New Jersey Stage - September 2014 | Page 28

Princeton. But by the end of my time there, I’d found some likeminded students who were passionate about music and made their own scene, hosting monthly concerts in their rooms. I played here and there around campus and at Small World Coffee in town a few times, but for the most part I was traveling to New York or Philly to perform and was spending my time in Princeton focused on writing and recording. Are there any songs from your past (i.e. before “Down Wires”) that you might still drag out on stage these days? I haven’t played any of those songs from the out-of-print records in a long time. But I ran into someone recently who brought up one of those songs that I’d completely forgotten about, and I went back to take another look at them. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of songs or elements of songs from that period coming back to life in new forms, but I’m focused New Jersey Stage on writing new material at the moment. As a songwriter, I think I’ve found myself a bit more than when I was first starting out. I was trying to sound like a lot of other people during those early days, and I feel more comfortable just sounding like me now. Anything you’d like to say to folks in Princeton or along the Jersey Shore who have watched you grow as an artist for a while? It means the world to me that there are people who were listening on day one that are still there. It’s been an unpredictable journey and it’s one that’s really just beginning in earnest now, but having familiar faces along the way that have been so supportive and encouraging is the sort of thing that keeps you moving forward on the days when you’re not so sure which direction you’re headed in. I try to say thank you as much as I can to people who have been supportive and honor that support by working as hard September 2014 pg 28