5 Years Later And We're Still Here!

Hey!

This is a very very special blog post. It was written by both me and Anje! You'll see why just below, but before we start, we have some news. Whether or not they are good or bad is up to you.

This is our last blog post. Not forever, I assure you. We just plan to write (a lot!) less. We’ll still have the end of the year post, and maybe a couple occasional ones. But for now, this is a “au revoir et à bientôt.”

Flare, at least as a concept, a dream, an idea, is five years old. Anje and I met in May 2019, and from that fateful meeting one random day in May, we shared a dream. We shared a passion. We shared an objective.

And that was the beginning of our friendship.

Since it’s our five-year anniversary, we decided to make a blog about it. After a few days of thinking, Anje came up with the idea to write a little gratitude blog post. I was down with it, so here we are.

The blog will have two parts. Mine is the first which is just below, and after that there is Anje’s.

Enjoy!

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I’m not a poet, but a peek at my previous blogs would show that, clearly, I know my way around words. It could be because it’s a hidden talent of mine honed by years of writing fiction. Not to brag, but I’ve always had a creative and imaginative mind, and my favourite moments in school were all the times the assignments were to write fiction. I wish I could remember all the stories I came up with playing with my dolls. I was a wild child, and my imagination was wilder.

It could also just be that after spending over a decade writing, something that has become my main hobby, I’ve learned how to grasp words.

Maybe it’s both. But all this to say, I clearly know my way around words. So why is it so hard to say what I’m grateful about in my friendship with Anje? I guess it’s because I’m not someone who’s incredibly touchy-feely. I am honest with my emotions but that still doesn’t make me the most outwardly emotional person out there. I have a personal bubble the size of the province of Quebec, both physically and mentally.

I guess I’ll start with the obvious. I’m grateful for our friendship. Five years might not seem like a long time to know someone, but trust me, Anje and I have been through a lot. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but we’ve been through things that easily could’ve broken other friendships. We’ve been through a lot of failures. A lot of disappointment, a lot of starting over, a lot of moments of feeling helpless. Sometimes we argue, we see things differently. But we always manage to make up. We take a step back, we come back, and we find a way to work through it. We put communication in the middle of every of our interaction. There's an ocean between us, a six-hour time difference, yet we're still here, stronger than ever.

But don’t think our friendship is always so negative. We’ve experienced a lot of moments of joy. We’ve experienced pride, we’ve experienced improvement. We laugh all the time. We gossip. We joke. We rant and vent and offer each other a supporting ear. We’re making a thousand plans for each other (lots of travelling on the way, may my bank account rest in peace).

I believe our friendship is special. And it means a lot to me.

The second thing I’m grateful for is the courage Anje gives me daily. You see, Anje and I suffer from the same terrible disease of "never posting on social media." Nothing wrong with that. But when you’re trying to become an artist in an era where social media is the backbone of your career, it’s very counterproductive.

We're both aware of that. However, here's where we differ: Anje is willing to share, to put herself out there, to try things.

I'm not.

I’m a secretive person. I’m discreet, I don’t like to share. I would rather share topics that interest me, even if they have nothing to do with music. I'd rather not show my face, not show my existence. I want to be a shadow; I want to be wind passing through as a breeze and gone within seconds (and here I said I wasn't a poet!").

But again, I want to be an artist, and right now, that's counterproductive.

So whenever we work on our social media plans and objectives, we tussle a little. Not much I want to share, not much I want to show. No ideas that call to me. So Anje makes me to step out of my comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t force my hand, but she does make me take small steps out of my bubble. We've yet to find a common ground, something that we both connect with easily. But I'm not worried; we'll find a solution, we always do. And with her help, with the courage she's helped me gain, I can say I will be right there.

One more thing I’m very grateful about in my friendship with Anje is the dream she gave me. It sounds weird to say when the way we met was because we both had a dream. But I truly feel that, as the years have passed, she’s made me hold on to it.

I was raised in a family of musicians. Music always plays in my house, even when it pisses me off. After high school, I stopped playing the violin. However, I couldn’t escape music. I decided to pivot towards singing instead of playing the violin. I joined community after community. I joined many "girl groups" that ended up being nothing more than silly group chats that would die within a week of being created. I was serious about this, and it felt like no one else around me was.

Then I saw a post, someone who wanted to create a group. That person claimed to be serious. I was skeptical, but I sent them a message in private anyway. As we spoke, we found out we had a lot in common. A language, ambition, objectives.

A dream.

And here we are five years later. You know the story.

I will be honest, because I’m an honest person, but I don’t know if I would’ve pursued music had I not met Anje. I feel like at some point I would’ve been discouraged, tired, unsure of where to go and what to do. I have ambitions that require a lot of time in school; I even have career ambitions in case music doesn't work out. If Anje's support and optimism wasn't part of my life, I probably would’ve given up, consumed by my natural defeatist attitude, and invasive pessimism.

Anje has given me a dream. Or at least, the chance to pursue it. Some people dream of being solo artists. And it’s fine if that’s their aspirations. But for me, this dream is a lot more fun to chase with someone else.

Now here's the last thing I'm so grateful in my friendship with Anje. It combines both things I’ve written above. She’s given me the courage to chase my dreams. It’s scary to have dreams and to take the plunge. It’s scary to let go of comfort and risk it all. But Anje has shown me that life is not fun without something semingly impossible to chase. I’m a creative mind. And as I’ve mentioned earlier, I love writing. I don’t know if it’s something I’d pursue in the future, but I feel courageous enough to try and chase it if one day I want to.

To end this attempt at showing emotions on my part, I don’t know what the future holds for Flare, for Anje or for me. But I’m happy to say that I’m glad I have found a good friend to step into the unknown with. And wherever life takes us, her or me, our friendship will be there.

So thank you, Anje. For your thoughtfulness, your patience with my stupid, anxious ass. Your open-mind and your sense of adventure. Thank you for all you taught me, all you will teach me. Thank you for showing me that dreams don't have to stay dreams, and that it's okay, sometimes better, to chase them with someone by your side.

Thank you for your friendship.

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As I write this on May 4th, 2024, I don’t yet know what Radium has planned to say for this rather special blog.

She’s usually the one who always knows what to say, but anything to do with emotions is more my domain, whereas she’s more of a pragmatist by nature, so I guess I’m more inspired than her on this one haha.

I know it’s not easy for her, but whatever she decides to say I thank her in advance.

To be honest, choosing a moment of gratitude for Ray was anything but easy. There are many reasons why I’m grateful to have had her as a friend for the past 5 years, but if I had to choose just one today, I’d say it would be for always standing by me like no one else before her has ever been able to do.

Ray is the one who taught me what a healthy friendship looked like, without feeling abandonment and rejection, a friendship without tears, without betrayal.

That kind of friendship is like a gentle ray of comforting sunshine. Even at a distance, she’s always been a listening ear when I needed one most. Before her, I’d never known anyone who understood my feelings as well as she did, without ever judging me. Sometimes we don’t always see eye to eye, sometimes we even argue about things that are really stupid, to be honest, but that’s never stopped us from respecting each other and enjoying each other’s company.

From the moment we first met on social media, I knew the bond I’d share with her would be special. Today, that bond has officially lasted for 5 years, and our duo, Flare, is just the tip of the iceberg. The more time passes, the more I realize that the bond between us is more than just a friendship. It’s something stronger, more complex. She’s like a bandmate, a friend, but also the sister I never had.

Thank you Ray for 5 years of friendship! Flare or not, I sincerely hope we’ll remain friends for a very long time.

Our meeting seems too fortuitous for us not to be destined to accomplish great things together, you know? I’m really crossing my fingers that you who are reading this will be there to see it when the time comes.

We haven’t released any new songs since the NEFELIBATA era, but that’s just around the corner, and maybe it’ll be the start of the great things we’re destined to achieve, so you shouldn’t miss it!

See you soon, Majesties!