I get asked this all the time. “What comes first? The words or the music?”

The real answer is…"It depends." It really CAN happen both ways, but I do have a preference for my own songwriting. 

I think my best songs happen when the melody exists first. The songs that come lyrics first feel like they wander for me. They sound more like drafts to me. They don't melt together like the ones that have a melody and then I write lyrics to the melody. 

Many writers I know have to write lyrics first. That is fine, but it…

Listen to my new single, “Pain is a Teacher”

Written, produced, performed, mixed, and mastered by me :) 

We are living, breathing human beings in a world that has forgotten what that means.

Bad people are in power. Lies are more popular than the truth. And when we need relief from any of it, we reach for a tiny electronic screen that was specifically designed to keep us reaching. That is the loop. That is where we live now.

I think about that a lot. The duality of being a creative person in this moment. You want to make something real in a world that rewards fake. You want to go deep in a culture that only…

I almost didn't write this one.

Not because I didn't have anything to say. I always have something to say. I have a whole blog full of something to say. That's kind of the thing I want to talk about.

I was sitting here getting ready to write a post and I had this honest moment. Does anyone actually read these? I don't have a massive audience. Some people stumble onto this page. A few listen to a song. Maybe one or two click into the blog. And I have been writing these posts like there is a crowd out there…

Memorial Day weekend. The year is flying by. What a year it has been out there in the world, and in my own life. I have a feeling you know exactly what I mean.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Not the productive kind. The kind that just happens when you get quiet enough to actually hear yourself.

For a long time I was making music I thought I should be making. Styles I thought I was supposed to be in. Trying to sound like other writers. Chasing some idea of what success was supposed to look like…