Sunday, January 22nd. Keep Your Friends Close comes out, for free, right here.

I'm laying on a cot not much higher than the floor, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, writing this blog instead of sleeping. Today I climbed a mountain with my friends. Up on top, we saw this city from a once-in-a-lifetime perspective, and watched the sunset. It was raining, but it was beautiful. We're in a good place.

A million miles away, there's a team of people working hard on a project that's been a long road in the making. Some in Goshen NY, some in Miami FL, some in Ithaca NY, some in Long Island, NYC, Colorado, Rhode Island, New Zealand, etc. The list goes on and on. Because I don't have a working phone here, I hustle back to my computer. Check updates on mixes, coordinate the release of a new promo video, continue blasting "January 22nd" on every social network I've got, align urgent audio files and bounce them, send text to a designer, etc. The list goes on and on. I finally fall asleep at 6am New York time and get up a couple hours later to do it again. Every night getting more and more excited.

Thematically, I'm not even surprised at myself. Ever since I first dedicated myself to creating and completing the Keep Your Friends Close EP, I feel like I haven't stopped running. From laying on the floor of Nico's basement this past summer to spontaneously recording at 5am over winter break, to heading out on a mini-tour to promote during my weekends at school, to adventures and new discoveries all throughout the course of KYFC. Juggling three semesters of college while making this badboy was intense, and I bet you did something similar, and have been on your own journey too. Well, deep breaths, coffee fixes and focus. Just mad focus. Thank god for my friends, my team, and every single one of you for listening, or else the conclusion of this wouldn't have been possible. I can't wait to hear what you think about these songs. January 22nd, it's coming. So then, be there. And be ready.

I'll be posting a link right on the home page of this site for you to directly download the EP on Sunday afternoon. There will also be a link on my facebook fan page. The download will consist of a .zip folder containing all associated files. You can also click Keep Your Friends Close facebook event and join this as a FB reminder the day of the event, if you'd like..

In addition, I will be posting all lyrics from songs on the EP on the LYRICS tab of this site sunday night as well. You can read along as you listen and even nod your head if you're feeling really wild. You can make a huge impact on the effect of this release by simply spreading this free project to your friends, your family, to a stranger that you've met, or anyone in the world that you'd like to. That's why it's free, for you to have that ability. Word of mouth really does make a big difference. And I will thank you and love you forever for your support. Promise.

The inside artwork will contain a list of the tremendous people who helped with this thing, but I'd like to give a special thanks to Nico Marchese, Devin Arne, Mike Falb, Tom Flynn, Joe Owen, Kia Rogers, DJ Grumble, Pat Capriglione, and Eric Ko for their help these past couple weeks with finalizing the project. You guys killed it. In a really good way.

With love, see you guys all Sunday night.

Till then,
Dylan