Depth Without Darkness

It was good, but it wasn't good enough.

I just released Year One and though I thought the underlying songs were strong, I didn't bring it to life in the best way—and that would limit its potential. A big part of that was my lack of budget and having to produce m on my own, in my dank one-bedroom apartment. But, I realized a bigger part of it was the overall process I undertook.

I spent a lot of time writing songs...but not enough.

It was hard to conceptualize that at first, but it did start to sink in. To make my work the best it could be, I needed to dedicate many more hours to writing and refining, way before I started producing—and maybe even more importantly, I needed to do it in a consistent way.

Because I'm a guitar player first, and I'd become more focused on playing solo with just an acoustic in recent years, I committed to that. I committed to writing on the acoustic only, finishing each song as a stripped down, bare bones, but complete composition, which would later get the bells and whistles of full band instrumentation.

And it worked.

I used July, August, September, and October 2023 to complete the writing process. That meant going over the demos and riffs, rearranging them, playing them relentlessly, until each piece matched up. It meant putting some songs aside for a few days, focusing on the others, then coming back around and doing it again. And repeating. And repeating.

I know other people have co-writers and share things, but that's never worked for me. I'm not saying it can't and it might actually help a lot, but I've just never found a situation like that which worked. So I just keep going over the songs again and again until I know it's "it."

Putting out an album and feeling like it fell flat wasn't great, but I was always realistic about it. Things need time to develop. People need to time to develop. The bright side and the side I focused on was: even though the road was long, I was further down it than most would be, and closer to the other side then I'd ever been before.

The conscious decision I'd made within days of releasing my album to do better worked. By the beginning of 2024, I had five songs that I loved and was unwaveringly proud of. But I knew that wasn't enough. It would take a lot of grassroots marketing to even move the needle a bit. Nonetheless, the confidence that having really great songs gave me, made the other part of it that much easier—dare I say enjoyable?