Oh! Well hello there!
It’s been pretty quiet around here this week, as we’ve been spending time with our families to celebrate Christmas. We wanted to take a moment to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and send you our best wishes for the new year.
2020 has been a very challenging year for many of us, and we wanted to thank each and every one of you for your love and support. Music is so important to each of us, and knowing that the little that we CAN do has been able to bring some light into the lives of our family, friends and fans has made it a little more bearable.
This year has been a roller coaster to say the least! Bliss was on track to have one of our busiest years yet, and at the end of the last gig we played before we were locked down, the band was so tight! Everything seemed to fit together just right, our performance was strong… There’s a high that comes from playing live for all of you, and we were definitely riding it! It was a big shock to us and to our musician friends and colleagues when things came to such an abrupt halt.
I could spend a lot of time talking about all the negative things 2020 brought us. We’ve all struggled with how this pandemic has affected our livelihoods, our day to day lives and our interactions wth family and friends outside of our immediate families. Lots of people were not, and are not, okay. We continue to experience ups and downs with ever changing rules and restrictions, especially during the holidays. I’ve said throughout the year, be kind to each other AND to yourselves. That still holds true now.
As much as it has been challenging, I can think of many positive things that have come from this year. I finally learned how to play my acoustic guitar and I played it - by myself - for people. That was terrifying and exciting all at the same time. But I did it. Did you try something new this year?
As a band, we’ve focused on our sound quality for both live performances and recording. We learned new material, broadcast some live performances and worked on recording material for our website. We had the opportunity to play out in the summertime for some live outdoor events, which were unexpected but we are very grateful for.
A few of our highlights:
Bliss bringing Beats to the Streets - live outdoor shows in our neighbourhoods!
Playing at Drive-Thru Ribfest on Labour Day in support of Rotary Burlington Lakeshore
Finally taking the plunge into original material!
2020 brought us the time and mental capacity to work on original material. Of all the things we accomplished this year, as a band, we learned how to communicate and work together on something we were creating, listening to each others ideas and sharing our opinions.
As a result, we’re expecting to release our first original song later this week. Actually, tomorrow!! I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do, and can’t wait to share it with you.
Normally I measure a year in the number of gigs we’ve played - you get one blog post per year from me with a recap of what we’ve done and where we’ve been - what exciting things have happened and occasionally, some of the sad things too. If I were to measure 2020 by my normal standard it would be considered quite the failure. But we need to change our mindsets and how we measure our successes, not just for this year but every year. If I didn’t have the friendships that I do, the family that I do, I couldn’t do what I do today. The quality of our relationships and the music has to come first.
We don’t yet know what 2021 will bring, It’s certain that things won’t change much for the first while, so we need to be patient. What I do know is when the time comes to play live music again, I’m ready. Bliss is ready. We cant wait to be with all of you again soon.
Sarah xo