This has been the most eventful year of my life.

One year ago I left everything behind and moved to Kauai. There were a million reasons to leave, and just as many to stay, but I was tired of the complacence and the repetition. I was tired of being aimless and not knowing who I was supposed to be. It was the scariest thing I have ever done, and without question is the most important decision i've ever made. I didn’t stay as long as I planned. I left abruptly and probably for the wrong reasons, but going to Kauai taught me the importance of goals, and the necessity for a plan. If you have nothing to work towards, you have no purpose. So when I left Kauai, I made a new plan. And even though it didn’t end up exactly as I had hoped at the time, as I reflect on it a year later, i'm happy where I am in life and wouldn’t take back my decision if I could. It was a long fucking journey, with a lot of phases and detours and events I couldn’t have ever imagined, but that’s life right? Shit happens.

Music for me has always been an outlet; a language with which to express those feelings that we don’t have words for. I joke that I make music for me, and that I just let you guys listen to it, and I guess that’s true on some level. That’s how this album came about in the first place. But there’s another part of me that feels that if I, as a musician can do for one person what music has done for me in my life, then I have an obligation to learn and improve and evolve until I get good enough that it does help someone, somehow.

Emotions started with one song, one note, and really before that it was about a girl. It was a feeling that I couldn’t describe, to myself, let alone her. So how do I explain it? That emotion became "every single second" and that’s when it came to me: the Emotions EP. Three tracks expressing three different emotions that I couldn’t describe in words. Then it became 4. Then I added an interlude. Then I decided to write poems inspired by the songs. Then it became 5 songs and an interlude. Then 6. It became a sonic recreation of my entire past year. The ups, downs, adventures and mysteries. Everything I’ve felt this year is between these notes and rhythms. Its a tangible representation of my soul.

I had my work cut out for me. I'd get frustrated when things wouldn’t work. Writers block. Earaches. Distractions. At one point I almost scrapped the whole thing. But then id be jamming on something hip-hop and get inspired and go in and add something new and it would give birth to an entirely new song. I love that shit. I was painting pictures with the music. Creating dramatic scenes, tragedies, comedies, movie-kisses and twists and turns. I was letting the songs paint new pictures when I heard them back, and then writing those pictures down on paper. Sometimes it rhymes, sometimes it doesn’t. But poetry is anything intended to be poetry.

So here we are. It’s been a year to the day since I stood on the beach in Kauai for the first time. A lot has happened sine then. I’m a new person. A better one, I think. I’ve met some really awesome people this year. The best people I’ve ever surrounded myself with. I’ve dealt with stress. The reason I went to Kauai in the first place. I’ve dealt with responsibility. Vie dealt with bliss, and also loneliness. Fear and comfort. Acceptance and denial. A year full of, well, a little of everything.

Right before I left last year I released the MSX EP, my first official release. Then Generating Lift came about 6 months go, while studying music at
Shoreline. That makes Emotions the 3rd album. Once a year for the last 3 years. They were all different phases of my musical self. And they really are drastically different. The word maturity comes to mind. I feel like I'm maturing the more I work. I am confident in saying/truly believe that this is the best music I’ve ever made. There have been some gems this year, singles that I fell in love with, but nothing as cohesive and conceptual as Emotions. It’s my crowning achievement as a producer and I’m really proud of it. I was proud of Generating Lift, last year, and even MSX when that came out. So that means I’m evolving with the music, and really, look how far I’ve come in this last year?

I’m not trying to do what other people do. There are so many fucking dubstep producers its ridiculous. Its such a soulless genre and really doesn’t convey any emotion. It just builds and drops and builds and drops and samples the sound of Optimus Prime’s sleep apnea mask when it’s running on full. Its become diluted. But I used to be way into it, and spent so much time trying to learn to make it that the influence is still there in my newer songs. I’m trying to get back to hip-hop. That’s my root as an artist. So we’ll speed it up a bit and spend more time on the arrangement than nothing but the drop. I like being versatile. I like how different every song is. Because all of those emotions are unique, never felt by anyone but me. And if you somehow possess a magical gift that lets you interpret these songs as Emotions, and somehow feel what I felt, you’re going to enjoy this album as much as I do. Thank you all for your support. I would probably still make music even if no one listened to it, but it’s really dope when you actually do like it. It makes me feel good. So keep doing that.

This album is dedicated all over the place. First, to everyone I’ve gotten to know or spent time with this year. You all had a hand in this album, and if I wasn’t so tired I would list all of your names because I’m that proud of knowing you, but you know who you are. Second, I dedicate it to everyone that I used to hang out with but don’t anymore. I miss those times, so much. But people grow and grow apart. And finally, to the great state of Montana, for two things. The first is for saving my summer from a terrible boring mess of wasted sunny days and lonely nights of smoke and music. The second is for giving me a new plan, and a new goal; a new something-to-work-towards. I’ve been productive this year, and its because I’m inspired to live more than I ever have before. And I hope that next year, when I release my next album, around this same time, that I’m as happy with my life as I am right here and now. Enjoy.