He said the largest lesson is to "keep moving forward even when you're stuck" or the project seems pointless, or he doesn't like the song.

"I'm starting to feel like that's a necessary thing to get past when you're doing something quickly, and new," he said.

Each week, he's reached a point where he thinks he might finally not finish something. (From the outset, he's given himself some parameters. The goal is a full song with lyrics, but he can make an instrumental, or rework an older song, or write short.)

After posting, he might go to bed feeling generally discouraged, or that the song was too rushed. Within a few days, he can hear the song with fresh ears again. He's marked four of them for his band.

Count among them the first week's song, "Happens Every Time," a fast-paced rock song that's actually about creative self-doubt. ("I don't need to make any more resolutions/I just need to find some paper and a pen/And start over again.") Another song, "Hidden Hand," admires and questions the weirdness of the structure of the world, something of a recurring theme for Brownell. "I’m not gonna think about it anymore/Just want to watch and mystify/the skies/reflected in my eyes/While the hidden hand hides from me."

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