"Bang Out" was written during a dark uncertain place in my life. It was the early 2000s and my girlfriend had just given birth to my first son. I was barely scraping by at the time, pushing carts at a grocery store in Superior, Wisconsin, feeling like I would rather die than live in the conditions I saw everywhere around me. I watched friends ruin themselves by dabbling in drugs, while others were in misery working 40 hours a week for rent and not much more.

I signed the dotted line to join the Army in 2002, right after 9/11, and went to Fort Leonard Wood Missouri for OSUT Basic Train/ Combat Engineer AIT. My hope was that I would survive war - or anything else I might face during my service - and could then create a better life for myself and my family. I was young and frustrated, battling depression and PTSD from childhood in addition to struggling with alcoholism like my biological father.

“All Rise” was another song written in the early 2000’s as all the songs on this EP were. It was inspired by my frustration with so many self-serving people who only tended to hit me up when they needed something. They weren’t contacting me to see how I was or to just check in, you know, as a true friend does. I wanted “All Rise” to highlight this trend, to wake some people up a little bit, maybe, while at the same time making a testament to being myself with my music. This allowed me to express my dark and cynical thoughts in a way that was surprisingly therapeutic.

“Part of My Life” was a track I wrote while daydreaming about material things I wanted, and about being a super-fan 90’s Hip Hop artist (yet not wanting to bite peoples styles or preference/ ride the bandwagon, etc.) and I was also flexing the idea that some people are natural rappers and some people should consider pursuing other things.

I didn’t want to completely rewrite the song (even though I have certainly matured past many of those “younger-me” ideas by now) and it was important to me to capture/remember in “Part of My Life” the energy of how I felt when I originally recorded it.

Last, but definitely not least, “3rd Person” presents a third person perspective that narrates the story of an artist growing up with natural Hip Hop talent who rises above his own personal struggles and insecurities to create music, poetry and art that is noteworthy and appreciated.