Candyland, the First Single off My Debut Album, drops Christmas Day!
photo by Erica Gill
I haven’t done a very good job of keeping it secret so I’m sure that a lot of you already know, but here I am officially announcing my debut album, Songs to the Monster Under My Bed. It’s many years, fears, and tears in the making and I’m so excited to share it with you all. Every song is, in some way or another, about my relationship with fear. Fear and I are in a pretty committed, long term relationship so expect hella e m o t i o n s on STTMUMB (wow what a catchy acronym). Y’all will have to wait until Spring of 2021 to hear the whole project but only until Christmas to hear the first single, Candyland.
I wrote Candyland way back in my junior year of high school. It’s about unhealthy coping mechanisms, specifically about how I sometimes lean into despair, terror, and isolation not because those things are enjoyable but because they are familiar. It’s about seeking comfort (that you’re never going to get) in the cold embrace of sadness. And it’s about candy. Stylistically, it’s inspired by the ballads of the early 60s folk revival (particularly those sung by Joan Baez) and it’s probably the folkiest song I’ve ever written. It features myself on vocals and guitar, Grafton “Skid Mark” Downs on bass, and Matt “Sabyu” Sablan on everything else.
Consider Candyland my Christmas present to you all. I’m so grateful for all the love and support I’ve received during this otherwise quite crappy year. Y’all have kept me going and believing in myself and I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay that so I’ll just say thank you. Get pumped for Candyland, streaming everywhere on December 25th 2020! Pre-save it to make me smile. :))