In the winter of 2025, I found myself in Koreatown, Los Angeles, in the pouring rain. Which was fitting, as I had recently finished recording a brand new song, “Les Miz,” at Crystall Recorders in Lombard, IL with my friend Bryan Clavey.

The song was based on something my ex Jamie used to say when a person was miserable. “He’s les miz.” Which honestly I was when I wrote it, though I knew the way out. The song is more personal than many—recollections of my mother dealing with depression when she had two young kids by age 21. For this track I did two unprecedented things: 1) played a grand piano, and 2) sang live as I played that piano, getting the whole recording in one unaltered take. It’s not a virtuoso performance, but it captures what I was trying to communicate. You can hear it on Bandcamp if you’re into artist revenue, but it’s also available judgment-free on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and all other major streaming platforms. There is even a video of me playing the final track in the studio, if you’re interested. I wanted the room dark, so the video is in fact also dark.

Oh, Koreatown in the rain. I needed a cover image for the single, so I doused myself fully clothed in the shower, took a selfie as one does, printed it in the business center of my hotel, cut it out, and slapped on some different rain-soaked surfaces on the street below. The one above was my favorite, but here are some others, and believe it or not this is one of the ways I have immense fun: