What is a newsletter? Well, it's a letter with news, but it's surely nothing if there is no news. What is news? Everything that might interest a reader. But what interests a reader?
I started doing my email-letters because I was told it is the best way to connect with my followers. That might be true, but it turns out that I haven't been able to send out letters on a consistent basis. Thus, it is not a very effective means of communication. I've come to the conclusion that I've been doubting what is "newsworthy" and not. But… nothing is newsworthy when you already know all about it, right? Seeing that I know myself pretty well, it has become difficult for me to understand that others might actually find my music and artist-life interesting, or maybe even inspiring. So…I forgot to send out those letters.
"Be yourself".
Have you ever heard that? Yes, you have. Everyone has. Sounds so easy, but Goood, how difficult it can be. The more focused you become on being you, the more difficult it gets to know what is actually you, and what is influence which you no longer recognize as an influence because you've been influenced so long? Yup, it is just as complicated as that sentence was long and difficult to understand. As an artist, writer, and a performer it is indeed important that I know what I want to communicate, what kind of person I want to be, which signals I want to send and so on. Honestly, right now, I'm pulled between a billion kinds of me, looking for the true me. "My voice". I know what my values are, what matters, what makes me excited, what makes me cry what makes me laugh… but how do I communicate that?
I realized today that in every single bio I have ever written for myself (and I have written many), one thing stands the same. The word communication is always included. "To Eli, music is communication…blah blah etc.". It is;The communication between musicians, the emotions shared between a performer and an audience, and the actual worlds said or sung and what a person feels when he or she hears it.
So if communication is key, why am I so horribly bad at writing email letters, or answering my messages?
Maybe….because I've always valued face to face communication. Talking, eye-contact, letting each word matter, timing, purpose… If I weren't a musician who tried to promote my music and spread it around the world, I would not have social media. Simple as that. Yes, it's fun, but it's nothing I have ever wanted to use as a way to communicate.
Actually, when I was 17 my father gave me a smartphone for Christmas. My father is smart, he always pays a little bit extra for extra quality. He saw the value of a smartphone and decided to get me one. Me, on the other hand, I had very clear ideas on technology. I simply thought technology was bad for humans to be too connected to it. This is 10 years ago before most people were even thinking about iPhones. When my father gave me that expensive phone on Christmas Eve, I felt so horribly disappointed that my own father did not know me better, and gave me that tech-thing. Long story short. I gave the phone to my brother.
Yes, that's 10 years ago, and a lot have changed. Today, I'm on my phone or computer a lot. Yet, I still have the same way of looking at communication.
What will I do about it?? Let' get to the point:
I will start to write my news-letters by hand. I will write one, copy it up, and send it by snail-mail to YOU. It might take two days, maybe a week, maybe two. But that is what I call "natural timing". The speed of the news will follow the speed of the car, train, flight, boat, whatever it is which will bring you my letter.
There's something about pen and paper. The way words are chosen, sentences build and the time it takes for the thoughts to turn to a message. Purpose. To me that is much more communication then an email I throw together a late night when I suddenly realize it's been 5 months since last time.
I will probably share my releases and "urgent news" on email as well. But I want my new-letters (the handwritten ones) to be more a way for us to speak together, rather then me asking you to listen to my music. Me sharing my life as an artist…. And who knows, maybe you want to send a reply?
All you got to do is to comment below or send me an email to post@eligauden.com writing your real mailing address, and I will put a handwritten letter in the mail every 1st of each month.
I'm so excited to start writing these letters, and how you're with me in it!
