I'm chasing this pleasure...

I hope this letter finds you well, as the days slowly get longer and the spring buds start to peek through the soil. And if it finds you anything but well, know that it’s harder to find a peak without climbing up the valley.

I’m writing to you with some very exciting news, and if you follow me on social media and streaming services, you may have already seen but...

Until Death is out now and belongs to the world! You can hear it on any streaming platform using the button below, including bandcamp where you can purchase it! I hope you enjoy it and that it finds a home in your playlists and libraries.

Listen to and Purchase Until Death

This is the first single off of my (yet to be announced) EP, and I’m so excited to share it with you. Until Death is perhaps the most vulnerable song I’ve ever written, and in a way was the most challenging. I was so used to veiling my emotions with kitschy metaphors or mythological analogies, and felt a desire to switch it up. Maybe it’s getting older, but I’m finding that words carry more meaning when you just say it like it is. Pushing myself away from old habits led me to writing the lyrics in this song.

I’m chasing this pleasure ‘til nothing is left, is this all I’ll continue to do until death? I guess…

Until Death is also devoid of a regular pop form, something I’ve been playing with lately. While it’s easy to follow the unspoken guidelines of pop music, I felt like I was holding myself back by sticking to a rubric. No more confined by the likes of “verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge” this song still flows like a piece of pop but there’s a lot more room for exploration, a theme that extends throughout the whole EP.

Accompanying the song is a music video created with dear friend and collaborator Jack Thomas Elliot. We wanted to evoke the recurring theme of life, death and rebirth, this constant cycle found in nature and within our humanity. Wearing all black attire, the dancers represent death, finding beauty and whimsy in the concept of loss. Opposite them is an all white outfit, symbolizing the rebirth we let ourselves experience when recognizing that an older joy no longer serves us. These choices were made to honor Greek custom. Babies typically wear all white when they are baptized in the Orthodox church, and after losing a spouse or family member, widowed individuals wear black for the remainder of their life. A subtle but important way to honor my culture.

These themes are woven together as the character is exploring a forest and the city, reflecting that they’d no longer like to feel. They dance with death, both sadness and optimism moving in their thoughts, until they realize that this will continue forever. It’s too much effort to stay alive and find happiness, yet it is all we can do with our time on earth so it must be embraced.

You can watch the music video below, and I’d appreciate you “liking” it which tells Youtube to spread it to more audiences.

WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO

I’ll leave you with a little insight on the cover art, made in collaboration with my close friend and landscape architect-turned designer Joe Biegger. I wanted to tie in all these natural themes present in this EP with the central ideas of change and becoming. This led to the use of physical collage work, in a way paying homage to the Adonis Imagined cover I made in 2022. Each photo was hand cut and physically layered before being scanned into the final image. You’ll see this gorgeous landscape of a pine forest underneath various introspective images of me in motion, featuring movement from the Music Video’s choreography. A lot of pop music is inherently sexual and I wanted to tie in that concept in a way that felt more introspective. It can be incredibly sensual and freeing to explore your own psyche and emotions, a side of our identities that is very rarely discussed in something as accessible as pop music. If Joe’s style fascinates you as much as it does me, you can find more of his work here.

Thank you kindly for reading this letter, for engaging with my art and being on this journey with me. I appreciate every ounce of support, minute spent listening to my music or sharing it with the world. It is an honor to share my work with you; I cannot wait to show what else is in store for this era, and for us to continue growing together.

Much love,

~tommy