I started as a musician. Writing songs was my first major passion. What you’ll see on this page is the messy remnants of a past life unfiltered. The way songs progress, recorded practice sessions, demos - the unpolished process.

Back in the day way up north in St. Paul, Minnesota, I had a fun little rock band name SONIC COITUS. We have long since disbanded, but that time is very near and dear to my heart. I’ll display snippets from Sonic Coitus and my solo works here.

Writing songs is a messy, tedious process that involves years and years of hard work. From learning how to play instruments to editing your verses to scan appropriately. It’s a lot.

I never stopped writing music. Stepping back from the music industry was more of a love letter to writing and film than it was a diss on music. Those years of being in recording studios and stages were some of the best years of my life, but now it’s time to focus my efforts elsewhere.

I don’t think I’ll ever really be done with music.

Most of these recordings happened while I was in my early twenties rocking out at McNally Smith College of Music (RIP) where I got a degree in Music Production. It’s interesting to look back on everything and see how that part of my life transpired.

There are some modern songs as well, including the one below. I still get out and play here and there, just to feel it again. The energy you experience on stage is unmatched. Sometimes I miss it.

Say It: A Look Into The songwriting Process

Here we’re going to take a look at the progression of a song over time. It’s important to note that these are drafts, experiments, writing in its rawest form.

We’re not going for perfection. We’re going for art. This is all terribly embarrassing for me, as it should be. I’m simply trying to encourage you to also embarrass yourselves. So much goes into creating anything.

We’re bad until we’re good.

This song is called SAY IT and it is not finished nor released (except what you’ll see here). I’ll walk you through the evolution of it. How lyrics, melodies, and dynamics change as the song starts to snaps into place.

This song is currently abandoned by me, but at some point, I’ll come back and make it even better. Maybe record it. We’ll see. My biggest issue with it at this point is that I use entirely too many words. I’ve been working on simplifying my songs. Saying more with less. It’s a struggle.

I have so many of these little demos spanning all the way back to college. I lost many of my files and recordings from high school and before that, but that’s alright. Every once in a while I’ll come across an old notebook or sheet music.

The most recent version I could find recorded on my voice app. As I write, I record as much as I can and reference previous recordings as I go.

Here we can see how I’m experimenting with different performance styles. The way you use your voice can make or break the song. At this point, I’m fairly happy with the lyrics and structure of the song. Performance comes after writing.

I believe this is where we were experimenting with the melody of the chorus. I wish I could explain how decisions like this are made, but the truth is… it doesn’t feel right until it does. Just gotta try a bunch of stuff and see what works.

Here we can see why we needed to change the chorus. It was repetitive and boring. I like things to be a little more dynamic. I find it fascinating that I labeled it “with bridge” as a desperate attempt to add a little spark. I didn’t know at that time that it was the chorus that needed work (and still does, honestly. That’s why I haven’t performed or released this).

This is the first recording of this song I could find. I tend to dilly-dally on the guitar and do a lot of improvising lyrics until I find something that has potential. That’s when I pull out the phone and start recording these samples.