An Origin story starts today

Origin is out and ready for your listening ears!

Hey friends,

I woke up at my normal 5 AM time. Did my normal “work that gives us food”, then cooked breakfast for the family at 7. As I was eating, I got an email from my music distributor saying, “Congrats on your release” which is when I remembered that I did, in fact, release an album today (this is why I’m building a content system to automate social media and release schedule for the other releases.)

This is the first album in my Grow Together project and, it’s more of a concept album than the rest in the project. It’s comprised of songs from my 6 years as a songwriter, from my junior year of high school to senior year of college. My first recorded song, Puzzle Piece to, I think, the last song I recorded in college, Hold Me Blues.

I had friends who worked at Disney in high school and they told me once that they weren’t allowed to sit down in public so they didn’t “ruin the magic” for the guests. As an artist in an aesthetic-forward era where everything is Disney and you can’t do anything that might “ruin the magic” for the people on your feed you second-guess yourself all the time. “Is this enough, am I enough?” The songs on Origin are raw and lofi. They are far from perfect, and also not the kind of music I’d write if I sat down to make more now. But perfection wasn’t the point of this one.

I’m getting older, y’all. I’m starting to not care about keeping the magic for other people and care more and more about just enjoying the things I do. Keeping the magic is a bully. It tells you everything needs to be perfect and that everything will be ruined just because you’re a human and might need to sit down. I’m kinda sick of it.

No, the point of Origin isn’t to show the world how awesome I am or prove that people should take me seriously as a musician. The point of Origin is to say “Things don’t have to be perfect to have value.” These songs were recorded in my high school bedroom, in a dormitory closet, in the chapel of my college.

Each of these songs was recorded just because I wanted to make music, not to become a viral sensation, and I’m even more proud of that.

There’s one song that stands out as a turning point for me and my songwriter voice, Hold Me Blues. It’s the reason it’s the last on the album. It opens a gateway to the future. I think it’s a great song, that showcases my lyric growth from the Puzzle Piece in 2006 to the end of college.

If you were a part of that growth, and I know some of you who get this newsletter are, Chris Williams, John Michael Forman, Shelby Simons, Joel Harris, Clara Connis, David Griffis, Benjamin Love, Andrew Alms, and, of course, Mom, Diane Connis, and Dad Mike Connis (who bought me a new microphone when my old one died so I could keep going) thanks you for all you did. This release for you more than anyone else.

So, without anymore more bloviating, I invite you, go listen to Origin wherever you listen to your music. Listen to it as an origin story and let me know what you think, see, hear, feel.

Stay curious,

Dave