What’s up friends!

I can’t believe this year is almost halfway done. I’ve been telling myself (almost every day) that I’m going to sit down and write a blog post, but the weeks keep passing and I keep finding other things to do. But I’ve learned that if an idea keeps coming back no matter how much you procrastinate, it’s an idea worth pursuing. So here I am, sitting at my favorite coffee shop in Fort Worth (Avoca), with a 45 minute timer set to keep me focused on finishing an blog post update for you. So thanks for being here and reading this.

Where to start?

The Job Situation: A Major Change

If you’ve been following along for a few years, you know that I’ve been working two career paths since around 2010: Music and Podcasting.

On the music side, that meant playing drums with bands, but also learning how to do marketing, website & graphic design, audio recording & post-production, photography, video production, and a lot more. If it has anything to do with building a sustainable career as a musician / band, I’ve probably either done it, or studied it, or it’s on my list of things to learn.

On the podcast side, I realized pretty early on that all the skills I was learning for the music career path were useful to podcasters. I’ve always thought there were a ton of similarities between starting a band and starting a podcast, and doing either one professionally (building an audience and earning money).

Once I figured out that the internet made it possible to work with people anywhere in the world, I started offering my skills to podcasters and earned money to support myself and my career in music.

I could write endlessly about that period of time in my life (2012 through 2018), but to make a long story shorter, after working with podcasters for about 5 years, I realized that I wanted to transition to working with tech startups that were building software for podcasters instead.

In 2020, I joined a startup called Chartable that was acquired by Spotify in 2022. As a musician, this was a cool development, and the pay and benefits were nice, but eventually Spotify started rolling Chartable’s features into their software, original employees started leaving or joining different teams in the company, and I saw the writing on the wall: Chartable would not be around much longer.

This was fine with me, as I was still playing drums and working on Kolton Moore & the Clever Few, and I was feeling more and more that I wanted to spend more time working on my music career. So I started saving as much as I could, while continuing to invest in audio and video gear that I knew would come in handy once I transitioned from a comfortable tech job to working full time on the band.

Leaving Spotify

The email I’d been anticipating finally came in late January 2025: Spotify was eliminating my job and setting me free. Thankfully they provided me with a generous severance package which meant that I was in even less danger of being broke, something I’ll always be grateful for.

I’ve experienced a roller coaster of emotions since then.

Initially, it was excitement. Finally! Free to work on band stuff! Enough time to work on my own projects and do all the things I’d been putting off!

Then as the initially shock wore off, stress and anxiety set in. How was I going to replace the income I was making at Spotify? Can I even start a new full time job if I know I need to take weeks off to record an album or go on tours?

There were several weeks in the spring where I had trouble sleeping. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about the money I wasn’t making, and stressing about the future.

Eventually, the stress faded significantly as I reduced my expenses, made a budget, and figured out how much money I needed to earn every month to break even, and how long I could pay bills with my current savings.

Feels So Good, Feeling Good Again

About a month ago, I started feeling good/optimistic again. Now, I’ve always been an optimistic person, but sometimes it’s hard to feel that way when life is beating you down with multiple challenging situations, or when you have far too many goals/projects/responsibilities and not enough time to rest & reflect.

What really made the difference between feeling stressed and feeling blessed was rest, autonomy, and clarity. I mean good old fashioned “getting 8 hours of good sleep every night”, but also “I’m finally caught up with the majority of important life projects”.

Without a full time 9-5 Monday through Friday job, I had enough time and energy to catch up on all the projects I’d been putting off. Instead of feeling buried by things to do, I was able to reflect on what I wanted to do next, and I got clarity on what was important and significant to me.

I have so much to be grateful for. The band, the upcoming shows, the financial support that Spotify provided and the savings to be able to take time off to rest & recharge, the freedom & time to work on all the projects I’d had on the back-burner for so long, and the opportunity to take on new responsibilities and projects.

Working hard, and working smart. And sometimes, even resting. Feels good.

Now that I’ve got all that written down and out of the way, let’s talk about what I’ve been up to this year, and what’s coming up next.

Life Lately, and What’s Next

Highlights of this year so far include:

Recording a new album with producer Matt Ross-Spang at Southern Grooves in Memphis, Tennessee

I published a post about this previously which you can see/read here. We recorded a new full-length album in late February that will be out this summer (singles coming soon). Lots of behind-the-scenes work here, and I’m looking forward to getting it out to all the fans.

March Tour with Kolton Moore & the Clever Few

In late March, we headed up west through the mountains to play shows in Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Portland, Spokane, Seattle, and Jackson Hole. I need to write in more detail about it, but here’s some cool pictures from our photographer Brian Andrews:

Up Next

I’ve been spending a good chunk of my time getting my house ready for a new roommate to move in at the end of the month, but once July hits, it’s gonna be shows and video production until mid November! Looking forward to sharing more updates with y’all.

Thanks again for reading, will check back soon.

Aaron Dowd

Fort Worth, Texas

June 14, 2025

Read: Cal Newport: AI and Work (Some Predictions)

One of the main topics of this newsletter is the quest to cultivate sustainable and meaningful work in a digital age. Given this objective, it’s hard to avoid confronting the furiously disruptive potentials of AI.

I’ve been spending a lot time in recent years, in my roles as a digital theorist and technology journalist, researching and writing about this topic, so it occurred to me that it might be useful to capture in one place all of my current thoughts about the intersection of AI and work.

The obvious caveat applies: these predictions will shift — perhaps even substantially — as this inherently unpredictable sector continues to evolve. But here’s my current best stab at what’s going on now, what’s coming soon, and what’s likely just hype.

Read: Apple Turnover

Siracusa is right about Apple.

As far as I’m concerned, the only truly mortal sin for Apple’s leadership is losing sight of the proper relationship between product virtue and financial success—and not just momentarily, but constitutionally, intransigently, for years. Sadly, I believe this has happened.

The preponderance of the evidence is undeniable. Too many times, in too many ways, over too many years, Apple has made decisions that do not make its products better, all in service of control, leverage, protection, profits—all in service of money.

Some Rob You with a Six-Gun/ Some With a Fountain Pen: On Civil War By Other Means

Because major parts of the US government are being destroyed through economic and administrative means, as well as reckless hacking and deleting, the violence and destruction are being underestimated, downplayed and normalized, or described piece by piece but not as a whole. But it is tremendously destructive in both intent and consequences, and it is a war against the government of the United States and the land and people of this country.

It’s been more than 5 years since I played a show with my Yamaha Maple Absolute Custom drums, but I think it’s time to get them back on stages.

Recording a new album at Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis with Kolton Moore & the Clever Few and Matt Ross-Spang.

All photos by Lone Pine Media except for the last one of my new van tattoo.

First of all, a deep gratitude that I got to be a part of this band and the five days we spent in Southern Grooves with Matt. Time moves slow in the moment while you’re working on the songs but then all of a sudden most of the work was done and we were packing up to head home to Texas.

You never know exactly how things are going to unfold when you go somewhere new to work on an album, but I knew we all wanted to make a record of songs we love and are proud of, and I think we’ve done just that.

Some of my favorite memories for this album will always be:

1. The first-listens where Kolton would grab his acoustic guitar and play a song for everyone and we’d all listen and feel the song and then talk about our ideas for it together. This happened a few times at the house we rented for the week, and also in the studio, and each time was significant and meaningful for the evolution of the songs.
2. The moments in the studio where we’d collectively get a great take of a song, or when someone individually would get a great take adding a new layer to a song, and we’d all look at each other with huge shit-eating grins and whoop and holler, knowing that we’d made and captured something magical for the song. That collective celebration and the high fives that we’d share reminded us that we are all trying to make the best music we can, for ourselves and for everyone who loves listening to us play our music.
3. The first time we heard the rough mixes of the songs after a few focused days in the studio and just how good they already sounded. To know all the time and effort and care that we put into the songs had all been worth it was like seeing a beautiful sunrise after a long cold night struggling to climb a steep mountain. Relief, joy, wonder, the pride of knowing we worked and made something special together.
4. Sam and I getting Van tattoos at Bluff City Tattoos after we finished all our work for the album. Van life forever!

We were fortunate enough to find a new member of the band just in time to make this record: Matt Gumley. A bright spirit with a lifetime of experience with performing and acting, Matt has brought some much-welcomed fresh energy to the band, contributing not just bass parts and vocal harmonies, but also a raw creative spirit that elevated everyone.

Matt Ross-Spang has also been a dream to work with. He has a focused but laid-back style that meshes well with how our band works, and has a fine-tuned sense of when to provide feedback and guidance, and when to let the band members work through a part or bring their own sound to the song. I’d love to work with Matt again in the future.

A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to Matt and all the guys in the band and everyone who listens and supports us. I hope you all know how much I appreciate you and how excited I am for what comes next.

Finally got around to uploading my favorite photos from my trip to Portugal in October 2023. I took most of these with my Sony A7C and a Sony Sonnar 2.8 35mm lens.

Looking for a photographer in DFW? Get in touch.

I made a new short teaser video for our upcoming acoustic album, Bare-Bones:

Kolton wanted a old-school video look for videos for this project, so I added the VHS effect in post using the Rarevision app.

I shot most of the recording session with multiple cameras, the angle in this video was from a disposable 35mm lens on a Sony A7C.

The disposable lens does provide a cool “film camera” look that I find appealing, but it has several limitations, mainly it’s terrible in low light settings and also looks “low-resolution” straight out of the camera.

It’s easy to fake that grainy film look for footage and photos from a good lens, but it doesn’t work the other way (you can’t make footage from a Dispo lens look “good”).

I’m fond of the look of the disposable lens, although after reviewing the footage, I plan to stick to using my good 35mm lenses (Sony 1.4 GM and Sony Sonnar 2.8) moving forward.

It’s been a few weeks since I had a full time job, and I have to tell you: This freedom is doing wondering for my energy and my creativity. I’m thankful to have enough savings to pay bills for awhile while I figure out what I want to do next (besides everything I’m doing for my band, which I’ll keep doing).

After spending a couple weeks considering my options, I’ve decided that I want to get back to offering lessons for Logic Pro, podcasting, and marketing/storytelling. I have so much experience that others could benefit from, it seems a waste to keep it all in my head.

Learn More

Started with a 6:15am Crossfit class, shoulders and core work. Morning workouts are essential.

Spent some time yesterday cancelling subscriptions and non-essential services—going to extend my runway as far as possible by eliminating all extra spending.

Finished uploading the 12 tracks for our new acoustic album to Tunecore. There’s some interesting stuff related to account management happening over there, might write about it in the future.

Kolton sent over audio tracks for 5 songs from a video project they recorded in the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX last week. Hell yeah, I love mixing and mastering. Will probably work on that tomorrow.

We have show rehearsal at our studio this afternoon, I’m going to bring my cameras and record some interview style video content for a teaser video for that acoustic album, and take some headshots of the guys too.

I need to write an email to send out to the email list reminding them to buy tickets for the upcoming shows, and also a few text messages to the people near those cities who signed up for text updates.

Speaking of upcoming shows, if you’re in or near one of these cities, would love to see you there! More info and ticket links here: www.koltonmoore.com/tickets

Also thinking about what I want to put on my personal website on the “work with me” page, if I should set up an LLC for freelance work, what billing system to use, etc.

Big week! Lots to do. I should probably clean up this desk at some point.

My time at Spotify has come to an end! It’s been a fun ride but I’m excited to get to spend more time on video production & audience growth for my band, and developing as a drummer and live performer.

I want to give a huge thanks all my friends from the OG Chartable crew: Dave Zohrob, Harish Agarwal, Jake Shelley, Christian Buckler, Brittany Hall, Joey Milewski, Rae Knopf, Lhanzi Giambrone, Jarred Trost, Karo Chakhlasyan, and everyone else that was part of the team over the years. My life is significantly better because of our time working together, and I appreciate you all so so much. 💙

Big shoutout to my colleagues from Megaphone: John Bennett, Kyle Perron, Becca DiCenso, and the rest: Y’all were great teammates and I wish you the best of luck with your future work at Spotify.

And to all the podcast publishers I worked with over the years: It was a pleasure to work with you and I hope we get to work together again sometime.

Whew. What a ride that was! On to the next one. 🫡 ✌️

I’ll have somewhere between 10-20 hours a week available if you have any projects you’d like help with, just reach out with the details and I’d be happy to chat.

The documentation problem in development

The Simplest Guide to Writing Great Documentation

Writing documentation has never been easy, not even for developers who love sharing their knowledge. It’s one thing to build a software tool, but explaining it to others in a way that’s simple and clear is a whole different challenge. One common mistake in writing documentation is approaching it from a position of expertise. This means the person writing forgets how it feels to know nothing about the topic and ends up skipping essential details that new users actually need.

Let’s focus on the main challenges people face when making great documentation and how to solve them step by step.

I 💙 good documentation.

Work in progress

Note to self: What would you do if you knew you would be wildly successful at it in a decade?

While my internet handle is no longer “The Podcast Dude”, I will still answer podcast related questions to the best to my ability.

Here’s the studio these days.

Currently reading: Get More Fans: The DIY Guide to the New Music Business by Jesse Cannon 📚

Man I miss working on podcasts

Just a little snow here in Texas.

Working on the new acoustic album.

Hit a deadlift personal record: 315lbs x 3 reps.

Ordered new hoodies for the band.

Spending a lot of time improving my technique and posture on the drums, thanks to Brandon at DrumMechanics.com.

Mixed our live set from Red Rocks. Listen here.

We’re heading back on tour soon, would love to see you at a show www.koltonmoore.com/tickets

Selfies in the Red Rocks green room before our first show there. I liked the Sony A7C so much I bought a second one and now I use them to record our shows. 35mm lenses are my favorite but it’s helpful to have the 20mm and the 85mm lenses in the bag as well.

It’s Saturday, January 11, 2025, and I am working on switching my personal website to micro.blog.