Between Tour rehearsals, Alex’s playlist and Air Canada...!
Aug 19, 2025
Hey,
I hope you’re doing well! It’s Sunday morning right now, it’s beautifully pouring rain, and I truly feel the exhaustion following the intensity of the past few days’ afternoon and evening rehearsals, so the wonderfully loud sound of the rain is something delightfully welcome following countless hours being submerged in chaotic loud noises!
Last week has not only been very productive musically, but on every possible imaginable level. While our relationship with Oli is reaching new heights, it was so beautiful and inspiring to witness Alex and us all freeing ourselves from what tour rehearsals were in the past to this degree: two songs from the Your Favorite Enemies era have been shared on Alex’s Substack…! If this isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is!!!
Like he said in the last song of his album Windows in the Sky, “I will conquer darkness and make it shine”! We’re finally starting to walk in the make-it-shine part and it’s absolutely overwhelming!
🎧 What I’m listening to
Figure 8 album from Elliot Smith
Every Sunday morning I’m gathering with Stephanie in what we call the Studio B where I’m translating every Substack post Alex did during the week into French. I decided it would be cool for me to choose a vinyl while I’m there and take a photo with it, and to make it my soundtrack of the day while I’m writing this missive down!
Elliott Smith is such an incredible artist, in my opinion! His life ended tragically and way too soon... I’ve been a drug addict myself, and I know too well where the usage of those substances can lead. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Alex, Isabel, Ben and Sef as I met them all in 2001, in the peak of such a devastating lifestyle.
I wanted to celebrate life and friendship as they truly can bring someone to turn their life around drastically and make sure every day can be lived to the fullest...!
If you’re not a fan, Alex did an incredible tour playlist that you can listen to here.
No Music No Life!
📖 Reading highlight I’m pondering
I’m receiving the James Clear newsletter every Thursday and as we were having dinner last week the entire band together, we started to share with Oli about the difference between daydreaming and putting in the work and witnessing crazy dreams coming to life…!
"Running one mile has more in common with running a marathon than sitting at home.
Investing $100 has more in common with being a millionaire than being broke.
Writing one sentence has more in common with writing a book than never writing one.
It always feels small in the beginning and the big goals seem far away. It's easy to talk yourself out of the early attempts because they feel kind of meaningless.
But every race starts with one step. Every fortune starts with a small deposit. Every book begins as one sentence.
The real question is not "What is my current position?" but rather, "What is my current trajectory?" Doing nothing builds nothing. Put yourself on the path to something better. Start small, but make sure you start."
🎧 Podcast I’ve Enjoyed The Most
I was so sad to read that the What The Fuck Podcast with Marc Maron would hit the end of the road this October...! This is one of my favorite podcasts and one of the oldest there is out there!
“Things were better before everyone had a voice. Now there’s just hundreds of groups of two or three white guys, sitting behind mics, talking about the last time they shit their pants as adults. We live in a world of mediocre afternoon drive-time radio,” Maron says.
Every time we’re touring in a van, I’ll always put on podcasts during long drives, as it brings up amazing conversations between us all and sets a great vibe before hitting the stage!
I will never forget what we all listened to in that WTF pod with Jim Carey...! What he shares is still traveling with me on a daily basis!
As we’re about to hit the road again for very long drives between venues, please send me your favorite pods and we could talk about it!
📸 My Picture Of The Week
As you hopefully know by following Alex’s last week’s Substack posts, we’ve been back on the stage of our church studio to work on the upcoming tour pre-production with Oli since Friday, August 8th, the day after we came back from Tangier! No sleep ’til…? The end of days, maybe! We’ve been spending countless hours over the past few days, digging deep in every song until the perfect canvas shows up for Alex to feel it and then re-design it, re-shape it, re-everything it! No wonder the exhaustion!
I wanted to share this picture with you aligned in regard with what Alex has been sharing lately about our former band, Your Favorite Enemies. I used to always have a love-hate relationship with this particular space in this photograph. During the YFE days, we always wanted to keep the music uncompromised from the very dark and heavy spirit overshadowing what is still Alex’s and my greatest passion above all, which is to connect with amazing people as you all are.
I’ve never been part of the creative force of this band until we switched to The Long Shadows, but for me, standing in this precise place playing songs like 1-2-3 (One Step Away) and From the City to the Ocean obviously brings back really dark memories of the worst and the most beautiful and inspiring human nature can offer.
Alex’s lyrics always moved me in such a beautiful way. Especially those two songs, where Alex is contemplating hope being desperate, believing in something higher, greater, meaning, hope, greatness, but always out of reach, even if close or far. The journey…!
Being here today, playing those songs, is a celebration to me now! It’s even more than a victory, it's the result of a conquest over a really dark and selfish spirit. As Alex also wrote on his first record's final song, The Love That Moves, “I will conquer darkness and make it shine.” This is precisely what’s happening right now under our very own eyes! What an incredible chapter of our lives!!!!!
💬 Shared in the Long Shadows Chat this week
Our chat has been quite active in the past few days since so many great things are happening at the same time around the rehearsals, Alex’s Substack posts, and so many memories around the two songs from Your Favorite Enemies but what used the most of our attention was, very sadly in some sense but quite important nonetheless, Air Canada — again!
I don’t know if you’ve been following the news lately, but Air Canada started a strike last Saturday, and since we were supposed to be leaving for Europe this Tuesday, August 19, we were all visiting every possible news site digging for some new information around the fundamental question, “Are we going to leave or not?!”
As we were seated at the dinner table last Friday evening, Alex and I decided to switch flights for the 21st instead of the 19th, hoping the conflict would resume beforehand! We’re so lucky with Air Canada! What were the odds! Always have to be in the middle of a conflict of some kind with this incredible airline. We planned on leaving on the 19th, landing in Frankfurt on the 20th, driving to Berlin, spending the night there and meeting the crew, having a rehearsal day on the 21st in Berlin, and leaving for Poland on the 22nd, where we play on the 23rd. Perfect plan!!! Now, we leave on the 21st, land on the 22nd, and will drive 12-13 hours to Inorowclaw after spending a night on the plane… If everything goes well. We’re keeping our eyes on the Air Canada website, where information is slow to come and usually refreshes only once a day, around 11am…
We love and hate you, Air Canada!
Let’s be great to one another!
Your Chief Operator and Friend,
Jeff
