Well that escalated quickly.

I made a video for Ukulele Bonk, my contribution to The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave: A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream 1, in a single cold winter day, and barely a week after the launch of The Indie Beat Television.

This is actually the first real video that I’ve made since... 2018!

As a seasoned person, I was alive when MTV launched, and part of me has always lamented the indisputable fact that video killed the radio star. In my experience, many people confuse watching and listening to music, and have lost the ability to separate the two and actually develop a decent ear for what is happening in the music alone.

Nevertheless...

I was part of the small group of musicians corralled by @limebar@mastodon.social to prepare the launch of #TIBtv, and seeing the excitement before, during, and after the launch was, well, an eye-opener. And contagious. Not only that, but the variety and quality and originality and ingenuity of the videos blew my mind.

(I also contributed some old videos to the channel and the associated songs found a new public, which was a nice bonus.)

Anyway, stimulated by such an amazing display of unbridled creativity, my brain started racing with ideas for new videos, and this is the first one to see the light of day. Others may or may not follow, time will tell, but be that as it may:

Creativity x Community = Inspiration!

Long live #TIBtv!

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. Skip to Design | Community

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 of 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 ❤️