Is It Insane to Still Make Albums?
Is it insane to release a full album these days? Probably. Smalltown Poets did it anyway β and guitarist Kevin Breuner sat down to explain why.
Kevin's band has been putting out records since the 90s: major label, then indie, then EPs and holiday releases, remixes, and more. That's four decades of watching how albums get made, marketed, heard, and measured.
So we used that vantage point to ask the bigger question: what is an album even FOR in 2026? We get into how the whole game has changed decade by decade, and then into the real stuff β finishing a record when life shows up hard (distance, loss, a kid in a car accident, a band scattered across the country), the strange job of speaking for a whole band when you're the one person holding the phone, and why he's chosen slower, story-driven promotion over chasing platforms his fans don't actually use.
If you've ever wondered whether a real album is still worth the effort β creatively, financially, emotionally β this one's for you.
π§ Scratch Track is a podcast for busy, middle-aged musicians who still take their music seriously β people still making good work, who don't want to chase trends, go broke, or burn out.
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