Boroughs

Every social media thing needs a bio. There seems to be some strange compulsion for artists to write a glowing review of themselves in the third person as if this bio belonged in some forgotten issue of Rolling Stone. I never understood that decision. This is a piece of writing that is supposed to help you get to know the artist and inflated self published puff pieces have always rang insincere and hollow to me. So if I’m going to write some words that will be buried in a sub-menu of a social media page, I’m not going to try to trick you. I’ll just tell you my story. I grew up in the vast expanse of central California suburbia called Bakersfield. If you’ve made it further than traveling on the I5 between major cities you know there’s a peculiar mix of complacency and frustration in Bakersfield, especially amongst the youth. I fell in love with music at a very young age and like everyone else I knew, I saw it as my ticket out. When I turned 13 years old my parents bought me an instrument that would consume my life and send me down a strange and wonderful path in life. I still have that guitar. The wood is warped, the neck is bent, and it hardly makes any more noises anymore but I keep it to remind me of something. Some years later I found myself living in a place that despite its proximity to my hometown, couldn’t be more different. When I was 18 I moved to Los Angeles. I surrounded myself with records by Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Wilco, and Ryan Adams and found my inspiration from the thoughtful and earnest rock music that had preceded me. Throughout the rise of the EDM craze that engulfed my early days in Los Angeles I stayed faithful to the singer-songwriter aesthetic, shunning new technology for the tried and true musical elements of years past. I played in bands, I toured the country, I released records, and I had the time of my life. I’m a little older now and I don’t like traveling in vans as much. I drink a lot less than I did when I was living on the road with my friends and with a little bit perspective I’ve decided to start exploring again. I’ve put aside my ideas on what is folk and what is electronic and what is rock music in pursuit of something simpler and more pure. I want to write songs, no matter where that takes me. I don’t want to be confined by arbitrary lines drawn to section off types of music. I want to be inspired by good songs regardless of genre. So I’m going to do that. Evolution is hard but it's worth it in the end. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do. Traded my plans for a guitar, then I traded that guitar for a laptop.