So, I’m still stuck in Tennessee, but I’m making fair use of my time. I have a few projects in the works. Here’s the nuts and bolts:
Cult Boy: I did a complete rewrite of my book A Train Called Forgiveness. It’s been stripped back to a novella and renamed. I’m currently doing a final edit and will proofread once more after that.
Mercy, Mercy: This is in brainstorming mode. A potential novella about living through having a stillborn child. The book would have two first-person narrators, the father, and the unborn/spirit daughter.
1995/96 Songs: I’ve posted selections from my older song catalog up until 1994 on my YouTube channel. I thought my 1995/96 songs were already in Maine but I found them here. I’ll start posting some tracks in May. I might have to rewrite a few because I can’t find any recordings.
Glitsch: My new website for brutalist and glitchy poetry and photos and music. Check it out at glitcsh.com.
Anderhill: I’ve got a few tracks in the works on my iPad.
That’s it for now. I’m staying busy creatively. But I’ll also need to do some travel and other projects in the near future. – dse
So, I know I said I was going to post less, and I am, but I just released another Anderhill track. It often happens after releasing an EP or an album that I try to do something opposite. This is my first pure noise release. It’s called Glitch of G_d.
At nearly 11-minutes long, the track feels like a 60-cycle hum with 50bpm industrial breath. If you listen closely, you may hear the sounds of cooing pigeons and bagpipes in the distance amongst the digital noise. It often feels like music is trying to break through, but it can’t quite find its way out of the glitch.
I used a lot of 8-bit digital sounds and sound effects and piled on the echo and reverb during mixdown, then I used some filter effects on the final mix. The end result: Glitch of G_d. – dse
New music from Anderhill, Coalescence has a vibe that is reminiscent of 2019’s Time & Texture and 2022’s Absence, with a new and unique vibe of its own.
The EP has a meditative quality. I make use of minimalist drum samples. The odd tracks have custom drum programming. For the even tracks I chose random drum loops. The sound is definitely darker than Time and Texture, but it also has a lightness about it. I invite you to take a listen.
Also, check out my new site, G L I T C . S H. You’ll find a combination or poetry, art, and music that uses both glitch and brutalism. – dse
A couple of months ago I bought an 80’s style boombox. It’s a big yellow Aiwa. Why? Because I have a ton of old cassette and CD demo recordings that I want to share on my YouTube Channel. Introducing Songs from Big Yellow.
I’ve already posted a review of the boombox and about three or four old demo recordings from 1986 and 1987. I have a lot more demos to post from big yellow in the future ranging from the late 80s into the 2000s.
The demos represent recordings with my older brother, Paul Erickson, my younger brother, Pete Erickson, and friends like JB Taylor, Mike Schecnk, John Hauge, and Laddie Ray Melvin. I might post a few solo demos as well.
If you go to my YouTube, you can check out the whole playlist. Expect that list to grow for weeks and months to come. – dse
I’ve had my YouTube Channel for one year. I started it on January 18, 2025. I have mixed feelings about the channel. Sometimes, it feels so insignificant to be creating art and music in today’s America.
I’ve always struggled with feelings of vanity.
I blogged about minimalism for about five years. I quit when I got close to making money from my work. Why? Because it felt wrong to sell people something that anyone can do for free. Want to live simple? Here, buy my gadget. It seemed hypocritical. It felt vain.
That’s about as close as I’ve gotten to monetizing anything on the Internet. Sure, I’ve sold a few books and some music on Bandcamp, but that might add up to a couple thousand dollars in sales over 15 years. The truth is, ever since giving up the minimalist topic, I’ve struggled in general with both topic and audience.
I lost 95% of my audience when I gave up minimalism as a niche. Then I floundered for a few years on what to do next. I finally decided to simply focus on my own music, poetry, and songwriting. And as you might expect, being an unknown artist in your 60s in today’s world is not profitable. And even if it was, that feels like selling out.
YouTube is no different than anything else.
Starting a YouTube Channel has been interesting, even fun at times. I didn’t put a lot into the equipment or production, but purposefully kept things simple and raw. Unfortunately, that’s another strike against me. People want flashy and produced.
After a year, it’s plain to see, that just like starting a blog, a podcast, or any kind of potential online business, I’m highly unlikely to ever gain an audience or turn a profit on the Internet. I don’t know the stats, but my guess would be that less than 1% of the people who try to create some kind of online business ever make any money. So, like my other online endeavors, it feels vain to even try.
Of course, from the outset, I said my YouTube was simply a place to document and preserve a lifetime of songwriting and that I had no delusions of making it a profitable channel. That remains true. But if I’m being 100% honest, there was still a small part of me that thought the experiment might get more than 100 subscribers in a year.
Maybe there’s more important work.
I’m not going to quit, but I am dialing things back. It takes time and effort, even with raw and unedited video, to keep a YouTube channel going. But I also can’t help but look around at the state of this world, and more specifically America, and wonder if there’s something more important I could be doing.
People tell me that art is important, that songs and poetry can lead revolutions and save lives. Meh. I’m not seeing it. When 20 million people are struggling just to be heard and no one seems to have the attention span to listen, what’s the point? And to do this stuff just for myself can become both isolating and lonely.
When I look around at what’s happening in our country; when I see the hate, the poverty, and the hopelessness, I have to wonder if there is something else one could do to promote positive change.
Now I’m retired, the options have increased.
I stopped working full time on December 1, 2025. I’ll likely go back to work part time later this year when I move back to Maine. I need to subsidize my income to pay for health insurance for a couple more years. But I will have more freedom to do other things.
Part of me just wants to go travel and explore a few places I’ve long been interested in. But another part of me wants to do something more significant, maybe get involved with some kind of activism at the grassroots level.
I’ve threatened for years to walk away from the Internet when I’m retired. That’s probably unpractical. And even though very few seem to notice what I’m doing, what I do is still serving a purpose, if only some kind of self-therapy.
I know I must sound like a broken record. I tend to continually question my own place in this world as a creator. I constantly see the insignificance of our struggle as artists and human beings. We all simply die and will likely be forgotten in the end.
Still, I’ll keep plugging along. I won’t stop writing or give up on YouTube yet. But I will keep my eyes and mind open for new directions and ways to serve others. – dse
I started a YouTube Channel in mid-January of this year. I don’t get a ton of views but I’ll post links to my most-watched videos here. The first three links are the most viewed. I’ll follow those with the top-ten most-played songs.
My goal was never to attempt to get views and create a popular channel, but rather simply to catalog songs and post some about songwriting and music.
I posted a total of 199 videos in 2025 and gained 93 subscribers. Again, getting subscribers was not the primary reason for starting the channel. Documenting my own songwriting journey was.
I officially retiredfrom full-time work on December 1. Shortly after I stopped working in early November, I almost doubled my output on the channel. I could keep that up. But I’m not going to. Why?
Although I was tempted to try to start building the channel instead of simply using it for my own space, I’ve decided against that idea for now. In April, I’ll be moving back to Maine. I’ll be busy moving and doing some work on my condo up there. I want to do some traveling. I might go back to work part time. So, I’m not ready to commit to something more than what I’m currently doing on my channel.
That Could Change
I’ve always considered the idea of doing something more with the channel and/or starting a second channel. But I only want to do that if I’ve decided to seriously commit to the project(s).
That would mean that I’d get new and improved equipment, and that I’d create a space specifically as a YouTube studio. I’d study the art of YouTube production and become more deliberate in creating higher-quality work. I’d aim for better video and better audio. I’d learn how to edit. I’d have more scripted videos.
I’m not yet convinced I want to do all that. I need to wait and see what direction life takes after my move back to Maine. Also, a part of me likes the simple lo-fi authenticity of my channel as it is.
So, until mid-2026, I’ve decided to pare back a little and only post a few times per week rather than daily as I did through most of November and December.