A two-time GRAMMY-nominated classically trained musician and composer. Also a singer, songwriter, and producer, he has had two hit songs on the Adult Contemporary charts and a hit on the Billboard Indicator Chart. He has done work for brands ranging from NBC to MTV to the History Channel, the NBA, CBS, Nike, Pepsi, the Discovery Channel, and more. He has also worked with William Shatner, John Malkovich, David Lynch, and others. Plus, he has collaborated with and created content for the likes of Depeche Mode, Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Duran Duran, and many more. He is even a music industry contributor to Recording Magazine.
“I really like happy music. I like songs about summer, cars, and girls, and the whole kind of simplicity of it. But I also like really complicated music. I listen to a lot of classical, and I like Yes and progressive rock and things like that.”
“I always think visually with writing. I always say I feel like a musician caught in a film director’s body… I’m always thinking visually, so everything I do has to be kind of an art school vibe.”
“I don’t really take into account what the listener thinks or will get out of it… For me it’s just about satisfying myself. And there’s some humor I like to put in there.”
“It has to satisfy me. If it doesn’t satisfy me, I don’t do it.”
“I can pretty much play whatever somebody puts in front of me… I’ve always picked up instruments very quickly.”
“I think it’s just the way you’re wired, it’s in you. It’s funny when I see people taking classes in songwriting. You can learn a formula, but you really can’t learn that craft. It’s something that you’re wired for, it’s in you, and then you sort of gravitate.”
“I wrote my first real structured pop tune a few days after my eighteenth birthday… and then I lost it for like 28 years and then I actually found it a few years ago, I’m like, ‘This is really cool,’ it sounds like The Cars and Blondie… that’s my era, and it sparked a whole new album concept, which I’m working on now.”
“I tend to like having a lyrical idea first and then that always sparks a chord progression.”
“Any time I force something it’s just garbage. I firmly believe that anyone who’s really good and perseveres, things align at some point. It could take a month, it could take a year, it could take ten years, it could take twenty years.”
“It can be a bit of a curse because I’m the type of person who’s overly creative. I can’t turn it off. I hear theme songs on TV and I’m rearranging them in my head. It can be quite exhausting.”
“I had actually done some TV acting stuff too. I was in ‘Dexter.’ I was in the ‘Miami Vice’ movie.”
“I’m still in disbelief that I got into that (GRAMMY) category with those people ‘cause it’s a commercial category and, ya’ know, Bonnie Raitt and Brandi Carlile and of course the other really cool artists. I still haven’t fully contemplated it.”
“That (first GRAMMY nomination) was really, ya’ know, the first time of anything is really the most thrilling. So, that was, ya’ know, to be on there with Michelle Obama and then Greece went completely nuts. They had me on every television network doing interviews for weeks. That was really nice to have that appreciation from over there. It was like I became Greek Elvis overnight.”
“My whole thing with releasing music is that it all has to be used for potential licensing because that’s where there’s a proper payout for music. I mean, streaming is ridiculous.”
“Mediterranean Sun”
“Silver Moon”