At the end of 2024, I wrote a list on my whiteboard of things I thought might be fun to do as a new project. Some ideas were based on the tools I wanted to use while others were focused on the types of songs or genres that I thought would be interesting to research and model after. The working title of the project was Harvest and I gave myself June 1 to August 31, 2025 to finish it.

That timeline was more than a little optimistic. “Vantage”, the finale orchestral piece, took on a life of its own in terms of scope and detail as it transitioned from being a straight ahead rock song into a large symphonic composition with a notated score and full orchestral instrumentation. It was one of the most challenging pieces that I have worked on compositionally, technically, and emotionally. It was a massive undertaking in and of itself.

The album became Identity – nine tracks that start small and elemental, and end huge, bombastic, ornate, and broad, with everything in between. To prepare for this, I listened to and studied artists that I have long admired and whose music I loved.

The theme of the album is about one person’s journey to finding connection and making peace – not with what mankind has made, but with their own thoughts and perceptions.

I wrote, rehearsed, notated, recorded, mixed, and mastered everything in my home studio between May 2025 and June 2026. It was a very full and rewarding period. You can read more about the making of this album on How Identity Came Together (A Personal Account).

Identity is now available on all streaming platforms (such as Spotify), or you can also listen to it here on Bandcamp.