still moving forward...

No it didn't win.

Yes I was pretty bummed about it.

But you know something? It was nominated back in March, which was impressive to begin with. Then enough people said "Hey let's vote for it" back in April, and it advanced to the finals. Whoa! What? My quirky instrumental guitar fiasco was a contender?! I couldn't even get Class Clown in 8th grade.

Even though it lost, it still won. How? Very rarely does something unique ever receive any accolades. My friend Martin Popoff said it best a while back that "You don't get rewarded so quickly for being ahead of your time." No, my album is not futuristic. But compared to what is out there, it's a strange little beast, isn't it? While others are busy mining the same tried-and-true fields musically, I branch out as much as possible. Am I frighteningly original? No. But when people hear my music, they say things like "It's definitely YOU" and "I never heard anything like this."

Maybe they need to go out more often?

I congratulated the winners, as that's the professional thing to do. No sense showing poor sportsmanship, that's never been my style. Even some of my friends were all "You didn't win? WTF?!" But as I said earlier, I still won. And it's given me more fuel when I tackle the next album.

And no, I don't write music to win awards. I write music because it's my passion and my art. Some artists write purely to sell. Yes I want my music to connect with people and sell a few pieces of pressed tin foil. So right there, that's a win.

But next year, the tides better turn for me ;)