Hi Craig and welcome to BuzzMusic! You've made quite a successful career for yourself over these past 15 years. What moments stand out for you?
Hi, and thanks for having me! Well, there have been many great moments over the last fifteen years, but if I had to pick my top 5: performing with Jackson Browne (at the Steel Bridge festival in Wisconsin), performances at Lincoln Center and the Gramercy Theatre in NYC; overseas tours w/ songwriter Jerry Joseph in Israel, Costa Rica and Mexico; seeing a song I co-wrote be performed by the legendary Donovan at Carnegie Hall; and having song of mine ("Our Own Way") placed in a film by Jane Wiedlin, the songwriter/bassist of the Go-Gos. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the day to day and what I'm working on now and forget some of the highlights I've had in my career so far, so thank you for asking that!
"Sailed Ships" has such a powerful message about letting go. Can you give us more insights into the opportunities you are referring to?
Well, I wrote "Sailed Ships" right around the end of my 30's, when I started to look back on my life for the first time; and also for the first time, think about opportunities, both professional and personal, that I'd missed. The song is about facing an impending end of youth and reassessing if you have the same goals that you did when you first started out on your path. When I wrote the song I was going through a bit of an existential crisis I guess you could say, but even though the song has a bit of self-pitying, it does have a happy ending-- the subject (i.e me) never gives up.
You have such a trademark sound which is piano-driven pop/rock energy. Do you see yourself incorporating any other genres/ style into your future works?
I don't see myself doing making any drastic changes to my sound anytime soon, mainly because I feel like I'm still approximating the vision I had in my head when I starting writing songs years ago. And I still love the piano and feel I have much more to explore on the instrument. That said, one area that has always interested me, is New Orleans music, and I see my music incorporating some of that sound, going in a rootsier direction in the years ahead.
We appreciate that this past year has been difficult with your mom's passing. What other themes do you explore in this album?
Thank you for saying that. Let's see. there a political song on the album called "All The Hate In The World", a song called "Aberrations of My Mind" that deals w/ seeing the creative process through blocks. There's a post-apocalyptic love song on there called "Aberdeen", a song "Candy Store" based on a psychedelic adventure I had in high school, and a song "Oh Caroline" that's about a female artist friend who was avoiding putting herself "out there"
Thank you for chatting with us, we've heard that you've been sought after by other artists. Do you plan on releasing any collaborative singles soon?
Ahh, well there's no plans for that right now, as I'm quite focused on getting my solo album out. But I would certainly really like to do that at some point, as I have had many good co-writing collaborations over the years. So maybe, ask me that question again in a year or two.
Pre-save "Sailed Ships" here.