Category: News

No Stock Photos

You may have noticed that I haven’t been using any stock photos on my new website. If you didn’t read the first post, Restart, you might wonder why? There are two simple reasons.

  1. I’m done with stock photos. For years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with stock photos. You can find some real pretty pictures that will work with almost anything you write, kind of. Yet, as pretty as they are, they’re like cardboard cutouts. They all look the same. Plus, they’re somebody else’s photos.
  2. I’ll spend less time per essay. It’s a simple time-management thing. With shorter posts, less links, and no photos, I can work twice as fast.

In the future, I hope to start using a few of my own photos on occasion. I won’t post a picture with every post. That’s kind of silly when you really think about it. However, as I release new music and new books, I want to design original cover art. I might go back and design some original covers for some of my older works, too.

That’s the story. There will be no photos except my own (or collaborators) on Thoughts, Words & Music. – dse

On Music

This new site will include music from any one of my several musical personalities. Yes, I’m a bit of a musical schizophrenic. Although my main gig has always been as Dan (Steven) Erickson, the singer-songwriter, that has changed in the past few years.

Currently, I’m creating more experimental and electronic music than music from any other genre. Keep in mind, that could change any given day. Remember, I’m schizo. I might even develop a new musical personality.

I have two electronic music aliases. My main alias is Anderhill, but for my darkest electronic music, I go by A Cult of Lies.

I recently introduced you to Anderhill, and then I shared the first EP, The Beginning. If you take a gander at my music page, you’ll see that I’ve composed quite a few albums, EPs and long-play singles. You can click any of those titles to get to the Anderhill BandCamp page.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be chronologically posting short blurbs about each of my musical titles here. Each post will include a BandCamp music player for your listening pleasure. – dse

Anderhill

A couple of years ago, I started a website specifically designed to support my experimental electronic music compositions. That site included my discography, new releases, and stories about my work as Anderhill. I love the concept. However, the Anderhill was discontinued.

Why would I kill a good thing? Because sometimes that’s what creativity requires us to do. Start over.

The site you’re currently viewing has developed from years of creative changes, and instead of trying to maintain a handful of sites, I’ve decided to streamline. I wanted to build a site that represents the whole me. This is it.

It’s only fair to tell you from the start that music will have an equal part to words here. Expect to see news and updates about Anderhill music on a regular basis.

I’m not currently working on any new musical projects, but I am working toward adding a visual element to my creative output. I’ve made a rough goal to begin redesigning Anderhill cover art. Currently, all the album covers are all designed using stock photos. I’d like to begin using more of my own visuals to support Anderhill as I develop this new creative space. – dse

P.S. I’m no longer using stock photos.

Restart

If you’ve followed my writing and musical journey, you know that I’ve made a lot of topical and creative changes over the past ten years. I’ve owned and operated at least ten blogs covering almost as many topics. It’s funny how life works, but everything has been leading to this, a new kind of website, a reflection of who I really am. It’s a restart. 

This is not a blog. I won’t be writing about minimalism or productivity or any topic other than my own experiences and thoughts on my own writing, music, art, travel, and creativity. Even so, posts will be shorter, and at times less frequent than you’d expect in any sort of traditional blogging format.

As I started designing this site, I also realized that I’m done with stock photography. That might mean that you’ll see more text-based information and less photos here. But in time I hope to do more of my own photography and visual designing. That may include redesigning existing album and book covers, and using my own and others’ original photography on this site. Perhaps, even some collaborations. 

What you can expect to find on this website is simple. You’ll find information about my latest music and writing. You’ll have access to selected samples of my poetry and song lyrics. You’ll find information about my live performances. I’ll share my thoughts about my creative process. And you’ll be first to know about any new written works and musical compositions of mine. In time, I might even add some merch.

This is a restart. We all need to look at ourselves, our lives, our creative projects, and restart from time to time. – dse