From, 2
In a railway station, the timetable shows all the trains of the day: where each one comes from and where each one is going to. Trains come and go. Sometimes they rest for a bit. Sometimes they rest for a while. But their comings and goings always have a destination in mind.
The people on trains also come and go. But I always wonder if people have destinations in mind like trains do. They are always moving, always coming and going. Sometimes they rest for a bit. Sometimes they rest for a while. But they never really stop.
From, 2 probably began in a train station, when I found all the froms and tos on the timetable fascinating and began to wonder about the people in those trains. I thought of where I came from and wondered where I was going.
Dim. (LA)
It started on a bus ride coming into Los Angeles. The stars began to glow and a famous building moved into the frame of my window.
I Can Write 1, 2
I used to think that if I had something worth saying and a clever way to say it, people would flock to listen. It took me two years and a poorly produced mix-tape to know that people don’t really care unless you’re Kanye. So, I needed to make noise, to show people that if I tried hard enough, I could write something that resembles a record, too.
Celebrity
I met a celebrity. He was a person. I find the idea of celebrity unsettling: the worship, the following that verges on stalking, the protective ownership of the idea of a public figure. Social media magnifies certain things to extreme proportions, and it gives me a strange feeling in my stomach.
Movies
The city of Angels, unfortunately, is filled with devils, vagrants, and a million faces trying to be that one face in a million. While most were fighting for the role of a real-life protagonist, I realized there was no such role. All I found were promises of dreams, studios you can’t get into without a pass, constipated traffic, and a few other things of little importance. Life isn’t like the movies.
Words
I have never been very good at talking, but I always understood that words were powerful. I don’t know if people give enough thought to how remarkable language is and what it does. It is unfortunate that while words are powerful and precious, they are also fragile, volatile, and can change for the worse due to poor use. Even so, words do have a tendency to confuse me.
Interlude
Sometimes we need a break, and sometimes a break finds us. Sometimes we forget when we work, and sometimes we work to forget.
Name
I have a strong dislike for mononyms. I understand the appeal. I understand why people do it. But names, like words, are powerful things, and when someone decides arbitrarily they want to be the only Alex in existence, something in me scowls. The worst part is I’m sometimes tempted to do just that.
Dear Nikola
I met Nikola in Dublin, but he saw me first in Galway. He stopped me one night because he recognized me. He said he was inspired when he first heard my music and just wanted to talk. I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m glad I listened. When we said our goodbyes, he thanked me as if I’d done him a favor by listening, but I always thought it was the other way around. I hope he is well wherever he is.
Comparison
Comparison will be the death of me. But I can’t help it. Is that so bad?
Thoughts
Do dangerous thoughts become less dangerous if they never lead to action? I thought keeping them hidden was a better idea, but these thoughts haunt me. I put them on paper. Perhaps it would lighten the load. Now they’re set in stone like an epitaph.
My favorite part of a train ride was always the middle. It still is. But for music and life, I was always restlessly trying to get somewhere. People always told me that for both I must enjoy and focus on the journey, and while I understood what they were saying, I never quite grasped their meaning.
From, 2 was intentionally created with a focus on the process. I started it as an account of a journey. Like any journey, parts were scattered along the path: bad parts and good parts; difficult parts and less difficult parts; parts that made me doubt and parts that gave me faith. But the parts I remember the most are the ones that made me pause, and the parts I cherish the most are those that made me.
As I became more aware along this process, From, 2 became more than just the journey. It encompassed the idea of being split. It highlighted ambivalence, the pushing and pulling of conflicts both external and internal like yin and yang. I struggled with this duality longer than this project, but I think the struggle lay in trying to choose between two opposing forces. I think sometimes it’s OK for both forces to coexist as they are. That, I guess, is worth coming to terms with.
From: Alex
To: