Mission Statement / Romantic Piano

Writing and recording songs have always gone hand in hand for me. I feel extremely fortunate to have this luxury to be able to document my songwriting from past to present. These recordings document my life and songs as I've progressed and matured from a early high schooler to the man I am today. Some recordings are simple demos and others are attempts at studio production, but they all illustrate how I have used audio recording as an intricate part of my writing process. I'd by lying if I said I wasn't nervous about posting some of these songs. There are projects that I am proud of and some that I can barely sit through, but I believe it is important to show the progression. Though there are a few gaps and files lost along the way, I have compiled my entire catalog and intend to share it with you.

Romantic Piano

Written and Recorded 2009

This is the first song that I wrote after my wife (then girlfriend) and I had moved to Baraboo, WI a few months after I graduated from college. I was having difficulty adjusting to our new environment, not only in terms of employment, but also creative output. Romantic Piano marks the first of many songs that I wrote using mostly MIDI keyboards and other synths, rather than guitar. Up to this point, my songs had all been guitar driven rock/pop. It's hard to say exactly why I made this rather sudden change. Half of me believes that I was rejecting my old habits, and the other half believes I was simply lost.

• This song was originally going to be instrumental. Romantic Piano was a working title that I never bothered to change, even after lyrics were set to it.
• I have always loved the melody on the chorus. Those intervals combined with the simple chords are very powerful to me.
• A few years earlier, I watched an Audioslave DVD that had a brief interview with Chris Cornell. He mentioned something about being at a point in his career where he didn't edit his lyrics and let them be what they will be. That thought stuck with me, though I never had the courage to do it. This is one of the first songs where I wrote the lyrics in one sitting and never turned back.
• I knew that I wanted the song to start with chorus, but didn't want to overuse that hook and excluded the vocals from the third chorus to give the bridge more weight.
• These vocal takes may have come later than the original recording, while still in Baraboo. Thanks to a great choir director in the area, I was able to gain more confidence in my voice.