2013 has been quite the year for us. Consider, 12 months ago we had only an EP and a solitary single. Now, we are sitting on a full-length album, three singles and three music videos. This time last year, we blundered drunkenly into the New Year having just stepped off the second stage of the O2 Academy in Islington (arguably our biggest show at the time), and yet only four months later we were road-tripping back down there to play the main stage.
Also that month (April 2013), we hit the road again, to Sheffield for a competition, and returned to our home town to perform a live session for our local BBC Radio station and their Introducing team.
In June, we headlined the O2 Academy 3 Birmingham, played as part of a theatre showcase of the 4 most talented bands in our region, and played an outdoor food festival.
In September you may remember the release of our most recent single, Oh Me, Oh My which was hugely well received both publicly and critically. The music video followed soon after. We later saw out the year with a pair of support shows in Birmingham, each with an excellent turn-out.
All these different experiences leave me with a bitter-sweet feeling as we turn to face the fresh dawn of 2014. We all know that the good times do not come without the bad; the praise never vocalised without the criticism. We have made friends, and lost them. Towards the end of the year, we have struggled to keep up with the heavy demands of our chaotic lives and the commitments they wrap us up in. We've persevered.
We've greeted warmly a list of fantastic new, talented, inspiring people as long as your arm - but we've also said a reluctant goodbye to just as many. Too many. People slip out of your life, leaving heavy hearts and dark eyes. As some may enter your life with an exquisite flourish of colour, others must leave in a blaze of glory; others still, in a heartbreaking silence.
New Year, to me, encourages us to reflect on our lives: where they're going, where they lead. Our achievements in the past year. I also think it's a time to look forward. I think it is a time to set goals, challenges for the year ahead. I think it is time to step up, and for us this means grabbing the world by the throat and showing what you've got to offer. You may not agree. I'm not asking you to agree.
We are at a turning point in our careers. We have played in front of thousands of people over the past two years, we have raised over a thousand pounds for charity, we have had some incredible experiences. Yet now we must look onwards.
With another goodbye, we are given another chance to greet a new year with fresh ambition and spirit. We start this new year humbled, proud and thankful. There are many faces we leave behind in 2013 and yet more still out there to meet and entertain in the future. If you are reading this now, then I know - we know - that you have all been with us this year, and we are immeasurably grateful. Without you we are nothing.
We have a relaunch coming. Come and sing with us, as you did this year.
2014 is ours for the taking.
Sam