Peer Motivation: Carmel Mikol

When I was in Jr. High school back in Kenosha Wisconsin I went to the yearly talent show. This was the first time I saw Carmel Mikol perform. Seeing this performance would change my life.

I was always drawn to music, but never thought that I could do it myself. Seeing this girl my age performing a song she had written suddenly opened a door that would end up leading me down the path of my life. At this point in my life, I was combating a slew of issues relating to my family and myself and was longing for an outlet. I could see salvation in this opening.

I remember asking my mother for a keyboard soon after the talent show and she got me a Casio keyboard with light up keys. Little did she know at that moment that this small keyboard would completely change my life. I began writing immediately and started learning how to play as I wrote. A little backwards, but always my way.

In high school I had a class with Carmel and we became friends. I shared with her my interest in writing, and she became a sort of mentor. We spent countless evenings after school playing songs that we had written for each other. She was far more advanced in her craft, but she listened intently to all of my fumblings as I learned to walk. This was one of the most magical times in my life, because for the first time in my life I was able to get out these shadows inside me. Through my music and my friendship with Carmel, I was finally started down the path of self-discovery and self-acceptance. It's a little scary to look back and wonder what would have been had I not gone to that talent show. I truly do not know who I would be.

Even in Jr. High, Carmel was an incredibly advanced and percosious writer. Her song "Seventeen Tomorrow" that she had written before she herself was even seventeen is still to this day one of the best songs I have ever heard.

"She's a wild horse rider, a mustang driver
Too many cigarettes for an unbroken heart
She's lonely girl on an empty sky
With hurricane hair and midnight eyes"

-Lyrics from Seventeen Tomorrow by Carmel Mikol

After high school, Carmel moved away and we lost touch only to reconnect every few years randomly. Then some time went by and I didn't hear about her or her music. I remember being afraid that she was no longer pursuing music and thinking what a loss that would be. Then out of nowhere I began to hear news of her performances in Canada (where she hails from originally). I was ecstatic. Not only because she was still writing and performing, but because it meant I would get to hear new music from her.

She released an EP called Lost Lives, which set the groundwork for her quick rise in the Canadian music scene. She followed this up with her full album In My Bones.



In My Bones is a powerful and poignant album that deals with love, loss, and the human experience with incredible wisdom and sensitivity. Crafting personal tragedy, the loss of her father whose guidance set her on the path of music, and her innate ability to translate what she sees and experiences into compelling songs, this album is a thrilling debut.

The title track starts with an incredible lyric that exposes Carmel both personally and as a skilled writer.

"We're young, then we're old
Born with a fire that burns to coals
The path of hungry living is our one and only road
We're pressed to make decisions that divide and conquer souls
Its a pity we're forgiven, cause it makes our sinning bold."

-Lyrics from In My Bones by Carmel Mikol



The whole album is full of these lyrical and musical moments that create a stunning piece. Some other notable standouts are:

Hometown- A song about the meaning of home and trying to reconcile the realities of coming home and facing a history we have tried to escape.

Escape To You- The oldest song on the album. I remember her playing this song for me back in high school. It's amazing to see how it has grown in the years since.

Blaming Myself- Probably the most pop leaning song on the album. This song has a hook you will not be able to get out of your head. It topped the East Coast Countdown for multiple weeks. This is a hit.

Colt 45- This song is sexy and sultry. Best listened to with a bottle of red.

I'll Never Find You- This track makes me cry every time. There is a longing in this song that I think all of us have deep inside, like trying to find moments lost that we can never get back. Universal and heartbreaking.


For me, this album is the realization of that girl I saw at a talent show over ten years ago. Critics have agreed, and Carmel has won multiple awards and toured cross country sharing her incredible music and stories.

To me, she will always be one of the most important connections I have ever made. Carmel and her music are the reason that I am a songwriter and thus the person I am today.

So check her out and become and instant fan.

You can find her here.

Story behind the Image: Space Cover

My new album "Space," is out (or as I like to say, in orbit) and I have received a lot of amazing feedback. One of the frequent questions that I have been getting has been about the cover. People wanting to know if the image was photo shopped, or how we got the picture. Well, the image is 100% real and here is the story behind it.

After finishing the album, which I see as a concept EP/super single, I knew I wanted a striking image for the cover that captured the essence of the project. I immediately contacted the amazingly talented Luke Redmond about shooting the cover and he graciously agreed.

We started very conceptually, trading music and images, found objects and other album covers to get the creative juices flowing. We talked a lot about what the album and songs were trying to say and also what Luke was getting from the music. This was a really key element because it put us on common footing and gave us a common language to speak in. We came up with a few concepts and two locations to shoot; Grand Central Terminal and Central Park and we set a date for the shoot.

The day of the shoot started early and in Grand Central. We picked the famed train station because to me the album is about distance and the space that separates people and the terminal is very spacious and is a place that takes people away from and brings people together. We shot a lot of photos there and then headed out to central park. At this point we knew we had some great shots, but I think deep down we knew we didn't have "the one" yet.






As we left the station, we ran into a giant street fair on Madison Ave. The lighting was perfect so as we walked we took some shots. It was fun because as we shot through the crowds, people began to stop and stare thinking we were doing a modeling shoot, which boosted my self esteem :) These turned out to be incredible, but we were still bent on getting some shots in the park.






We stopped for coffee at the base of the park and looked through what we had. We thought we may have had the shot, but we wanted to finish what we had planned for the day. After sufficient caffeine intake, we headed to the park. We took a lot of shots, but weren't getting exactly what we wanted. As the sun began to set we headed to the Bethesda Fountain to try and shoot in the mosaic courtyard that is right in front of it. It's a really cool space and we were hoping to get a great shot in there, but the lighting was just not right. We took that as a sign that we were done and began to walk to the fountain to relax after a long day. It was then we say the stairway.




On the wall of the stairway leading down to the fountain were these long shadows cast by passers by. Immediately Luke was like "get over there!" It was just an instinct and not at all what we planned, but somehow we both new this was a fleeting moment and we needed to capture it. As I stood against the wall and we watched the shadows play, we knew this was going to be a great shot. He snapped the shutter and looked at what he had. He told me to come over, and just from looking at it on the camera display, we knew we had our shot.

After all the planning and shooting, we got our cover in an unplanned spontaneous moment. I don't think that without all the planning and hard work we would have got such a moment, but isn't that life.



You can check out more of Luke Redmond's work here.

You can purchase my new album "Space" here.

Inspiration: Charlotte Martin

Four years ago this August I moved to New York City.

Four years ago today I was packing up my room in Kenosha, WI and freaking out about the fact that I was moving to New York City.

During the intense packing and preparing that I was doing for the biggest life change I would have to date, I took breaks to take my mind off the immediate. I spent a lot of time on Pandora Internet radio looking for new artists and trying to find music that spoke to my current mood/situation. It was through Pandora that I first heard Charlotte Martin, an artist whose music is now such a part of my life that I can not imagine her music not being on my ipod.

The first song I heard was the track "Something Like A Hero" off her On Your Shore album. I remember feeling immediately that the song was resonating deep inside me with its rhythmic piano punching the down beats. Then her amazingly versatile and emotive voice challenged me to come along for a ride.

"Hello Boys, got directions to the bomb shell factory..."

I was in.

By the time the incredible breakdown begins at the end of the song, I had already opened iTunes and purchased her On Your Shore album.

As I do whenever I buy a new album, I turned off the lights and laid down as the music began. I am still a believer in "Albums" so I love to hear them the first time through uninterrupted as a whole piece. The sound of a small string section crying out in longing pulls you into the first strike of the piano key, and then the album takes off. There are very few albums that I love from beginning to end, but I knew from that first moment that this was going to be one of them.

On Your Shore takes you on an incredible emotional ride that somehow leaves you completely satisfied yet craving more. Four years later, this album still feels fresh and is constantly drawing me back to its shore. So much in fact that every song on the album makes it into my ipods top 50 most played songs list. If you know me and how my ipod is basically surgically implanted onto me, you know this is quite a feat.

That August, when I left everything I knew to follow my dreams, her music was an amazing comfort that filled in some of the gaps inside me. That fall, I got to see her live and met her and after that I knew I would be a lifelong fan. I have since bought every album she has every released and can whole heartedly recommend all of them. She is simply one of those artists that speaks my language, speaks to what I know to be true, speaks to my soul.

If you know her, I'm sure you love her. If you don't, you definitely need to remedy that quickly.

In honor of its placement as the number one played song on my ipod, (Hint: It's over 200 plays... which I am now realizing is almost 12 hours of my life.) Here is her song "Every Time it Rains."

A New Connection

So I have had the idea to start this blog for a long time now, but only in my post surgery haze have I decided to make it a reality. I know there are a million outlets via social networking sites to share information, but I have wanted a more artistic way to bring you with me as I travel down this crazy life of a singer/songwriter.

I also wanted a place to showcase some other artists that I have gotten the privilege to know that have not made the mainstream yet. Think of it as a way to find some great new music that you might not hear about otherwise. I also may get the urge to review and share some of the albums and artists that have inspired me along the way.

There may be some video blogs and general self promotion going on here as well. Just getting it all out in the open so you know what to expect. Hope you check in often and connect in. I'd love to hear what you want to see as well.

Here's to a new connection!