Category Music

I woke up this morning and saw two people had donated to my Kickstarter project while I slept. One of the donors was an old friend from my Kahuku High School days.  For some reason this caused me to do some deep reflection about how music binds us together in unique and meaningful relationships.

Early 2000s. “Canoe House” party in Laie, HI.

This Kickstarter project has been incredible because it’s put me back in touch with people I haven’t talked to or thought about in years. Because of that, it’s shown me that the impact I’ve had on people musically is much greater than I thought.  I sat for a while this morning and thought about the memories my classmate must have of my music. As I played a slide show of memories in my mind I was impressed with the following idea: music shared from the...

Live Home Show – Acoustic

The first live show I did from home last week went so well I’m going to do three more!  The next one is this Thursday 24 April @ 9pm EST.  You can sign up below.  You’ll get access to my private show and be entered to win a free digital copy of Upstanding Youth’s last musical release, 3P One.  Here’s a brief description I did back in 2011 explaining a 3P.

What is this I hear about a free streaming concert, me choosing the songs you’ll play, and the 3P?

I’m going to stream a live acoustic performance from my home studio in Virginia and you’ll get to pick the songs I play!  You’ll be choosing from some of my original tunes, some of my favorite cover songs, and a bunch of songs from my glory days in Upstanding Youth.

1. Everyone who signs up below will have a cha...

Today is a huge day for me.  While I continue to work a 9-5, it’s clear that I have other talents that I need to be sharing and ways that I can serve people.  More importantly, I feel a huge need to do this.  I told a friend the other day who had a slight breakdown at work that she needed to start considering building her own business because she has so much to offer.  I asked her, “how long are you going to make the rest of us wait until you start sharing the best of you?”  I feel like I need to take my own advice there.

Today I’m beginning to offer my musical services to the world...

I wrote previously here about how the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary affected me.  I think a lot of it had to do with the age of my kids at the time.  I had a heightened sensitivity to violence against children because I had a child the same age as those who were killed.

Since then I’ve reluctantly followed the information that’s been released and arguments about gun control.  I’ve felt impressed to contribute positively to the conversation as best as I could, so I wrote a song.

I thought about a metaphor where we liken children to plants and parents are like farmers.  We guard and tend and plant as best we can and we hope our efforts result in a tall tree or good fruit of some kind...

I was living in Argentina when I wrote the song Lullaby.  I think I had been listening to Silverchair at the time because I never play in dropped D tuning, like I do in this song.  But those were difficult days of walking the streets of Buenos Aires, asking  people to let me into their homes so I could share something I felt was extremely important.  It was a time of immense rejection and unbelievable accomplishment.  Either way, they were hard days with lots of walking.  So much walking that I burnt through 4 pairs of soles on my boots.

In order to wind down at the end of a physically and emotionally exhausting day I would often play this song.  It has no words and it’s technically a bit challenging because of the picking, but I think that’s what I love about it...