They helped me integrate certain things within. And to celebrate/uncover darker things that I thought were shameful and best kept hidden. Fuck it, I am who I am right? Why not go to town with it. Go all in. No need to fake it when you can just make it real. Live it. Breathe it. Go hiking with it. Be proud of it. Wear your shame on your sleeve and laugh with it.
III
If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because then these songs might not exist and they are worth more to me than anything. Something special about this batch. They feel so close to me as if they are my skeleton, my blood, my bone marrow, my weightless spirit. It’s all there. The beauty, the terror, the fear, the sorrow, the war, the perversion, the boy, the man, the healer, the thief, the pirate, the pretender, the failure, the master, the mystic, the traveller, the fool, the showpony, the hunter, the hunted, the predator, the prey. The night and the day.
IV
You know what? I cannot wait to play these to you live, looking into your eyes, with my guitar, piano, voice and smoking hot band of fellow misfit master musicians. We are coming for you! Until then… Stay strong. Stay sane. Get ready for the hurricane! Remember: you are perfect in all your shame and glory. Just keep the energy flowing or you’ll get stuck in the mud. See ya in the songs.
Toodeloo,
Markus Nylund
