Some songs name the thing you’re living through before you realize you’re living through it.
Digital Empire is one of those songs.
We’re all building something online, whether we mean to or not. A presence. A persona. A collection of curated moments that somehow add up to who we are, or who we want people to think we are.
It’s not inherently good or bad. It just is. The digital landscape we navigate daily. The empire we’re all constructing, one post, one click, one algorithm at a time.
This song looks at that reality without judgment. It observes. It reflects. It asks the quiet question underneath all of it: What are we actually building here?
Musically, it’s got weight. A pulse that mirrors the relentless churn of feeds and notifications. The kind of rhythm that feels familiar because you’ve been living inside it for years, even if you didn’t have a name for it.
Lyrically, it’s direct. No metaphors you need a decoder ring to understand. Just a clear-eyed look at the infrastructure we’ve all become part of, willingly or not.
If you’ve ever felt the strange duality of being more connected than ever but somehow more isolated… if you’ve ever questioned what’s real versus what’s performance… if you’ve ever wondered whether the empire you’re building online actually reflects who you are, this song meets you there.
It doesn’t preach. It doesn’t lecture. It just holds up a mirror.
And sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Behind the scenes, I’m building my own version of this, a digital space that actually serves the people who show up. New items hitting the store. Wall posters. Song transcriptions. More on the way.
The biggest shift? Free worldwide shipping on everything. No fine print. No minimum purchase. I want the barrier between you and the music, the physical pieces of it you can hold—to be as low as possible.
The animated covers for Publicity and Digital Empire were supposed to drop on release day, but external delays pushed them back. They’re live here on the site. They’ll hit platforms like Apple Music soon. Beyond my control, but worth the wait.
I’m already prepping the next batch of animated covers, releases months from now. The ideas are getting bolder. Whether I can actually pull them off remains to be seen, but that’s part of the process. Push the vision. See what sticks.
If you’re on the Jody Army email list, you’re already seeing some of this unfold in real time. New updates. New access. New reasons to stay plugged in. If you’re not on it yet, now’s the time. I’ll make it worth your while.
Next week I’m headed to New Orleans with a jazz band. Different energy. Different rhythm. But the same principle applies: show up, absorb, bring it back to the work.
For now, Digital Empire is live. Give it a listen. Let it sit with you. See if it names something you’ve been feeling but couldn’t quite articulate.
Because that’s what songs are for. Not just to soundtrack your life, but to help you understand it.
More to come.