What Would Bowie Do? Embrace Discomfort in 2025
This newsletter contains some news about the year ahead because 2025 marks 25 years since Drowned in Sound began. Before revealing the theme of what I've been plotting, I wanted share these questions knotted in my mind, exposing my thought process in case it's helpful for anyone thinking of starting a project in the new year...
Bowie Knows
Last year, in the trailer episode of Drowned in Sound's rebooted podcast, I shared this clip of Janelle Monáe reading a quote from David Bowie. I think about these words often and it'll come as no surprise that the star man's words have shaped how my thoughts are clustering as we amble into 2025:
“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”
This embrace of discomfort has allowed the definition of what "a newsletter" is and could be, to oscillate in my head.
Given I started my first newsletter back in 1998, you'd think I would have laser-focussed clarity on what I'm doing by now rather than having an internal ping-pong about whether Drowned in Sound now exists for advocacy or analysis or sparking conversations about the future of music or...
Throughout 2024, this is what I have been pondering before I start writing to (thousands of) you: Do you expect "news" or a "letter" or a mix of both? Do you want an essay? You're probably busy, so how about a summary? Should this one be personal or a bit more detached so it's more "professional"?
Is this working as a fragmented series of interconnected ideas or is it coming across like a personal blog, on shuffle, blasted into your inbox? Did you consent to getting this?! Should I paywall this post, or given how long I've spent on it, do I want everyone to read it for free? And does what I send out by email seem a bit wonky when you remove any context about who I am or what DiS is, when it's read by first timers on the web at drownedinsound.org?
This leads to bigger questions: Who even am I? What am I doing here? What even is DiS now?! Who is it for? What could it be?
This overlapping bird's nest of questions might seem unproductive but it's weirdly freeing and it has helped me figure out what to do in 2025.
What Can('t) I Do?
When you remove the shackles of existing newsletter formats (the digest, the column, the personal essay, the hard sell and the formal corporate update), it begins to clarify what's possible when opening the blank page - seeing the void more like a skateboarder sees a handrail with a bajillion different ways to glide along it and dismount it.
