Solo Record.

Short stories, demos, essays; everything.

The Unbearable Lightness of Gooning.

Last summer, on the way home from tour, I got stuck on the tarmac at San Antonio International Airport for hours. Long enough that I decided to write a series of notes in my IG stories, crowd sourcing sexy texts to use in my attempts to write sex scenes for a new novel(a story of revenge, family and corporal punishment, that I'm about 120 pages deep on). The resulting comments and discussions led to some wide-ranging threads about how the algorithm decides your preferences, modern phenomena like gooning, and the relationship between repression and kink. The posts blew up. In a matter of hours, they became the most viewed stories I’d ever posted. There were thousands of replies, thousands of questions and recommendations for further study. I even received two job offers and two editors(both of whom I like personally and respect deeply) expressed interest in having me contribute a column.

It made me think, I wish I had a place to explore this subject on my own. This substack will be that place. The first essay in this vein will run next week. It’s called, Standing Outside in the Cold, Being an Incel. It’s actually about loneliness, hope and the shape of the void but it was born from this same conversation.

In the months since those posts, I’ve had a relentless touring schedule, I’ve linked up with a great indie label to work on solo music(more on that later), I’ve made serious progress on my next novel, and I’ve started working on a new EP with one of my favorite singers in the entire world. I’ve also set into motion some new projects with Rose Books, the publisher of my first novel, Someone Who Isn’t Me (or as I call it SWIM). One of the most exciting things that I’ve discussed with Rose Books is a series of short stories I’ve taken from my 25+ years on the road with Thursday. Before these stories make their way to a physical collection, I’m going to serialize them here.

The first story, Envy and the Angel on the A Train, will run here in two weeks. This story was originally part of SWIM, presented as a kind of crossing of the River Styx, before plunging the reader into the hellish Inferno section, but the section was too long and deformed the shape of the book in a way that ultimately didn’t fit.

While we are on the subject of Rose Books, the head of that press (one of my absolute favs), Chelsea Hodson has a solo record that’s available now available for preorder and you won’t believe how good it is. She has such a beautiful, mysterious voice that everyone who hears it immediately wants to work with her. Case in point, the singer that I’ve been making a record for — who will, for the moment, remain unnamed — just asked if we could get her to sing on our record. So it looks like Chelsea will be in the mix on one of these songs. Though I can’t yet say much about this project, it’s different from the records I’ve made for other people in the past (like My Chemical Romance and the Blackout Pact), in that I’ve written much of the music for it, myself. As a matter of fact, some of the tracks began life as ambient solo work that I’d been making in the tradition of Tim Hecker, William Basinski and Rafael Anton Irissari. When this singer heard a snippet of one of the songs, they immediately asked if they could sing on it. Since then the project has taken on an incredible life of its own that neither of us can quite believe.

I’d like to share one of these tracks here in its original, ambient instrumental form. It’s called Hope is a Lonely Place. I have demos of so many projects that I’d love to share with the people that are most interested in my work. I’d like this to be a place that I can share those demos, as well.

Lastly, I’d like this to be a place for discussion. A place where I can build a small community to help figure where in the world we are all going with our art, what our blindspots are and how we can all get through some challenging times. To that end, I’d like the last week of every month to be a Q and A, maybe started with a video post and continued in the comments as a discussion. For now I’m only enabling comments for paid subscribers to filter out the more antagonistic/harassing conversations that I find myself wrapped up in on other platforms. Good faith is in short supply these days, I don’t want to squander it. Some months, the social component may be that I’m giving away old band t-shirts to the first people that claim them. Other times it may be centered around an auction of perfumes to fund something nonprofit based. Who knows. But I’d like it to start here.

So here’s the simple run of this substack:

Week 1:

An unreleased demo or in-progress version of a new song(like the one in this newsletter.

Week 2:

An essay about something that I can’t get out of my mind (like next week’s Standing Outside in the Cold Being an Incel).

Week 3:

A short story pulled from my 25+ years touring with Thursday, which will eventually be serialized in a physical collection. The first of which is called, Envy and the Angel on the A Train.

Week 4:

Community-based free space. A video, a discussion, an auction, a giveaway… anything that gets us into a conversation.

I’ll unlock one of these posts every month for anyone that cares to check the newsletter out(like today’s post of the demo, Hope is a Lonely Place). The rest of the posts will be for anyone who subscribes to this substack on the Paid Subscriber Tier, as well as all comment functions and inclusion in discussions. Lastly there is a Founder’s Tier which is yearly and a higher price. This is simply for those who want to show their support for my work here on Solo Record. If you sign up for this tier, we can also do a yearly half hour one-on-one zoom call, where I’ll answer any questions you have about your own creative work, or offer deeper insights into the work that I do.

If you’re reading this, I sincerely wish the best for you in 2026. Love, Geoff

I found this picture and I’m almost positive it’s me(google image says it’s The Rolling Stones lol) in No Devotion. If you recognize this picture, please claim it. I’d love to work with you again!