Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist who has released three singles this year, the latest of which came out on September 1st. Plus, he has another new song coming out next week Friday, January 5th. By the age of 12 he had co-headlined international guitar festivals in Mexico and toured around the U.S. After college he moved to Nashville where he continued to tour for other artists at the professional level for years until setting his sights on his own project. His background even includes having recorded with George Clinton.
“I recently have just been finding myself kind of longing for the camping, mountain experience, and I went out and did it… I found that to be super inspiring, on a creative and personal level. It felt emotionally uplifting, mixed with a certain brand of nostalgia for me, which felt a little out of place at first. I mean, I didn’t know where that was coming from because I’m from the Florida Keys where I’m just surrounded by ocean and we’re at sea level.”
“I don’t like to filter myself too much when I’m in that flow state.”
“I remember hearing an interview from Bjork… and she was saying that her writing process includes having an idea and specifically not recording it… and her screening process for ideas is whether or not she can remember it.”
“I basically was just given a guitar and a piano at some point and all throughout life my dad would sit me down for little moments here and there and just, he’d be like, ‘Okay, play this lick back. Play this idea.’ That was kind of how he taught me how to be a musician… And for that I am super grateful because it developed my musical ear.”
“That folky sound is really foundational for me, and I had no idea until recently, I made the connection and now I’m sitting here making folk-inspired music.”
“It’s like a very energetic impressionist view of harmony as it pertains to melody, at least in the context of improvisation. That bleeds into my writing style too. I go for, they call it a wall of sound… just kind of creating as much sound as you can from the deepest pits of your emotion and not really worrying about… anything.”
“I – for some reason or other, I couldn’t tell you now, but – in my mind, I was thinking, ‘Jazz guitar is lame.’ It’s not… In fact, some of my favorite musicians are jazz guitarists. I don’t know why my brain was going there… So, the other instrument that I was kind of okay at was saxophone.”
“This professor… he heard me playing and he was kind of a scout for George Clinton… and he was like, ‘You would be perfect as part of, like, the horn section on George Clinton’s next album. Would you be interested in playing’?”
“That was just amazingly helpful. I got an insight to the music industry, kind of a crash course, that I don’t know that I would’ve had otherwise. I became fully capable of understanding and putting out any kind of fire that could happen.”
“Happy Mountain Thing”
“Glacier Bay”