My new single It's Mine is out now!
more about the song and my upcoming EP (!!!)
Hey! Hello! Hi! Are you there?
I just released a new song. “It’s Mine” is available basically everywhere. You can -
Stream it: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, Tidal - all those places paying pennies.
Buy it: I have a digital single with a high quality .wav file + high quality mp3 file available at my store. I got every cent of this, compared to when you stream!
Bandcamp: Today, Friday February 2nd, Bandcamp waived their fee when you purchase anything from my Bandcamp page. You can name your price all the time, they just get a cut on other days.
Also, you can stream it right here!
This song was born from one Grindr message - “You don’t have to be a dick about it.”
Someone said this to me after I didn’t respond to their (multiple) messages. He then tried to message me on another app, to which I finally suggested that apparently I did have to be a dick about it, since he wasn’t getting the hint. And look, I don’t make it a habit to ignore people. I try to be courteous. But the fastest way to annoy me is to send repeated messages - especially the dreadful “???”
It got me thinking of digital expectations. Because of our smart phone, social media-fueled world, we have more access to each other than ever before. There’s expectations people place on you - like wanting an immediate response, to know about your day-to-day, to learn who you’re dating. Then there’s the self-imposed expectations, like feeling that you have to speak up on every issue and have a hot take on every piece of pop culture. Because of that, I understand why someone might be annoyed if they aren’t getting the time of interaction they’re expecting. That doesn’t change the fact that we control our time. Access to our physical and emotional well-being should be governed by ourselves, nobody else. Your time is yours. My space is mine.
Everything is so loud. Sometimes it feels sublime to shut it all out.
I picked up my acoustic Fender and immediately started writing “It’s Mine.” I had a decent demo within an hour or so. The best sonic home for the song turned out to be 90s alt-rock. Something sunny and hazy, light and fun but firm. Melodically, I was inspired by 90s bands I love like Third Eye Blind, Matchbox Twenty, as well as the attitude of heroes like Liz Phair and Veruca Salt. I’ve had multiple people tell me they hear Liz’s brilliant third album whitechocolatespaceegg on this song, which brings me so much joy considering that album specifically set the tone for me.
When I started putting the songs together for my upcoming EP, “It’s Mine” was the clear opener. I wanted to start with high energy and confidence. I asked my mixing engineer Alex Goldberg to start the first verse off like you caught me raw recording in my bedroom, since that’s how this song actually started. We tracked guitars first, played and engineered by Daniel Kleederman. The frantic energy he brought to the bridge is still one of my favorite parts of the EP. The wildly creative Derek Swink added drums next, making sure the energy was matched at every syllable. Bass was done by Dillon Garrett, adding the warm low end such a bright track like this requires. Finally, my brilliant friend Jonathan Fuller did the keyboards. His organ and synth work is the secret ingredient for giving the song the 90s feel I wanted. All of it was mastered by my friend and collaborator whoistheMETRO. He crisped everything up and gave each channel the distinct attention they deserved.
I’m especially proud of the bridge. It’s a stream-of-consciousness list of the nagging questions and rejections followed by cathartic release. It was what took the song from “I like this” to “Oh this could be the first single from a release.”
Putting out music is kind of terrifying! It’s also thrilling and fulfilling, don’t get me wrong. But when you put this much of your mental, emotional, and physical energy into something and throw it out to the world, there’s lots of vulnerability on display. I’m not expecting everyone to love it - that would be foolish. Still, when someone messages me a screenshot of them streaming my music, or buys a digital song, or soon a physical CD (!!!), it’s the affirmation and encouragement I need to keep going. So if any of this describes you, I sincerely thank you.
So what’s next? If you’re subscribing to this newsletter, you probably have a passing interest in me as a creative voice. That’s why I want you to be the first to know that It’s Mine is from a full EP called Away Message. It’s out March 1st. I’ll share more details next week!