The Story Behind Lamp City 2
I want to start this letter by thanking all of you who have supported me for so long, not just in my music career, but in every aspect of my career and life. Whether you have been with me since 2010, or you have only been here a few weeks, the support I get from you guys is the only reason I am able to do what I do. I’m thankful every day because you guys, the Lamp City Family, give me the ability to do what I love.
For independent artists like myself, I think there is something truly special about the relationship between the artist and the listener. When there is no middle man, no big record company messing up the dynamic of the beautiful ecosystem of artist and listener, that is when creativity can flourish at its fullest potential. I think that is because the artist can create without distraction or too much influence from outside voices, then the listener can hear the original thoughts and music in its purest form. That is what I love about the music I make. I love that I can share it directly with you guys and put it out as it’s meant to be heard. So again, thank you.
I also want to thank all of my loved ones, my girlfriend Lauren, and my friends and family who have always supported me. I love you all. So much of this new album was inspired by the moments we shared.
To tell the story of how Lamp City 2 came together, I’ll first go back to 2013 and how Lamp City, my debut album came together. I was 19 years old and had just moved back to Boston and moved in with my best friend Multiple Petes, after a year long stint in Los Angeles. I moved to LA because I signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and was to record my debut album at their LA studios. They signed me fresh out of high school, and I really had no experience in the real world at all when I moved to LA. The whole thing was certainly a crazy, fun, and sometimes anxiety-provoking experience. I could take a long time to tell this whole story, but the gist of it is I was 18/19 years old, living in this new city, trying to become the biggest artist I could be, but I knew nothing about anything, even though I thought and acted like I knew everything. I also had some pretty significant, unaddressed anxiety and I’m sure at the time I was a pain in the ass to deal with. Overall though, I think all those factors led to some incredible music.
Musically, I felt okay. I had made maybe 30% of my album. Songs like Fresh, Lamp City Family, and Judge. But I kept feeling like something was missing. My creative process was lacking a major element that held me back from really bringing the album together in a cohesive way. I couldn’t shake this idea that if I was really going to succeed in my career, I needed to build something bigger than just me, in a studio recording songs. It needed to feel like a movement. I needed a team. I loved the way Wiz Khalifa had Taylor Gang as this separate thing that he repped in his music. I needed to create my own brand, my own label, a stand alone entity that encompassed everything I stood for as an artist and a person. I needed to create Lamp City. Once I got going on this idea, I didn’t stop. I immediately told the people I was working with from the label that I needed to go back to Boston and connect with people on the ground and build something, before moving forward with the album. And that’s exactly what I did.
Once I got back to Boston, I began to feel inspired on the music side again. At the time, my mom had just moved into this 2 bedroom apartment by herself and she let me turn the extra bedroom into a makeshift studio. I had a $300 Blue Microphone, Rokit-8 speakers (which I still use today), and my keyboard to make beats and that was that. Over the coming weeks in that small bedroom, I got in this zone that I can’t even really describe. Back to back I wrote and recorded songs like Inhale, Better Days, You, High, No (On Top), in that room. The day I made Better Days, I came into that room and sat down at the midi keyboard, made up the piano riff, put drums over it and finished the beat within 30 minutes. Then I wrote the 3 verses and recorded them right there on the spot. From start to finish it was probably a one hour and fifteen minute process. Inhale was the same thing. Write, record, done.
Simultaneously, while I was making that music, I was developing some amazing friendships and business partnerships. I met my manager Tim Larew by happenstance because he was interviewing me for this blog he had at the time. The partnership we built that year would come to change the path of my career and life forever. In a lot of ways, Tim embodied the idea I had in LA to create Lamp City. He was doing something similar on his own. He had built all these relationships with local artists in Boston and created a community of artists supporting one another, in an otherwise fragmented city. He had the blog, he worked with the artists, Tim was doing anything he could just to be a part of something and that sense of purpose is exactly what I was searching for at the time too.
As I got closer and closer to releasing Lamp City, and even shortly after the project came out, my team and this overall dream I had to create something bigger than just me as a musician really started to come together. I released the Lamp City project and it catalyzed my career. As I mentioned, I could spend hours discussing this time period in more detail but I’ll sum it up.
Lamp City, the album, was the first chapter in my career. It is what started everything for me. It’s what gave me credibility, it’s what allowed me to grow my team and the whole Lamp City idea into an overarching brand, record label and state of mind. Because of the success of that album, I was able to inspire a larger group of people around me to be a part of the movement. Over the next 5 years after the release of that album, I went on to put out more albums, see 48 of the 50 states in total on various tours, reach more and more success in my music career, and make lifelong memories with some of my closest friends. If you are one of those people who has been a part of the movement since that time, this is where I say thank you. You all know who you are.
I say all of this about Lamp City being the first chapter in my career, because now, 8 years later, the release of Lamp City 2 feels like the start of the second chapter. I have put out multiple mixtapes, EP’s and albums since the release of Lamp City, but none of them stylistically, or mentally are connected to that album. The state of mind I am in now, is exactly like the state of mind I was in at 19 when I finished Lamp City. The mentality is the same, but the goals are different. I was focused on finding my purpose and building a real movement with Lamp City, and now I can look back and say I have done that. I feel I have found my purpose. Now that I have it, I am eagerly trying to reach that next level of purpose and connectivity with all of you and spread the message of what the Lamp City lifestyle means to a broader audience, and spread it through new ways that I haven’t yet explored. It feels to me that, with this album, I am starting a new journey–one that will continue for a long time to come, just as Lamp City led me on an eight-year journey of building my brand and business and making meaningful connections and memories along the way.
The very reason I became an artist is the message I am constantly trying to spread through my music and through everything that I put out to the world: the idea that life is not promised, life is fragile, and because of that, we all need to live each day exactly how we want. There is no time to delay pursuing our dreams or delay taking any action. I truly believe the most fulfilled, happy life, is a life where you go for the things you have always wanted. I realized this at a young age, because I had a life-threatening accident when I was 15. I thank God every day that I made it out alive in that situation, and I also thank God that it gave me this perspective where I know with absolute certainty that life is fragile and you have to live it meaningfully every single day. There is no time for regrets. When you live like this you have so much peace, knowing you put it all out there every single day. Don’t take this in some negative, sad way. This concept is deep, but if you really get down to it it also just means live it up. Don’t overthink shit. You have one life so just have some fun while you’re here.
Whether it’s Lamp City or Lamp City 2, that will always be my message. There’s moments of reflectiveness, there’s moments of happiness and fun times and partying. It’s all a part of the story because it’s all a part of life. I feel on this album I continued telling that story, but it’s Lamp City 2 because it’s an updated, elevated canvas upon which I am painting that same picture. I hope when you guys listen to this album that you feel the highs along with the lows, and that you enjoy it on your good days but that it can help get you through the tough days too. That’s what making music all these years has done for me, and without you guys, that wouldn’t be possible. So one more time, to the Lamp City Family, thank you. See you this Friday.
