When I was a kid I got a casio ctk-530 keyboard for Christmas, and I got a copy
of MusicTime software with it, which let me play and write my own sheet music.
Very nerdy gift. I was 11 and the first song I wrote was called Darkness and it
was based on being scared from reading a Christopher Pike short story. It was all
octaves and minor triads and it sucked but I was proud at the time. I eventually
got a Dreamcast and I kind of stopped with the MusicTime for a while.
I got my first guitar at age 13 and played it long enough to get the painful start
of a couple calluses, and then I put it away for a few years. Picked it up again
when my parents were splitting up. I had quit the piano lessons I'd done since age 7
so I had a lot of music pent up and I started writing songs. In 2003 I recorded a demo and
in 2005 I dropped out of a jazz voice major (I've been a singer all of my life) and recorded
an original acoustic album under another name. I wrote all the songs myself and they were
true enough at the time. I kept writing and improving.
I never finished my second album because by then I'd been knocked around by a couple
years working retail jobs and it had taken a toll on my mental health.
Some other stuff happened between then and now, it's less important than you knowing that I have
been doing this for a long time and if I appear talented I am not. I am skilled
because I have put in a lot of time doing a lot of things with my attention turned
all the way up in those moments.
I still like how it feels to be in a state like that, so I hop on my computer and take the beats
I made on my phone or record in some guitar and then I sing over that. Most of the in between
decade was me setting things up so I can live like this now. Its hard but I feel more complete
this way now. I have a life partner and a kid too but this isn't their bio and you're not on their sites.