Prologue: A Record Shop in the Sky

Sunday began in the clouds—literally.

I had just discovered Splice, the cloud-based music platform. To me, it felt like a record shop in the sky: a treasure trove of textures, ideas, and raw sonic energy. It was a creative spark I wouldn’t have had access to in any previous era. Though I’d never done a sample-based album before, the energy of it brought to mind the magic of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the fingerprints of Prince Paul and Q-Tip.

Around this time, opportunities to participate in collaborative writing sessions were becoming fewer and farther between. So instead of waiting on the next co-write, I leaned into a different kind of contribution: helping others shape songs conceptually.

Plenty of the very best songwriters find themselves stuck—married to a lyric that won’t land, or unsure whether a track is headed in the right direction. Sometimes help is needed—or perhaps just a bit of reorientation, yeah? Let’s call it the art of wayfinding. A kind of conceptual navigation. Sometimes it’s the arranger, sometimes it’s the producer, sometimes it’s even the manager who gently suggests, “Maybe a fourth verse isn’t really needed.”

And in the midst of that shift, life in Australia was actually really great. As a family, we were traveling, exploring, living with summertime almost year-round—which, for a kid from the Pacific Northwest, is wild! Sure, we missed friends and family. But wifey, the kids, and I were getting on with it. Life was good. Peaceful. Spacious.

And Sunday came from that.