SONGWRITING
I began writing my own songs at age 11 with a friend in my class. I continued songwriting for several bands throughout middle school and high school, and released my first solo project works on MySpace when I was still in high school. Songwriting relies on a very different creative process than classical performance. It tends to focus around the words, and the message of the words. Oftentimes, less is more, musically speaking with songs. Many of the songs I write come from my own life experiences: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is almost a requirement for a good song, which can be a daunting and vulnerable prospect. Yet it is equally as rewarding, because it allows the artist to create some of their most deeply personal and idiosyncratic works. On a musical level, creating my own “sound” is highly important to me. The way that I blend musical textures, the sound patches I select on a keyboard, the way I write drum beats, all of it is geared towards saying something personal that makes both musical sense, and has an emotional meaning to me. If I don’t understand what I’m doing or why, then the audience won’t either.