This was one of the first songs that I was the primary composer on. I wrote the majority of it on my new looper and it sounded great, but it took me a while to figure out the lyrics and arrangement. At first, I was just goofing around singing “Closer” by Halsey and The Chainsmokers over it, and that lyrical rhythm/attitude led me to what we have. The track is really about being frustrated by the societal expectations placed on us – especially when we’re constantly seeing the fabulous lives of people younger than us on social media. I know it’s something that almost everyone faces nowadays, even more so for teens and young adults. Even with everything I have going on, I still struggle with feelings of inadequacy in both my personal and professional lives. At the end of the day, we’re all our own worst critics and need to learn to treat ourselves kindly and appreciate who we are. Remember: “I am my own entity. I am where I’m meant to be, and that’s something they’ll never take away from me.”

(P.S. I wanted my friends to share in this empowering message, so they are featured in the lyric video and you can also hear them in the backing vocals at the end of the track.)

This was a song that my friend and I started writing together over Discord. It was a cute ukulele track that made me warm and happy inside. What else makes me warm and happy? Dancing with my friends from my college ballroom dance team. Danny Rios, who wrote the ukulele part, was one of my early dance partners and a very close friend. I ended up writing the song about my first encounters with the club and all the unique characters in it. They all came to mean so much to me and I had never really been able to express just how grateful I was to have all of them in my life. Thus, the song was born - and you can even hear my ballroom friends goofing around in the back of the track. 

(Bonus: I wrote and played the piano tracks for this song and was messing around with them on a kalimba while we were mixing. Dan loved the sound and told me to go record it – so that’s the story of my first time playing kalimba.)

This was one of our first tracks together. When Dan and I first met, he handed me a thumb drive with 40+ demo tracks on it and said “pick three to write to, then come back.” This was one of the ones that spoke to me, so I sat down to begin my journey as a songwriter. I’d be lying if I said it came quickly. I sat with it, grasping for words and melodies. I ended up calling it close and not finishing it until a day or two before I was supposed to meet back with Dan. I put the PRO in PROCRASTINATION but it still pisses me off. That frantic pressure led me down a rabbit hole and that’s when it clicked. The smoky darkness of the track was very reminiscent of the clouds that occasionally pass through my mind, so I explored that darkness and put it into words. Dan connected with it instantly and that’s where the magic really began. We brought in Ace Kari to shred some guitar for the track and handed it off to Nicolas Donatelli for a beautiful lyric video.

When Dan and I first met, he handed me a thumb drive with 40+ demo tracks on it and said “pick three to write to, then come back.” This was the one of the songs that I chose. Its simplicity pulled at my heartstrings and I immediately knew we needed to get strings on it. We found our angel, Jackie Robbins, and she made the track so spectacular. She played cello and bass and brought in her sister Sandra on viola and Alan Grunfeld on violin. They were wonderful to work with and brought such haunting, heartrending magic to the track.

Dan and I never intended to be country, but it lives in both of us. In the summer of 2021, I was sorting through a lot in my personal life and it came out through my music. I never sat down and thought “let’s write a country song.” I just let my thoughts and feelings flow and then my brain kept screaming this super country guitar lick. So I told Dan “I guess we’re doing country.” The next thing that screamed at me was “THIS SONG NEEDS FIDDLE!” So we brought in the enchanting Paddy King not only on fiddle but he also threw some mandolin on the track. The song came together so naturally and ended up being one of our fastest turnarounds from paper to release. It was simply meant to be.

This song sat in the back of my journal for years. I think I first started writing it in high school before I even got into my first relationship. Then I shelved it, picked it up again a year or two later, and then shelved it again. It wasn’t until I met Dan in 2020 that I decided to bring it back into the light. I had never seriously written a song before, but I remembered this song-like poem in my notebook and thought it would be cool to see if we could make it a real song. Figured I’d take Dan’s musical abilities for a test run. It ended up working so well that it became our first single. I’ll always remember Dan telling me I was nuts for putting waves and seagulls on a track (and then being so picky about it), but he ended up loving it and it wouldn’t be the same without them.