The story

My story with music started when I was 8. I had heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Queen and it made me feel something I had never felt, something greater than myself, something inside of me I never knew I had: the urge to sing my heart out.

It was both beautiful and tragic at the same time, because as much as it was a liberating experience to sing my heart out, a part of me was feeling completely ashamed of doing it. Was it shyness? Fear of judgement? Or just a desperate cry to feel alive? I think it was a mix of all these things.

I started singing more and more, eventually becoming more comfortable with the idea that the other members of my family could hear me; for as long as I was isolated somewhere no one was seeing me, I was fine with being heard, by them. By other people, that was quite a different story though. I kept singing and singing, dreaming big, but at the age of 17, no one outside of my family knew I could sing.

I was thrilled to improve, to be able to sing along with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Bryan Adams and Queen, to name a few, while always having a strong focus on love songs. The reason why is hard to tell. I didn't know anything about love, but yet it always felt like the one thing that mattered the most. But anyway, I was pretty sure that no one would understand this visceral need for singing, because only musicians and music lovers understand that, and outside of my family, I wasn't surrounded by musicians.

One day, I had had way too many drinks, and I think I had (subconsciously) done it on purpose; I wanted to make myself drunk, because I felt like it was the only way I could ever find the strength to show this part of me that had always been kept inside. Then the time came: at the end of a party, a new friend had brought a guitar and started strumming "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" from Green Day on his guitar. I don't remember how it got to me singing, but it happened. There was a girl I was in love with back then, I think I wanted to impress her. I kept my eyes closed and I just sang.

Once the silence was broken, I thought everything would become easier and that the next steps would kind of be made on their own. I had that kind of wishful thinking. I thought that I just had to become better and that at some point, great things would happen. I didn't have the resources back then, and I didn't realize that the first step was to work on obtaining those resources, whether they were money, knowledge or contacts.

I've been sitting on a dream for so long that at some point, I could picture myself at the end of my life, as an old man who kept on dreaming all his life of what could have been if things had turned out differently. I feel like I've grown old, saw the movie of my life, and came back to life when I realized that it was not too late. As cliché as it might sound, it's almost never too late.

Trends change, people change, music changes, but hearts still beat the same and music isn't going anywhere, because it's an emotional catalyst; or at least it CAN be, depending on the type of music. I hope you'll find music that resonates with your soul here.

My debut album will be called Always Kept Inside. The first single will come out on June 29th and will be titled One Last Chance. This song is a mix of nostalgia, despair and strength, as it relates to a dying love with a glorious past and for which hope still exists, somewhere somehow.

Stay tuned for what's coming next!