SHOOT ME DOWN

Although this song is very personal to me, I think it tells a story that many people can relate to. It started out as a sad girl piano ballad, written after a particularly bad night, and in the end became one of the most fun tracks I have ever worked on. I believe that creating music is a way to transmute pain, and making this song was healing in that sense. I feel joy when I listen to it now, whereas when I wrote it I could only feel the hurt. It was developed at rehearsal and on stage as well as in the studio, and it felt refreshingly old-fashioned to debut the song in front of a live audience before releasing it. Now the journey is complete, and I am excited to share the official version with the world.

LEAVING THE TABLE

I’ve wanted to cover Leonard Cohen for a long time, but so many of his songs have been covered already, and very well at that. I recently had the idea to pay tribute to him by choosing one of his lesser known tracks, from his final album “You Want It Darker. “Leaving the Table” moved me deeply when I first heard it. There is an intimacy and fragility to the song that makes you feel like you’re in the room with Leonard as you listen, and the tone of his voice and lyrics could only belong to a man nearing the end of his life. It’s clear that Leonard Cohen’s talent did not wane as he grew old, and that instead his writing became infused with a new depth one can only acquire through a lifetime of experience. I am grateful to Filip Nikolic for his tasteful production that kept my version respectful to the original, to Michael Gold for his string arrangements, and to Marta Honer for the lovely violin and viola. For the cover artwork I chose a film photograph I took in France some years ago. It has a lonely yet peaceful quality that speaks to the feeling of the song. In the photo there are actually two tables, and they are both empty.

THE OTHER SIDE EP

“The Other Side” represents a side of my personality as an artist that most people haven’t seen until now. It also represents my coming out the other side of a traumatic experience, gathering what I could from “Before” and figuring out how to exist “After.” This record was forged in the fire of a transformative two-year period during which I lost almost everything, including my father who was a huge influence on me. Most of the songs were written just before I was caught up in a storm of big changes, and they were all finished just as life started to feel sweet again. It feels right to share some of the last chapter before moving into the next, and though it’s a melancholy record, for me “The Other Side” is a step into a bigger and brighter future.

STRANGER

“Stranger” is about a specific kind of loneliness that I have only felt in Los Angeles. Although the song is very much about longing, it's more about a place than a person. The lyric “I could never hold you in my hands” is about the feeling of always being on the outside looking in, of the city never fully opening its doors to me.

CRIMES

“Crimes” is about the pursuit of success at the expense of one’s integrity, and the exploitation of  others in order to get ahead. It’s about the price we pay for our choices, and whether or not it’s worth it. The question, “Is it easy to start over?” can be interpreted in two ways - it’s meant to ask how it feels to continually reinvent yourself until you lose sight of who you are. It also asks how hard it would be to walk away from it all. 

TWILIGHT

A cover of Elliott Smith’s “Twilight” released via Kill Rock Stars

“Growing up in Portland, I couldn’t help but be influenced by Elliott Smith - his music was just in the water there. I still feel a sort of homesick nostalgia every time I hear one of his songs, and I’ll forever associate his music with the rainy weather and the gritty, small town feeling Portland had back then.
Elliott was a brilliant songwriter, and I have always been blown away by his ability to craft such lovely, catchy melodies around devastatingly sad lyrics. Twilight is a beautiful example of that, and one of my favorite songs he ever wrote. I first had the idea to cover it many years ago and am grateful for the opportunity to do so for Kill Rock Stars, who have released so much of Elliott’s work and have been such an important force in Northwest music history.
This one’s for you, Elliott, thank you for everything.” via Pitchfork December 14, 2021