Welcome to three / six / five.
Well, here we go...
A little shy of GoldFlakePaint's 14th (fourteenth) year of existence, today we launch three / six / five, a brand new iteration of GFP – a spring-like seedling, and a carefully curated new chapter.
Having been on something of a ~hiatus~ since publishing Issue 10 of our printed publication, A Music Journal, I've been struggling with just what GFP is – and is to be. To the few that have asked, I've always said that it doesn't feel over, that there feels like there's life in this thing, this world, yet. I just didn't know what that might be. I dipped my toe in reviving the website/blog as it was for the majority of those 14 years. I bought a fancy mic to make a podcast and almost immediately missed the written word. I've started at least three different books.
Recently, though, I realised what I really missed was simply the discovery and the sharing. Finding a song, sitting to write about it, and sharing it with anyone who might be there to absorb it, to have it settle upon their day. There was always joy in that immediacy – for myself, and hopefully for anyone who might have followed along.
And that is where three / six / five comes in. It's not (really) a continuation of the blog, though there are definitely similarities. I don't have the time to run GFP in the way I used to; I'm too tired and too fond of my relatively new, somewhat full-time day job. It also just doesn't really feel sustainable, for so many other reasons.
But I do have a burning desire to fold myself back into the funny little world that was very much my home until it wasn't. I miss writing and listening and the conversation and connections stirred by those things. So with three / six / five the aim is to share just one song, every day; a piece of music that changes the shape of the room around us, that merges with the weather and the world to inspire that glow, that little piece of magic – and bring that to anyone who might need it.
I mean for each piece to carve out a small space in all of our days to simply sit and be. To listen with intention and be transported accordingly. I know I need such a thing and I hope this can be such a thing for you too. The writing will take different shapes, sometimes in the form of a standard review, other times more personal and misshapen. Which was always how we've tried to work.
In terms of what we cover, it could be a song stirred up from memory, it will often be a brand-new track gently pushed into the world that same day, something that we feel deserves a soft spotlight upon it. Less about cycles, and dictated more by how the day finds me, us.
Either way, it will be written about with heart and delivered with fondness and flushed sincerity, the way GFP has always strived to be.
It might not be for you, and that's ok. I'm sure things will shift and evolve along the way, but it feels like the start of something again and that feels lovely and exciting.
So welcome to three / six / five and thank you for being here.
Please do sign-up, subscribe, or do what you need to do to follow along. There are a couple of paid tiers where you can support his venture and will include additional content, such as longer-form writing, album recommendations, standalone mixes, etc.
Whatever three / six / five is to you, I just hope you enjoy reading and listening and carving out a small nook in a day, in an often brutal world – and I sincerely hope you find something new to cherish.
See you next week...
Tom.
