Primarily recorded between March - May of 2024, with some demos and miscellaneous recordings dating all the way back to April of 2021. I originally intended this to be more of a full length 10-12 song album, but that's not how art always works, and so it ended up being a shorter 7 song album instead (quite a few songs got scrapped/shelved towards the end of the process).

I really wanted to tackle songwriting with this project. I worked really hard to ensure that these were simply good songs (at least in my opinion), as in the past I feel like I've gotten too caught up with the technicalities of the music making process. I was super inspired by Arctic Monkeys for a majority of this project, as well as Elbow, John Mayer, Tom Petty, Steve Lacy, Dominic Fike, Linkin Park, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Cage the Elephant, Wallows, Tame Impala, Bearface, Imagine Dragons, Santana, and The Smashing Pumpkins (also very inspired by Tchad Blake for some of the mixing). All of these artists helped shape the sound of this record. I was also very inspired by physical locations for a lot of these songs, namely: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Upstate New York, and Orange County-- all of which I've had the privilege of being able to travel to over the last couple of years while some of these songs were being conceived.

I've never listened to my own music so much in my free time as I have with this project, which tells me I accomplished my artistic vision with these songs. I hope you listen to these songs and enjoy them as much as I do (as self-centered as that may sound).

The result of me trying to just have fun making music, and not hold back in terms of making the stuff I really feel like making. I've spent the last couple of years putting a lot of pressure on myself to make music "work," and I think this is the first step for me in getting away from that toxic mindset and just re-teaching myself how to use music as a vessel for expression and enjoyment. I'm really proud of this beat tape, and feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders for doing something a little more unorthodox and deciding to put this out (which is something I never would have done even a few months ago).

All of these beats were made in about a 3-month period, with about 90 other beats ending up on the cutting room floor. Most of these were just made for practice/fun, and I just so happened to like them enough to release them. I took lots of inspiration from artists like J Dilla, Spell, Kenny Beats, Andrew Huang, Tom Misch, Mike Shinoda, Mac Miller, Khruangbin, and Flying Lotus.

This project came together from lots of love and fascination for the craft of producing & making music, and I hope my little contribution to that world succeeds in bringing some enjoyment to you.

for me, this song is kind of an ode to good times with friends -- that feeling of empowerment and invincibility when you're cruising down the street and getting into antics with those closest to you, but sometimes you can go too far and those antics can backfire. whether it's being pressured into doing something, or maybe experimenting with something, sometimes in can cause you to question your relationship with those friends and even yourself. once you're older and look back on those times though, there's usually not much regret in the long run haha. the friendship will always be there and those memories will have a nice rose tint.

This is a cool one because I actually dreamt the chords and other intertwining guitar parts. Luckily, when I woke up I had my guitar right next to the bed, so I immediately recorded everything into the Garage Band app on my phone. Later that day I made a demo for the chorus, and was super stoked about it because it was the first time I had been able to record/mix my vocals to where they didn't sound like absolute trash lol. I had a harder time arranging the rest of the song, as I originally wanted the length to be like 3-3 1/2 minutes, but nothing was feeling right, so I landed on the very short 2 minute structure you're listening to now. Hope ya like!