"Nobody Writes Alone"

      So, for the past year and a half or so I've been juggling a few musical projects, along with plenty of musical experiments in between. From a gospel album I spent about a month writing that ended up getting scrapped, to a rap album I produced on that will be released later this month; though the most important has been my own "solo" album. You may be able to guess by the title that I've been wrestling with that concept for a while.

     I've been wrestling with it in a couple ways, one was the feeling that no matter what I do or how I play, it feels like just my voice and an instrument is never enough for a full sound, maybe for some slower stuff but simply not enough to carry an entire album. This is also on the assumption that I want to be able to perform these songs live and record them in a single take. The other manner in which I wrestled with this being a solo album is the idea that all of the songs within need to be "original". and yet so much of what I found I loved and worked best were covers, and remakes of songs I and my friends and family wrote in the past. So I had to settle somewhere on both of these.

     This was the epiphany moment. I looked back on my musical upbringing; school bands, friendly jams, family functions. I realized that throughout all of it, the most beautiful experiences I had were when me and the other musicians in the room could spontaneously pull out our instruments and quickly throw together a piece of music, playing on a progression or two and making something beautiful out of it. I didn't just want, I needed to find some way to give that feeling to the masses, and so I got to work.

     Which leads me to where I am now. My solo album is built, fundamentally, on the idea that this isn't really a solo album, because nobody writes alone. You cannot make a music that escapes your influences, and so I didn't. I plan to put together many pieces of music, hardly all "written" by me, hardly all performed by me. I could go on about my plans, but I shouldn't spoil you too much ;) Just know that a metric ton of thought, love, and effort has gone into this.

     I hope to see you there. More updates as they come.