My Bonkers 2025 Fedi Music Year in Review
#music #design #collaboration #blogpost
Another banner year, spread across multiple projects, ranging from #bonkwave to #RFFF25 to #NHAM to #TIBtv, to a little solo stuff. I don’t know how long any of this will last, but I’m relishing it while I can.
Music
In more or less chronological order, I think:
- I co-wrote You Are Not Alone with @CCirco@ravenation.club for the Comfy Collaborations #RadioFreeFedi tribute album organized by @futzle@old.mermaid.town
- I released a couple of extra tracks based on You Are Not Alone.
- I released a new song, Cities
- I wrote jingles for NHAM Mixtape Radio and Not What I Call Radio Bonk Wave
- 2 of my bonkwave songs were delightfully remixed
- I released The Rite of Bonk for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-Bonks of Spring 1 album
- I collaborated on Hi It’s Spring (production) with Sam (@ethicalrevolution@climatejustice.social) for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave Spring album
- I gave a few related songs a common home by releasing the Cities EP (which got a lovely review on NHAM by @babumenos@sunny.garden)
- I performed the sknob bonks cities live livestream for Radio Free Fedi Fest 2025 #RFFF25 (and covered other fedi musicians)
- I contributed some vocals to Happy Bonk Day 2025 as part of a great lineup of BonkWave Allstars herded by @axwax@chaos.social
- I released Ukulele Bonk on the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 1 album
- I released Wannawadda on the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave-A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 2 album, part of the first ever Bonk Wave Sample Challenge
- I produced (and played on) Better Than That by Sam, which was also released on the Bonk Wave summer album (and I also make a guest appearance on the fantastic video Sam made for the track)
- I wrote and recorded a song I’m quite proud of for the upcoming Four Seasons of Bonk Wave fall album (which should come out this winter or next spring, in typical #bonkwave fashion)
- I released a new song, Choo-Choo Train
- I wrote 4 new songs for an upcoming concept album or EP, and have been chronicling my progress on Mastodon. We’ll see how far it goes and how long I can resist the urge to release them...
Design
I used to do quite a bit of UI and web design back in the day, experience which I put to good use this year:
- I designed album covers for the Four Seasons of Bonk Wave album series, with real-time feedback from the bonkwave community, and essential contributions from @Traiken@mastodon.social
- I designed web and fedi assets (and the NHAM RFFF25 LiveStream graphics) for NHAM
- And I did the version 1.0 redesign of the NHAM website (CSS mockup, Sam had to actually implement it)
- Which gave me the impetus to finally recode and redesign my antiquated music site from scratch, which I’d been meaning to do for about a decade ; check out the new sknob/music, and read all about the redesign in a series of posts right here
- I made a bunch hand-drawn NHAM animations for the NHAM program slots on The Indie Beat Television (#TIBtv)
- I made a bunch of more general NHAM promo videos for #TIBtv
Community
On top of the musical collaborations with @CCirco@ravenation.club, the bonkwave community and Sam mentioned above, I participated in the following initiatives to promote music and musicians on the #fediverse:
- I did some virtual leg work vetting artists and asking for their consent to be listed in the Indie Art Support Community (IASC) directory which is built on the shoulders of @radiofreefedi@musician.social (and you can apply by pinging @hello@fedi.indieart.support on fedi)
- I was involved in prepping the launch of the NHAM fedi music discovery site, and I’m also an admin of the site (for which I wrote a few posts too, like The Best Spotify Alternative and Imposter Syndrome)
- I handled the technical plumbing for and co-hosted a NHAM Mixtape livestream for Radio Free Fedi Fest 25 #RFFF25
- Last but certainly not least, I was part of the group of fedi musicians corralled by @limebar@mastodon.social to prep the launch of The Indie Beat Television, a 24x7 “Fedi MTV” (brainstorming, transcoding and tagging a ton of videos, pixel-pushing, and contributing a few musical snippets to station IDs and such). Don’t forget to follow @TIBtv@tv.theindiebeat.fm on the fediverse!
As I said in a mid-year progress report:
I can’t believe how lucky I am to be part of the incredible fedi music community and to have met and collaborated with so many delightful, open-minded, super-creative people, who have opened my eyes and ears in so many ways.
All in all a fine way to keep my head above water in these troubled times, and a constant and much-needed reminder that there is plenty of good, and good people in the world, and that we have agency.
Thank you everyone ❤️