Thank you for listening

This is the first off-topic post, and its about fish.

I’ve been bummed recently as the Sockeye run has been seemingly slim this year. You might be saying “Oh.” or something similar but since I have a creek in my yard, and there are runs of Sockeye, King, and Steelhead that literally are 30 feet from my studio window, it is on my mind a but. Cool, eh? It might be early yet, but there has only been less then 20 seen this year, compared to the 10-15 each time I looked at the peak last year. I hope that we are early in the run and I am just eager, but after I say the first ones a few weeks ago, in my heart I was thinking that “The run started, now its going to grow and grow.”

Today I went out and didn’t see any flashes of red like the Sockeye show, but I caught a flash of something. I stopped walking for a sec and realized I was looking at a monster. At least three feet, longer than my arm. I knew we have runs of King (Chinook) salmon, but was not expecting it at all. The thing was massive and really strong. The Sockeye are pretty tuckered by the time they get to my place, and we are seeing a few just barely alive floating down stream. This King was just cruising around the creek, stopping here and there. Abbers (my poodle) saw it, took a few calculations on velocity and decided to sit this one out. It got spooked by us and tore off downstream so fast it make a wake and an audible spash in a creek that was running very fast and heavy. I got crunched at work so I am waiting a bit till I can get my waders. I can’t really afford to get them, but I will try to work something out. I can’t imagine not fishing this fall and more than I can imagine standing in the river in shorts anymore.

This is the view from the studio. The bend where I saw the King is on the other side of that tree in the yard.

This week is the announcement of perhaps the coolest thing I have done this fall. The launching of tkfl, the record label. No huge party, no ticker-tape cascading down from the loft above me and certainly no double helping of tofu chocolate mousse after dinner tonight. Why? Because there is work to be done. Nothing more annoying than people trumpeting, laurel-sitting and coattail-riding for things they should be doing already.

Interesting Example. Group of friends dj together for some time, and make music together and also sell/do drugs together. They decide to start a label, sell enough drugs to press the first run and right before they release it, they have a record release party, where they all do loads of drugs and even sell some to the people who show up. Sounds like great fun right? Actually, I am not really opposed to this, as I know that a great many of labels started like this, life lessons, ect. The problem is 4 months later then they are still patting themselves on the back for their achievements and they haven’t actually done anything else.

My point being, is that when you are a butcher, we expect that you regularly cut up some meat. When you are a label, or a writer or painter, We hope that you label, write and paint. I know it feels good celebrate hard word that has led to a nice end, but try not to get caught up in too much back patting.

/soapbox

What can you expect from tkfl as a label? House, techno, downtempo, ambient, soul, hip-hop and the odd waltz throw in to keep you on your toes. It’s all fair game here. I hope that there will be some minimal-dark-disco-jams. The emphasis isn’t on dance floor stormers, though I hope that we have a few. Its more about good solid tunes that you can self-soundtrack with. Medicine. Not everything will be charged for I hope. I will do my best to give out free (and great) music on a regular basis. I will also do my best floss, shave and be cheerful about life too.

There will be plenty of my own music hopefully, as I am on good terms with the A&R guy (as long as he doesn’t catch me sleeping with his dear lady friend), but I have some stuff lined up from some old friends from around the world. The first release will be on November 4th. Generally there will be a new song added each week until the end of the month, when the E.P. is complete, and that is when we move on to the next months E.P.. I will happily accept submissions, but please email me first.

Other than that, I hope to have some interviews, some videos and other content soon.

Enjoy some greenery!

-Mathew