2022 was another busy year for me. The main thing was I formed a new rock band called Total Flower Chaos in the Spring. We starting gigging in July, and played 7 shows. The band has been playing songs from my 2021 album, The Way, as well as instrumentals from my 2016 release under the Total Flower Chaos name. We decided to take a break from gigging in the winter to work on new material. We plan to resume gigging in the Spring.
I also played 4 “Rob Roper and Friends” shows at Gennaro’s in Denver. These are acoustic shows, backed by musician friends. I keep these shows loose and fun. I usually learn a new cover song for these shows, in addition to playing my acoustic songs, and acoustic versions of my rock songs. These shows are fun for me as well as the audience, so I’m going to keep doing these shows in 2023.
Finally, I played two solo acoustic shows. One was as an opening act at the Lion’s Lair in Denver, and the other was at Broken Compass brewery in Breckenridge, Colorado. The latter I treated as a little mountain getaway. I want to do more of those in this coming year.
In June, I released the second video for my 2021 album, The Way. It featured the title song, and was produced by Jamie Krutz, who did the first video for the album based on the song Metadata. If you haven’t seen it yet, or want to watch it again, check it out on my Youtube site.
Speaking of The Way, I released a lot of new merch based on the album cover design. I now have available on my Bandcamp site a medium and light-weight hoodie, tshirts in two colors, and a ladies tank top. All are made of high-quality, soft material. At least one of these is a must for all Rob Roper music fans!
By November I realized I was burned out and needed a break. I’ve been going hard at music 7 days a week for the past 15 years or more, and it finally caught up to me. Everything else in my life was neglected. So for the last 3 weeks, I’ve been working on my neglected home– having a handyman fix broken stuff, organizing stuff and cleaning this dirty house. Unfortunately, I’ve been hampered by a persistent cold the last 3 weeks that has sapped my energy, and sleep problems. Hopefully those will get fixed soon.
After this cold and break are over, the first thing on my agenda is to get back to songwriting. I’ll be writing both by myself and with the band. I’ve collected a ton of music and lyric ideas over the last 6 years or so, but didn’t have time to put them together because of all the gigging. That time is now. Hopefully I’ll have some new songs for you when I start gigging again– both solo and with the band. But this year, I’m going to try to pace myself and have more balance.