MY FAVORITE PLACE TO DROWN was my first recording. I still can’t explain what originally inspired me to write these nautically-themed ukulele songs. I never intended to record them, or record an album at all, really. I had studied writing and just did music for fun, never imagining I’d be any good at it. Upon moving to New York, I went to the Sidewalk Café’s open mike and found myself hanging out with musicians like Regina Spektor, The Moldy Peaches, and Jeffrey Lewis. Soon, they were asking me to open shows and I was being written about in The Village Voice and Timeout NY and a label asked me to record.

These ukulele songs ended up taking me all kinds of unexpected places. I toured the country as main support for They Might Be Giants. I played a Bar Mitzvah in New Jersey (long story) and was assaulted by hateful 13-year-olds, both physically and emotionally (watch it here). I performed in rock-history-icon Steve Paul’s Soho loft singing a duet with a
puppet controlled and voiced by the world’s greatest raconteur, Edgar Oliver
(another long story.) Watch an excerpt from that performance here. If one thing directed the course of my life most, it was playing ukulele. Ukulele led me to a great romance, to my favorite friends, and even to writing children’s books.