Cheers, Plans, and a Hearty Fuck You to 2015.

Kia ora,

The world is seemingly going to hell in a handbasket, and given we’re fast approaching the end of 2015, I thought I’d better get in nice and early to make sure I passed on my wholehearted thanks for visiting Six Noises this year. Before we all die. In some nightmare WWIII scenario.

Obviously, I’m not making a penny writing this blog. So the reward I get has always been tied to the satisfaction of hopefully turning folks on to some new music. The fact that the international readership for Six Noises skyrocketed this year is something I’m really happy about. Not because I think that’s any reflection on me, but because I hope that means more folks are digging more New Zealand music.

Here at Six Noises, that’s pretty much my bread and butter. Because the majority of the music I talk about is made right here in New Zealand. However, there’s going to be some changes in that regard in the future.

Just to be clear, Six Noises will always be firmly focused on highlighting what I consider to be the best homegrown music. However, the trusty old Mac I normally use to write these posts met its end recently. That’s meant updating Six Noises has been difficult of late. And that’s also given me pause to consider where Six Noises is headed in the future.

The Ye Olde EOY List Frenzy

In the immediate future, I’m certainly going to be doing my best to drop in short posts right here or on Six Noises’ Facebook page. But my computer issues means I won’t be doing any big multi-post, end-of-year roundup this year.

Admittedly, that might be very good news for some of you. Because I’m massively indecisive anyway, and I generally like to waffle on and on and on when it comes to end-of-year lists. I’ve not invited anyone to contribute to the usual list madness like I normally would either. Because I can’t realistically deliver on any promise to publish any content when my current writing situation is restricted to borrowed time on someone else’s computer.

My apologies about all of that. Hopefully, I can get my computer problems sorted in early 2016. But, to be honest, it seems ridiculous to gripe about any of that when there are umpteen thousands of people suffering through genuinely horrific situations right now.

I’ll definitely endeavour to post a few of my end-of-year picks for you in the coming weeks. But they probably won’t be accompanied by my usual long-winded blurbs. I won’t be ranking my picks either. Although I’m pretty sure Tau Cross’ debut was my favourite album this year. Or maybe it was Iskra’s Ruins LP. That was pretty damn formidable. But then, so was Panopticon’s Autumn Eternal. And Satan’s Atom by Atom and Paradise Lost’s The Plague Within.

Anyway, the point of my end-of-year lists at Six Noises has never been to nominate any winners or losers. I’ve simply been set on recommending some great albums. I really don’t care about who is numero uno on any list anywhere. I just think that end-of-year lists are a great way to discover albums that I might have missed during the year.**** ****

That’s pretty much the intended spirit when I highlight any music here on Six Noises, all year round. I just want to point to great tunes that I don’t want you to miss out on hearing. But, this year, I had someone take me to task for not writing about the New Zealand metal or punk releases that I don’t like.

That was a totally fair critique of this blog. Because there are plenty of albums from local bands that I do think are 100% atrocious. I guess my silence about them is a critique, of sorts. But, really, at the end of the day, I only have X amount of time to dedicate to this blog. And I just don’t want to spend that short amount of time whining about mediocre releases. So I just ignore all the uninspired garbage out there. And I try and shine a light on the music that I think is worth your time and money.

Plans for the Future

In regards to that, I’m probably going to be broadening the gamut of Six Noises next year. I’ve generally covered metal and punk and a dash of experimental music here in the past. But that doesn’t reflect the range of my musical tastes. So I’m going to make an effort to widen this blog’s musical horizons. I want to cover more left-field music. Write a few reflective features that hark back to the days of yore. Highlight more varied strains of dark electronica and gothic rock. And even maybe write about my deep, genuine, and neverending love of AOR and hair metal.

Clearly, broadening Six Noises’ gamut would be a lot easier if I had other writers contributing to the site. And that’s certainly something I’ve considered over the years. I’ve had a number of people ask if they could contribute in the past. But for various (undramatic) reasons nothing has ever really eventuated. That’s okay, though. Because I feel uneasy about asking anyone to write for free. But maybe that’s something I’ll need to consider again if I want Six Noises to grow any bigger in the future.

Cheers, Ya’ll

So, that’s where Six Noises is at today. Slightly broken, but still unbowed.

I definitely still have the drive to write about music. And I definitely still have plans for the blog’s future.

Again, my thanks go out to you for Six Noises’ success thus far. Some of the posts on this blog have been read by what I’d consider to be an insane number of people. Especially because I’m based at the arse end of the world. And I’m not a well-known writer by any means. Six Noises’ success is all down to you sharing and talking about the bands mentioned here. So cheers for that. That makes it all worthwhile.

Before I go, I also want to say thanks to all the sites that hosted my writing this year, and to those folks that reached out to support me during 2015. This year was a pretty awful one for me personally because I had to ditch freelance journalism as a viable career option. That led me to struggle with some crushing mental health issues for many months. And I’ll be very glad to put 2015 in the rearview mirror in a few weeks’ time.

I’m not back to full health yet. But one of the things that kept me going was knowing that others still had faith in my ability to write. Even if my own confidence about doing so was shattered. I’ve been really fortunate to contribute to some great websites and magazines over the years. I’ve met some excellent people along the way. And I’ve received some great feedback too. All of that’s kept me writing. So cheers for playing your part.

Kia kaha (stay strong).

Craig.