Three years in the making.

When I first imagined the idea of what came to be known as “Moon,” I knew creating a space-induced album would lead me down a path of pushing my abilities both creatively and professionally. I also understood, if I wanted to create a cinematic storytelling album that embodied outer space, I would need it to be the highest quality production I’ve ever released.

Three years later and I’ve FINALLY finished the first half of what is probably the biggest project of my career. It’s been a massive journey just to get here and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.

Why “Moon”?

My wife and I had an ongoing joke, just like every young couple does, about people who would say to us, “Just wait until after you get out of the honeymoon phase.” We’d say, “Oh, we’re going to be in the honeymoon forever.”

Basically, I became minimally obsessed with the idea of the Honeymoon Phase and why it has become such a prevalent thing in relationships and even marriages. In my research, I found that in the original context of “honeymoone,” honey referred to how sweet the period is between you and your significant other, while moone referred to how short that sweetness lasted.

The moon part stuck out to me because I truly believe you only find out if you actually love someone whenever it does get hard — whenever there’s the inevitable challenge of balance between sweetness, selflessness, sacrifice, and independence. Sometimes it hits you as a perfect storm and even comes close to, if not ending your relationship. Other times, you get through it and it strengthens your relationship. But not just romantic relationships, all relationships.

This album represents love on all scales from start to finish. It represents the honey and the moon. And it shows that truly love is absolutely worth the calamity that comes with it.

Space, love, and movies.

While most of my music is romantically lead, I wanted this record to really represent all classes of love. “Flora’s Letter” highlights a relationship between a father and daughter, “To the painter, from the poet” is about two of my favorite characters from the movie (adapted book), Little Women, and “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” represents those who are blind to true love in the struggling world we live in today. So yeah, all types of love.

And then, of course, I have songs like “A Trip to Paris” that are about my lovely beautiful wife, Marin.

The main motif.

While there are several motifs and symbolisms throughout the album, when Jordan Spence and I were talking about the cohesiveness of the entire record, we agreed wanted to take a cinematic approach to the melodies and have one main theme that was entangled throughout. If you’re reaaalllllly cognizant, you can pick out a main melody used several times throughout — in different keys, different instruments, in certain vocal pieces, and more. It was a very fun challenge to balance having a cohesive main theme flow throughout while making sure it didn’t just sound like we were running out of melodic ideas.

The motif itself is supposed to feel like love. But in a space-symbolizes-love-and-both-are-equally-scary-but-amazing kind of way.

Creative hands make beautiful work.

Moon, Part One embodies the artistic craftsmanship of several talented individuals passionate about making a true cinematic experience. This album would not at all be what it is without so many people, but I owe a lot to my two co-producers, Jordan Spence and Stewart Hidalgo. I reached out to Jordan about being a part of this because I knew he would push me experimentally/sonically and bring a new texture of sounds to the spacey elements I wanted. My great friend, Chris Jiannino, put me in touch with Stewart because he knew Stew would be able to push me professionally and create an amazingly mastered product. Chris has been an incredible help and friend alongside me in the making of this album and I adore and am always encouraged by his belief in me.

I also owe a lot of cinematic scoring inspiration from my good friend, Zack Siddiqui for watching Interstellar with me then both of us taking the Hans Zimmer Masterclass to learn a thing or two.

I have an incredible creative team: Lainey Conant, Benny Gagliardi, Marin Ragsdale, Kelsey LaCourse, Ben LaCourse, Lo Wilson, Anson Wilson, Bella Ragsdale, Savanna Ragsdale, Robert Kelley, Edward Crockett, Jack Joiner, Parker Hastie, Emma Hastie.

And then I couldn’t leave out the amazing instrumentalists on this project: Trey Sederwall, Tib Stovall, Alex Walls, Jonas Peterson, and Stephanie [fill in the name], and of course Jordan Spence.

Moon, Part Two.

Yep. I’m ready for the part two!!! It’ll be much different, but still cohesive, exciting, and, as always, cinematic!