It's 1 am and I'm listening to my newest song "The Skin I'm in" (That look) and my tears are streaming down my face like the crying emoji.
I originally produced and recorded it on Garageband with a snowball mic and never imagined it would become what it is right now. Thank you Charlie Nieland for being an incredible producer, and for adding your flavor to this project.
So many memories and old feelings are coming back to me as I listen to it. I'm thinking about the first time I saw my mother's Billy Joel album "The Stranger" and I asked her if I I could borrow it. I took that album in my room and I played it over and over again. Some of those songs were so wrong (I was in Catholic School at the time) but they felt so right. "Only the Good Die Young", "Just the way You Are", "She's always a Woman", "Moving Out", "The Stranger' had the lyrics, the swag, and the melodies. Living in a house full of  Motown soul albums and pop records, with two parents that were always singing, no matter if they knew the lyrics or not (I would constantly correct them)  was like Music 101.
If seeing and meeting James Brown was the moment I knew I wanted to be a lead singer, then the first time I heard "The Stranger" was the moment I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. Not just any songwriter. I wanted to be as deep and meaningful as Billy was. I have a copy of "The Stranger" on my wall now. My Mom never asked for the record back. I'm sure she could hear me playing it and was probably smiling.  That lady never denied me anything or told me there was something I couldn't do. I remember her playing my album "The World According to Dark" over and over, and asking me if I wrote all those songs myself. 
To this day I wonder if she remembered that I wrote my first song on a Florida vacation we took many, many years ago. I must have been about 6 and she bought me three little figures from Disney World, Goofy, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse
I remember sitting on the floor playing with them and singing a song about three travelers, and then asking her like I'm sure most six years old do, "Mom did you hear that?" To which she responded, "You made that up yourself?" Full circle. :-) 
She was always seem amazed by me and everything I did. But at the end of the day I was that way because of her. I was that way because of all the culture and art she exposed me to, and all the ways in which she made sure I had what I needed for whatever I was into at the time. 
It's funny how I can remember the lyrics and melody to that first song and the most vivid details from my childhood, but can't remember how to get home sometimes- without my GPS. lol
Poor Donald Duck was later tied to my ceiling fan light switch so I would know which one was for the fan and which was for the light. I think Mickey and Goofy got lost in the move from my house to Bushwick. Thank you guys for the inspiration. Thank you Walt Disney. Thank you Billy Joel. Thank you Mom for loving me and always being you. I miss you.

~TD

These are The Last Days of Dark

Coming soon. The story of Capt. D (my DAD)