ALBUM OUT NOW!
There are certain summers you never really leave. A song comes on and suddenly you remember where you were, what you were doing, who you were hanging around with, and sometimes even what you were wearing. Music has a funny way of bringing back pieces of your life that you weren’t even thinking about five minutes earlier.
For Nimo and I, one of those summers will always be the summer of 2002.
We met on the 4th of July that year, and there was an immediate spark between us. Obviously, neither one of us knew when we met that more than two decades later we’d still be together, still creating together, and actually making music about some of the moments we share. But here we are.
That’s where Summer 02’, The Love Frequency comes from.
The album is officially out today, and while I’ve been excited about releasing the music, I’ve also been thinking about what this project actually represents for us. It isn’t just about remembering when we met. It’s about what grew from that moment.
Why Summer 02’?
Calling the album Summer 02’ wasn’t just about nostalgia. That summer marks the beginning of our relationship and a connection that has managed to grow and change right along with us.
We’ve lived a whole lot of life since 2002. We’ve grown up together in a lot of ways, and naturally, our relationship doesn’t look exactly like it did when we first met. We wouldn’t expect it to. What I appreciate is that after all these years, there’s still a spark there. There’s still attraction, friendship, intimacy, laughter, and those moments between us that belong only to us.
That’s a big part of what you’ll hear throughout this album.
The tracks Nimo and I did together capture different pieces of that relationship. Some are playful. Some are intimate. Some have a little attitude. But they come from a real place, and I think that’s what I like most about the project.
Another piece of the album that makes it personal for me is the poetry. Between some of the tracks, you’ll hear poems that I wrote and recorded. They gave us another way to tell parts of the story. The music captures one side of our relationship, and the poetry gives me space to slow things down and put some of those feelings into words. It makes the album feel even more like a conversation between Nimo and I, with his music, our songs together, and my poetry all living in the same space.
We aren’t trying to sell anybody a picture of a perfect relationship. We don’t have one. We’re just making music from the life and love we’ve actually lived.
Middle Fingers Gave You a Taste
We introduced the project with Middle Fingers.
That song is about being in your own world with your person and not being overly concerned about everybody else’s opinions. There’s some Bonnie and Clyde energy in it, without the crime spree, of course. It’s intimate, devoted, a little sexual, and basically says, we’re good over here.
If you’ve been with somebody for a long time, you probably understand that feeling. At some point, you stop needing everybody to understand your relationship. You know what the two of you have built, what you’ve made it through, what makes you laugh, what gets on your nerves, and what keeps you choosing each other.
Middle Fingers captures that side of us, but it’s only one part of Summer 02’. The album moves through different sides of love and connection, including some of the more private and beautiful moments that still exist between us after all these years.
Why The Love Frequency?
The other half of the title might actually be the bigger message.
We’ve been calling this The Love Frequency because, quite frankly, we think the world needs more of it.
There is so much happening in the world that feels unnecessarily cruel. Sometimes it seems like compassion and empathy are becoming harder to find. People are quick to tear each other apart, quick to judge, quick to decide that somebody else’s pain isn’t their problem.
We don’t want to add to that energy.
When we talk about raising the love frequency, we’re not talking about pretending everything is okay or walking around acting like love magically solves every problem. We’re talking about something much more practical. How do we treat the people we love? How do we treat people we don’t know? Do we still have empathy? Are we putting more ugliness into the world, or are we trying to put something better into it?
Music has always carried energy, and that’s part of what we’re putting behind this project. Love for your partner is part of it, but so is love for family, community, music, creativity, and people in general. Sometimes increasing the love frequency is as simple as giving somebody a little more grace than you normally would.
And apparently, sometimes love has middle fingers too. 😂
We’re still us.
Summer 02’ Is Here
So today, Summer 02’, The Love Frequency is officially out.
It’s pretty wild to think that something that started with two people meeting on the 4th of July in 2002 would eventually become part of a music project more than twenty years later. I don’t think either one of us could have imagined that back then.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share more about the individual songs and some of the stories behind them because there is more to talk about. Today, though, we want you to experience the album for yourself before we tell you too much about what you’ll hear in it.
Put it on in the car. Play it while you’re around the house. Listen with your person. Find the song that catches you and run it back.
And while you’re listening, think about your own memories. What song takes you back to a summer you can still see clearly? Who was there? Who were you then? And if you’re lucky enough to still have somebody beside you who has been there through multiple versions of you, maybe turn the love frequency up on them a little today too.
Summer 02’, The Love Frequency is out now.
Let’s get on the frequency.
