🎵 February 2025

What do you do when you turn the key and your creative engines don’t fire?

A heavy feeling of uncertainty descends and envelopes me this morning — it’s like encountering a massive fog bank along the trail and losing my sense of direction.

Where was I trying to go? It’s 6:39 a.m.

Ashland, Oregon 2021

📸 gary lundgren

I’ve been reading Brian Eno’s diary from 1995 called A YEAR WITH SWOLLEN APPENDICES. I am relishing the vulnerability — the familiar terrain, the petty thoughts, the self deprecating tangents. Because with Eno, the rabbit holes are the point, inevitably leading to these unexpected revelations about life, art-making, music-making. It’s a beautiful, rare read that I’m choosing to take in like a devotional — a daily dose of one of my creative hero’s uncensored thoughts from thirty years past.

ENO, the new generative documentary that played film festivals last year, paints an intriguing portrait of the enigmatic artist who’s been immersed in creative work for six decades. What was most fascinating for me in the version I saw, was getting glimpses of his creative process. How he sometimes begins a day in the studio with an unexpected piece of music playing — even a generative music bed created on the fly. Changing up the tone of the room often becomes a catalyst, helping artists break through monotony, and establish a new magical direction. On 1/19/95, Eno wrote about recording I Have Not Been to Oxford Town with David Bowie from their OUTSIDE sessions.

The thing I started last night really burst into life today, when David heard it. Bizarre: he sat down and started writing the song on the first hearing…he went into the vocal booth and sang the most obscure thing imaginable — long spaces; little incomplete lines. On track 2 he sang a companion part to that, on track 3 a ‘question’ to which tracks 1 and 2 had been the ‘answers’...Within a half an hour he’d substantially finished what may be the most infectious song we’ve ever written together."

When I’m writing a screenplay or editing a film, I’m most often working in isolation. Covering enough ground each day is always a mission of joy, but one that’s mostly fueled by self-discipline. If I find myself spinning my wheels or on the side of the road, I often take a time-out for some music. Sometimes it’s one side of an LP I haven’t heard in a while — something that can become a catalyst.

This morning, I played THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST on vinyl and time-travelled back to simpler times of ‘97. The nostalgia’s palpable as I marvel at this prescient, inspired piece of work. Being away from it for so long, the record feels like it’s grown larger since I’ve been away. Listening back, it just sounds fuller and more profound. Even the title feels bigger this morning. How lonely we can feel in these crowded scenes we occupy.

Why we end up loving a song is complicated. There’s no formula — sometimes it’s the quality of someone’s voice, a certain lyric, chord or melody, a sensibility expressed that lands with us. Music actually provides a biological impact when it connects — it affects our brain chemistry, our heart rates, even our immune systems. A great record or song for me is the ultimate palette cleanser, as it creates opportunities to pivot in real time and continue along the creative path.

The FEBRUARY 2025 playlist is up. These were curated from hundreds of songs that found their way to me. And the fact most of these were released in February, is still kind of mind-blowing. These merely scratch the surface of the three million new songs uploaded to Spotify this month.

I will resist my urge to write about why I love each one of these 20 songs, 😅. My sincere hope is that a few find their way to you, wherever you are, and they help make your day a little brighter.

As always — if you end up loving a song or a new artist on here, I hope you’ll consider buying an LP, CD or digital download directly from the artists. Perhaps a T-Shirt or concert ticket when they inevitably come through a city near you. A ticket to a show also helps independently owned venues keep their lights on.

Finally, thank you to those who reached out after January’s playlist. Just further confirmation that art is meant to be shared, and that there’s real value in publishing these. Thanks for reading and listening.

Find it here on Apple Music and Spotify.

Gary