“Collateral” music video (2025)
In November of 2023, I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn with a close friend of mine from college, Madison deCory. Madison, like myself, wears a lot of creative hats — we have written music together, are developing scripts together, and we both work in the film industry — but she is one of the most talented filmmakers I know. I’d kept Madison up to date on my process of creating Crickets, as she has long been someone who spoke to me about my own music in a way that always made me feel like she really understood what I was going for. She loved the record’s 4th track, “Fiona”, and we talked ideas for making a video for that song. But when she heard “Collateral” for the first time, she wouldn’t take no for an answer — this was the song. I agreed. I love this song so much; it is maybe the most commercially viable offering on the record, but it also absolutely demonstrates an honest depiction of the bitterness of heartbreak. It’s melodramatic, insanely catchy, and a love letter to the bubble-grunge music I grew up loving.
One night after work, we perched ourselves up at a booth in the Shake Shack in BedStuy and conceptualized what would become this video.
Like songwriting and music production, producing a music video is an arduous, patience-testing endeavor that is not for the faint of heart. To add fuel to the flame: not only were we shooting at my house, with my friends and family in the video, visualizing the story of a very personal song, but I had many responsibilities. I starred in the video, wrote the script, and acted as the producer and editor. When that much pressure is put on you, for better or for worse, the final product is yours. I couldn’t be prouder of the outcome — Madison and I are so glad to share ownership of this project, and we can’t wait to start working on the next one.
December 20, 2024 — New York, NY — ANNOUNCEMENT regarding the release of my sixth LP, “Crickets”.
In June of 2022, I released Bridge to the Moon, my fifth full-length original album. This album was essentially a medium for processing the previous several years, basking in the reverb of college and heartbreak, as I spent 6 months at home post-graduation, trying to learn what I wanted to do with my life. Right after I released that album, I quit my job in corporate P.R. and moved out of my parents house to New York City, to pursue a career in the arts. If the rest of this website is any indication, a number of fields within the arts are of interest, but my professional intention in moving to New York was to pursue film.
In December of 2024, it is two and a half years later. Over those two and a half years, I’ve come to find this big loud city as home. I’ve continued to pursue my career in film, even with some success at times, and have endured even more heartbreak. I follow my arrow, wherever it points; for three months of 2023, it was Los Angeles, where I was film composer Alex Wurman’s personal assistant, as he scored the upcoming documentary Rising Hope. Before I left for LA, in my mind, I had what would become Crickets in a place I considered about 90% complete. It wasn’t until I worked for Alex that I realized it wasn’t. Alex had an abundance of advice for me about being a songwriter in your 20s — advice, it was plain to see, he wished he could go back in time and tell himself. Among the most valuable of this advice was the simplest; I would show up to his recording studio, usually 10-15 minutes late (as is, regrettably, a recurring struggle of mine) and storm in, kick my shoes off hastily like I was at the beach and trying to get into the ocean as soon as possible. I would answer the phone drowning in a hurricane of thoughts. Simply, Alex suggested that I take a breath before I knock on someone’s door, answer the phone, introduce myself; you name it. This has proved embarrassingly sage advice. The other thing he told me was that all your best songs come in your 20s — I needed to start stockpiling them now because once I make a name for myself, odds are I’ll use up all my creativity getting there and will have nothing left in the tank. I need to prepare for the crop shortages, and so on.
The take a breath advice truly has changed my life… the you lose a bit of the magic when you turn 30 thing, on the other hand, caused a bit of an existential crisis. My first decision was to scrap about half of what I had recorded, because I realized that I could do better, think bigger, sound better, say more. But, coinciding with this realization that there was more work to do, more songs to be written, was a bout of writer’s block to a degree I’ve never experienced before. I felt completely incapable of writing anything, especially music. I started to wonder if my creative expiration date was far below the usual 30… after all, I’ve been writing music since I was nine years old. Maybe, since I got the early start, I’d meet an early end, too. It wasn’t until the very, very end of my three months in LA that I was able to use the whole thing as fuel for songs that would make the cut of the album (“Again & Again” and “Bittersweet Dance”).
The rest of the album came to me when I moved back to New York in October of 2023 (aside from what I had before leaving). Between October and February of the following year, I wrote the final five songs the album needed. Had I not been patient, taken a breath, gone back to the drawing board, I’d have released a much different (worse) album, much sooner. This extra time also gave me the opportunity to go into the studio with the likes of producers Jonah Bobo and Curtis Kemp and re-record parts of songs. The song “Fiona”, for example, took over 5 recording sessions, each about 6-10 hours long, over the course of a year. Jonah, who mixed and co-produced that song, had about ten different mixes before we landed on one I approved.
My point in chronicling all this for you is that making something is a process. When it is finally over, you aren’t just proud, you’re also in disbelief at how much time this endeavor represents in your life. I am, in every sense of the word, a different person than the guy who started this album. But I don’t think I could’ve done it without both… take a listen, and you’ll see why.
New York vlog
In September of 2022, I made the journey back to my most coveted place — Ithaca, New York. Maybe it’s hard to appreciate things in the moment, or maybe it’s too easy to appreciate them once that moment has passed. Whatever it may be, I can’t help but reflect on Ithaca with rose tinted glasses and a naive yearning to return. Come with me as I traverse the sumptuous state of New York, and drop a pin in this noisy world. (Shot and edited by me).
“Bridge to the Moon” (LP, 2022)
I released “Bridge to the Moon” on June 3rd, 2022. Incidentally, this was the same day I moved to New York.
This record is my proudest work for too many reasons to list. I am so proud that I was able to assemble an all-star cast of my most talented friends to help me work on it. I am so proud that I can truly stand by each and every lyric, that I can listen to this record and know it’s a real piece of me. But what truly takes me over the moon with this one is the fact that it’s a time-capsule. Between graduating college in May of 2021, and moving to New York in June of 2022, there was a long stretch of “well… that was great, but what now?” I felt uninspired, for the first time in years, by the life I was living. I took that frustration and wrote about my relationships, my perspective, the world around me and where I thought I fell in it. I look at this as my first piece of true art— my first record that isn’t just a collection of songs loosely bound together by the fact that they were written around the same time. This record takes stock of the most consequential place and time in my life, a waiting room to the unknown, and it turns what I found boring into a statement.
All tracks written, mixed, and produced by myself. Additionally, contributing writers are Madison DeCory, Allison Keeley, and Will Sturcke. Contributing producers are Erik Burns and Will Sturcke. Contributing mixers are Jonah Bobo, Will Sturcke, Erik Burns, and Vincent DeMor.
“For Women, For Men” (short film 2021)
At Ithaca College, collaboration is in the air, as alive as an electrical current. Annually, it reaches a fever pitch around March and April, when film majors scramble to get their senior thesis films completed on time.
Two friends of mine had written a brilliant script: a mockumentary where a narcissistic self-described feminist pitches, to a women’s razor company, a commercial for a new razor geared to men. Over the course of their writing process, they reached out to me for notes and observations a few times.
Ultimately, I ended up auditioning for the sidekick role in the film, Connor. This was an incredibly fulfilling experience which I look back on, fondly. I’ve always enjoyed making other people laugh, but improvising on-set and doing that for my peers was a memory I will never forget.
My YouTube Channel
I started making YouTube videos when I was eight years old. Although the first ten years of content is under lock and key, for reasons I think you might understand, I never fully stopped making videos. From song covers, to vlogs, my channel is something I am proud of. These two videos below are just a few examples of what I have to offer.
TikTok
In December of 2023, I finally gave into the pressure and decided to start making TikToks. You can take a look by clicking on the TikTok icon to the right.