IN ONE HOUR, I WILL BE CELEBRATING 300 SUBSCRIBERS ON MY YOUTUBE PAGE. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SUBSCRIBED, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART.

Been quiet for the last few weeks.

Been looking for a new house, and with that comes all the fancy paperwork involved, offers, counter-offers, and estimations for repairs once I move in. It's insane to realizing that a fair majority of people who are selling their house are pricing themselves out of the market due to their own short-sightedness, or inversely, how greedy people are trying to flip a property with an unsound foundation by trying to pass off the 'improvements' you made as being worth 40k of value added.

Haven't really had time to invest in my music, but I'm still tinkering, just haven't posted anything. Working more on the back-end of music stuff- Audio EQ, Filters, Delays, ambient spaces and the like. I haven't really had the drive to focus on my music entirely, and by extension, myself.

I find myself lingering on the usual thoughts that have plagued me for the last decade.

What if I'm not good enough? What if this album isn't as good as my last? Why do I bother keeping an online presence?

I'm mature enough to acknowledge that these thoughts are juvenile in origin, and I do not interact with them beyond their utterance. They're allowed to breathe for a moment before I let them disappear and focus on other things. It's a nuanced and complicated sort of affairs I interact with on a regular basis with myself. It's never judgmental, simply observational in nature, and I know that deep in my heart, I am doing well for myself; perhaps it's being dumbfounded by the margin of success I've achieved in such a short amount of time. I suppose that's also compounded by the small question that forms in the back of my mind, which is why am I not even more successful? A gremlin formed this thought. A bastard gremlin that takes and never gives. I never give this little thing the time of day, and neither should you.

I've prepared the release of my next album to be October 31st this year. I'm anticipating a large amount of tracks for a reasonable price, perhaps 20 dollars for about 50 tracks. Probably less. In that same topic, I've hired a few artists to provide album art and I'm busy writing liner notes to offer in a PDF file once the album hits bandcamp. I wonder if I could ask the Citadel Community if they were interested, though I also believe I should compensate them for this. Trying to do right by people is probably the most important thing I can do as an artist, right next to being honest and open. The world's done a good job hardening my heart to people, but I would be remiss if I didn't try to help others who were in the same position I was in when I first started, just a little bit.

For a long time, I was concerned with failure. But as an older man, I've learned to accept failure as part of my journey. Open to being crushed by those who do not understand, or those who see what I do as opposition to their own livelihoods. They have nothing to fear, though it probably won't stop them from punching down at people like me. That's fine. Everyone's on their journey. Punch down, if it makes you feel better. I'm not going to punch. I'm just going to work on my music. If you want to be along for the ride, cool. I'll be here.

If you want to reach out and have a conversation, or just to send me your thoughts, concerns, complaints, you can reach me at mothman47@zohomail.com. I make it a point to check my e-mail at least once a day.

I discovered while I was eating cold chili that I made it onto The Tank Tribune's Sunday Phonograph on Issue 116

This was unexpected, and a welcome bit of news.

I genuinely appreciate the fact that someone felt the track 'Caravan' was worth putting on that playlist- From the bottom of my heart, Thank you so much for your consideration.

And a big thank you to everyone who follows, votes, comments, Favorites, or Downloads my music. If I could have a moment of your time, I would really love it if you subscribed to my YouTube Channel and joined the 287 others within my Eclipse of Moths.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

-Moth

Always did like Summer. Felt like it should start in May instead of June.

Apotheosis Encode will now be on sale from now until September 21st when you use the code 'summer', for a 25% discount on top of the already discounted price.

Get the Album Here!

MidnightStriked and I worked on a piece titled 'Executive', Inspired by Beyond Citadel. Give it a look and show them some love.

So, let's break down what happened last night.

I opened a request for an artist. For the character artist, I was given an internal reference who's worked on similar content before. That was easy. We got everything sorted out.

For a landscape artist, I was mogged by at least a dozen folks who immediately attempted to scam me. There were at least 8 or 9 others who had no references to landscape art, so they weren't even considered.

For about an hour, any time we got to the 'payment' portion of the negotiation, they'd send me the most generic paypal/cashapp addresses that didn't link to an artist page. In fact, one linked to a software technology page that was the most generic cookie-cutter thing I've seen in my 20 years on the internet.

One just begged, and begged, and begged. They might have been genuinely human, but had no art to refer to, so I just blocked them.

One insulted me when I didn't agree immediately to working with them. The reason? Their reference, after reverse-image searching went back to a stock photo that's been used 4,000 times.

Another saw fit to advertise not just her art, but her body as well, suggesting I wanted her OF link, too. No? I just wanted art- what the fuck is wrong with you.

One person, out of all of the DMs and finessing, popped up. They actually had a reference that indicated they had indeed worked on landscapes before.

The fact that they followed my instructions on the original post was evidence enough that they were serious.

I'll make it a point next time to weed out the bots and scammers more thoroughly.

How the hell does anyone make a living in that kind of an environment...

Don't advertise on X. Or just be very selective. Don't be afraid to say no. Don't be afraid to ghost, either. Just be careful with your money.

APOTHEOSIS ENCODE, NOW LIVE ON STREAMING PLATFORMS.

Been busy at work and with life in the past few weeks, while using what little free time I do have to continue making music. Expect a new upload Sunday/Monday.

Today is Takeover Tuesday.

I've provided the Album, Apotheosis Encode for listening. If you're new here, thank you for listening, and I hope you're having a wonderful day. Please enjoy any of my other entries in the audio portal, and again, Thank you for your time.

Several of the previous tracks have been far more up-tempo than some expected.

There's an excitement- mania, if you will, embodied in them. They are joyful sorrow.

Mania gives way to Melancholy. To Darkness.