10 lessons from '24 + marine eyes updates

marine eyes ~ january newsletter

Hi friends,

Happy new year! With no women of ambient mix this month, I wanted to share something a little different for the first week of January.

2024 was a huge year of growth and emotions for me. I released my 3rd and most personal album, to belong. I released an awakened souls EP if you feel lost with my husband, and a collection of our unreleased songs faraway days from the past few years. I continued sharing women of ambient mixes and even performed one live at Echo Park Rising in Los Angeles. I did more album cover art than I ever have with Ambient Mountain House. I was part of the Past Inside the Present team. I had my first commissioned project of songs for an incense company. I regularly went to the mountains with my husband to have daytime campfires and make pockets of time for simply being. I continued to mindfully and lovingly parent my kids through their teen and early adult years. I helped my beautiful older sister on her journey with multiple sclerosis. I lost a dear friend, suddenly and two weeks before his wedding. My mom and dad had to move locations of the family comic book shop after 35 years in the same spot. I took thousands of photos focused on light and started getting back into film photography. I released a few other EPs, features and a remixes. I turned 40. I started this newsletter and got to interview 20 inspiring women musicians and artists. In doing so, I learned a lot and wanted to share some things I will be carrying with me.

film photo from the morning light in my bedroom

10 lessons I’m carrying with me from 2024

1. Be open enough to listen for answers, not just cycle around the problem. This is a huge one. Venting is useful but detrimental when it becomes all you do. We’re all doomed, it’s the end of the music industry is worth digging into but it isn’t worth stealing away all your time. I mean, we’re artists and we need to believe there is a way forward because the world needs our art.

2. Go touch grass, or a tree. But you must do it. We always say this one to our kids when they feel off and I think we all need this reminder. Being underneath the sky and hanging out with dirt and listening to birds is crucial if we want to keep being loving, creative humans on this planet.

3. When you feel stuck, try something different. Although this one is easy for me as a Gemini, I still have to remind myself to switch things up. I love The Artist’s Way and this is akin to what Julia Cameron calls Artist Dates. Take yourself out and try something new. Go to your local botanical garden. Hike that trail you have been wanting to try. Go touch your art supplies tucked away in the cabinet. The options are plentiful. Just choose one when you’re stuck and I promise it will shift your brain.

4. Don’t wait until it’s perfect timing. If I had waited until it was the perfect timing, I wouldn’t have started this newsletter last year. If something really matters to you, make it happen. You can write music from a little hole in the wall if that is what you have. The big studio space might not happen as soon as you’d like, and the time for creativity is now.

5. Do things in ways that feel right to you. Sometimes I feel like a rebel when I drop a single without talking about it twenty times beforehand. It has been liberating for me to share things when I want to share them, not based off some idea that we all need follow cookie cutter guidelines. Be yourself. Make a music video, or don’t. Share as much or as little as you want on things. Just make sure what you’re doing is in alignment with your own heart.

6. Don’t forget about random acts of kindness and lifting others up. There is magic in a surprise purchase of someone’s print, or Bandcamp album or sending a message letting someone know that what they made helped you somehow. My mom instilled this in me at a young age, and I have always carried it with me. This is a huge reason why I started my mix series and this newsletter. Art is meant to be shared and lifting others up has a contagious domino effect.

7. Taking time for yourself isn’t selfish. We need to take care of ourselves in order to mindfully care for others. End stop. Make sure you’re not on your phone during your whole alone time too, surprise surprise—that won’t leave you as rejuvenated.

8. Write things down if you want to get stuff done. Our brains aren’t wired to memorize everything we need to do. This is beyond grocery store lists, this is also about what is important to you. I love doing a beginning of month in perspective with things that I am focusing on and hang it in my closet or keep it in my journal. Pair this with daily checklists for extra superpowers.

9. Friendly persistence takes you places. Didn’t hear back from someone you’d love to work with after a first email? Try emailing again and you may just hear back. This isn’t a guarantee to success, but it sure beats taking no for an answer the first time around.

10. Magic is real. Find magic in the ordinary and connect to childlike wonder (hello cloud collecting). Make sure you’re leaving room for the unexpected in your craft and by taking a new direction on your walk home. My song hushed came from a complete accident in the studio with my Hologram Microcosm pedal and it is one of my favorite songs from to belong.

hushed single art, a photo i took from Fern Dell in LA’s Griffith Park where i captured the field recordings for the song

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marine eyes updates

~ faraway days

While exploring our awakened souls archives, my husband James and I uncovered a collection of songs written between 2018-2022 that we felt were meant to be together. The album photo came from a sunset in the Marin headlands on my birthday this past year.

~ Time Enough For Love

My vocals appear on Journeys Out of Mind, a song from the new Seahawks album Time Enough for Love out via Cascine. Jon Tye, one half of Seahawks, made an album named Io in 1994 with his project MLO, released on Rising High Records. That album has been a companion of mine ever since my husband introduced me to it. My husband James also had his ambient album Atmospherics out that same year on Rising High, which just had its 30-year anniversary reissue and celebration through Past Inside the Present. James and I got to meet Jon and Peter on their LA trip in 2022, the trip that this Seahawks album creation began.

~ Certain Path

I loved contributing a piece of my black and white film photography for the album cover of this recent collaboration from zakè, From Overseas and City of Dawn. This album is beautiful.

~ end of the year lists

I am always floored to see my music music make any end of the year lists, as that means my music made a difference to someone. What a gift that is. to belong made it a few places and I had to share them here as I know how much these humans pour into what they do and I appreciate every ounce of it. Huge thanks to DJ Alex from Pacific Notions with putting me in the top 10 of his amazing list,

Flow State

for mentioning me on his best of list, Stationary Travels for mentioning me here, David James for adding me to his 80 Best Albums of 2024 + Foxy Digitalis for adding me to his honorable mention list here. My gratitude runs deep.

Ps. If you are curious about my favorite releases from women + gender expansive artists, listen to my full archive of women of ambient mixes (available to paid subscribers). I promise you will find some music you love.

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I’d love to hear your thoughts, music recommendations, or anything you’d like to share! My inbox is always open. I'll be back next week with a new creative interview—see you soon!