Do you know someone I should reach out to?
|
Hi Reader... I have music coming out this Friday, and tour dates coming up, but that's not why I'm writing. (Not mainly, anyway.) Yesterday I ran into one of my favorite neighbors. She's always upbeat, ever inviting people to something fun she's organizing. But yesterday she seemed jittery, oddly subdued as our kids ran around a courtyard together and shared snacks. Finally she sat down. "Sorry," she said. "I've got election anxiety. It's hard to think about anything else." She looked up. "I'm afraid I'm not very good company right now." "You're real company, which is better." "The main thing that helps is phone banking," she said. "I've been doing 15 minute stints during the day at work." One of her kids climbed into her lap and she gave a distracted nuzzle. I thought of all the people who've come up to Civic Happy Hour at shows this year. Sometimes they've lit up: "This is so great! Thank you for doing this...I'm going to do every one of these things!" But sometimes they've just quietly picked up a Vote Forward letter and started writing, or silently scanned a QR code to make a donation to Climate Cabinet. I wanted to give these folks a hug. Often I did. This week I've been reaching out to everyone I know in the swing states, including acquaintances I've barely kept in touch with. (A couple of Airbnb hosts got a message, long after our tour stay.) So far, everyone who's responded has already voted early. Wonderful. Who else? Then I realized: you. The swing state voters you know that I could reach out to. If you know eligible voters in swing states who haven't voted yet, and might appreciate hearing from me, fill out this form and I'll reach out to them. Submit as many names as you want! It's honestly fun and energizing for me - hopefully for you, too. The future is yet unwritten, no matter what story the past tells us. We've Got You release, merch & tourI'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the full studio recordings of "We've Got You," my two-songs-that-can-be-played-simultaneously project, will be released on streaming platforms everywhere this Friday. You can also buy & download high-resolution files on Bandcamp. The beautiful music videos and behind-the-scenes shorts of "Spark" and "Comfort" are out now, too. We're furiously working on finishing the third music video - the one with all the selfie lip-sync videos from folks like you! - to be released very soon. Patreon folks have been getting all of this early, of course. Last week they got the final track, "Two Truths," the version with both songs combined, and I've been genuinely surprised at the force of the response. A few samples from the comments: I... spent that entire song wringing my hands and crying, except for the part where I was typing to friends who aren't on the patreon to tell them how excited they should be when the song comes out to them. I once spent loooong emails dissecting "Landsailor" and the different layers of possible meanings in that song with a friend, and it feels like this is going to be the same kind of experience. Not sure it's gonna be just two truths in this song, but I can't wait to really dig in and enjoy this fabulous piece of music over and over. Well *that* was freaking amazing. There's sooooooooo much goodness to unpack here. The engineering on this mix is just incredible, from end to end. On my first, second, and third listens, I just broke out in a "this is just awesome" laughter, it was just that good. New merchI'm also grateful to Patreon friends for weighing in on what new merch I should make, including colors, designs, fit, and eco-friendly manufacturing. Now it's all here, and looking pretty spectacular if I do say so myself! I'll have it all on the upcoming tour dates (most of which feature the great Peter Mulvey!), and you can also order online from the fine people of Port Merch. 2024 remaining tour dates
That was a lot. Thanks for reading this far. Let me know how you're doing - as always, I'd love to hear. Love, |
Vienna Teng
Thanks for visiting! Browse past newsletters and subscribe here.
Hi Reader, I know it's only been a few weeks since my last send, but some seasons the news comes quickly... Announcing Multitudes II: A Gathering For Multi-Faceted People, November 6-10, 2025! Alex Wong and I had a truly amazing time at the first-ever Multitudes last September. As we kept saying afterwards, "wow, everyone really understood the assignment." A power outage the first night just meant we kicked things off sitting in a circle on the living room floor, passing a giant stuffed...
Hey there Reader... The final installment of my music video trilogy, "Two Truths," is out! And boy, do its themes of looking out for each other in tumultuous times feel relevant right now. (You may recognize yourself flashing by, somewhere around the 3:28 mark - if so, thank you for sending in footage that helped make this amazing moment in the video possible!) From an interview I did with V13 Media about the project: I gave a kind of impossible task to my music-video collaborators: this song...
Here's a holiday-ish story for you, Reader... Why are there 40 pounds of toasted shredded coconut in my hallway? Well, it all started with an innocent brainstorming session... We've Got You: the era of overthinking With as delicately constructed a music project as We've Got You, it seemed time for a new merch collection: one as clever and, well, overthought as the songs. So we created some special limited-edition items, including one that just went up on the store: an engraved flash drive...