Friendship’s Quiet

Looking back, Friendship’s Quiet feels like the record where I first discovered what kind of songwriter I wanted to become. Writing “Paint the Road” was a watershed moment for me—the most intentional piece of music I had written to that point, and the first time I could clearly see the direction I wanted to follow.

I had recently graduated from college with a degree in mathematics, but I was wrestling with a much bigger question: what was I really being called to do? Wil Reeves, Phil Merker, and I began the record as a trio. After one day in a local studio, Wil decided he wanted to record it himself. He bought his own gear, and Friendship’s Quiet became the first project made at what would become Centro Cellar Studio—the place where every Blue Print album, Wasn’t It Pretty, and the first two Falling Fences records would later take shape.

Listening back now, I can hear how uncertain I was. I sang like someone who had spent years working on songs upstairs in an attic, hoping no one downstairs could hear. But I also hear the love and support of the friends who believed in me before I fully believed in myself. Without my friends, there are no songs.