YONDER BREAKS

Playing live was always something of a struggle for me, a sort of back-and-forth between hard work and payoff. After I did my first solo show in December of 2018 at the Republic of Pie (my favorite LA venue to-date, mostly because they pay in pie), I set out to play one show a month for the following year. It was a New Year's Resolution that I actually kept, (as you can see on the  Live  page) and which I talk about in the video from my most recent show below (along with the only other resolution that I kept). My friend Josh Moreno sketched this during a show at the Republic. But at the end of 2019, I felt like I had done a ton of practicing, endless marketing, editing photos and videos, staying up late playing shows my wife or kids couldn't go to...and at the end of it I felt like I had very little to show for it. And so I decided to spend the next year writing and recording more. Well, we all know what happened in 2020, so it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter, b...

If you look back at the history of YonderBreaks.com, you'll see a whole host of ideas and thoughts, ranging from personal stories to practical surfing advice , tips on fatherhood , spiritual insights and music updates . But one thing I've always wanted to share on it is ideas important to me that are hopefully encouraging to you . So here's a recent story with a fresh insight that I felt worthy of sharing. About seven years ago, I broke my arm skateboarding. It was my first broken bone from skateboarding (confirmed anyway...I'm pretty sure I had a fractured foot from trying to kickflip off a sign too many times back in high school). You can see the video of it happening at 0:37 below (as well as catch an early version of " Your Light "): At the time, I was hanging out with my friend Brian , a fellow skater, surfer, father and youth pastor. He is a man of great faith and has been there for me many times, not to mention a fun dude to hang out with. Anyway, I s...

Growing up is kind of tough. Which probably isn't fair for someone of my generation to even claim. We had it pretty easy. Sure, I worked through high school and college, and was always somewhat self-sufficient; but I also had the privilege of going to college with its slower on-ramp to life. Meanwhile, my parents had me in their very early-20s, and had to manage being a parent and newlyweds pretty much on their own, as far as resources went back in the 80s.  Now here I am at 37 and just a month or so ago I told my wife I still feel pretty unprepared for so much I'm meant to do as an adult. I'm okay at parenting , I think, though I yelled at my kids today for something dumb, so maybe not. As far as money goes, I was always just barely making it until I married my wife, and sometimes even then we still are. Since I took those years off to be a stay-at-home dad, I don't really have a career, but keep clinging to dreams someday working out, film being the one that brought m...

We currently have six chickens, which given the current cost of eggs, has been a pretty good thing (although not a good investment, really, with the cost of chicken food, a coop, the fence we built, etc...buyer beware). One of them, Zara, has recently discovered that she can get out of the run, even though we've clipped all of their wings (guess we didn't do a good enough job). When I discovered this yesterday, I put her back in and then watched to see how she got out. After blocking her path and relocating her again, it was interesting watching her next move: She frantically paced back and forth, all along the fence wall, looking for the way out she once knew, but was no longer there. For several minutes (and maybe even more, because I walked away), she kept this up, walking the same paths over and over, looking for something new that would lead to her beloved freedom, now stolen from her. Here are the happy chicks... ...and the discontented escapee. Now I know that chickens a...

I love reading, which wasn't always the case. I used to only keep non-fiction, typically spiritually-focused books around, reading one every once in a while, usually because it was referred by someone. About nine years ago, however, I had a boring desk job with lots of time to listen to things while performing menial tasks. I started listening to audiobooks, amongst other things, and since I didn't want to spend any money on them, I would often find free audiobooks of classic literature (the kind you are supposed to read in high school, but I always Spark-noted instead). I loved catching up on the greats, Dickens becoming my favorite, and so as the years went on, I decided to get into reading more fiction. Now I'm an avid reader; and with another day job that includes a lot of downtime, I have a fair amount to get into. However, I still tend to keep non-fiction, spiritually-focused books around in addition to my fiction novels. This past year I had a particularly great set...