A year ago I decided to take a break from the electronic music I had been writing for a decade and performing for the better half of one. I started to find myself at ease, tinkering at my piano (or as close to a piano as I can get) and actually putting an effort into singing. My motivation came from a series of captive experiences watching live, acoustic performances (finally watching, rather than being part of them) and also the memory of me as a teenager late into the night droning on and on at the piano, singing my dear little heart out.

It has been a challenging time. I realize that it is a ridiculous effort to write music that doesn't already sound like another's without submitting to the temptation of layering on the programmed beats and synthesis. Also, the fact that I've had to write lyrics has been at first a dread but eventually, if not unique, something I can live with.

In many ways I feel like I have started over. Clearing out old habits, standard procedure, and all those quick fixes that made producing so damn boring these past couple years. Also, singing has been a painful yet transformative journey. I realize that much of what I'd been doing the past five years hadn't even come close to resonating with who I am or how I feel.

So a few new songs finally, though not what I imagined I'd be writing, making their way to the light.

-S