Robbed on Spanish motorway / Donate for tour expenses

So this is top material for a song I guess. And fuck, no, I can easily do without it. There was some little hope this 2024 tour could be the end of what has been a constant race against trouble and an ultimate breakdown, trying to be faster, trying to keep the upper hand. Starting with the spring tour, which just made up for costs and losses of January and February and a small part of the studio expenses of the new album. May till July spending all there was on getting the album ready and all the time at hands on booking the tour for it, running the crowdfunding campaign, interrupted by a handful of shows. At no point ever knowing whether this all would pan out in a good way, get ready in time, or how to pay it. Hoping, praying, swearing, reducing daily meals down to fried eggs, pasta, tobacco and coffee. No break, full throttle, hoping the tour shows and the merch sales would give me some rest en route or at least when back around Xmas.
It looked promising up to a certain point. The vinyl got ready just on the day I had to leave, after things seemed to not work out at all just ten days prior. Gigs went down nicely, merch could have been better, but still kinda OK. Good vibes peaking with the Perpignan show I had the pleasure to share with Boucan. Playing some of the album tracks together felt like flying. Bliss. Utter bliss.

Followed by a sunny morning after weeks of drizzling rain. Just as if all would finally be fine, take an enjoyable twist. As if the spell was broken. That being the sunny morning of Friday, 11 October 2024, when loading in and hugging the Boucan boys a last time before setting out for the Teruel concert. Before the fragile flower of optimism crumbled, fell to pieces, disintegrated on the hard shoulder of a Catalan motorway, a few miles south of Macanet. The second hold-up in my touring history.

There is a particular feeling that comes with it. I wonder if there is a word fore it. Had it once before, when one morning in Gothenburg, Sweden, the passenger side lock of my car was dangling on a wire from where it was supposed to be, when i tried to get something from the van. Some both emotional andphysical shock. As if someone just punched you in your stomach. High voltage. A fraction of a second only, but enough to understand what apparently just happened and that it's not a dream. At the same time some rarely used brain sector in the back of your head gives you an immediate vision of what consequences this situation is going to bear. A super fast preview on the domino effect you may expect. From next months rent, energy and tax bills, reclaims of Covid subsidies... Including but not limited to which of your high flying dreams just crash landed.

Screwed. Screwed big time. Back to zero. Race is on. Again. Good luck, mate.

There was a massive wave of sympathy, support offers and encouraging comments/posts on social media after I posted about being robbed on the AP-7 in Catalonia on my way to the concert in Teruel. Some money has been sent for the immediate needs, some purchases were made in support of me. This is all very, very much appreciated. I wrote on social media and in some messages/mails too, I will need a bit of time to find out for myself how to handle this all. And honestly, I still do not know. There were suggestions to run a "go fund me" campaign, but I'm afraid that's too much for me. The crowdfunding one for the album got me mentally close to the edge and just the thought of handling such a thing while being on tour is the worst nightmare I can imagine.

Just so you understand this: there has been massive support from a lot of you during the pandemic, there has been massive support from as much of you in the crowdfunding campaign this summer, and I'm more than glad to accept this as your honest urge to generously support an artist you value and his work. This is no given thing, and I'm - no matter how the situation looks like at the moment - very hesitant to have the current crisis sorted out by you. So no "Go Fund Me" thingy will be started.

In case you want to make a donation anyway to cover up for the petrol, accommodation and food costs of this tour, that's very welcome and most appreciated. Another way of supporting is ordering merch or music in my webshop or bandcamp. I leave this up to you.

Donations can be made by PayPal to
PayPal.me/folknoir
Webshop
Bandcamp