Ok, so I admit, I don’t update this blog much. Between my personal social networking sites, and the bands, I never seem to remember to update my own website. In fact, it’s usually the last thing on my mind. I’m trying to think of new ways this year to make this site more… well… up to date. That’s of course on a to-do list that seems to grow faster than it gets checked off. However, here are a few highlights from this year:

Age Of The Underdog, my first major studio album, had it’s soft release (online stores only) this year, and the album has received praise from many industry types. I have an extended plan for the album, including a tour, finishing the documentary, and as the industry continues to change due to the internet and mobile devices, I hope to find new ways to connect with musicians and music lovers alike.

Also, Christmas With Friends 3 came out just over a month ago, and has received rave reviews. It began as a no-budget project (and still is) in which I would get together with friends of mine and make Christmas songs in my apartment. It has grown yearly, and this is the 3rd year, which makes it 11 tracks, featuring artists from all over the world. This year, two of the tracks on CWF3 were selected for a major compilation that went out world-wide, which has also given Stephen Speaks a little boost in online traffic.

2011 was a transitional year for me. Going into it, I felt like a boy, lost and trying to find my way. Coming out of 2011, I feel like a man, ready to do the things I always wanted to do when I “gew up”. Inside, nothing’s changed… I still have a playful spirit and I know I will always be a big kid at heart, but there’s joy in thinking about things like the next generation, and seeing what I can do to educate the generation as someone once did for me. I have begun to take my business more seriously, kept closer accounting records, and repaired many mistakes I made when I was young and didn’t know what I was doing. At the end of it all, I hope it’s not too rash to say, I am proud of myself… I really never thought I would make it this far. I dreamed of it, but I didn’t actually think it would happen. I feel like I have lived an entire lifetime, or maybe two, as a wooden boy, and now I am a real boy… with so many memories and lessons learned, really, my life is just beginning, and there’s so much I can’t wait to do.

My first studio album, Age Of The Underdog, is finally in the last phase – Mastering. It won’t be long now, until a specific idea I had for an album three years ago, is finished, and I will get to hear it completed. Shortly thereafter… so will you.

I haven’t updated in a while, but I’ve been BUSY. Had a blast in Sweden… like… a trip to heaven. Bex’s songs turned out great, and since then I’ve been SLAVING away in the studio editing Age Of The Underdog… which has me smiling ear to ear after the mixes got back from New Zealand, where Nic Manders polished everything up. It sounds like I imagined it would, and that hasn’t happened before, so I’m rather excited about this album. I’ve also been editing the video, and all-together, I am so pleased that I smile when I remember that I was a part of it all. I would like it even if I wasn’t.

Today, I have time off, so I finally made my way back to my blog. I am waiting on phone calls at this point, wondering if my dreams are really coming true or if I will wake up and realize it was all a fairy tale. Truth is, I’ve come farther in this adventure than I ever thought I would, so I can’t say i’ll be disappointed no matter what happens. In the meantime, I will write, because the music in my head doesn’t slow down when my life does… in fact, it grows in me and forces itself out, one way or another.

I’ve recently met a world traveler, Brady Blade. He introduced me to a bunch of his world traveler friends when we made the first major Stephen Speaks record at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana, last month. Now Brady is turning me into a world traveler, for I am going with him to Sweden to work on an album for another friend I met down there. This is a big opportunity for me, being my first time in Europe, and my first time to write for another artist, and my first time working for someone else in their studio… that’s a lot of firsts. We’ll see how I fare.

I find myself today at a crossroads in my life. The path I had preferred for my life has, like so many other times in my life, been violently shut off. As always, the plus side is I have an entire world full of new opportunities before me… I could literally grab my passport, up and go anywhere I wanted (people need live music everywhere). I sit here, with a broken heart, a blank slate, and so many feelings built up inside me that I haven’t spoken about with anyone that they have begun to physically show themselves against my will… twitching, tapping, chewing, smoking, eating, watching tv, listening to music, drinking beer, scheming ways to make more money, and all the other things I use to try to convince myself I have something to do. I don’t however. I have time. A full schedule of concerts for three months, and I live below my means, so I have time. Loads of it. I’ve made hundreds of friends in the last two weeks, literally, traveled thousands of miles alone in my car, met thousands of strangers along the way, and I still have so much time. Right now I want to go drink beer at The Colony and watch Wink Burcham play and talk with all my new musician friends from NM3 about the music we’re going to make. Maybe I’d meet another guitarist or drummer or songwriter… another friend who shares a passion with me. They are there as I write this. Tonight however, I have too many feelings to drink beer. Tonight I will write. Melodies and rhythms and words that tell stories… stories of feelings so deep that they have physically manifested themselves in my body, and I will create music. I won’t dull the feelings tonight… I won’t watch TV or listen to music. I will sit here, with nothing to do, and I will write until I don’t have any more feelings to write about.

Then I will go drink beer.

Four songs down, my favorite at the end of the night might make it’s way to an MP3 on this blog.

Turning my Expedition into an apartment, stocking up with food, a bed in the back, and the open road with some beautiful weather… the next 5 days I’m learning to be alone in the wilderness with my trek to the biggest milestone of my career… thus far.

But, I won’t be too off because I have a Blackberry so I’ll post pictures along the way, for those who actually are interested in the treks of a musician living out of his car, chasing the big dream.

Here is the link to my personal Facebook page, where I documented the tour.

http://m.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150432&id=503087923&v&r9cbddd05&refid=29

For a few months now I’ve been pondering the phrase, “People only evolve at the precipice”. It gives me a positive approach to life’s challenges… almost makes me look forward to them.

Part of me wishes I didn’t have to stretch myself… wishes I had some powerful overlord who simply took care of me and paid my bills and I would just maintain life as it always was known to me. I wouldn’t have to see pain outside my world, or ever force myself to learn anything new. The difficult lessons of responsibility, trust, forgiveness, and all those things that are no fun, I could simply surpass because my powerful overlord would protect me from them.

However, every task I have taken on and failed, but tried over and over until I got it right, has evolved me… into something better, stronger, wiser, and ultimately more capable of living life to the full. So I don’t want a powerful overlord… I don’t want to be sheltered from pain, or love, or all the difficult issues I could so easily avoid in the comfort of peaceful middle America. I want to evolve… so bring me to the precipice, and show me something I can’t do… yet.

I found this via a Stephen Speaks RSS feed (Google’s amazing service that sends me news about myself) – happy to be on this list, especially sandwiched in between Alecia Keys and Taylor Swift, with Out Of My League at #87.

http://jecoup9587.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-hot-100-of-decade.html