Author: Dan Steven Erickson

Update on the Move Back to Maine

I’m still in transition and my sites and channels and socials are all in flux. So, I thought I’d give you an update on the move back to Maine.

Status of the Move

First, the place in Tennessee is almost all packed and ready to go. I still have some furniture to sell and a few things to give away, but other than that I feel good about the progress. But there is a huge logistics problem.

I’m moving back to Maine. My daughter, however, is not. Three quarters of what needs to be moved is hers and she still doesn’t know where or how she wants to move it. Things might need to be moved in two different directions. Or everything might just go to Maine for now. Hopefully, this will be resolved by early to mid August as the lease ends on August 31.

I’ve been making monthly trips to Maine to work on the condo and will be heading out on another one soon. While I’m there I’m painting, getting electrical work completed, and selling extra furniture.

My Websites, Channels, and Socials

For now I’m just trying to stay moderately active with my Internet presence. I’m posting less often here. I’m probably going to have to take a break from my 1995/96 song series and Songs from Big Yellow on Youtube, but I will continue to post a couple times a week on the channel.

My BandCamp channel is also on hold for now, although I have a project in the works that I might complete on my next stay in Maine. Glitcsh.com is staying active with a couple posts per week.

Thoughts about my Internet Future

I know I’ve threatened to kill my Facebook and other socials over the years, but I’m looking at things in a new light. The light of retirement.

I spend $400-$500 a year to keep my two websites active. And although I used to make money from book sales, they have dropped off to almost nothing. I’ve started to question the point of keeping the websites. Besides expense, a second issue with websites is that they are hard to deal with when you’re dead. Sure, you can pay years forward, but who’s going to manage them?

So, I’ve decided that my websites will likely go away in the future. However, I’m not just going to toss them immediately. I will give myself another year or two once I move back to Maine and then make a final decision. And when I do, I may look for a free option to keep the sites online in another format.

YouTube and BandCamp will stay. The nice thing about these two platforms is that they don’t cost me anything and I can post as much audio and video as I want. They are basically self-contained and my catalogs will stay alive until those sites close down, which does not look to be soon.

As for social media, the only one I use is Facebook. I do have an Instagram account but rarely post there. I think I’ve deleted all my other accounts. Part of me wants to kill Facebook in the coming year or two. Meta has become glitchy and the political division is exhausting. There are also way too many advertisements. However, it has worked well for two purposes. First, to stay in touch with family and friends at a distance. Second, to make new connections with like minded people in different locations.

As much as part of me wants to, I won’t delete Facebook… yet. I may, however, move back to posting privately to a specific group of followers. Or I might start a new account just for close friends and followers and dump the one I have. As with the websites, I’ll give myself a year or so to consider after the move to Maine. – dse

Transition

This summer will be one of transition. I’m starting the process of relocating back to Maine. Details are not fully in place, but the goal is to be living in Maine full time by September, October at the latest.

I’ll be spending a good chunk of the summer in Maine working on my condominium. But I also need to deal with selling large items, packing, and moving out of an apartment in Tennessee.

Why post this here? Because it’s a transition that will temporarily slow down my creative output. Songwriting will be on hold. Book and poetry writing is on hold. I’ll continue to post a couple of times a week on the YouTube Channel, but no promises.

Once I’m resettled in Maine, I’ll create a dedicated studio space for audio and video recording and to begin to make subtle changes to my channel.  Two things I’ll work on during this transition is the True Sounds of Nashville ambient music project, and I’ll keep updating my new site G L I T C . S H. – dse

True Sounds

I’m currently in the brainstorming phase of a new experimental music project, The True Sounds of Nashville. The concept is simple.

We all know Nashville as the Country Music capital of the world. But I live here and what I see and hear is not country music. I hear the engines of cars and trucks on overcrowded freeways and streets. I hear sirens. I hear the hum of AC units cooling large buildings. I hear factories, construction, and the chaos of multiple bands playing cover music up and down Broadway. I hear birds, rain, and thunder.

In the coming weeks and months, I’m going to start sampling the sounds I hear in and around Nashville. I’ll then manipulate those sounds and mix them with my own experimental ambient synths and pads.

I’m not yet sure if this will be an Anderhill project, or a darker, heavier sound more suited to A Cult of Lies. In either case, I’ll keep you updated on the project and a potential release date. – dse

Preorder Cult Boy, the Novella

Cult Boy is now available to preorder as an eBook at Amazon with a release date of June 9.

Imagine being the victim of an extreme religious cult as a young boy. Dan Steven Erickson has written a raw and gut-wrenching novella about his own experience working as a slave for Ted Rinaldo, leader of “The Group” at Eden Farms in 1970’s Snohomish, Washington.

As 27-year-old Andy Burden, Dan Steven Erickson tells the story of extreme work, living conditions, and punishment in the cult, and how his actions helped to bring the cult to an end. The aftermath of his childhood experience left him traumatized and he struggles with paranoia and substance abuse as a young man. As a means of healing, he takes a train across the United States where he meets a cast of marginalized characters that help him more than any religious organization ever could. He discovers and struggles with the power of forgiveness tempered with the reality of his personal trauma. He writes the story while on his journey and then leaves it behind only to rediscover it.

At just under 30,000 words, this is fast-paced read that can be completed in a single session. – dse

Preorder Today

Old iPhone Song Recordings from 2016

This batch of songs was different than much of my songwriting. The songs were a little more experimental, not always following the traditional verse/chorus/bridge format. I believe I was inspired by Bill Callahan at the time.

I’m going to post some shitty-looking videos to my YouTube Channel. Why? Because I don’t care how they look. The entire objective of the channel is to catalog old work. In 2016, I made some iPhone recordings of a batch of ten songs I’d written 7 or 8 years earlier.

When I recorded the songs, the room was dark or I pointed the camera without caring about angles and got the ceiling light. The audio is okay, basic iPhone audio for 2016. Just as I’m cataloging old cassette recordings using Big Yellow, I decided since these are already recorded, so why not?

Remember, the point of the channel is (for now) not to post high-quality videos, but rather to catalog a portion of my more than 1500 songs. Here’s the first song from the collection. – dse