Why I Made This Record

In 2014, I told my friend and manager Jon Ives that I thought I was done with music. We'd just played a show in Daytona Beach and were flying home after years of recording, traveling, and chasing a dream we'd poured everything into. We were making progress, but I was exhausted. The business side was taking the fun out of something I loved.

On that trip home, I learned my grandfather was in the hospital. We went straight there after landing in Rochester, and I watched him pass away. That changed my priorities. I stepped away from performing, helped carry on his business, and eventually built a life that looked very different from the one I'd imagined.

But I never stopped writing.

Songwriting was always how I worked through things I couldn't necessarily put into words in a conversation. Even when I wasn't playing shows or putting music out, I was still picking up a guitar. Over the years, our family grew to three kids. Between work, the fire department, and coaching, life was full. Music was still there, just mostly for me.

Around 2024, I started going through my old recordings and thinking about what I'd left unfinished. After all those years, I'd never actually released a full record of my own original songs. I wasn't trying to quit my job or chase a record deal. I just wanted to finish something I'd dreamed about for a long time, and leave something behind for my kids.

That's what Ain't Done Yet is. Eleven songs that come from different parts of my life. Some are about family and watching your kids grow up. Some are about the people who show up for others, or questions that come up when life gets difficult. They're not all the same kind of song, but they all came from somewhere real.

The title track was actually the last one I wrote. It started during a songwriting trip to the Adirondacks with Jon in 2026. I was tired of worrying about whether songs were commercial enough. I wanted to write songs that meant something to me, and let them be what they were.

So why listen? Because I hope you'll hear more than my stories in these songs. Maybe one will remind you of your kids, someone you miss, a hard season you made it through, or a moment you wish you could have back. That's always been the best part of sharing music for me—finding out that something personal to me means something to somebody else, too.

I stepped back from music for a long time. I didn't stop loving it. And I'm proud that I finally finished this record.