I wanted  to share a first song with you off a record I worked on. It’s called “Sideways,” it’s by Granger Lofton, and of all the songs that I worked on in 2020, it’s probably the one that I’m the proudest of: https://grangerlofton.hearnow.com/

I worked with Granger for the better part of 2020 on his upcoming album. It was an unusual collaboration (although becoming more common in my world) – Granger did the recording and mixing, with me advising remotely and contributing production ideas here and there as needed. It’s a deeply rewarding way to work – the artist ends up with an awesome record, that they made themselves, and they become a much better engineer along the way.

The album Granger made is called Revolution, and he wrote it as a direct reflection on race in America, inspired by the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police last May.

This song is so moving to me. It holds lessons that I as a white person need to be listening to. You know how we’re being told a lot lately that we need to listen to Black people’s experiences and points of view more, if we’re going to heal our society? Well, Granger was vulnerable enough to give us an album-length roadmap to his lived experience as a Black man in America. The entirety of “Revolution” is this. 

Working on this record – immersing myself in these ideas and feelings, and co-conspiring to aid in their communication – improved me as a human being. I hope that listening to it inspires you in the same way.
This is just a first song – but, wow, what a stunning first song. I hope you love it. If you do, please join Granger’s community and support his work, because that’s what we do – we support artists.

I should point out that me being able to work on this (very important!) album with Granger was entirely made possible by Misfit Stars (the community of people who support our work on an ongoing basis). I didn’t take a single dollar from Granger for this record. My time was paid for by our community’s monthly support of what we do. Because this is a huge part these days of what we do. If you’re one of those people, and you’re reading this: thank you. ??