tm jrdn

I just need to vent for a second, just to put “pen to paper” to clarify my current headspace to myself, and to whoever is reading this right now. Yes, YOU! :)

Being in LA over the past 3 months has been the most eye opening, amazing yet challenging and confusing period of my life so far. I have no doubt about that. Honestly, I learned more about myself and life in general over the past 3 months than the last 3 years of school.

I think i’ve experienced almost every emotion I can possibly handle without going insane. There have even been weeks where every day was something else. Obviously excitement, happiness and inspiration, but then the flip side has been me feeling homesick, even experiencing self doubt about my own abilities at times, writers block, frustration and all the rest of it. It’s really been an emotional roller coaster. But as I wind down and prepare to come home and just be at home and relax for a while, I realise all these emotions, even the negative ones are a completely normal thing, I am still discovering myself as an artist and this is all part of it.

One of the hardest elements of my time here so far has been the fact that this is the first period of time longer than a few weeks that I have been away from family / friends… And to be out on my own, across the other side of the world is what I think has helped me learn so much, so in that case, the distance has been both good and bad.

It’s also quite overwhelming when within my first month of arriving in LA, I went to dinner with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, bumped into Drake, Neil Patrick Harris, Colbie Caillat, Gavin DeGraw, Gabe Bondoc, Dr. Luke, Ingrid Michaelson, Allen Stone, Rai Thistlethwaite and so many other big names in the Industry that I admire / look up to. It kinda reinforces to myself how much I want to do this for a living and that I am in the right place to move forward with it all.

Finishing your EP which has been a creation of the past 3 years of hard work, performing at SXSW festival, having your first full band headline gig at in LA, negotiating with companies who are “SO excited to work with you” and all the rest of it, Is a lot for anyone to take in, in such a short period of time, let alone myself being 18… But that all helps with the maturity side of it I suppose, because of course, maturity in this industry goes a LONG way.

Having been inspired from so many different things, I just need a little time to take it all in, so in that sense, I am so glad to be going back to Australia for a short amount of time, but I have no doubt that as I relax and really absorb the last 3 months, I will come out a more developed artist in all senses, and I look forward to discovering my future with you guys by my side, as it is still very early days!

Onwards and upwards :)

TWJ.

I have recently come to terms with the fact that I am well and truly still discovering who I am musically. I thought I had it all figured out for a moment there but so many thoughts have been running through my head lately, I’m finding it hard to stay focused. I think I need some quality time alone, in a room with a guitar and a piano… and a rhodes too perhaps… that would be nice. And just see what comes of it.