... to do it all alone.
It has been a long a difficult journey over the past few months. It has been nothing short of constant stress, anxiety (diagnosed) and a seemingly hopeless future. There have been many factors that have led to this, burn out, working a job I hated, and a few other lifestyle changes.
But what hasn't changed has my constant focus on music. Every day I would feel as if I wasn't doing enough, but really not doing enough was exactly what I needed. I had decided to take a break from all things music related for a brief while and in that time, I realized exactly what was going on.
Sometimes, in an effort to save yourself, you had to ask other's for help. It sounds counterintuitive but if I were to continue on in the same routines as I had before, I would've surely just given up. Hustle culture had truly gotten to me. The fact of the matter is, I'm not good at everything. There are things that I am great at and things I am not.
This is had led to me inevitably deciding that I needed help. I had already gone through therapy for my anxiety, but what I needed now was help with At Least i Try. I'm just going to be blatantly honest: It really sucked to work 40 sometimes 50 hours on a single song, and to have a very miniscule amount of people listen to it. I love writing music, but ultimately my goal is to share it with others. I want people to find redemption in themselves through my melodies, and hope for their futures in the harmonies. I love people and want to help them as much as possible. In that pursuit, I wasn't helping myself.
Long story short, I'm done with doing it alone. It made me feel very satisfied when people were surprised that I played all the instruments and produced it all myself. That, however, does not outweigh the immense pressure I put on perfectionistic self to deliver as good of a product as I can. It's just not worth it to me anymore say "I did this by myself!". With that mindset, I was not doing anything at all but spinning my tires in sand.
So without further rambling and meandering through the intent behind this correspondence, I am pleased to announce that a good friend of mine Dominique Maggio is now an official member of At Least i Try. Dominique is a very talented musician and I expect great things to come from our partnership. She is driven by a passion for music as well and has skills where I lack.
I look forward to showing everyone what we can do. It won't be too long before you see the fruits of our labor.
- Jaye, the no longer solo musician of At Least i Try