Well... I guess it's 2026 now?
- The Jafro
- Jan 11
- 4 min read
Hey all,
Erm, I guess it's a new year now? I thought I'd do a bit of a round up of Where The Fuck I've Been these last few months and what I'm looking to do this year. Personally, 2025 was an absolute whirlwind of a year for myself and a lot of my loved ones, I don't know about the rest of you...
From a creative point of view, I've actually got a fair bit done, around 11/12 tracks in the official "done" folder for the year on my SoundCloud, which felt nice to be back up to a solid output... Especially considering how much else I had going on outside of my music. Including the first one done for the year already, which is always important for me to get the ball rolling early into the year.
I've also got everything scheduled release-wise this coming year too, and I'm pretty happy with it all! I just need to make an actual effort to promote my music a bit better, really, but also doing it in a way which feels authentic to me, rather than try-harding social media in a way that feels like a grind to do like I was a few years ago. That said I feel like I say this every year to myself...
This, including getting my studio set up, which I won't paste another picture of, if you follow me on Instagram or have read my previous posts you'll have seen plenty of pictures of it by now, has at least meant I can look back on '25 as a solid creative year for me in terms of what I've got done. Even if I hadn't been able to get back into live-streaming as much as I'd like, as I do love it, it's just something I really need to properly carve the time and energy for into my schedule these days.
On the topic of streaming, I do want to refresh what I'm doing a bit... I've got an idea of wanting to get a hardware synthesizer and a drum machine, to start doing some live improvised industrial stuff potentially.
I've been doing music production streams for a while now and while I do love them, they're a niche thing and I feel they're getting a bit samey, so maybe doing some live performance stuff might give them a shot in the arm a bit. I've got some gear I'm looking at saved, so it's something I'm properly considering, not like those kind of "half-ideas" you get, at least... But we'll see on that one I guess.
So, all this "personal stuff" I've mentioned then... Well, if you'll recall at the end of 2024 I fractured my left leg and in addition, it turns out I'd also ruptured my PCL and ACL (both ligaments around the knee, essentially). This would be enough of a job on it's own to heal but you also have to consider my pre-existing condition, which also effects my legs...
So yeah, I've got quite the physio job on the go to get back to anything remotely approaching full fitness.
At the time of writing I'm still waiting to get my leg scanned after multiple x-rays proving that the fracture has at least healed, but my knee still isn't right and the longer I leave it, the more risk I have of it causing further problems.
While this isn't my first rodeo at all with not being fully "in-commission", or having a big rehab job to do on myself, it's been quite the grind on top of the existing work my condition and its other health factors require. 'Tis the "fun" of being chronically ill and injuring yourself, though. I typically don't do these things by halves when I mess myself up...
I'll get there, I just may have to be persuasive with some doctors, to get it properly fixed rather than shuffled out and discharged before it's right.
On top of this, I've also had the added "fun" of almost losing my job entirely thanks to a round of redundancies which went around my workplace towards the end of the year, while I didn't keep my original role I at least made enough of a case for myself to kept on at the company.
Naturally, I don't think I can put much more detail in here than this for obvious reasons, professionalism, confidentiality and whatnot... But suffice to say, spending 6-8 weeks fearing for your career and thinking you might have to re-plan your entire life isn't something I'd wish on anyone.
Nonetheless, it's worked out in the end, not just for myself but for the other people in my team also effected. So I can at least close the door on this in that sense.
To be honest, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that that 2025 was "the worst year of my life" cause it wasn't (it doesn't even make the top, rather bottom, 5 let's be real if you know me personally), but it's definitely been more of a grind than it should have been.
So, with all that being said, the main thing I'm focussing on now is looking forward to what this year has for me and what I can make of it. I've got a lot to look forward to with some great gigs coming up, some fresh ideas for new songs I've got, some new ideas for what I want to do with the stream around the middle of the year, and a lot of great plans with my nearest and dearest...
I'm hoping to be a bit more sociable this year in general, and also get back in touch with my music community a bit too. Naturally I got pre-occupied a lot with my health and the day job in 2025, so with those hopefully being a bit quieter this year I can focus on The Good Stuff® more this year.
So, yeah, I'm looking forward to making this year a bit of a tonic to this last one. You'll see me of more this year, I promise. Here's to 2026 being a normal one...
Peace, love, and happy new year.
The Jafro
xx
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