good morning ~

(click the link / Albany underpass to listen)

My Big Breakhold hard the mop handle

good morning ~

(click the link / rockaway takeoff to listen)

My Big BreakI speak bodies of water into a deeper, more restorative power

good morning ~

(click the link / solarium scene to listen)

My Big Breakthe heft of something actual

good morning ~

(click the link to listen)

Ben Seretan & The EarlyIn Two

i don't have a new track for you today - ran outta time - but i do have something archival for you to hear. the record linked above - Ben Seretan & the Early's "In Two" - came out ten years and one day ago. we didn't necessarily mean for this to line up the way that it did, but I'm about to do a little run of shows with the current incarnation of the Early, so it feels appropriate to revisit this exuberant LP. you can check it out, and I wrote about it below.

good morning ~

(click the link / flash photo froggy to listen)

My Big Breaknever do nothing twice

good morning ~

(click the link / terrible picture of the moon to listen)

My Big Breakgo, go, gone, poof

good morning ~

(click the link / distorted piggly wiggly logo to listen)

Ben SeretanLive Waves

good morning ~

today's edition of the newsletter is for paying subscribers only - it includes a big cloud of piano chords, lap steel whale calls, and writing about maritime law, being underwater, and running into the Pacific Ocean.

you, too, can sign up for a paid subscription via the "sign up for a premium subscription" link at the bottom of this email - you'll get every edition of this project, one tone zone a year, plus some other goodies. you'll also keep the work going - - every bit helps.

thanks for being here, regardless - - I truly appreciate it

good morning ~

(click the link / family of bears to listen)

My Big Breakjust a helpless little invertebrate awash on the tides

good morning ~

(click the link / bricks to listen)

My Big Breakone cracked can at a time

good morning ~

(click the link / statue in the fog to listen)

My Big Breakbig breaths are coming in and in and in

good morning ~

(click the link / dating show set to listen)

My Big BreakI put on little sunglasses to further signal that the vibe had shifted

good morning ~

(click the link / column of jerash to listen)

My Big Breaksun bleached sites of my western youth

What's up, MBB Premium Subscribers ~

Today marks two years since YOUTH PASTORAL came out, which is a very difficult fact for me to accept! It still feels like only yesterday I was shipping off the first copies and playing the songs for friends in a crowded room.

As the anniversary date approached, I found myself getting sad about it - where had the time gone? But instead of getting down about it and thinking about what could have been, I decided to do something fun instead. So I whipped up the below obnoxiously bright commemorative t-shirts - - they're up on Bandcamp now and you all get 30% off with the code "ypshirtdiscount" at checkout.

good morning ~

(click the link / swarming crows to listen)

My Big Breakwe grind the bones of our leisure

good morning ~

(click the link / ice palace to listen)

My Big Breaksnag a flash of it

good morning ~

(click the link / snowy crow hideout to listen)

My Big Breakthe faces in the throw

good morning ~

(click the link / frozen antenna topper to listen)

My Big Breaka holler from behind a door

good morning ~

(click the link / swarming sunset crows to listen)

My Big Breaksecret dark art happening

good morning ~

(click the curtain on the window / link to listen)

My Big Breaklike riotous chrysanthemum bulbs

good morning ~

every few weeks this newsletter will be for premium subscribers only and today’s installment is one of those ~

paying mbb readers got a self-destructive slapper of a track and thoughts on why I love watching human faces speaking into cameras (but I won't withhold my recommendations: "Where Are We? Our Trip Through America," the films of Les Blank, "How to with John Wilson").

i'm also going to try something ambitious - all paying readers will also be entitled to one personal tone zone per year

good morning ~

(click the guinea feather / link to listen)

My Big Breaksquinting right into the lens

good morning ~

(click the link / fabulous sunset to listen)

My Big Breaka little spear of night in their beak

good morning ~

(click the link / power lines at dusk to listen)

My Big Breakheaven is a void between load screens

good morning ~

(click the link / the elegant japanese maple in the rain to listen)

https://mybigbreak.bandcamp.com/track/against-a-miraculous-backdrop

good morning ~

click the link / cemetery at dusk to listen - - -

My Big Breaktandem bicycle, civil twilight

good morning ~

click the link / magnificent west philly tree to listen - - -

My Big Breakfeels like my house suddenly has walls

good morning ~

(click the marvelous parking lot sky to listen)

My Big BreakI want to hold it all up to the light

good morning ~

(click the picture/link to listen)

My Big Breakcoaxed from the walls by wild coincidence

My Big Breakbig and brave enough

good morning ~

(click the beautiful afternoon light to listen)

My Big Breakmirror in the shape of my face

good morning ~

(click the ginkgo leaves to listen)

today's track is partially me remembering how to play acoustic guitar

My Big Breaka glimmering chain of yes

good morning ~

(click the link above to listen)

today's track is a jammer in two halves ~

My Big Breakthe rollicking scrub

good morning ~

(click the link above to listen)

today's track is made up entirely of samples of my own voice, played back on a synth and then dubbed onto tape and re-recorded

good morning ~

every few weeks this newsletter will be for premium subscribers only and today’s installment is one of those!

premium mbb readers got a surprisingly crunchy weekly track, thoughts on how to shape your kitchen with your laughter, and a very special live recording from when I played a baby grand piano in a stately manor in Amsterdam last month ~

these subscriptions help me a lot and keep this project going - i would greatly appreciate your support if you like our thursdays together ~

My Big Breakpaint thinner punch from a styrofoam cup

good morning ~

(click the link/image above and listen)

today's track features the now-gorgeously out-of-tune piano that lives in my girlfriend's sculpture studio - I didn't like playing it for a time but now it has, how do you say, character

My Big Breakcutting the last hour of the velvet

good morning ~

(click the image above and listen)

today's track features the grand piano next to a coffee bar I've been playing every day since I arrived in Denmark (which I've unceremoniously lost access to on my last day in town, but that's another story).

My Big Breakit held high the martyrs

good morning ~

today's track features an improvisation recorded in Denmark and audio captured on the lightly-sinking boat I wrote about last week (you can hear the phrase "some water got in" uttered aloud near the beginning, haha).

since I last wrote I've been to Germany and Amsterdam and back, where I saw a flaming branch dropped into fog and danced in an empty pool until late into the night and played a secret grand piano for a select audience late in the evening - living at the pace I nearly used to, internalizing that its still possible.

My Big Breaka ghost with its shoelaces tied together

good morning ~

writing to you, incredibly, from Aarhus, a tidy, briny, beautiful place.

today's track is even gentler than usual. i remebered all of a sudden that space and emptiness are possible.

My Big Breakthe less of it

good morning ~

Right off the bat I have to tell you: I was recently very directly exposed to COVID and I have to drop off the shows I was set to play in NYC this weekend. I was extremely looking forward to performing again, but it's way too much of a risk for me to come down there.

The Whatever's Clever showcase at the Broadway is still happening, though, and I urge you to go (vax'd and mask'd). Saturday's show is postponed until....further notice?

good morning ~

today's newsletter is for paying subscribers - it includes big washes of synth swells, a rundown of just how great it felt to sing and sweat for a gathered crowd last weekend, and a picture of my big, beautiful birthday cake

When the drums came in it sounded so tremendous, bigger than I've ever heard it. I was beaming and singing, and then right on cue, at a painfully perfect moment in the song's crescendo, Liam turned on the fog and the lasers, which joined the already spinning disco ball. Like heaven opening, truly.

If you'd like to pay for a subscription, receive every email/goodie, and also support this project, you can scroll to the bottom of the email or check this link.

My Big Breakever flawed, never ceasing

good morning ~

today's track features some samples I made of the white upright piano I grew up playing which now lives comfotably next to a freeway in my sister's living room in California, you can hear the cars if you listen closely ~ the album art is a picture of a beached whale near the Marin headlands

I'm very happy to be putting on two shows this weekend: