Then I moved from Boulder to Chapel Hill, NC. I established myself in the music scene there, started connecting with other musicians. I formed my second band Sleeping With The Enemy. It was me, another songwriter Grant Withington, and a drummer Casey. We lived together for a while, writing songs and playing shows around town. Our sound had more of a rock influence with gritty guitar tones than my previous ballad-heavy singer-songwriter material. We added a violinist, Pepe, who had a great ear and surprising talent for improvisation seeing as he came from the world of classical music. It was a cool experience. I was growing up. I never lived with my bandmates before. We recorded a few songs at home, but never released an album of that material. Thankfully I write down and capture all my songs so that they can be recorded at a later date. 

As a solo artist, I entered the North Carolina Songwriters Co-Op’s songwriting contest and had the honor of being one of the select few finalists that got to perform in the competition. It felt good as a songwriter to be acknowledged for my craft and to have the reflection that my material was noteworthy. 

Later on, I met a drummer named Josh Stohl. We hit it off from the start. Our love for funk, soul, and hip-hop took the music in a new direction. I bought an 8-string guitar from local luthier Wes Lambe that allowed me to play bass and guitar at the same time. Josh got a sample pad that would allow him to trigger prerecorded samples while playing the drums. We formed my third band Old Soul, a powerful duo project. We played shows together around town and became great friends through the process. We released my second album Old Soul, a minimalist, duo album with more of an R&B twist than my previous album. We recorded the album at home as opposed to in the studio. All we could afford at the time was to record the album ourselves. Though we managed to get several songs on the album, there were still many more that we didn’t have a chance to record.

Eventually, I moved back to Boulder to get my bachelor’s degree in music at Naropa University. Because my music was leaning in the direction of neo-soul, and piano is the prevalent instrument in that genre, I decided to make piano my main instrument at school and spent hours a day getting my piano technique caught up with my guitar chops and my understanding of music theory. My friend, Ryan Fenson-Hood, a fellow musician and filmmaker, commissioned me to write some music for an Indie film he was creating. I flew back to North Carolina to collaborate again with my buddy, Josh. The result was my third album, Djedi, named after the Indy film Ryan was working on. This album is still soulful and funky, but hits harder, with gritty guitar tones and a bigger production sound. This was another home recording, though the technology was getting better and we were getting better at using it. There were several recorded song ideas that we came up with for the film that didn’t make it onto the album.

During college, I studied abroad in Prague. I loved living in that city. It was beautiful and romantic. My classes were in writing and poetics. I liked Prague so much I took a leave of absence and stayed an extra semester to teach English and explore the city. I kept writing. Josh and I would send ideas and recordings back and forth across the pond until we compiled the songs for my fourth album, Alone Together. Because of the nature of being abroad and having little recording equipment, many of these tracks have more of an electronic element, as I wrote and composed most of them on my computer. As with the previous albums, several of the tunes I had been writing at the time made it onto the album, but many others didn’t.

My sound continued to evolve. I graduated college and formed my fourth funk and soul type band A Murder of Prose, with me on keys/bass and vocals, Mirco Altenbach on saxophone, and Todd May on drums. It was a great outlet for all the tunes I had been writing in college. We performed a lot. I was able to allow the material to evolve as we performed for a variety of audiences. Once again I flew out to North Carolina to record my fifth album, aptly titled, A Murder of Prose. On this album, the neo-soul sound starts to emerge as well as some more experimental concepts. This was another home recording. I love this collection of tunes, and once again there was not enough time and resources to include all the songs that I had been writing in college.