Writing Songs Around a Day Job

Most of my songs get written late, when I probably should be asleep. It's the diary-at-2-AM kind of writing. A bit raw, a bit embarrassing, and once I start I can't really put it down. That's not some romantic pose I'm selling you. It's just the only window I've got.

The day job is in finance. For years that felt like the thing I had to explain away, the detail that didn't belong in an artist bio. I've flipped on that completely. When you only have the hours between clocking out and clocking back in, you can't sit around waiting to feel inspired. You either open the notebook or the song stays unwritten. That constraint turned out to be a gift.

It keeps me honest too. Music isn't paying my rent, so I'm not reverse-engineering some formula that charts. I'm just trying to get a Tuesday night down accurately. The tiredness, the small win of an hour to yourself. That's where the album came from.

So no, I didn't quit everything to chase the dream. What I did is less cinematic and, I suspect, a lot easier to keep up. I built a second life inside the first one. «5 to 9» is what that sounds like.