Music
Strings, Struggles, and the Sounds That Built Me.
Music has always been more than background noise for me. It has been a companion and a way of navigating a world that didn’t always make sense.
From a young age, I was drawn to rhythm. Raw beats, heavy riffs, music that hits you in the chest before it reaches your ears. Loud concerts overwhelmed me, and fast lyrics felt like chaos layered on top of an already noisy brain. When I was 14, I picked up a guitar, and something clicked. All that sound finally had somewhere to go. I could turn the chaos into chords, into something tangible. It was never about being good. It was about feeling. Music became my outlet, my anchor, and a core part of how I tell my story.
Blink-182’s Untitled album lived on repeat. I learned every Tom DeLonge riff like scripture. That album did not just shape my taste in music. It shaped how I saw the world. A new world opened up. Playing guitar and immersing myself in music gave me an outlet — a way to step outside of my own struggles, especially during some of the darker years of my life as a teenager, and reimagine the life I wanted to create.
I lost count of how many times in the early 2000s I sat on my bed with a guitar in my hands, watching Tom Delonge record art. I was not studying technique or trying to understand theory. I was watching how it felt to play—the energy, the movement, the release.
Even now, I could not tell you much about chord theory or scales. That was never the point. I did not pick up a guitar to be technical or precise. I picked it up to feel something. To quiet my head, to channel whatever was building inside me, and to turn noise into something I could live with.
When I Can’t Say It Out Loud, I Play It Through My Guitar
These are not polished studio tracks. They are snapshots of mood, energy, and release. A reflection of the noise in my mind and the stillness in my heart. Messy at times, calm at others, but always honest.
This is what’s going on inside my head. Raw, unpolished, and real. These recordings are more than songs. They are moments captured in sound.
This is not about perfection or technical mastery. Guitar was never about mastery. It was about expression, and about finding a way to connect to myself when words were not enough. What you hear are riffs pulled from emotion, not theory, shaped by lived experience and everything I’ve been moving through. Recovery, parenting, mental health, love, loss, grief, joy, anxiety, and clarity. Picking up the guitar has always been how I process what I cannot put into words. Sometimes it is late-night noodling until something clicks. Other times it is playing the same few notes until they finally say what I am trying to feel.
The Soundtrack To My Days
These are the songs that have carried me through the years. Each one holds a memory, a season, or a moment when music said what I could not. This playlist is not random. It is personal. Every track means something.
Have a listen. Sit with it. If a song hits you, or if music has played a similar role in your own life, send me a message. I am always open to talking music, sharing stories, and adding to the list.
