Origins of The Song: "Everything Changes" was written on two consecutive New Years Eves.  The chorus was written first on New Years Eve on an old rickety piano in the parlor of a historic B&B in rural Missourri and the verses and bridge were completed one year later on the following New Years Eve. Like a lot of people on New Year's Eve, I was contemplating whether my life was on track and whether I could actually achieve my biggest dreams. At the time I was unemployed and more down than usual and the song has a lot of fear built into it, but is also an encouraging "don't give up" note-to-self.  The core theme of the song-- something I think about often-- is that people shouldn't "find themselves," they should create themselves. The idea of "finding yourself" implies a passive approach to life, and the implication that who you are is a fixed point you should return to. The people I admire most constantly reinvent themselves-- create a new version of themselves that's still rooted in the same core values.  When Bob Dylan went electric people told him he wasn't "being himself" and if he listened we wouldn't have "Like A Rolling Stone." 

Origins of The Video: The director Joseph Pickard and I kicked around ideas for six months until we found a concept we were sold on. We started with the idea that it would be fun to have what I look like completely transform repeatedly without any edits or camera tricks.  Eventually we tied that to a chronological history of rocknroll theme where I would start as Buddy Holly and end as Deadmau5.  The budget we had was so small that Joe and I tried to do all the costumes ourselves until we were 10 days out from the shoot and realized we were completely unqualified to pull off this feet. I ended up posting an emergency Facebook status update seeing if anyone had a costume designer recommendation and we really lucked out when a relative put us in touch with Nicole Pezzolla who runs the costume shop at Laguardia High School. She really made the video and brought in a great team to bring the concept to life.  It took us a full day of rehearsal and 30 takes the following day to get it right. With the exception of the Elvis jumpsuit getting stuck on my arm out of the camera's view the final take went off without a hitch.

Here's of a photo of the cast and crew from the March 4 shoot date: