2025 Retrospective

• music
• career

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post, and a lot has happened this past year. I figured I’d dump it all in one post.

Kelly Romo

In April I joined Kelly Romo as her full-time bass player. I played six shows with her this year, culminating in a headlining show at The Masquerade in December. With Kelly I played my first “real” gig at a ticketed, paid venue. I was so nervous before the show but as soon as I got on stage it all went away and I had such a great time.

She’s working on a new album, and a couple singles from it have dropped already. My favorite of the songs so far, Back Again, has a music video.

Punter

Unfortunately, the Stolen Velour project kind of fizzled out. We played two house shows and put out two songs, but I wanted to take my original songs in a different direction and ultimately it got difficult to get everyone in the same room.

I took some of my unreleased songs that SV had been performing and a few new ones, and have been performing under the name Punter. I played my first show in July. It was a little rough; my vocals were inconsistent and the friends I asked to join me only got 3 rehearsals to prepare. But I think the vision comes through.

In November I booked a show of transgender folk artists at Waller’s. It gave myself and my friends, all of whom had performed only a handful of times prior, a safe and welcoming place to perform. It was the first time I felt content with my performance of my solo material. And the turnout was better than I expected for a bunch of still-establishing acts.

Watershed

My (now ex-) boyfriend has this brick shed in his backyard in Reynoldstown. When he first moved in, he said it would be a cool place to do shows. Looking at the dark, dusty room I was skeptical. But after pressure-washing the walls, sealing the leaks in the roof, re-running power, and adding proper lighting I had a change of heart.

In May for my 34th birthday I co-booked the Shedwarming show. I opened with both Chris Kraemer and Stolen Velour, before a stacked lineup of really talented artists.

It was an absolutely magical night, my best birthday party ever. That show ended up launching what would be called Watershed (a triple-entendre; starting as literally a shed full of water, a play on the name of Atlanta’s city water department, and a turning point for house venues).

The folks who lived at the house (all musicians) continued to organize shows there, the second being later that month.

Janie Danger organized a July 4th show there, featuring performances from herself and several transgender bands and a cookout of hotdogs of her own recipe. Girls brought bathing suits and hung out in the kiddie pools, or alternated between the mosh pit and the slip-in-slide. Over 100 people showed up and we raised over $1000 for Palestine relief. Lucca of Split Silk told me it was her favorite show she ever played. It was truly an unforgettable night and I am so proud to have been a part of it.

From there word about the venue spread fast and soon out-of-town bands were booking shows. We got a reputation for being quite well-organized for a house show. All ticket sales went to bands, as all the organization was volunteer. Local house show veteran Austin of Dead Echo volunteered to run sound at many of the shows, hauling gear multiple times a week. Bee of Just Rats organized a week of events to celebrate her going-away.

Some incredible bands played that stage throughout summer and fall, including Janie, Tongues of Fire, T.E.N.T., Hillview #73, and Split Silk. Several bands played their first shows, including Baby Bites, Code Unknown, Sweet Arcana, and myself.

Unfortunately there were several noise complaints culminating in a cease-and-desist. Combined with the cold weather, burnout, and the busy lives of the organizers, the venue has gone dormant these past few months. But I’m hoping come spring we kick things off again.

Rock Camp compilation album

I organized and mastered a compilation album to raise money for Y’all Rock Camp ATL. A number of past and present volunteers contributed some incredible songs. There’s even one of mine on there. We dropped the album on Bandcamp Friday and raised nearly $250 dollars for camp.

I learned quite a lot about mastering by doing a comp album where all the songs are from different styles and artists and recorded under different circumstances. It really put into perspective what mastering is and why you do it. I also think I did an okay job with the album art considering I’m not much of a visual artist.

The Coven makerspace

I co-founded a small, private makerspace called The Coven. We provide space for transgender makers in Atlanta, specializing in equipment and expertise in the areas of analog audio/video and cosplay. We have 3D and resin printers, a laser cutter, drill press, sewing and embroidery machines, a analog/digital media workstation, and two robust electronics workstations.

Eventually we will be formally opening the space for members but with our busy lives it’s taken time to get everything set up. But getting all my electronics equipment out of my house has allowed me to convert my office entirely to music and get my living room back. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time working in the space, and have worked on some smaller projects which I might cover in future posts.

Serious Times

My girlfriend Madison and I started writing together, and have a couple of demos that I’m pretty proud of. We’re going to try and put together an album or EP this year, and potentially try playing these songs live. We got a mess of looper pedals with which we’re hoping to combine with some backing tracks to get pretty thorough recreations of these songs with only the two of us.

Other stuff

I built a lot of infrastructure to manage accounting for Fourth Strike and am in the process of taking over administrative responsibilities for the organization. I took part in the Fourth Strike Song Jam, which I’ll post about eventually. I took vocal lessons with a classical vocalist, culminating in a performance in a chapel which without a doubt had the best acoustics of anywhere I will likely ever perform. I volunteered again with Rock Camp, becoming the de-facto stage manager for the showcase in Heaven at the Masquerade. And I became an aunt!

Looking back

I feel like this is the year I became fit to call myself a musician. In the past I played instruments, recorded music, and even had performed some open mics and talent shows. But this was the year that it went from a hobby to a full time focus.

The year started with a house show that I booked and played two sets in, the first house show I ever played, and culminated in headlining Purgatory at the Masquerade. I have seen over two dozen shows at the new Purgatory over the last 10+ years. It’s probably my favorite room in town and every time I looked up at that stage I imagined myself on it. To finally get to be up there was magical.

I’ve grown as a musician both qualitatively and quantitatively. My vocals show a stark improvement just from the summer to now, putting aside how much better they were this summer than only a few years ago. My stage presence has also improved noticeably and I’m more confident talking between songs.

I track all the shows I’ve played and the numbers have exploded this year. From 6 shows, all open mic or talent show-type gigs, over the previous 15 years to 20 sets across 15 shows in 2025. 7 of those were my own original material. I booked 5 shows and volunteered or organized 7 more. I worked on 36 songs, wither that was performing, recording, producing, mixing, or mastering. I wrote 7 songs, two of which have released publicly, with the rest hopefully coming soon.

Looking forward

Speaking of which, my goals for 2026 are to continue growing as a musician. Specifically:

• put out an album of original music
• play a tour or at least a show outside of Atlanta

The first one will likely be Punter and/or Serious Times. Serious Times is further along, with those songs just needing some final polish and mastering.

The second one is more likely with Kelly, who has expressed similar goals for the year. Maybe some bigger band will take us on a regional tour.

Ultimately I hope I can look back on 2026 with a similar list of accomplishments.