Turnip Boy 2, Super Raft Boat Together @ PAX, Okinoth LP, Poetry & MORE 2023

Turnip Boy 2 + Super Raft Boat Together = PAX East

PAX East is on March 23-26, 2023 and I'll be there with the whole developer squad @ Snoozy Kazoo w/ our publisher, Graffiti Games, talking about Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. This is my first time working any convention so please, talk to me nice. I will be standing there being social for 8 hours a day probably sweaty and hungover from the drinking networking. I'll try to be chipper

In addition to that, I'm HELLA PROUD to announce that I'm working on the soundtrack for Super Raft Boat Together, developed by my good friends at Shattered Journal Games, so be sure to look out for them at the 'Brace Yourself Games' publisher booth. Tell them Jake sent you :)


I'll be in Boston getting hammered networking the whole weekend so hit my line if you wanna bar hop with like 25 nerds

What? Okinoth Album in the works? I thought he quit lol. Who is Okinoth? Oh James? the turnip game music guy? Ok go off I guess, weird name tho

Let's peer into the vast abyss that is my oceanic soul for a bit 

In college I learned a ton about producing music, but I was actively committing creative suicide

There is nobody to blame for the unsustainable, self-destructive grindset I developed in college that led to me starving myself and working 18 hours a day to become a multiplatinum producer. I was extremely driven and it put a barrier between myself and my family/friends that only began to weaken after the pandemic simmered down. (The drive was admirable but naïve)

From 2017 (Todd Forest iykyk) to 2021 I devised the Okinoth solo project to trim away everything that didn't matter to me creatively and boil down my vision, at least I thought that's what I was doing 

My environment in college warped my view of reality and instilled a massive fear of failure in me, I saw peers drop out and switch majors and developed anxiety over never making my music dreams come true. I felt aimless and spent a time where most people try to find their purpose brute forcing my way through every obstacle by acting like a gigachad music producer and it killed all the parts of me that loved making music. I was trying to scum my way into higher stream numbers, literally watching a number go up, trading view for view on every song. K1N taught me how to polish up my sound to be more palatable and though I still made weird shit anyways (lol) I was definitely trying to appeal to strangers on the internet because I was afraid of being a failure. 

This shit got so bad that when Turnip Boy dropped I didn't even feel good, I felt like ass, because the quirky gamer music that I wrote just for fun and as a favor to a good pal of mine was absolutely demolishing the tryhard EDM I was busting my ass just to make 0 money on. I spent like 3 weeks tweaking 'Blacklight', which is still DEAD on the Okinoth catalog, whereas I recorded 'a fertile wood at heart' in like 2 hours. The numbers speak for themselves for these tracks.

I've been making music for almost 16 years, I don't need to bend over backwards to make something interesting. Effort =/= Outcome.

Though I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this on the blog before, I am re-falling in love with music and art these days. Naturally this creative resurgence has led to me working on my first fully solo LP ever 

OGs know this but lets review my actual releases in my lifetime:

  • Todd Forest - 'Depression Pop' (on youtube only) 2017
  • Todd Forest - 'Aizuri-e' (Murdered it off the internet for some reason) 2018
  • Okinoth - The tryhard era (a bunch of singles and features) 2019
  • Okinoth + K1N - 'Starry Docks' (botched release cus covid pretty much) 2021
  • Okinoth - 'Alive by Spite' (electronic music for a buddy's twitch stream, I actually love these) 2022
Now were in 2023 and my goal is to say fuck all that bullshit about sounding a certain way, I'm combining all the knowledge and influences I have in my toolbelt and I'm already knee deep in crafting something really special to me, I'm closing in on the epicenter of my sound in one full length album of 96.8% new shit (theres some samples from the old stuff)

I reached more listeners with funny vegetable game than I ever did prowling around the internet begging for a shot to make it big. This taught me that its really not that fuckin serious. The music is gonna be sick and I cant wait to be able to share some singles with everyone. Expect a more polished take on the music I was making before I started compromising who I was, before I started playing pretend.


'Beyond Glass Worlds' & 'Poem 29'

Work on my novella continues slowly but surely, my passion for worldbuilding is at full tilt as we enter 2023 and the fictional setting of my stories, 'Talies', is developing nicely. I've taken to referring to the encyclopedia of crazy shit I'm making up to fill the world of 'Talies' with danger and intrigue as 'Beyond Glass Worlds'. Its like my own personal Silmarillion. I've been spending nights and weekends workshopping minute details about fantastical countries. I love it, but I could do it forever. Last year pen hit paper on the first draft of my first written story since high school, but don't hold your breath, I'm taking my sweet time on this. I want it to be special.

Poem 29

My first book of poems is basically done, now I'm being lazy about sending it around to publishers. If anyone has experience with that email me: (jake@okinoth.xyz)

I present: Poem 29 by James Currier


29

Nine fresh rabbits feet 
Cover them in alcohol and burn them in the street 
Unfurled in my defeat 
Take me home 
Where, crystal clear 
I see the demons running free between your ears 
I can hear them screaming
They're so loud that I can hear  


結論

Overall I been at the gym, writing, making music, and waiting patiently for fishing season. My  'resolution' this year is to get out in nature more, maybe I'll even blog about my trips. This summer I'll be fishing for stripers off Prince Edward Island while staying with Mitch and his family, my first time leaving the USA.

Oh also I started collecting vinyl records, pray for my wallet 

Love, peace, cya,

your internet boyfriend, Jake (Okinoth) the WROR superstar - and please - think of the children!!!