Have you ever found yourself revisiting a particular dream more than once?
Definitely, usually whatever has my current focus runs through my head regularly but I’ve also had persistent types of dreams/aspirations that keep coming back even if the specific format changes slightly. Lately it’s been records, cover videos I want to make with friends, studio time and tours. One that I came back to a lot over my first 5 years of doing music seriously has been touring the country with my buddies and playing shows, eating good food, and seeing the sights across the land.
In your opinion, what is an essential life experience that every individual should undergo at least once?
Hmm, I’ll give one that’s a more essential experience to me for character building and one that’s a joyful one. The first is not having money to do what you want. When you don’t have money to do what you want to do, specifically with a creative or entrepreneurial pursuit, you get creative. You either figure out how to do things with your mind/hands (for artists: graphic design, mixing, arranging, booking, management) or you figure out ways to make the money you need. Either way, not having money to throw at things early on makes you work hard and think outside of the box which are invaluable tools for when you do have money. The second is one of my most cherished memories: a road trip with your buddies where you don’t have a plan: just some money, a loose outline of where to go, a couple of good friends and a vehicle and trailer. My friends and I did it back in 2015, driving down and up the East Coast of the U.S., staying where we could find hotels and playing shows where we could find them. We had nothing booked ahead of time, we just hopped in the car and used one app to find our place to stay each night and another to find open mics to play at. We went from Boston, MA to Baltimore, MD to Myrtle Beach, SC to Nashville, TN to Lynchburg, VA and then back home to Massachusetts just south of the New Hampshire Border. We would stay in an area as long as we wanted and the only real time line we had was getting back in time for a music festival I went to each year called Soulfest and the money we had in our pockets. Once the money was half gone we turned around haha. That was such a once in a lifetime experience that you can only have, easily, when you’re young and don’t have a lot to take care of. I’m glad we did it and I talk about it often.
What’s currently playing in your ears?
I’ve been loving “It’ll Work Itself Out” by Donovan Woods, a smaller band from Virginia called Virginia Man (I love the song “Hide and Seek (Forgive Me)”), “I’m Right Here” by Coyroy (Bo Rhinehart’s project, formerly of NEEDTOBREATHE), Chris Renzema, Mat Kearney and my standard listens NEEDTOBREATHE and Ben Rector.
What is one book that changed your life?
Phew, that’s a big one. I might be forgetting something that I’ve read before that made a big impact over my whole life rather than a season. But I’d say in the season I came into almost two years ago when I left the job I had working for a church, the Book of Ecclesiastes was a really big help for me. The author works through the futility of life and how everything passes away no matter how big it is or how hard one works on it. After the author explores every avenue he can think of to find happiness, contentment and meaning he concludes in the end that it is good to “eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.” People wouldn’t expect to hear this from the Bible, we expect some floaty ethereal thing. And the Bible does tell us to set our hope on God and not on this world, but we are still humans and even though we live in a broken world, we are still encouraged to enjoy the basic things and the things that God has put right in front of us. I tend to over spiritualize things a lot and so something like this is really relieving for me and helpful for me. Another book called “Just Do Something” By Kevin DeYoung communicated a similar freedom to me back in college. I don’t remember if I finished it but I do remember it was a really liberating book talking about not overthinking “doing the will of God”. Those have been really impactful for me, but over the course of my life, the Bible has been the most transformative book for me.
If we’re treating, what beverage would you choose?
Ooo, I’d have to go with some yummy glass bottled Cream Soda.
Share with us a significant dinner memory that stands out for you.
Hmm, yeah one that sticks out to me is the Friendsgiving my wife and I had for our friends from a couple different towns in the Fall of 2022. We had a couple friends from college and one of their families and local friends and their son over for turkey, sides and drinks and it was just a good time. I love the opportunity to see all our people at once and it was a cool “adult” yet “young” thing to do and we had a great time catching up and spending time together. The turkey I brined came out great and everybody brought great sides so it was just a great dinner.
Can you recount a challenging work experience that you consider to be the least enjoyable?
Hmm, I had to ask my wife to jog my memory on this one. At first, I was trying to think of a time where I had to work my butt off but she helped me to remember my least enjoyable experience was actually meetings with an old boss. I was and still am, though I’ve healed/grown some since then, an anxious person and struggled with people-pleasing. I was working for a boss who had done my exact job before and therefore had very specific ways of doing things. I felt pretty micromanaged and would come into my weekly meeting with him with a humongous knot in my stomach. I dreaded those meetings every time.
Reflect on the day that brought you the most joy in your life.
The days I’ve felt the most joy in my life have been pretty ordinary days. They’ve been ones where the sun is finally out after a long, bleak winter and it’s finally warm enough to walk barefoot in the grass and I’ve had the guilt/worry that I carry a lot of the time off of my shoulders. Those days give me life and remind me that life can just be good sometimes.
If you had the chance to jet off anywhere right now, where would your destination be?
I would have to fly to someplace with a lot of sunshine and not too much humidity, though I can be flexible with the second. My kids love watching Bluey (and so do my wife and I if we’re honest haha) and so I’ve really been wanting to go to Australia, but I’d also take a trip to the Florida Keys, Florida itself, California, anywhere warm and sunny really!
Who holds the title of your favorite fictional hero?
My favorite hero now is the same one from my late kid/early teen years: Iron Man. When i first saw Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. as a kid I was obsessed. Marvel was doing things differently back then, and the first Iron Man movie was grounded enough in reality to make it believable and even accessible. I was convinced I was going to go to MIT and become a robotics engineer and build the first Iron Man suit. My wife and I still love watching any of the Marvel movies with Iron Man in it now!
How would you like people to remember you?
When I’m gone, I hope my kids feel like I was a good dad to them, that I played with them, paid attention to them, loved them and believed in them. I hope my wife remembers all the laughs we’ve had together and feels that I was here for her, to listen to her when she needed it. I hope all my friends and family remember all the goofy times we had and laugh about how deep a thinker I was, sometimes too deep. And I hope that my life will show evidence of God moving through me and with me in love to others.