Artist Statement

“The music that captures my heart is music that feels old and worn, like the old leather wallet my dad uses, or a beat-up jacket that’s seen years of rain, sleet and snow. It’s the sounds of road trips, singing loud on the highway with the windows down, and the sticky August humidity fading away to the raucous guitar solo that my sister and I would play our finest air guitar to, or an impromptu sing along in the kitchen with my family, gathered for a meal or just by happenstance. That’s the music I seek to write and release with my project “Joey and the Way Home.”

I write the music at the intersection of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, music where lyrical intricacy mingles with catchy, singable hooks in a beautiful synthesis that’s nothing short of Americana at its core. My songs are full of singing rock guitar solos, intimate acoustic moments, introspective indie wails, and everything in between. It’s chaos and magic and living. My music is inevitably volatile, because as a writer, my heart sways with the winds of nostalgia, yearning to stumble upon the next memory to which an audience might relate.

Music, to me is memory. It lives and breathes with us each and every day, it evokes the feelings of love and loss, and brings us closer together with those we love. Music is also family, it’s meant to relate us to those closest to our hearts, and brings us together as human beings. This is always what I’ve found in my music, both in my writing and in my consumption of music, and I seek to continue the tradition for others in my writing.

As music continues to fragment due to the pressures of social media marketing, I hope that my songs and my style of composition returns the listener to the stillness that captivated audiences before the digital age. My songs are not meant to be catchy soundbites, but rather full compositions, living and breathing, full of life and energy and motion, just like the car on a long road trip, or a group of friends singing together. My music is meant to be enjoyed by listening with others, with empathy, and with love in hearts, because music to me is love in the purest distillation. Music, to me is memory. It lives and breathes with us each and every day, it evokes the feelings of love and loss, and brings us closer together with those we love. Music is also family, it’s meant to relate us to those closest to our hearts, and brings us together as human beings. This is always what I’ve found in my music, both in my writing and in my consumption of music, and I seek to continue the tradition for others in my writing. I want to share love, and for me, as a performing artist and songwriter, the only way I know how to spread love in the world is through performing the music that makes me happy with the people that make me happy.”