YONDER BREAKS

I've written before that this most recent move back to Los Angeles (yes, we move way too often ) has been very special to me, because it's been the most musically charged. Almost all of that has been because of Cortney Matz and the Monday night songwriters group that she hosts at Epiphany Space in Hollywood. The group has been going strong for several years now, and out of it a beautiful community has emerged. Doing something creative (particularly trying to do it for a living) can sometimes breed competition. When one finds success, it often brings about a closed-fisted response, keeping the piece of the pie he or she managed to get with no intention to share. When that unfortunately happens, how can a loving, supportive community emerge out of such a mindset? It doesn't! And such is a big problem in pursuing creative positions professionally, particularly in Los Angeles. At Epiphany Space however, this reality is so far from the truth! I've never seen such a su

Here is the last song from The Light EP . It's been fun sharing the stories of each of these songs with the world, and even more so the songs themselves. I hope you enjoy this one, a fun little tune about Ellie, my oldest daughter. I used to manage a property in Redondo Beach, CA, two miles from the beach. We moved in a couple days before Ellie was born, and it was an excellent place to learn to be parents. I used to walk Ellie all over the Redondo hills , mostly in this cool little green car my mom gave her. Every day was a park visit, and sometimes the afternoons were spent exploring more of the scenic neighborhoods, usually with a 7-Eleven coffee in hand. The green machine, next to the infamous Baja . The property had a little lawn out front where we would sometimes sit and wait for Katie to get home from work. The street was lined with those super tall palm trees that California is known for, and there always seemed to be a breeze blowing through. We really wa

My community group at church is going through the Sermon on the Mount to gleam some potentially overlooked insights from Jesus' most famous sermon. Really, we're trying to figure out what he really  meant, placing his radical teachings in their proper context, which is: Jesus talking to a downtrodden people who had been oppressed by different foreign governments for hundreds of years, while also living under the thumb of their own religious leaders. To these lowly people he said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for

So in struggling with being bold concerning my faith (this is a bit of a continuation of my last post ), I think a key to success is partnership . Something in our psyche makes us much bolder when we have a friend backing us. I think this is why Jesus sent out his disciples on their first missionary trip two-by-two. Calling the Twelve to him,  he began to send them out two by two  and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions:  “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.   Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.   Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.   And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet  as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent.   They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil  and healed them. ( Mark 6:7-13 ) I've experienced this myself a few t

A couple summers ago, I was taking a lot of boat rides, and consequently spending lots of time in the sun. Towards the end of that season, I was sort of done with it. The boat was always fun of course, but as we drove the long way back on my last boat ride of the season, I looked ahead in anticipation for the bridge that marked our landing -- and a way out of the sun. Again, not that I didn't enjoy boating and all that comes with it -- I don't want to appear ungrateful to those who lent their time and possessions to provide our family with a little fun -- but I like to eat fried chicken, not feel like one. But as we glided across the marshy waters, I caught myself. It's beautiful out here . The sun was shining, the grass was green and the air was moderately cool (especially for July). My family was with me and everyone had had a great day playing together, as well as a tasty lunch. The whole day was a real treat, and here I was looking forward to the end of it because I w

There is nothing quite like a backyard skate ramp. Something about being able to roll on it, every day, in the privacy of your own property, progresses your skateboarding like nothing else. It's on my mind today because my friend Josh started a skate company called Intrusive Skateboards . I met the guy while picking up my daughter from school. I had seen him back and forth on the drop-off circuit, but never spoke to him until one day I heard skateboarding from his phone -- that unmistakable sound of polyurethane wheels hitting concrete curves, wood snapping against the pavement, slamming back down with the crack of a successful trick -- I asked if he was watching skate videos and he said he was editing  them. If that doesn't scream instant friend, I don't know what does. View this post on Instagram @yonderbreaksmusic #shredding the #miniramp yesterday with me and @king.daniel.187 they pushed me, so here he is e

One evening I was driving in the car and the phrase "money ain't nothin'" somehow showed up. At the time, I was going through a transformation in the way I view money and success. I had a mentor at the time who had spent about ten years pursuing a corporate career, and then realized that he and his friends had just pounded away countless hours over the course of a decade with very little to show for it. Finding myself in a corporate situation, I saw parallels and questioned what all this pursuit was worth. As I was driving that fateful night, the melody came and I found myself singing, "Money ain't nothin,'" long and slow. I scanned my mind for ways that rhymed, describing how money and success and financial pursuit all felt like a waste of time to me. Some of it is nonsensical, but the sentiment is present in the lines. Originally, the song was really slow. After I had recorded a demo (or maybe while I was recording it), I realized this thing w

I've been trying to be more bold with my faith lately. Maybe that's something every  Christian is trying to do, but honestly it's a little difficult in a post-Christian world. I think the church as a whole has spent a lot of time lately trying to be appealing, when in fact, the gospel is offensive . As a result, we water-down the truth, hoping to not offend anyone. I think it comes from a good place most of the time -- trying to build and maintain relationships that can later lead to discipleship -- but how often is it detrimental? Here are some examples of why the gospel isn't always easy to talk about: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18) Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected  has become the cornerstone,”  and,  “A stone that causes people to stumble   and a rock that makes th

Here is the second post in conjunction with my album release: track number two, " More Beautiful ." In college I had dated a girl for about three years. We had a lot of ups and downs (to put it lightly), and out of that came several songs. Still, I kept trying to write a song about her , and not just about what we were going through. I had a lot of starts and pieces, but nothing ever came together. A few months after we broke up, I met the woman who would later become my wife. We met at Awendaw Green , at their first ever Rocktoberfest, where my band Campfield was playing. Truthfully, I didn't really want to go to the show. I had some other friends (including a girl I was interested in) that usually came to our shows who weren't going to make it; plus it had been raining all day and this was a two-day camping festival. I drove up with a negative attitude, planning to play our show and then go home. But then I was introduced to Katie, a friend of a friend of the

God answers prayer sometimes, you know? Maybe that's a silly or obvious thing to write, but it's easy to forget. My freshman year of college, I took a New Testament class and was surprised to find it was taught by a Jewish guy who spent the whole semester pointing out everything that didn't make sense in the New Testament. It was a huge blow to my faith, and I really struggled through it. My friend Eric helped a lot though (as he often has over the years), and somehow I made it through with my faith in scripture actually strengthened by the whole thing. It's like tearing down muscles so they build up bigger, I suppose. Anyway, over the last few years, I can tell my faith in the bible has wavered again. Talks with some of my smartest friends that are either atheist or agnostic have contributed, two of which once were believers. The focus of culture on self has played a huge part, because I've certainly bought into a lot of it. We try to work through these things

In case you haven't noticed the images and little listen-boxes plastered all over this website, I released an album recently! I thought it would be fun to share the story from each song, along with a video you can listen to. Here goes, track number one: "Your Light." This song kind of started by accident. My good friend Zach came over one day and we went out in the garage and started playing music. He had sung in a hardcore band years prior, so we had always talked about starting something, but it never really came to fruition...until now. I put a capo on the fourth fret and started jamming on C and Am with a hammer-on with the first finger. Sounded pretty cool. He started mumbling some lyrics that fit, and playing a floor tom I had set up nearby. The mumblings turned into lyrics and melodies, which I made sure to write down, because I could tell this was turning into a cool song. Zach has the great gift for melody and a beautiful tone to his voice, which you c

I blamed not having nice things on my kids, but sometimes it's my fault... A few months ago we bought the newest car we've ever had (not brand new, of course). I was going to register it for Lyft driving, and wanted to wash it before going in for the inspection (ultimately, I found out, it didn't really matter). The kids wanted to help me wash, and so I grabbed a couple rags and quickly went for it. As I chose between one rag and another, I had this feeling -- Take the grey one. But the white one was bigger and looked more effective, so I blindly wiped. What I didn't know, and soon found out, is that there was some dried paint on the white rag, which scratched the crap out of the top of my car. It's not the worst thing in the world, but on a new car? Ugh... After it happened, all I could think about was those scratches. It bothered me to no end. Even though I tried to dismiss it or distract myself, I would always remember I had just scratched my new

Tonight was a rough one. It was the end of my kids' soccer season and I was hoping for a fun "game" to go out on a positive note. (I have to quote "game," because they are 3-5 years old and mostly just run in circles chasing a ball.) Neither of my kids is super into soccer, so most of the struggle is spent getting them out on the field to at least try  to play. I'm not expecting the next Mia Hamm or anything, just asking for a little effort. Most of the time, they sit and pick the little rubber particles out of the artificial field. Tonight, however, one kid really stood out on our team, and right from the get-go, took the ball and scored a goal. Then he did it again. And again. And probably ended up with about twenty goals by the time the game was over. It was fun at first, since he was on our team and just destroying everyone else. We were winning! Hooray! I even congratulated his dad, who was standing by us, cheering his son on. But as the game wore o

I started a little blog series called Jah Works a couple years ago, where I wanted to recount all the times God has shown up in my little history of 30-something years. Though this blog in general is often about God and what he is saying/has said, I'm ashamed to admit I haven't done a "Jah Works" in 100 blogs! Crazy...well, no better way to mark 300 total blogs on YonderBreaks.com than do pick it up again. This one is about my complicated history with the City of Angels ...Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles is a big part of our lives now, which is something I never expected. As a kid, and even through college, I always thought I'd end up in the mountains somewhere, North Carolina or Tennessee. I wanted a small town, just about as close to Mayberry as I could. Still, being a skateboarder , California always had its lure. I remember watching G-Rock as a kid, which was a compilation show of skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and BMX videos with Christian punk, sk