#ft talks

[fate-touched]

queue has been loaded! audio of each song shall be posted over the next few days. wahoo!

[fate-touched]

[image description: album art for "Sword and Stone" by Fate-Touched: a digital painting of Flint and Silver's swords stuck in the sand on the training hill.]

One year ago today— August 29, 2022— I released my first EP. I called the project "Sword and Stone," because I wrote one song with that title and fully believed it would just be that song, just that single. And then, of course, I wrote three other songs. I couldn't help myself. Each on its own tells a story; the four in aggregate tell a more complicated one, a multiplicative enriching. In some ways they tell a story other people told first. In other ways they fill gaps in a story nobody has written yet.

I wrote them in the bathtub and in public pools. It seems apt, in retrospect, that I should write songs about a boat while suspended in water. They're not about a boat. They're about something that was about a boat. They do not mention a boat. The boat is implied. They're about legacy, about choice, about consequence. They're about sun and tragedy. They're about some pirates. They're about me in the same way that everything I make is a little bit about weather (these songs are about weather)— everything I make is a little bit about me. They're about me primarily just in that I made them, and therefore they're about how I would make them. The pirates, though. They're mostly about the pirates.

"Sword and Stone" was a summer-long labor with more love and frustration and endless nights than I can convey. I recorded them in my living room using free software and a microphone gifted to me by a friend's father. More than once I had to stop recording because it was 6 am and the street noise was getting too loud with all the people driving to work or the gym or wherever people drive at 6 am. I don't know. I don't drive. This project consumed me for months; any solitude I could steal was funneled entirely into it.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was the greatest thing I've ever done. Of the innumerable creative pursuits throughout my life, this was the one I am proudest of. I hit a note in "Madi's Lament" I have never been able to recreate since. "Daylight" is the first song I ever played for my parents. This EP introduced me to people who have since become precious. This EP opened the world to me. This EP made the dream real.

I released another two-song EP earlier this year. I've been working on a full-length album for a while, now. I don't know yet when it'll be complete. That will introduce its own adventure. But "Sword and Stone" will always have come first. I wrote uncountable songs before them, to be clear; I'd been writing songs for years. But the ones that breathe in the world, the ones attributed to Fate-Touched? These four came first. "Follow the Silver" and "Sword and Stone" and "Daylight" and "Madi's Lament" came first.

Give them a listen, if you haven't before. Give them a listen if you haven't in a while. Give them a listen just to humor me. You don't have to know much about the pirates. It might help, but I hope you'll find them compelling regardless. You can find them [here] on Tumblr, or [here] on Soundcloud, or [here] on Bandcamp.

I still can't believe it's been a year. An entire year. In some ways my life looks exactly the same. In other ways my life is completely different, and it's "Sword and Stone" that changed it.

I love you all. In the places where the daylight doesn't reach, there is joy, there is discovery. You and I are never going home.

[fate-touched]

hey hi hello

today (sep 2) is bandcamp friday!

if you're going to buy my album, please please please do it today! bandcamp friday means that bandcamp waives its portion of sales revenue-- meaning that all the money you spend goes directly to me! no splitting it with the platform itself!

supporting independent artists is the best way to insure that independent artists can continue to exist. so please consider supporting me and/or any other musicians you love buy purchasing their work TODAY

as of this writing (6 pm est) there are nine hours left in bandcamp friday. the next bandcamp friday is on oct 7!

[fate-touched]

also considering the avenues to get sword and stone on spotify. I will if there's demand for it but I'm not sure at the moment

[fate-touched]

will be editing spotify links into the songs' audio posts now! may also post the spotify audio directly bc I know people like those posts

[fate-touched]

happy bandcamp friday! now would be a great time to download arbor if you haven't yet

[fan-therapy]

for the person who asked for the mountain smut i’m sorry it’s not done yet i’m depressed and slowly becoming an earthworm

[fate-touched]

big things theoretically happening 👀🫀