On “Thirteen”
There's an old cliché about having an entire lifetime to write your first album – my first album is the culmination of thirteen years of songwriting and in many ways, it feels like it was a lifetime in the making. I’m thinking that for many artists, a collection such as this would be called a “retrospective” or something on those lines. At the age of 31, this is my debut album. The title Thirteen had been floating around in my mind for a large part of the recording process – even before settling on including thirteen songs on the album. I was intrigued by the fact that the earliest songs were written in 1997 and the latest was written in 2010. There’s a challenge and a unique reward in maintaining relationships with songs that act as clear, open windows to such different periods of my life. There were many other songs written during and before this time but the “life filter,” in a way, left me with these thirteen – they seemed to want to be together and collectively be set free. From another angle, I was born on the 13th of August - so I’ve always felt a strong tie to this typically “unlucky” or “superstitious” number. It’s always been a powerful and central number to me; one that represents something positive and self-aligning. It had to be the title of the album.
Thirteen is an album that is full of diverse songs that I hope you’ll enjoy – it’s definitely a musical feast as it clocks in at a little over an hour in play length. It’s rock, indie, jazz, alternative, reggae, modern rock, & folk - all coexisting within a circular piece of plastic. There are lots of pianos, guitars, vocals, more vocals, saxophones, trumpets, tambourines, violins, cellos, harmonicas, organs, etc. More than all of this, the album is a document of so many amazing friendships and musical and artistic talents that I am incredibly grateful to have in my life.