April at the Cottage: Stepping out to find Something Real.
Fáilte Romhat! There’s a softness to April that I’ve always loved. The light lingers a little longer, the air feels like it’s remembering something, and here at the cottage, everything begins to move at its own quiet pace again. There’s also “April Showers”. Coming from Ireland I am okay with that. Sure in Ireland… it’s April every month.
Grass Roots For Green Shoots
So welcome to another monthly Cottage Community Blog. I would like to start by saying thank you for being here. Whether you’ve supported my music for ages, or recently found me through Bandcamp, joined me over on Patreon, or simply shared a song or a kind word along the road; it goes a long way and means more than I can properly put into words. This small, independent ‘Cottage Community Music Chlann’ we are building is growing legs. It’s grass roots for green shoots folks, and it feels real. That’s something I don’t take lightly.
Goodbye To Spotify
Over the past while, I made a decision that I had been mulling over for some time: to step away from major streaming platforms. To go another road. Wouldn’t be like me. And it wasn’t a dramatic exit or tantrum. But more the closing of a quiet door, to go out an open window.
Click here to watch my ViDEo on COMMUNITY
WHy leave StreAming PLAtforms
“Are you crazy”. Well, over the past decade music has changed dramatically. So much so, it’s hard to keep up. Like most independent musicians, I followed the path that was laid out for us — release the music, feed the algorithms, watch the numbers, hope it travels.
Sometimes it did. But somewhere along the way, I started to feel a growing distance between the music I was making and the way it was being received… and perceived. It became less about the songs and the live gigs and more about a performance in a system that never really stops taking.
So I Stepped Away
What’s been interesting — and unexpected — is that while the music is technically less available in the traditional sense, more people seem to be finding it and me. Yes the numbers are small but far more than I had twisting my neck around content and feeding these digital behemoths. Maybe now, the right people are finding the songs. That feels good on the chest… and shoulders.
Without the noise of streaming metrics and madness, something else has had space to grow. I’ll say it again. “Grass roots for green shoots”.
Conversations feel more human. Support feels more intentional. And creatively, there’s been a shift too — a quiet return to why I started writing songs in the first place.
There Are, Of Course, Trade Offs.
Streaming platforms offer reach, convenience, and visibility that’s difficult to replicate. Stepping away means accepting a slower path, and at times, a more uncertain one. Not everyone follows you over. Some listeners drift, and that’s part of it.
But for me, the exchange has been worth it.
My mental health has improved in ways I didn’t anticipate. There’s less comparison, less pressure to constantly produce, and more space to actually listen — to the music, to the process, and to myself. It feels like stepping out of a crowded room and only then realising how loud it had been.
And I don’t think I’m alone in this.
There’s a definite quiet shift, or is that a deafening quiet shift, happening across independent music right now. More artists and songwriters are beginning to question whether the traditional streaming path is the only way forward. It turns out, you can go a different road. There are slower, more sustainable ways of sharing music — more direct human approach that puts the community centre stage.
Our Cottage Community
That’s what this Cottage Community initiative is about for me. Not just a place to share songs, but a nice place to share properly.
On that note, I’ve just released a new track called ‘Tree Horses’ over on Bandcamp, where it’s also available free to all Patreon members. What’s there at the moment is a living, breathing version of the song that will grow into a full release next year.
Tree Horses – About The Song
Informed and motivated as a direct result of the Right of Return marches in Gaza in 2016, The idea stayed with me for a long time before finding its way into a song. How relevant it has become. The song sits in that in-between space — between perspectives, between action and inaction, between knowing and not knowing what to do with what you see.
It doesn’t try to resolve anything neatly. It simply stays with the question. It is a song about sitting on the fence. And maybe that’s enough?
Listen On Bandcamp
As always, thank you for being part of this — for listening, for supporting independent music, and for allowing the songs to exist in a way that feels honest and sustainable. An alternative music distribution moment. Sure it’s not the loudest way of doing things, but it might just be the truest one I know. For me, for now, it’s my little noise.
Other Crazy Stuffs
Speaking of noise, there’s more to come — both in music and in the pages I’ve been quietly working on. As part of my “Community Handshake”, I will produce one song each month for friends and fans alike — i.e. my “Patreon Frans” — so to speak. That song will be also available on Bandcamp and Subvert (coming soon).
Along with that song Patreoners will get b-sides, demos, access to Television Thursday, as well as wee gifts and ideas. There is also a monthly Q&A with Frans, to simply get to you know you.
Thanks for sticking around. Have a nice Easter Holiday. It’s a sun thing!
Lea ghuí
Shane Ó Fearghail