Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

I grew up in southeastern Virginia, where there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me - a second-generation Asian American born to immigrant parents with accents. I was used to the teasing about my last name and my ethnic appearance, and I accepted the pressures my father’s culture imposed on me - study hard, get good grades and all that.

I did have a few Asian classmates, but they all seemed to play right into the stereotype of the model minority, with all their academic excellence, particularly in math and science. I tried really hard to fit into this mold too, but it was always a struggle.

While my parents put me in piano and violin lessons, I think they saw it as merely extracurricular activities that might later look good on a college application; another stepping stone toward becoming a doctor, engineer or scientist. I don’t think it ever crossed their minds that music could become a life-long passion or calling. To this day, I don’t think they know the role that music played in keeping me emotionally stable, even going so far as keeping me alive during my worst times.

I don’t remember seeing many prominent Asian Americans in the arts as a kid growing up. There were a few, but I’m happy to see there are so many now more than ever. And while I didn’t have many role models as a kid, I’m grateful that as an adult I can still be inspired by people who, by virtue of being Asian Americans with an affinity toward the arts, have a shared experience with me.

I’ve probably cried at more than one Kishi Bashi show. But this one was particularly emotional. The venue was tiny compared to places where I was accustomed to seeing him. It occurred to me later that he had chosen it on purpose, to create an intimate experience. This one was different. He had brought his parents with him to the show.

I could see how proud of him they were. He even had his father go on stage and play a traditional Japanese song on saxophone. It blew my mind that his parents, first generation Asian Americans, could be so supportive of their son’s artistic work. His parents, like mine, had started him in music as a young child, but they allowed him to pursue his creative calling, and even supported it! I did feel some pang of jealousy, wishing my parents had been like his. But the overwhelming feeling was one of joy, as his performances always elicit from me. Joy from being wrapped up in the enchanting musical experience he created by his performance, but also joy in knowing that he had not been afraid to take risks, so why should I?

As he stood on a chair in the middle of the audience, surrounded by fans with flashlights creating a warm glow around him, he led everyone to sing with him. The experience was beautiful and overwhelming and wonderful, and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

During the performance he spoke about how supportive his parents were and how grateful he was, and he even had a message for his audience. He talked about how he dropped out of engineering school and went to music school instead. He said, “I had the support of my parents. If you have any kids who really want to go into the arts, give them a chance. It’s important for humanity.” If I wasn’t already in tears from experiencing his music, that statement opened the floodgates.

The beauty industry has recently been making a conscious effort to create products free of harmful ingredients, so it’s only fitting that Danielle Fishel finally dives into the world of hair care.

Fans of the 90s television sitcom Boy Meets World likely remember that episode - “Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow” - where Fishel’s character, Topanga Lawrence, makes the drastic decision to chop her hair from her waist to her shoulder blades. It was a freeing experience for her, but any request for a collaboration in the hair-care industry was not something she was interested in.

It wasn’t until she first heard her son’s heartbeat at the eight-week ultrasound that she realized anything she put into her body would affect more than just her, and she wanted all of her choices moving forward to be healthy.

Be Free by Danielle Fishel does just that. Fishel and her team of experts did the research so the consumer doesn’t have to. Reading labels is no longer unpronounceable, it’s free: free of sulfates, parabens, sodium chloride, phthalates, gluten, phosphates and fragrance.

In many ways, Victory Kicks has been making lockdown records for years. It’s always been primarily a home recording thing, so whilst other projects I was involved with came to a sudden halt last year, Victory Kicks was the one thing that could carry on. I’m really grateful for that; music has always been an escape. Last year that became more essential than ever. Working on a new record during lockdown also gave me something to structure my time around, as a result I can still just about remember what day it is.

The start of the first lockdown in the UK coincided with the release of the 6th Victory Kicks album, Lovers in Peacetime. The original plan had been to play a bunch of shows in support of that record, which was probably the happiest I’d been with a finished album so far. In the end none of that could go ahead. Instead, I used the time we’d have spent rehearsing to write a new record. The songs I came up with during the first couple of months of the pandemic were starting to help me make sense of what was going on; I didn’t set out wanting to write about lockdown, but I wanted the songs to evoke the mood of it, and to translate how it felt into a sound.

I did a lot of the writing for the new record late at night, staying up watching TV and playing guitar, taking lines or ideas from the stuff I was watching and the stories people were telling. A lot of the stuff I’d done previously had started with quite fully formed instrumental arrangements that I’d written words to, but this time the songs came together first - just simple stripped down solo things, playing guitar and singing along to a drum machine late at night. I tried to retain that mood when I started recording them. Many of these songs are darker and more sparsely produced than previous Victory Kicks stuff.

I recorded these songs with a very minimal setup at home. I had it in mind that I wanted the production to be really stripped back and that the equipment I was using should be paired back to the absolute essentials. I recorded everything in my flat with just a small amp, a mic, a laptop, a synth and that’s pretty much it. Rather than using a lot of effects or doing a lot in production, I tried to push those few things as far as I could to get the different sounds and textures, doing stuff like playing synths through overdriven guitar amps, playing mobile phone signals through guitar pickups, recording house sounds and looping them. The end result is a record that is both atmospheric and intimate.

I’m hoping that by the time the new album comes out later this year that there’ll be a chance to play these songs in front of people. I’m fine working on music the way I’ve been doing it during lockdown but I’d love to see how these songs work live. There are songs on the record that are absolutely made for that - the lead single, “Mookie Betts”, is one of those for sure.

John, vocalist: A global pandemic is definitely not one of those things you expect to impact your life, be it personally or artistically, but in early 2020, there we all were making it up as we went. Myself and Todd Long, my partner in Ghosts of Sunset, started making records in an era where you literally had to have everyone in a room to get a take because it all went down to two stereo tracks! Had we faced COVID-19 then, everything would’ve simply ground to a halt. As much as many people curse recording technology with screams of, “Tape only, live to tape only, no overdubs” etc., the pandemic taught us just how lucky we truly were for all the advances technology has made in our business.

So, as we watched our ability to tour and play live stop completely, we embraced technology and went on recording new music, performing via livestream and collaborating with artists all over the world. It kept us working, and God knows it kept us sane. File sharing, live events on social media, other digital interactions only served to reinforce what so many of us already knew, ART IS LIFE.

From the earliest days of the global lockdown when we saw citizens singing on their balconies to keep spirits high, to some truly behind-the-scenes live streaming where we saw the biggest artists in the world present their music in intimate stripped down settings, the COVID-19 pandemic shone the brightest of lights on the value and the indispensable role music and art play in uniting human beings.

For Ghosts of Sunset, writing, recording and collaborating, in addition to signing a record deal with Golden Robot Records (which was done completely via Zoom and email), brought much needed normalcy to a world that, at times, especially here in the United States, wobbled and felt like any minute it could collapse in on itself. On a daily basis we were exposed to the worst of the human race and the absolute best. It influenced and continues to influence our work and undoubtedly the work of others. No artist will ever create with the same mindset again. We know how quickly it can be taken away.

As we look to our future, and begin our first steps back out into the world, we now carry a newfound sense of purpose. The interaction between a band and its fans has always been an important one, but now those moments are even sweeter after we’ve been without them. Social media and other online outlets have closed the gap between artist and fan and created an even closer, more intimate relationship. We’ve now helped each other through one of the most difficult times in history.

You can lock us down, you can confine us to our individual homes, but the caged bird always sings. COVID-19 just proved to all of us what a beautiful, important song it is.

Romeo, vocalist/guitarist: It’s been a very particular period. Being in a band during a time of quarantine, it’s like a challenge you have to face. First, the tours were cancelled. We were supposed to have our third European tour and our first US tour. It was hard to see all this work, all these plans, slowly disappearing... But then, we had to face it. To find new ways, new paths to spread our music to the world.

We’ve been in our recording studio almost every day, but not only that, we tried to develop our communication - contacts with radios worldwide. We had to do something to exist.

In the middle of the night in April 2020, I had this melody in my head coming at 2 a.m. I woke up, took my guitar and started to sing it and create it.

The day after, I played it to my drummer Vince, and this is how our last release, “Escape”, came to life. We wanted to express through music and a (homemade) music video the struggle we’ve all been living during quarantine. For some people, it was a physical struggle; the fact of being locked up in small spaces. For others, it was a psychological fight. We all need to escape reality a bit from time to time, especially when daily life is getting complicated. This song reflects what we felt during this period. Tough moments, good moments.

But, we also had the time to finish our album to come, called For Tomorrow, and to prepare the release of a new EP, (Be)For Tomorrow. Since we’re not back on tour, we cannot properly release our album and defend it on stage. But, we wanted to give something to our audience to wait before the album, and so this idea of an EP came naturally.

I think we have all learned something during this year. To always see above the horizon line, above the storm and the clouds. We kept on working six days out of seven. Trying to create, trying to have new ideas, new projects. The world won’t stop spinning. So we had to keep on moving forward.

We’re slowly starting to book tours again so we really hope we will meet you on the road. We miss you!! So until then, please take care and be safe.

With love, Romeo

What a year it has been. As a working musician, I guess the prep of playing and writing at home hasn’t changed dramatically but the change in collaborating and meeting up with other musicians has definitely been missed, almost as much as not being able to play live. I have missed that so very very much.

A typical day this last year has revolved around playing guitar, taking a daily walk and Zooming friends and family.

One might think that playing on a daily basis and writing would have been quite straightforward, but in reality, pushing yourself to do it without the goals and incentives of playing live at times has been a struggle. I’m lucky to have a supportive partner who has helped and made staying positive easier than it otherwise could have been. I’ve also been lucky that in the break between tiers last summer I was able to get down to London and record some of the songs I’d been working on. A visit to the studio wasn’t just a cathartic experience; it also reminded me of why I love doing this job so much. Working with friends at The Animal Farm helped to put things into perspective, and meant I had songs to release.

When putting this together, I tried to consider whether the last year’s experiences have fed into my writing and I think it has. I’ve been more conscious about how fragile things can be. The single I released last November, “We Are One”, is about this fragility and challenges that can catch us out.

Whilst I’ve steered away from doing gigs online this last year, I did do a challenge of playing a cover song every day last June. This was not just great fun, having to learn the track, actually first and foremost deciding which tracks to play, but also resulted in people who wouldn’t have connected with me previously looking into what Christopher Taylor’s music is all about. I’d like to hope that this helped in making my music more accessible.

My latest single, “By My Side”, written and recorded in lockdown, is out now. Why not check it out and let me know what you think. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to play it live this summer, all being well!

“We live in interesting times.”

Have you heard this before? You could also replace “interesting” with “strange”, “unprecedented”, “unusual”, “challenging” and a few other adjectives of your choice, and you’d probably be right. Before the pandemic I had a pretty full-on schedule that involved writing, recording and releasing music, and playing said music in live music venues. A lot of that changed over the course of the past year, but we’re slowly getting back to normality.

The other week, for instance, it was great to be able to go out and play a couple of gigs. On the Saturday of that week I had the day off, so I was free of all commitments and distractions. I spent an extra couple of minutes in bed, and when I finally got out, I went on a run. I find that being active is key to my creative process because it affords me valuable time to (1) consume content and (2) generate ideas. When I go running/walking I tend to listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks about half the time, and for the other half, I keep my ears unplugged to allow me to cogitate my thoughts. 

Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

I was going through the worst heartbreak I had ever been through up until that point in life. Actually you know what, still to this point, I haven’t felt as heartbroken as I did that summer.

In 2018, my life totally flipped around. My best friend, my band mate and someone I grew into adulthood with for five years moved on with someone else, and as dramatic as it sounds, I was relearning how to do life by myself. I mean that in every way it can be taken. I couldn’t wake up without thinking of texting her. I couldn’t eat, leave my house, go anywhere without tracing back to a time where we obviously would’ve done the same together before.

Trying to make music was horrific. Today, I know what I was so stuck on back then was codependency. But at the time, I just thought I was empty. It felt like I had nothing of my own at 22.

The timing between my breakup and breakups among some of my friends lined up pretty simultaneously. So we had endless nights where we’d call each other up to hang out and do anything we could. Sometimes when we talk about it now, we refer to our binges out and about as a means of survival. It’s so, so, over the top, but truly it felt like while others at the parties we’d go to were there for a good time, we were there so we weren’t at home beating new records of how much we could cry.

It was Canada Day, and a friend invited me to tag along to one of his friend’s shows. They’d be headlining a festival in a park; there were fireworks, there were carnival games. I don’t remember much else; I could hardly see past myself those days. I called my friend while I was out there; she was one among the heartbroken club who I knew would appreciate a day like Canada Day not having been spent alone, and while she debated at first she came.

We hung out for a bit before Courage My Love’s set, found things to laugh at and hold tears in about, and then we went to join the others on the grass for the show. They totally crushed it as per usual. I think at the time they were on an album cycle for Synesthesia.

Being around live music was still really hard at this point. My ex and I experienced half our relationship playing live music together, being around live music, so for most of the set I was doing breathing exercises, grounding myself - casual. It wasn’t until they played “Need Someone” that the waterworks started.

It wasn’t that I was crying about my ex though. The song’s really sweet because it speaks to being there for someone, regardless of what toll that might be on yourself. It made me feel really deeply in my chest how lucky I was to have my friends. And while maybe there wasn’t any unrequited love in the dynamic, it was an unfortunate situation for both of us, but we were both there.

Later at night the fireworks went off, and most of the day I dreaded watching them because I knew I’d hold it to the previous Canada Day. But it wasn’t half bad. My friend sat right next to me, arm in arm, and in silence for bits at a time.

Photo courtesy of Clarissa Villondo

My journey during the pandemic has been wild. My original plans for 2020 were to release some singles, a couple videos, and hit the Pride Festival circuit. Me and several other queer indie artists planned a show for May to kick off the season. Of course, that all went out the window when COVID hit.

Being forced to go back to the drawing board freed up space in my mind to find new sources of creativity. I got a huge wave of inspiration at the top of 2020. I started writing a ton of music that would eventually turn into the EP I’m putting out later this year. These songs are different from anything I released previously. They feel more authentic and personal.

Socially, I got closer to a number of queer musicians. I founded the playlist Queer&Indie with J GRGRY. That was a huge breakthrough for me. It’s important to have a community of artists to lean on. We’re cheerleaders for one another and I know there’s always someone to support me when challenges arise. I appreciate the camaraderie, especially during this isolating time.


Personally, the weirdest pandemic change was relief from any form of social anxiety. With the whole world being turned upside down, I guess I have no more fucks left to give? With there being so much tension and chaos in the world, I think the dam containing all my nerves and stress burst and now I feel freer. I’m not getting bogged down by negativity. Life’s too short, you only live once, etc.

During the pan, I started doing these cardio dance classes on YouTube. Can you say game changer?! I used to dance around my room a lot in high school and hadn’t accessed that part of myself in a very long time. I’m not going to pretend I’m good at it, but it’s been a huge source of joy and fun for me. You might even see some choreo in the “Ruthless” video…

Speaking of “Ruthless,” it’s the first single from my EP and coincidentally about reclaiming your agency after experiencing trauma. The original inspiration was heartbreak, but as I write this post now, I’m realizing the parallels with my personal growth throughout the last year. It’s funny how that all worked out.

I can’t wait to see everyone in person once we’re safely on the other side of this thing. Maybe I’ll try out some new dance moves.

Photo courtesy of Marianne Harris

This global pandemic really did hit us like a flying haymaker, and by that I mean square in the face really, really hard! We had not long finally received the final cut of our latest EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, which we had recorded with Innersound Audio in York back in September 2019. We were playing shows and planning our release process; we had chosen which tracks we were going to be shooting music videos for and had plans in place for the social media build-up along with a couple of UK tours on the horizon with some great bands.

Needless to say, the UK’s lockdowns put everything on hold. The tours were cancelled, the video shoots postponed and along with all that we now had to make a decision as to whether or not we would sit on the EP or put it out there anyway! We decided to wait, which seems to have been a saving grace as it gave us more time to prepare for all of the background work that goes into releasing new music.

On a personal note, this did actually make things difficult as I was placed on furlough from work for two and a half months with nothing to put my focus into. Fortunately for me, my housemates (Matt, who plays bass and provides some of the vocals also in the band, and his girlfriend) were also off work, which meant that we could at least provide each other with some form of human interaction. Matt came up with the idea that we should try to make weekends mean something so that we would constantly have something to look forward to each week. By that he meant let’s only get drunk on Fridays and Saturdays…this didn’t last long and we were soon drinking most days. I did, however, get back into reading fantasy novels and putting hours in on the PlayStation.

As the UK went in and out of lockdowns towards the end of 2020, we made the decision to finally release the EP. We managed to get videos done through the brief moments of lifted restrictions and also had the plans in place to slowly release teasers and songs over the first few months of 2021 with the big day coming on the 9th April! We were thrilled with the response that we received from new and old fans, which spurred us on to keep the content coming after the release. The lockdown gave us the time to put together our merch store and get it looking as good as possible before going live.

As we appear to be getting back to some sense of normality in England we are looking forward to getting shows and possible tours back in the works with the hopes that this year we can finally play live the songs that we recorded back in 2019. I think that due to not being able to practice with the guys and play shows in so long I have realised that I was taking certain aspects of being in a band for granted and I can honestly say that I will be putting in all the effort possible to ensure that I don’t do that again.

If everyone could spare us a few moments of their time to check out the latest Next Stop Olympus EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, that would be amazing. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

A couple of days after arriving back home from our Filipino tour in early March 2020, we got the news: Norway is locking down due to the serious COVID situation. We were both in our studio when we got the news, and as we had just been in the Philippines, we were quarantined for a few weeks.

At our studio we are naturally isolated. Carol’s parents live nearby, but apart from them, the nearest house is many hundreds of meters away. In total there are about 100 people living in the area, and the nearest shop is 10 km away. Staying away from other people was pretty easy.

We had lots of plans that had to be postponed. That was kind of sad, but we tried to make the most of it. It was the perfect time to start working on new songs and new material. As we couldn’t meet other people, we decided to learn how to make music videos as well. That’s when we made our first ever real music video, “Run With You”, featuring Carol’s sister.

So have you heard of this ‘Great Reset’ happening? The pandemic was more like the great redux. How was yesterday? What day is today? Rinse, step, repeat. During lockdown, as the fantastic Money Mark sings, tomorrow will be like today. By May, my brain was bruised from the constant cacophony of media fear porn.

Repetition works when it’s intentional, compounding, measurable. So that’s where my focus went — how to take this lemon of a pandemic and make it a refreshing cocktail? Sanity came the usual way: make music.

TV watching is not a habit for me. Then again, neither was being trapped inside a house like Jodie Foster in Panic Room. So the focus was on docs, musicals and biographies. Garth Brooks’ bio is so self-serving that it’s admirable (I think he made it himself, natch). And Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise? You should watch it. Same with Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster. That’s a solid night's double feature right there!

The one that hit me hard was on Dolly Parton. She still writes ‘one or a few songs every day.’ Every day! Ah ha! That was it! I’m going to lock myself in my mixing room and write songs every day! Hello, Dolly!

And that first night, I wrote two songs. The first one, “Move Along”, was a real genie coming out of the bottle. But after a week of diminishing songwriting returns, I realized what I needed was a deadline. Without some SELF-imposed restriction, mind you, I am just a swirl of ADHD energy that needs to be put inside a bomb casing.

My email to John Vanderslice, owner of Tiny Telephone Recording here in Northern California, was brief. If we were socially distanced, could we use the studio for a week? Recording studios are naturally socially distant places. The singer’s in a little room behind glass. The band is 20 to 30 feet apart in a giant room. The tape operator is isolated. Toss in one of those hand-held thermometers and you’ve got yourself a recording party.

The dates were agreed upon. The engineer, drummer and bassist were available. Excitement brewed. Are we gonna actually interact as musicians, playing together, in the same space... at the same time? Take my middle finger, Zoom!

Except… what were we going to play?

Knowing the elements, and having a deadline, made inspiration happen. With a pot of coffee in hand, I sat in my garage with a notebook, a guitar and my One Man Drum Company suitcase kick drum. And two days before the session, I emailed seven skeletal demos off to the band. A week later, the album Cacophony emerged from the flames of pandemia like a phoenix! Or maybe more like a lazy seagull.

Three weeks after we finished the mix, I became a dad for the first time. All creative projects need a deadline. And a little bit of lemon never hurts.

Jasper, vocals: Rough times, but still inspirational - a clear message that we are walking the wrong road trying to do everything alone. No shows, no unity, social distance and a lot of ways to keep us apart. As a band, being apart means we also know what makes us whole; we feed on working together, playing together and making music together. We feed on the energy of the crowd, the words of the ones that listen to and love our music. But even though our lives changed, we keep on making music and we keep on spreading our message: together we are one. We need people and love around us to flourish.

So what do our lives look like right now? We try to keep our heads leveled, our bodies in shape and our minds clear. We keep writing music, recording songs and giving it our all. We aim to break free from the social distance hold, to reach out to the ones we love. We know we will be able to do it if we keep working hard. 

Well, where to start!? Listen, I’m a hot mess so here we go!

6:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I lean over, grab my phone and snooze it. 15 minutes later I do it again. It takes me about five alarms to actually get up in the morning.

I wish I could tell you a sweet story about how I go to the gym and pump that sweet, sweet iron to look cute and sexy... but I don’t. I roll out of bed, grab my phone and check my stocks to only realize I don’t invest enough money for it to actually matter. But I check it anyway, so I feel like an adult that is doing something to earn extra income.

At this point, I take a shower and start looking through my clothes only to realize that I need to do laundry because my favorite shirts are dirty most of the time (I travel a lot... try not to judge, but it’s ok if you do).

Now that I’m fully awake, I start my meditation to get centered. I put both hands over my chest and say out loud all of the things I am thankful for in that moment. “I’m thankful for fresh air. I’m thankful for my job. I’m thankful for my family.” Things like that. Honestly, if you haven’t tried it, you should! I feel so good and thankful to be alive when I’m done.

The next part changes day to day. While I would love music to be my full-time gig, I still work in film. Depending on if I have a project underway or not, I might be on a plane to a location shoot, on the computer hunting down resources for production or coordinating any myriad of details. But let’s say I don’t have a project going on. I will typically spend a few hours dreaming about what I want to accomplish. I’ll kind of make some notes on how I can help those dreams become a reality today. Let’s be real here, I am an enthusiast for life.

Speaking of being an enthusiast for life... if someone calls me with a fun time, chances are I’m there. I will never miss out on a party or a hang. It fuels me creatively. I write about experiences that I’ve lived, so the more the better. And I have lived through some experiences. Some good, and some where I’m left questioning, “Why did I just do that?”

I’m extremely ‘go with the flow’. I don’t plan out a lot of things, I just let them happen. My songs tend to come to life in the same fashion, usually pretty quickly. When a melody or lyrics come to me, I’ll whip out my phone and record a snippet, or even a video if there’s a piano or guitar nearby. My phone is a petri dish of songs that haven’t yet come to life.

But like a lot of artists, I think, I get a feeling when I strike gold. And that centers me because I will work at a good one until it’s done. Over the last year, I blew up my life - questioned my faith, ended my marriage, moved from the city I’ve lived in nearly all my life, walked away from my band to start a solo music career. It’s been a lot. And I’ve found a sort of peace with it all through my songwriting. Creating these songs has been cathartic. They’re very real, very raw and very honest, which can be a hard thing to come face-to-face with. But it’s been good for me. Challenging, yet at the same time it feels right. Like this is what I’m meant to be doing.

So for now, I’m focused on getting these songs out there into the world. I want to connect with people on that same level, let everyone know it’s okay to be who you are supposed to be. I just dropped my first single, “The Weight”, and a whole EP is coming a few months behind it.

As the world starts to settle into whatever this next phase is going to look like, I’m looking forward to finally getting back out there and playing some shows, getting that face time with people, having new experiences and discovering even more about myself.

Picture the scene: You’ve decided to start a new musical project in secret. You pick a good name, you write and produce an EP, you develop an image, EP artwork, logo designs for future merch and you are in the final stages of live show prep, including costumes, projections, click tracks, etc. World domination right?

WRONG!

Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

I first heard of Rihanna the summer I turned 17, when I was working as a ranger in an all-girls forestry program in Northern Ontario. On one of the last days of the program, the coolest girl at the camp told me that she liked Rihanna, and that was it; my life was changed.

Six years later, in 2012, I was in my third year of university for music. Studying pop production and singing, I had no shame in the Rihanna posters taped up on my wall. Not only had I devoured all of her music, but I was a true fan of her brand. Her seemingly badass confidence inspired me to no end. I channeled Rihanna in every song I produced, every show I performed and in every spit-spackled scolding I gave to the boys vying for my affections. Rihanna was the spirit I called on to propel me through the tumultuous first few years away from home.

So, when Rihanna announced Toronto tour dates for March 2013, I was ready. I scraped together every dollar (and I mean scraped) in order to pay for the most expensive concert tickets I had ever bought - only my idol could conjure such lavish expenditure from me, which I planned and bought months in advance.

And then, out of nowhere, I won a pair of tickets for Rihanna's surprise 777 Tour that November.

A Facebook contest I entered had paid off...

So I cried!

I cried from shock. I cried because I was so broke that I couldn't imagine being able to afford seeing Rihanna twice in the span of a year. I cried because the show was the next day. I cried because I could invite a +1. And I cried because I was finally going to see my idol, who in large part had influenced my entire career path, and I was seeing her in person tomorrow.

That night was a whirlwind. I called my biggest Rihanna-loving friend and we made a plan to ditch our music improvisation lecture to go stand in line early the next day at the Danforth Music Hall. I barely slept, and the next day we dressed our best and made our way down to the venue two hours early so we could be first in line.

Pushed up against the stage, I remember seeing Rihanna walk out like a god. She was like the living manifestation of all of my hopes and dreams. And when she sang her hits, notably "Cockiness", “Birthday Cake", "Diamonds" and "We Found Love", we sang along every word. I touched her hand as she waved it through the crowd, and I beamed with happiness.

Months later, when we saw her at the ACC, thousands and thousands of fans surrounding us this time, we laughed and cried again.

It's surreal to think of it now, so many years later. It feels like I'm explaining the moment that I met a Messiah. But for me, it was truly a life-changing concert, and I'm in awe looking back on that once-in-a-lifetime moment.

The time that I won tickets to see my biggest musical inspiration, Rihanna.

COVID and the pandemic has caused everyone to reexamine how we do the things we do daily, and learn to either adapt, pivot or reinvent the processes and strategies we used pre-pandemic. If anything, this past year has taught us all a lot more compassion and mindfulness about others and health - nothing to take lightly.

One of the hardest things about being an artist during COVID for me is the lack of in-person, face-to-face collaboration with other creatives due to isolation. Everything from producing, recording, performing and shooting music videos has changed. I love writing with other people, and bouncing ideas back and forth is one of my favorite things about being a songwriter. The other hardest part of the pandemic as a performer is the inability to perform live concerts.

Traveling and the live music business completely shut down, and it’s still not back 100%. As an artist, not only is traveling and performing an important part of expressing yourself, but it is another way of marketing yourself besides social media. When I launched my first single in early February 2020, I expected to hit the road with my music, but was quickly let down when the pandemic started.

I as well as my entire family have been fully vaccinated and we continue to follow all current CDC protocols to keep our friends, associates and collaborators safe. There’s no telling when or if things will ever return to the way we once knew…but you can bet, nothing is stopping me from continuing to write, record and produce great songs. And I cannot wait for you all to hear what’s coming up next! Stay safe and stay strong friends.

Photo courtesy of Alisha Kabir

It feels like a fever dream when I think back to the couple shows I had at the beginning of 2020. From graduating college, to moving to Ireland (just because), to releasing my debut EP, I had a lot of hope and excitement for the year ahead. I had plans set for 2022 to release a full length album and it felt like things were really beginning to fall into place as to where I was musically.

I was in the middle of some recording sessions when COVID started lurking into Tennessee. When the pandemic hit full force in March, all of my plans came to a crashing halt. My studio sessions were cancelled, my final year of college was completely uprooted and moving to Ireland was now a big fat question mark (and currently still is).

I retaliated against quarantine by throwing myself full force into work and I found myself in this draining routine of depleted creative outlets and very little drive from the lack of variation in my routine. It wasn’t until I decided to release my debut EP, I Doubt He’ll Ever Hear This, that I really started to feel like myself again.

COVID definitely made 2020 an interesting year. Having no choice but to be inside every day really changed my mindset and daily routine. I spent a lot of time writing songs and learning more about the technical side of music production. A lot of great material came from me just sitting down for hours and hours every single day, studying my favorite producers and trying to figure stuff out on my own.

I made a lot of original music during that time but I think the most eventful thing I started doing was TikTok. I started uploading videos of me playing covers of popular songs on the violin and people really enjoyed them. In a couple months I had over 100K followers and many of those people have become fans of my original music.