Hello world, I suppose it’s about time I post something about what I’ve been up to and what you can expect in the near future. I thought I’d start with a little bit about the story behind my current project “Cruel World”. It’s been three years in the making and it all started when David Bowie died, and how 2016 turned into a gigantic dumpster fire quickly following. It seemed that every other day a childhood hero had died, Prince, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman and the list goes on. Not only did I feel like I was being robbed of my hero’s, but the news seemed to be getting worse by the day. Shooting after shooting became the norm, tragically after so many shootings it became more of a surprise to NOT hear about a shooting that took place. That’s where the idea of “Cruel World” came from, because this world is cruel, it’s not fair but we have to persist and survive in it somehow.
However, as cruel as this place can be, and no matter how many times it can feel like a swift kick to the tits, I discovered that the shittier that things got the stronger the people around me became. Voices of resistance, being stronger together, people vocalizing and beginning to help one another. The loudest most palpable situation I can remember that demonstrated this was the Women’s March in 2017. I was in Seattle and the energy in the city was electric, there is no way to really describe it, but you could feel, and it felt good to feel it after feeling gutted from tragedy for so long.
Of course, there’s more to the story than just these examples, and each song I wrote for this project examines the facets and situations I encountered to create a “Cruel World”. Each song is its own dramatic piece that looks at the situation and attempts to make sense of some sort of response to the situation and I try not to shy away from the emotional aspect. Actually, I try to dive head first into it, and that has been a journey in itself, feeling exposed and vulnerable. That however my dear friends I’ll save for another post.