AIGHT so 2025 is over so i making a post similar to last year going over my thoughts, achievements, shortcomings and future goals.
music-wise the year was actually decent. my output was higher - my focus was to create a greater volume of less compositionally dense tracks to create a kinda portfolio thing (i was tired of telling people i make music then having fuck all to show for it online). and honestly it worked out pretty well, i got frontpaged twice this year so that was def a big ego boost:
also
personal fav for the year ^^^
however all this time i kept to myself grinding at this portfolio meant that i kinda became estranged to my roots - even though i was never a big name in the underground edm scene (FAR from it) i was very active in the community and was mutuals with quite a few people who are. but im ASS at replying to dms. then the uni workload got too overwhelming and i had to take a lot of time off socials. then i accidentally locked myself OUT of my discord acc and had to outright delete that shit so that was the final nail in the coffin. basically nobody knows who i am anymore, so i hope to rectify that somewhat this year.
as for of goals related to AZININE itself - i'm ending it. i feel like this transitional period in my life corresponds with a name change. i've already been working on new art assets so please look forward to that :>
furthermore, i'm gonna try to establish myself as a vgm composer moving forward - i really don't want to pigeonhole myself into specific genres - i'd consider myself versatile enough to take on basically any genre if i set my mind to it, so i instead wanna focus on honing and incorporating my style into my work. i've been thinking about the nature of art itself a lot this year (fuck ai art) and it just feels like the sensible thing to do for my progression as an artist. i also hope to finish more collabs and make more connections in the scene (inshallah no more crusty dms). finally, i want to trust my creative process. no more second guessing myself or hesitating or cross-referencing or shit like that. i want my art to truly be my own and confidently say "this is the representation of everything that defines my mind but in sound form". also i need to learn how to sound design for real. and learn how mix for real without just randomly stumbling into a clean mixdown by pure chance.
finally i will say that, outside of my music, 2025 was kinda dogshit for my personal life - physically, mentally, socially, financially, educationally, and i'm probably forgetting a few things at that. however, i've already started to make the steps to relevant change and i'm hopeful that i'll be in a much better place by the time i'm writing the 2026 recap post.
that's everything i got for now. thanks for reading if you got through the whole thing, and thank you to tom and newgrounds.com for being such a dope website for 30 years strong.
keep it light ✧˖°࿔
-j
