Good morning!
If you are reading this, then congratulations - you have successfully signed up for the Alex Northrup newsletter. You set out to accomplish a goal and you did it. Which is exactly what I am doing on the other end of the modem by writing this very first newsletter.
Quick introduction if you don’t know me. I’m Alex Northrup - musician/composer/songwriter/producer from and based in Rochester, NY. Lately I’ve been playing my own tunes with my backing band the Darlingtones and making a racket onstage with Overhand Sam & Bad Weapon and occasionally with some other groups. My partner Sammy Hirsh and I have a studio in our house called Stu-Stu-Studio (a sly reference to the fourth drummer of English rock legends Genesis). We also have a basset hound named Fred who is arguably more famous than either of us - as it should be.
I’m not one to bandwagon jump, but I’ve noticed that some friends and local artists whom I respect have also decided to start newsletters and rely less on social media (mainly instagram), seemingly for the same reasons I have. Those reasons are:
It’s a timesuck
It’s not the best way to engage in the real local community
I feel my brain turning to mush from using it
It’s made my already short attention span even shorter
It’s a timesuck
It’s not great for my self-esteem
It’s hard to make real connections with others on there
Did I mention that it’s a timesuck?
I haven’t entirely left it behind - just deleted it from my phone. I’ll still use it for promotion and some communication. I do feel like I’ve made some legitimate connections with good people through it over the years (maybe you are one of them!), but overall, it’s not a healthy place to hang out. It’s like smoking indoors in the 21st century. Sure you can do it, but it’s suffocating, and let’s face it, you look cooler doing it outside.
So anyway. It’s Thursday morning. Well, for you it is. I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon. I used to hate Thursdays, but now I hate Tuesdays. But lately I’ve felt that dislike creeping back towards Thursdays. Now, I don’t want to hate any day of the week. We will leave that to our favorite fat orange cat. So I am resolving to send this newsletter out every Thursday, and hoping that it is something worthwhile for all of us (me included). The idea of doing it already feels more worthwhile than the endless phone scrolling I’ve been stuck on.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering where the news is in this newsletter. Well, right now, there really isn’t any! Which is probably a relief if news has been getting you down lately. There is one small bit of good news. I finished a new album. It’s ready to go, and it’s a doozy. So you’ll probably be hearing about it at length (it’s not too late to unsubscribe!).
WARNING: IF YOU UNSUBSCRIBE, YOU WILL MISS OUT ON EXCLUSIVE FRED CONTENT LIKE THIS:
How can you unsubscribe from that face?
Just one more thing before I go - I’ll recommend an album for you each week. This week it’s A Secret Life by Marianne Faithfull (Island Records, 1995).
https://tidal.com/browse/album/637732?u
With her recent passing, I’ve been digging back through her catalogue, and found this gem that I was unaware of until now. And for all you other Lynch freaks out there (speaking of recent passings), this album was composed and produced by his longtime music man Angelo Badalamenti. Among the players on the record is none other than the inventor of the electric sitar, session guitar legend Vinnie Bell. Groovy.
Enjoy the music - see you next Thursday!
Alex