TRACK 2️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “90s!”! 👾🕹📟

Things I’m most known for… my love of Champagne 🥂, my obsession with fluffy cats 😻, and of course… my infatuation with the ‘90s and all things nostalgic. Physically living in Toronto, mentally living in the ‘90s as some say. 📼🤷‍♂️📟

Ironically (hey Alanis!), the ‘90s were actually a really difficult time for me. I was bullied a lot. But I found solace by emerging myself in video games, Saturday morning cartoons, the latest CDs from Columbia House, and sometimes… just an enormous bowl of lucky charms at any given time of the day. It was the ‘90s… there were no rules, man! 😎🍀 But despite the challenges I faced leading up to Y2K, I look back on that time with nothing but hearts in my eyes. 😍 Nostalgia is funny that way. You always seem to remember the good over the bad. I like nostalgia. And being a bit of a loner all of those years really helped me find myself.

I wrote this song in the summer of 2015, the last summer of my 20’s. Obviously a looming milestone causes you to reflect on your life. I was also wrapping up a pre-30 bucketlist project (for which I wrote “Champagne” and discovered my love for making music as a hobby). So I wanted to do something to celebrate! I decided to write a song about the ‘90s, looking back on some of my favourite memories that helped shape me ahead of the big 3-0.

I recorded the song on 01/30/16, and once again enlisted @omgchampagne to help shoot a video. 😜 We shot it over a couple of day in March… and I really dug deep to pull out as many ‘90s gems as I could find: Dream Phone, POGs, N64, Furby, Beanie Babies… yeah, I do still own all those things. 🤷‍♂️ Oh, and it wouldn’t be a true ode to the ‘90s without a cheesy dance craze. 🙆‍♂️💁‍♂️🙅‍♂️🙋‍♂️

TRACK 3️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Champagne”! 😜🥂🍾

When I turned 25 I started a bucket list of 20 things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 30. One of them was to write/record a song and release it on iTunes. That was a pretty big deal back then! I remember thinking, “what the heck am I gonna write about?” I wrote about a dozen other songs before it finally dawned on me… “Champagne, duh!” They do say to write about what you know. 😆 I wrote the song on February 17th, 2012. Pretty much in one afternoon. Like a cork… it just popped outta me. 🤷‍♂️ And I was like, “damn, okay, this is actually pretty good!” I had zero musical experience (apart from like 4 piano lessons when I was like 10). 🤓🎹

I recorded the song at a studio here in Toronto on March 5, 2012. Hearing it back for the first time was so surreal. It was a lifelong dream come true. I grew up on Kids Incorporated and the Mickey Mouse Club, and I always wanted a signature song of my own that others would love and sing along to. I think I did it! 🤪

It was released on March 21, 2012, and sold a few thousand copies on iTunes (back in the day when people used to actually buy music). Basically enough to pay for my upcoming album. 😂 Soon after we shot a fun and cheesy music video (with a $2 budget). “A Day in the Life”… Champagne in the tub, Champagne on the treadmill, Champagne everywhere! Relatable mood. 😜🥂🍾 What else can I say about this song? 🤔 I mean, other than it’s iconic and the soundtrack to my life?! 🤪

TRACK 4️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Partner in Crime”! 👬🏻💖👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

I wrote this song for me and @omgchampagne’s wedding back in 2014. Which also happened to fall on the 10th anniversary of the day that we met. 💍💖 And, fun fact, gay time is like dog years… so I definitely wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion.

I recorded it on September 20, 2014 and played it for the first time at our wedding on October 25 right after we were pronounced husband and husband. 🥰👬 And, not by my own doing I swear, our guests kept requesting it so the DJ spun it all night long while we danced (and drank Champagne out of beer glasses filled to the brim because the bar ran out of flutes… at MY wedding? How dare they! 😂 Though tbh I wasn’t complaining. 🙊💃🍻🍾)

Anyway, it’s a fun, up-beat dance tune about young love. And although I did write my own traditional vows for our wedding, I thought this was a fun and creative way to sum up how I felt about Mike. “So I’ll hold my hand up, I swear that I’m in love, I’ll cross my heart with your touch, until the end of time, ‘cuz you’re my partner in crime.” ☺️ I’ve always been proud of this one!

TRACK 5️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Last Chance 2 Dance”! 🕺⚡️💃🎉

I recorded this song on April 5th 2016, a couple weeks before my 30th birthday. And I was feeling someeee type’a way about the big 3-0. Which is laughable now, as it turns out my 30’s have been the best years of my life by FAR. But that’s besides the point.

I wrote this song about makin’ the most of the night (hey, CRJ!) and hangin’ onto the spirit of youth. Which is a common theme in a lot of my songs. “I’m gonna do what I want, and I’ll say what I like… for all we know the world could end tonight.” TOO REAL out here in 2020. 😂

Myself, @omgchampagne, and our bestie @chrismanages shot a video for it during a Boys Weekend in Vegas. Think… “The Hangover”… but gayer. 😂 We had just met @britneyspears (yes, THEE Britney Spears) a couple hours prior and were on such a high, so naturally the Champagne was flowing. The video was never released because, well, we shot it at like 3am after a LOT of bubbles and despite Mike and Chris being the best cheerleaders (“OMG! This looks SO GREAT!!!! 👏👏👏) It was a little less “Britney In The Zone” and a little more… “Britney at the 2007 VMA’s” 😂 But man, was that a FUN night. As we’ve just passed the 6 month marker of lockdown I long for the days when we can do things like this again. It was such a joy looking through all this footage and putting together a little clip of the “lost video”.

Shout out to @chrismanages for literally stopping traffic on Las Vegas Blvd! 😂 And why did I think it was a good idea to jump backwards into a bush at Caesar’s Palace?! 🤔🤨🧐

TRACK 6️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Comeback Kid”! 👊😎 One of my favourites, and certainly the most personal song on the album.

I came up with the title and idea for this song years ago, and it evolved through many different iterations before I finally got it right. I wanted it to be autobiographical, but also slick and cool – not cheesy and fun like most of my other songs. 🧀😜

I was bullied so terribly for the first half of my life, and it left scars on me that will never go away. I rarely talk about it, but I suffer from recurring nightmares and deep rooted self-confidence issues as a result. But there is nothing more powerful than perseverance. Every time you fall down, you get back up again. 🙌 And I f**king got BACK UP! 😎 Writing this song was like therapy for me.

Once I finally got it right, I recorded the song on July 31, 2019. I sat with it for a couple months, and once again enlisted (okay, forced 😜) @omgchampagne to help me shoot a video. It was one of the most complicated videos I’ve shot and edited but it’s easily my favourite. I’m so proud of it. ☺️

I have such fond memories of our time shooting the video too. It was shot exactly around this time one year ago. (Insane how much has changed in a year eh! 😳) October has always been one of my favourite months for many reasons. It’s the time Mike and I met, so while filming the video we re-visited so many old haunts in the city, and had drinks and dinner at places where we went on our first few dates 15 years prior. It was another reminder of how far I had come in my life.

“I used to be a lone wolf… Scared to colour outside the lines I thought that I was broken… But guess what I’m just fine”

TRACK 7️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Forever Young”! 👶💘💿

I started writing this song back in 2018 (it was originally called “While We’re Young”) and I wrote like 38902 versions of it because I’m a perfectionist and can’t let anything go. 😂 I think it was David Bowie that once said “songs are never finished, they’re abandoned”. I save all the early versions of my songs on a hard drive and it’s always fun to look back on them and revisit the creative process to see what they once were and what they’ve become.

This song started as kind of a 👆 to the whole idea that you’re “too old” to do something. But it felt sort of negative so I recycled some of the catchy melodies and colourful lyrics, and decided to put more of a positive spin on it instead. And so, “Forever Young” was born! 👼

A song about fearlessness, positivity, and never letting go of the feeling and freedom that come along with youth. And then… it all changed again. 😂 I recorded this song in mid-March, 3 days before we began quarantine. It means something completely different to me now.

What started as a care-free tune about living life to the fullest, and re-capturing the spirit of youth, has turned in to a song about hope for brighter days, hope that we can all bounce back from this, and that some sense of normalcy will soon return to our lives. It’s a little audible ray of sunshine, and when I’m having a rough day through all of this, I put it on and it brings a smile to my face. ☺️

TRACK 8️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Teen Magazine”! 🤩📓💖

Growing up in the ‘90s I LIVED for a glossy teen magazine (okay, and the men’s underwear section of the Sears catalogue 🤭😂). Back in the pre-internet days they were like a window into a magical land of teen idols that one could only dream about. In reality, they were really just oversized brochures filled with pixelated photos likely assembled by a 60 year old woman in Ohio… but it was all about the fantasy I guess. 😜

I’d eagerly await for new issues to hit newsstands and plaster my walls with the pin-ups admiring each one adoringly. Obviously my room was covered with photos of Ginger Spice. However I wasn’t entirely sure if I was in LOVE with her or wanted to BE her. 😂 Probably both. 🤔

Anyway, I’m obsessed with nostalgia and I wanted to write a song capturing that feeling. It’s about a teen magazine come to life. Except in this fantasy, I’m the teen idol! 😆😜😎 I recorded this one back in July 2019, and… actually hated the way it came out. 🤭 But I had it re-produced and now it’s a glittery ‘80s-esque heartthrob bop.

Also a fun fact… the photos for my “One Hit Wonder” album art were inspired by this song. I wanted to look like one of those old school glossy pin-up’s from ’90s teen mags like BOP and Tiger Beat. 😜 Haaaay JTT!

TRACK 9️⃣ on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Masquerade”! 🦹‍♂️🔮👻

This one almost didn’t make the cut… but @omgchampagne convinced me to include it… and I’m glad I listened ‘cuz it’s an ol’ school BOP! 😎🕺 This was my second single that I recorded way back in October 2013. It was one of two theme songs for Mike and my masquerade themed wedding (yeah, I wrote two ‘cuz I’m extra 🤷‍♂️). We met around Halloween (16 years ago this weekend, in fact) so we’ve always been big fans of #spookyszn.

What else can I say about this one? I’m excited to share it with the world again, as it hasn’t been available on streaming services since we got married back in 2014. It’s been remastered (along with all the other tunes on my album) and also has a brand new Halloween remix that I just dropped on Spotify & Apple Music – so check that out if ya haven’t already. 🥰 Ya didn’t think I’d hang up my wannabe pop star hat without leaving ya with a new Halloween tune did ya?! 😜

TRACK 🔟 on my album "One Hit Wonder" is... “Don’t Worry (Everything’s Gonna Be F**king Amazing)”! ✌️☺️💯

Nearly a decade ago I found a note on the ground in Berlin that said “Don’t Worry. Everything is Going to be Amazing.” And that always stuck with me. It sort of became my motto or mantra in life. I still have the note above my desk and I look at it every morning. It’s more important to me than ever now.

To say it’s been a difficult year for us all would be the understatement of the century. (Has ANYONE said “man, 2020 is my year!!”?! 😆) The weight of the world can be so overwhelming. Some days I wake up and feel so paralyzed by all the darkness and injustice in the world, it’s hard to find the will to do anything. And what’s worse is that it often feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. So I wrote this song to remind myself that there is. ☀️

It’s an uplifting tune about holding on and making it through anything. And a fitting bookend to my album, and to the decade that I’ve spent writing and recording music as a creative outlet and hobby. This is it. 🥺 I’m emotional to day the least.