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