The stories behind the songs:

Love Day (Brian Lucas)

I was visiting my family over the holidays and talking to my brother about how crazy life gets. We were discussing how so many things get in the way, that we don’t always have enough time left in the day for quality time with the ones we love. Sitting in the hotel the next morning, I was thinking how we have weekdays, work days, school days, church days. Even holidays sometimes can be stressful and seem like work. I thought how great it would be to have a love day and voila, a song was born.

Get Something Started (Brian Lucas)

There’s nothing worse than trying to find out if someone is interested in you or not. Add that to the fact that people often play mind games and it gets pretty frustrating. I had gone through a few of those “does she or doesn’t she?” moments and was complaining to friends about the struggles. I secretly wished it was as simple as walking up to a girl and saying, “Hi! Are you interested? Yes or no?”. Wouldn’t that be great?! I’m hoping to start a trend with this song and save everyone a little heartache.

More Beautiful Than That (Brian Lucas)

Thankfully, along with the negative side of dating is the positive side. The moment you realize someone you’re into is into you too… It’s a moment that’s hard to describe. I tried to capture how difficult it is to share that experience with others. It’s like… Sort of… Well… Some things are just beyond words.

Broken (Brian Lucas)

Everybody experiences down moments. They’re not fun. This song was born out of one of those moods. It was very late at night. I was having some difficulty with a music project I was working on. I was frustrated, upset and feeling pretty down on myself. As I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, I said to myself, “It’s your fault”. Suddenly I had visions of how my image was shattered only in my mind. The realization that my own thoughts were the root of all these negative feelings and the main reason I was so broken. In one quick moment I went from discouragement to inspiration as this song came pouring out of me.

Where You Land (Brian Lucas, Jesse Lingo)

I wrote this with my buddy Jesse. Neither of us had good song ideas to pitch each other that day, so in typical songwriter fashion, we started talking. I had just said something stupid to my girlfriend in the heat of an argument and was discussing how I had to smooth things over. Jesse could relate to situations like that in his own life. We started sharing how sometimes it takes more than a simple “I’m sorry” to fix things. So hey, let’s write about that!

The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby)

I decided I wanted to put a cover song on the record. As I was preparing my own songs to be recorded, I had been talking a lot about my idols and influences. There were the obvious; Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Elton John. One day a student of mine brought in a song that reminded me of another piano playing songwriter who had a big influence on me, Bruce Hornsby. The song, “The Way It Is” is just as fresh today and as lyrically relevant as when I played it as a kid. I thought it was the perfect choice to compliment my own songs. I tried to pay homage to Bruce’s original recording while shaping my own version of the song.