First things first: I’m happy to announce that I/we have a new website! You can see it at www.mattlenny.com and, thanks to Virb (the site builder I used), it’s totally mobile friendly and (I think) looks great. Social networks are probably the place most people will see anything info about the band, but it’s still nice to collect it all into one place.
And that’s the other thing that’s been interesting. Those of you who know me know that:
- I’ve recorded a lot of music over the years.
- I’ve officially released/promoted very little of it.
There a lot of reasons for the latter, but the biggest one is basically that I’m a relentless perfectionist. If we record 10 songs and I decide that 2 of them don’t live up to my notions of what they should be, I have a hard time promoting the whole set. I usually start writing new tunes, too, and then I think to myself, “If only I had waited to record these instead of [insert song I don’t love], then this album would be really good. I should wait until I can do that.” Or I might like the song, but feel like we failed to do it justice in the studio.
All of this, by the way, is usually completely disconnected from what my listeners actually think. In fact, in some cases, people single out as their favorite a song that I can no longer stand.
I can’t change the past, but I definitely need to be better about this in the future and try to remember that a recording is a snapshot of a moment in time rather than the ultimate statement of what a song is or isn’t.
Anyway, in collecting everything into one place for the website, I ended up cataloguing all the original master tracks for everything I’ve recorded since 2005. And, in the process, I realized that there are tracks I really love that were part of albums I didn’t. Now, the world as a whole may disagree with me and say they’re no good and they range across a variety of styles (all subsets of rock/folk/blues) that might not equally appeal to everyone, but it was incredibly validating to hear it and realize that…well…I’m kinda proud of myself! I really didn’t just waste all that time! It didn’t bring me riches and fame or thousands of fans, but I made art. Real art. Flawed? For sure. But passionate and committed and…if I dare say so myself…not without some skill and degree of success.
So, I’ve collected my favorites into a FREE collection entitled, “The Unexplorer - Odds & Ends (2005 - 2011)”. You can get it here and I really hope you enjoy it. I know I did and sometimes I forget that the joy of it all is the point, the original dream, and the reward all in one.
Onward!
-Matt Lenny / The Elm City Council