I was a lonely boy
Both my parents worked a lot and I didn’t have many friends. But I loved music and the stories songs told.

My family had a handheld radio I continually listened to. And I learned that pressing two buttons on it together would record sounds onto a cassette.

When we got basic cable, I regularly sat up on the corner of my parents’ bed watching MTV, holding the little radio up to the television speaker to record my favorite performers and songs. I realize now I just wanted to preserve those moments - when new, exciting friends would sit right beside me and sing me a song. When I felt less alone. Even if I didn't listen to the tapes afterwards, holding them close was comforting.

When I make a song now, I always sing it to my lonely 10-year old self, breathlessly hoping for his favorite jam to come on.

A song will always be there for you, good times and bad, waiting to reassure you. No matter how long. No matter what trouble may ail you.

Nowadays
I've been in and out bands since I was a teenager, usually playing guitar and singing.

New Jersey-bred, Boston-fed and now Berkeley-stead, I wedge myself between late 70s punk-adjacents and self-conscious singer/songwriters, with an indie rockist flair.

Back in the 2000s, I led Boston-based indie / americana avatars Capital City playing guitar, singing and hitting the occasional keyboard. Capital City released a full album, a 7” single, an EP and some compilation tracks between 1999 and 2003, sharing stages with The Loud Family, Papas Fritas, Beachwood Sparks and Leona Ness, among others. We got great reviews from Magnet, Northeast Performer, The Boston Herald and loads of bygone sites and zines. There was some minor radio play. It was heady for a bit.

After a long break and a move out to the Bay Area, in 2019 I joined up with The Berkeley Social Scene, a studio collective, helping to crank out reams of songs at an ungodly pace, playing a variety of roles and instruments, typically as part of song making competitions such as Song Fight and Nur Ein. In 2021 BSS released a tasty selection of favorites together as Secret Places Hidden Spaces, a “type of album that you could listen to a million times and still hear something new with every listen”, according to The Girl at The Rock Shows.

Nowadays, In addition to BSS, 'm doing my own material, singing and typically playing all of the instruments, recording alone or with a friend. It's generally introspective or acoustic-based, walking a line between providing hope and coping with it being taken away.