A Revival

Heartbreaking Bravery founder Steven Spoerl is shown in self-portrait. He is sitting upright, wearing a pair of light blue bluetooth headphones, a green Joe Pera baseball cap, and a white graphic tee. He has a full beard. Behind him a tri-color lamp is visible and casting a purplish haze that takes up the background. Spoerl takes up the center-right of the image and is shown from the chest up.

Heartbreaking Bravery will return in 2026.

In Heartbreaking Bravery‘s initial run, the phrase “stay tuned” became a bit of a mantra. Two simple words that carried a double meaning. A hyper-intentional choice of language that spoke directly to the promise of an ambiguous but worthwhile future, and the literal act of keeping things in tune. A train has to stay on the rails to get to its intended destination.

Heartbreaking Bravery‘s metaphorical train never fully divorced the rails, it was just relegated to a standstill; a complicated piece of machinery laying dormant at a half-abandoned station. Apart from an intermittently active YouTube presence, there has been no consistency in production or movement from any channel carrying Heartbreaking Bravery‘s name or logo since 2019. In the front end of 2026, that will change.

So, once more: stay tuned.

For reviews. For photos. For videos. For essays. For interviews. For reflections, recollections, and other refractions of what it means to wholly celebrate music in a cultural landscape that repeatedly chooses to intentionally deprioritize—and maliciously devalue—the arts.

While things get prepped and start slowly churning to life once more, anyone with any amount of interest is encouraged to follow along (or catch up) with the work I’ve been spearheading as the Music Editor over at Tone Madison for the past six years. My contributions to Tone Madison—a publication well worth supporting—will continue. Even taking that output into account, it has become increasingly apparent that the time has come to breathe new life into Heartbreaking Bravery. It’s an outlet that has had a profound impact on my life over the past 13 years, and that impact has ultimately pointed me towards a return.

It’s a hard thing to let something so important quietly recede into oblivion, and becomes harder still when the reasons to enliven it become more substantial than the reasons to let it decay.

Beyond an admittedly hazy “this year,” I would be hard-pressed to specify an exact date for when Heartbreaking Bravery will resume posting material with any amount of demonstrable consistency.

But I can promise, directly, that there is much more to come.

One last time, with feeling:

Stay tuned.

—Steven Spoerl

Editor’s Note: Due to an evolving situation that was beyond the reach of my immediate control, the initially-stated resumption period of “late 2025” has been adjusted to “early 2026.” This piece has been updated to reflect the adjusted timeframe. More material is coming, and it’s coming soon.