01/21/25 – garbageface industries 2024 Year In Review & 2025 Almanac

YEAR IN REVIEW:
total shows played: 18
things worked on / done / released: writing, recording and releasing the debut Gnostic Front LP, ALL WAR IS SPIRITUAL WAR after scrapping nearly an LP's worth of other material; composed and performed live soundtrack and modular performance for Danza de la Vida (there may be a recording that sees the light of day at some point); tracked some synth and industrial beats for a Weakerthans cover by thee Ian Blurton that'll be on out an upcoming comp; i began working on a secret project (for now) that will be more musique concrete than my usual work.
other things: helped to produce / record a few songs for PTBO rock weirdos Anomalia (LP coming in 2025); after much consideration, completed a big website consolidation/migration/overhaul that i am legit very happy with; organized and ran DRONE DAY 2024 in PTBO.
cups of coffee consumed: ~750
THE ALMANAC:
2024 was the year that I played the same number of shows that i did in both 2018 (when i organized the month-long QUALITY OF LIFE festival) and 2019 (when i wrote LEARNING TO SWIM WITH LEVIATHAN and did a month-long residency as part of Precarious Fest. 18 shows in a year isn't a bad thing, but when I see that number, I does bring up the feeling that I definitely want to be playing more. [[1]]
The weird part is that it feels like I played way more than I actually did. I think it's because I actually did play way more, it was just in rehearsal. Since making and performing live electronic music became a focus this year (with several Gnostic Front shows and composing/playing a live soundtrack for a 20-min. dance piece), I spent wayyyy more time rehearsing for bigger shows, and playing for long stretches as part of writing. There were about a dozen rehearsals for Danza de la Vida alone, and each Gnostic Front show also involved at least a week of near-daily run-throughs.
This was also a year where I got comfortable with scrapping things in a more ruthless way. I basically wrote a whole record that I performed as part of OTONABEATS: SANCTUARY, and ended up scrapping it in favour of a shift in direction of what eventually became ALL WAR IS SPIRITUAL WAR. In addition to writing and recording the "studio" versions of the SANCTUARY material, I also recorded the live set, and put a whole bunch of work into packaging it into an LP-length piece called DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD... which I also scrapped.[[2]]
2025 has started to unfurl before me, in earnest. so far, i have a large handful of shows nailed down across the calendar from now through December, and I'm thinking about a longer tour somewhere in there.
On the release front, my plan is to get another Gnostic Front record (likely shorter than LP length) out there, and develop a smaller setup for more improvisational sets — my current setup has a lot of room for improv (and a lot of room to improve) but i do want to set a table that lets me go into pure flow territory.
The old heads out there will be happy to know I'm working on a new garbageface record, where I'm taking a totally different approach to the writing process. I basically took an entire year away from writing new garbageface material — though I did dip my toes in a bit last year, I'm ready for a dive.
And finally, polishing up some collaborations: finishing up producing this Anomalia record, doing the occasional tracks and flourishes for the homies that ask for them... and of course, that secret project I mentioned up there...
I hope whatever 2024 was like for you, I hope you can leave it behind as the continuum rolls on; and whatever 2025 has in store for you, I hope you yr ready to meet it.
be good out there,
garbageface.
[[1]]: it's really not about the number so much, and more that i really do love playing live and want to do it as much as possible.
[[2]]: i still have all of this in a completed form (though unmastered). it may see the light of day at some point.