First things first.
Thank you for reading. Seriously. These take a long time to make, and the fact that you read what I write means the literal world and keeps me writing.
It’s been almost a year since my last newsletter, and I’m going to be honest: doing these is scary. It’s difficult to examine the space between past letters and the preset and evaluate what’s been achieved or sat on the steaming back burner.
I am however committed to keeping these coming.
As I work towards my EP release this fall, you will be receiving much more music, writing, and other creative drops that you won’t want to miss out on.
So again, thank you for reading. It means the whole world to me.
A Life Update
I moved to Nashville, Tennessee in October.
I live in a small house with a few other Catholic men called the Joseph House on Delta Avenue.
I played with the Regnum Christ Music Collective in Idaho, Texas, Kansas, and all across the southern coast.
I now work on Broadway at Ole Red after restaurant-hopping a bit to find somewhere flexible to support my music.
I played five weeks of summer camps this summer. Yes. Five.
I completed my first half-iron man this past month,
I’ve been working on and will be releasing my first-ever EP (any batch of songs that go together but aren’t enough to make an album) and it comes out this fall. A HUGE step for me.
I turn 26 next week.
An Excerpt | It’s Just Swimming
As my breath slowed, I rounded the buoy (after having a few of the kayak-mounted lifeguards verbally confirm I was doing “okay”), and set out for the next one.
And slowly my breathing stabilized.
I continued like this for about twenty minutes, swapping between freestyle and breast stroke (who named these anyway?) and keeping my heart rate down in the 140’s.
And then the realization that I was going to survive kicked in. Right about as I rounded the second buoy.
All of a sudden I became aware of the perfect temperature of the water. The sunlight dancing off the ripples, the splashing of the other swimmers around me. The lack of venomous creatures in the beautifully murky Tennessee water.
And I smiled.
“Oh,” I thought, “it’s just swimming.”
My friends. My family.
How many times have we been halted at an impasse in life, scared to move forward, scanning our surroundings in bleak despair, only to realize the way forward simply required moving, well, forward.
I, for one, have felt that way of late.
Psyching myself out with fears that may not ever come to pass. Attempting to swim the entire lake in my mind before I’ve crossed even the first buoy.
Before I’ve sunk into a rhythm.
Before I’ve sunk into a prayer.
And the warm, familiar embrace of my Heavenly Father.
You see, as powerful of a motivator as fear can be, there comes a point past frenzied action when fear transforms into a crippling, anxious force. A force that scares our childlike minds into going no further.
A fear that turns our tricycles around and crushes dreams that have only begun to breathe.
Sainthood, achieving the fullness of who we’re called to be, isn’t difficult. It’s just swimming.
But the fears wrapped around it like mangled hands make it seem impossible to achieve. The anxiety like a thorny weed that envelopes what once shone purely and undoubtedly from the bottom of our souls until all we’re left with is a heavy mass in our chest.
A lump in our throat.
A raised heart rate in the middle of a murky lake.
I can deny all I want that I’m scared. I can swim forward hard and fast as long as my lungs will allow for it until, tired of treading water, I slip under the surface and drift to the bottom.
I was made to thrive. To smile. To swim.
God help the evil one when I finally learn that instead of logically thinking through all the many fears he’s entangled me with, I must simply slow my heart rate. Acknowledge the sun. Acknowledge the waves. Put my face in the water.
And keep swimming.
Unas Cositas
(A few little things)
I’m crazy ADHD so I’m usually reading a stack of books, have a list of artists that spans most genres, and can’t stick with a TV series after the first episode. Here’s a few little things that I’ve been consistent with.
A Book
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The Space Trilogy (C.S. Lewis) - I have no words. If you enjoy books like 1984 and Brave New World, this series is a serious Christian’s take on where the world is headed, expressed through his natural gift of storytelling.
A Song
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Conversations with My Wife (Jon Bellion) - Jon Bellion is an artist that I aspire to be in every sense of that word, and all of his music is the perfect blend of simplicity and intimacy. WARNING this song does contain profanity, but it’s well placed and honest. He has a way of writing songs with a commercial sound that take one deeper than the usual commercial sentiments.
A Podcast
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And the Writer Is (Ross Golan) - I’ve been listening to this podcast for about a year now, and if you want the stories behind artists and songwriters and the real human growth behind their career, go give this podcast a listen. It’s a life goal that I end up on it one day.
A Film
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F1 (2025) - As a young man looking to settle in different aspects of his life, but with a heavy adventure streak, watching this movie changed my perspective on what being, well, a badass, entails. The protagonist (Brad Pitt) learns what it means to have a real community based on his identity and not on his achievements.
An EP
Over the last few years I’ve been writing and recording songs with my heard-earned serving money, and this fall I finally get to release five of those songs together. An EP is musician speech for extended play, which is any number of songs released together that doesn’t constitute an album.
Don’t get me wrong.
There will be an album.
Just not yet.
But before I release an album I need to garner a significant amount of fans so my music gets listened to and noticed…
I love creating for its own sake, but to build a career on this I need to focus on building a real fanbase.
If you’ve read this far down, then I would assume you’re interested in or are already a huge part of that real fanbase. In that case, get hype.
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE UNRELEASED SONGS
Share it with AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.
This link builds my text list of fans and allows me to advertise directly to the people who want to hear my music. Eventually it will turn into shows. Then a tour. Then more music.
You get the picture.
This fall five of these songs will be yours on all streaming platforms.
A Closing
This past year was extremely difficult. Change is never easy, even for someone accustomed to major changes more often than others my age. I've learned some hard lessons about growth, community, identity, and time.
All of which have confirmed that I have, in fact, moved to the right place.
That I will write, record, and perform music until the day I die.
That I will lead worship and help spark a revival in my Church which I hope long outlives me.
And that I need to slow down.
This fall I’m taking less travel gigs and working to settle myself in Nashville and dedicate time to my craft. I’ve developed greatly as a songwriter in the 10 months that I’ve spent in Nashville, and it has everything to do with the amount that I’ve written.
If you would like to hop on a call in the upcoming months and stay in touch or grab coffee if you’re local, I can be found at 225-235-3042.
In Hoc Signo Vinces