I am not important,

and so are we

The recent crucifixion, resurrection, and possible 90-day ascension of TikTok has forced my back-burner questions to the front of my mind.

For example:

Is distilling my entire essence into a bordered-classic-font catchphrase and 15-second video even possible?

Why am I working so hard to capture the attention of new ears on platforms that don’t favor old ones?

Why does social media leave me feeling segmented, hollow, and shallow?

I am not part of the millennial complainers club, crying for the “good-old-days” when people had attention-spans, before Facebook lost a digital war to AI memes and geriatric scams. I know that the current social media and streaming landscape affords more opportunity than any before - for art to be discovered, to build a career, to be recognized for something, anything.

But there is something I miss: community interaction with those that make my career possible, that listen to every song, that share my posts, that ask questions, that buy merch and come to shows. Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, these are all the same: I scroll my feed, I see an ad, then I see a suggested post, then another ad, then, finally, a post from someone I follow, then a suggested post, then a store, etc. These platforms have all opted for discovery, for growth, rather than sustainability and building.

I, in turn, feel whittled down to whatever small part of me might tickle the viral button once again. “I am David, mental health singer, stream me.” In the meantime, the things that really influence my music and creativity, my love of cast-iron cooking, running half marathons, reading the Bhagavad Gita, wrestling through shame and growth, watching and reviewing all the Best Picture nominated movies, learning how to love well - these are too long for the 15 second video and must be held in private.

And then, here, in the wake of it all, I find Substack, and for the first time, I feel excited about this online world again. It seems like a space built for community interaction and deepness.

I know that I am lucky that anyone pays attention to the art I make. I do not take it for granted one bit. I also know that the percentage of my listeners who will come over to this space, who are actually interested in the parts of my art that go beyond the Discover page is relatively small. I will continue to use TikTok and Instagram the ways I have been - this IS my career and the discovery aspect is still essential to it.

BUT, for those that are interested, I am going to start using this space for a much more exploratory place for my art. I will share new demos to get feedback, I’ll put up pieces of my novel I’ve been working on, poems I’ve written, photos from my adventures, reviews of films and novels I’ve been enjoying, discussions on philosophy, recipes I’ve been developing, and much more.

For those that subscribe, we’ll have our own message space to discuss lots with each other. This space seems to offer so much I love about different Social Media - A twitter-like feed, photo, video, “facebook group” discussions, etc. I’m hoping this can become the core space for those of us that want to go deeper.

So, here’s a big introduction to say, welcome to my Substack, Collection fam, and I’m excited to share this space.

Stay Tuned!