Baby, I’d go with you Anywhere!
Photo by the awesome Phillip Skulte at Studio North in Minneapolis :)
Boyhood Blog #5
If there are two things you’ve got to know about me they’re 1. I love Carly Rae Jepsen and 2. I am stubborn as hell.
Coming this Friday, I am so stoked to share with you the next single from my upcoming album Boyhood (out March 22nd!!!). It’s called Anywhere and it’s a raging synth-pop song all about surrendering your heart to the potential of something new.
This song has been with me for a while now and you might’ve heard an earlier version if you’ve been following along since my baby pop star days. But as previously mentioned…I’m stubborn as hell and I knew that I wanted this song to have a bigger presentation than it originally had.
In case you didn’t catch it from my last music video, I have a flair for the cinematic and this song is no exception to that rule. I wrote it after an electric encounter at a house party and I wanted to capture the intoxicating (and occasionally delusional) highs of a potential new romance - it had to be underscored by massive synths, drum kits, soaring hooks, and be the epitome of a main character moment. And everyone knows you can’t have a main character moment without a music video…
During this process, I had the absolute pleasure of getting to work with Pflipsen Films (check them out here!!) to create the exact video I had running through my head while making this song. Cityscapes, polaroids, projections, kites(!)...all to be found within. I can’t wait for you to see it :)
I also could not conclude this blog post without mentioning that I am completely enamored with the work of one Carly Rae Jepsen. While a lot of my songs are influenced by her music, in listening back to the album I realized that this song more than any other is my true love letter to her. No one quite captures the thin line between longing and endless possibility like Carly and it is my hope that this song comes within even a 1,000 mile radius of that.
Anywhere will be out *everywhere* this Friday, March 1st :)
Now for…
What I’ve been listening to: since this post is basically Dedicated to her…
Playlist shoutout: if you left this post wondering what songs all inspired Anywhere…do I have news for you!!
New year, new news
Photo by the amazing Rachel Graff :)
Boyhood Blog #4
Hello blog!! It’s been a second…but I promise it’s with good reason :)
Since we’ve last chatted, my single Nostalgic has been released and I cannot thank you enough for the support and love you’ve shown the song and video! It was truly such a blast to create and I hope you’re all still jamming out to it as much as I am. Check out the AWARD WINNING(!!!) video here
Also, since we last spoke–my debut album, Boyhood, will be coming out on March 22nd!!! When I tell you I’ve been working on this album for what feels like a lifetime, it is no exaggeration. Literal blood, sweat, and (many) tears have been poured into this album and I am over the moon that I finally get to share it with you.
Now that housekeeping is done, some updates: As a good old fashioned pop star, I simply couldn’t give you only one single leading up to the album–however, this next release might look a little different. Various musical styles are explored throughout the album, so I wanted the next release to give you a few more pieces to the puzzle–two, in fact! If you’ve been following around for a while, these pieces might sound a bit familiar, but I promise they have been reworked, remastered, and made pretty for the silver screen (Jake’s Version)
And speaking of screens…we just wrapped on the second music video for the album and I cannot WAIT for you to see it!! I got to work with some phenomenal Minneapolis artists on this one and we braved some cold temperatures to make it happen. I’ll have more details in a future blog post, but wanted to get the hype started early :)
I think that’s where I’ll leave it for now, but I wanted to wish you all a happy new year and an excellent start to 2024. May all your dreams come true!
Now for…
What I’ve been listening to: been really feeling a dance pop wave recently. A lot of Madonna, Robyn, and of course–saying that shit with my chest!
Playlist shoutout: on the subject, I feel lucky to have friends that make awesome playlists as well
A cute lil’ cake my wonderful friends got me for the Nostalgic release party :’)
Nostalgic out Friday!!
Boyhood Blog #3
There are so many things I love about pop music, but I think one of my all-time favorites is the art form of the music video.
As I was writing and recording Nostalgic I knew the whole time that it needed to have a music video counterpart. In my last post, I mentioned the Perks of Being a Wallflower inspiration and from the get-go I knew that that was the visual world I wanted this song to live in.
For a couple years, I had been following this Chicago-based production company Bouy Films (check out their amazing work here!) and felt that, with this song and concept, I wanted to reach out to them. Their use of colors combined with emotive storytelling just seemed like a match made in heaven for this coming-of-age-almost-short-film that I wanted to make and I wanted to see if they had the same vision. A couple of email and mood board exchanges later– we were off to the races :)
The creative process was so smooth I almost could not believe it–Ricardo and I were on the same page from the start and the visual ideas and references could not stop flowing: A little bit of Green Light mixed with All Too Well mixed with Call Me By Your Name …and it all came together so nicely!
The incredible Aden Bickler and I reviewing footage
Ricardo had Aden and I create a scene to show the relationship between these two characters. Thumb wars ended up being a great motif we used throughout the shoot.
The Team and I on the last day of the shoot!
After a couple rainy days in WI, we were happy to take our break outside before the final shots :)
Filming took place across three days with some rain-filled scenes in Wisconsin and then wrapping up with a beautiful sunny day in Aurora, IL. It tells the tale of first love, first heartbreak, and what a bittersweet celebration it can be to have those experiences at all within the queer community.
To Ricardo, Daisy, Aden, Liz, and Sadie thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this project come to life. It was such a beautiful experience throughout and I can’t wait for you all to see it!!
The music video for “Nostalgic” premieres 1pm CT on November 17th! Click here to get notified of when it drops!
For now…
What I’ve been listening to: “Catch me or I go… HOUDINI”
Playlist shoutout: with it being the dead of night at 5pm now this playlist is hitting the spot
I get so Nostalgic with you!
Picture taken by the amazing Ricardo Bouyett :)
Boyhood Blog #2
AHHHH. You know that feeling when you’ve been planning something for so long and then you finally get to see it all come to fruition? Well, I have something very exciting to tell you…
My newest single “Nostalgic” is coming out on November 17th!!! (pre-save here)
I’ve been trying to write this song basically my entire life. There’s this very specific genre of music that I like to call tunnel songs–the songs that underscore your Perks of Being a Wallflower moment when you want to feel particularly “infinite”. My version of these songs harken back to 10s alt-pop: soaring, euphoric, and bombastic pop songs that also have this undercurrent of melancholy and yearning; reaching for a moment that has passed or may never happen at all.
I knew I wanted to make a tunnel song and I knew exactly how I wanted it to feel but getting there was nothing short of a logistical nightmare. Throughout the process, I believe I made around 9(?) different iterations, all kind of revolving around the same situation but never truly hitting the nail on the head in one way or another. That is, until lockdown happened.
Much like everyone else, during the pandemic I found my own little weird corner of the internet– the slowed + reverb community on YouTube. Their concept is taking pop songs and (you guessed it) slightly slowing them down and adding a bunch of reverb to them. For some reason, this combination was very comforting to my pandemic-induced anxiety and is something that I still turn to this day. Thank you, YouTube!
One night, I came across a slowed + reverb version of “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (one of the best pop songs of all time). This particular video has a very striking image of a girl riding on the back of her partner’s motorcycle, riding off into the sunset, while the song plays in the background. The top comment on this video? “This is so nostalgic”...I heard the melody instantly.
Nostalgia is such a loaded concept and it perfectly captured everything I was trying to explain within the song–the joy of first love, the sadness of that time being gone, and the yearning to go back to it once more. Once I had the first draft done, I contacted my collaborator Wonderarp and he immediately knew what I was going for: BIG drums, heavy synths, and atmospheric emotion. The song was everything I wanted it to be and more.
There’s a whole part 2 to this song’s saga, but I think that one deserves its own blog post :)
For now…
What I’ve been listening to: as we all know, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out now, but I feel like it is my gay duty to inform you. Also have not stopped listening to “One of Your Girls”
Playlist shoutout: you can check out my monthly music update here
Welcome!
A little intro to my blogging era :)
Hello everyone and welcome to the debut entry of the Boyhood Blog!
My wish is for this to be a sort of “creative journal” where I keep you up to date on the comings and goings in my life: what I’m listening to, where I’ve been, and (of course) all of the juicy behind-the-scenes details on music stuff.
So, where to begin? The beginning perhaps?
Ever since I can remember I’ve been obsessed with pop music. Particularly, women making pop music. The first CD I ever bought with my own money was *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, but that was quickly followed up by Hilary Duff’s underrated 2003 classic, Metamorphosis. Something about this music just captured my attention–the soaring melodies, pristine production, undeniable hooks–I was in. When it’s at its best, pop music is a world you can get completely lost in–a beautiful sonic escape that is universally understood. And thus began a 20 year love affair with music…
Around age 12, when I crossed over from full-on pop geek to “huh…maybe I should take a crack at this thing I’m so in love with?” I wrote, played, and recorded an entire album on my family’s shitty computer microphone right as puberty took control of my vocal chords. It featured a dulcimer I made in 5th grade art class, a Casio keyboard, and was as immaculate as it sounds*. While it may not have been the best thing in recorded history, it did spark a curiosity inside of me. Something I’m still trying to figure out to this day.
I won’t bore you with all the details (maybe in another post), but essentially we ended up here. I love making music and I’ve been hard at work cooking up a proper debut for everyone. No offense to my 12 year old self.
My last single “I Had a Dream About You.” couldn’t be more sonically different from what I’ve been working on. I still loveee dreamy piano ballads, but for now I’ve traded them in for some grooving synthesizers, drum machines, and acoustic guitars. I’ve been working closely with some cool friends and Swedish pop masterminds over the last few years and together we’re bringing this whole DIY pop landscape to life. Time to dance!!
Shooting the video for the lead single next week and I’ve got a couple more surprises up my sleeve, but I’ll just save those for future posts :)
Now for…
What I’ve been listening to: honestly, Olivia’s GUTS has kinda consumed my world lately, but a special shout out to The Land Is Inhospitable… by Mitski (Women in rock are killing it right now!!)
Playlist shoutout: you can check out my monthly music update here (I’m a Spotify girlie), but also shout out to this playlist…wonderfully curated!
working very hard in my makeshift studio for y’all :)
Ok, that’s it for now. We’ll chat again soon :)
*that golden chalice of an album is stored somewhere in my parent’s house to this day…hopefully to never grace the internet with its presence