Chaz Cardigan

Personally and professionally, this has been an insane year. I released my first full-length album, went on tour a few times, I finished writing my first musical, started my second, and I’ve also spent the last year teaching songwriting.

As I’ve met new songwriters, gotten to know them, and seen them grow each week — I’ve been thinking about the ideas that I picked up from my own mentors; and what I would say to my younger self.

I’ve come up with something new. A new way I want to challenge you to think about songwriting. I call it The Big Idea.

The Big Idea is a set of tools and principles I’ve put together, to pass on to new songwriters. I’m just starting to share itty bits of The Big Idea in my social content, but there’s a lot to unpack.

I teach all ages and all skill levels. If you want to take your songwriting to the next level, leave lightbulb💡emoji in my comments ⬇️ Let’s get to work!

1 year ago | [YT] | 16

Chaz Cardigan

A Year In Glassland has been out for nearly a month, and I’m in the postpartum phase after a release.  Timelines slow down, schedules start shifting, gusto turns into gratitude, and the dust settles.

In an earlier world, releasing a single was like a teaser trailer for An Album Experience.  In the last few years, the release cycle has transitioned instead to putting out a series of singles AS The Experience, with the album itself as more of a desert after the entree.  Closure after the marketing adventure.  This isn’t a bad thing at all, but it means you have to be super intentional with your single releases leading into the album.  

I tried to say something linear across the 5 singles, to make the experience of hearing the full album fun and fresh.  Trusting the music, hoping that the songs themselves were cool enough to stand on their own without a tour and without any involved promotion, was all I could do this time around.  

I’m lucky to have found a label partner for some extra networking on Glassland, but it’s really been made and released with no budget.  The videos for “Rashomon” and “Used To Care” were made out of my pocket; the live session was filmed in my publisher’s studio, the  dressed with whatever the crew had lying around our houses.  This whole album has been a labor of love.  Made in bedrooms, released into the void.

In DMs, comments, tweets, etc., you've all been really positive towards the album, and it really does mean the world.  I can’t say enough how grateful I am that people are listening; that the album is finding a life on streaming, and in your playlists.  I put all of myself into living it, and making it.

1 year ago | [YT] | 24

Chaz Cardigan

full live performance of “Rashomon”. this live session is the best way i’ve ever gotten to share an album with y’all 🧨 thank you for listening, from the bottom of my glass heart 🪩❤️

1 year ago | [YT] | 3

Chaz Cardigan

full live performance of “Diet Coke”.  take me to heaven 🧨 thank you for listening to the album, from the bottom of my glass heart 🪩❤️

1 year ago | [YT] | 3

Chaz Cardigan

The last decade has been chaotic for everybody; and for as much as I’ve tried to volunteer, phone bank, and rally people to make big changes — I found over and over again that it never made an impact. People don’t see what they don’t want to fight.

The emergence of OpenAI’s new generative video software this week, in tandem with the ongoing crimes against Palestine, has me spiraling a bit. What do you do in the very near future, where no video evidence can be trusted? Where do we go as a culture, when every potential is going be weaponized every day until the oceans boil and the air is unbreathable?

I don’t have answers. I wrote about some of these feelings on the album. Mainly on “The Rot”. But…

…More than ever, I still believe that Joy is radical, despite the tremendous pain in the world. In the face of corporate systems, governments, and algorithms fighting to atomize you, to control their profit margins — Joy is a weapon. It’s proof that you still believe in people’s better nature, and in our capacity to grow.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 38

Chaz Cardigan

full live performance of “Are We Gonna Do This”.  more on the way 🧨 thank you for listening to the album, from the bottom of my glass heart 🪩❤️

2 years ago | [YT] | 1

Chaz Cardigan

I’ve spent my life doing nothing but making music.  As a kid in garage bands, as a teen commuting over 2 hours each day to Nashville to learn songwriting, and as an adult tossed between three record deals over the past few years.  I’ve played festivals and I’ve played empty rooms.  I’ve gone viral on TikTok, I’ve had a song on the radio, and I’ve got almost nothing to show for it, because of how expensive this career is.

In 2022, my body fell apart.  Injuries from the road were taking their toll, and I had an extended manic episode.  Everything around me felt abstract — doctor bills, NFT’s, dating apps, constant doomscrolling, and no humans around me as I spent my life filming videos in my bedroom.  I was swallowed by watching society collapsing, and how useless I felt as it was happening. I left my record label, and I paused my career.  For the first time since I was a kid, I stopped trying to write anything at all.  

A Year In Glassland fell out of me anyway.  I wrote and produced it in my bedroom, often fighting my body as it refused to get out of bed, literally forcing my fingers to hold my guitar.  

This is an album made in defiance of my chronic pain and bipolar disorder.  It’s my first full-length LP, and it is my most complete thought: simple happiness, wherever you find it, is powerful.  Joy is a radical act.  A Year in Glassland is an album about finding joy in a world that’s falling apart.

antifragilemusic.ffm.to/ayearinglassland

2 years ago | [YT] | 44

Chaz Cardigan

My new album comes out TONIGHT at 9pm PT/Midnight ET.  Pre-save it, so it shows up in your playlists when it drops! 

antifragilemusic.ffm.to/ayearinglassland

Pre-saving tells the streaming sites like Spotify/Amazon/Apple where something belongs in their algorithm, and what playlists to plug it into.  I ask before every new release, because it's a quick move makes a huge difference in the life of each song, and the chances of the album being found after it's released.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you love A Year In Glassland.

2 years ago | [YT] | 31

Chaz Cardigan

My last 5 singles — "Rashomon", "Poison Ivy", "Used To Care", "Oakblood", and "It's Gonna Be Great (Hallelujah)" — are all on the album, and hopefully take on some new context as part of a single piece.

𝑨 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑰𝒏 𝑮𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 comes out this Friday, February 2!  Pre-save the album now, hear the 6 unreleased songs, and make some memories with them.

Skip the Carousel

1 2

2 years ago | [YT] | 19

Chaz Cardigan

I’ve been looking forward to sharing these songs for ages. I started writing 𝑨 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑰𝒏 𝑮𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 in September of 2022. The first song to take shape was “Used to Care”, and the rest of the songs came in a wave that lasted for months. At one point, 20 songs were on my short list for the record, but 11 finally made it.

𝑨 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑰𝒏 𝑮𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 comes out on February 2! Pre-save the album now, hear the 6 unreleased songs, and make some memories with them.

antifragilemusic.ffm.to/ayearinglassland

2 years ago | [YT] | 19