Life, family, and music.
From the album, Up North (2023) Spotify | Apple Music About This Song Every summer, starting in third grade, you attend a sleepover camp. It’s about three and a half hours from your town. A church camp. You go with your church friends and some non-church friends who’ve been lured in based promises of waterskiing, […]
[#014] Behind the Music A-Z: “Bluewater Summer Camp” Read More »
“What strategies can I use to improve my proficiency in music production software like Logic to better translate my song ideas into fully produced tracks?” – Sarah Hi Sarah, Great question. The gap between hearing production in your head and actually getting it recorded can be incredibly frustrating, especially when starting out. Get To 100
10 Strategies to Improve Your Proficiency in Logic Pro Read More »
Single (2015) Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube ABOUT: I was on my way to meet my friend Claire for our cowriting session one day when I drove past a billboard for Grey Goose vodka. The sign said, “Fly beyond.” I brought it up to Claire as a prompt to start us off. She liked
[#013] Behind the Music A-Z: “Beyond the Sun” Read More »
Hi Ryan, Great question. “Balance” is a tough topic and one I can relate to. For a longtime balancing my roles as an artist, producer, and songwriter was extremely difficult. I realized my success or lack-thereof depended on how organized I was. I’m not naturally organized or efficient with my time. I got away with
As a parent, if you’re like me, you often feel like you’re failing. When you don’t feel like you’re failing you feel like you could be doing a lot better. And then in the blink of an eye, your kids get older. You know you’ve made so many mistakes. Are you too late? Is the damage
Does the name Roald Amundsen ring a bell? He was an explorer from Norway. I hadn’t heard of him either until recently. He was known as “the Last Viking.” In 1911, no one had ever reached the South Pole. Amundsen decided to take on Captain Robert Falcon Scott of Great Britain to see who would
How to Make Steady Progress: A Lesson from the Last Viking Read More »
I was on my way to meet my friend Claire for our cowriting session one day when I drove past a billboard for Grey Goose vodka. The sign said, “Fly beyond.” Before I go any further, did you know titles are not copyrighted? Copyright law sees titles as too short and vague to be copyrighted.
A Lesson in Copyright Law from Grey Goose Vodka Read More »
Most attendees at the Aster Cafe in Minneapolis that night likely thought it was a drunk, oblivious stranger passing by. They weren’t far off. It was my slightly inebriated cousin Erik, doing a dare by his likely much more sober brother Karl. They were only sorry that the shenanigans just so happened to be during
How My Cousins Pranked Me at My Own Concert Read More »
You might think the best day of my life would be the day I got married or the birth of any of my kids. You might even think it was the day I signed my first publishing deal or recording contract. Don’t get me wrong, those days were fine and everything. But they simply cannot
The Best Day of My Life Read More »
Prioritizing songwriting is hard, especially when your to-do list is eight miles long and work has you exhausted. Scheduling songwriting on your calendar is a great first step in taking your craft more seriously and improving your chances of actually writing. But you’ll still run into what Steven Pressfield, in his book The War of
How to Maintain a Daily Writing Routine Read More »