The Human Side

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how good things feel between my wife and me. Not perfect—after all these years together, we know marriage doesn’t work that way—but balanced. We’re connected, we communicate, and we’ve created room for each other to pursue the things that matter to us. For me, one of those things has always been music, and what feels different today is that pursuing it no longer feels like it has to come at the expense of my marriage. That wasn’t always the case. While writing...

A while back, someone very close to me was excited to share some new music they had discovered. You could hear it in the way they talked about it. They had found this new artist, really liked the music, and couldn't wait to play it for me because they thought I'd appreciate it too. There was something familiar about that moment. We've all done it—found an artist or song we love and immediately thought of someone else who needed to hear it. So they played it for me. Something didn't feel...

Looking back at Musically Speaking with Luis and Pedro—and a chapter of my creative life I’m still proud of. Every once in a while, I find myself looking backward instead of forward. That's not always easy for me. I'm usually thinking about the next song, the next article, the next project, or whatever idea has captured my attention that week. But recently, I found myself going through some old episodes of a podcast I created several years ago called Musically Speaking with Luis and Pedro,...

As songwriters, we're conditioned to believe that every song has a destination. We write it, record it, refine it, and eventually release it into the world, hoping it finds an audience. That's the natural progression we imagine from the moment an idea first appears. For years, I believed that too. If I invested enough time into a song, surely the end goal was to share it. Looking back now, after more than three decades of writing music, I've realized that assumption isn't always true. Some...

The stories that inspired me... and the one I finally had to write. Music has always been the soundtrack of my life, but books have quietly shaped the way I think, create, and see the world. A great song can change your mood in three minutes, while a great book has the power to stay with you for years. Some books challenge your perspective, others inspire you to dream bigger, and a few arrive at exactly the right moment in your life. Long after I've forgotten specific chapters or memorable...

Don't Let AI Replace Your Curiosity My Guiding Philosophy Around AI in Music—and a Plea to Fellow Creatives A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend MixNik, a conference that brought together recording engineers, producers, mixers, songwriters, and creatives from all over the country. It's one of those events that reminds you why you fell in love with music in the first place. The conversations are genuine, the ideas flow freely, and everyone is there because they're passionate about...

Some of the most meaningful conversations I've ever had about music didn't happen during a recording session. They happened after the microphones were turned off, when everyone stopped worrying about getting the perfect take and simply started talking. Over the years, I've been fortunate to spend time with artists, producers, engineers, songwriters, and DJs from all walks of life. While every conversation started with music, very few ended there. We found ourselves talking about creativity,...

Why I Still Make Music After All These Years Every once in a while, I find myself asking a simple question: Why am I still doing this? It’s a fair question. I’ve spent decades writing songs, producing records, recording artists, and chasing creative ideas. Over the years I’ve experienced some wonderful highs, plenty of disappointments, and more than a few moments where it would have been easy to move on to something else. Yet I continue to come back to music. The interesting thing is that the...

What Makes a Song Worth Remembering? Every year, thousands of songs are released into the world. Some become hits, some find a loyal audience, and many quietly disappear as the next wave of music arrives. Yet every one of us has a handful of songs that seem immune to time. We hear them decades later and instantly find ourselves transported back to a specific place, person, or moment in our lives. It made me wonder what separates those songs from all the others. The Soundtrack to Our Lives...

In the next few weeks, I am headed back to Atlanta for MixNik, an annual gathering of songwriters, producers, engineers, artists, and music industry professionals. The event combines educational workshops, networking opportunities, technology demonstrations, and discussions about the future of music creation, making it one of the more unique events on my calendar each year. I attended for the first time last year and came away with far more than a notebook full of ideas. The experience...