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March had the feeling of a room with a lot of wires running through it. Most of them led back to Riding the Merry Go – targeted release May 8. This original riff was created on June 19, 2024 and originally titled Johnny Marr. We had just “acquired” a fender amp (long story) and Heath started playing it, but the default setting was like “screaming solo” and Heath was like, “ah man – this amp’s busted – the speaker’s blown”, but Jeff was able to dial it to a setting titled, “Johnny Marr” – just like that it sounded like a Smith’s riff and Jeff captured it on audio and video – pretty cool… It’ll be 689 days from birth to release – that’s gotta be some sort of record!
The song kept changing shape during the month. Never has there been more recording and re-recording for a single 2 and half minute song. The confusion was unlocked when we listened to a raw version with just bass, drums and the single guitar track. We were in and out of the main Logic session, working a separate vocal-comp track, turning over mixes, references, and alternate versions, trying to get closer to the thing the song seems to want to be. Not louder, not bigger. Just more itself.
At the same time, it kept spilling outward. A lot of visual work gathered around Riding the Merry Go in March — short pieces, cover art, fragments built to move on their own. It was one of those months where the music was not sitting in one place. It kept turning into other forms.
There were other currents running too. Some new raw video showed up in the Pronounce Hecojeni lane. Summer’s Calling was active again in Final Cut, which means that world is still alive and moving. Nothing was standing still for very long.
So that is probably the simplest version of it: March was a month of building toward release, but also building atmosphere. Riding the Merry Go was at the center of it, and a lot of what we touched kept pointing back in that direction.
Oh – another crack at AI artwork led to a Charles Atlas style ad for Hecojeni – “Now 40% cooler!”
That’s just gotta be a t-shirt… maybe it is… or will be – check us out: https://www.bonfire.com/store/hecojeni/
By the numbers
· 2,101 file touches in March
· 2,026 video files touched
· 14 audio files touched
· 5 image files touched
· 2 Riding the Merry Go Logic projects touched during the month
· 1 current Riding the Merry Go MP3 mix updated
· 2 Riding the Merry Go cover-art files updated
Talk to you next month!
Jeff and Heath
February 2026
February Cold
February brought a little bit of everything.
An ice storm. A quick escape south to Alabama. Then a snowstorm a week later — this time with nowhere to run. Somewhere in the middle of that came the difficult decision to tear down the house Jeff and Diane had been trying to save. Not every project survives.
There were brighter notes too. Heath worked his way through recovery and waited for the rare sunny day to get out on the trail, and Jeff made a quick trip to Florida for a baby shower — his first grandchild on the way — along with a wander through Epcot.
Music found its way in between all of it.
February surfaced a brand new Hecojeni song: “Jack of No Trades.”
The core riff is older — something Jeff originally played years ago, possibly on a Buddafi recording — but the chords around it are new. What had been a fragment is now starting to behave like a song.
That’s usually how these things begin: quietly.
Meanwhile the video pipeline kept grinding.
Most of the activity centered on “Riding the Merry Go,” where dozens of short-form clips were cut, shuffled, or refined as the system continued feeding the social platforms. A few late adjustments around “Summer’s Calling” also surfaced as older clips were revisited.
Behind the scenes, the system logged:
- 119 file touches
- 94 video files
- 73 TikTok/Reel clips touched
- 2 audio files
- 1 Logic project session
- 1 new mix surfaced
February also included a brief return to Athens. First stop: Weaver D’s (“Automatic for the People”) the night before it closed for good – then Peter Buck and Kevin Kinney at the Rialto, and the next night watched Michael Shannon and friends run through R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant at the 40 Watt — with Buck joining for the final songs. Jeff also convinced Lamar Sorrento to paint an R.E.M. portrait and that has found its way to the Swamp Rabbit Studio – fitting subject, fitting artist, fitting resting place
JanuarY 2026
January moved.
Summer’s Calling came out on the 16th.
Two pre-release notes to radio and podcasters. Then the full send.
If you like numbers:
· Pre #1: 1,372 delivered / 47% opened
· Pre #2: 1,355 delivered / 45% opened
· Release day: 7,883 delivered / 71% opened
Another month of videos and clips. Behind that, the studio was busier.
Inside Riding the Merry Go:
· new vocal passes (with / without)
· a fresh guitar solo
· layers under the vocal — clean, distortion, then more distortion
· alternate takes that quietly changed the shape of the song
Not dramatic. Just forward.
Probably the next release — as soon as we get our act together and actually finish it.
There was also a note to venues later in the month. Different kind of work. Same direction.
If you missed it, start with Summer’s Calling.
It’s the clearest picture of where things stand.
— Jeff & Heath
December 2025
December has a way of bending time.
Homes fill up. Trees come inside. Cars get packed. Distances are traveled. Music plays low while other things take priority. Work still happens — the wheels of progress grind slowly but surely.
Oh – and goats showed up to work the land a bit!
Christmas Lost Today, out last month, found its way onto radio in December — including spins on Radio Evolve in Santa Barbara — and out into the world beyond our hands. Songs do that sometimes. You finish them, send them off, and they come sounding a little different.
Summer’s Calling is finished — fully recorded, mixed, and now mastered by Harry Hess. It’s uploaded and waiting. Sent. Done. There’s a strange gap between finishing a song and actually seeing it drop — like having a baby and not holding her for a few weeks. January 16 is circled.
.Systems, Processes and IT
It’s one thing to write and record songs, it’s another to build a system around their management, promotion and getting them out.
Thankfully, Jeff put on his IT/Systems hat and put spinning plates in the air – 3.5k video clips sourced from rehearsals, interviews, recording, and the AI videos mentioned last month – lining up in a rows to be sent off to social media camp for the day.
It’s slow, behind-the-scenes work. But it’s the difference between something existing and something being seen.
Merry Go on the horizon – time to get to work… down in the basement, mixing up the medicine!
Drop us a line: jeff@hecojeni.com
— Jeff and Heath, Hecojeni
November 2025
TNOVEMBER — LEAVES OF BROWN
Pictures in Motion
There was a moment in time when music didn’t just play — it appeared. MTV/Friday Night Videos: A screen lit up, the world shifted a little, and suddenly a song had a face, a mood, a story.
This month, Jeff stepped back into that feeling.
Short films — dozens of them — surfaced from November’s quiet hours: winter-light rooms, drifting city nights, faces caught mid-thought. Fifteen-second stories made of color, shadow, and suggestion. Everywhere all at once.
Songs Beginning
Perfection Is a Mirage
Galloping – maybe the drums are off time, or maybe Jeff’s guitar. No matter – waiting on Heath’s melody to get to the words… Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Change – perfect or a mirage?
Songs Becoming
Riding the Merry Go
A world taking shape — Jeff thinks it’s done, Heath wants to rewrite the entire thing; time will tell – probably next in the release pipeline
Pictures, Places, Quiet Things
Road Trip with Jesus | Jeff with the found guitar | A bird at Engel | Muscadine Wine from Engel | Philomath is where I go
Numbers
If you like seeing behind the curtain:
· 4,867 files touched in November
· 381 new video clips generated or filmed
· 45 music-related music edits
· 1 brand-new song born
· 12 works-in-progress advanced across lyrics, mixes, and visuals
Listen & Follow
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5lxOC1dkSPHaXedHY4nFW5
— Jeff and Heath: Hecojeni