52 Free Songs

Wow.  I can’t believe it’s been 52 weeks already.  Is it just me, or did this year fly by?  Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the free downloads.  I’ve enjoyed revisiting a lot of these songs and recounting the stories and feelings behind them.  For the most part… So, appropriately enough, this last free [...]

This song is about brief encounters and sparks of connection.  Since releasing The Room Is Spinning Faster last year, I have toured in 11 countries on 3 continents – meeting tons of people along the way.  It’s a bit of irony that a good portion of The Room Is Spinning Faster was written about isolation and disconnection, and then [...]

Over the summer I spent a few days in Cape Cod.  On my way back to NYC, I stopped with my friend Sarah to see the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA.  She had been reading a book on whaling in New England, and I thought it would be interesting to see the Seamen’s Bethel [...]

Hmmm, my first Christmas original in 6 years.  Every year I think about writing Christmas music, but never get around to it. This year, I was determined to get at least one song out.  So, I spent a few hours before leaving on tour just recording a bunch of tracks and instruments and what not. [...]

Six years ago, a relatively new friend suggested that I make a Christmas EP with my band Losing Summer.  I’d always shied away from recording holiday material, as it often felt less than authentic to me.  However, I agreed to do the Christmas EP, but only if I could do it on my own terms.  What [...]

This song is written from the point of view of someone whose birthday has been forgotten. As my birthday is on Wednesday (November 23), I thought it might be a somewhat appropriate choice. So, when no one remembers his birthday, this character just disappears. Everyone thinks he’s just being melodramatic. Everyone thinks he’s just acting [...]

I just flew into Dublin a few hours ago.  So, I thought it only appropriate that I post a song that I wrote as I was flying out of Dublin several years ago.  It’s a song about choices –  about that intersection where each road leads in a different direction with a different destination.  It’s [...]

This is an ode to the cool kids.  Alas, I was never one of them… Free Download #45 (Right-Click to Download)      

This might well be one of (if not the) most ridiculous songs I’ve ever written.  But I suppose it’s appropriate, given that it’s October 31st and what not.  It all started with the piano riff – which someone once described as “Snoopy music on drugs.”  It had such a dark feel to it, and so [...]

So, I was sitting across from a girl in a cafe once.  We were having a very serious discussion about our future together.  At one point in the conversation, I looked up and said, “I don’t know how not to be with you.”  I then followed that up with a very romantic, “wait, that’s an [...]

It’s two for one week!  I was just listening back through some demos for the Room Is Spinning Faster sessions, and happened upon these two demos that I recorded in a Marriott hotel room near Philadelphia, while on tour in 2009.  They both appear on The Room Is Spinning Faster as slower tracks, and so [...]

I just spent 14 hours on a plane, so this tune feels like an appropriate candidate for this week’s free download.  The song is about the frustration of being separated from someone you love, as a result of your own mistakes.  There are so many things you want to say (I’m sorry, I miss you, [...]

I’ve been asked about the meaning of this song more than any other since I’ve been in Korea.  So, I thought I’d delve into it a little bit for this week’s free download.  I wrote most of the song (the verses and chorus) outside the former church of St. Andrew on Suffolk Street in Dublin. [...]

When I started this whole 52 Free Songs thing at the beginning of the year, the overall goal was to provide an inside view of my songwriting and production processes, as well as to tell some of the stories behind the songs.  My personal goal was to allow myself to be vulnerable, and this week’s [...]

Out of all of the records that I’ve made, I Have Never Been Fond Of Falling From Heights (Swan Dive Into The Atlantic) is probably closest to my heart.  I wrote most of the record over a week traveling in Ireland in 2007, and each of the songs was borne out of a real experience.  [...]

This song is about those times when something happens, and you really wish there had been someone specific there to share that moment with you. Last summer, on the 4th of July, I was in Nashville with some friends. We went down to East Park to watch the fireworks over the river. After the obligatory [...]

Last week I promised to upload a brand new song. This song was written a week and a half ago. The demo was recorded yesterday. A very dear friend recently turned me on to an amazing book: Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. It’s a children’s book about grief that centers on the death of Rosen’s son [...]

This is a live recording taken from a show I played recently in Tokyo, Japan.  The studio version of this song can be found on my second EP, Good Times Were Had By All.  It was one of the first songs I wrote after moving to New York City.  I had just begun a brand [...]

Tyler Durden once said, “How much can you know about yourself, you’ve never been in a fight? I don’t wanna die without any scars. So come on; hit me before I lose my nerve.” Most of my songs come from personal experience. This one does not. Or does it? The story goes like this: A [...]

I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this song that’s not said in my introduction on the track.  I refer to this song on the track as being “brand new”, as I just recorded it this past spring for one of the 4 EP releases coming over the next year.  However, I [...]