Anything But This

A Lesson In Humility

An Intro

Hi. And welcome to my Substack. It’s been a long road to get here. If you can point to a singular driving force in this coming to fruition - it would be my beautiful and genius wife Laura Hoopes (you can find her here on Substack under SHOP NOTES).

I get that I am allowed to be long form here, but the short of it is that I am still overcoming some major personal blocks around this whole thing conceptually. I think part of it is questioning my role in capitalism as a whole, and questioning what I can offer the world that is slightly less of a physicality and definitely won’t require soldering. I want to make something great, something of value, something important. Aaaand I want it to feel good, right, positive, etc. I want to be in the FLOW, and I’d like you to join me.  

What do you mean, humility? There are so many things I’d rather do, but many of them are just not feasible currently. It’s difficult to realize that I don’t have an endless supply of resources and hours in the day. The humility (for me now) is to wait on other dreams, but also to put my butt in the seat and go out on a limb in order to create a community…though…my writing? And a lot of other stuff to make it uniquely my own.

Why Substack? I’m not even a “writer”. I don’t write in my free time. I don’t have a lot of free time, and most of the time, I’m trying to find ways to unplug. The idea of sitting in front of a computer feels more like a sentence or a punishment than an expression or a release. But guess what? I’m doing it. And I do feel great about it. I can assure you that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t. 

Here is a fun little list of other companies I’d eventually like to start, as well as continuing to make more pedals for 1981 INVENTIONS and more songs for RELIENT K

1981 Brewing Co

1981 Clothing Co

1981 Provisions (bakery and apothecary)

1981 Soda Co (+ vintage gaming)

1981 Recording Co

1981 Roasting Co

1981 Amplification

1981 Hot Doggery (food truck)

Anyone want to start any of these with me? Follow along here and feel free to jump in. I’m not sure exactly when I landed on 1981 as a thing (it’s just the year I was born), but now I just want to see it on everything.

It took a long time to get to this point, maybe longer than I care to admit (avoids shame spiral and self doubt) ok I’m back. What is this even? Who is it for? And who is it not for? Do my thoughts even have value? How much? Oh my goodness. 

I’ve done a lot of work over the past few years, with a personal counselor (therapy), and also a group where a bunch of guys just sit around and talk about their feelings - It really is as wild as it sounds haha. I’ve done the hard work of sitting with my my emotions, even the hard and more difficult ones, and I’ve grown a lot. I’m more connected to my heart. I’m more connected to my wife and my kids. I’m more connected to myself. It just took 41 years so far but here I am. 

Who else needs community? I’m pretty sure I do. Between my personal life, parenting, starting and running a business, touring coming to a halt (pandemic anyone?), moving from Nashville to Florida, and becoming ever more disillusioned and maybe even sick of social media (I don’t want to make reels / tik-tok etc). I don’t even know how much social media even matters anymore. I still love photography but I rarely post. I definitely don’t feel like I can be vulnerable on any social media platform. I’m sick of division, sick of negativity, sick of all the social rules and honestly just exhausted by how much there is to keep up with. And I feel like, maybe, there are other people out there who can relate? Maybe some have felt out of place because of their age, or disconnected because of the amount of time and effort required to be a good parent. Maybe some are tired. Maybe some feel disconnected from a church or an entire religion that has previously been a safe place in your life? I have felt all of these things. 

I want this to be a space where we can find common ground, have open discussions, and talk about whatever. Feel free to follow along for free, or check out my subscribe page to see some of the things I have planned.