Drum & Lace Field Notes 22
Yearning for a more analog experience and the Winter Solstice
Ciao amici,
It is the eve of the Winter Solstice, the longest night (and shortest day) of the year. If you also celebrate it you know it is the perfect time to set your intentions for the next year, so that they might find their way to the light. What a great time to look inwards, as hard as that may be, and take whatever lessons/experiences you’ve had in 2025 and find a way to grow from them and not be kept back by them - I know this has been one rollercoaster of a year for me personally, and it seems like it’s been this way for a ton of you.
I’d love to start off this post by saying a huge thank you to everyone who came to & supported Solstice Solidarity Synthesis last Wednesday at The Old Church in Stoke Newington for our Winter edition. This was the third concert in our series, and although I was a bit worried about attendance since the date was so close to Christmas, everyone came through and we had nearly the same amount of people as we did over summer. Grateful for incredible sets from Sinemis, Louf, rhubiqs and Elisa & I can really feel that we are starting to build such a wonderful community! Also thankful to have been able to perform a more ambient set myself, which included a few released tracks I’ve never performed live (‘Marmo’ and ‘Shiver’) as well as a brand new track coming out on my upcoming release that made people quite emotional (including myself). More importantly, we were able to donate £550 to City Harvest London, which is going to help provide 1,650 meals for Londoners this holiday season. How amazing is that! Truly chuffed and looking forward to starting to plan the summer one - save the date for late June 2026! If you want to support the series in the meantime, you can get yourself a Solstice Solidarity Synthesis tie-dye t-shirt on bandcamp (or reach out to me directly!), lovingly dyed by mini Lace & myself.
This week, in continuing the conversation about creativity and where creative industries seem to be heading, I’ve been coming across a ton of articles and social media posts about two topics that seem quite connected: the fight for live music amid a tanking scene. And the second, a deep desire to return to a form of ‘analog’ living. I guess these topics go less hand-in-hand as much as they are a direct consequence of one another?
Here in the borough of Hackney (where I live) there have been massive efforts from Save Our Scene UK to keep iconic music venue MOTH Club open. If you’re unfamiliar with the situation it’s easy to summarize - the venue has been under threat due to a new development proposed to be built right next to it, and this has been going on for some time. In great news, and as a result of the community coming together, Hackney Council have expressed their support to keeping Moth Club open as it is an asset to Hackney, putting the onus on new buildings to adapt to existing structures (in this case the venue). Although this sounds like a great step forward, it is yet to be seen how things go, so if you’re interested in making sure the venue survives, please sign the Save MOTH Club proposal on their website. While this was really great news, I at the same time read an article titled ‘The Festival Bubble Bursts’ about how 2025 saw a wave of record cancellations, which we have all sadly already picked up on. I found them describing “the saturation of same-ness” as a factor to be really interesting and true - especially within specific genres. They do touch upon a ‘new underground’ emerging from this shift, which we’re obviously all thrilled about (right?) and feeds directly into what I’ve been going on about in nearly every single Field Notes when it comes to nurturing community spaces.
This feeds perfectly into the next topic that seems to be on everyone’s tongues: the desire to ‘go analog’. I first came across a set of slides on instagram last week, featuring the quote “This isn’t about going backwards. It’s about reclaiming ownership in a system built to remove it.” As I kept swiping through, it brought up a lot of very valid points and, more importantly, showed the start of a mass awareness that I’m hoping will stick and evolve. Much in the same vein, @whimsical.daydreamer refers to this return to analog not as being ‘anti technology. It just needs to be anti mindless’. Brilliant - we all want less algorithmic slop, so being more mindful is the key. Another post claiming ‘2026 is the year we go analog’ has a positive spin on things, stating that “By 2026, experts predict, society will collectively turn toward activities that require hands, eyes and presence rather than screens". There is no reference given for this wondrous prediction (sigh) but I do hope these experts they speak of are right, to some extent? What I found somewhat hilarious about this last statement is that it is merely describing the human experience - have we have really veered so far off-course that this quote seems shocking? I sat with it a moment but then remembered that apparently “Americans still check their phones nearly 200 times a day—or about once every five minutes while they’re awake.” and “the average [British] person now spends 4.5 hours glued to their devices every day.” with “Digital native Gen Z, aged 18 to 24, now spend a staggering six hours and 20 minutes online every day.”. Now that’s absolutely staggering and incredibly sad (and I’m not immune to this as I try to lower my time on my phone on a weekly basis but do hover around 4-5 hours myself).
With that said, we can relate this desire to ‘go analog’ in the music industry by setting ourselves up to attend more events, concerts and get-togethers in person, and being more altruistic with our choices. There is no doubt that the way we live, glued to our phones and computers, is not sustainable and extremely unhealthy. As someone that likes to talk about AI within the music industry, I do see the whole ‘going analog’ movement as being an obvious direct pushback to the rise of AI & corporate greed. Just like with everything else, it’s going to take people getting on board and taking on collective responsibility. Sacrificing some comforts for the sake of everyone as a whole - let’s see.
On my end, apart from continuing the Solstice series, I’m going to make an even bigger effort to connecting with more people locally in London and UK, rather than pouring resources into reaching as many people online. My network feels very vast online, but in reality, there are still so many people doing very cool stuff around me that I don’t have time to engage with - maybe those 4 extra hours a day I seemingly spend on my phone would help? I’ve also started thinking about how I can bring my music and performance to people in a way that’s more accessible and less expensive, especially when the idea of touring my new music seeming like such a daunting task. People seem to crave experiences, and they don’t have to always be the show at night with drinks, etc. Now seems like a great time to think outside the box and find ways to truly interact. If anyone is looking to do some shows/performances/immersive listening sessions in 2026 anywhere in the UK or EU, please reach out!
As a last music anecdote, I wanted to share a reel from Andrew Huang, posted yesterday, which gives an interesting perspective on something I think most artists struggle with - self promotion. I found it helpful to have someone say “if you want to share your gift, share it” and mention a fresh take on the weirdness of promoting one’s work nowadays.
With that, I wish everyone a happy Winter Solstice, happy holidays & a wonderful start to the New Year (byeeeee 2025, we’re done with you)! The next time you hear from me, next month, I’ll have a verrrry exciting update for you that I’ve been teasing annoyingly for months now.
Take care of yourselves & an extra special hug to anyone who finds this time of year hard, or as my brother puts it, are having the ‘holiday blues’ (I see you & feel you).
xoxo,
D & L
