A look at last and next year
Recap 2023
The time has come… Today is the last day of 2023. Let’s look back on what we’ve achieved.
I will start off by saying that 2023 has been a major success for my music. I haven’t yet listed all the milestones and wonderful things I am grateful for to have experienced, but I already have this general feeling that this year sort of marked the beginning of the rest of my life. Now, it’s time to see why I feel that way and look back on a fantastic year.
Let’s do this in chronological order, only mentioning ‘first timers’ and without too much explanation. If you’re curious about any of the things that happened, I’m sure my Instagram will give you some more details!
January
+ ACHIEVEMENT: Being nominated for Best International Artist on Cragsradio’s Unsigned Music Awards
February
+ ACHIEVEMENT: Releasing my first ever dubstep feature on the song “CLANG” with Deus Nebula
+ PERFORMANCE: My first gig with paid tickets; Folk Night at Astrant with The Coincidences
March
+ COLLABORATION: My first ever collaboration with Firamiel; a cover of “As The World Falls Down”
+ PERFORMANCE: First ever performance as a support act (for Maggie’s Flock).
April
+ MILESTONE: First ever external promotional video at Theekoepel Wageningen.
May
+ ACHIEVEMENT: Purchase of a piano
+ ACHIEVEMENT: Purchase of a new guitar
+ COLLABORATION: First ever collaboration with Eric Heitmann: an original called “Beltane Is Here”
June
+ ACHIEVEMENT: “Tavern Songs from Altera” moves into my top 3 most popular releases on Spotify for the first time
July
+ PERFORMANCE: First ever performance in Rhenen
+ MILESTONE: My Mother Told Me hits a million (1.000.000) streams on Spotify
August
+ COLLABORATION: First ever collaboration with a visual artist (Hope Christofferson) matching music to visual art for “Call from the Sea”
+ PERFORMANCE: First ever commission by a friend to play music at their birthday
September
+ ACHIEVEMENT: Release of first ever composition with Dutch lyrics
+ ACHIEVEMENT: “Space Guardians” is added to the game Space Engineers
+ MILESTONE: Spotify creates the “This is Bart Zeal” playlist
October
+ PERFORMANCE: First ever commission to play at a wedding party
November
+ COLLABORATION: First ever collaboration with Reyjuliand; a hardrock cover of “The Phantom of the Opera”
December
+ PERFORMANCE: First ever performance in Nijmegen.
+ MILESTONE: Release “Book of Zeal, Vol 3.” Another year of music collected into an album.
+ MILESTONE: Bart Zeal on Spotify reaches 1000 followers
2023 Conclusion
When 2023 started, I set the goal of creating a song especially for a videogame, series, or movie (of whatever scale). What happened instead was that a song from years previous got added to a game. I say that’s a win.
But the year did not stop giving just yet. It brought more people in contact with my music, referring especially to the million streams milestone and the thousand followers milestone, both on Spotify.
The motto on the homepage of my website is: “The best thing about making music is finding enthusiastic listeners,” but that is not entirely true. I would amend it to this: “The best thing about making music is doing so with others.” 2023 was the year of first collaborations with Firamiel, Deus Nebula, Eric Heitmann, Hope Christofferson, and Reyjuliand. All of them wonderfully creative people and very kind souls. I’m so glad that I got in touch with them this year!
Like I said in the beginning; 2023 feels like the start of the rest of my life; reaching those numbers makes me feel more accomplished. Already I feel so grateful, but also happy and somewhat succesful. And yet, there is so many years to come with that same feeling. This isn’t over, it’s only just beginning! And that makes me incredibly hopeful and joyous when I look ahead to the future.
Plans for 2024
I’ve not set a lot in stone for 2024 yet, but I do have some general ideas that I hope to achieve in this next year. I also have things I already look forward to. It’s a small list, but I’ll stick to the bullet-point style nonetheless.
+ More focus on Viking-themed songs
+ More collaborations with new faces!
+ More collaborations with old friends!
+ A collaboration with Elenniyah?
+ The release of Northgard’s Shores
+ The release of Full Sturgeon Moon
+ The release of Baldur’s Gate 3 songs
+ The release of ODIN! (Dutch Viking song)
+ Rebranding across all social media for a uniform presence
+ Creating ‘easy-listening’ songs; my voice by default usually demands attention. Sometimes, I just want to listen to easy music in the background and not have someone distracting me all the time (even if it’s myself!). I want to learn to sing in a way that can accommodates that. I want it to convey meaning through more than just the lyrics. I want to create songs with more atmosphere and with the goal of evoking a feeling rather than telling a story.
That’s what you may expect from me in the new year. A couple of releases that are already lined up and then, after that, a different turn in the style of my songs. I love exploring all parts of my craft and music is incredibly diverse. Next year, I’ll attempt to explore a much softer part of my niche.
I wish you all a very happy and joyful 2024! I can’t wait to share the year with you!
Bart the Bard 