Here is the cover art for Lights & Reflections, which is available everywhere one week from today! I adore the image that Crafted Crane Design created to complete the series of images that started with the Reflections and Lights EPs. I love that the three images are interrelated, showing a lake view from different vantage points at different times of day. It really drives home how these releases are all different facets of one piece.

Lights by Patterns in Traffic

Hi everyone,

On May 21, 2021, Lights was released into the world with a modicum of fanfare. If you haven’t been following along, Lights is part two of a two-part album called Lights & Reflections. Part one (aptly titled Reflections) was released last year and is the quieter, happier, more acoustic-based side of the album. I also mentioned back when it was released that most of the songs on Reflections were written years ago and pulled out of the vault, so to speak.

I have been working on the five songs on Lights for the past ten months, and I am so excited to share them. This side of the album was always supposed to be louder, darker, and more electric, but the contrast between Lights and Reflections is more pronounced than I knew when I announced this project last year. I am hoping that the last few songs that will be exclusive to the full-length release will help me tie together a cohesive tracklist, because right now it’s looking like a difficult task to have these ten songs coexist without some startling transitions!

The songs on Lights are brand new (some of these lyrics and musical ideas were developed in the last two or three months) and in my opinion are some of the most interesting and challenging tracks I’ve ever written. Getting them to this point has been a struggle at times, but one I knew would be worth it in the end. It is a bit surreal that they are complete and out in the world, and I hope that you find something exciting, unexpected, or moving in them.

As with Reflections, Lights will be exclusive to Bandcamp for now until the entire album is complete. I’ve got three more songs in the works to bring this record home and then Lights & Reflections will be sent to streaming and digital music retailers later this year as a full 13-track body of work. Until then, stream to your heart’s content on Bandcamp or right here.

Hi there! I’ve been hard at work over the past months (years, really) on a new batch of songs that will form my second full-length album. I’ve decided to do something a little different with this album and release it in two halves. A couple of EPs, if you will, that will later be smashed together to form a single LP. I came to this conclusion for a few reasons:

-I wanted to release music a little more frequently. Direction has been out for two years already, and if I waited for this entire album to be done we would be looking at a very long wait for new PiT material. It also kept me motivated through this busy time in my life, since finishing half an album felt a lot more attainable than completing a whole one.

-It felt like there was a natural split between the two halves. They each have their own sounds and concepts and work on their own, but they can also come together to form a cohesive whole. I will expand on this immediately, because I’m going to talk a little bit more about the album right now.

I’ve had the title Lights & Reflections in my back pocket for years. At first it was just a title, but it evoked a feeling that excited me and seemed like it would inspire the kind of music that I strive to create. I thought it would be a great album title for some future album, if I ever made enough music to use it.

After finishing Direction I was still riding a wave of inspiration and wanted to keep recording and producing new songs. However, I was burned out on the writing aspect. I had pretty much built all of the tracks on Direction from the ground up, and I needed to let my tank refill for a bit before I started composing again. I decided to work on recording some songs from my past that I loved, but had never properly recorded. The first song I ever wrote, which my dad would never let me give up on. An acoustic track that I played with a short-lived band in college (we never made it out of the basement). A song I wrote for my then-girlfriend (now wife) for our first Christmas in our home together. Once I started thinking through this batch of songs, I realized that they perfectly fit the concept of reflections. These are songs from my past that I am bringing into the present. They are quiet, contemplative, organic, and primarily acoustic. They also have a wistful, reflective quality that ties them together.

During the process of recording these songs (it was a while; I don’t do anything particularly fast, especially recording) some new ideas started to percolate. They were louder, more electric, more energetic. Brighter. These new songs would form the other side of the coin; the lights to complete Lights & Reflections.

So, that is what I am working through now. Reflections, the softer, more acoustic half of the album full of songs from my past, is complete and releasing today! Lights, the louder, more electric half of the album full of brand new ideas, is in production. I’m not sure when it will arrive. Late 2020 is a very optimistic projection, but one that I will strive for. Early 2021 might be more realistic. Once the two halves are complete I will painstakingly resequence the two tracklists together (it won’t be just one half and then the other, I will be mixing it up for a fresh experience!) along with a couple of new songs to assemble the complete work, Lights & Reflections. Yes, there will be a couple of songs on the full album that are not on either of the previously-released halves (which I guess makes them not-quite-halves, but let’s not get pedantic). I was always kind of bummed when an artist would release a new album that was comprised entirely of previously-released material, so I don’t want to do that to my tens of listeners! I will add a couple of never-before-heard tracks to tie things together and give everyone a reason to check out the full LP besides a new track order. I will also have the full album professionally mastered (I am mastering the two halves myself, but even though I can fake it pretty well I am not a professional).

Anyway, for now, please enjoy Reflections. It is so exciting, as it always is, to release my own music and hope that it reaches a few people out there and gives them a few minutes of enjoyment, or catharsis, or whatever. I am really proud of these songs and how far they’ve come since their beginnings years ago. They don’t feel like a batch of old songs. They feel fresh, and current, and they deserve their time to shine.