About Me:
I grew up in New York in the 80’s with my twin sister Marie, recording fake radio shows on cassettes, listening to our mom play Haitian folk songs on the guitar, and singing background vocals for our dad.
Since then, I’ve gone in a couple different directions. I studied music at Yale, and in my spare time, I’d practice jazz piano and learn D’Angelo covers. Since then, I’ve tried my hand at teaching, Lego robotics coaching, SAT tutoring, Mac techery, and of course, being unemployed.
I was an original member of Freestyle Love Supreme, and I still play with them from time to time. I’ve been working on a solo album (Waiting) for a while, and I’ve written here about some of the things I’ve learned in the process. It’s turned into an EP, which I’ll be putting out in the next few months. I made a very brief appearance as a member of Sadie’s band in the film Across The Universe. Now, I front a band called Arthur and the Geniuses, and my sister and I are singing together once more.
About the Blog:
As a reader, as a consumer, I’m obsessed with process. I love finding out how other people do the things they do. What are their struggles, internal and external? How are they like mine? How are they different?
When I write songs, I try to document who I am. I want to share those pieces of myself with others, and I hope that it helps them to see themselves more clearly.
But I also set out to make magic. To create something that compels and surprises me enough that maybe it will do the same for other people. And I’d always thought (with a nod to J.J. Abrams) that the key to magic was maintaining the mystery, never breaking the spell.
So how do you reconcile the two? How do you share your secrets without giving away your power?
With this blog, I’m trying to explore these questions. Here’s what I think so far: that the magic of other people is not the magic of fiction. It’s not the illusion, or the mystery of how something is done. It’s the realization that the magic we make is deepened by the reality that underlies it. Magic unexplained is just a trick. But magic that still means something when we look inside and see how it works - now that’s real magic.
And that’s the kind of magic that I want to make. So here I am, writing music, performing, blogging - posting little pieces of myself online in the hopes that someone will get something out of them, and that I’ll learn something in the process.
Ultimately, of course, I’d like to make my living doing these things. While the details are still uncertain, what’s clear is that the 21st century offers artists new and different ways to make money from what we do. Not only can you communicate more directly, but in the age of non-rivalrous digital resources, when you sell your soul, you even get to keep a copy.
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