Well I think I’m satisfied enough to finally let this new creation out into the world.

“The Hunger”

I’m always a bit torn as to how much to say about my music. Some people enjoy getting all the VH1 “Storytellers” type details, but on the other hand I love that music is so personal and I don’t necessarily want to color anyone’s personal journey by saying too much. I think there’s something to be said for just letting the music speak for itself and letting the listeners take whatever they will and have their own personal experience.

I will say this much: This song began when Lars asked me to write an original song for a short film he’s making. He played me a song he really liked the “feel” of and wanted me to write something similar. I planted that seed in my brain and then just let it grow. This is generally how my creative process works. Over the following weeks (maybe months, I’m not sure) that seed, rolls around in my brain, germinating, percolating. Ideas start forming. Lyrics begin to come. Then like a gestating child, I start feeling “labor pains”. Suddenly everything starts coming together more hurriedly and I can feel it wanting to come out. Then in frenzied flurry of creative outpouring, I do the heavy writing and recording.

In the end, I was extremely happy, pleased and satisfied with this song. It did what I needed it to do. I think it has the “feel” of the song Lars played me (no, I will not reveal what that was for a multitude of reasons), and yet grew off into it’s own original entity. It led me off in some musical directions that I might not normally have went down which is always fun. At the risk of saying too much and coloring your experience, I will add one final thing that surprised and amused me: I think it sort of ended up sounding like if U2 and Muse had a musical baby, even though neither of those bands was the original inspiration and, while I like U2, they’ve never been a major influence (I don’t even own any U2 music, actually).

Another side note:
After a brief experimental foray into making my music only streamable on the internet unless you bought the song to download, I’m going back to my roots and once again making all my music available to download for free (except my cover songs because I’m still figuring out the legalities of all that). You can still buy songs if you’re so inclined, or just make a donation to the paypal link if you want to support me, but it’s more important to me that anyone who wants to enjoy my music can do so and to have my music in as many people’s hands/mp3players as possible. Thanks for all your support over the years and I hope you enjoy my newest progeny.

Addendum:
“The Hunger” is my first ever use of a fade out, which normally I hate but which just felt creatively appropriate and needed here.

I’ve recorded a handful of cover songs by various artists. Some were my own original take on a song such as “Tomorrow Never Knows“, “Kiss The Girl” and “Boys Of Summer” and some were painstakingly faithful reproductions such as “Because“. Some people may wonder, “Why bother re-recording someone else’s song? Especially if you’re not doing anything original but just meticulously copying the original artist.” Sometimes it’s a bit of a hybrid such as “Eleanor Rigby” which faithfully reproduces all the individual parts but replaces the string quartet with all guitars instead.

My newest cover is mostly a faithful reproduction of Butch Walker’s “Ships In A Bottle” with a little bit of my own flavor in it. I think Butch is one of the best singer/songwriters making music today so why do my own version? Well for one, it’s a tribute to him. Secondly, it’s just fun. And thirdly it’s amazingly educational. Breaking down a song, finding all the little hidden parts and nuances, listening to how it’s mixed, the effects used, the equalization across the frequency spectrum, and all the million little details of a recording educates me through osmosis. I learn to be a better producer, engineer, and songwriter not to mention honing my playing and singing chops.

These songs are only available to stream at the moment because I’m still working my way through learning the legalities and such of covering other people’s music, therefore, while I have bought some limited rights to these songs, I don’t feel comfortable offering them for download, much less for sale. If you like my versions, I highly encourage you to go out and buy the original artists’ recordings of them! Thanks for listening!