This song is inspired by my curiosity of how our human minds are programed to perceive and react to what it believes to be dangerous.  I’ve been increasingly interested in this as I dig deeper into my own fear states, and try to understand their roots in order to continue moving forward with my own growth, professional and otherwise.  There is an increasing awareness and an expanding scientific body of knowledge about what has made us adaptable throughout our evolution as a species.  When any sentient life form perceives a threat in its environment, it is programmed to take precautionary measures and use defensive strategies that have been passed down for many generations of its ancestral line.  This mechanism is something that throughout our history has helped us become more resilient and adaptable to the forces of nature.  So today, even though we no longer face the dangers that threatened our ancestor’s lives on a daily basis, our brains remain constantly on watch and are scanning for anything we perceive as a threat to our survival.  What was once an essential survival mechanism now creates challenges in the relatively new environment we inhabit.  When you perceive fear where none exists, you live in a mental state in which you have few alternatives.  When we leave this mental state unchecked, we easily create a perception somewhere in between “what is real and what it seems.”  When we are able to perceive reality from a state of conscious awareness, we can then quite literally “unlock this dream” and break away from embedded patterns of fear-based reactions, simply because it’s been “written in Our Code.”

PRIMIS is a collection of songs that represent my ongoing journey of discovering who I am as an artist and a human being.  Through writing  each of these songs, I essentially became less involved with endeavors (musical and otherwise) that did not resonate with my personal consciousness as I started to grow more fully into my own identity.   This, of course, was not an easy transition for me as I needed to say “no” to people, and this has always been a significant challenge.   There are many lessons I’ve learned during some of these inevitable shifts of my energy output.  Perhaps one of the most profound revelations I’ve had is recognizing who truly encourages and supports me in my journey. 

I originally released these songs as singles, but this time in isolation has forced me to reflect on my body of work which then led to the decision to release them in this album.  Each and every song signifies different key aspects of growing into an authentic state of existence. 

I named my debut album PRIMIS, which in Latin means “first” in anticipation of many more collections to come, the next of which I’m excited to say is already in its embryonic stage.  The release time for this album is an interesting one for sure since together we all are facing fear and uncertainty as a people.  Through my work, my hope is to instill optimism:  that we continue to learn how to co-exist in this world together and spark an awareness of the power we have to face adversity no matter how difficult.   

I feel there is no better way to spread this message than to share this part of myself not only as an artist but as a person always striving to learn and to grow.

Hold on is my 8th original release and is a deeply personal song.  It was written intimately from my heart as a reflection of an ongoing journey through which true love grows. True love manifests through all obstacles we face as well as the barriers we can so foolishly create. 

Love is a vehicle in which we travel together.  It takes us to many wonderful destinations when we learn to navigate through the intersection of ourselves and who we feel this deep connection with.  Along this path there will always be blocks within ourselves we must overcome as we push through obstacles from the outside.  Only through the times of darkness can we conquer the parts of us that would abandon what is so deeply precious,  “Don't be afraid for what we have will stand the test of time.”

I will be releasing my first cover song today, "Shameless",  one of two songs just released by Camilla Cabello from her upcoming LP "Romance".   You can see my video performance on YouTube and the song will be dropping on all platforms today.  Learning this song, having it produced and filming a video was extremely challenging to do in four days, a really short amount of time for all the work it entailed.  I tend to be a perfectionist and when your producer calls you and tells you to do a cover video of a song released just that day, well, it's a scramble to say the least!  I honestly did not think I could do this so quickly but it's true that you do what you must do when the time comes.  Simultaneously, I had full rehearsals with my band  and flew to the East Coast to meet with a good friend who is working with me on vocals for a track I'm releasing in early November.  All in four days!  It was an exhausting way to start my week but in the end, I discovered that I can work really fast and efficiently when I have to.  This is something I just learned about myself.  There is really no such thing as Impossible.  I will try to hold onto this lesson as I continue to face the challenges that life throws at me.  I think that we are all capable of much more than what we believe we can do.  I believe that our limitations are decided in our minds then believed to be reality when, in fact, they are stories that we tell ourselves.  Those stories then become who we are.  So, to change and evolve we must also change the stories.  

Sometimes we go down a road because it seemed convenient, or because pressures from family or society brainwashing us into believing a certain path is for us.  Sometimes we have no destination in mind and look outside ourselves for a place to head to since we can’t think of where else to head.  Regardless of how you start that journey, a journey that begins with a map drawn by other hands and given to us to follow, at some point we realize that this is not our path, this is not our map to follow. 

This is the moment when we find ourselves at the end of the road.  It can be a frightening, sobering but enlightening moment in that at the end of a particular road we have chosen to embark on, we come to realize that we have been heading nowhere near where our true destiny lies.  It therefore becomes our task to find another path that we feel fits what truly excites us.  Sometimes in order to discover this you have to wander, explore, become lost but do not despair because “not all who wander are lost”.  Safe travels.

It's been a while since my last post.  Soul Glitch been busy creating more electronic music that I hope you will love.  I just released "Tribe of Gods" the day before my birthday.  I hope you are enjoying it.  In January I was in Maui shooting footage for a music video that will be out later this year after releasing the single. My band and I are busy getting our performance locked-in and I'm excited to play my songs for you very soon.  

This blog post, however, is about my latest song "What You Need to Say" which you will get to hear when I release it on May 31st,   The song was inspired by an  experience last year with someone I use to know and used to call a friend.   It was not an easy song to write, but important that I do so. It forced me to analyze the nature of my relationship with this individual and to see it for what it really was.  For many years I thought of this as a friendship and there were moments throughout when he was a friend to me in many ways.  But looking back I can see that I overlooked a lot of what is his true nature as we all do when we feel close to someone and want to preserve our positive perceptions of that person.  It is now hard, however, to deny consciously what I probably knew all along on a deeper level.  

Let me ask you this question:   Who has the right to define who you are?  And what motivates someone to frame your existence in the most negative way possible in an effort to manipulate and undermine your self-perception and self-worth.  I think we all know people  who believe they are "all wise" and who assert to care so much that they are compelled and eager to give you "feedback" about who you are, your life choices and the people you love.  The feedback undoubtedly is composed of  all that they perceive to be your negative qualities and alleged poor life choices.  It is presented as a "verbal intervention" that is supposed to "shake you up" and force you to see yourself in the way they have defined you.  When you scratch the surface, however, there is always an agenda behind the attack.  In this case it was anger over being denied something that I was,  in no way, obligated to give to him.  In my life I've learned that hidden agendas often dominate someone's attacks on your character, life style and personal choices. It is a manipulation intended to undermine your belief in yourself, your chosen path and an effort to exert control over your life.  That he would perceive me to be that gullible says a lot about him.  Regardless, when all is said and done "you know you don't know me", and no one gets to define who I am.

The human community is a tribe.  Sadly, we are divided and isolated from one another in ways that, in the long run, will not serve us.  So much of the rhetoric out there is meant to exaggerate the minor differences among us and infuse us with anger and fear over these insignificant differences.  We must resist this insidious manipulation and reconnect with what we know is a fundamental truth, "it doesn't matter who you are, we're created from the same star".   

In this song I want to point out and remind us that we are not as far apart as we appear to be if only we can set free all of our misperceptions, misconstructions and mistrust of one another.   Playing "the same old game " is an unsustainable position for the human race.  It's time we "play this a different way".  As individuals we have a choice to be passive and allow ourselves to be fed a poison brew, or we can remove the blinders that have been placed to create false perceptions and refuse to be divided and conquered. 

I truly believe that if we look just pass what is being placed so maliciously in front of us, "look past the horizon" we can see the potential that we have to recognize that we are indeed a tribe of gods.  A tribe that possesses infinite potential to do right by one another; to love and care for one another.  We really are not so far apart but that our perceptions make it so.  

I began to write my fourth single release "Take It Back" after watching Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's  Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Despite all the revelations about him which pointed to the fact that he would not be a judge who would serve for the good of the American people he nevertheless was appointed, much to the horror of most of us who painfully sat through that hearing. I watched how others reacted to this tragic event with a deep sense of helplessness and hopelessness, a feeling of powerlessness and even despair. My song is an open letter to those in power and those who feel oppressed by our ever evolving social and political paradigm. 

The time for deception and corruption is almost over, people are not going to allow this control to prevail. In this song we confront the powers that be and make them face the inevitable end to their hold;  to face the fact that their time will be over soon. They can't take our power back, I know this. This power belongs to us and it is not something that can be stripped away. In many ways they will create their own demise "if we let it run its course".  Not to say we should passively sit back and wait. We have the power to choose where to direct our energies and how to react to those in perceived authority. We have the power to not direct our energies against something but rather direct our energies to rally towards the future we wish to cultivate for ourselves and future generations. This song is a celebration of the collective determination we have as human beings to transcend this moment in history no matter how difficult. 

When I began the Soul Glitch project I intended to embrace themes of social, political and personal challenges and growth. I truly believe we cannot evolve into our higher selves without facing adversity. For this evolution to take place we also need each other. After all, whether we want to admit this or not, all of humanity is interdependent. There is great beauty and power when we work as a collective for the good of all.

My journey as Soul Glitch has been an interesting one and a great deal about personal growth, particularly in the area of personal power.   It's taken me a while to figure out how to take these big steps and bring my electronic music vision to life because I first had to evolve personally before I could get to a place where I could create from a place of freedom and power.   I've been producing electronic music since college, a love which started when I was in high school.  I have never, ever, however,  performed my music.  

This is how Soul Glitch started:  I went to a music production school in San Francisco after college.  This is where I started to scratch the surface of what my art would eventually become.  It was there that I discovered what I loved to produce.  During that time I developed friendships with some really awesome people who encouraged me to take on the name Soul Glitch because of my soulful singing and saxophone playing.  The glitch part comes from the way I love to manipulate audio and my use of effects.  And although I did get a really good education and grew my expertise as a saxophonist and vocalist I had not been able to take the lead and create my own performance project.  Instead I spent my time playing with many different bands sax, flute and also vocals.  

All along I have been interested in personal growth and I am an avid fan of podcasts in psychology, nutrition and wellness.  All of which led to this past year when I decided it was time to take the plunge and bring my vision to life.  I was finally at a place where I felt my own power and readiness to take the risks this type of decision entails. The first step on my journey was to back out of all projects that did not further my journey as a performing artist.  This was difficult.  Sometimes people do not want to let go because they truly believe it is their right to own you in some way to serve their purpose.  I grew a lot from those stressful experiences. I learned a lot about making sure that I make decisions that serve my art and my journey and to stop wanting to please others and serve their needs.  

So now here I am.  Over the years I have been a part of a great community of artists and Soul Glitch is very fortunate to have three amazing musicians and wonderful brothers who take this project very seriously.  This is all I can ask for in every way and more than I thought was possible.  The music is slowly but surely coming to life and I  cannot wait to share it with you.  Have a good Thanksgiving.  

"Another Way" is my third release and perhaps my most personal song so far.  The lyrics reflect a life long struggle to pursue my own path in the face of resistance by others.  The song is about that moment when I recognize that what I am getting from a particular situation is "less than the least I would take" and that “I don't need a reason when it's time to move on".   That moment can be sobering and daunting, yet extremely liberating.  This has been my year to face my own inner struggles and to embrace personal growth.  As a result this year has been the most productive year I have experienced as artist.

There comes a time in our lives when we have to make tough decisions that might entail leaving people, places or things behind in order to move forward and follow the path we know and feel we must take.  This process is not easy and the struggle to chose what we know is right for ourselves can be tough.  It is hard to disappoint others and to deal with the negativity that can follow.  But the people who truly love us, our families and those who are our true friends will understand and support the choices we make for ourselves.  Sometimes, it is the uncomfortable truth that when we choose to walk through an open door, the one that leads back to the way things were closes behind us.  This is a reality we must face when making decisions that affect our path and our happiness.  The alternative is to stay in place and live a life filled with regret spending nights wondering what could have been, what would have been, if only...  Follow your path because in the end it is yours and yours alone.