Bad Copy

I’m doing great man. Thank you! Those last couple of weeks before a release are always a bit nuts with interviews, announcements, and promotional to-do lists. But it’s the good kind of busy. I’m just really anxious to get this album out and complete the process of its creation.

I would have to say “Never Alone.” That song is really about finding (and creating) places for ourselves and others to understand that no matter how they may feel in dark times, they are never alone. Someone out there feels similar pain, faces similar struggles, and is working to battle their demons.

Working Title has been a journey for myself in that way, and a journey in not only accepting, but becoming comfortable in who I am. It’s been a lot of work emotionally but I have grown so much in the past 2-3 years, and this album is a wonderful sort of documentation of that.

The major difference is that I wrote the whole album myself, not just my lyrics and vocal melodies. These songs were crafted at home, in my own safe place. I recorded each as every layer as I wrote to build the songs out for a full band experience. This was really my chance to challenge myself to take risks (like playing all the piano parts myself) and trust that I am capable of creating exactly what I felt a song should be, instead of crudely throwing together an idea and passing it off, hoping that someone else would hear it all the way I did in my head.

BoySetsFire is very much a collection of ideas and no single one of us can claim we wrote a song ourselves. So essentially, this is the antithesis of that. Even with Feral Hymns, my first solo full-length, I included songs that were from some of my other projects, so this is the first complete go at it writing solo. It’s honestly a little terrifying, haha! I have never wanted something to be well-received so badly in all my life.

When I started to think about who I would want at my side on stage, it really became a situation where I looked at someone’s talent as a secondary piece of the puzzle. Technical talent is easy to come by. What I REALLY needed was to choose people I knew I could trust with my fans. I have been at this over half my life now, and my fans mean everything to me. They have followed my journey faithfully. They count on me and my ideals. They trust me. There is no separation of my journey and theirs, so I needed to choose musicians who could be invested in continuing that legacy. ESPECIALLY at this place of my life.

I have bared my soul and that has been given back to me tenfold. I cannot tell you how many painful stories have been shared with me by my fans. I’m connecting with a lot of people who feel understood by what they hear in these songs. They feel seen and accepted and loved as they are. I HAVE to know that anyone I bring along for this journey can be trusted with that and not take advantage of it. I work really hard to create a safe place in a broken world, and I need everyone around me to take that responsibility as well, because at the end of the day, it’s my name on the line if that trust is broken. MY name on the line if people feel disrespected or hurt in any way whatsoever. Fortunately, I have been (and hope to continue to be) able to find some good people both the United States and in Europe who I believe can carry that.

End Hits Records is of course a team I have known for decades now. Oise Ronsberger who runs the show there has been a part of my life since early BoySetsFire days, and End Hits was a place for BoySetsFire (and any of our side projects, really) to do our own thing as far as labels go. Oise is really the one who pushed me to get my solo material out to the world. Since they are a Euro based company, we have been looking at options on this side of the world to help our U.S. fans have access to my music a little easier, and Deathwish stepped up to the plate to handle distribution in the U.S. It’s been a wonderful partnership so far and I look forward to what the future brings us together.

My new book was perhaps one of the most painful, necessary, and freeing parts to this part of my journey. Light & Love somewhat picks up where I left off in Until The Darkness Takes Us. It dives much deeper into my painful past and how I freed myself.

There were many days where I would dig into my memories and experiences so deeply that I would break apart for days. But, there are also some very celebratory parts, and parts I hope people find some inspiration in. Sitting down to write that book was huge in my “emotional recovery” so to speak.

Yes, absolutely. Just after the January 31st release of the album, I am heading out to Europe. I will be bringing along my friends in Matze Rossi, Swain, and Norbert Buchmacher.

Just after I return from Europe, I will be heading out on a short U.S. tour that includes eight shows across the Northeast and Midwest.

I genuinely believe that happy people let other people be happy. There is absolutely no way we can go out and make positive changes in the world if we are carrying around a shitty attitude. It all has to start within each of us, and we have to be open to taking long, hard, honest looks at ourselves to see where we can be better, and then we have to commit to ourselves to do just that. Be better. Not perfect, just better.

My music. My writing. My family.

Playing my music on Saturday Night Live. (Yes, I am serious.)

That I struggle just like anyone else. That I have good days and bad days and messy days.

This is absolutely what releasing albums feels like – you start with a melody that persists in your mind and begs to be given life, and then there is this incredibly long process of writing and tearing it all down and starting over. And when it’s all just right, you go to the studio and make an album. And THEN, because the music industry is how it is, you wait another six months or so to release it. It’s torturous! You get those songs recorded and mastered you feel just incredible, and the wait for release day somewhat deflates the balloon a bit. There is no joy like release day and seeing that all that hard work come to life.

I’m pretty stoked that I’m still here – that I pushed on when I wanted to give up on life, on my dreams. Everything.

I don’t think I have a “favorite.” They all represent very different times and places of life, and are equally important and personal.

The best hugs are the ones my family gives me when I walk off that plane after a tour. Those are unmatched.

We have to accept that the experience of life is that we WILL fail. We WILL have bad days. And those things are okay, because we can learn so much about ourselves in them.

Telling the world that I was sexually abused as a child. That was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done, but one of the most healing.

I think I’m pretty lucky in life – I keep a pretty tight circle in friends and family, and those chosen few are unparalleled. I can go to my parents, my wife, and a handful of friends who are like family and know that I will get both support and be told hard truths when I need to hear them.

It feels freeing. Terrifying. Empowering.