Looking back, what were some of your earliest entries into music appreciation? And music production?
I was brought up in a classical music household. My mother played the piano for us when we were young. Then I heard “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day and it changed my life! I started listening to pop music at that time which were rock bands like My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Green Day. Hearing electric guitars from Linkin Park, I knew I had to learn electric guitar!

Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?
My process is pretty streamlined as far as I know. I’ll come with chords and melody, then demo it. I don’t just sit down for the purpose of writing. Whenever I force ideas it never works well for me. Ideas will come to me randomly and I’ll drop everything I’m doing at that time to do work on the song. Then I’ll add other instruments such as bass, drums, and midi instruments to see what fits. Then I’ll mix it then send to Michael Friedman our drummer and he’ll mix it further and master it.

What gets your creative juices flowing?
It comes randomly. However, I have to get into a headspace. But often inspiration comes from daily issues or my observations of what’s going around me.

As a musician, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. Is there anything about the music scene that you would personally change?
There is a big difference, yes. In my experience, I spend far too much time on the other aspects such as social media and it takes away from the actual music-making. It would be nice to have a manager or someone doing this for me but it’s not the right time yet. We need to keep building until we absolutely need help. However, it’s necessary we do a lot of the music business ourselves because we need to build relationships and learn on our own. We can’t depend on someone to do it for us. To be honest I’m not sure what I would change. Maybe for live gigs, people don’t assume music is the background music(unless it’s jazz dinner music) and give the artists their attention.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?
Everything! Everything is fun and rewarding for me. The thing I dislike the most is vocal recording. It’s so hard and stressful for me.

What is the most memorable response you have had to your music?
When people say they needed to hear this. Or they say it inspired them. Ah, it’s such a rewarding feeling.

What’s on your current playlist?
Feng Suave, Big Thief, Billy Joel at the moment.

Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you in the near future?
2 EPs in 2020! That was my goal and I’m halfway done with the 2nd one!

Famous last words?
I miss going to aquariums