Ting Ting
(February, 2025)
Now our scene moves to January 2023. I am stuck in bed at our studio apartment, the only place to sit (giving a Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine feel), having undergone the first of two knee surgeries thanks to Eliza’s insurance which now includes me due to our recent matrimony. About four days in, the soft haze of oxycodone is lifting and so arrives this moment I have targeted as a wise time to start learning a more lucrative side hustle, or to be specific, begin a coding bootcamp. To procrastinate just a little longer. I pick up a book by John Wooden, the winningest coach in the history of American sports. My first impulse is to pompously think that I don’t care about winning, and I believe most of America would look at my life and agree. What I learn as I turn through the pages, however, is that I care a lot about people.
In that moment I realize that if John Wooden’s medium was basketball, mine most certainly is music. I’ve reinvented myself from classical marimba concertist to jazz drummer to folk singer to record producer, band leader and business builder to “Yes” man side person and studio drummer. My two loves in life are music and people. I wanted to think about what that meant and explore its intersection.
In the wake of that moment, I started writing the album “Ting, Ting.” Deeply from my subconcious, it’s filled with the love I have for the people in my life as well as the wounds all of us have taken on. I thank Adrian Olsen, creative collaborator, for encouraging me to sing the album from behind the drums and for creating a sonic pallate that I find gorgeous. I thank Bridget Kearney for her refreshing positive energy and life-long dedication to her craft as a music builder. I thank Eliza for editing my songs, and always being the first to hear them. I thank Jack Symes and Alex Spalding for helping me do all the non-musical elements of putting out a record via Ay Caramba Records, etc. I thank Joshua Crumbly and Jacob Jeffries for giving me uplifting and encouraging words about my work. Thank you for making it to this page and reading this far, I send positive energy your way.
Kindly,
John Fatum