Dear World,
For the first time in fifteen years I am officially an independent artist. My record label and I parted ways this summer on perfectly peaceful terms. The employees in that building watched me grow up (literally), and I will be forever grateful for the opportunities they gave me, the wisdom they instilled, and the countless hours of hard work they devoted to my art. But all good things must come to an end. It was time for me to see what I could do on my own, to really grow as an artist in a new and fresh, clean slate kind of way.
I am learning more and more that life comes at you in seasons, that goodbyes are normal and happen all the time. People are placed in your path and you walk together, and then you hit a fork in the road. You go left, and they go right. I think sometimes you have to walk a bit before you meet the next partner or friend or lover as the case may be. We should never be too afraid of that time of solitude.
Last month I was walking around New York City listening to the Lumineers in my cheap, 90’s style headphones and thinking, “Wow. I am completely alone. I am alone and this is exactly where I should be.”
I am writing new music and you will it hear it next year! Some of it will be sad I think, but I promise I have laughed more this year than I have in a long time.
“This morning, if it all was gone, funny thing, it wouldn’t phase me none
Might feel like I just got home. See, I always had a taste for traveling alone”
-Tift Merritt
Yours,
Marie
