Capturing Anxiety, Celebrating Creativity

Plus, I'm finally marketing my album

The 2025 NEPA Film Festival begins this Friday! There are THREE films showing that I scored. This festival has been growing and this year it feels like there’s some real momentum behind the buzz.

Our local NPR/PBS station, WVIA, has been the biggest supporter of this festival. They put together this amazing sizzle reel:

I’ll be performing my neoclassical music at the Opening Night Gala and I’m teaming up with a new cellist, Colleen Ruddy! Here’s a taste of what you can expect:

I’m truly busting at the seams for this year’s film festival - not just because it’s a showcase of some of my work, but because it’s also a gathering of a community. Film requires an army of creative, ego-less people and this event will host a high concentration of them. In a world where allies are being betrayed and truth and law no longer matter and the internet is a dumpster and Hollywood is dying, I can’t imagine a better way to spend a weekend.

If you’re in the region, consider coming out!

Capturing Anxiety

I’ve been experiencing pretty significant depression and anxiety the last week or so. Not sure why, other than life’s cycles exacerbated by a host of difficult circumstances. I felt myself inspired to record something, so I sat down with my Moog and an hour later had this to show for it:

It’s 4 layers of nothing but my Moog Matriarch and a couple reverbs. This synthesizer is the second instrument I’ve ever played that I feel a direct, zero-impedance connection to. The first being the piano. Truly a miracle of human engineering.

Sidenote: if you filmmakers are looking for a horror score, look me up ;)

Coming Up

I went on a work retreat last week. I needed some long, undistracted work hours to knock out a few things that have been sitting on my to-do list. I found a cheap, off-season airbnb in the Poconos and became a monk for three days.

I worked on two things: my new website (which is up, by the way, but just a couple still-developing pages. I’ll make a bigger announcement about it when there’s more to show.) and setting up the marketing for my new album (you know the “new” one that came out last fall).

It’s that second task that I want to highlight. I haven’t actually given my album a proper marketing treatment yet. My release show last fall really took the wind out of me and my website hasn’t been capable of doing what I’ve had in mind, but that will change soon.

I want to do a 5-or-so-part series here on Substack that goes into the story behind the album and the writing of the songs. If you’re new to my music, this will be a good introduction. If you’ve been around awhile, you might enjoy my finally going deep.

So, keep an eye out for that to begin…hopefully next week!

---