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Hello subscribers! Thank you for joining me on Substack. This is where my newsletter will arrive from going forward..

In the words of Songwriter Anais Mitchell, ‘I wanna live in the real world’ and that means devoting less time to social media.

Isn’t life feeling strange? Some days I just want to never check the news again and live in total ignorance. There is so much for our anxieties to attach to, and what feels like only small spaces in-between to find hope. I’ve been walking a lot and spending more time with people I love, face to face. I even played volleyball last week.. People walking by looked amused to see the neglected local park being used by real people on a Friday evening. No surprises I was absolutely terrible at it and laughed more than I have in months.

Like many other artists, I have relied on things like Instagram to share new work and updates, but I also loathe it as a platform built to be addictive and swimming in disinformation. The tech billionaires are getting enough airtime while we await their much anticipated departure to go f*** up someone else’s planet, so I am hoping to move things more and more to an occasional newsletter format and escape their algorithms.

“You do not need to know.

No, truly. You do not.

You do not need to see one more headline about political decay. You do not need to know immediately that a billionaire has once again purchased something they should not have. You do not need to read an anonymous comment that will enrage you before breakfast.

But you do. You do, because some small, foolish part of you believes that if you just keep scrolling, keep reading, keep taking in more, you will find the piece of knowledge that fixes it all.

You will not.

The algorithm does not love you. It is a machine designed to show you precisely the type of misery you will not be able to look away from. Do not give it your despair so freely.

Instead, stand up. Look out a window. Touch something that is not a screen”

-

Firstly, Blue Dreams has been announced as a finalist for the Taite Music Award’s best independant record of the year here in Aōtearoa! Albums take years to create and then often have such short shelf lives, so it is always wonderful when recognition like this comes along and it reaches new ears and hearts. Among great company on this shortlist!

Secondly, I have a very special show coming up in Ōtautahi, Christchurch in the Great Hall at The Arts Centre. The wonderful Motte (Anita Clark) is opening and then joining me on strings. There are some other special guests coming along too..

Tickets on sale now.

TICKETS

Lastly, I recorded a live video of Womb Of Venus with my beautiful band in St Michael and All Angels Church before our first show of the tour last year. I’ve embedded it here for you to watch, if you’d like to share it- it lives on youtube.

That’s all for now. Take care of the people around you and yourself.

Say sorry, kiss and make-up, plant something, read a book, go for a walk, put some flowers on the table, and go have a cry if you need to.

-H.A

Listen..

Song of the week/ month?

Anais Mitchell, Real World

I wanna live in the real world
Wake up with real birds singing
Loud enough to be really heard
By us in the real world

I wanna lie in the real grass
Watch the real clouds
Rolling past the pastures
The everlasting feels of a real world

I wanna talk with my mouth full
Pass around a vegetables with
Real folks at a real table
A meal in the real world

I wanna dance in your real grip
Feel your real hands on my hips
Taste real whiskey on your lips
When we kiss in the real world

I wanna cry on your shoulder
Rеal feelings flowing over
Blow my nose while you
Rеally hold me close in the real world

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