Leading up to, during and long after the 2018 tours of Feeding Fingers in the United States and Europe, I found myself drawn into something that went far beyond music.
What began as a necessity gradually became a kind of obsession—I immersed myself in the Italian language, its history and its culture, continuing a path that I had already begun years earlier in Germany with that language, history and culture.
The process never really stopped. In fact, much of it was still unfolding quietly in the background during the 2023 Feeding Fingers tour of the United States.
While we were moving, performing and reconnecting with people, I was still carrying the same internal workload—studying, processing, translating and constantly refining.
What I was doing was not just casual study. It was survival, integration, and, in a very real sense, transformation.
After relocating to Europe in the early 2010s, I committed myself fully—not only to living here, but to understanding it in a deeper sense. I learned German and then Italian, through relentless reading, listening, writing and conversation.
For more than a decade, I immersed myself in conversation, books, essays, comics, films, music, audiobooks, podcasts—anything I could get my hands on. Feeding Fingers was evolving in parallel with me.
That absorption wasn’t limited to language alone. During those years, I also worked through books and materials I had long intended to read but had never given myself the time or space to engage with properly: literature, philosophy, theology, history, science and everything in between.
It all became a parallel education, running alongside the language studies. Hopefully, all of it will serve as material for what comes next—for both my personal work and for what will continue with Feeding Fingers.
Eventually all of that work and study led to somewhere tangible. I passed the required language exams in Germany and Italy, met immigration requirements and went through the long and intensely bureaucratic process of becoming an Italian citizen. In fact, I now hold dual citizenship: American and Italian.
The reality of those years goes far beyond mere paperwork. I worked as a teacher, translator, cultural mediator, pedagogue and even as a music composer for the theatre.
I built businesses and fulfilled family responsibilities. And all the while, I continued to write, record and tour, with Feeding Fingers being the core through which everything passed—an anchor point for me both creatively and emotionally.
At a certain point, though, the studying became something else. It became near-maniacal and compulsive. My days were structured around absorbing, processing, translating and proving to myself and to the systems and people around me that I could survive.
Now, for the first time in many years, I can say that that phase of my life has largely come to an end. Not entirely, but close enough.
I no longer feel the need to spend every waking hour buried in books or locked into purely utilitarian conversations just to maintain fluency. Those years were necessary, but they are behind me now.
What remains now is something that I had to set aside for a long time: the full return to creation.
Music, of course—but not only music. Writing, painting, stop-motion filmmaking, puppetry, theater. The things that existed before all of this and the things that survived through it.
With Feeding Fingers, I’m now working on a new trilogy of albums together with Bradley and Julian. We also have our honorary fourth member of the band, Steven Lapcevic, on board with doing visuals. I’m not ready to say much about them yet, but they will likely mark a turning point in the group—we’ll see.
The live performances that follow will go beyond what we’ve done before, incorporating theatrical and visual elements shaped by everything we’ve taken in over the years.
At the same time, I want to begin sharing what I’ve learned during these years away from the stage—not academically, but through experience: through writing, podcasts and reflections on culture, language, history and anything else that I feel is worth exploring.
I’m not doing this only for myself. I’m doing it for the people who have stood with me and who have believed in me through the years—on stage, behind the scenes, and in life. For Bradley Claborn and Julian “Scotty” Bryan, whose presence, musicianship, commitment and brotherly friendship have carried so much of this forward and also for those who were part of this path along the way—Todd Caras, Kris Anderson and Daniel Hunt—each of whom contributed to what this became.
And for Christopher Fall—whose absence is still deeply felt by everyone who knew and loved him. My gratitude to him, his family and to all of you is something that will never fade.
Alongside them, my closest friends, my family and to everyone who has supported, listened to and stayed with this project over the years—you’ve all been part of this, whether you realize it or not. There’s a responsibility in all of this that I don’t take lightly.
Like many (or most) of you, I’ve also spent the past several years re-evaluating what I was «taught» and what I thought I knew—about the world, history, culture and everything in between. I’ve had to unlearn a great deal and rebuild from something closer to direct experience. That process has been as demanding as learning any language, but it has left me with, I hope, a renewed sense of clarity.
I feel like I’ve refilled something that had been emptied through years of constant output and adaptation—like a quiver finally restocked, and now “I’m weary of wisdom...”
This is where I am now. Not starting over—but returning. Returning to the work. Returning to what matters. Returning to the people who have been here and there all along.
And I miss being on the road. I miss touring—the movement, the unpredictability, the connection with all of you. I look forward to getting back out there, seeing you all again (and you newcomers for the first time) and to sharing the music—and everything else around it—face to face.
Time isn’t on anyone’s side - and it is exactly for that reason that I intend to use what remains of mine in the best way that I know how...
Justin
Napoli, Italia
April, 2026
P.S. I’ve also set up a Substack where I’ll be sharing the podcast that is currently in production, along with writings, essays, articles and related material. I’ll be posting all of this on Patreon as well. If you’d like, you’re welcome to subscribe.
Substack: https://justincurfman.substack.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/justincurfman1