Folks, how has it been 5 years since I spent a Halloween night feverishly putting this site into the world?!

It’s so crazy to reflect on how much the last 5 years have brought me, especially on this little ol’ blog.

I started this blog as an outlet for me to vent my thoughts on all things music — from my new music crushes to interesting phenomena I observed as a fan to just plain making sense of life through the songs I gravitate towards in any given season. People would always ask me what I was listening to and I needed a way to express that for me it’s so much more than “I like this song”.

What ensued in the past five years has been a blog that is truly an extension of my heart and soul. And it does not fail to boggle my mind how my posts have been read all over the world.

In fact, check out some of the stats for just this year:

At the time of writing this post, my blog has been viewed over 12,000 times, all over the world. Absolute insanity. Thank you to everyone who’s ever read my soul vomit for real.

Whether you’ve found my writing to echo your exact thoughts about Maroon 5 or you discovered a new favorite band (like my faves Bad Suns or Never Ending Fall) through me or you’ve gotten song recommendations as you’ve started working with your inner child, I’m honored that you’ve spent time on the site and I hope my posts have inspired you to interact with music on a deeper level.

Of course, I have to give a special thanks to the friends that have contributed to this site through the years. Thank you to my dear bestie Katie for designing my logos. It never fails to bring a smile to my soul to see how you just got my vision for this blog. Thank you to my bestie Eden and my friend Joe for their contributions to the site in these five years. It was such a cool season to have them share their musings here. I truly just enjoyed reading their perspectives on music. And lastly, a very special thank you to Caitlin from 1824 that provided me with the coolest opportunities to sit on conference calls with UMG’s artists like James Bay as they talked about their new releases. That was legit the coolest thing I’ve gotten to do thus far.

As I look forward to the future of this blog, I can’t help but feel like it’ll continue to be the most public diary I have. The place where I say the damn thing because the music that hit my soul said it first. But I also have big dreams for what I want SOUNDSLIKEFEELSLIKE to be.

Since the genesis of this blog, I’ve dreamed about having events under SOUNDSLIKEFEELSLIKE’s name where I can showcase up and coming artists in a space that feels as good as it sounds. Like imagine a slumber party concert in a house with all the goodies where female singer songwriters talk about the songs they wrote about the things they couldn’t even tell their friends about. Or a show at a dive bar where we rage to songs about everything that’s making us angry. Or a concert in a beautiful garden with string lights where we listen to songs that help us cry. I’m dreaming of creating safe spaces to listen to music and feel it all in community.

Admittedly, I need more time to get that plan in action. But I’m determined to make it happen.

In the meantime, I have my own music to put out. Later this month, I’ll be sharing a few demos from my upcoming first music project, I Should Have Said Something Earlier… I plan to do a special post talking about those demos later this month and oh my God, I understand now what my favorite artists mean when they say that sharing their vulnerable songs is like standing on a stage naked.

The full EP will be out on all streaming platforms on February 7th, 2025. Is it terrifying to announce that? ABSOLUTELY. It’s going to be imperfect and all over the place because it’s self-written and self-produced, but it is the biggest birthday gift I can give myself as I enter the last year of my twenties. And despite the anxiety of it all, I’m excited to share it.

Truthfully, I don’t think I would have ever gotten to the courageous place of sharing my own music if I hadn’t started this blog five years ago. This blog has worked in tandem with my own musical journey. All of the artists I’ve ever talked about here have been crucial to my own creative journey and I remain inspired by them. But most of all, this publicly, vulnerable place made me realize that I had a unique voice and perspective. It doesn’t matter if someone’s said something similar before, no one’s said it like I have and no one will be able to say it like I do.

If you’re reading this and struggling with self-doubt about your own creativity, I hope you feel inspired to be creative anyway. You have a unique voice and perspective that deserves to be explored and expressed somehow. Even if the world doesn’t get to see it, do it for YOU. Take it from someone who’s fought that devious little monster of self-doubt all her life, nothing frees you like getting to hear your own voice.

Anyway, that’s all I have for you. Big things coming but also business as usual. Here’s to another five years of SOUNDSLIKEFEELSLIKE 🫶