An open letter about Turn South, a band I love.
(Edit: I'm not leaving, just sentimental)
A lot can happen in a few years.
Turn South has been and always will be something deeply interwoven in my identity. It's funny to think how one small interaction in mentioning that I'd be interested in drumming for Matt's band on new year's eve 2015 has exposed me to so many wonderful opportunities, communities and people.
A lot of my life would be different if it wasn't for this band and I owe an incredible amount to it. I know the likelihood of me knowing Buzz or Jye or Mark would be incredibly slim, I don't think I would have gone to as many shows as I have, I’d probably still be drinking and I don't think I'd be still drumming - I had reached a point where I was content with stopping and this band has allowed me to fall back in love with my instrument.
Prior to COVID we had been writing material for an EP and the songs we had written were (in my opinion) the best we had ever made. I was so invigorated by the band and felt like everything was leading to something... Until it wasn't.
We recorded Something That Connects Us between lockdowns and through all the tribulations of the start of the 2020s it put the band in a very weird place. A lot of the drive and momentum had been extinguished and the future was incredibly unclear. It's an odd thing to reconcile that the songs you love so much which you've spent countless hours crafting might never see the light of day.
We’re all very different people than what we were years ago, Jye’s become the most passionate activist I know, Matt’s become a wonderful teacher whose drive for helping future generations inspires me and I’ve shifted careers and have explored other musical avenues outside of what I did in Turn South.
I'd be lying if I said that it was always planned for us to come back. Maybe that would have been it for Turn South? Just to quietly become a band interrupted by a global pandemic to never return again. There were times when it felt like the dream was over. Ashes to ashes and all that.
(Continued in comments)
