It was "Öskudagur" yesterday in Iceland, which is our weird version of Ash Wednesday.

As usual, the Icelanders bastardize the day in their own eclectic way. Ash Wednesday is kind of like our Halloween but with a fun twist that juxtaposes art and music with commerce and capitalism.

You see, on Ash Wednesday morning kids wake up early and put on their favorite costumes just like children would do for Halloween.

However, instead of trick-or-treating door-to-door in residential neighborhoods, they descend on the commercial districts, the malls, and the shopping streets.

There they walk from store to store and sing songs for the clerks, bank tellers, and employees who give them candy in exchange for their performance.

This goes on for a few hours until the candy's gone or the children get too hoarse to sing another rendition of "Gamli Nói."

It's a perfectly normal and fun tradition for me and I've certainly sung my fair share of folk songs for the fifteen-year-old supermarket cashier, but I suppose that from the outside it might sound a bit weird.

But I like to believe that it subconsciously teaches kids to overcome the fear of singing in front of other people, and helps them feel comfortable with stage fright so that they're better equipped to deal with any sort of public performance in the future.

That's maybe a little idealistic and I could easily be reading too much into it, but we're known to be a creative bunch, and we boast an absurd amount of musicians per capita compared to other countries as stated in the excellent musical documentary "Gargandi Snilld (Screaming Masterpiece)"

So if you're afraid of releasing your music or can't even let other people hear it, but there's still a voice inside your head that wants to be heard, I've got a few options for you to get started.

If you're still struggling to understand mixing, Step By Step Mixing: How to Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins is the place to start if you haven't read it already. A recent review said,

"No fluff, all good content. I've been mixing for about 2 years now and while I have a good understanding, books and experience from others helps me advance. I bought this book on a whim and I really enjoyed it. It's super easy to understand, gets right to the point without bragging about how good the author is. It's a pretty short read too so easy to reference when mixing. It's well written, simple to understand and easy to follow when trying out the suggestions in your DAW. Recommended for beginners and those who have a few mixes under their belt." -Dirk Herbert

If you'd like ongoing coaching from me and the community of Insiders to finish your mixes so you can proudly release your records, the Audio Issues Insiders Academy is here to help. 

You'll get mix feedback, Q&A coaching calls, and a library of courses and training materials to help you succeed, with the accountability and support you need to get where you'd like to go.

And finally, if you'd like to overcome any barriers you have with turning your passion project into a real business, let me share my 10 years of online business experience with you so you can grow yours in only a fraction of the time it took me to build Audio Issues.

Just hit reply and let me know you want to level up and we can take it from there.

Looking forward to helping you out,

Björgvin