Hey my indie friend,

“Truth hurts.”

That’s how Jay Steppa put it this week, and he’s not wrong. We’re in an era where audacity often beats craft, confidence outruns patience, and algorithms reward what’s loud, not what’s deep.

But that’s not why artists create.

As Stephen Anderson asked so simply, and so not simply at all:

Why do we do what we do?

For me, an artist is someone who stays awake at night wondering if a song is honest enough to let it go. Not polished enough. Honest enough. Artists don’t create to fit. They create to share. To open a door. To offer life, love, disruption, and meaning, sometimes in silence, sometimes unseen.

That’s also why meeting matters.

September 4–6, 2026. Cologne.

INDIEpendence Day won’t be about clout or numbers. It’s about presence. No screens. Just artists meeting artists. Come as colleagues. Go as friends.

Keep creating. Keep questioning.

Even if it reaches only a few, that’s already everything. And this is exactly the meaning of this 71st Weekly.

Love 🤍, and happy reading,

Mitxoda

This Saturday, Eddie Keller brings his country-rock spirit to the most iconic vinyl spot in town.

Come early to dig for records, stay for the twangy guitars and boot-stompin’ grooves.

All indie artists share the same love for music.
Not the shiny kind.
The deep one. The stubborn one. The one that keeps you awake at night.

They all know that moment of doubt:

That decision is never easy. Because behind every track, there’s a fragile attempt to translate something invisible, something felt deep in the chest, into sound. And most of the time, it hurts. It stretches. It exposes.

What the outside world often labels as “classic”, “acceptable”, or “receivable” is rarely the goal. Artists don’t create to fit. They create to share. To open a door. To let others decide.

Because artists are far more than “creators” or “content creators”.

They provide LIFE.

They provide humor.

They provide disruption.

They provide LOVE.

They provide the missing pieces in someone else’s story.

They bring surprise, solidarity, SUPPORT.

So what do others give back to artists?

Even when it looks like “nothing”, it never truly is.

An artist’s fuel comes from the gaze of others. From feedback. From respect. From disagreement. From a conversation sparked by controversy. From a simple wave, a “hi”, a presence.

The power of an audience outweighs gold, streams, or numbers.

An artist will probably be remembered. No matter what.

Their art will live on.

But the most powerful thing is the message.

Just because the audience doesn’t fully get it doesn’t mean nothing happened. Silence still means something. It means someone listened. Or read. Or paused. Or contemplated, if only once.

Art lives in seconds and centuries alike. And in both cases, it remains essential, even for those who resist it, try to frame it, or fight against it.

Artists survive everything. They are survivors.

Because they know their message doesn’t belong to the present alone. It travels, unevenly, imperfectly, passed from one person to another, from one generation to the next.

Forgetting an artist often leads someone else to rediscover them. To search. To analyze. To return with a new interpretation.

Is that interpretation accurate?

We’ll never know.

But the artist wins something precious: someone thought about them.

About their work.

And pushed it, just a little, into the future.

Think of it like a small headline in an old newspaper. Few will read it. Maybe years later. But the impact will arrive. It always does.

Artists don’t follow orders. They don’t chase the masses. They move with the flow. And often, the least pretentious are the most influential.

So yeah.

Just to say: love you all. Whatever your path.

Keep art alive. Keep artists as the quiet founders of new generations.

Every time something is created.

Even for just a few people.

That’s more than enough.

-M

PS: I first wrote this as pure free writing, words placed next to each other without thinking, letting my hand (and keyboard) move on its own, almost without me… and even if I was advised by some friends not to rewrite it, I chose to share this version with you; if you’d rather read the original, with all its faults and imperfections, I can send it too, just tell me.

For those who wonder, here are Jay Steppa and Stephen’s words and discussions.

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This week’s Top 10 isn’t about winning prizes, it’s about love, support, and staying in it together.

Listen Back to the last Friday Salon Indie de Mitxoda here.

I’ll see you all later today at 4:00 PM (Brussels time) for the 40th episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda, live at salon.mitxoda.be, see you very soon.

No verdict to deliver. No lesson to impose. Just a space left open on purpose.

Because art doesn’t ask for agreement, it asks for attention.

And indie has never been about being right, loud, or seen by everyone. It’s about choosing honesty over comfort, presence over noise, depth over reach.

What you take from these words is yours.

What you question, keep, reject, or carry forward, that’s the real conversation.

As always: no pressure, no algorithm, no obligation.

Just people, music, and a few moments that mattered.

See you on the path.
🖤 Mitxoda

END 😆