What a year! Some highs, some lows, a few additional lows followed by a high but then three lows right out of nowhere. But then two highs in a row followed by a nagging, prolonged low, capped off with a high just in the nick of time.

I begin 2026 grateful to you all (especially my patrons!) and more inspired to make songs than ever. But also! discouraged re: algorithms and the rising tide of AI slop causing declining reach, Canadian/US border issues complicating shipping and crowdfunding and so on.

I’ve definitely done some wondering if it’s worth continuing this year, but currently I’m at: fuck it, right? I still love making songs and I’m gonna try not to think about everything else for a while. Thank you for every comment, like, purchase, contribution and kind word in 2025. Here’s what I made last year:

• NEW ALBUM: “Naturally”, my fifth album (available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.) A final huge thanks to everyone who funded making it and bought it and anyone who listened to it and said they liked it. I’m proud to have gotten it done and thankful for everyone’s contributions (especially Justin, Steve, Ben and Rob).

• VIDEO: Learning to Lie - We made the first sci-fi pickleball video, a hot new genre.

• VIDEO: Making Me Nervous - Czech animation students made this amazing animated video!

• SONG: Merry Christmas (Just Because) - I wrote and released this agnostic Christmas song. I have eleven months to work on the marketing plan for next December.

• DEMO: Vape in the River

• DEMO: Wrong Waves

• DEMO: Retire a Billionaire

• DEMO: Radiance Fields Forever

• DEMO: Designed For It

• DEMO: Just for Fun

• DEMO: It Only Gets Better

• DEMO: Merry Christmas (Just Because) Acoustic Demo

• COVER: Missed the Boat (Commissioned Modest Mouse cover)

• COVER: Blood Roses (Commissioned Tori Amos cover)

Anyway, gonna keep on truckin’ and I hope you do the same. I’ve got a bunch of songs to work on and I want to get vinyl shipping back up and I have the last of this flu to kick so let’s get at it! Happy New Year everyone!

Brad

Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
Official Patreon (20+ Unreleased Songs)
Brad Sucks Newsletter (Monthly Updates)
Social: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Discord

Just posting to let you know that Merry Christmas (Just Because) is up on Spotify/Apple Music today. If you wanted to add it to your holiday playlists, I would not complain.

Pretty quick turnaround for me on this one, I usually have a lot more lead time for publishing songs so I'm curious if a long lead-up really makes any difference in the amount of people who listen to it. Sometimes it feels impossible to understand what's worth the effort and time, I'd love to simplify things.

Anyway, I have a year-end round-up post coming in the next week or two, but if I don't talk to you before then, happy holidays and thanks for being here.

Brad

This was a quick turnaround from demo to release for me, special thanks to everyone on the Brad Sucks Patreon for listening to the demos and mixes over the past couple of weeks!

Ho ho ho,

Brad
www.bradsucks.net/latest/

For my part, I’m still writing songs even though I hear that’s a job for computers now? What the heck? A few new demos I made:

• Merry Christmas (Just Because) - a first draft acoustic Christmas song for lapsed christians that I might try to finish up.

• It Only Gets Better - Some brad sucks synth rock.

More demos here.

Stuff I’ve been into

• The Chair Company - love this show. Hope they stick the landing.

• The Road to Victory - sci-fi story of the making of the cover of The Jacksons’ Victory album.

• Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life - excellent R. Crumb biography I just finished reading.

• What What Went Wrong - Love this behind the scenes film (and sometimes TV) podcast. How any movie turns out any good at all is beyond me.

Hope you’re doing well! Thanks for reading,

Brad www.bradsucks.net/latest/

It’s extra too bad as I had a sustainable process where I’d crowdfund vinyl pre-orders to finance the recording & production of my music, but if I can’t rely on shipping, that’s off the table. So back to the drawing board on this ol’ music career here.

For now I’m just gonna keep writing songs over on the Patreon and have faith a way forward will present itself. I posted a new demo: Just For Fun and previously there was Designed For It, Wrong Waves, Vape in the River, etc etc. Seeing what happens, going with the flow.

Huge thank you to all my patrons — not sure what I’d do without you all!

Anyway, here’s some stuff I’ve been into:

• You probably don’t need me to tell you but One Battle After Another is a blast. It and Weapons are my favorite films of 2025, easily.

• I’m seeing Grandaddy live this weekend, they’re touring for the 25th anniversary of The Sophtware Slump, an incredible album.

• I’d love to visit The David Bowie Archive.

• Through that article I learned about David Bowie’s lyric writing software he developed called Verbasizer. There’s a version of it online here. It reminded me that I used to use this program called Babble! to do something similar back in the MS-DOS days to simulate Burroughs’s cut-up techniques.

• This is how I feel every day and it’s working for me: I’m making huge progress on my Stinkmatic 8000!

Yours digitally,

Brad
www.bradsucks.net/latest/

Me, I’m just writing, throwing demos up on the Patreon:  Vape in the River,  Wrong Waves,  Retire a Billionaire,  Radiance Fields Forever.

No idea if anything’s anything, but I’m happy to be back in the zone making stuff again.

Sale

To celebrate the uncertainty of postal relations between Canada and the good ol’ US of A, here’s a 15% newsletter-exclusive coupon code for the web store:  RETIREABILLIONAIRE  www.bradsucks.net/shop/

I put up some “Naturally” vinyl signed by the whole band, and I’m getting low on the Better Than Nothings and Out of Its. I doubt I’ll restock these once they’re gone, so get ’em if you want ’em!

Stuff I’ve Been Into

• Weapons is the best film I’ve seen in a long time — Stay unspoiled and go see it! (The trailer is safe)

• Clips - Ace Trumpets — New record rocks, as does their Tiny Desk Concert

• Independent & Community Radio Stations — Indie radio stations on a friendly web page

• Keygen music — a lost genre

Well, summer’s nearly over and I hope that’s not making anyone too sad out there. Till next time

Brad
bradsucks.net/latest/

Check out the awesome Making Me Nervous video that some talented animation students from the Czech Republic made. I wrote about it on Patreon:

This animated video will go public next week but here it is early for Patrons! (edit: it's public now) Thank you all so much for supporting my work, I'm incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement while I continue this weird career. Speaking of which, about this video:

Earlier this year, three animation students from the Czech Republic asked me if, for their year-end assignment, they could make a music video for my song Making Me Nervous. I said yes of course, as I do for most things and expected not to hear from them again, which is what usually happens.

But they sent me an animatic that looked really impressive, then they sent me revisions as they finished sections and I could tell it was really coming together. Yesterday they sent me the final version and I was blown away by how good it is. They all got As on the assignment of course and I luckily get a music video, through no effort of my own.

They asked if I could post it on my YouTube channel which I’m excited to do next week. And they’re entering it into European animation festivals in the fall, I believe. So cool!

I’m still continually shocked by how this little song about anxiety that I made like 23 years ago continues to have such a rich and fulfilling life. Absolutely crazy. What luck.

The students:

Michala Rohanová
https://www.instagram.com/vosaznosa/

Vojtěch Papuga
https://www.instagram.com/psitaccus/
https://www.youtube.com/@psitaccus/

Klára Miřejovská
https://www.instagram.com/klara_mirejovska/

My album “Naturally” continues to exist and be listened to, which is great. Thank you for the nice comments about it. “Learning to Lie” passed 50,000 streams which ain’t bad at all. The sci-fi pickleball music video hasn’t exactly captured the public’s attention the way I thought it might, but I know it’ll be looked back on as an important contribution to the genre.

I haven’t had any reports of missing album orders in a minute, so that’s been nice. Please still reach out if you’re missing yours hashtag guiltfreesummer. Of course, there’s another looming Canadian postal service strike and still US border weirdness, so shipping from my country is spicier than I’d like it to be. Someone needs to invent, like, vinyl but in computers? I dunno.

I’ve been reorganizing my studio and making progress on a bunch of songs, keeping it all pretty loose at this point, which is my whole deal. Well, other than training for my first pickleball tournament in a couple weeks, that’s actually a big part of my deal right now also. Anyway, wish me luck! Thanks for reading, be in touch soon,

Brad
bradsucks.net/latest/

Hey everybody, we made it to March! Did not see that coming at all. I’m still resurrecting my brain and body post-album release over here, which is coming along nicely. The album’s done well enough? People seem to like it? It had a decent peak on streaming and it’s done better than my last one on the college charts? As always in music I can never tell if anything is a success or a failure until later or… ever… but, you know, we got ‘er done. Thanks everybody.

Postal woes

Most people have received their orders (thank you for the vinyl photos and videos, you all have such attractive turntables), but unfortunately I’m still hearing from people that some are missing. I’m not sure if it was the Canadian postal strike a little while ago, the Phantom Menace-ass trade war going on or something dumb I did, but if you haven’t received your order please get in touch. Sorry for the hassle, what a headache. I’ll get it sorted.

What are next

In between replacing lost orders, I’m happy to be a bit lower on deadlines while I catch up on admin stuff, which I’ve been having a little trouble keeping up with. Creatively though, I’ve been making time to organize all my music & writing ideas, practice and play and experiment with sound. Maybe getting a little bit inspired, I don’t know. We’ll see about that.

I hope you’re all doin’ good out there. I send you positive vibes, may they reach you quickly, without delay, damage or additional expense. Talk soon,

Brad
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
Official Patreon (20+ Unreleased Songs)
Brad Sucks Mailing List (Monthly Updates)
Social: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Discord

Hey all,

Thanks for all the kind words on the new album (here’s the full thing on youtube btw)— it’s always a roller coaster finishing a big project and that was by far one of my roller coaster-iest tbh. So your comments & support have been a big boost as I regenerate my life force over here. I’ve been behind on emails and messages but I’m getting caught up — if you’re waiting on a reply, feel free to try again, I’m only accidentally ignoring people right now.

The release overall has been going well (here are some thanks & notes I posted on Instagram), I got all of the crowdfunding orders shipped and people seem to be enjoying the vinyl, which is awesome. I’m caught up on shipping post-release orders as well so if you order off my website I’ll ship it out of here fairly quickly.

The Learning to Lie sci-fi pickleball music video got a fair amount of attention and the song itself is now just short of 40,000 plays on Spotify, which isn’t too shabby. Other tracks on the album seem to be In Trouble, Over and Over and Over and Wasting My Potential.

Last week the album debuted at #46 on the North American College & Community Top 200 which I’m told is good?

Anyway, happy to have it out there. Thanks for listening to and sharing it!

Oh, an item of business: if you paid for a cover song in the fundraiser and haven’t given me your song request, could you get in touch with me? I haven’t been able to get responses from a few folks and want to get you your covers.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for this month, thanks for reading. I feel brain dead. The plan for this month is to catch up on admin tasks I’ve neglected for eight months while David Lynch’s The Art Life plays on repeat in the background. Hope you’re hanging in there,

Brad
—
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
Official Patreon (20+ Unreleased Songs)
Brad Sucks Newsletter (Monthly Updates)
Social: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Discord

🚨🚨 My new album “Naturally” is streaming everywhere TODAY and also available on fancy vinyl! A year ago when I launched the funding campaign I had no idea how big of a project doing a more organic/live sounding album would be, but I think we pulled it off.

I’m proud and very relieved to have gotten it done and extremely grateful for everyone’s help: thank you so much to the crowdfunding backers for making this project possible and for being patient with the delays and complications that cropped up.

And of course, thank you to everyone who helped with the production, especially: Ben Mullin, Justin Purvis, Steve Gaw, Rob Cosh, Matthew Pfahlert, Glenn Forrester, Steve Pelehos, Nicholas Seguin and Justin Perkins. With special thanks to Emily & my parents for their much-needed emotional support. I plan to be in a better mood soon.

Thanks for your streams, shares, likes, comments, and letting me still do this after so many years. I hope you like the album! ❤️❤️

I’m not sure who actually reads this blog slash news page, but thank you for reading.

Brad