Thank you! All good! The first one hasn’t been out for super long, so you aren’t too far behind 
It’s so true! It’s crazy to me. When I first started playing, I was almost against writing my own stuff I only wanted to do covers and was perfectly happy. Now it’s the complete opposite- I only want to play my own stuff 
Thank you Boris! That exactly the kind of vibe I was going for, so I’m happy it came across 
Jennifer
Congratulations on the release. There are pleasing little echos of all sorts of genres and artists in your work, overlaid with a sound that is quite individual, CounterPlot’s musical signature. Phantom sounds very good. Very enjoyable.
Brian
Big congrats on getting these released CP peeps wishing you ever success.
Started listening to Phanton but the link then pushed me to Spotify, which doesn’t play well with the VPN on the PC so will have to catch it later. Oh and it obviously needs to be cranked and I am listening out for the mail. So headphones at 12/10 this evening !!
Brian, thank you so much! This is a huge compliment. When we started writing together, I always kind of wondered what “our sound” was going to be. It gets more and more recognizable to me the more we do, and it’s such a cool feeling. I love having a signature sound! Thanks for checking it out 
@roger_holland Thank you so much!!
Thanks Toby! I hope you like it!
That will be volume not time 
I don’t know, 12:10am seems as good a time as any for some CounterPlot
Earlier than planned but cranking it up in Spotify !
Forgot how good Time Bomb was ! Not sure I did it with cans and pushed volume, definitely jumps out when wound up. Did you have to design the “canvas” for each track or is that something Spotify does via video input ? Guess I’ll get to the “new” release but enjoying The Queen for now !
OK right got them ! Enjoyed Speed Control again, it has the CP vibe but always felt subtly different in some ways but still recognisable as the Portland Signature (sorry Jeff ).
Phantom sounds like you did a quick trip up to Seattle to mix in with the standard CP direction. Whoa that is one great song for a B side. I’d flip it and let it take centre stage.Riff is hypnotising and just full of energy - 'phones likely to add to actually feeling the pulse ! Just taking a 2nd pass and gone from 12 to about 15, this would be an absolute belter live. Harmonies are very well executed on the intro. Tones are just in your face and so many shades of epic 90s Seattle. Well executed peeps.
@Jenndye429 @nzmetal @DDye keep doing what you are doing it rocks.
Never too old to rock n roll if you’re too young to dye
!!
Thank you Toby! I always look forward to hearing your thoughts whenever we release something new You just get us
Thank you I wasn’t sure how the song would go over since it has a bit of a different feel to the other material, but so far the feedback has been very positive @nzmetal would likely have agreed with you here too
Yes… that has been my thinking too… I have been toying with the idea of recording a live version with just my guitar and vocals, or possibly doing it solo for one of the OMs. We will see. I really like the idea of doing an even more stripped down version live.
I’ve often thought about what would have happened if I had discovered guitar as a teenager in the 90s. Although- at that point I wouldn’t have had the life experience that make the songs what they are now. It’s hard to say the kind of stuff I would have written back then! As everyone knows, I’m a 90s girl through and through …I think my music will always have a little of that flavor since that sound is where my musical heart is 
Agreed 
So sorry Toby, for some reason I totally missed this comment!
Yes, Dan put together the canvas. We need to do one for the new tracks too, but they aren’t there yet.
Cool, I thought it morphed really well with the audio, so suspected some form of Spotify automation. But if that was pulled together by Dan @DDye that was even more impressive !
September 2026 What I’ve been up to
Hey everyone,
So people that know me on the forum may have noticed my decreased presence for a while. I figured I’d give a little bit of a life update to let you all know what I’ve been up to. Some music related, some not
A little over a year ago, I started on a personal health/fitness journey. I wasn’t feeling great about myself and as someone who was very active in their 20s (I turned 44 this year), I knew I could get into better shape if I committed to it. So I I started regularly working out from home and joined a local gym about 4 months later.
I fell in love with strength training 
I always knew I liked it, but it turns out I’m actually pretty good at it too! Most people that have not seen me for a while end up doing a double take and ask me what I’ve been doing. In recent days I’ve been told that I am “shredded” and “ripped”, adjectives that would not have been attributed to me at this time last year As a side note, my hands are basically two giant callouses at this point between guitar and the weights
At some point in this process, I got the crazy idea to possibly compete in women’s bodybuilding. I started looking up info about it, as this was all completely foreign to me. I found out that there was a new division called Fit Model. It seemed to be a good fit for my shape and was designed to be more of an entry point into the sport. The general goal is to look like you could be on the cover of a fitness magazine. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it…
So, about three months ago, I hired a competition prep coach. It’s been pretty much full steam ahead ever since! The goal right now is to get me on stage some time this fall. We are keeping our options open as there are several shows in that time frame in the Pacific Northwest that I could do depending on when I’m ready. It’s been a learning process (especially the posing!), and it is definitely not easy, but I’m excited for it! If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be working towards getting on a bodybuilding stage in my 40s, I would have laughed at you.
As you can imagine, music has had to take a little bit of a backseat during this process. I have a pretty intense training schedule during the week. My daughter is also entering her sophomore year of high school and is very involved with color guard as part of the school marching band. Between making sure she is where she needs to be and my training, eating, sleep and work schedules, I haven’t had a ton of extra free time.
I am still writing music, it’s just at a slower pace, and that’s ok. A couple weekends ago, I was involved in a fun project with a group of family/friends to make a short 10-15 minute movie from start to finish in 48 hours. Dan coordinated the full production. I was in charge of the music and I had to do a couple Instrumental pieces for the background plus one full song in that 48 hour window. It was a fun challenge and we were all able to pull it off! It was nice getting to spend a weekend with my guitar just being creative. Since we had to record the full song I wrote very quickly, I’m hoping to complete a more polished version of it at some point. Maybe with some additional guitar parts or a bass line. We will see.
If you are curious, here is the end result of the 48 hour movie project! The instrumental background music was written by me plus the song that plays during the credits. I also have a very small cameo part about a minute in It’s very silly, but we all had a blast making it. Feel free to check it out if you have about 12ish minutes of free time and need some entertainment.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
Good on you Jen for the health transformation.
I’ve had a very similar year ( dropped 39kg, and got right into the weight training), so I know the commitment and grit it take; particularly for 40+.
Building some solid muscle, and seeing ones abs again at 57 is a blast. The other things I’ve noticed? The mind is quite, and more focused. Bonus for guitar.
All the best with the body building journey.
Cheers, Shane
Interesting update Jenn, quite the detour. Good luck in your competition. Good to see you are still writing songs and videos. Do you have a stage and mirrors in your dining room now rather than a drum kit and amps?
You don’t do anything by halves do you
Music, Weight and Film … this all feels pretty familiar - I used to live in the gym, mainly power lifting and olympic lifting. Less so in the past year, but still try and keep middle age at bay! Also, my daughter’s an actress so I’m regularly reading in on audition tapes for short films.
Best of luck with the competition, but having seen how you attack everything else I’m sure you’ll smash it. Have a blast!
Sounds like a fantastic adventure Jen and super on the fitness front. Glad you able to keep the guitar going and writing. Will check out the video later.
Good luck with the competition when they start
Hats off to you, Jenny!
I’m amazed at your drive.
The chubby, lazy, unkempt side of my brain asks: “Why?”
Looking forward to watching the YT clip later.
Keep up the good work!
Whoa … your next venture … Muscle Rock!!
Super impressive drive and commitment Jenn.
