I grew up around music. My dad played keys and sax in bands in Chicago, bringing me along whenever clubs thought it wasn’t a big deal to have a ten year old bouncing around on the side of the stage. I started playing pretty early on, moving from flute to sax to bassoon before falling…
New Release: “Happy Endings (Aren’t for Us)” by Ellie Maybe & the Cancellations
My Nashville-based but cross-country rock band released our first single of 2022 yesterday! This video was an undertaking to edit but I’m super happy with how cheery it came out in comparison to how dark and depressing the lyrical content of this song is. Long live The Cancellations! We miss you, Derek. I know you…
New Release: “Alone Time”
This is pretty much a low-res public meltdown, but at least it’s catchy. Listen on: Bandcamp • Spotify • Apple Music
New Release: “Darker Down Here”
I wrote this song the day I heard about Anthony Bourdain’s suicide, but never had the courage to record it until last month. I was reading through an old conversation with Derek, my close friend & guitarist, and this was one of the last demos I’d sent to him before he died in 2018. It’s…
New Release: RIOTBARD
My dearest friendo Chandon (also known as Alternate Genital Me) just released this cathartic in-the-arena-of-punk-but-touching-on-many-related-genres EP that covers everything from body image to loneliness during this last year of pandemic hell. I’m guesting with some vocals on the track “Introverts,” and you may notice Mr. Maybe dropping some tormput doots on “Mask.” If you’re looking…
“All My Heroes” by Ellie Maybe & the Cancellations
2020 was a garbage year on so many levels, but every year as of late has its tragedies. One of the hazards of growing older, I suppose—watching other people not. Tragedy, however awful, breeds incredible art, and so there was a massive influx of beauty in this terrible year. This song was written in 2018…
“Why Do I” – smooth summer pop jam from Steel Bridge Songfest
If you’re not familiar with the SBSF “Construction Zone,” it’s essentially a big rat king of songwriters with all our creative tails irreparably intertwined. We spin the bottle (literally; it’s a Jameson bottle) to choose our writing groups and then get to work crafting a sweet ditty from nothing. This lil’ bop is the result…
“Four Lights” – new release from Ellie Maybe & the Cancellations for Dark Songs 2020
Folks who I’m close with know that I have an band called The Cancellations, started several years ago with my partner Joe and one of our best friends, Derek Brady. Derek was a killer guitarist & all-around wonderful weirdo. He passed away a couple months before we moved to Nashville in 2018. I’d held out…
“Ghosted” – new release from Dark Songs 2020
This was the only bottle spin I did for Dark Songs this year, but it turned out badass. We had a little trouble getting rolling, but when we heard the “snippet” version of this that Loren had created, we knew it deserved to be fleshed out into a full song. Hear & watch all of…
“This Is Not Over” – New Release from Dark Songs 2020
I’ve loved this tune since it was written by my good “song family” friends Andrea Wittgens & Vincent Gates back at Dark Songs 2012. It has the #crazyexgirlfriend vibe, which may or may not have been my, uh, signature back then. Since the festivals have gone virtual, the writers have been doing tributes (aka covers)…