So a priest, a rabbit, and a minister go to the blood bank to donate blood. The nurse asks the rabbit, "what kind of blood type are you?". The rabbit responds, "I think I'm a type-o".

That joke has layers. Right up my alley. Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?

The Week That Was
​Well, well. A busy week that was. My big activity was shooting a music video for my next single! Well, more specifically my friend and songwriting partner Jerome shot a music video for me. Did we show up to a park called "Lover's Leap" wearing literally the exact same outfit, shoes and all? We certainly did. Anyway we got some shots atop beautiful cliffs and bridges overlooking the Housatonic River. It made for some gorgeous (or should I say "gorges" heh heh) backdrops. Can't wait to share this one with you guys, it's gonna be cool.

The Week Ahead
This week I'll be editing said video. Which is always a bit of a pain in the ass, since it's really not my forte, but such is a the life of a DIY musician. I'll also be doing some other prep for the single. Should have an announcement on that in the very near future.

Super Cool Idea for an Album
So the weather was perfect here this past Tuesday and I was sitting outside when an amazing idea came to me. I was trying to explain the feeling I get being outside on a beautiful day, but found it indescribable as I always do. So that let me to Google "word for a feeling you can't explain". I didn't find a word for that, but I DID find this list of words for specific feelings that are hard to explain. And that spawned what I think is a fascinating idea.

How cool would it be to write an EP or album around some of these words? Like each song title is one of the words and the song is about the feeling it describes? For example: Track 1: Sonder- a song about the realization that everyone has their own unique story.

I mean how cool would that be?! I seriously think this is an idea I'm going to pursue. Yes, I'm in the middle of recording two other EPs, but still, I've been totally captivated by this idea since it came to me.

Photos of the Week

Catch you all next week.

Much love, 
​Corey

So, it appears the weather has finally turned the corner here in Connecticut and Spring has officially sprung. This time of year always means a few things...birds will chirp, flowers will bloom, and I will inevitably forget that I am the palest person on Earth and manage to get embarrassingly sunburned in March. This year would prove to be no exception. I spend a few hours in the park on a sunny 65 degree day and come home absolutely torched. And in my usual fashion, I was wearing a backwards hat. Which led to this sunburn...

Y-I-K-E-S. I mean look how absolutely ridiculous I look. I love being outside on a beautiful day, but man. The sun is not my friend. 

The Week That Was
Aside from getting roasted like a marshmallow yesterday, I had a pretty productive week on the music front. I laid down some guitars and vocals for the first song on a new upcoming EP! It took me LITERALLY 40 takes to get the first verse to my liking, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. I really love the way this one sounds already, I think you'll enjoy it.

​The Week Ahead
This coming week I'll be working on putting together some bonus content for my upcoming single. I'll have more on that for you guys very soon. 

​The Great Popcorn Fire of 2021
Ok so little story from this week. I quite nearly burned my apartment down by starting a popcorn-fueled bonfire in my microwave.

So on Wednesday at 2pm, I had to hop on a webinar. And of course my pup Ginny decided she needed to go for a walk mere moments before that. So I come in just before 2 and am frantically trying to get into this webinar. In the process I realize that I'm starving and throw some popcorn into the microwave. I usually put it in for 3 min and stop it around the 1 min 18 sec mark. Why I don't just put it in for 1 min and 40 sec, I couldn't tell ya. 

So I hit start and continue with my frantic attempts to get into my webinar. A few minutes go by and...what is that burning smell? OH GOD THE POPCORN. So I turn around to see smoke billowing out of the microwave. I pry the door open and remove the popcorn bag which continues to spew smoke and create a thick haze in my apartment. 

So I run out to the patio and open the bag to try and let all the smoke clear out. Unfortunately, the bag contains a smoldering ball of incinerated popcorn that looks like what I can only imagine the nuclear reactor core at Chernobyl looked like. The smoke is not stopping, I'm now hacking, and I can't leave this thing out on the patio. So I run back inside with the bag and proceed to put the whole damn thing under the faucet, which both EVENTUALLY puts out the fire and simultaneously creates a sinkful of wet, charred popcorn mush. 

Needless to say, I missed the beginning of the webinar and my apartment still smells like burnt popcorn.

Photos of the Week

Final Thoughts
I learned some important lessons this week. 1) When you're as pale as I am, the sun is always a threat. Use sunscreen, even when it's mid-March and you live in Connecticut. 2) Don't forget about your popcorn.

Talk to you all next week. 

Much love,
​Corey 

Well hello there! Lovely to see you again.

I'm feeling great today because Daylight Savings Time is here, which means the end of Winter is near and it stays light an hour longer. I don't mind the cold, but the whole "getting dark at 4:30pm" thing in the Winter kills me. Once it starts staying light until 7pm or later, I come alive. ALIVE! Anyway, let's get into it:

The Week That Was
Not a ton to report from this past week. Lots of administrative stuff on my end. Also, we had the first warm days of the year and I may have decided to put off my to do list and instead go for a walk and drink a couple beers in the middle of the afternoon....oops. 

The Week Ahead
This upcoming week I'll be recording the stuff I was supposed to record last week...(see: the previous paragraph). But also, I'll be shooting a music video for an upcoming single! Lots of you shared that you like music videos, so even though I don't do them often, I decided to shoot one for my next release. I don't have much of a plan to be honest. I'm straight up winging it.

The GRAMMYs (Suck)
So the GRAMMYs are tonight. But by the time you're reading this they've already happened (see? time travel IS possible!). Anyway people always ask me "are you watching the GRAMMYs tonight?!" and are often surprised when my answer is "nope, zero interest".

So why would someone with a career in the music world not watch the single biggest awards show in the music industry? Well, it's just that. The GRAMMYs are the ultimate representation of "THE INDUSTRY". It's more or less a giant celebration of the mega-corporate record labels that dominate the music industry and their artists (nothing against them). The same labels that control what gets played on the radio and screw over vulnerable artists with predatory record deals. 

The GRAMMYs don't represent the best of the music world. They represent what the music INDUSTRY decides is best. There are so many phenomenal independent artists (and even non-independent) who are left out by the GRAMMYs. So I don't have any interest in what "The Academy" decides is "best" or what labels decide is "popular". There's SO MUCH great music out there. Who needs a bunch of "industry people" telling us what's good? 😤

Music of the Week
Jon Bellion
-If you've never heard him, check him out. He's supremely talented and extremely inventive. He brings all kinds of crazy production elements that are so interesting to dig in to. He proves that pop music doesn't have to be generic, but instead can be so clever and creative.

Lyric of the Week
"Is it the dreams that make us real?"
-LOVE this lyric. It's from a song called "Junesong Provision" by my favorite band ever, Coheed and Cambria. I kind of take it to mean "it's our dreams and passions that give our lives meaning. They make us who we are. They make us real".

Ok that's more than enough for this week. I'm still fucking with the format as you can see. I'm also trying to make these a little shorter but if you know me, you know that I have trouble shutting up sometimes. Alright then. Cya next week.

Much love,
​Corey

P.S. Any suggestions for what you'd like to see in these posts? Let me know in the comments!

What is up Lew Crew! 

If this is your first time reading the Lew Review...welcome! It's only the second one ever so you haven't missed much. I decided to start posting this little weekly mini-blog to catch you guys up on what I'm up to because quite frankly, I'm worn out by social media and this feels like a much more thoughtful and enjoyable way to share what's on my mind and connect with you all. So let's dive in, shall we?

What I'm Working On
-This past week I launched a lyrics page on my website. I get lots of people asking me where they can find my lyrics (which is awesome a) because I spend so much time working on them and b) because I love reading lyrics too), so it was time to put them all in one place. 

-I also shared a live acoustic video of my song "Year's End" on my Patreon page. If you want to check it out, you can join the Lew Crew on Patreon and get access to more videos like this as well as demos, Behind the Song content, and blooper reels. Just click that panel to the right!

-This coming week I'll be back to recording! I'll be laying down some vocals for the first song of a new EP! 
​
Stuff I Like
-Ok I don't know if you've seen this video of a dramatic pug literally SCREAMING his head off while getting his nails clipped, but it had me dying. I've never heard a dog make a noise like that. 

-If you don't already know, I am super into Space. Like outer space, the universe, all that. And my friend tipped me off to something that happened recently called a SPACE HURRICANE. It's described as a "swirling mass of plasma that rains electrons instead of water" (!!!) and apparently there was one over the North Pole. I MEAN, LOOK AT THIS!!! Space is so cool.

Final Thoughts
This week marks one year ago that COVID shut everything down (at least in this part of the world). I'm not going to go into a whole big thing about that because we're all exhausted from it, but I will say this. As this nightmare has dragged on, I've heard so many people saying they can't wait for things to go back to "normal". And first I always think...what the hell is "normal" anyway? And second, I think...do we really want things to just go back to the way they were before? COVID has really exposed so much about what is broken in our world and our society. So I don't want to wax poetic about how great "normal" was before. For example, when everyone stopped commuting, so many people realized how exhausted and overworked they were. Our work-life balance (at least in the US) is so out of whack, and I feel like the whole quarantine situation made us pause for a moment and face that. So I don't wish to go back to the way things were before. I wish for better than before. 

Talk to you lovely people next week. 

Much Love,
Corey