Making A Record Is Crazy

It truly is one of the craziest things I've ever decided to do. But I'm glad that I did it.

The start of it....well, it's a funny story actually.

I spend most of my middle school and high school years hiding, this love for rock and roll and folk and country music. Things that a 14 year old black girl in South Carolina wasn't expected to be into.

But that's what I was singing and humming in my head or out loud when no one else was around.

Then I got my hands on a guitar. A big, dark brown, Fender acoustic from a pawn shop that was a birthday gift from my mom. And it sat collecting dust for years. I learned to play one chord and that was it. Not even three, so I could at least write a decent crappy song.

And then one day, finally, after years of Jakob(that's my guitar's name) being neglected...I picked him up. Determined to learn how to play. A little therapy for myself after a silly break-up with a stupid boy.

And then this thing happened...I started writing songs. Just as a hobby I guess. A new type of diary. Or like letters to myself that sort of captured who I was, what I was going through, the things I saw.  Realizing that it was more than a hobby. It was a calling. Something I was always meant to do.

After playing around NYC and doing open mics for over 4 years, it felt right to finally make a real record. Feeling right did not mean all the pieces would just magicallly fall into place. And they haven't, but that's one of the great joys of the journey of this project. Learning more about myself, the amazing community I'm a part of, the city I live in.

So this project/record is just a product of that.

I like to think of it as like...I don't know, a little polaroid. Of just who I am right now. What I'm thinking, what I'm living, what I'm crying to say....this little picture of a right now. Of me, of life, of this city.

Guess the best way to see the road ahead is keeping an eye on what's painted on the future's horizon, but knowing what came before, but always, always, just being HERE. This moment. Whatever that moment is. Building a life that's just a bunch of little moments all strung together ...like christmas lights or lit windows in the New York City skyline.