To those who have shown the world they’re people of character, Who have made mistakes along the way but bounced back and made things right, To those who have convictions and stick to them, To those who have read the right books and watched the right Netflix documentaries and made tangible changes to their daily habits because of them, To those who believe the right things about friendship, family, god, sexuality, race, abortion, taxes, and climate change, To those with a genuine passion for the important things and the discipline to keep the right priorities, To those who know the world would be a better place if everyone were as educated, kind, respectful, and proactive as they are, To those who know the world would be a better place if everyone else were a little more like them,
I hope it feels good…
I hope you sleep well at night. I hope you fight to see the world become more like you envision it. I hope your family and friends and professional associates respect and appreciate and admire you. I hope your passion never dies. I hope lots of people agree with you and give you many pats on the back. I hope you gain many followers and that your posts get the likes they deserve. I hope your friends finally listen to that podcast that changed your life. I hope your perspective stays pure and worth fighting for, even when it’s difficult.
But if it doesn’t…
If you do something that shatters the respect of everyone you know, If you change your mind about the thing you preached for years, If you walk away from the cause because you’re burned out, If you betray everything you stood for, If you lose yourself, If you spit in the faces of those who loved you, If you lied to everyone’s face about who you are and what you were doing,
We’ll be here.
We won’t judge you. We won’t say I told you so. We won’t shame you and drag your name through the mud. We won’t talk about how we would’ve done things differently. We won’t ask, “How could you?” We won’t pose condescending questions in a passive attempt to guide you back to the light. We won’t laugh. We won’t point our fingers. We won’t use you as an object lesson about the problems with your philosophy. Or your generation. Or your gender. Or your skin color. Or your backstory.
Because we’ve been there.
And we’ve done it too. And there are many of us. And we know it hurts. And we know you wish things were different. And we know you can’t change the past. And we know it’s hard to know how to move forward. And we know you wish you had answers but you don’t. And we know what it’s like to be scared of yourself. And hate yourself. And believe everyone would be better off without you. And we know that even if the good ones are better off without you, we still want you.
I created this stems player so you can remix and explore my songs. Check it out here. Just click a song to open the player and wait a sec for it to load. You can change the pitch or speed, or add other effects like echo or reverb. Below the top effects, you can toggle on and off individual instruments, or click the “Fx” button to add instrument-specific effects.
I’d love to expand this project and make is useful for other music artists. If you’re interested in collaborating in some way on that, message me here.
“My Ugly White Straight Reality” is the last single from the album, Somebody. This one is closer to the music I’ve made in the past with picked guitar and more traditional song structure. But like all the work I did on Somebody, it’s much more personal. It may be the most vulnerable song I’ve made I dunno. It’s hard going through big changes and losing the way you used to want to see yourself and losing people’s affection and approval. Hope it hits you some way.
“Lemon” is a sad, sexy summer breakup track with saxophone, chipmunk vocals, and a big blue lead guitar. It’s available on Spotify, Apple Music, or pretty much anywhere else. Hope you feel something when you hear it.
Shout out to Nick Pastrano for the sexcellent saxophone performance and Keaton Ainsworth of Time of Night for helping produce the sax sessions that made this such a special track.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Lemon. Message me on instagram, facebook, or twitter. If you like the track, be sure to follow my artist profile on whatever streaming service you use. It would also be awesome if you wanna help spread it around. Post on social, text the link to friends, add it to public playlists, etc.
You can also buy the whole (10 tracks) album on MP3 or Vinyl, exclusively on this website. If you want to hear the rest of this music, I’d love your support.
You can stream my new single, “Somebody,” on Spotify, Apple Music, or pretty much anywhere else. It’s one of the most vulnerable songs I’ve ever made, covers my experiences with pride, deceit, depression, isolation, and ultimately coming to embrace the need for connection to others. I hope you enjoy it and that it finds the ears that will relate to the feelings in it.
Here are some more links to listen (+ you’ll find it pretty much anywhere else you can stream music):
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Somebody [Single]. Message me on instagram, facebook, or twitter. If you like the track, be sure to follow my artist profile on whatever streaming service you use. It would also be awesome if you wanna help spread it around. Post on social, text the link to friends, add it to public playlists, etc.
You can also buy the whole (10 tracks) album on MP3 or Vinyl, exclusively on this website. If you want to hear the rest of this music, I’d love your support.
I’m putting together stems for most of the songs from the album for remixes and collaboration. The project can expand organically, but here’s how I see it working:
You send a request for stems. Mention what song style/s or topic/s you’re interested in. I can send you song stems before the songs are released so you can start creating with them now.
I’ll send you zip packages with stem .wav audio files and song notes (tempo, key, etc.).
Play with the stems however you want. Make mashups, remixes, new songs that sample mine.
You’re free to publish your creations to your non-monetized platforms (Soundcloud, Youtube, social media, etc.) as long as you link back to me as the original artist.
Send me link/s to your creation/s, and if I dig it I’ll help promote you and your work.
If I can cobble together enough solid remixes/mashups, it’d be cool to publish a remix album on Spotify/streaming platforms. For this, I’d purchase the rights to your work and include you as a “featured” artist on the track.
You can request stems or ask questions through the contact form here. Just send a message with some basic info about yourself and how you’d want to use the stems. Thanks and happy creating.
You can stream the first single, Subterranean Hollywood Blues, on Spotify, Apple Music, or pretty much anywhere else. It’s a funky, weird jam and pretty different from anything I’ve put out before (Every song on the album is pretty different). Bump it loud after you’ve had your coffee or when you’re out for the weekend.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Subterranean Hollywood Blues. Message me on instagram, facebook, or twitter. If you like the track, be sure to follow my artist profile on whatever streaming service you use. It would also be awesome if you wanna help spread it around. Post on social, text the link to friends, add it to public playlists, etc.
My life’s turned pretty upside down the past few years. Hard to know what all to say about it. I’ve never loved posting about my personal life, but I want to share some of my story for anyone who’s gone/going through something similar because it’s often been a lonely road.
I’ve spent a lot of my life projecting different false selves out for other people to see. Not like I was intentionally trying to fool people, at least most of the time. But I was trying to be some idealized self that wasn’t really me because I guess I believed that’s who I had to be to get love and acceptance.
Where I grew up, there’s a lot of pressure to conform to a very narrow way of behaving/believing. There’s a lot of praise when someone pulls it off and a lot of shame when they don’t. If you fall short, it’s easier to lie than deal with the consequences. That experience worked a pattern of deceit and self righteousness into how I saw the world, which can feel ok in the short term but eventually catches up to you.
It’s a really bad time when it catches up to you.
It felt hopeless a lot of the time, but the process of letting go of self image and being real has freed me. I’m finally starting to accept myself as I am, letting go of the self-hate and judgment. It’s a true cliche that you can’t give or get love from others if you don’t love yourself.
If you’re struggling with that, I hope you know you’re not alone. It sucks to be caught in that loop of shame and judgment, especially in our world where it’s easy for us to broadcast a perfect life for people to see. For me, the work of letting that stuff go is worth it. I’ve found (I think you will too) that when you love, forgive, accept yourself, you can do the same to others. It’s a better way to be.
This is going on forever but excited to share this journey with you and show the art that’s come out of it. If you want to follow along, go to https://everybodyissomebody.com/updates.
Updates
Get occasional updates on new music, merch, or other cool happenings in the Somebody universe. I don't like spam, so I won't be sending you any.
