"Throw Down Your Weapons is a reflection of, and rumination on, life. A collection of pieces about many themes and ideas all at once; among them music, creating, art, growing up, falling-in and out of-love with yourself, the world around you - it's about wants, needs, art and growth." - Nicoletta Patsalos
Throw Down Your Weapons: An Exploration Of Vulnerability is my very first venture as a (book)writer. But this isn’t just MY book in a hedonistic and hubristic sense. This is your book too—and before you groan at that brazen cliché let me just say; there’s a common train of thought amongst songwriters that once you release a song into the world, it no longer belongs to you but to the ear it falls on and I'd like that extend that sentiment further here.
So having said that, this is yours to absorb, to discuss—even just with yourself, it’s an invitation for you to break away from the rush of routine and just be mindful in the moment, even just for five minutes of the day. A micro-holiday with zero minutes of transit time.
This isn’t some paperback snake oil or a pseudo self-help sob story, it is a mosaic of the meanderings that an inherently hyperactive mind had through quite a perplexing time (2020 & 2021).
"The true aspiration of art-
should be to reduce the need for it.
For it to crawl through our capillaries
and imbue our very being
so that we may feel its absence."
I took a risk on it too, to bare this much of me—my heart, my odd little observations on the human condition, my oft left of centre views on everyday normalities, my belief in myself that I actually had something to say (which is quite possibly just imposter syndrome getting in the way).
To embrace this road less travelled as a freelance creative and to just do the thing.
There is no publisher feeding this to the public through a PR campaign or funding the process, this is just me talking to you asking you the pertinent question of if you need another book in your life.
"Let's be gallant, let's be gracious
let's be mentors and leaders
let's be every little thing
that our younger selves needed."
Since we are now on the precipice of this paperback’s release:
If you live in Sydney, or know that you will be seeing me sometime soon somewhere in the world, there is also the option to bypass postage and offer to pick it up from me in person. Just shoot me a message any time.
Cover artwork by the amazing @emiscape
