A Heart Full of Colors Tour News - Part 1 / 3

Hey,

I hope you’re doing well! We’re Sunday morning as I’m writing this down in what will be my new office for the next 13 days: the front seat of the touring van as I have the humongous privilege to tour manage this very first US tour for Alex, a tour called “A Heart Full of Colors”! I always like the titles and themes Alex comes up with since, to me, I tend to always see those as two things: 1) a celebration 2) a lifestyle / a way of embracing life, which are both something I always truly admire from him! 

Alex has this way of living where it’s always about being on the move, going somewhere, evolving, breaking barriers, discovering new horizons, and pioneering new personal trails and territories constantly! He has this Christopher Columbus meets Neil Amstrong spirit in his own way! He’ll always be like, “Let’s celebrate today since we worked hard to get right here right now, but let’s not set the anchor or even celebrate too much, since this is nothing compared to where we have to go (not even “where I want to go”, because this where I want to go part is in constant evolution, which is why I translated this state of living into where we have to go, I figured it was even more limitless and more adapted to Alex’s state of mind)! In other words, here and now is fine, but let’s go!

I'm inviting you to read Alex’s latest journal entry he wrote on October 2nd called American Tour; From 2016 to 2024, A Celebration of Death and Rebirth in which he precisely describes in a soulful and grand fashion way where he’s at now in his heart and what this tour means to him, even going as deep as bridging our last concert as Your Favorite Enemies in New York City up until today, where we’re back in America for the first time. It truly is inspiring and shows what those colors filling his heart are made of.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

- Abraham Lincoln

It’s aligned with the same spirit that I want to bring you on the road with us for the next three editions of our weekly correspondence, as I not only feel but have the certitude that this tour will draw a line in our personal lives and collective career where there will be no turning back — on every possible level. I’m so excited by that idea, and I can’t wait to share it all with you!

For Alex and myself, preparation is everything in all that we do. We call it the work before the work. Like Abraham Lincoln said himself, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Just as I shared a little earlier around Alex and the names and themes he gives life to, there’s always 2 dimensions and aspects in everything we do as well. Like this tour, for instance, when I talk about the work before the work, of course there’s the basic touring work where we have to rent a van, book the hotel rooms, print the merch and rehearse in order to be ready and present the best of ourselves nights after nights, but there’s also what truly matters to us: the soul, the spirit, the reason why we’re doing all this, the what we really want to share, touch, and discover as we evolve on this tour. This second part is the hardest, and what takes most of our energy, but the most exciting, thrilling, purposeful, and worth living and even dying for.

But how do we get ready for this? What’s the work before the work like? “What’s the sharpening the axe side of this?” one might ask! 

Well, it’s a great question, since even for us, it’s not something that stayed alive as much as I would’ve liked, and of course, even more than me, Alex. So, as we left the HQ at 4am on Friday to go to Alex’s home in Virginia, where we would spend a single night before hitting the road again the following three days heading toward the North Western part of the US by the Pacific Ocean, Seattle, we all decided to commit ourselves toward feeding our hearts and spirits with meaningful conversations rather than what I call fillers conversations.

It’s of course a lot easier to talk about what’s going on in the news, American politics, sports and culture, or even the weather rather than how we can contribute, how we can inspire, how we can seed and spread meaning and greatness around and make this world better...! I don’t mind talking about all these things (I in fact really love it, I’m even passionate about it), but our hearts won’t fulfill themselves with flamboyant colors simply because of wishful thinking or daydreaming it. But in order to embrace such a lifestyle, it takes commitment; you have to align yourself with it, which takes a lot more courage, faith, love, and friendship. But the great news is, this van we’re in right now is the perfect canvas for greatness and purpose to find their home if we simply keep our focus aligned with why we’re doing all of this in the first place. In other words, even if you eat Big Macs every day, you won’t become a McDonald's; you’ll only end up unhealthy! (We’re not eating big mac’s every day, don’t worry, Sef is preparing healthy lunches for us all.) Believe me, we messed up countless opportunities in the past, but this one is one we want to see flourish, and this, for the right reasons! Like Alex shared:

“Hopefully, it’s not about how long it takes; it’s about how firmly every one of those steps is anchored every single day of our new life, even when we stumble, as any singular path is essentially defined by those falls, errors, failures, and other catastrophes. We all need to learn to stand up on our own.”

- Alex Henry Foster

We reached the state of Iowa as I’m finalizing this missive. Ben asked me what I would be sharing with you, and I told him I wanted to invite you all with us, in the van, as we’ll be doing a lot of driving and talking, and that gave birth to an incredible conversation about how hard it is to build something and how quickly it can be destroyed when we choose our own self before the collective we’re all fortunate to be a part of. 

This is the world we live in, we all agreed, so we again decided to focus on trying to build something else, sharpening our axes, working on cutting those trees of indifference, of exclusions, of selfishness and loneliness, working on seeding compassion, love, humanity, and freedom with a heart full of beautiful colors despite all of its imperfection and complexity, and this starts right here right now in this van.

We’re sleeping in South Dakota tonight, in Montana tomorrow, and we’ll reach Seattle on Tuesday right before being on stage on Wednesday...! So grateful and thankful! 

Let’s be great to one another!

Your Host and Friend, 
Jeff 

PS: Since we have a lot of driving to do, you’re welcome to send some music ideas, I might build a The Club playlist!!!! :)