BEAUTY IN SUFFERING | 11 APRIL 2026 | LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
I just spent four months in London - dead of winter, predominantly alone, working on the foundation of my album release and associated projects. Dark, cold, hard. And therein lies the point.
I've spent five years building an expansive life of poetry, beauty, romance and love. Rich and storied connections to poets on the Amalfi Coast, artists at the Chelsea Hotel NYC, fans across midwest America, and friends with a great degree of excellent insanity. And so two days ago, sitting at a cafe in Sloane Square, I found myself in a self-critical dialogue with a friend - how have I ended up so separated from that life, and in this period of trial? Well that’s beautiful too, was the answer.
There's a Yang to the Yin I was avoiding. Burnout from years of album creation and touring brought me here - not by accident, but by necessity. A period of pressure and internal reckoning; artistic identity, commitment to path, discipline & focus, and faith when the world gives you little to hold onto. I didn't just endure it. I needed it. The darkness wasn't the price of admission, it was the education itself.
That's the thing about a life built on depth and genuine experience. You don't get to curate only the luminous parts. The winter earns the spring. And Spring is here - a Japan tour, an album half-released, work I'm proud of, and the quiet knowledge that I came through something real with everything in my life not only intact, but fortified. And that’s the life I wanted - not only beautiful from the outside, but from something earned in its core.
