SMOKE AND MIRRORS was my first real project — and what an experience it was. Recording alongside a group of incredibly talented musicians (listed below), with a wide range of traditional instruments and some truly wizard-like sound engineering, felt completely surreal.

This five-track album blends folk melodies and storytelling with raw, gritty rock tones. It dives into themes like surviving in a heartless system, the struggle to make ends meet, and heartbreak

Thank you Kory, Mitch, Gabe, Mauro, Mailiis, and Jesse for making this album possible

SunSkip EP was a home project and the first time I felt confident enough to release a collection of songs all at once. It was a small dip into showing what I was capable of creating on my own, despite having limited knowledge of recording and production at the time.

I still love this EP, but it never felt quite satisfying — and that’s what makes it so important to me. It pushed me to aim higher, to craft a stronger project with a bigger sound, which ultimately led to SMOKE AND MIRRORS

1285 is an instrumental track I created using a digital 8-track recorder, a handful of preamps, and a mixing board. It features an open tuning — DGCGCD, the same one used in Led Zeppelin’s Rain Song — and includes mandolin, which I used more as a percussive element to drive the rhythm.

The title 1285 was inspired by a 1924 freight train located in the Monterey Bay Area of California — one of my earliest and most vivid childhood memories. Even though the name came well after the track was finished, it now feels like a fitting match. To me, the song could easily serve as the soundtrack to an intense train ride.

At some point, I’d love to revisit and expand this track with more instrumentation — maybe on the next project.

“Those Words” was my second single and my first real attempt at creating a full-band track without an actual band. I recorded all the instruments myself using a $40 interface, a single AT4040 condenser mic, my Fender Stratocaster, my Martin OMJM, and a laptop running Logic Pro. The process was pretty scrappy — I used that one mic for everything, including drums. I recorded the snare and hi-hat together, then individually tracked the kick drum and each cymbal hit. It was a process, to say the least.

I tracked my vocals in my dorm room and layered them to build harmonies. At the time, I was obsessed with Adrianne Lenker’s voice and was chasing a similar timbre. If I had the chance, I’d absolutely remaster this song — it remains one of my favorites.