- Kai Straw
There Is No Curtain
Wow, again! ‘I Hope They Play This In Toronto’ gave me my best first day ever – earning more streams on day one than any song I’ve released before. This is the third time I’ve broken that record since ‘Imagination’ back in May. So many of you posted this song in your stories, messaged me, streamed it, all that. Thank you! (Also – my Apple Music numbers are now ten times what they were when I started this. Crazy.)
I think often we can get cynical about the world. We can sit back and see someone’s joy and think, “Yeah, that’s fake.” We can sit back and watch someone’s success and think, “Ah, that’s because they’re cheating somehow, they know the right people,” and so on. Sometimes I get messages with this ‘what’s the secret sauce’ energy. And when I reveal it’s just me grinding, sometimes it seems like they’re disappointed. They’re hoping to peer behind the curtain and find Oz, pulling secret levers and punching the buttons they can’t see.
One of my goals in being transparent is just to show that there is no curtain; there is no tiny man with a bag of tricks. Any magic that’s being achieved is real. At the center of your mind’s Emerald City, there is an Oz, and behind his curtain there is a limitless reservoir of strength and the understanding that he is an expression of eternity. There’s magic in you. We’ve got to let the chains of our insecurities roll off our shoulders so we can be set free to claim that magic. You are the capable one. You are the secret sauce. You forge the keys. You really need to look into the mirror and see the wizard, see the champion, or else you’ll never be one.
I want you to feel your power and win, and I hope you view everything I do as proof that you can do whatever you’d like with this life. Though I make music, what I hope will be the greater result of what I’m doing is there existing more people in this world who live in the light, who embody hope, who are courageous, who see the dragons that need slaying and think – I can do this; I am the champion I’ve been waiting for. 💀 ⚔️