Writing to you from an airplane flying over the incredible landscape we call the province of Alberta, Canada. Watch the film version of Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, and you will never take for granted those patches of wilderness we used to call nowhere again.
I’ve been in a bit of a strange mood these past few days. There are so many legitimate reasons to feel weird, I can’t seem to settle on just one.
So, for our mutual entertainment, here are 10:
1. I read other people’s opinions on everything, feel vindicated by those that most resemble my own, find some kind of voyeuristic solace in an online stranger’s substitute for what I might say if I were more present in the world outside of my songs, then move on to something else, deeply unsatisfied and vaguely jealous.
2. I consume entire seasons of clever TV shows like Black Mirror, Mr. Robot (and lately for some reason most passionately South Park !?) in mammoth single serving portions, as though it were a competitive sport and l deserve a medal for it.
3. I’m reminded how crucial it is for someone who is a “public figure” like myself to constantly monitor/attempt to manipulate what people might think of me personally and professionally, but keep forgetting to care. Then I remember oh yeah I am not a boring brand and it’s awesome.
4. I keep an open mind about a hashtag being able to achieve something really important in the world and put all justified cynicism aside.
5. I give up completely on ever being able to open a window in a hotel room again, as there seems to have been some worldwide decree that all hotel windows everywhere must forever-more be nailed shut for fear of something terrible happening, and nobody at the front desk seems to be quite sure what.
6. I read the headline, “Gun Sales Soar In Familiar Pattern Of Panic And Profit.”
7. I encounter/experience something fantastic/relevant/uplifting that I know people would like to see, spend a considerable amount of time photographing and captioning it perfectly, and then 100% selfishly refuse to post it as though this were a truly heroic act of rebellion against the sickening sense that everything beautiful we want to contribute to people’s lives with our music is becoming indistinguishable from a meaningless quest for attention in our doomed march to the end of privacy.
8. I play shows and it makes me happy and the people in the audience fucking rule and I feel really lucky doing what I do and just like pumped in general. Then backstage I reflect on 2015 and the release of Pagans in Vegas. Our choices this year confused some people, most notably us, and I decide calmly that I’m cool with that. Remember: We were never aiming for predictable.
9. I watch the ways monopolies function to destroy and thrive and I marvel at my own ability to still participate in the world economy on what feels to me these days to be such a minute scale. Picture a micro-organism in a shrinking pond or some such imagery.
10. I get on a plane and hear the sound of every passenger crumpling their very tiny plastic cups at once before cramming them into their seat back pockets, and I find myself inspired to write this letter to you.
So, yeah. Hi!
In other more official news, let me be the first to excitedly tell you that pre-sale tickets are available as of 10AM your time for our upcoming “Lights On The Horizon” Tour!!!
We’re beyond thrilled to share our stadium love with Death Cab For Cutie and sincerely hope you will join us for this very special musical experience. More juicy details to come.
Your devoted bard,
xo emily
