January 30, 2023 (The Movies We Watch Podcast)

Hey, what's up everybody! Here is our first episode of our new podcast "The Movies We Watch With Nick and Emily". We are hoping to build a community around it and if you have recommendations for us to watch for our February episode, please send a message through my contact form or nickhartkop@mccaffertyband.com. This is a podcast we wanted to make for ourselves where we talk about the movies we watch each month and think it would be fun to get more people involved. The podcast is available here on our site and Spotify. It's our first episode so it's a little rough, but we are hoping to improve over time. On a side note, I should be heading into the studio to record a remastered version of "Is Your Shirt Inside out" next month! If you enjoy the podcast, let us know!

Links available here (If the Spotify page is not available in your region yet, please check back soon or listen via the website):

(Podcasts | McCafferty (mccaffertyband.com))

(https://open.spotify.com/show/4bMnYnSy1D20UOrtEfLOaq)

------

January 26, 2023 (Album Update/New Podcast Episode)

I've been struggling with writing lately and haven't had the urge to make any new McCafferty songs because I have been in a deep depression, but am excited to announce that for my next release I am going to be re-recording and modernizing some of my old material. I love my older songs so much and have been playing them and am super proud of them. I don't know what I'll name the record and haven't picked out every song, but know for sure "Is your shirt inside out", "Alright (Alright)" and "Skeleton bones" will be some of the songs I work with. There's magic in those old recordings and I think some of my best work and now that I have been in treatment, working to become a better person and am living a healthy safe life I want to explore them again in my sobriety. My wife and I will also be uploading a podcast once a month called "The Movies We Watch" where I'm going to go through my letterbox Diary and talk about, well, the movies we watched that month. Film is our obsession and something we love to talk about and it will be available on the site and I will post a link when it's up. I haven't answered any emails for about a month so if you've messaged and haven't heard back I apologize and I'll be getting to them soon. I'm really excited and passionate about these songs and will have more to update soon. Hope everyone is well

Nick

------------

January 7th, 2023 (Melatonin)

I ended up playing a game called Melatonin last night and it moved me so much that I wanted to make a post about it. It is a rhythm-based game and hand drawn. It’s about the concept of exploring dreams and matching up button pressing with audio cues. One of the best parts is that it has a variety of accessibility settings that make it playable for anyone, even if you can't keep rhythm (myself included). Talking about the game doesn't convey how beautiful it is so I'll drop a link to its trailer here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pTks5ptQEX0

Each set of dreams you explore has a different set of songs and unique patterns that change with each night. The music is some of the best I’ve heard, and I hope to see it nominated for soundtrack of the year awards. What makes the game relatable is that it shows us the different attributes of the protagonist and of ourselves. Dreams about stress, money, desires, dating, loneliness and more are explored and are all tied together at the end for a final song. In the finale, when you play along it takes you through each dream, stitching them together showing the characters life in a moving way. We see work, shopping, sitting alone, working out, climbing away from lava as they escape their stress, and playing a simple crane game. It's embarrassing to admit but I cried as the credits rolled because the song moved me so much. It was a culmination of the 2-hour journey it took to complete, hearing every song, exploring every dream and starting to understand the character, who is a lonely person just chilling in their apartment.

I already have this as my game of the year and it's going to be hard to beat because it's an experience. I can't recommend it enough, grab some headphones, turn on some visual cues to help you find the groove, and you'll spend the next couple hours memorized.

You can pick it up on Steam or Switch

If you end up buying the game, please leave a positive review so the developer can grow as it's their first game.

Melatonin on Steam (steampowered.com)